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asingularshieldmaiden · 2 days ago

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[ok so this has been growing mushrooms in my drafts for ages. i remember saving it rather than posting it because there were more edits i wanted to make, but now i can no longer recall what those edits are, so i'm posting it as-is.]

spicy hot take, but in my opinion the wei wuxian relationship most isomorphic to xiyao is not in fact wangxian, but is rather chengxian. instead, wangxian foils xiyao - in almost the exact same way wangxian foils chengxian.

why xiyao is not isomorphic to wangxian

absolute devotion

one of the wangxian relationship's most prominent features is that lan wangji eventually insists on standing with wei wuxian, even against the entire world if need be. he does this in spite of his family urging him to do otherwise and despite the potential consequences for himself and his reputation, to the point where all of his other relationships and obligations are subordinate to his single-minded devotion to wei wuxian. said devotion is born both from lan wangji's absolute faith in the fundamental goodness of wei wuxian's character and from lan wangji's romantic love for wei wuxian. (arguably, the book does not do a sufficiently good job of distinguishing these two things, which are in fact different).

by contrast, lan xichen.....does not do this with jin guangyao. not once in the entire story has lan xichen ever chosen to fully devote himself to jin guangyao in the same way that lan wangji eventually chooses to do so for wei wuxian: lan xichen, unlike lan wangji, maintains his other relationships and obligations - ie. his brotherhood with nie mingjue, his duties to his own sect and family, his own moral principles, and so on - even when doing so entails putting those other obligations above his bond with jin guangyao.

(subjective) moral event horizons

in addition, wei wuxian's actions never cross into territory that lan wangji would no longer be willing to defend. notably. lan wangji does admit that wei wuxian has made mistakes, rather than insist that wei wuxian did nothing wrong at all. when fighting those 33 lan elders, lan wangji says he wishes to "shoulder wei ying's sins with him," not that "wei ying has not sinned." thus, lan wangji knows that wei wuxian killed anywhere from 1000 to 3000 people at nightless city, and also knows that wei wuxian was somehow involved in the death of jin zixuan (tho tbf what lan wangji thinks of jin zixuan's death is simply never elaborated on). however, this knowledge does not decrease lan wangji's willingness to defend wei wuxian, nor his love for wei wuxian, nor even his faith that wei wuxian is fundamentally a good person worth defending. for lan wangji, wei wuxian's actions have not crossed the moral event horizon.

by contrast, there does very much come a point in the story in which jin guangyao's actions cross a line into territory lan xichen is no longer willing to defend. first, there's the major difference that lan xichen genuinely does not know about many of jin guangyao's wrongdoings for much of their relationship, while by contrast all of wei wuxian's major wrongdoings immediately get broadcast to everyone in the jianghu, thus allowing lan wangji to learn of them fairly quickly. and second - perhaps things would have gone differently if their interactions at the guanyin temple had not gotten interrupted by basically every other living named character, but from what i gather of xiyao's conversations at the guanyin temple, lan xichen is genuinely unable to accept the crimes jin guangyao confesses to having committed.

due to both of these factors, then, it seems that even if jin guangyao had survived the guanyin temple, the xiyao relationship would never again be the same as it once was. lan xichen would not be able to wholeheartedly defend jin guangyao without any regrets, in the same way lan wangji does for wei wuxian.

why xiyao is isomorphic to chengxian

the above contrast i make between xiyao and wangxian might seem unfair given the structural differences. in canon, the first half of the wangxian history consists of lan wangji losing wei wuxian because lan wangji did not sufficiently defend wei wuxian, and then wei wuxian diedl the second half of the wangxian history consists of wei wuxian's miraculous revival and lan wangji's determination not to make the same mistakes this time. meanwhile, in canon, all of the xiyao history consists of lan xichen losing jin guangyao, in part (arguably - arguably) by not sufficiently defending him, and then jin guangyao dying.

currently, these histories are not equal on a structural level. if one really were to try and make a mapping from wangxian to xiyao, then it seems that all of the xiyao history should map to only the first half of the wangxian history; the second half of the wangxian history has no xiyao equivalent because jin guangyao does not come back to life.

so if i wanted to make xiyao structurally similar to wangxian, i would have to add this second half to xiyao's timeline: i would have to construct an additional series of events, beginning postcanon, in which jin guangyao comes back to life and is reunited with lan xichen. in such a scenario, xiyao would become isomorphic to wangxian if and only if, in jin guangyao's absence, lan xichen grew to regret his actions in the guanyin temple and came to fully sympathize with jin guangyao, thereby motivating lan xichen to throw away everything to defend the resurrected jin guangyao at all costs, just as lan wangji does with wei wuxian after wei wuxian's resurrection.

however, i argue that, in such a scenario, lan xichen would not actually do that. instead, lan xichen is more likely to behave like jiang cheng did towards wei wuxian instead - because, in such a scenario, the xiyao relationship would be far more isomorphic to the chengxian relationship instead.

to explain what i mean, i will compare the entire xiyao history (ie. everything leading up to jin guangyao's death at the guanyin temple) to the first half of the chengxian history (ie. everything leading up to wei wuxian's death during the first siege of the burial mounds).

pre-existing history and moral obligations to each other

both chengxian and xiyao have a lot of pre-existing history with each other, which then entail mutually-acknowledged, emotionally intimate bonds with each other, which then translate into special moral obligations towards each other that go beyond the moral obligations born towards strangers.

in novel-canon wangxian, wei wuxian and lan wangji have very few ties to each other in wei wuxian's first life; lan wangji may be romantically interested in wei wuxian, but he does not make his feelings known, and the two have no mutually-acknowledged ties to each other that might translate into moral obligations. because lan wangji and wei wuxian had no ties to each other in wei wuxian's first life beyond "classmates" and "lan wangji has a crush on this guy," from a moral standpoint, lan wangji bears very little moral responsibility towards wei wuxian's wellbeing beyond that one would bear towards a social peer.

by contrast, both xiyao and chengxian have long, deep histories with each other, and are formally tied to each other via mutually-recognized bonds as well. cheng and xian grew up together and spent years as each other's martial siblings, living under the same roof, studying under the same teachers, and loving the same people. xi and yao met and befriended each other during the sunshot campaign, lan xichen was trusted enough to be in on meng yao's espionage plan, and then the two swore brotherhood and spent over a decade as sworn brothers. there is history there, and a close bond whose existence as an emotionally intimate connection is acknowledged by both parties.

due to these bonds, then, one can argue from an agent-relative moral perspective that the moral obligations each pairing holds towards each other are far stronger than the moral obligations owed to mere classmates and distant crushes. wei wuxian is jiang cheng's martial brother, so jiang cheng has a special moral obligation towards wei wuxian's wellbeing created specifically by this relationship; similarly, jin guangyao is lan xichen's sworn brother, so lan xichen has a special moral obligation towards jin guangayo's wellbeing. of course, the same reasoning applies in reverse as well.

debt owed

furthermore, because of this pre-existing history, both xiyao and chengxian owe massive debts to each other.

first, lan xichen and jiang cheng both owe massive debts - not just on their own behalf, but also on the behalf of their entire sects - to jin guangyao and wei wuxian respectively. meng yao sheltered lan xichen when the latter was on the run from the wen with essential gusu lan texts in his possession; were it not for meng yao, it is highly likely that lan xichen would have been captured by the wen and the essential texts lost. given the importance of sect scriptures, texts, and writings in conveying the core teachings of a sect, and given that a sect's teachings are its lifeblood and what gives it its identity, this means that, were it not for meng yao, the gusu lan sect would have been dealt an incredibly severe blow and may not have even survived. therefore, it is entirely fair to say that lan xichen - and all of gusu lan - owes jin guangyao a massive debt of gratitude.

similarly, jiang cheng also owes his own survival and the resurrection of the yunmeng jiang sect in part to wei wuxian. jiang cheng only survived being captured by the wen after the fall of lotus pier because wen ning broke him out - on wei wuxian's request. jiang cheng was also only able to recover from the loss of his golden core, and thus raise the banner of yunmeng jiang during the sunshot campaign, because wei wuxian gave him his golden core. contrary to what some fanfics claim, i do not believe that a coreless individual could lead a cultivation sect during wartime; even if such a thing was possible, it would still be impossible for a coreless individual to then resurrect said cultivation sect from decimation to greatness.

second, jin guangyao and wei wuxian also owe lan xichen and jiang cheng debts of gratitude as well. meng yao's ascension to jin guangyao, as well as his subsequent social status, are due in part to lan xichen's support of him, both through the sworn brotherhood and otherwise. when others criticize jin guangyao, lan xichen defends him - and, given lan xichen's peerless reputation as the first jade of gusu lan, lan xichen's word has weight. jin guangyao, as the bastard son of a prostitute, faces incredible prejudice from the rest of society and is thus operating at a massive social disadvantage; were it not for the continued support of lan xichen, a nobly-born and highly regarded leader of a major cultivation sect, (as well as the similar support of nie mingjue) it is likely that jin guangyao would not have been able to climb to the position of chief cultivator.

similarly, wei wuxian also owes a lot to jiang cheng. just as background, wei wuxian was rescued off the streets by jiang cheng's family, fed and clothed by jiang cheng's family, and taught cultivation by jiang cheng's family as well. even if we disregard this history as creating any "debt" (a valid stance under modern ethical standards, but perhaps not as valid under traditional confucianism), wei wuxian quite literally owes his life to jiang cheng. first, wei wuxian and lan wangji only came out of the xuanwu of slaughter's cave alive because jiang cheng immediately ran to lotus pier and back to gather reinforcements to rescue them. in fact, the narration specifically notes that jiang cheng managed to cut down a trip that would normally take 5x2=10 days into one of 7 days. second, the only reason why jiang cheng got caught by the wens to begin with is because he sacrificed himself to save wei wuxian. by then, wen chao already had it out for wei wuxian specifically; furthermore, wei wuxian, unlike jiang cheng, would not have had nearly as much value as a living hostage - thus, it is highly likely that, had that wen patrol actually captured wei wuxian, wen chao would have just killed him.

meanwhile, unlike both xiyao and chengxian, wangxian do not have any major debts between them. or, in lan wangji's own words - "no sorry's and thank you's between us."

trust

while this is not an element that is absent from wangxian, the element of trust (and more importantly, its subsequent violation) plays a greater role in the chengxian and xiyao relationships. jiang cheng fully trusted wei wuxian: when wei wuxian said that baoshan sanren could restore jiang cheng's golden core, when wei wuxian said that he had the demonic cultivation under control, when wei wuxian promised to be the twin prides of yunmeng, jiang cheng fully believed him. similarly, when jin guangyao publicly mourned nie mingjue's death, lan xichen fully believed that he was genuine.

and yet, this trust was misplaced.

unknown and deliberately hidden difficult circumstances

both jin guangyao's and wei wuxian's actions are also shaped by difficult circumstances that lan xichen and jiang cheng respectively do not know about. for a decent portion of each pairing's shared history, jin guangyao and wei wuxian both make highly questionable decisions that cause harm to those around them, which naturally makes others criticize them - however, unknown to almost everyone, their choices are shaped by the presence of a massive secret they are keeping from everyone else, which if revealed would have devastating personal consequences. furthermore, both jin guangyao and wei wuxian do not trust lan xichen and jiang cheng respectively with said secret: instead, they actively choose to not only leave the latter parties in the dark but also actively deceive them.

as we know, jin guangyao actually married his own half-sister. as a preliminary, it must be said that jin guangyao did not do this because he ~wanted to~ or whatever other nonsense; rather, he was essentially forced into this marriage because, by the time he found out qin su was his half-sister, she was already pregnant, and the social consequences for an unmarried pregnant woman whose betrothal to the local bastard was suddenly broken would be devastating. thus, this is a difficult circumstance - all of jin guangyao's subsequent decisions were made with the fear of this secret being exposed constantly hanging over him.

jin guangyao does not trust lan xichen enough to share this secret with him. perhaps jin guangyao does not trust lan xichen's ability to keep it to himself, perhaps jin guangyao does not trust lan xichen to not take action against jin guangyao, perhaps jin guangyao does not trust lan xichen with qin su and jin rusong. perhaps jin guangyao has neatly partitioned everything in his life into "acceptable" and "unacceptable" and refuses to let these two boxes touch at all, and because lan xichen has been placed squarely in the "acceptable" box, everything in the "unacceptable" box has to be hidden from him forever. whatever his reasons, jin guangyao keeps this secret from lan xichen; by the time lan xichen finds out, it's too late and jin rusong is already dead.

meanwhile, as we know, wei wuxian gave his golden core to jiang cheng - thus, for the entire sunshot campaign and afterwards, wei wuxian did not have a golden core. almost all of wei wuxian's questionable decisions - his reliance on demonic cultivation, which drew the fear, envy, and hatred of the mob, and which he was also ultimately unable to keep under control, which then spelled his doom - were shaped by the fact that wei wuxian no longer had a golden core.

and - as we know - wei wuxian does not trust jiang cheng with this secret. wei wuxian deceives jiang cheng into the golden core transfer, lying and saying that baoshan sanren would restore jiang cheng's own core and thus giving jiang cheng zero reason to suspect that anything might also happen to wei wuxian's core. wei wuxian then continues to hide his own lack of golden core from jiang cheng (and also the rest of the world) all the way until his own death - not once does he ever trust jiang cheng with this secret. why? to protect jiang cheng's emotional wellbeing - because wei wuxian knew/believed that jiang cheng would never be able to accept all his achievements actually being due to someone else's golden core? because wei wuxian knew/believed that jiang cheng would never be able to accept wei wuxian suffering to this extent on his behalf? in that case, why not say that wen zhuliu had also melted wei wuxian's golden core? because he did not want jiang cheng to feel guilty about "stealing" wei wuxian's one chance to meet baoshan sanren, who according to wei wuxian can restore golden cores? because he did not want to face the reality that his golden core was well and truly gone, and jiang cheng knowing would make it real? because he did not trust jiang cheng to not look at wei wuxian, who was now useless and a reputation-damaging liability, and not throw him away? whatever the reason, wei wuxian did not trust jiang cheng with this secret - not just the secret of the golden core transfer, but also the secret that wei wuxian was lacking a golden core at all.

now, this is arguably a trait shared by wangxian as well, since wei wuxian also does not voluntarily tell lan wangji any of his secrets (to my memory) either. the death-and-resurrection setup renders the absence of a golden core in wei wuxian's first life moot: once wei wuxian is resurrected, any presence or lack of a golden core has more to do with what mo xuanyu already had than anything else.

still, an interesting thought experiment: suppose that the sacrifice array is set up such that both the summoned spirit and any golden core they might have would together be installed into the summoner's body (such that if the spirit had a strong golden core, the spirit-in-summoner's body would also have a strong golden core regardless of what the summoner themself had originally; if the spirit had no golden core, then the spirit-in-summoner's body would also have no golden core regardless of whether or not the summoner themself had a golden core or not). by this hypothetical setup, [wei wuxian in mo xuanyu's body] having no golden core would be directly the effect of [wei wuxian in his original body having no golden core]; if mo xuanyu originally had a golden core, [wei wuxian in mo xuanyu's body] still would not have one.

in such a situation, given that lan wangji also understands perfectly how the modified sacrifice array works, would wei wuxian eventually freely admit to lan wangji that he does not have a golden core?

unable to put the other party above all other obligations

once wei wuxian returns, lan wangji essentially yeets all his other obligations in favor of defending wei wuxian at all costs. for wei wuxian's sake, and later for their couple's sake, lan wangji is willing to throw away his own safety, his own reputation, the reputation of his sect, and (arguably) his connection with and obligations towards his own family members. hell, by the end of the novel, lan wangji is willing to sneak away from the guanyin temple with wei wuxian for couple activities instead of staying behind to check on his own brother.

but this is not the case for both lan xichen and jiang cheng. both lan xichen and jiang cheng have other duties and obligations that they are not willing to sacrifice for the sake of jin guangyao and wei wuxian respectively. first, lan xichen is also the sworn brother of nie mingjue, giving him both a personal-emotional reason and a moral obligation to be invested in nie mingjue's wellbeing and happiness. and when nie mingjue and jin guangyao clash, while lan xichen does urge nie mingjue to be more understanding of jin guangyao's circumstances, not once does lan xichen directly oppose nie mingjue's viewpoint to side decisively with jin guangyao. not once does lan xichen decisively pick a side at all. instead, all of his efforts are focused on getting the two of them to get along - thus, instead of sacrificing his obligations/attachments to one to fully satisfy his obligations/attachments to the other, he tries to change the situation so he can satisfy both. lan xichen is unwilling to give up his attachments and obligations to nie mingjue for jin guangyao's sake.

moreover, while the confrontation at the guanyin temple scene is rather emotional, it does also imply that lan xichen is unwilling to sacrifice his personal moral standards for jin guangyao's sake. as i said above, jin guangyao's actions do seem to cross a moral line in lan xichen's eyes, to the point where lan xichen is genuinely angered by what jin guangyao has done and seems unable to accept these deeds. lan wangji knows that wei wuxian killed 1000-3000 people at nightless city, yet loves him and wishes to protect him at all costs anyways; to me, this does imply that wei wuxian's slaughter at nightless city is something lan wangji is willing to either excuse or overlook. meanwhile, lan xichen finds out about jin guangyao's murder and dismemberment of nie mingjue, his orchestration of the gangrape-murder of his own father, his support of xue yang, him having potentially killed his own son, and so on - and does not seem willing to excuse and/or overlook these deeds in the same way lan wangji does for wei wuxian.

now, as jiang cheng discoursers across the fandom all know, when wei wuxian insisted on protecting the wen remnants, jiang cheng did not stand with wei wuxian. instead, jiang cheng took wei wuxian's suggestion that wei wuxian leave yunmeng jiang and made it happen; thus, for the rest of wei wuxian's first life, he stood alone without any sect backing him. once again, a preliminary: jiang cheng did not do so because he ~wanted to~ or because he ~hated the wen that much~ or anything one-dimensional like that; rather, jiang cheng did not stand by wei wuxian because the weakened and isolated yunmeng jiang during that time could not have politically survived publicly standing with wei wuxian. thus, to jiang cheng, the moral dilemma he faced when wei wuxian told him to cast him away in the demon-subduing cave is as follows: does he fulfill his moral obligation to wei wuxian's wellbeing, or does he fulfill his duty to protect his sect and its members?

and, as we know, jiang cheng, the sect leader of yunmeng jiang, chose the latter. his history and ties with wei wuxian meant that he had a moral obligation towards wei wuxian's wellbeing (and the wen siblings helping him before meant that he had a moral obligation towards them as well), but his position as sect leader - one who had just called for all of his newfound disciples to go to war for him - meant that he also bore a moral obligation towards the wellbeing and safety of everyone in his sect. and jiang cheng chose the latter. he was unable to sacrifice his duty to his people for wei wuxian's sake.

perhaps lan wangji, in jiang cheng's position, would have called for all of yunmeng jiang to support wei wuxian and the wen remnants instead. and then perhaps lan wangji would have gone down in history as the most romantic and most foolish sect leader seen in the jianghu. but jiang cheng is not lan wangji.

perhaps that is also the draw of wangxian, to both wei wuxian and the readers: because lan wangji is not a sect leader, and because he both lacks major ties to other characters and is willing to neglect the ones he does have for wei wuxian's sake, lan wangji is capable of yeeting all his other obligations for wei wuxian's sake with minimal fallout. in a sense, wangxian is a highly escapist romantic fantasy: it provides an idealized image of a relationship in which one person puts the other person above all else, and somehow this does not cause any problems.

harm to shared loved ones

one excellent meta i once read posited that one of the major reasons why wangxian works, despite wei wuxian having a killcount in the literal thousands, is because wei wuxian never caused the harm or death of anyone lan wangji personally cared about. (lan wangji certainly did suffer as a result of his love for wei wuxian - 33 strikes with the disciple whip - but his suffering was also the result of his own choice. lan wangji chose to stand by wei wuxian, knowing full-well that there would be consequences; thus, said consequences can be said to be the result of his own free will.)

by contrast, wei wuxian and jin guangyao very much do cause harm to the people jiang cheng and lan xichen care about respectively. i've written quite a lot above already, so i do not think i need to spill too much ink in repeating basic plot points. wei wuxian may or may not have helped accidentally bring about the fall of lotus pier, wei wuxian killed jin zixuan, and then one of wei wuxian's fierce corpses severely wounded jiang yanli moments before she died to save him. jin guangyao killed nie mingjue using the healing technique lan xichen taught him, and then dismembered his corpse and scattered the body parts across the jianghu. needless to say, jiang cheng loved his family and lan xichen cared deeply for nie mingjue; therefore, the pain caused by these actions is personal.

after wei wuxian's resurrection, the chengxian relationship remains ruptured because jiang cheng blames wei wuxian for the deaths of jin zixuan and jiang yanli. so long as jiang cheng continues to honestly feel that "you killed my loved ones," the relationship cannot recover to what it was before. and, if jin guangyao were miraculously resurrected one day, would lan xichen not feel the same? given that, since jin guangyao did actually kill nie mingjue, the statement "you killed someone i cared deeply about" is factually correct?

death and betrayal

this brings me to my final point. all of the above entries congeal into one central element, present in both chengxian and xiyao yet is absent from wangxian: the feeling of betrayal.

from lan xichen and jiang cheng's perspectives, they were betrayed by someone they trusted wholeheartedly. the most egregious betrayals are obviously the deaths of their loved ones as caused by the other party; in other words, "i trusted you, yet you killed my loved one(s)." less obvious are other, grayer forms of "betrayal" as well - namely, the constant secret-keeping and deceit through deception discussed above. neither wei wuxian nor jin guangyao trust jiang cheng and lan xichen respectively with their massive, life-ruining secrets (for entirely understandable reasons). why did you lie to me? why did you never tell me? what did i do for you to lose your faith in me, why could i not be trusted with the truth?

meanwhile, from jin guangyao and wei wuxian's perspectives, they were also betrayed. as stated above, neither lan xichen nor jiang cheng are able to put jin guangyao and wei wuxian respectively above all else - instead, both lan xichen and jiang cheng are entirely willing to sacrifice the latter two for the sake of fulfilling some other moral obligation instead.

and then, the ultimate betrayal - their deaths. jin guangyao is stabbed through the heart by lan xichen, which would have killed him had the fierce corpse of nie mingjue not snapped jin guangyao's neck shortly afterwards. jiang cheng led the first siege of the burial mounds, upon which wei wuxian destroyed half of the yin tiger tally and died from backlash.

this feeling of betrayal is entirely absent from wangxian. because wangxian lacks almost all of the elements listed above, lan wangji does not and frankly cannot feel betrayed by wei wuxian, or vice versa. neither party ever commits any sort of major wrongdoing against the other (unless you count the phoenix mountain night-hunt kiss), and there is very little pre-existing bond between the two to even make a betrayal possible to begin with.

thus, because wangxian lacks this critical element that both chengxian and xiyao possess, wangxian is not isomorphic to xiyao in the same way that chengxian is. instead, it is more accurate to say that wangxian contrasts xiyao - in largely the same way wangxian also contrasts chengxian.

so who is jin guangyao's lan wangji?

he doesn't have one.

su minshan is a good candidate, but due to how heavily MDZS codes him as jin guangyao's henchman, he's better described as jin guangyao's wen ning.

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