#[ embodiment of hope. of /life/. liyue. liyue harbour. ]

[yuelun]

This young man displayed the true prowess of alchemy to all, bringing with him a massive corpus of wisdom that even the Sumeru Akademiya did not possess. "The universe is heaven reversed, and the earth is a dream lost to time. This is dust, the most basic form of complex life." As if to provide evidence for this claim, Albedo lifted the burnt ash of the flower that once grew atop a Dendro Slime's head. Seconds later, a Cecilia sprouted forth from the ash in his hand. "And this… is new birth." (Albedo: Character Story)

When I've been wrecking my brain over whether or not Genshin draws the correlation between dust and ashes, and I happen to look into Albedo because of his tie (we can... call it that) to alchemy, and even the art of Khemia specifically which is the much more ancient form of it, and there it is. Now excuse me as I go ramble in my tags a little incoherently...

[yuniemaki]

On Beiguang & Ginkgo Leaves

Ginkgo leaves are a common motif when Beidou and Ningguang are drawn together in official art... but why is that?

Ginkgo: 銀杏 yínxìng, "silver apricot". Its leaves are green in spring-summer, then turn yellow in autumn.

Ginkgo leaves are unique in that it's sometimes seen to split into two yet merge cleanly at the petiole, representing the union of duality (i.e. yinyang, one & two, life & death, etc). The leaves are also seen as a heart, giving rise to its symbolism of eternal love.

In autumn, the ginkgo leaves turn a lovely saffron yellow. When they do fall, they fall very quickly and in large numbers, so this has been affectionately termed the "golden rain"/黄金雨. As such, when we see large amounts of falling ginkgo leaves in art, it's safe to assume they may be alluding to a ginkgo tree nearby.

Beidou & Ningguang with others

When Ningguang & Beidou appear with other characters outdoors, the motif of ginkgo doesn't appear at all besides in Ningguang's design (we'll touch on that later). On the left, Ganyu & Ningguang's art show normal leaves instead of ginkgo; Beidou & Kazuha are on the Alcor in the art on the right so... no leaves.

Beidou & Ningguang together

With the ginkgo tree being a centuries-old symbol of yin-yang, falling ginkgo leaves only seem to appear when Ningguang & Beidou are together - a harmonious duality, opposing forces meant to complement each other to form a perfect whole (check out their yin/yang symbolism in this post too!).

It's also fascinating when we go back to their very first appearance in the JP promo: this is one of the few outdoor Beiguang pieces with no ginkgo motifs (indoor scenes being an exception).

After that, most subsequent Beiguang art started carrying ginkgo symbolism, even their chibi arts that were situated in nature. This could be a subtle hint of character development, perhaps?

Ningguang & her ties to ginkgo

Now, you might argue, what about Ningguang? She appears with ginkgo motifs just about every single time, and her hairpin carries a ginkgo leaf.

That's because ginkgo is more than just a symbol of eternal love. The tree is known as a "living fossil", thus it is a symbol of longevity, endurance, and hope. These are traits embodied in Ningguang's character - her whole life is testament to her endurance for a better future.

The description of her second Jade Chamber speaks of not just her power, but also the "adamantine will" of Liyue Harbour - endurance, hope, a legacy that outlives her.

As we've previously explored, Ningguang also carries lots of fenghuang symbolism, and the fenghuang is unique in that in itself it carries both yin-yang energy. But when met with the Chinese dragon, it forms the yin counterpart to the dragon's yang.

The ginkgo leaf is a symbol of yin-yang, two petioles merging into one, and thus it also accurately reflects the ancient perception of the fenghuang - where it was both yin and yang, before encountering the Chinese dragon.

So that's why you will see ginkgo leaf motifs frequently in Ningguang's solo art. Even her figurine and her character card in Genius Invokation TCG feature ginkgos, largely because of this endurance, longevity, prosperity and yin-yang symbolism that also reflect her metaphorical representation of the fenghuang.

But when it comes to ginkgo trees, you won't find a ginkgo tree without love contexts with her. In her 2022 birthday art, the ginkgo trees in the background are complemented by glaze lilies/motifs of love (we'll touch on lily language next!).

What does this mean?

This doesn't really mean anything, except that you can expect to see this ginkgo tree and falling ginkgo leaf symbolism to repeatedly occur in future Beiguang pieces, because it's intrinsically tied to their yin-yang relationship.

And unless Hoyoverse creates another yin-yang ship in another region, I highly doubt we'll see any other ginkgo leaf motifs with other pairings in Genshin till then!

Links:

Beiguang masterlist | Articles on ginkgo tree: 1, 2