#novel kunlun...

[dual-domination]

The finished art. Kunlun, Shen Wei and Gui Mian (or Ye Zun, you choose). For a fic, but I won't have time to finish the fic any time soon, so here's just the art for now.

[ashyybees-art]

One girl, one dream, no experience with sewing this kind of clothing, frame by frame screenshots only for reference, and less than a month to MacGyver together this cosplay 👀

(Only done this mock-up so far for the underdress to make adjustments for another)

[cinammonelles]

Okay now that I'm done reminiscing and being sad, I wanna remind y'all there's Zhuoming x Xuanwu forbidden yaoi writers at the Toilet Bulletin headquarters

[mejomonster]

I am finally properly reading the Guardian published english translation and. I am excited to get to the end of arc 1, which is as far as I've read in chinese, and more so a bit surprised I'm more eager for getting to Guo Changcheng's scenes.

[yilian0203]

"Isn't the moon so beautiful tonight?"

[talk-danmei-to-me]

Sneak Peek: How Bad Do You Want Me

Yes I have way too many fics on the go, but what if I wrote some past angsty Weilan smut with idol flavouring?

Shen Wei made a promise. Only once had he faltered, leading to unbearable consequences. There wasn’t enough wine in the world to make him forget the sight of Shen San’s lifeless body wrapped in sheets they’d once crumpled together. Someone who’d once been so dazzling has been robbed of his life from contact with his filthy self. Since that day he’d always managed to stay away. For hundreds and hundreds of years, no matter how much his loneliness taunted and tempted him to falter when his beloved was within arm’s reach. He’d watched so many lifetimes. Some happy, some less so. This was the first lifetime in which he’d shared his love for Kunlun with the nation. Through some strange twist of fate, Kunlun had become an idol named Kunlun.

Despite the dark humour, to be able to watch him publicly, to be able to share his love with others, made Shen Wei’s heart soar. He repeated his lies to himself, that this was safe, that nothing could go wrong, as he queued up to enter the concert. A fellow fan stood beside him, Shen Wei struggled to recall her name. They always seemed to bump into each other at concerts and always spoke at length about Kunlun’s many merits. Obviously, she didn’t appreciate Kunlun’s talents as much as Shen Wei, but it felt good to be able to talk about him. Humans always spoke of friends. This human fan of this Kunlun… she was the first friend Shen Wei made in millennia.

‘Shen Wei, you’ll never believe this, but I won tickets to meet Kunlun after the show!’

‘What?’      

Meet. Meet Kunlun. He couldn’t.

‘I entered a competition, I didn’t expect to win, but I did! Now I get to spend fifteen minutes with him before the show. I can ask him three questions and I get a signed photograph. Guess what the best part is?’ 

Shen Wei had no idea what could top spending fifteen minutes with Kunlun and so he remained silent.

‘I get to bring a friend!’ she grabbed him by the arm and shook him in her excitement.  

Shen Wei’s head spun. He was supposed to stay away. But then… this was a fan meet. Maybe meeting him as a fan in this life counted as some kind of loophole. Plus, with his friend beside him what could he possibly do? She would stop him breaking the rules and making a fool of himself. Having a chaperone didn’t stop his imagination instantly conjuring their reunion. His heart ached as he imagined wrapping his arm around Kunlun again for the photograph. He’d treasure the warmth of his skin through his thin performance clothes, hear his strong heartbeat, feel his breath hot against… Once dormant feelings of desire raged within him like a fire. The ancient memory of soft lips pressing against his own, of an explicit book that expressed his wants far better than words ever could, of a cabin surrounded by flowers filled with the sound of love-making.

The urge to dominate, to claw back the life that had been stolen from him, that he himself had stolen surged all the way to his fingertips. Shen Wei clenched his fists and swallowed it down. With an audience the size of an idol’s entourage, there was no way he would be able to act untoward.   

‘So… Do you want to come with me?’  

‘Yes!’ The word was out before he could supress it. His friend beamed, ‘Try to act a bit cooler when we see him, okay?’

[lungache]

one of the things that makes me feral about novel weilan is how completely and totally shen wei falls in love with zhao yunlan as a person. because yunlan having kunlun's soul was enough to guarantee shen wei's unwavering love and loyalty. but instead he found a man who was nothing like what he expected. a man who regularly surprised him, horrified him, and delighted him. a man who openly adored him and wanted him and who shen wei adored and wanted back. not as a god but as a lover who was incredibly human and incredibly special. zhao yunlan is wickedly smart, kind of a bastard, a little gross, so so so good, and everything shen wei didn't know he wanted.

[helle-bored]

A non-exhaustive list of weilan fics I’ve loved, for a truly diverse variety of reasons, in no particular order!

State of Matter by naye (~13k, T)

I am a simple soul who loves a) Shen Wei whump and b) hurt/comfort and c) hypothermia/huddling for warmth tropes and d) survival stories where characters get out of pants-shittingly bad situations via putting one foot in front of the other for way longer than they want to be doing that. This is a great fic for all of those things.

–

All-Consuming by ratbones (~119k, E)

Zombie AU! Everything about this fic is exquisite – the pacing, dialogue, descriptions, characterization – everything. Having already loved both the novel and drama versions of Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei before reading this, I think this fic is my favorite version of them. Also, I know a bunch of us like to good-naturedly poke fun at how baby!Shen Wei’s crush plays out in the drama, but this is a fic that absolutely sells the idea that Shen Wei would fall in love with Zhao Yunlan in basically one night. Fuck, I’d love him too! I kind of do! Feels like watching a very good zombie movie. Has A+ humor, interesting science, a wrenching penultimate chapter. Please read this and come yell at me about it! You can read it fandom-blind. 

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The Unexpected Legacy by FayJay (~84k, E)

Regency AU! Gorgeously written. One of the most scorching, horniest weilan fics I’ve read in terms of pent-up yearning, and that is a full compliment. I’m also a big fan of the climactic confrontation, which shows how much Zhao Yunlan cares about Shen Wei in a pretty visceral and unpleasant, typical fairytale way, something I enjoy because I am a sadist for that kind of horrifying devotion. One of my favorite Ye Zuns – he’s such a fantastic, complex, loveable brat. No twincest in the main fic, but if that’s your flavor you can also check out the sequels.

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Not All Those Who Wander by Xparrot (~23k, T) 

This one is a bit hard to describe. It’s like a… post-apocalyptic fairytale AU fix-it?, and the writing is beautiful. I love how it plays with the novel versions of Kunlun and a young Shen Wei. Kind of desolate and bittersweet, but hopeful too. 

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Day After Day | 日复一日 by hideyseek (~24k, T)

What do you say about a fic where the middle-aged original characters are still in your mind months later? Great timeloop casefic with a slowly unwinding mystery.

– 

Ghost Story by clevermanka (~90k, E)

Haunted house AU! I’m kind of a baby about haunted house stuff, and some parts of it toe the line of being too creepy for me – the slowly building malevolence has great atmosphere and is genuinely unpleasant in parts. Also really enjoyed the bizarre, earnest, kinky ghost sex, which by all accounts really shouldn’t work as well as it does. (Enthusiasm goes a long way when one of you is a ghost.) Has a proper gothic story arc that’s fitting for the fic as a whole. Also features a fantastic Zhu Hong who is saddled with way more bullshit than she deserves. I think about this fic a lot; it has a really strong sense of presence.

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Rapture by ratbones (~104k, M)

Cyberpunk AU! ratbones does it AGAIN with this fic. damn. This one feels a little less serious than All-Consuming and moves along at a faster pace that suits the glittering cyberpunk theme, but it still manages to cram in body horror and existential angst and just a lot of really lovely ways of looking at what it means to be human, without any of it ever dragging down the plot. I read it all on a 6-hour flight and may or may not have teared up over a robot – not that anything’s new about me crying about robots, but all the robots I’ve ever cried over have also been people, and so is Kunlun. Anyway. This is a fun romp that will probably NOT make anyone cry except for me, and it is another fic with an excellent Ye Zun. 

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Better, Safe (~5k, E) and Whipped (~3k, E) by clevermanka

I’m listing these together because they go together in my head – clevermanka has a handful of lovely short fics that are either outright kink or kink-leaning, and these two are my faves. I love reading stuff that digs into the easy give and take between the boys as they’re passing the baton of who’s in control back and forth, and what control looks like for both of them, and what ceding it looks like, and how they enjoy each other’s differences, and how courteous and careful they are with each other without it being awkward, like it’s just a built-in part of sex for them. Joyful and hot.

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Spiders Crawling by tinypinkmouse (~38k, E)

…Spider… AU... Look. Shen Wei is spiders. I have to include this because I have never ever in my life read anything else where the main love interest is spiders, and the mental image of Shen Wei getting so flustered about questions he doesn’t want to answer that he just spontaneously bursts into spiders feels perfectly in-character (and also weirdly adorable). I would not be able to stand this in real life, but Zhao Yunlan has a remarkable ability (canonical) to be cheerfully into some weird shit. Worth clicking on for the what-the-fuck factor, and then reading because you get unironically sucked into the concept of Shen Wei being spiders.

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The Coherence of Light by Xparrot (~3k, E)

Sometimes (all the time) I just want to read porn that's hot and funny and in-character. I could happily read a hundred fics just like this.

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Scorched Earth, Deep Ocean by margrave (~35k, E)

Omegaverse palace drama AU! Emperor Kunlun, secretly an omega, performs a series of political maneuvers to cement his position as an omega Emperor – as well as to recognize his new concubine Shen Wei, former general of the enemy kingdom of Dixing and war prize given away by the Dixing Emperor during peace negotiations, as a consort accepted by the court and father of any future legitimate heirs to the throne. I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had reading this one, considering the action primarily focuses around court politics. Bonus: Zhu Hong is GREAT. Absolutely love her. 

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unmoored by nanimono_da (~43k, M)

Post-canon fix-it! If you want something that dives really really deeply into the bodily experience of living through heavy grief, I actually think this does an uncomfortably good job of showing what than can be like. Reading it feels like treading water in the ocean when it’s raining and you can’t see the shore. Cathartic; draining. HURT/comfort. Has a happy ending. The illustrations are so, so pretty.

–

Echo by Absolutelytrash (~26k, T)

Post-canon AU! Technically unfinished, but it leaves off at a pretty satisfying spot imo. Zhao Yunlan is taken hostage in exchange for the Hallows. I find the psychology around the perpetrator to be absurdly fascinating and very well done. I also enjoyed(?) watching Zhao Yunlan’s disintegration as he’s tortured under circumstances he does not believe he will survive, and the impact that this experience has on him later on.

[ryin-silverfish]

In Investiture Of The Gods, there are three sects of Taoism right? What is the difference between all those sects and which does our protagonist (Jiang Ziya, Yang Jian, Nezha, Lei Zhenzi ect.) belong to?

Two major Daoist sects, plus a Buddhism expy in a Daoist trenchcoat.

Chan Sect:

The designated "protagonist faction" is the Chan Sect (阐教), led by Yuanshi Tianzun and Lao Tzu. Yuanshi's twelve disciples are known as the Twelve Immortals of the Chan Sect, or Chan 12 for short.

Most of the novel's iconic characters are disciples of the Chan 12 (Nezha, Yang Jian, Huang Tianhua, etc.), Chan-allied immortal (Leizhen Zi), or direct disciples of Yuanshi Tianzun (Jiang Ziya).

Their headquarter is the Jade Emptiness Palace on Mt. Kunlun, and most of their immortals dwell in mountain abodes.

They are also a tiny sect, at least compared to their rival, the Jie Sect: right before the Ten Thousand Immortal Formation Arc, Sage Randeng of the Chan Sect comments that the Jie had so many people, while theirs "could be counted on one hand".

This is likely related to their "quality over quantity" approach to admitting new disciples, which, to modern readers, often makes them come across as a bunch of elitist pricks who are at least a little prejudiced against yaoguais.

They are also very prone to using "Fate Says So" as the justification for...well, every plot thing that has to happen for plot reasons. In the war of Shang-Zhou transition, they assist the future Zhou dynasty's rebellion against King Zhou of Shang.

Yeah, they are very much the Rebels to the Shang's Empire, even though modern adaptations are much more comfortable making them the villains because of a combination of values dissonance and the author-compiler's Skill Issue.

Jie Sect:

The Jie Sect (截教), led by Patriarch Tongtian, are known for two things: their indiscriminate admission policy, and their massive size.

As a result, they will accept yaoguais, women, and the occasional horrible plague magic guy and cannibal into their ranks.

And even after their population gets decimated in the Ten Thousand Immortal Formation and 3000+ people get whisked away by Sage Jieyin of the Western Sect, there are still 200-300 people left at Patriarch Tongtian's side.

Tongtian has 4 senior disciples: Sage Duobao, Holy Mother of Golden Spirit, Holy Mother Wudang, and Holy Mother of Turtle Spirit. They seem to be less concerned with generations and master-disciple lineages, tho, because everyone else who has an "-Immortal" suffix to their Daoist names are just lumped together as one giant junior generation.

Most Jie immortals dwell on oceanic islands, and they'll often introduce themselves by the island they hail from——for example, "Luo Xuan of Fire Dragon Island". Their headquarter is Biyou Palace, which, unlike the Jade Emptiness Palace, is never specified to be on a particular mountain or island.

Aside from their eagerness to throw hands over supposed insults to their sect and avenge their friends/family members/sectmates, the Jie Sect is also known for their formations——think of it like a giant magical circle that can create certain effects within its AOE.

Like, if FSYY is an RTS game, the Jie Sect campaign AI will be constantly going "You must construct additional formations!"

Western Sect :

FSYY's Buddhism expy in a Daoist trenchcoat, probably because the author-compiler vaguely realizes that Buddhism isn't a thing in the Shang dynasty yet, even tho the novel doesn't care about historical accuracy in the slightest. Thus, the name "Western Sect" (西方教).

Even more so than the Chan Sect, the novel gives off the impression that the entire Western Sect consists of 2 people: Sage Zhunti (based on Bodhisattva Cundi) and Sage Jieyin (based on Amitabha).

Which suits their narrative role to a T: the powerhouses the Chan Sect calls in to deal with a giant roadblock, and the guys who show up to play Fengshenmon GO with defeated Jie immortals——literally.

Like, they just pop up when a Jie disciple, usually a yaoguai, is defeated and at the mercy of their opponents, say "This guy is destined for the West", then grab them and leave.

...Considering their entire sect comes off across as having only 2 people, maybe that's why they are so keen in their recruitment efforts.

Four members of the Chan 12——Ju Liusun, Wenshu, Puxian, and Cihang, are also said to become the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas they are expies of, which suggests that they join the later Buddhist pantheon that succeeds the Western Sect.

(Same for Sage Randeng of Chan Sect, who's based on the Dipamkara Buddha, though him joining the Western Sect post-FSYY is more like a popular fanon, since his future destiny is never spelled out by the narration like the aforementioned four.)

[dual-domination]

Guardian vol 3 Special Edition 💚💚💚

[ashyybees-art]

“My Xiao Wei~” 💙🖤

Teaser photos of my partner and I’s Guardian cosplays! 😉

[journeytothewestresearch]

Bad FSYY English translation

The four-volume Library of Chinese Classics bilingual edition of Creation/Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen yanyi, c. 1620) published in 2000 is the only full-length translation of the story available in English. I've had a PDF of the entire set archived on my external blog since May of 2020. It is serviceable for the general reader, but it is not great for hobbyist researchers like myself.

I'd like to provide an example showing how it is not very accurate and/or comprehensive. Chapter 12 describes how young Nezha inadvertently causes havoc in the underwater realm when washing himself in a river with a powerful magic sash. This eventually leads to Li Gen (李艮), a yaksha water-spirit soldier, to attack him with an ax. Gu Zhizhong's (2000) translation reads:

Nezha, naked and empty-handed, dodged the vicious blow, raised his Universal Ring and struck Li Gen on the head. How could the Yaksha withstand the magic weapon from Fairy Primordial! His skull broke open and he fell dead on the river bank (Gu, 2000, vol. 1, p. 239).

However, the full Chinese reads:

Standing there naked, Nezha dodged the advancing warrior's attack and upraised the Universal Ring in his right hand. This treasure was originally bestowed by the Jade Emptiness Palace of Mt. Kunlun to the Perfected Man of the Grand Monad to secure the items of his Golden Light Cave. How could the yaksha withstand the magic weapon as it struck downward on his head? His brains exploded from the blow, and he fell dead on the shore. 哪吒正赤身站立，見夜叉來得勇猛，將身躲過，把��手套的乾坤圈望空中一舉。此寶原係崑崙山玉虛宮所賜太乙真人鎮金光洞之物，夜叉那裏經得起，那寶打將下來，正落在夜叉頭上，只打的腦漿迸流，即死於岸上。 (I don't consider myself a translator, so please forgive any errors.)

You can see that quite a bit of information was left out. This happens throughout the entire novel. This makes me angrier the more that I think about. Why even bother to translate something if you are only going to paraphrase or even skip over passages? It seems like a pointless enterprise.

Source:

Gu, Z. (2000). Creation of the Gods (Vols. 1-4). Beijing: New World Press.

[yilian0203]

" 山有木兮木有枝,

心悅君兮 君不知。"

-越人歌-

[onekipo]

I found Season 6's mcguffin! maybe

So I was reading "The Monkey King: The Complete Odyssey" by Tsai Chaiko, which is an abridged graphic novel of JTTW. It was around the end of the book when something caught my eye. Wukong was talking to a Bodhisattva(I'm pretty sure its Lingqi, the same guy who helped the pilgrimage beat the demon who used strong wind to blind Wukong, but I could totally be mistaken).

The image is a bit crusty, but the gist of it was Wukong was hit by the Banana Leaf Fan and was sent flying to the home of the Bodhisattva. While there he learns, and I quote, "[the]Banana Leaf Fan is a marvelous treasure formed by the heavens and the earth during the separation of chaos behind the Kunlun Mountains."

And since Season 5, any mention of chaos has peaked my interested. And who owns the this super powerful weapon? Princess Iron Fan

What if Chaos and/or his followers are trying to find a new tool to break the barriers between the realms and chaos. Then what better choice then a weapon that was created by the earth(control) and chaos. Forcing DBK and PIF to fend them off, till PIF gives her fan to the one person who she trusts to keep it safe and believe is strong enough to wield it, her son. (And maybe add a little flashback scene to explain why DBK's family and Wukong went from "hey brother thanks saving my son too" to raging mortal enemies).

Even if that isn't the case, the fact that during the time chaos was separated from the earth(which in the show was because of Nuwa restoring the pillars), it left behind powerful creations that are a marvel to the realms. So what happens if this event didn't just create inanimate objects, but maybe living ones too. Like say a set of monkeys, both of which exist outside the norm, and one of them having a certain inclination to chaos magic.

Just food for thought, and please let me know if there are other objects mentioned in JTTW created similar to the fan.

[lungache]

The Guardian novel and the drama are VERY different but one thing I think they nail is how Shen Wei is, at his core, defined by his longing. This man has LONGED.

Longed to be free from what he was, to forge himself into something new. Longed for Kunlun, only to lose him. For his god's regard, his touch, his love, his LIFE. Longed for time with Shen San. Longed to be near to every reincarnation. Longed for personhood and connection. Longed to be something Kunlun might be proud of.

Longed for his brother, his didi, who was lost to him. Longed for meaningful connection with the people around him, but only found fear and detached respect. Longed for peace. Longed for Kunlun. Longed for reprieve from his crushing duty.

Every Shen Wei longed for Zhao Yunlan. Longed to never leave his side, to hold on and never let go. Longed to be honest with him. Longed to be remembered. Longed for the love and life Yunlan wanted to give him. Longed to spend the rest of time with him.

(But, in the end, he knew it was not meant to be. That he would never have what he truly wanted. So, he longed for peace and reprieve in death, foolishly thinking he was safe in the knowledge that his love would live on without him.)

[ryin-silverfish]

Are there any important tigers from mythology and Jttw/Fsyy? Like, the ones I remember are Shen Gongbao's mount and then the tiger of the west. Or characters in myths or folk stories?

Zhao Gongming's mount, a black tiger he tamed on his way to the Shang camp, is also an important part of his iconography.

Folk religion-wise, tiger mounts of various deities are also worshipped as an independent attendant deity, "Lord Tiger" (虎爷) in southern China and SEA.

In JTTW, there's Yellow Wind Demon's Tiger Vanguard. Y'know, the mini-boss who tears off his skin. That plot point actually comes from the earlier 大唐三藏取经诗话, except it's a white tiger spirit tearing off her human skin and transforming into her true tiger form.

Since this white tiger spirit appears right next to a giant skeleton, she might have been an inspiration for JTTW novel's White Bone Spirit.

There's also General Yin, who appears as part of the trio that forms Tripitaka's first demon encounter. He, as well as his bull yaoguai friend, are actually guests from an older folklore compendium, Taiping Guangji, though his earlier incarnation is a lot more friendly and cultured.

In the compendium, his friend joins a human scholar to drink and talk poetry, he also joined in later. They rapid-fired a bunch of obscure tiger and bull related references at each other, before the two yaoguais get into an argument, General Yin stormed out of the scholar's place, and the scholar found out their true identity next morning when he saw the hoofprints and paw marks on the ground.

Oh, and the Tiger Strength Immortal of Slow Cart Kingdom is the another notable tiger demon, I guess.

For tigers outside of vernacular novels:

In the regional mythology of the Ba-Shu region (Sichuan), the soul of Lord Lin (廪君), ancestor of the Ba people, is said to become a white tiger upon death. Soushen Ji also mentions Churen, weretigers who are descended from the same Lord Lin.

Many fantastic beasts in the Book of Mountains and Seas have tiger-like appearances. The man-eating Qiongqi, one of the Four Perils in other Qin-Han sources, is said to look like a winged tiger in this book.

The Zhi beast of Fuyu Mountain is a tiger with cow tail that barks like dogs and also eats people, and the Kaiming Beasts that guard Mt. Kunlun have nine human heads and the body of a tiger.

Lastly, Lu Wu, the divine beast that has human face, nine tails and the body of a tiger, is an official of the Heavenly Emperor in charge of his garden and the "Nine Bureaus of Heaven". Since it also resides on Mt. Kunlun, some scholars think it's the same as the aforementioned Kaiming Beasts.