#I would definitely not object if Meng Shi wanted to come back to life and take vengeance on her and her son's behalf

[thepurplewombat]

A small correction: No.

No, Jin Guangyao was not, in fact, trying to resurrect his mother as a false goddess a la the dancing fairy statue.

What he was trying to do - which I believe the text actually makes clear - was use the temple that he established on the site of her suffering, and the statue with her face, to ensure that she had a good life in her next incarnation. Since she was not honored in life, he was trying to accumulate honor for her after her death, so that when her time came to reincarnate she would have a better life. Or become a goddess, which isn't specifically mentioned as a possibility but also isn't outside the realm of the possible.

It was not part of some nefarious long-term plan to unleash a false man-eating goddess on the population of the jianghu.

Anyway, a fic has actually recently been completed where Meng Shi does become a goddess and interact with some parts of the main cast. If you search for Jin Guangyao/Lan Xichen on AO3 and filter for fics that are tagged with Meng Shi, I think you'll find what you're looking for in the first few results.

So I just reread mdzs and I realised JGY was trying to resurrect his mom as a false goddess , the dancing goddess statue was an ordinary rock formation that looked like a dancing woman but after centuries of worship it developed sentience and started eating people's souls , at first reading I thought it was chinese cultural thing since in Asian culture its ordinary to pray to your ancestors and stuff like that ; anyway I wanna read a fic were men shi comes back to life , and interact with the main cast

[silviakundera]

aug objective: actually finish Meng Xi Shi's Fourteenth Year of Chenghua

I've started and stopped it twice before, but that was due to the english translation not being complete at the time.

Starting over from the beginning and I forgot how much I enjoyed him adopting the lil 8 year old to be his sister and them actually becoming like real siblings ❤❤ and then badass Brocade Guard boss basically moves him in and wifes him up without him noticing. I love how clear it is that the 3 of them have a richer, happier life together as a family. It's not dramatic & angsty, it's just subtle undertones cushioning the plot - just them becoming a warm & safe home for each other.

I also enjoy all the ancient china crime solving. A classic mystery fan, I grew up on Agatha Christie. After reading half-way the last time, I went looking a translation of The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (and then got sucked into late Qing/Republican true crime Murders of Old China by Paul French).

Random highlighted passages so far...

[Tang Fan finds himself in possession of an 8 year old]

“Can you take me in, Sir Tang? I’ll be really hardworking, and not give you any trouble. I don’t want to go to Nanjing, I don’t know the Young Lord that well!”

Tang Fan didn’t know how to react. “You being willing to come cook is fine by me, but the question is: will Young Lord Li be willing to let you go?”

Hearing that his tone had relaxed, she suddenly got excited. “He will, he will! I heard the steward say that the house has too many people in it right now, and they won’t need so many later on. Isn’t that them being eager to lose a few? I eat a lot and don’t work that much, so they would definitely be willing to let me go and wreck someone else’s house!”

“…” Is it really good for you to be that frank?

Ah-Dong stuck out her tongue. “I misspoke, I misspoke! Me being too happy is all to blame. Don’t take it to heart at all, I’m actually great! Just pretend that you didn’t hear what I said right then!”

[Tang Fan finds himself on a date (without knowing he's on a date) and then moved into his date's house. Sui Zhao is efficient like that.]

He took a long detour, and when he leisurely got back home, he discovered that someone was already standing at his gate — wasn’t that Centarch Sui?

“If I had known before that you would be here so early, I would have come back first thing so that you wouldn’t be standing in wait at the entrance!” Tang Fan promptly sped up towards him, an apologetic smile on his face. “It’s no problem,” Sui Zhou answered.

Tang Fan found that he was also carrying some food.

“My home is far from yours, so I’ll just stay with you for tonight. Do you mind?”

“Ah? I don’t mind, I don’t mind! My break is tomorrow, so we can talk through the night by candlelight!”

Mister Tang lived the legendary bachelor life to its entirety. ... “Where did you buy this crispy tofu? And why is it so delicious?” he wondered. “I had some ingredients at home,” Sui Zhou answered concisely. “You can cook?” Mister Tang was wholly shocked. Sui Zhou gave a rare hook of the lips, saying nothing. A few breaths later, Tang Fan was still soaking in his shocked emotions. “Brother Guangchuan, you can actually cook? That’s really, really, really…” He ‘really’ed for half the day, but didn’t get out what the ‘really’ was about. Then, a rapid knock echoed in from outside the door. “That’s really too amazing!” Tang Fan took in a deep breath. ...

“Since you’re in such contradiction with the Li’s, what are you going to do about housing?”

Tang Fan hadn’t told him the thing about him currently looking for board everywhere, but he still took note of it. His meticulous mind was apparent.

“The capital is big, and there’s a lot of rooms. I’ll likely be able to find some.”

Sui Zhou thought about this for a moment. “If you want, you can come live with me.”

Tang Fan was taken aback. “Is… that alright? Wouldn’t your wife be upset?”

“I haven’t yet taken a wife,” Sui Zhou replied coldly.

“There has to be someone like a wife, right…?”

Sui Zhou was not pleased. “I haven’t accepted any concubines, nor slipshod maidservants.

Before Tang Fan could ask anything else, he proceeded to say, “My parents live with my eldest brother. I moved out on my own. Don’t worry about that.”

With all that said, since the other was inviting him there in good faith, it would be poor of Tang Fan to decline again. He ended up clasping his hands together, saying with sincerity, “I’ll bother you for now, then, Brother Guangchuan!”

[Sui Zhao continues marrying in Tang Fan]

" Furthermore,” he paused to look at Tang Fan, icy expression finally suffused with a trace of helplessness, “you’re a Dynasty-ordained official that’s run off to write an anonymous book like that. If that gets out, your reputation likely won’t be kept.”

Tang Fan chuckled. “What’s wrong with doing it? It’s not just me, but a lot of people in Court that do this, too. No one can tell who’s who with pen names, anyways. How could somebody support their family otherwise? Relying on salary alone? If they don’t want to be corrupt, they can only take a different approach..."

“I have a salary.”

Tang Fan just kept going. “Wouldn’t you say so, Guangchuan… eh? What’d you say?”

“I have a salary. No need to worry.”

...Hearing what he said, Tang Fan was stunned for a while, after which he started to laugh wildly. He ended up having to support himself on Sui Zhou’s shoulder in order to keep steady, rubbing his own stomach in pain. “Ouch… well, then, us siblings will depend on you from now on, Centarch Sui. Once I use up all my salary, you’ll have to help me out!” “Mn.” Tang Fan still couldn’t resist wanting to laugh, but he was a bit touched, as well. He knew that not everyone was capable of making the man say stuff like this. //

“Today is a family banquet, second brother. The Old Madam said not to bring outsiders, so why did you bring someone we don’t know? There’s women here, too! He’s not even someone close enough to be considered family! You’re really being too careless!”

The speaker was the wife of Sui Zhou’s older brother, Lady Jiao.

... As soon as she was done, [Sui Zhou] gave her an indifferent answer: “From now on, he’s to be considered family.”

Those words were so authoritarian, no one could say anything for a moment. They all stared at Sui Zhou.

// “How would Ah-Dong be able to hold you back?” he asked. “From now on, after you get your salary of grains and cash from your paper money, hand half of it over to me. I’ll safeguard it for you. If you ever need to spend more after using up what you have on hand, you’ll need to justify that to me first. You can use it only after I agree to it.”

Sui Zhou had never been fond of meddling in others’ business. Almost all of said business that he had cared about in this lifetime had come from Tang Fan’s head.

It was fortunate that they had the kind of relationship they had. If someone else had been ordered to do this, they would feel it difficult to understand, and might even turn hostile. Someone like Mister Tang, who was different from the average person, just nodded with delight. “That’s great! With you stopping me, I won’t spend so recklessly!”

From that point on, Millarch Sui not only had a heap of things to look after in the Northern Bastion Office, but also had to help Mister Tang manage his money when he returned home. He truly did wield total power, both foreignly and domestically — how very envy-inducing!

[hamliet]

On Privilege and Parallels: MianMian and SiSi, Wei WuXian and Jin GuangYao

Aka two minor characters who happen to be some of the only female characters who survive MDZS. Granted a lot of characters don’t survive MDZS, but it’s definitely lopsided gender-wise. However, no story is perfect. 

(brb crying forever)

Anyways, what struck me while rereading certain parts of MDZS after watching The Untamed was how these seemingly very minor characters actually have quite important thematic roles. On the surface, both MianMian and SiSi appear to be plot devices as neither really has a character arc and yet both play important roles in two of the novel’s turning points: Wei WuXian, Jin ZiXuan, and Lan WangJi saving MianMian essentially kicks off the Sunshot Campaign, and SiSi and BiCao’s stories turn the tides against Jin GuangYao. But these characters have a lot of similarities, and these similarities reflect on their respective foilings with the main protagonist and final antagonist (Wei WuXian for MianMian and Jin GuangYao for SiSi). 

In the cave, MianMian is targeted by JiaoJiao purely because JiaoJiao is jealous. After she survives the attempt to tie her up and use her as bait, she is then captured and JiaoJiao tries to burn her face off. Wei WuXian intervenes, getting his flesh branded in the process. 

And what’s worth noting is that we see this precise situation later on through SiSi. A merchant’s wife was jealous and had her face cut seven or eight times, leaving her scarred and unable to work. 

What’s thematic about this is that it relates to what Wei WuXian observes: society is always going to find a villain.

Instead of JiaoJiao taking her anger out on Wen Chao, or the merchant’s wife on the merchant, they target the objects of their respective partners’ affections. (It’s also worth noting that JiaoJiao is actually a mistress anyways, not Wen Chao’s wife.) In these situations, MianMian and SiSi have considerably less power than JiaoJiao or the merchant’s wife; regarding MianMian, she’s noted to be “the daughter of a servant,” regarding SiSi, obviously, she was a prostitute and we’ve seen how society treats a well-known and educated prostitute like Meng Shi. We can only imagine how they’d treat SiSi. 

Along these lines, Wei WuXian empathizes with Jin GuangYao towards the end of the novel, and observes much the same:

These stories and rumors were indeed familiar. Wei WuXian recalled how back then countless people told stories of him kidnapping a thousand virgins to his demonic cave at Burial Mound, ravishing them day and night to cultivate the dark path. He found it somewhat funny, Fine. No matter what, the things they said about me were definitely better than what they’re saying about Jin GuangYao.

Jin GuangYao was not the villain society claims he is; he did not build a temple to himself as they observe, but for his mother: a scorned prostitute who lived a life of sacrifice to give him a chance:

As one sect leader saw the features of the Guanyin statue, he first paused in surprise, then pointed at it for others to see as though he found something new and interesting, “Look at its face! Doesn’t it look like Jin GuangYao?”

Everyone mused after they looked, “It’s his face indeed! Why would Jin GuangYao make such a thing?”

Sect Leader Yao, “To declare himself a god with wild arrogance, of course.”

“Arrogant indeed, then, hahaha.”

Wei WuXian thought to himself, No, not necessarily.

Jin GuangYao’s mother was seen as the lowest prostitutes, so he decided to carve a Guanyin statue with his mother’s appearance, receiving the worship of tens of thousands.

But there was no use in saying all that. Nobody knew with more clarity than Wei WuXian that nobody would care and nobody would believe him. Anything related to Jin GuangYao would be given the most malicious conjectures and passed through the mouths of the crowd.

And that’s another parallel between MianMian, Wei WuXian, SiSi, and to a lesser extent Jin GuangYao as well (I’ll get into where he differs later). MianMian, Wei WuXian, and SiSi will stand up for what they believe is right, for the people they care for, no matter who stands against them. MianMian narrowly avoided the social implications of getting her face ruined, as Wei WuXian observes:

Wei WuXian, “It’s not like I had any other choice, right?... MianMian is a girl, and quite a pretty girl, at that. If she was blind in an eye or such a thing gets onto her face, it wouldn’t be able to come off for the rest of her life. How bad would that be?”

Lan WangJi spoke in a thin voice, “The thing on your body right now will not be able to come off for the rest of your life either.”

Wei WuXian, “That’s different. It’s not on the face. And I’m a man—what am I scared of?”

These are implicitly gendered as well. Yet she chooses to throw her reputation away anyways to shame her sect for their treatment of Wei WuXian. Nie MingJue even observes "The woman has much more backbone than the mob of her sect” after they again judge her on the basis of her gender:

“There’s no need for me to say anything. You know, deep down, and we know too. You fell for him back in the cave of the Xuanwu just because he flirted with you? You’re still arguing for him, calling white black no matter how irrational it is. Ha, women will always be women.”

SiSi too stood up for Meng Shi when all the other prostitutes were badmouthing her, when she was humiliated, and challenged the men who were gawking at the humiliation:

[they were] chuckling as they told the story of the poor old woman to their clients just like AnXin did. Only one of the ladies squeezed through the doors. She took off the gauze robe that was so flimsy to begin with, revealing half of her full, snowy breasts enwrapped by a crimson slip, her waist was exceptionally thin as well. She was more than eye-catching and everyone hurried to take a look at her.

The lady spat, cursing, “Keep on looking, you bastards! Do you have the right to look at someone like me? With each look you gotta pay—where’s the money?! Come, where’s the money?!”

As she cursed, she reached out and asked the bystanders for money. The crowd dispersed somewhat, and she threw the robe she took off onto the woman, the two of them staggering into the main hall...

She challenges society thereby, pointing out that if they’re going to gawk at a woman’s fate, they might as well pay up, because they’re the ones who employ the women in the brothel, they’re the reason they resort to this fate. Society is to be blamed more than anything or anyone else. 

But their fates differ. MianMian is able to marry a man who supports her in night hunts despite her lack of sect belonging; she finds belonging and happiness outside society (which is a theme). 

Luo QingYang gazed at her husband, smiling, “My husband isn’t of the cultivating world. He used to be a merchant. But, he’s willing to go night-hunting with me…”

It was both rare and admirable that an ordinary person, and a man at that, would be willing to give up his originally stable life and dare travel the world with his wife, unafraid of danger and wander. Wei WuXian couldn’t help feeling respect for him.

We’re not given a clear answer to SiSi’s fate, and I’m not going to assume it’s negative, but it’s worth noting that SiSi is literally saved by and yet locked up by Jin GuangYao, which is symbolic of both Jin GuangYao’s choices and how society treats women like her: they are forever categorized by a life they quite possibly didn’t choose. Their scars repulse people. 

The woman spoke with no shame in her voice, not at all trying to beat around the bush. Many of the female cultivators covered their lips with their sleeves, while the men frowned. Sisi, “After my face became like this, my days were different from before. Nobody wanted to spare me a single glance, let alone do my business. My original brothel kicked me out. I didn’t know how to do anything else, but I couldn’t take in any business at all, so I joined up with the older sisters. Their customers didn’t have high demands. If a job is up, I’d tag along with them. I could manage with my face covered up.”

At this point, some of the people couldn’t take it any longer. They let the contempt in their eyes pour out without any intent to cover it.

But Jin GuangYao, to whatever extent it matters--and Wei WuXian remarks that he thinks it does matter--saved Sisi even though he had to know not killing her would likely come back to bite him. He doesn’t stand up for people against society, but he does surreptitiously find ways to protect those who were kind to him.  

“Speaking of it, that SiSi used to be quite the well-known prostitute back in the days. With how old she is, I couldn’t even recognize her. What a fucking hag. It was quite the torturous death for Jin GuangShan too, hahahahaha…”

“Props to Jin GuangYao for thinking of such a way to kill his dad. A perfect match. Absolutely perfect!”

“It’s quite a mystery—why didn’t Jin GuangYao kill that old prostitute? Witnesses should be silenced. Is he an idiot?”

“Why should he be an idiot? He’s the seed of Jin GuangShan, after all. Maybe he’s a lover of affairs too. Maybe he’s got special tastes and has… haha, an unspeakable relationship with SiSi?”

“Hah, I think so too, but don’t the stories say? Because he engaged in incest with his sister-by-blood, Jin GuangYao was so shocked he somehow fell ill in an unspeakable way, so even if he wanted to, he couldn’t, hahaha…

This is exactly what doomed Jin GuangYao insofar as his choices are concerned: he both hated society that treated his mother terribly, knew it left him with little choice, and yet still chose to be a part of it. He chose to keep himself locked up instead of seeking a more meaningful life outside of society’s approval. 

The symbolism of SiSi being locked up for so long is what happens to Jin GuangYao as well. We see both him and Wei WuXian categorized by their parents: Wei WuXian is disparaged as a “son of a servant” and Jin GuangYao as the “son of a whore.” 

Wei WuXian, however, was given a chance, a chance that enables him to save MianMian from being forever categorized by her scars: he was found on the streets by Jiang FengMian. However horrible Madame Yu was to him (and she was), however he was rumored to be the illegitimate son of Jiang FengMian (which while it’s unlikely, the novel never directly gives an answer to), he had support and love growing up. He had cultivation taught to him, and he thinks this:

if Jiang FengMiang hadn’t take him back to Lotus Pier, perhaps he wouldn’t cross paths with cultivation his whole life. Then he would have never known that such a magnificent path existed in this world. He’d only be a head beggar who roamed the streets, fleeing at first sight of a dog, or maybe looking after cows and stealing other people’s crops in the countryside, playing his flute to pass his time. He wouldn’t have known to cultivate, and he definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to form a core. With such thoughts, he’d felt much better.

Take it as repayment, or take it as redemption. Take it as he’d never received the golden core to begin with.

Jin GuangYao did not have this. He grew up as a poor child in YunMeng just like Wei WuXian, but no one stood up for him save his mother and SiSi. When he found his way to his father’s house, as the actual illegitimate son, Jin GuangShan had him kicked down the stairs of Koi Tower instead of welcoming him. Madame Jin abused him physically as well as emotionally (Madame Yu’s, to our knowledge, was primarily verbal/emotional):

Blood streamed down from [Jin GuangYao’s] forehead, but aside from the wound from the fall, there was also an old wound from before, wrapped in bandages. It had been hidden only because he was wearing the black gauze cap. Now, both wounds gaped open...

Lan XiChen walked as he spoke, “Brother, I am afraid that you do not know. Our third brother really is in a terrible situation as of the moment... His mother never liked him to begin with. After ZiXuan-xiong passed away, she often hit him and scolded him.

Wei WuXian never fully fit in with society, and no one tried to integrate Jin GuangYao with it without removing the labels and boxes they put him in . He only achieved a place in society via lies and deception that just turned out to be another box, leaving him to be trapped in a literal locked coffin for at least a hundred years. He’s fully responsible for his choices that led to his tragedy, but it’s foolish to say that his circumstances did not contribute to them as well; take Wei WuXian’s word for it, not mine. Society is a monstrous, toxic creation in MDZS, and Jin GuangYao’s focus on its approval instead of on the people who loved him’s approval (Lan XiChen, even Nie MingJue) led to him doing monstrous things to vulnerable people who had no choice in their circumstances either (namely, A-Song and SiSi’s shunned prostitute friends). 

It’s still remarkable to me how often I see takes arguing that Jin GuangYao=bad and Wei WuXian=good, when, while everyone’s entitled to their opinion, the story’s themes directly contradict this. Both of them messed up, and Wei WuXian made better choices than Jin GuangYao did ultimately. However, Wei WuXian also was had support from a young age in ways Jin GuangYao never did, and the novel goes out of its way to point this out. It’s hard for servants, prostitutes, the disabled (Xiao XingChen), the disfigured, women, to find a place in a society that scorns them. It’s directly criticizing privilege beyond sociopolitical boundaries and points to the privilege in people’s experiences as well, emphasizing the importance of empathy in solving problems. 

Wei WuXian is warned numerous times that empathy is dangerous, yet he uses it more than once in the novel. Jin GuangYao asked Nie MingJue for empathy several times, and was rebuffed (though Lan XiChen did give him empathy to an extent... but there’s more to that which is a topic for another meta). Ironically, the one who empathizes with Jin GuangYao in the end, who understands him most, is Wei WuXian, because they were not that different in the end. 

[hamliet]

MXTX Ladies Week: MDZS

I did Scum Villain’s awesome female cast last night, and now it is time for my favorite of MXTX’s novels, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. 

In MDZS, my main critique is that, while all of the female characters do get fantastic arcs, the vast majority of them die (though, granted, their deaths aren’t usually done just for the male characters’ sadness, but often do make sense for their own arcs. So that’s. Something. Still grumbly about it though). “The woman dies” is a similar trope to “bury your gays” and it’s... tiring. That said, I did find all the characters’ arcs incredibly well done. No one is fanservice; they are all complex and human.

I want to talk about the characters whom I haven’t talked about as much before, so that means less on SiSi and MianMian, as well as less on Madame Lan. See here for my meta on SiSi and MianMian, as well as here for my meta on Madame Lan. Throughout all of their arcs, there’s a common thread about calling out sexism. MianMian calls it out directly:

The person replied, “You’re...calling white black no matter how irrational it is. Ha, women will always be women.”

MianMian fumed, “Irrational? Calling white black? I’m just being considerate it as it stands. What does it have to do with the fact that I’m a woman? You can’t be rational with me so you’re attacking me with other things?”...

Holding in her tears, she shouted a moment later, “Fine! Your voices are louder! Fine! You’re the rational ones!”

She clenched her teeth and took off the crested robe she wore with force, slamming it onto the table with a loud bang. Even the sect leaders in the front rows, who weren’t paying attention to this side, turned around to see what happened. The ones beside her were indeed surprised. What she did meant that she was ‘leaving the sect’?

Soon, some began to agree, “Women will always be women. They quit just after you say a few harsh words. She’ll definitely come back on her own, a couple of days later.”

“There’s no doubt. After all, she finally managed to turn from the daughter of a servant to a disciple, haha…”

MianMian is looked down upon by the social hierarchy for being a woman and for being the daughter of a servant. Her lack of power against a sexist world is eventually countered by the fact that she’s one of the women who survive the novel, with a husband who follows her in night-hunting. As I said in my past meta, she steps outside a corrupt society.

Mistreated Wives Mistreating Children: Madame Jin and Madame Yu

Madame Yu is probably one of the most complex characters in the entire novel, which says a lot since she’s a minor character. But she and Madame Jin are said to be best friends who arrange the marriage of their children, and the two women are also foils. 

Both of them are mistreated by their husbands in a sense. Madame Jin has to deal with Jin GuangShan sleeping around and impregnating numerous other women, while Yu ZiYuan has to deal with the fact that Jiang FengMian clearly was in love with CanSe SanRen, not with her, and brought back CangSe SanRen’s child after Wei WuXian was orphaned. To be completely fair, Madame Yu’s dislike of and lack of respect for her husband is completely valid over this. However, what isn’t valid is her taking it out on all three of the kids at Lotus Pier. She abuses Wei WuXian and mentally abuses Jiang Cheng as well, and isn’t exactly awesome towards Jiang YanLi either. She constantly reminds Jiang Cheng that he can’t live up to Wei WuXian (projecting her own bitterness at not being enough to be loved like CangSe SanRen in her husband’s eyes), whom she despises for whom his mother was, and thereby exacerbates Jiang Cheng’s already deep insecurity issues (granted Jiang FengMian is responsible for this as well). But, she ultimately dies to save both Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian, refusing to cut off his hand when she knows he is innocent. It doesn’t erase how she treated them while they lived, but it does add a level of complexity and tragedy: she knew Wei WuXian was powerless in these circumstances, as she had always felt, and she saves the kids before dying to defend Lotus Pier--with her husband, whom, it’s implied, did care about her but sucked at showing it. Almost like that’s a Jiang family trait.

Madame Jin is no better towards Jin GuangYao when he shows up. She did not object towards a child being kicked down the stairs on the basis of something he could not help, and Lan XiChen notes that she has him beaten regularly after he is accepted in the Jinlintai. Yes, she told off her husband for his arrogance, but she was trapped in her marriage with him and projected her pain onto someone who was not responsible for it (regardless of what Jin GuangYao did, she was abusing him). 

The point of both women isn’t that they’re horrible or that one is redeemed; it’s once again calling out the double standards and corrupt power structures at play. Jin GuangYao and Madame Jin are actually foils in that both abuse the power they have to target children who can’t help who their parents are (A-Song), because neither of them are able to truly demand justice from the person who is actually responsible: Jin GuangShan. 

The Bad Girls: Meng Shi, CangSe SanRen, and Madame Lan 

Or the women whom no one cared about enough to hear their stories. Madame Lan was a murderer and a parallel to Jin GuangYao and Wei WuXian as a result; the only way to save her life was to marry Lan WangJi and XiChen’s father. She’s noted to have been playful and fun, but she was only allowed to see her sons once a month, and she was confined her entire life, which is basically symbolic of how the cultivational society treats people: it traps them and isolates them.

CangSe SanRen is not described in much detail besides that, like Xiao XingChen, she left BaoShan SanRen to join cultivational society. Yet she still continued to flout its rules--cutting off Lan QiRen’s beard and marrying a servant instead of marrying a sect leader and gaining power. Rumors about her--that she had an affair with Jiang FengMian despite no evidence--and that she flouted society are then projected onto her son (symbolic of society’s unwillingness to change its corruption and power system)...

...which is just like how Meng Shi’s having been a prostitute is projected onto Jin GuangYao. People won’t even accept tea from him, believing his skin dirty on the basis of whom his mother was. However, everything we know about Meng Shi suggests she cared deeply for her son and chose to have him despite knowing what it would do to her popularity as a prostitute. Even when the other prostitutes comment about how she was a fool who kept hoping he would return, she still cared for her son and he repaid her by carving her face into the GuanYin temple’s idol. Jin GuangYao also expressly says that his father “wouldn’t buy [her] freedom,” implying that she did not have much of a choice about her lifestyle. Good job, society. Not. 

The Mean Girl: JiaoJiao

Okay, she’s kind of loathsome in personalty, petty and cruel and having an affair with an even crueler prince. Yet in a story that comments so much on privilege, it’s hard not to see her as a victim of circumstance as well; however, her proximity with the (then) pinnacle of corruption in Wen Chao and Wen RouHan means that she too misuses her power once she has it. She hurts innocents in Lotus Pier, she tries to kill MianMian just for being pretty, etc.

However, keep in mind that JiaoJiao’s prettiness is said to be what attracted Wen Chao to her, and it’s said that her family then received favors, such as the creating of their own sect. Her name is also noted by translators to be comparatively unsophisticated, implying that she likely came from a family that wasn’t exactly high up in society. None of this excuses her, but what exactly makes her fear of someone else being prettier than her and thus losing all the power she has (which she knew would happen eventually), and potentially her family suffering for it as well, all that much different than Jiang Cheng’s bitterness towards people more powerful in cultivation than him? Jiang Cheng had ShiJie and Wei WuXian and others to show him love and help him not become as cruel of a person (until she dies and then he does, indeed, torture people), but we know nothing about whether JiaoJiao had that. 

Desperate people cling to what they have. JiaoJiao, Wei WuXian, Jin GuangYao, and Jiang Cheng all show us this. It doesn’t excuse them, but neither does it mean they’re demons. 

Integrity and the Limits of Sacrifice: Wen Qing and Jiang YanLi 

Jiang YanLi and Wen Qing are in many ways the opposite of JiaoJiao: both are brave, kind women, and wonderful older sisters, even if Jiang YanLi is unassuming and Wen Qing bold. Both are inhibited by their power, though: Jiang YanLi’s talents are not cultivational in nature, and Wen Qing may be talented and brilliant as a doctor, but she is limited by her role all the same:

Lan XiChen responded a moment later, “I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”

Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”

Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”

Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”

The thing is: she did try to stop some of them, helping Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t speak up for her. Sigh. 

Both of them are also foils in how they both ultimately sacrifice their lives to save Wei WuXian... and it turns out that their sacrifice doesn’t protect Wei WuXian. Wen Qing tells Wei WuXian the story’s catchphrase “thank you, and I’m sorry” before turning herself in for execution with her brother, but all this winds up in is the BurialMounds being seiged anyways, all her relatives except Wen Yuan being killed, and Wei WuXian still dying. Wen Ning, too, is not killed but is made a weapon. Jiang YanLi, despite Wei WuXian having led to the death of her husband, pushes him out of the way of a soldier looking to kill him, and gets killed instead. But this only results in Jiang Cheng becoming enraged and helping kill Wei WuXian, and Jin Ling being left an orphan. 

However, because MDZS has a pretty nuanced view on sacrifice, it’s neither pointless nor to be admired. Wei WuXian is both Wen Qing and Jiang YanLi’s foil in this: he, too, is self-sacrificial to a fault. The novel pretty clearly implies that self-sacrifice can be a form of self-harm, as it is for all three of them. Yet, all three of them have a defining trait of deep love that ultimately enables them to have legacies that continue: Wen Yuan, Jin Ling, even Wen Ning survive, and Wei WuXian is given a second chance at life. It’s not that their sacrifices were ultimately selfish and didn’t matter or shouldn’t have happened; it’s that, without an unjust society, they should not have had to happen. Wen Qing should not have been condemned on the basis of her name. Jiang YanLi should not have been killed because Wei WuXian should never have been seiged. And Wei WuXian should never have had to feel like he had to prove his worth (keep in mind Yu ZiYuan’s last words to him are literally that he should protect Jiang Cheng with his life). 

The Victims: Qin Su, Mo XuanYu’s Mother, and Madame Qin

In this house we stan Qin Su. 

Talk about a woman who goes after what she wants. She is said to have pursued Jin GuangYao after he saved her during the Sunshot Campaign, rather than the other way around. 

However, during the sunshot campaign, Qin Su had been saved by Jin GuangYao. She fell in love with him and never gave up, insisting that she wanted to be his wife. In the end, they finally drew the period on such a romantic story. Jin GuangYao didn’t let her down either. Even though he held the important position of Chief Cultivator, his behavior was drastically different from his father’s. He never took in any concubines, much less had a relationship with any other woman. This was indeed something that many wives of sect leaders envied.

And yet, again, because of circumstances beyond her control and because of the abuse of power, she can’t have happiness. Jin GuangShan raped her mother (seriously, he’s the very symbol of power abuse in relation to sexism in this novel), who is too ashamed to tell her husband that his best friend assaulted her. We can’t fault Madame Qin for staying silent, and with Qin Su already pregnant, it’s difficult not to empathize with Jin GuangYao for feeling trapped and marrying her anyways--though it is his fault for not telling her, and for killing their son, as Qin Su basically states that the dividing line for her is because Jin GuangYao killed A-Song, not because of their blood relation. 

After a moment of silence, Jin GuangYao answered, “I know that you won’t believe me, no matter what I say, but it was sincere, back then.”

Qin Su sobbed, “… You’re still speaking such blandishments!”

Jin GuangYao, “I’m speaking the truth. I’ve always remembered that you have never said anything about my background or my mother. I’m grateful for you until the end of my life, and I want to respect you, cherish you, love you. But, you have to know that even if A-Song hadn’t been killed, he had to die. He could only die. If we let him grow up, you and I…”

With the mention of her son, Qin Su couldn’t bear it any longer. With a raise of her hand, she slapped him on the face, “Then who’s the one that did all this?! Just what can’t you do for this position?!”

In some ways Qin Su and Madame Qin could be seen as a potential foil for Madame Jin and Madame Yu, in that they both loved children who were forced upon them, who would have been scorned in the world’s eyes, and defend their wellbeing and life. 

Mo XuanYu’s mother was sixteen when Jin GuangShan found her, and she was noted to herself be the illegitimate daughter of a servant--but her father was not scorned for this, yet she was scorned for having a son outside of wedlock.

the elder one was the daughter of his principal wife, looking for a husband to marry into the family, while the younger one was the daughter of a servant. The Mo family originally wanted to hastily give her to someone, but an adventure awaited her. When she was sixteen, the leader of a well-known cultivation family was passing by the area, and fell in love with her at first sight.

...In the beginning, the people of Mo Village regarded the topic with contempt, but because the Sect Leader* often helped out, the Mo family received plenty of advantages. And so, the direction of the discussions changed, and the Mo family took pride in the matter, while everyone else also envied the opportunity. 

She was respected only for the value she could bring a poor village. And then when Mo XuanYu was cast out of the Jin Sect, it’s noted that:

After he went back home dejectedly, he was bombarded with ridicule. The situation seemed like it was beyond redemption, and the second-lady of Mo was not able to withstand the blow, shortly choking to death because of the trauma.

Considering Mo XuanYu’s makeup is of a hanged ghost and the mention of how she died, it’s pretty likely that she hung herself. 

Mo XuanYu’s mother, just like Qin Su, commits suicide in the end to avoid a cruel society that would not respond to plights that were in no way their fault with anything but cruelty. Jin GuangYao notes that Qin Su would be the “laughingstock of the world” and soon after she grabs a dagger in which her soul would be trapped forever--a dagger originally owned by again The Symbol of Abuse of Power in Wen RouHan--and kills herself in a chamber of secrets (literally, a secret treasure vault, because she could not survive these secrets coming to light not keeping them silent). Just like Madame Qin, neither of them have anywhere to turn to for justice or for compassion. In the cultivational world, they are already disadvantaged for being women, and their tragic ends show again how disgusting the society in MDZS is. 

Hope and Bravery: A-Qing

Of course it’s not the righteous cultivator and it’s not the strongest in cultivation who is the hero who finally gets justice in Yi City. It’s the beggar girl who pretends to be blind, the thief, with no cultivation. A-Qing’s ghost may be blind and mute, but she sees and speaks more than any of them. Her empathy enables the heroes to figure out what happened in Yi City, and she is mourned and lauded for her bravery for it.

She has little power in the world, so she lies to get the money she can. But what she does have is love and loyalty that foils Lan WangJi’s (though I don’t believe in any way that it’s remotely implied this love for Xiao XingChen is romantic!) Even after Xiao XingChen’s death, even after her own physical dismemberment and death, she continues to look for justice for him, and this eventually pays off.

Further Hope: MianMian

I addressed this a bit in my meta with her, but MianMian’s happy ending comes outside of society, and includes her marrying a man who respects her autonomy and wishes:

Luo QingYang gazed at her husband, smiling, “My husband isn’t of the cultivating world. He used to be a merchant. But, he’s willing to go night-hunting with me…”

It was both rare and admirable that an ordinary person, and a man at that, would be willing to give up his originally stable life and dare travel the world with his wife, unafraid of danger and wander. Wei WuXian couldn’t help feeling respect for him.

And MianMian still has a keen observation: that society in the world hasn’t changed (which Wei WuXian will also note in the last chapter when they find a new scapegoat villain in Jin GuangYao):

Luo Qing Yang sighed, “Oh, these people…” She seemed as if she remembered something, shaking her head, “They’re the same everywhere.”

But as long as there are people willing to be empathetic, to believe in justice and be brave, who can combine these--like A-Qing, Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian, and more--there is hope for healing, even if it takes thirteen years.