#baoshan sanren is like a looming presence in the narrative even when she’s never actually seen

[veiledvellichor]

baoshan sanren: a symbol of sacrifice and non-conformity

warning: mdzs spoilers ahead

in canon, baoshan sanren really isn’t mentioned all that much. off the top of my head, the only times i recall her name being mentioned is when xiao xingchen is brought up in relation to wei wuxian’s mother and yanling daoren, and when wei wuxian has to trick jiang cheng and pretends that he remembers the location of her mountain.

then why does she even exist? sure, it provides a convenient background for why jiang cheng believed wei wuxian about the core transfer, and how wei wuxian has a connection to xiao xingchen, but it really doesn’t serve that much use plot-wise. we never see her, she never helps out any of the characters, and the fact that she has her own mountain isn’t actually explored on.

so my opinion on why mxtx decided to make her a character is that she’s important symbolically, if not narratively.

wei wuxian, in his upbringing, repeatedly has the fact that the jiangs took him in out of kindness beaten into him. he even mentions multiple times that he owns them a debt because of it, since he would have otherwise died. when he gives jiang cheng his core, he uses his own “connection” to baoshan sanren to justify how jiang cheng received a new core. when wei wuxian lies to jiang cheng, he takes this symbol and uses it to defend his own actions. he says that since jiang cheng is needed for the rebuilding of the yunmeng jiang, his core is needed more than his own. he then gives him his core in an act of selfish self-sacrifice, where he gives him his heart in return for taking back his debt. between brothers, there’s not meant to be a debt, yet wei wuxian leverages a “debt” that was never there to justify why he can rip his golden core out of his body and give it to his brother.

wei wuxian didn’t have to use baoshan sanren as a justification—it was definitely convenient, but he could have just as easily said wen qing found another way or that he found a rare scroll. in jiang cheng’s state then, he would have honestly believed anything as long as it gave him hope. hence why i think the use of baoshan sanren in this instance is meant to emphasise to the readers how baoshan sanren is a symbol of hope to jiang cheng, but in reality the mention of her is only a facade used to hide the incredible self-sacrifice that wei wuxian had in him.

in regards to cangse sanren, she manages to befriend many cultivators, to the point where a lot of them were willing to marry her. but instead, she takes the head disciple of a sect for a husband and becomes a rogue cultivator. she even shaves off lan qiren’s husband for endangering others in a night hunt with his too-strict rules. from the beginning, she’s seen as this saint who disregards societal rules and lives for justice and her own interests. and yet, after her death, her son is left to languish in a village for years, homeless and fighting for his life.

the cost of her choosing a husband that had little political backing other than the jiangs was such—if she had chosen a sect heir as her husband, her son would have been found within weeks. if she had chosen to stay within a sect as a cultivator, her sect would have had a duty to find her body and avenge her. her choices defined who she was as a person—kind and proud, but they also caused her downfall. the imagery of her on a donkey while her husband led them over to a night hunt shows a glimpse of the happiness she had. it’s repeated in wei ying, showing how he managed to break the cycle. still, her fate of dying so young is an extremely tragic one, and one that shows how those who chose to be kind and not falter in the face of the jianghu’s demands weren’t met with kindness in return. in the end, in return for living a life that helped strangers and didn't conform to the traditional route of sect cultivation, she sacrificed the ability to have her son found earlier, safe and sound.

as for xiao xingchen, his work as a rogue cultivator was the subject of much praise. he even earned a nickname with song lan (the bright moon and the gentle breeze), showing at first, he was held in high esteem. but when they brought xue yang in, it went against their interests. suddenly, the jin felt that these people that they had previously praised were a threat. when they let xue yang go free, they knew exactly who he would go after. and yet, even though all xiao xingchen and song lan had did was just by the jianghu’s standards, the jin held enough sway that after quieting nie mingjue, no one dared speak against them.

suddenly, when song lan was blinded and his sect massacred, all of their kindness was met with blank stares and empty hands. xiao xingchen had to beg his master to give his eyes to song lan, sacrificing his own sight for his friend. this act, parallel to wei wuxian’s core transfer, does actually have baoshan sanren in the equation. an immortal should have the sense to deny her disciple, or at least tell him to only give one eye. instead, she fully enables the sacrifice, helping him move his eyes to his friend's empty sockets. her role in this equation is as a enabler, a safe place where xiao xingchen can ask for help and not be denied, showing how in this, mxtx might want us to further draw a connection between baoshan sanren and sacrifice.

lastly, for yanling daoren, his story isn't really given in detail, but what we can glean from the story is that he was kind and virtuous at first but ended up hated by the jianghu. this is awfully similar to wei wuxian's own story, and honestly it only serves to show how history will repeat its mistakes. while we don't know if he was innocent or if he deserved the hatred, we do know that he died under thousands of swords after a drastic personality change. this implies that at the start, he likely helped many of those people holding the swords, yet after a "sudden change" he was resented and killed.

again, any theories is just speculation since we don't have many details, but i think it's entirely possible that he likely angered someone and was framed, hence the drastic change mentioned in canon. this works off the premise that everyone who’s related to baoshan sanren is a parallel to wei wuxian’s journey—he gets cangse sanren’s happy ending; his death is the same as yanling daoren’s; xiao xingchen’s sacrifice is so so so similar to his core transfer.

so what does this all mean? in my personal opinion, i think baoshan sanren is meant to be removed from society, a symbol of what humanity can achieve away from the gossip and strict societal structures that we have come up with. all of these people who came from baoshan sanren faced the world with such kindness and were met with such cruel fates in return.

tl;dr: i think the fact that baoshan sanren is a deux ex machina but never expanded on is a purposeful choice as she serves a greater symbolic purpose this way :)

(if u want more bssr content u can check my fic out: wild winds by @veiledvellichor on ao3)