#Xuanli

[soursoppi]

plucked by the lotus picker

[bishy437]

"Don't talk to me or my child ever again"

[littlesmartart]

Jiang Yanli 🤝 Jin Zixuan raised by angry controlling mother + distant emotionally unavailable father

I think it's incredibly easy to be sympathetic to Yanli and see how the trauma from her disfunctional parents has shaped her personality and created very specific coping mechanisms, but it makes me sad that people very rarely seem to extend that same sympathy to Zixuan - perhaps because we get to see less of his home life, and it's all filtered through the POV of a protagonist who doesn't like him. at any rate, what is shown is that he has a mother who does not hestitate to publically humiliate him and cares far more about her own interests than his happiness and fulfilment, and a father who... well, it's difficult to imagine JGS having much of a real relationship with/influence over a son who feels as strongly about honour and doing the right thing as Zixuan (see: standing up to Wen Chao, his friendship with and defense of Mianmian, leading the Jin forces during the war, confronting Yanli over believing she stole credit from a servant girl, etc.)

I can just really strongly imagine their relationship blossoming quickly on an emotional level because they both really crave that intimacy they lacked in their childhoods (Yanli had her brothers but she was always parentified and put on a pedastal, Zixuan had Mianmian but how close could they really get with a mother like Jin-furen, likely watching them like a hawk to look for Any Funny Business?), and given that it's canon that they stay up late talking and "tell each other everything", they were starting to break the cycle of horrible resentful marriages that traumatise their kids!!! 🥹🥹🥹 truly they were too powerful to be allowed to live

[add1ctedt0you]

The Untamed + ao3 tags

[menelaus-blue]

hello tumblr god spoke to me in a vision and told me i needed to make this so i did.

[junodoom]

swordtember day 10: ceremony

[artsy-alice]

jin zixuan doesn't throw money at his problems. he throws money at his solutions.

(or, the late valentines 2024 post!)

the series tag: ★ | wallpapers: 1 | 2 | 3 | printable: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | snowglobe

[peupeugunn]

honestly when you look at it, out of all the yunmeng siblings, jc's not the worst when it comes to dating/courting.

i mean, there's jiang "i sigh and pine from afar and also secretly make soup" yanli and jin "fuck arranged marriages i will love of my own volition and do it so badly that i yell it in front of everyone and then run off to go cry about it" zixuan.

then you've got wei "i didn't realise i was into him even though i constantly described him in an incredibly in love with him way because i thought everyone thinks of him that way" wuxian and lan "i hated him i wanted to ruin him i think his Horrors are sexy i will mourn and get him back and hope he remembers i confessed my love through the mixtape i played for him when he was unconscious years ago" wangji.

on the other hand, there's book!jc who is rumoured to be blacklisted by matchmakers because he knows what he wants and refuses to accept anything less (no matter how we as readers feel about his list of wants). he doesn't seem to have had any romantic anythings at all so either he really hasn't or he's conducted his relationships in such a discrete way that literally no one knows.

then there's cql!jc who has a crush, buys a comb for her, makes his intentions known, takes rejection with understanding even when he's hurt, (has his bodily autonomy violated by his love without his knowledge or informed consent) does his best not to harm her even as they're on opposite sides of a war, and then their romance ends when he cannot realistically offer her or her family safety without dooming his people. and ALL OF THIS heart wrenching star-crossed lovers angst is so quiet and discrete that literally no one knows except the two of them.

no one's doing it like jc and that's a damn tragedy.

[mushroomwriter]

THE UNTAMED | Totally Canon Quotes (x)

[tossawary]

Thinking about an AU where Jiang Yanli's "weak / mediocre cultivation" was caused by a horrific training accident when she was pretty young, in part to explore the tragedy and disability of it all and in part for the humorous "older relative casually drops wild personal lore that changes your entire perception of them" angle.

Like, Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan's firstborn child is a girl, which is not ideal in this deeply sexist world, but the sect motto is "attempt the impossible", right? It's not unheard of for female cultivators to lead sects and Yu Ziyuan wants her daughter to be the first female Jiang sect leader, to show up the cultivation world, and Jiang Fengmian isn't against the idea and wants the best for his daughter (although he probably doesn't want her to be a copy of his wife). So Jiang Yanli starts her cultivation training pretty early. There's a lot of intense pressure, a lot of expectation and projection and some arguments, and it all culminates in this poor child getting badly injured, with permanent damage to both her body and to her cultivation. It's a "no one's fault and everyone's fault" thing.

Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan quietly drop their plans for Yanli to become the sect leader and focus on a very young Jiang Cheng instead, which is easy in part because everyone expects the son to inherit anyway. A young Jiang Yanli is betrothed to the heir of the Jin Sect and this is basically never talked about ever again. General perception is that Jiang Yanli is a mediocre cultivator at best because she was born that way (she's a WOMAN, after all) and/or because her disposition is just too sweet and agreeable, and OF COURSE the son became the heir as soon as the Jiangs had a son. That's just how things work!

So, in an AU where Jiang Yanli (and Jin Zixuan?) lives and teenage Jin Ling is freaking out about some embarrassing and/or dangerous mistake on a night hunt...

Jiang Yanli, patting her son's shoulder: "It's going to be okay. You know, when I was a young child, I permanently injured myself in a training accident and could no longer become the Jiang sect leader, and it felt like the end of the world, letting everyone down, but it all worked out in the end!"

Jin Ling, whose entire 15-year-old worldview just got flipped upside-down: "...Mother?! What?!?!"

[angie-s-g]

💜💚Another Reverse Big Bang Collab!💚💜 I'm excited to reveal that the talented Jaimeblue has written an amazing fic inspired by this art.I hope SangCheng nation enjoys it just as much as I did! this fic has it all! Matchmaker Yanli, clever Huaisang coming up with solutions to the yiling laozu problem and a lovely slow romance simmering for Jiang Cheng and Huaisang.

The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You

💚 Sangcheng 💜canon divergence

"Wedding bells are in the air with the date of her wedding approaching, and Jiang Yanli is helping to make preparations around Lotus Pier for her coming departure. Her primary concern is Jiang Cheng, who works himself to the bone and rarely allows himself a moment to breathe, let alone have a decent meal. She worries for him, about who will get him to eat when she's living in Lanling and who will remind him that there's a life outside of work.

On a whim, she decides to invite Nie Huaisang to visit for the last few weeks before the wedding. Hopefully his presence will help her brother relax, or at the very least, Nie Huaisang can distract Jiang Cheng so that she can get some work done!

But when the young man arrives and her brother actually *smiles*, she thinks she sees something else between them. Could it be that her brother is genuinely attracted to Nie Huaisang, who is so obviously infatuated with him, or is she so in love that she sees romance everywhere? To find out, she'll give them a few little nudges to see what happens."

Read it here and do not forget to leave lovely comments! Jaime has finished the fic and all chapters are up :D

[themaymoth]

she doesn't see red flags she sees an opportunity

If you want to see more of them in the tma au:

Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan

extra

[lilapplesheadcannons]

"MDZS version of calling your boyfriend by their name prank"

Jiang Yanli: ZiXuan, can you go get the mail, please?

Jin ZiXuan: Are you mad at me? Why are you mad at me? Is it because I used your toothbrush?

Wei Wuxian: Wangji, can you pass me some fries?

Lan Wangji: What did you just call me?

Wei Wuxian: Your name?

Lan Wangji: My name!? I AM BA-BE!

Jiang Cheng: Xichen, can you get me a beer?

Lan Xichen: Sorry, why did you call me Xichen? You never call me Xichen. Stop it. I don't trust you. No! Get away from me.

Meng Yao: MingJue...

Nie MingJue: Did you just call me MingJue?

Meng Yao: That's your name, isn't it?

Nie MingJue: I don't know why you're acting this way! Let me tell you, JIN GUANG YAO...

[littlesmartart]

DRAWTOBER #7 - i believe that we can make it (i believe in all of you) by Stratisphyre

“You see the problem?” Jiang Wanyin continued. “Your brother is an idiot. My brother is an idiot. And we think that it’s to the benefit of the world at large for them to get married and subject us all to their joint idiocy?” “Perhaps not,” Lan Xichen said slowly. Jiang Wanyin looked disappointed, apparently hopeful that Lan Xichen would disagree, but the expression eased when he continued, “But it is to the benefit of the two of them.” In which onetwothreefourfive six amateur wedding planners (and Jin Zixuan) have good intentions and try to save the day.

okay so, disclaimer: there is actually a lot more to this fic than what this goofy comic indicates BUT. but. JC vs LXC competitive wedding planning was just SO freaking hilarious to me!!! I couldn't resist!!!! pleeeease read this hilarious fixit fic AU if you need a good laugh

[enby-axels]

i used to disagree with the interpretation that jiang cheng was using jiang yanli as a political pawn to improve his relationship with the jin clan, but then i reexamined this scene here:

like this conversation has layers to it. throughout it, wei wuxian is the only one who's actually concerned about jiang yanli, while jiang cheng barely spares her a thought. and i'll explain why i think so

starting from the beginning of this excerpt, we see that jiang cheng prioritizes his relationship with the jin clan. he berates wei wuxian for defending jiang yanli, but he does so in a way that completely negates her. instead, he characterizes it as wei wuxian picking a fight with jin zixuan and harming the jiang clan's relationship with the jins.

i found this really interesting. is jiang cheng doing this on purpose? is it subconscious? it's hard to tell. either way, it's incredibly revealing. by erasing the actual cause of the conflict, he can pursue his own ambitions while maintaining the illusion he's acting in his sister's best interests. (and at this point in the novel, jiang cheng has already established a pattern of lying to himself to avoid inconvenient truths. a self-gaslighting icon)

and then jiang cheng goes on to compliment jin zixuan's status, in response to wei wuxian complimenting jin guangyao's looks. he makes it clear that what he cares about is maintaining amicable relations with the jins' future clan leader.

with this, wei wuxian can no longer tolerate jiang cheng's self-justifications. he outright confronts jiang cheng's motivations for bringing jiang yanli to the phoenix mountain siege hunt. his phrasing is interesting: "you made a special point of bringing shijie along." i cannot know how exactly that went down, but it does imply that jiang cheng was unusually insistent about having jiang yanli be present at phoenix mountain.

there's room for interpretation here. was jiang yanli pressured to go to phoenix mountain? we can't know, although there is a consistent pattern in mdzs of her having very limited agency in her life. what we do know, at the very least, is that jiang cheng brought jiang yanli along and he was set on it; it was primarily his decision, not hers.

and jiang cheng all but confirms wei wuxian's suspicions! in response to wei wuxian accusing him of trying to arrange a match between jiang yanli and jin zixuan for political reasons, he says "it's not entirely out of the question." he doesn't even try to deny it; instead he justifies himself

wei wuxian can't tolerate this either. promises and hopes of jin zixuan changing for the better aren't enough. they live in a patriarchal, feudalistic society. if jiang yanli marries into lanling, she'll be completely at their mercy, and there would be little that he or jiang cheng can do about it. how can he sit back and let such a fate befall his shijie?

and while wei wuxian refuses to shy away from the precarity of jiang yanli's position and the possibility of jin zixuan turning out like his father, jiang cheng dismisses his concerns, merely saying, "he wouldn't dare!" but how can he possibly guarantee that? it's a flimsy defense and he knows it. we, as the readers, having the benefit of knowledge that while jin zixuan is flawed, he would never do such a thing. but jiang cheng and wei wuxian have no reason to trust the man who's already humiliated jiang yanli once before.

interestingly, jiang cheng immediately deflects from the accusation aimed at his own motivations by directing the conversation to his sister's feelings. jiang yanli likes jin zixuan, so "what more can we do?" but this is an obfuscation of jiang yanli's circumstances. while jiang yanli does like jin zixuan, at this point in time she did not want to be around him! in fact, she never once pursued a relationship with him

notably, this line shifts the responsibility from jiang cheng (whom wei wuxian is accusing of using jiang yanli as a political pawn) to jiang yanli herself. but we as readers know better. we were there for jiang yanli and jin zixuan's conversation during the siege hunt. she has little say over anything, even her own life

throughout this conversation, jiang cheng is evading inconvenient truths and mentally avoiding his sister. he loves her, but it's a selfish sort of love. he is, perhaps subconsciously, rewriting her reality to serve his own interests.

this is in sharp contrast to wei wuxian who asks uncomfortable questions and, rather than running away from reality, confronts it. it's important that after his argument with jiang cheng, he seeks out jiang yanli herself to hear her opinions on love.

i could write a whole other post analyzing the sequence of scenes following jiang cheng and wei wuxian's argument — particularly the flashback to when wei wuxian first arrived at lotus pier and how this could tie into his resolve to support jiang yanli, just as she did for him.

but i want to conclude this analysis by focusing on jiang yanli. because even her location here speaks volumes. wei wuxian asks where jiang yanli is, and jiang cheng answers that she can't go anywhere but the kitchen, her chambers, and the ancestral hall. "and sure enough," the narration notes, "there she was." by illustrating how she's trapped on a physical level, the story is outright telling us that, as a woman, jiang yanli is confined. (more specifically, she is confined as a woman with weak cultivation. while her mother, a powerful cultivator in her own right, was able to travel and night hunt as she pleased, jiang yanli lacks this privilege.)

i think this was a fitting way to punctuate and contextualize the preceding argument. nothing jiang yanli wants for her life is allowed to matter. it never has.

what can she do? jiang yanli loves jin zixuan, but that alone will never be alone to transform their relationship into a mutually loving one. she lacks the power to force him to change, and more importantly she doesn't want that power. back at phoenix mountain, she eschewed what little power she was (forcibly) granted by madam jin. even though she was pressured to accompany jin zixuan during the siege hunt, she still refused to use that opportunity to get closer to him.

because jiang yanli doesn't just love. she loves selflessly and without imposition. she could never pursue a relationship with someone she believes hates her, even if the basis of that hatred is unfair to her.

so based on her established character traits, i don't think jiang yanli is someone who would want her family to arrange a marriage to someone that (supposedly) hates her. nor can she be convinced by them into believing it will magically work out. the only one who can transform her relationship with jin zixuan is jin zixuan himself — not just because he has the power to as The Man, but also because he is the sole person on this planet that can convince jiang yanli that he truly loves and wants to be with her

[slimemanagement]

Sangcheng arm-in-arm

Xuanli goofs

Nie bros + Sangcheng: The one about communication and relying on your loved ones where Nie Huaisang makes the shocked tails face twice