violetlightning-and-summerstorms

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

me: oh look JC playing the xun. adorable.

me after a quick wiki search: "the sound of xun is also associated as the symbol of respectable hermits, lady in sorrow, or heroes at the end of their strength, and is considered the best instrument to perform a heartbreaking tone... The sound of xun represents a particular beauty, which combines with loneliness, desolate and elegance.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

Jiang Cheng vs. the torture allegations

i would like to discuss the following commonly-cited excerpt:

"Jiang Cheng had determined this man to be Wei Wuxian earlier, and the cold blood in his veins boiled. But now, the Zidian in his hand was clearly telling him that no, it wasn’t him. Zidian would never lie to him, nor would it ever make mistakes. He quickly calmed down to contemplate. This wasn’t a big deal. He would find an excuse to take the man back with him, then use every means possible to beat a confession out of him. Something would be spilled—there was no fear regarding that. He refused to believe the man would give nothing away. In any event, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done similar things before."

this passage is often cited as hard evidence that, in the past, jiang cheng had on multiple occasions tortured individuals suspected of being wei wuxian in order to extract a confession of them being wei wuxian. however, in my opinion, this passage actually does not serve as hard evidence of this theory.

imo, the only thing you can derive for certain from this passage is that, in this scene, jiang cheng plans on bringing "mo xuanyu" back to lotus pier and using force to extract a confession as to whether or not he is wei wuxian. however, the question of whether or not jiang cheng has performed this exact action with other people in the past is actually not answered with absolute certainty.

Action A: Jiang Cheng's planned course of action

the information about what jiang cheng is planning on doing is given by the following sentence:

[Jiang Cheng] would find an excuse to take the man back with him, then use every means possible to beat a confession out of him.

here, jiang cheng's planned course of action can be summarized as thus:

jiang cheng tortures an individual he believes to be wei wuxian, with the intention of extracting a confession that the individual is wei wuxian.

for convenience, let us call jiang cheng's planned course of action Action A. there are three separate components to Action A:

torture

with the intention of extracting a confession

that the suspect is wei wuxian.

Action A is defined as the above course of action. in order for an action to be Action A, it must include all 3 of the above listed components.

Did Jiang Cheng perform Action A in the past?

meanwhile, the theory that jiang cheng has performed this exact Action A in the past is implied by the following sentence:

In any event, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done similar things before.

if jiang cheng had performed this exact Action A in the past before, then i would expect the above relevant sentence to say "it wasn't like he hadn't done this before." however, this is not what the relevant sentence says. instead, it says "it wasn't like he hadn't done similar things before." why "similar things" （类似） instead of "this" （这样）? why not just directly say that jiang cheng had previously violently interrogated people on the suspicion of being wei wuxian, for the sake of extracting a confession that the individual was wei wuxian? the word choice of "similar things" is highly unusual.

the specific usage of the language "similar things," rather than terminology indicating indistinguishability such as "this" or "this exact action," implies a level of difference between jiang cheng's past actions and Action A. based on the breakdown of Action A given above, let's list what things "similar" to Action A could entail:

torturing people with some other objective (eg. as we see wei wuxian and jiang cheng do to wen chao and wen zhuliu during the sunshot campaign) (#1 only)

torturing people for information unrelated to wei wuxian (#1 and #2 only)

torturing people who are known not to be wei wuxian but are still associated with wei wuxian in some way (eg. demonic cultivators known not to be wei wuxian) (#1 and #3 only)

nonviolently interrogating people on matters unrelated to wei wuxian (#2 only)

nonviolently interrogating people as to whether or not they are wei wuxian (for example, by placing them in a room with a dog and watching their reaction) (#2 and #3 only)

using a method other than direct interrogation to discern whether or not a suspect is wei wuxian (#3 only)

furthermore, the word choice of "similar things" does not disavow the possibility that jiang cheng did perform the exact Action A in the past. therefore, it is also possible that jiang cheng did in fact torture individuals he suspected of being wei wuxian with the intention of extracting a confession that the individual was wei wuxian, and then, on top of this, also performed any number of the similar actions described above.

notably, the first item in the list (ie. torturing people with some other objective) is something we later see jiang cheng do onscreen. as we know, some time after the fall of lotus pier, jiang cheng and wei wuxian jointly torture wen chao and wen zhuliu to death. so it is entirely possible that this is the "similar things" that jiang cheng's internal narration is referring to, and the specific similarity to Action A is the torture aspect only.

"similar" does not mean "identical." the sentence "it wasn’t like he hadn’t done similar things before" does not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that jiang cheng has previously already performed Action A. instead, it merely allows for jiang cheng having previously performed Action A as one of several different possibilities.

that is to say, when jiang cheng says "it wasn't like he hadn't done similar things before," this could imply any of the following:

jiang cheng has previously tortured individuals he suspected of being wei wuxian (ie. Action A)

jiang cheng tortured captured wen soldiers for military intel during the sunshot campaign

jiang cheng tortures demonic cultivators he knows are not wei wuxian because he hates demonic cultivators that much

jiang cheng (and wei wuxian) tortured wen chao and wen zhuliu to death during the sunshot campaign

jiang cheng has used torture to deal with enemies of lotus pier

...and more

Action A is only one of several different possibilities. that jiang cheng has previously tortured individuals he suspected of being wei wuxian is not guaranteed.

Jiang Cheng's high confidence in his interrogation abilities

i would also like to draw attention to these lines:

Something would be spilled—there was no fear regarding that. He refused to believe the man would give nothing away.

now, as we know, being summoned into mo xuanyu's body 13 years after his death is the first time wei wuxian has returned to the world of the living since his death. this means that, between wei wuxian's death at the first siege of the burial mounds and wei wuxian awakening in mo xuanyu's body, no wei wuxian existed in the world of the living.

therefore, for the entirety of the 13 year timeskip, it would have been impossible for jiang cheng to have successfully captured and interrogated a confession out of a resurrected wei wuxian.

however, the above quoted lines indicate a high level of confidence that violent interrogation will result in a confession. why does jiang cheng say that he has "no fear" that "something would be spilled"? why does jiang cheng "refuse" to believe that mo xuanyu would "give nothing away"?

as we know from the rest of canon, jiang cheng is a rather cautious and conservative person; he does not make wild leaps of confidence unless he has experience and evidence backing them up. therefore, the fact that jiang cheng is now confident that his planned torture will be able to extract desired information makes it likely that jiang cheng has had some measure of success with extracting information in this manner in the past.

however, as stated above, it is impossible for jiang cheng to have successfully extracted an accurate confession of someone being wei wuxian resurrected in the past.

therefore, it is impossible for jiang cheng's high confidence in his interrogation abilities to have come from successfully torturing an accurate confession of identity out of a resurrected wei wuxian.

these are the most likely explanations for jiang cheng's confidence in his interrogation ability:

in the past, jiang cheng has successfully tortured people for information not relating to them potentially being wei wuxian resurrected.

in the past, jiang cheng captured and tortured people on the suspicion that they were wei wuxian resurrected; while none of them were wei wuxian resurrected, all of them ended up confessing information useful to jiang cheng in some other manner.

in the past, jiang cheng successfully extracted information from a suspect in a nonviolent manner. thus, jiang cheng believes that, because he was able to extract information nonviolently, it will be even easier for him to extract information if violence is also on the table.

in the past, jiang cheng had tortured a confession of "i am wei wuxian resurrected" out of one or more individuals; though these individuals were not actually wei wuxian resurrected, jiang cheng fully believed them to be wei wuxian resurrected.

the following theory:

during the 13 year timeskip, jiang cheng tortured multiple people on suspicion of being wei wuxian; however, each time, he found that the individual was not actually wei wuxian and thus derived nothing useful from the torture.

is highly unlikely. this is because, if the above theory actually had been the case, jiang cheng's present narration would not be this confident in his ability to extract information. instead, jiang cheng's present narration would logically instead convey a sense of desperation; instead of saying something confident like "something would be spilled - there was no fear in that," it would instead say "even though nothing had been spilled before, this time he would extract something."

Doylist reason #1: MXTX's sloppy writing

the above is all a watsonian analysis of the text, in that it engages with what is written on the page in solely an in-universe manner. however, we can also consider possible doylist reasons as to why the text is written the way it is.

the first doylist explanation, which is the one i find to be the most persuasive, is that MXTX does in fact intend for us to conclude that jiang cheng performed Action A multiple times in the past; in other words, that the rumors about him are true. when MXTX wrote the above passage, she fully intended it to be irrefutable evidence that jiang cheng had in fact performed Action A in the past.

then, the weird word choice of "similar things," as well as the other weirdness described above (and other scattered hints that the rumors are not fully accurate, plus the central themes of "don't believe in the rumors") are all writing flukes.

Doylist reason #2: thematic resonance

the second doylist explanation is that MXTX intends for the question of "did jiang cheng torture people he suspected of being wei wuxian" to be another instance of MDZS's core themes. as we all know, one of MDZS's main themes is that rumors are unreliable. instead of painting an accurate picture of a person's character and actions, rumors are instead exaggerated, reflect the fundamental biases of society, and are actively shaped by those with private agendas. this theme is demonstrated through wei wuxian's downfall in his first life.

therefore, as another avenue of conveying this same theme, MXTX introduces another case in which the rumors all say one thing but the truth is never fully depicted. MXTX writes MDZS such that all of the rumors say that jiang cheng tortures people on suspicion of being wei wuxian, but then makes the deliberate choice to never depict him actually doing this - in this manner, she can once again raise the question of just how rumors differ from reality. the question of "does jiang cheng torture people suspected of being wei wuxian" becomes a comprehension exam of the book's central themes: those who answer with certainty that he absolutely does and that there is no possibility that he does not have failed to grasp said themes.

this is all to say: writing a book that argues "do not blindly believe in the rumors," but then simultaneously makes the rumors about everyone except the main character unambiguously true, is a colossally stupid move. a book that actually did this would be protagonism dogshit.

——

Note: the above discussion concerns the quoted passage only. Imo, there are in fact other passages in MDZS that more strongly suggest that jiang cheng did perform Action A in the past. However, this post is not about those passages.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

I loved your discussion about JC and torturing demonic cultivators. I really can't see CQL JC doing it at least though there's an implication that he's killed some 😕 (they could have been dangerous though). I do think there's a scene in the book of him mercilessly whipping a guy who is obviously not possessed by WWX? Over and over. It really didn't fit his character. I might be misremembering.

I’m glad you liked it! The scene you mention is, if I’m remembering correctly, a woman who has never been to Lotus Pier reporting what some guy told her, and since third hand gossip not being a particularly reliable source of news is a reoccurring theme in the book I’m not really inclined to give that much weight.

I do think it’s much more likely for the book version of Jiang Cheng to be invested in stamping out demonic cultivation as a practice than the character in the show, because in the book, there’s a sense in which the existence of and harm done by demonic cultivation stems from his policy decisions. Wei Wuxian invented demonic cultivation while he was a member of the Jiang Clan, and was allowed to continue practicing it publicly because Jiang Cheng supported him. It’s his mess to clean up, in a way it really isn’t in the show, where Wen Ruohan has already recruited Xue Yang into his evil army back while Jiang Cheng is still cuddling rabbits in the Cloud Recesses.

We also do kind of know what book!Jiang Cheng’s opinions on torture are, at least in the Sunshot era. He doesn’t seem particularly enthused by the it, in that he asks why Wei Wuxian would bother torturing Wens to death, but he’s also willing to accept “I thought an easy death was too good for them” as an answer, which does not suggest a strong inherent moral opposition to the idea to me. And then he does probably help Wei Wuxian finish torturing Wen Chao to death, so! If he thinks the person in question is bad enough to deserve it he’s probably willing to go there, I’m just not sure “being a demonic cultivator” matches up with “lead a genocidal attack against my home, wiped out almost everyone I love, killed my parents, tortured and maimed me, kidnapped my brother, tortured him, and tried to kill him too” on the Jiang Cheng list of sins, or if it would have occurred to him to do anything more to him than he did to Wen Zhuliu if Wei Wuxian hadn’t been there. Although he may also have changed his opinion!  I do think it’s plausible that Yanli’s death and the circumstances surrounding it changed his perspective on that as it did on many other things.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

Cultural Influences in MDZS - Chapter One Part One

修炼/cultivation refers to meditation, practice of asceticism or cultivation practice (often encountered in Taoism) according to Wiktionary. Here is the Wikipedia section on physical cultivation in Taoism.

魔道祖师/The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (title of this work) refers to the “demonic/devil path”, which is divided into demons/devils as known in Chinese mythology, path as known as “principle” or “belief”, also meant to denote different paths of cultivation.

重生/Rebirth (title of this chapter) refers to the concept of reincarnation and rebirth common in Chinese spirituality, most of which is derived from Chinese Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. 

魏无羡/Wei Wuxian (courtesy name of main character) is translated to “no envies” in Chinese - I didn’t translate the surname since it’s the given name that has meaning. There is a reference to the concept of irshya in Buddhism, which is further elaborated upon in this article on jealousy and envy in Buddhism. In Chinese culture, names are gifts from parents to children, so special thought would have gone into finding a name that would suit Wei Wuxian - his parents would have hoped he could live a life free of the shackles of envy and covetousness, and this to some degree shows in his characterization in MDZS. The usage of courtesy names is linked to the Book of Rites.

乱葬岗/Burial Mounds (common use, literally translated to chaotic grave mound) is a specific term in Chinese used to describe a mass grave where bodies are not buried properly, where the sheer amount of unclaimed, unburied corpses becomes like a hill. In Chinese tradition, ancestors are venerated after their death as part of life after death beliefs linked to Buddhism and Confucianism.

修真界/cultivation world refers to cultivation as a way to build a path towards a desired outcome (in this case building spiritual abilities, spiritual energy, eventual immortality) - this is common in xianxia novels with roots in Qigong. 

仙侠/xianxia as mentioned above re: xianxia novel genre refers to the Taoist concept of gods (xian) and heroes (xia) which describes an individual who is brave, chivalrous, and righteous.

夷陵老祖/Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian’s title (conferred by others) refers to Yiling district, which is located in Hubei. Laozu can be translated as Grandmaster, but it refers to a founder of a cultivation path who is venerated as a semi-deity or legendary figure - Laozu is not a common title bestowed to just anyone. 

云��江氏/Yunmeng Jiang sect, 兰陵金氏/Lanling Jin sect, 姑苏蓝氏/Gusu Lan sect, 清河聂氏/Qinghe Nie sect have references to real life locations in China: Yunmeng is located in the Hubei Province, Lanling is in the Shandong Province, Qinghe is in Hebei, and Gusu is in Suzhou. 岐山温氏/Qishan Wen sect’s Qishan is in Shaanxi.

魏婴/Wei Ying as Wei Wuxian’s birth or given name can be translated to “child” or “childlike” (only the given name and not the surname is translated for the meaning), which might have some reference to Laozi’s Tao Te Ching where an excerpt references the childlike perception of nature. 

宗主/Sect Leader refers to sects as xianxia world organizations - here’s a fandom wiki for sects as a concept in general. 

白眼狼/white-eyed wolf refers to a derogatory term used in Chinese culture used to describe ungrateful people or ingrates.

魏某/Wei Wuxian referred to with a different suffix after his surname - in this context it is used in place of someone else’s given name to show dissatisfaction, but it can also be used in place of one’s own given name to refer to oneself with an intensified emotion like sarcasm, or to show politeness (according to Wiktionary). If you referred to yourself with this suffix, it is similar to lowering your status in comparison to the person you’re speaking to.

邪术/demonic cultivation, literally translated to crooked skill or ability - also can be translated to black magic, sorcery or dark art if you’re looking for phrases with western connotations for ease of understanding (according to Wiktionary).

现世报/karmic retribution within this lifetime refers to the Buddhist concept of karma and karma in other religions including Taoism.

阴虎符/Yin Tiger Seal refers to the notorious talisman/amulet that Wei Wuxian carries to channel and store resentful energy - the word 符 can be translated into talisman, seal, symbol, charm etc according to Wiktionary.

仙门之中/among cultivators, the 仙门 part of the phrase is translated directly to “god/immortal door”, but in this context it refers to “the way of doing things, school, sect, school of thought, tradition” according to Wiktionary.

修炼/cultivation refers to meditation, practice of asceticism or cultivation practice (often encountered in Taoism) according to Wiktionary. Here is the Wikipedia section on physical cultivation in Taoism.

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[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

I think sometimes people take Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning/Madam Yu/etc at face value, but Jiang Cheng has always been a very good cultivator? He's not as good as Wei Wuxian, but he's quite talented and works hard to make the most of his abilities. I just brush past this from his haters frothing at the mouth about how he's mediocre and not even sexy enough to capture the interest of all the straight women in the fandom, but I've been seeing this in some meta from people who actually do like him. He's good! That's the thing about Jiang Cheng, he doesn't actually have anything to feel insecure about from an objective standpoint. He's hot and talented and hardworking and a hypercompetent administrator and leader, and he is still, somehow, not enough.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

GENUINELY the only character who can maybe give Jiang Cheng a run for his money in the loss department is Song Lan, who shares the Jiang Cheng experiences of “entire sect wiped out in an act of petty revenge” and “uninformed subject of nonconsensual surgery that irreparably ruptured his remaining closest relationship.” He is spared the trauma of a beloved sibling dying in his arms, but he becomes a mute fierce corpse wandering alone instead of a highly respected sect leader with a beloved nephew, so I feel like it’s a wash.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

Crazy that one of the underlying takeaways from MDZS is that you should be punished for believing what people show you.

Jiang Cheng was never told anything about wwx's actions and repeatedly watched him break all his promises to him and YMJ (even after he, JC, gave up himself and YMJ for wwx, he did not receive the same in return from his own knowledge pool.) Yet, he is very suddenly expected to be remorseful and grateful when Wen Ning reveals the core transfer. The world JC lived in had these truths: WWX isn't helping to rebuild our home, training our disciples. He has become a drunk and is actively undermining the sect and what little authority I've been able to cultivate, which is devastating enough when I am the only young war hero/sect leader excluded from the great sects' sworn brotherhood allyship. When I (JC) try to find out why he's doing this and stop him, he brushes me off and makes light of it. I continue to tolerate it anyway because he's wwx and I love him. Then, instead of putting in the work he should be to save our people he turns around and saves the Wens, at great expense and danger not only to our sect but himself, as one of the only people I still have left. When I tell him he cannot have both he chooses them. I still make sure he knows he's loved and belongs with the Jiang (by bringing our sister to see him before her wedding) even though, by all accounts, he has foresaken us on what feels like a series of whims. Then, he kills our brother in law (he never gives me an explanation or excuse.) Then, when I and everyone he's pissed off confront him, he gets our sister killed, goes crazy, and is torn apart by his own ghosts. Somehow 13 years later after picking up all the pieces he left behind and raising the nephew he orphaned and rebuilding the sect he abandoned (alone) I am simultaneously expected to be remorseful for not being grateful to him all these years for something I never asked him to do or knew about, and which I was actively tricked into and repeatedly lied to about. In the adaptations where I don't immediately fall on my sword and punish myself in the epilogue (seclusion in CQL) the fanbase determines I am a terrible horrible person for it.

This post is also tangentially about Lan Xichen taking the heat for JGY's actions even in MXTX's writing (abandoned by LWJ at the height of his pain, entering seclusion.)

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

I feel like there's already been a post about this but I can't stop thinking about how Jiang Cheng just knows how to counter JGY's music in the temple and does it immediately and effortlessly, almost like he's been practicing for quite some time in case of a hypothetical fight against a powerful cultivator who is renowned for using guqin music in battle. I wonder why he would do such a thing

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

handmade natural LongQuanYinNi龙泉印泥 /longquan(dragon spring) red ink paste used for seals and stamps by chinese artist 山白shan bai （Soak it in water and the colour will not dissolve; burn it with fire and it will leave a mark）

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

Hi! ♥ As someone who's interested in (western) historical fashion, I think your blog is utterly wonderful. "The Untamed" introduced me to hanfu so I'm a newbie but could you maybe explain the men's hair to me? I've understood that the long hair + top knot look is a fantasy thing but how is the knot actually constructed? And what are those shield-like ornaments called – are they guans or is Google lying to me?

Hi, thanks for the question, and cool to hear that “The Untamed” introduced you to hanfu! ^^

I have a post specifically explaining traditional Chinese men’s hair here - please check it out! It contains a basic pictorial guide on how to construct the topknot, which is the best reference I’ve been able to find so far (perhaps @fouryearsofshades or @fate-magical-girls may have better references for how to create the men’s knot?). 

Regarding the “shield-like” ornaments – are you referring to the hair ornaments covering the knot, like in the photos above? If so, then yes - they are called Guan/冠. I have posts specifically on Guan here and here, so please check them out! You can also go through my “Guan” tag for all of my posts on the subject.  As you can probably tell, the Guan featured in the drama are more fantasy-like rather than being historically accurate.

Hope this helps! 

(“The Untamed” photos via)

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

just to be clear, my own position on the issue of post-sunshot yunmeng jiang is as follows:

post-sunshot yunmeng jiang was politically weak. yunmeng jiang - which had suffered the near-absolute massacre of all of its personnel, fought through an entire war, was occupied by the enemy for a significant period of time, was now led by a teenager with almost no political experience, and was now the sole great sect excluded from the alliance implied by the venerated triad - was weak in terms of manpower, available resources, and political position. yunmeng jiang was not "flourishing" after the sunshot campaign; the mere 2-4 years between the fall of lotus pier and wei wuxian's defection from yunmeng jiang does not provide enough time for yunmeng jiang to recover to a stable position from near-absolute annihilation and lengthy enemy occupation. the claim that [the draw of wei wuxian's demonic cultivation singlehandedly resurrected yunmeng jiang's manpower and political power] also does not make logical sense, because wei wuxian was not actually teaching anyone demonic cultivation.

by contrast, post-sunshot lanling jin was the strongest and most stable political entity in the cultivation world, given that lanling jin was the sole great sect still led by a politically experienced member of the previous generation instead of a teenager, given lanling jin's prewar levels of wealth, given that lanling jin did not suffer a direct attack by the wen like yunmeng jiang or gusu lan, and given lanling jin's relatively low levels of participation in the sunshot campaign.

post-sunshot yunmeng jiang could not have politically afforded to officially protect wei wuxian and the wen remnants after wei wuxian liberated said remnants from the jin-run qiongqi pass labor camp. officially shielding wei wuxian would entail keeping wei wuxian as the head disciple of yunmeng jiang; therefore, officially shielding wei wuxian would mean that the head disciple of yunmeng jiang attacked and killed members of lanling jin and other affiliated sects. this in turn would then entail yunmeng jiang making an enemy out of lanling jin. furthermore, given that public opinion was already turning against wei wuxian, and given lanling jin's ties to the other three great sects through the venerated triad sworn brotherhood, this in turn makes it highly likely that yunmeng jiang would end up standing against the rest of the entire cultivation world - which is not a situation the weakened yunmeng jiang could survive. in better-case scenarios, consequences of this could include yunmeng jiang paying massive restitutions to lanling jin and/or all the other sects whose members wei wuxian harmed; in the worst-case scenario, this would entail a second fall of lotus pier.

yunmeng jiang is a political entity made up of human beings. yunmeng jiang is not some shiny bauble that exists solely for jiang cheng's personal satisfaction; rather, it is an organization made up of human beings whose lives have moral value. to say "yunmeng jiang would be put into danger" is to say "the disciples of yunmeng jiang would be put into danger;" to say "yunmeng jiang would not survive" is to say "the disciples of yunmeng jiang would die."

a leader's first and foremost duty is to his own people. by the social contract theory, the people consent to give up a portion of their freedoms to the state in return for protection of their rights by the state; the state is afforded the authority to govern the people only through the agreement that the state in turn acts in the best interests of the people and their rights. jiang cheng's mandate to rule the disciples of yunmeng jiang as sect leader jiang, therefore, is derived from the mutual understanding that he act first and foremost in their best interest - that he put their safety and their wellbeing above all else. while an individual hero is free to choose a moral framework that does not center consequences as the source of moral judgment, a leader instead is duty-bound consider the consequences for his people. if jiang cheng had yunmeng jiang side with wei wuxian despite the danger this would put yunmeng jiang into, and/or if jiang cheng left yunmeng jiang to stand alone with wei wuxian, then he would be abandoning his duty as sect leader jiang to protect his people.

both wei wuxian and jiang cheng understood all of the above. when jiang cheng goes to confront wei wuxian in the burial mounds after wei wuxians' attack on the qiongqi pass labor camp - a situation in which jiang cheng has no reason to be dishonest - jiang cheng does not call the wen remnants evil or say that they deserve to die. rather, he says that "if you insist on protecting them, then i cannot protect you" - to which wei wuxian replies that, in that case, jiang cheng should let him go. this specific word choice implies that what stops jiang cheng from siding with wei wuxian is not hatred of the wen remnants alone, but rather the knowledge that he does not have the power to successfully protect wei wuxian and yunmeng jiang if wei wuxian insists on protecting the wen remnants. jiang cheng's words are an admission of his own lack of power, not his hatred.

i believe that multiple interpretations of the text are possible, as is the case with almost all fiction. the above is my own interpretation of the text and what i believe the text most logically implies.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

if yes, whether he succeeds or not is a different question

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

The Sword of Goujian was found in 1965 in Hubei, China. Cast in tin bronze, it is renowned for its unusual sharpness and resistance to tarnish rarely seen in artifacts so old. This historical artifact of ancient China is currently in the possession of the Hubei Provincial Museum.

The sword was found sheathed in a wooden scabbard finished in black lacquer. The scabbard had an almost air-tight fit with the sword body. Unsheathing the sword revealed an untarnished blade, despite the tomb being soaked in underground water for over 2,000 years.

Spring and Autumn period (771 to 476 BCE)

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

reread a lot of mdzs while going through the book for quotes recently, and wow jiang cheng really does not show his love through his words at all. somehow everything he says is acerbic, cruel, or both.

but then you look at jiang cheng's actions instead, and it turns out this guy's actually busting his ass really hard for his loved ones? wei wuxian gets beaten by gusu lan, and jiang cheng carries him back. wei wuxian and lan wangji get trapped in the murder turtle cave, and jiang cheng runs for seven days without rest to rescue them. jiang cheng and jiang yanli secretly visit wei wuxian in yiling. helicopter-parent jiang cheng goes charging up dafan mountain the moment jin ling sends a distress signal flare. jiang cheng goes running after jin ling whenever he gets into trouble. when jin ling cries, he cries to jiang cheng. and - of course - jiang cheng only got his core melted in the first place because he led the wen patrol away to save wei wuxian.

what's interesting is that, whenever jiang cheng is saying or doing something cruel, the narration always adds a few extra sentences describing how cruel jiang cheng is being. an aside about sect leader jiang's infamous ruthlessness, wei wuxian's snarky commentary about how jiang cheng can never let a grievance go, or just a description of the vicious sneer twisting jiang cheng's face - the narration never just lets jiang cheng's actions or words stand on their own.

however, whenever jiang cheng does something kind, the narration does not comment on it at all. it merely describes what jiang cheng did before moving on immediately. almost as if we aren't meant to take note at all.

[violetlightning-and-summerstorms]

chinese xiuqiu绣球(embroidered silk ball) (credit as watermark)