#YunmengJiang Sect Leader

[zimtameise]

“… You said I’d be the sect leader and you’d be my subordinate, you said you’d help me your whole life, you said you’d never betray the YunmengJiang Sect… You said so yourself.” (Ch. 102)

#jiang cheng #modao zushi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #魔道祖师 #mdzs #zimtameise art #zimtameise danmei

[mxtxfanatic]

Fandom Gripe #22: I wish the novel fandom would stop ascribing to Jiang Cheng things that he did not do (at least not alone) to make his character seem like some outstanding model citizen who pulled himself up by his bootstraps instead of the rotten product of wealth and nepotism that he is.

No, Jiang Cheng did not rebuild Lotus Pier on his own. In fact, Lotus Pier didn't need to be rebuilt at all because it was never destroyed. Wen Chao was using it as his supervision office, which is why Wang Lingjiao showed up in the first place:

Wang LingJiao spoke in a tender voice, “Young Master Wen, congratulations for moving into Lotus Pier.” Wen Chao, “What Lotus Pier? Change the name. Bring down any door carved with the nine-petaled lotus crest and replace them with those with the QishanWen Sect’s sun crest! JiaoJiao, come dance for me your best song!”

—Chapt. 59: Poisons, exr

If anything, any "rebuilding" that was done happened after Wei Wuxian defected, as Jiang Cheng remade Lotus Pier to be more extravagant than it originally was:

It was perhaps because too many places had been renewed. The training field was two times larger. Each new building seemed to be taller than the previous, adorned with curving roof decor. It seemed grander than before and had more splendor. But, compared to the Lotus Pier of his memories, it had changed too much. Wei WuXian felt a sense of loss from deep within. He didn’t know whether the old buildings from the past were blocked behind these impressive new buildings or if they were torn down already.

—Chapt. 85: Loyalty, exr

No, Jiang Cheng did not recruit new disciples on his own. He was recruiting on his own during the war for the 3 months that Wei Wuxian had been trapped in the Burial Mounds, as per Wang Lingjiao's musings:

...leaving only Jiang Cheng, who was younger than even Lan XiChen and was still a child born yesterday, who had nobody in his hands but still dared call himself sect leader, holding up the banner of rebellion as he recruited new disciples.

—Chapt. 60: Poisons, exr

But after Wei Wuxian returned, Wei Wuxian had a large hand in disciple recruitment, specifically because of the interest his ghost path garnered amongst cultivators at banquets where they were recruiting, such as the Phoenix Mountain Hunt:

One of the sect leaders spoke in a sour tone, “This time, Lotus Pier is really the center of the show. Almost all of the spirits and corpses were summoned to the YunmengJiang Sect’s grounds. There’d definitely be a number of cultivators interested in them.” ... Someone sneered, “Huh? Interested in them? I don’t think so. To put it simply, they’re interested in Wei WuXian, aren’t they? Didn’t the YunmengJiang Sect grow in fame during the Sunshot Campaign only because of Wei WuXian?”

—Chapt. 70: Departure, exr

Despite the above quote being gossip from jealous cultivators, we know this to be true because after Wei Wuxian defects, cultivators begin to flock to the Burial Mounds to ask to be his disciples, still:

After he found himself in the limelight during a few night-hunts, there really were quite a few people who came for him, hoping that they could be accepted by the ‘patriarch’ and become one of his disciples. The mountains that used to be so deserted suddenly became crowded. None of the fierce corpses Wei WuXian set up on patrol down the mountain would attack on their own. At most, they’d send the person flying and roar their throats out. Nobody got hurt, and so more and more people gathered down Burial Mound.

—Chapt. 75: Distance, exr

No, Jiang Cheng did not raise Jin Ling on his own. First off, Jin Ling is the heir to the Jin Clan, so him being raised wholly by Jiang Cheng would make absolutely no sense. Which is why nowhere does the novel say this happens; Jin Ling spends his time split between Lanling and Lotus Pier:

When Jin Ling was young, he was brought up by two sects. He lived at the LanlingJin Sect’s Jinlin Tower half the time, and the YunmengJiang Sect’s Lotus Pier the other half, so he should be carrying belongings from both sects.

—Chapt. 38: Grasses, exr

(However—and this is just my conjecture—I doubt the overtly homophobic and sexist Jiang Cheng would personally go about changing the diapers of a child who only knew him to be merciless and cold:

From the beginning of his memory until now, Jin Ling had never seen such a look on Jiang Cheng’s face before. This uncle of his who led the prominent YunmengJiang Sect ever since a young age had always been cold and dark. When he spoke, he was willing to neither show mercy nor do good.

—Chapt. 23: Malice, exr

Rich people have servants for a reason.)

No, Jiang Cheng does not spend his time helping the people of Yunmeng. He really does spend a good deal of his time fobbing off his duty to the people (not unusual for a large sect) in favor of hunting down and torturing people (very unusual, the reason why his citizens prefer to pray to gods) who either had the surname Wen or that he suspected of either being possessed by Wei Wuxian because they remind him of the latter, which extends to people who use his inventions:

Jiang Cheng spoke grimly, “Break his legs? Haven’t I told you? If you see this sort of evil and crooked practice, kill the cultivator and feed him to your dogs!”

—Chapt. 7: Arrogance, exr

Zidian definitely wouldn’t deceive [Jiang Cheng] or make a mistake, so he quickly calmed himself and thought, this doesn’t mean anything. I should first find an excuse to take him back and use every possible method to get information out of him. It’s impossible for him to not confess anything or give himself away. I’ve done things like this in the past anyways. After thinking it through, he made a gesture. The disciples understood his intention and came over.

—Chapt. 10: Arrogance, exr

The owner, “Young Masters, you’re not from Yunping City so you don’t know. The Jiang Sect is responsible for all of us along the Yunmeng area. The Sect Leader’s got quite a bad temper. It’s almost frightening. His subordinate’s said so a long time ago. Only one sect is in charge of such a large area. Each day, there are almost a hundred cases of small ghosts or other creatures pulling pranks on the living and all that. If every single small thing had to be dealt with immediately, would there be enough time and energy? Those that don’t kill anyone aren’t malign spirits, and we’re not supposed to disturb them with trivial matters that aren’t malign spirits.” She complained, “What is this supposed to mean? Wouldn’t it be too late if we waited until somebody’s died to find them?!” ... The owner continued, “On top of that, Lotus Pier is truly a scary place. How would anyone dare go there again?��� Wei WuXian moved his gaze from Lan WangJi’s calm face with a short pause of surprise, “Lotus Pier is scary? How could Lotus Pier be scary? You’ve been there?” The owner, “I haven’t been there myself, but I know someone who went because his house was being badly haunted. But it was all bad luck. That Sect Leader Jiang was cracking a glowing whip right on the training field. The victim’s flesh and blood flew as high as his screams! A servant secretly informed him that the sect leader caught the wrong person again, that he hadn’t been in a great mood, and that he definitely shouldn’t be irritated in any way. He was so scared that he dropped off the gifts he brought and fled at once. He never dared visit again.” Wei WuXian had long since heard of how Jiang Cheng had been searching for cultivators of the ghost path who seemed like they seized another’s body, taking all of them into Lotus Pier to be tortured and questioned. The owner’s friend probably just happened to have ran into him when he was letting off steam. It wasn’t hard to imagine how hideous Jiang Cheng would’ve looked, so no wonder a normal person would make a run for it. ... The owner, “No, no. It was his misfortune. The person’s surname was Wen, and that Sect Leader Jiang’s archenemy happened to have the surname of Wen as well. He’s hating on everyone in this world whose surname is Wen. Whenever he sees one, he’d grind his teeth in hatred, wanting to skin them alive. How could he give a single friendly look to...”

—Chapt. 92: Longing, exr

The time he isn't spending hunting down people to torture, he uses to trail after Jin Ling on nighthunts to make sure nothing happens to him.

Wei WuXian, “Huh? Jiang Cheng? How did you run into him while night-hunting?” Lan SiZhui, “We invited Young Master Jin to join our night- hunt last time, so...” Wei WuXian immediately understood. One could even guess that while Lan SiZhui led the group in the night-hunt, Wen Ning naturally wouldn’t be idle either. He must’ve followed them in the dark to protect them, so that he could provide assistance when they encounter danger during the night-hunt. Jiang Cheng must’ve been sneaking behind Jin Ling as well, scared something would happen to him again.

—Chapt. 116: Banquet Extra, exr

Any other "single jiujiu!jc who don't need no man!" fanon I'm missing?

#human gripes at fandom #mdzs #feel free to add any quotes i forgot #but quite honestly some things are said too often #for it to make sense to add every quote #i'm not adding every 'jc tortures people' quote #i also gave up on every 'jc trails after jin ling' quote #because in the entire story the only time jin ling is not with jc #is when they get into an argument and jin ling runs away #for someone who is incapable of showing any sort of affection to his own nephew #jc is surprisingly a helicopter parent

[spriteofmushrooms]

In-Universe RPF Tropes, with thanks to anon for making me think about this constantly:

Lan sect: A lot of Jiang-zongzhu emoting vivaciously. Zidian sparks when JC has Feelings. Situational bondage the Lan disciple has no control over so it's not their fault. "Damn your rules!!" is said in every single book.

Jiang sect: Daddy-zongzhu is so proud of you OR mommy-zongzhu loves you the most but shh don't tell the other disciples OR sect leader is disappointed and must teach you a lesson (sexily) OR shixiong-shidi porn. Lots of hugs and crying regardless.

Nie sect: Bonding through hunting down demonic cultivators together, showing off each other's cultivation strength, and then the big strong Nie disciple holds Jiang Cheng while he cries.

Jin sect: Uncouth hillbilly YunmengJiang trope reigns supreme. He's poor and unmannered, but you, Jin So-and-so, could definitely teach him how to behave.

Non-cultivators: Oh no! Sandu Shengshou is here, and he insists you're a demonic cultivator! There's only one way to prove you're not one...!!

#pallas.rtf #mdzs #my posts get worse Every Day #you know what. this one belongs in the tag #canon jiang cheng

[add1ctedt0you]

From this:

The most laughable one was the YunmengJiang Sect, the people of which either had been killed or had scattered, leaving only Jiang Cheng, who was younger than even Lan XiChen and was still a child born yesterday, who had nobody in his hands but still dared call himself sect leader, holding up the banner of rebellion as he recruited new disciples.

To this:

No matter which clan you chose to offend, you shouldn't offend the Jiang clan. No matter which person you chose to offend, you shouldn't offend Jiang Cheng

#That's so sexy of him #Someone one time wrote 'the impossible killed two of the jiang siblings leaving alone jc because he was the only one who could have #Managed that' #And it lives rent free in my head #I am always impressed when people criticized jc's skills in this even saying that others would do better #Love that for him #I wanted to collect all jc's moments being a good sect leader but I am lazy lol #Once again there's difference between having anger issue and being irrational/irresponsible lmaoo

[jiangchengneedstherapy]

So, looks like I've been blocked for saying Jiang Cheng's people were scared of him to ask him for help on the post about his 'good leadership' skill in Canon Jiang Cheng tag, I'm sorry I assumed that was up for discussion and I really was genuinely meaning for a discussion, and also @labyrynth I did get your notification of asking for source. The two main sources are "Arrogance (5)" and "Longing (3)" In Arrogance, we get Jiang Cheng's thought process highlighting that yes, he's captured people before even if zidian told him they were not body snatchers, the main crime he was capturing them under. A moment ago, Jiang Cheng was certain that this person was Wei WuXian, and all of the blood in his body started to boil. Yet, now, Zidian was clearly telling him that he wasn't. Zidian definitely wouldn't deceive him or make a mistake, so he quickly calmed himself and thought, this doesn't mean anything. I should first find an excuse to take him back and use every possible method to get information out of him. It's impossible for him to not confess anything or give himself away. I've done things like this in the past anyways. After thinking it through, he made a gesture. The disciples understood his intention and came over.

The disciples are long used to it, that's further highlighted in "Malice (1)"

The owner was getting ready to close the shop for the night. Suddenly, seeing that a fancy-clothed, dark-faced young man kicked open the door and walked inside with someone in his hand, appearing as if he was going to disembowel the victim right here, the owner was so frightened that he couldn't speak. A disciple went up and whispered a few things in his ear. With some silver pushedinto his hands, he quickly fled to the back of the hall and never came out again. Without any further instructions, the Jiang Sect's disciples instantly spread out from the inside to the outside, making it so that nothing could enter or escape the place.

Of course the rumors will spread, the people are scared but no one interferes, how can they? The disciples are even used to giving money and making sure no one else can enter/no one can escape, even when they know zidian confirmed that he's not possessed. And then in "Longing" The owner, "That I'm not so sure about. Anyways, the temple's quite popular. In Yunping City, no matter what someone runs into, we'd all go there and pray for the Guanyin's protection. I sometimes go there and light a few sticks of incense too."

Wei WuXian asked, "Then why don't you go find the cultivational sect that's in charge of this region?" He only remembered after he asked. Wasn't the cultivational sect in charge of this region precisely the YunmengJiang Sect.

Yet, the owner curled her lips, "Go find them? How dare we?"

Wei WuXian, "Oh? Why not?"

The owner, "Young Masters, you're not from Yunping City so you don't know. The Jiang Sect is responsible for all of us along the Yunmeng area. The Sect Leader's got quite a bad temper. It's almost frightening. His subordinate's said so a long time ago. Only one sect is in charge of such a large area. Each day, there are almost a hundred cases of small ghosts or other creatures pulling pranks on the living and all that. If every single small thing had to be dealt with immediately, would there be enough time and energy? Those that don't kill anyone aren't malign spirits, and we're not supposed to disturb them with trivial matters that aren't malign spirits." She complained, "What is this supposed to mean? Wouldn't it be too late if we waited until somebody's died to find them?!"

In truth, to refuse to act unless it was a malign spirit was a silently agreed rule that all of the larger sects followed. Although 'to be wherever the chaos is' was praised by many, the only person who really followed this was Lan WangJi, the one beside him right now.

The owner continued, "On top of that, Lotus Pier is truly a scary place. How would anyone dare go there again?"

Wei WuXian moved his gaze from Lan WangJi's calm face with a short pause of surprise, "Lotus Pier is scary? How could Lotus Pier be scary? You've been there?"

The owner, "I haven't been there myself, but I know someone who went because his house was being badly haunted. But it was all bad luck. That Sect Leader Jiang was cracking a glowing whip right on the training field. The victim's flesh and blood flew as high as his screams! A servant secretly informed him that the sect leader caught the wrong person again, that he hadn't been in a great mood, and that he definitely shouldn't be irritated in any way. He was so scared that he dropped off the gifts he brought and fled at once.

He never dared visit again."

Here Jiang Cheng is highlighted as no different than other sects who don't help until someones dead, its common in their society to have little care for the locals but add his torturing habits on top, who would risk asking for help when they could be the next ‘wwx come back from the dead'? So what if zidian confirms they’re not? Sect Leader Jiang will do as he pleases.

I’ve seen this get dismissed as rumors a lot, but its not just rumors, if his thought process confirms it, if his disciples are long used to taking action around it, when his people walked in on it happening, and when they're long used to praying in the Guanyin temple for help than to approach him afraid of his temper.

#mdzs #canon jiang cheng #points #jiang cheng

[incarnadinedreams]

This isn't really new, but it's actually really interesting to me what a sticking point the 'enemy of the cultivation world' line is for people who have a less favorable interpretation of Jiang Cheng's character.

When I first read the novel, it honestly just seemed obvious to me that it was part of The Plan with their staged falling out/defection from the Yunmeng Jiang clan. Whether it was a good or likely to succeed long-term plan or not is up for debate, but considering that we know the entire duel and 'falling out' was staged, I thought it was a given that was just part of it.

So I was actually pretty surprised to see so many people adamant that even if the duel was staged, that statement was a specific lie/betrayal on Jiang Cheng's part. Because of the duel/defection situation being generally light on description in the novel, there's not enough detail to say conclusively and definitely either way.

The first time we hear about the 'enemy of the cultivation world' declaration is actually in the prologue, where some dude is telling the "citation needed" summary version of the Yiling Patriarch's life story (7S version):

"[...] The former Jiang sect leader raised him like his own son, eh? But look at him: publicly defecting from the clan, making himself an enemy of the world. He’s embarrassed the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng utterly and almost doomed them to the same fate of extermination. [...]"

Of course it's not until the end of ch. 73 that we really know the circumstances of this defection. Where the duel is described the style of narration shifts noticeably to that very detached, third-party narration, the tone shift that indicates throughout the novel that this is the story the public believes.

The ExR translation phrases it this way:

They fought quite a fight in Yiling. Negotiations failed. Both resorted to violence.

Under Wei WuXian's command, the fierce corpse Wen Ning struck Jiang Cheng once, breaking one of his arms. Jiang Cheng stabbed Wei WuXian once. Both sides suffered losses. Each spat out a mouthful of blood and left cursing the other. They had finally fallen out with each other.

After the fight, Jiang Cheng told the outside that Wei WuXian defected from the sect and was an enemy to the entire cultivation world. The YunmengJiang Sect had already cast him out. From then on, no ties remained between them—a clear line was drawn. Henceforth, no matter what he did, they'd have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect!

The official translation from 7S makes it even clearer that this is the 'what the public is meant to believe' type of thing by formatting it this way (including the italics):

Following the duel, Jiang Cheng made this public statement: "Wei Wuxian has defected from our clan and become a public enemy. The Jiang Clan of Yunmeng expelled him and has broken all ties with him, drawing a clear line between his deeds and our own. No matter what this man does going forward, his actions have nothing to do with the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng!"

Whether it's a verbatim quote or not doesn't particularly matter for my interpretation (I don't particularly doubt the statement itself happened), but I would be interested in how it's presented originally; unfortunately I can't read it, so as always there's the 'going off translations' caveat here.

Immediately in the next chapter we see the aftermath of the duel and Wei Wuxian's nonchalant attitude to it, and then later in ch. 75, when Jiang Cheng brings Jiang Yanli to visit Yiling and show off her wedding robes and she reveals he suggested she have Wei Wuxian pick her son's courtesy name.

That's where we really realize just how staged it was (bolding mine):

Jiang Cheng raised up his bowl, "To the YiLing Patriarch."

Hearing this, Wei WuXian remembered the proudly fluttering banner again. All that was in his head was the ten golden words ''all hail the supreme Lord of Evil Patriarch of YiLing', "Shut up!"

After he drank a mouthful, Jiang Cheng spoke, "How's your wound from last time?"

Wei WuXian, "It healed a long time ago."

Jiang Cheng, "Mn." With a pause, he continued, "How many days?"

Wei WuXian, "Less than seven. I told you before. With Wen Qing, it was nothing difficult. But you really did fucking stab me."

Jiang Cheng ate a piece of lotus root, "You were the one who smashed my arm first. You took seven days, while I had to hang my arm up for an entire month."

Wei WuXian grinned, "How could it seem realistic if it wasn't hard enough? It was your left hand anyways. It didn't hinder you from writing. It takes a hundred days to heal a wound to the bone. It wouldn't be too much even if you hung it up for three months."

[...]

Before they parted, Jiang Cheng spoke, "We won't see you off. It wouldn't be good if someone saw us."

Wei WuXian nodded. He understood that it wasn't easy for the Jiang siblings to have come out here. If someone else saw them, all those things they did for the public to believe would be wasted. He spoke, "We'll go first."

We don't actually know, exactly, to the letter, what the plan was. Everything after Wei Wuxian says they could cut ties to protect the Jiang sect and Jiang Cheng saying they should have a duel is very light on the actual details.

Even with that wiggle room, I just don't buy the interpretation that the 'enemy of the cultivation world'/'public enemy' line was some extra betrayal behind Wei Wuxian's back, totally unknown to him, some sort of sneaky move meant to simply make everyone hate him even more for no reason.

They were clearly concerned with the possibility that nobody would truly believe that they'd actually fallen out, and felt they needed to go to fairly extreme lengths to sell this story to the public. While there were definitely some hurt feelings (on both sides) at this point, there was definitely still some hope that things would work out in the end, somehow.

I think this part of the novel works better with them both clinging to a thread of tenuous hope, a desperate last-ditch effort to somehow figure out a way to keep both the Yunmeng Jiang sect and the Wens safe because neither one of them can back down but neither can really let go yet.

If anything I'd say it would be a bit weird to take the public statement made after an event we know is staged to deceive the public... and assuming that for some reason, that specific line of it should just be taken at face value.

As with many aspects of the novel, the public story and what actually happened are just not the same thing.

#jiang cheng #yunmeng shuangjie things #thinking too much about jiang cheng yet again #just me getting tilted at reddit discussions at 4 in the morning again #salty about being told I'm stupid and have no reading comprehension (again) lol #whatever I'm having more fun interpreting it my way!

[kenmascat]

jiang cheng's role and involvement in the burial mounds siege against wei wuxian and how he is directly responsible for it, a mini thread :

quotes from the unedited mdzs translation by exiled rebel translations which clearly state he was the very reason behind the burial mounds siege success to kill wei wuxian

chapter 1, prologue

“But, if not for Jiang Cheng making a plan that aimed at Wei WuXian’s weaknesses, the siege might not have succeeded. Should I remind you folks of the item that Wei WuXian possesses? Did you forget about the day that three thousand skilled cultivators were completely annihilated?”

chapter 43 -

After a moment of silence, Wei WuXian asked again, “What else have you heard?”

Wen Ning whispered, “Sect Leader Jiang, Jiang Cheng, brought a siege upon the Burial Mounds. And he killed you.”

Wei WuXian, “I’ll have to clarify this one. He didn’t kill me. I died from a backfire.”

(note how he doesn't defend the statement that jc brought the siege upon burial mounds, but only about the fact that he didn't directly kill him)

Chapter 68 -

Back then, during the first siege of Burial Mound, Jin GuangShan led the LanlingJin Sect, while Jiang Cheng led the YunmengJiang Sect; Lan QiRen led the GusuLan Sect, while Nie MingJue led the QingheNie Sect. The former two were the main forces, the latter two could’ve gone without. Now, the LanlingJin Sect’s leader hadn’t arrived at, having only sent people for the GusuLan Sect to command; the GusuLan Sect was still led by Lan QiRen; Nie HuaiSang replaced his brother’s position, shrunken within the crowd, his face still full of ‘I don’t know about anything’, ‘I don’t want to do anything’, and ‘I’m just here for the numbers’.

Chapter 104 -

(In the GuanYin temple scene, JGY himself says that if not for jc, things wouldn't have become what they were, implying he was a main factor behind the burial mounds siege)

Jin GuangYao wasn't swayed, continu- ing with a smile, "... Back then, the Lan- lingJin Sect, the QingheNie Sect, and the Gusulan Sect had already finished fighting over the biggest share. The rest co- uld only get some small shrimps. You, on the other hand, had just rebuilt Lotus Pier and behind you was the YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian, the danger of whom was immeasurable. Do you think the other sects would like to see a young sect leader who was so advantaged? Luckily, you didn't seem to be on good terms with your shixiong, and since everyone thought there was an opportunity, of course they'd add fuels to your fire if they could. No matter what, to weaken the YunmengJiang Sect was to stren- gthen themselves. Sect Leader Jiang, if only your attitude towards your shixiong was just a bit better, showing everyone that your bond was too strong to be bro- ken for them to have a chance, or if you exhibited just a bit more tolerance after what happened, things wouldn't have become what they were. Oh, speaking of it, you were also a main force of the siege at Burial Mound..."

all this clearly indicates Jiang Cheng played as the main force at the siege at burial mound against wei wuxian. If there's anything else I missed please feel free to add in.

Edit (22nd July 23')

adding this comment by @jiangchenganalysis

a great addition to the post, thankyou so much.

Another addition by me :

In ch72 (EXR translation)

wei wuxian finds that wens are being put in concentration camps, and that wen ning died, after learning about this he attacks the guards and frees the wens from them.

Following up, in the next chapter, there is a meeting at jinlintai with many sect leaders and people present, wei wuxian's topic is brought up and how he attacked the guards Jin's question Jiang Cheng who was present there about it, he apologized and said wwx's actions were too much and said they (wwx and jc) owe them for helping them during the sunshot campaign.

Then there is this -

Nie MingJue, “You owe them gratitude? Isn’t the QishanWen Sect the ones who caused the YunmengJiang Sect’s annihilation?”

Within these few years, Jiang Cheng insisted on working late into the night every day. That day, just as he decided to rest early, he had to rush to Koi Tower overnight because of the thundering news. He’d been suppressing some anger under his fatigue since the beginning. With his natural competitiveness, he was already quite agitated since he had to apologize to other people. When he heard Nie MingJue mention the incident of his sect again, hatred sprouted within him.

The hatred was directed at not only everyone who was seated in this room, but also Wei WuXian.

(ch73)

During this meeting be never once defended wei wuxian (only lan wangji and mianmian did) and he agreed with Jgy when he was badmouthing wei wuxian.

This also shows that he did not step in at a crucial time where everyone was against wei wuxian and all the hostility lead to the nightless city massacre as well which lead to wei wuxian dying eventually

#mdzs novel #mo dao zu shi #mdzs wei wuxian #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #mdzs jiang cheng #mdzs meta #canon jiang cheng

[wangxianficrecs]

Mark me with your devotion by orphan_account

Mark me with your devotion

by orphan_account

M, 18k, Wangxian

Summary: People attain marks of colour on their skin from those who love them. Wei WuXian has no discolouration on his body at all. Kay's comments: So, this story is a twist on a few similar stories that also feature a Wei Wuxian that has never attained a mark from someone who loves him and doesn't find reason in that in a curse of something similar, which of course, puts his relationship to everyone in his life in a perspective (not his parents though, because they died before they could leave marks on him). Wei Wuxian feels a lot about his lack of marks and hides this secret away, which unfortunately leads to people drawing the wrong conclusions as well. I really loved this exploration of his relationships and about how there can be friendship and fondness, but no love. But of course, that changes with Lan Wangji. I also enjoyed the canon-divergent twist of this story featuring no Sunshot Campaign and Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian going on night-hunts together during the Cloud Recesses Study Arc, allowing them to grow closer earlier. Excerpt: Jin ZiXuan was not liked by either him or Jiang Cheng. He hid the rosy discolouration that Jiang YanLi left on him as if ashamed. He had no problem showing the ones from his family but YanLi’s was always covered, his forearm never staying without some sort of fabric masking what’s there. “My engagement has nothing to do with my opinion on who would be the best amongst the young maidens.” The peacock ignored the others after claiming that and Wei WuXian lost it right about then. “Who do you think you’re talking about?” Straightening up, Jiang Cheng stood tall next to him as well, probably just as furious. “Why does that matter to you Wei-Xiong?” He could tell that Nie HuaiSang had no idea that the idiotic git was betrothed to their sister so he managed to keep his anger solely on the peacock. “Who do you reckon could be better than my Shijie?” Murmurs erupted as Wei WuXian was tempted to punch him but another person from the LanlingJin Clan has stepped forward. “WuXian aren’t you just a son of servant? Just who do you think you are to talk like that to a future Sect Leader?” “Wei WuXian is the head discipline of the YunmengJiang Sect, it’s you who should watch what you’re saying!” Jiang Cheng was shaking next to him and Wei WuXian could tell that he will lose it at any given second. “Oh...how silly of me. I seemingly forgot that your father had quite the life. Are you mad that he loves his illegitimate son more? Is that why WuXian is always so bundled up?! Ha, it must hurt to see how much deeper your father’s affection is for him than you.”

pov wei wuxian, canon divergence, soulmate-identifying marks, alternate universe - soulmates, slow burn, angst with a happy ending, jiang family dynamics, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, lan wangji/wei wuxian get a happy ending, child lan sizhui, adoption, found family, cloud recesses study arc, cloud recesses shenanigans, night hunts, loneliness, isolation, no sunshot campaign, everyone lives/nobody dies, lan family feels, top lan wangji, bottom wei wuxian, first time

~*~

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#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #MDZS #Kay's Rec #pov wei wuxian #canon divergence #soulmate-identifying marks #alternate universe - soulmates #slow burn #angst with a happy ending #jiang family dynamics #hurt/comfort #emotional hurt/comfort #lan wangji/wei wuxian get a happy ending #child lan sizhui #adoption #found family #cloud recesses study arc #cloud recesses shenanigans #night hunts #loneliness #isolation #no sunshot campaign #everyone lives/nobody dies #lan family feels #Mark me with your devotiona #orphan_account #medium fic 15k-49k #Mature

[strattego]

small rant on the jiang household

i think it is very easy to interpret jiang cheng as a kid who grew up being invalidated and constantly unfairly compared, who feels never good enough etc, but that is extremely surface level analysis. when you read it like that, you ignore the root of these things, which is classism. on yu ziyuan's part, it NEVER was "wow jiang cheng, wei wuxian is better than you". it was "wow jiang cheng, the SERVANT'S SON, wei wuxian, is better than you". on jiang fengmian's part, it was never "wow wei wuxian is amazing he really understands our sect i wish he was my son" it was "great, wei wuxian really understands our sect, he will be an excellent subordinate for my child. jiang cheng, you are to be yunmengjiang's sect leader, so you have to understand what the sect represents. let me try to explain it to you". jfm attempting to teach jc is not equivalent to jfm hating jc. he was trying to prepare him for his future. let's please not forget that it was yu ziyuan who always got mad whenever jfm tried to teach jc. now, i do not think jfm was a great person nor parent. but his crimes were never comparing jc and wwx, nor wanting wwx to be his kid, nor favoring wwx. if someone does good and receives praise, that is not favoritism. if someone needs accommodations to be able to function (getting rid of dogs), that is not favoritism. if you correct someone and attempt to better them, that does not mean you hate them and think the other person is better than them.

#mdzs meta #canon jiang cheng #mdzs

[jiaoji]

Time travel Lan WangJi & Jin ZiXuan

How LWJ discover JZX time travelled too? Because one day, after spending months exchanging letters with WWX, YunmengJiang is flooded with courting gifts from LanLingJin and GusuLan, and LWJ is pretty sure this didn't happen in the past

Imagine Jiang FengMian doing his sect leader things and them a disciple come and say that two messengers are in the gate.

WWX and JYL come to see whats happened too and theres a WHOLE TWO carriage with gifts. The one from the Jins have a lot of recipe books, expensive incense's, simple but also expensive clothes, jelwery's and flowers.

GusuLan one have a lot of wine, poetry and exclusive study books, incense's, expensives red ribbons, a lot of spicy seasonings

LWJ and JZX just flooded the Sect with the gifts leaving FGM very confused, Jiang YanLi very flustered and WWX very suspicious

The Jin messenger says that their one is from Jin ZiXuan to Jiang Yanli, with a sorry letter also saying he will visit her soon

WWX is already cursing JZX on his head while FGM asks why there's a GusuLan carriage too, and the guy simple says is from Second Master Lan to Wei WuXian as a courting gift with a letter that says he also will go to Lotus Pier see WWX

Them WWX bugs and his mind go to another existence, while FGM just look at him with a confused chocked face

Both WWX and JYL are flustered and anxious now, FGM had to work about how he will handle this situation with YZY

I just think is so funny! Both of them never interact directly and JZX is a bit slow, he didn't think he time traveled but hes in another reality bcs in WHAT LIFE LWJ is a ROMANTIC? WITH WWX???

IMAGINE they date together 😭 LWJ being romantic bcs he's have some experience (nearly none) and JZX trying to be the same LMAO

WWX is in two moods:

"This stupid peackcock 😡! If he do something with Shijie 🤬-"

And

"Omg 😳 Lan Zhan is coming to see me! (Kicks feet, giggles and sigh)"

#mdzs #modaozushi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang yanli #jin zixuan

[admirableadmiranda]

*annoys you so you're motivated to write meta about the Jiang sect's restrictive 'freedom'*

Okay, okay I’ll get to it. Apparently this was a lot more popular a thing needed than I realized. I was thinking I’d have to see some more posts on how Yu Ziyuan is the only problem in the sect first before we got there!

But very well, let’s talk about Yunmeng Jiang and how the rot was always there at the core even before Yu Ziyuan showed up. I could say I was confused at how people came around to the idea that it was fine or the best sect before Yu Ziyuan married in and ruined everything and made it into this toxic, classist place where Wei Wuxian struggled and if only he’d lived in his father’s Yunmeng Jiang he would have been perfectly happy and never wanted to move to Gusu, but honestly it’s kinda subtle and especially for us westerners for whom freedom and a lack of restrictions is portrayed as ideal, it can be hard to see.

So here, let’s start off this meta with a bang, let us rip aside the facade of supposed freedom and clever mottos and examine what the book shows us about Lotus Pier and the people within.

Given what we know in story, Yunmeng Jiang was likely never a sect of true freedom and if it once was, it hasn’t been for a long time.

In order to explain what I mean, let’s talk about the founder of the sect and then the scraps of information we get from the sect before Jiang Fengmian’s leadership. There’s not a lot, but what we get is damning to the whole image of Yunmeng Jiang in my opinion.

I will preface this with saying we never find out much about any of the sect leaders who either founded or transformed their sects into clans in universe. It happened at least five hundred years ago when Wen Mao proposed elevating the family above the sect and in some sort of order, everyone followed suit.

The founder of the YunmengJiang Sect, Jiang Chi, was born a rogue cultivator. The ways of the sect were honest and unrestrained.

That is all we get of who they were and the sect’s attitude. Honest and unrestrained we do see in equal measures in the Yunmeng Jiang of today. But there is nothing of equality or of a lack of class boundaries that people ascribe to it.

Jiang Chi is the founder of Yunmeng Jiang, we don’t know exactly when but given that the name is inextricably tied to the clan, it would likely be close to the same time as Wen Mao’s reform. What we know of them is that they were a rogue cultivator who settled in Yunmeng and gave the clan its difficult to translate motto that basically comes to “Know what is impossible to do, then do it anyway.” After that what else we know of the sect is that it keeps its gates open so that the commoners can come in and watch the boys training, it was in some sort of decline even before Yu Ziyuan married in and that Jiang Fengmian was pressured into marrying her. But the cracks are there if you look for them, so let me show you a few examples.

Lotus Pier wasn’t as other-worldly as the other sects’ residences, shutting their doors and refusing to let commoners come within a boundary miles away. The docks right in front of Lotus Pier’s entrance often bustled with vendors selling seed pods, water chestnuts and all kinds of pastries. Runny-nosed children from households nearby could also sneak into Lotus Pier’s fields to watch the cultivators practice their swords. They wouldn’t be scolded even if they got caught, either. They could sometimes even play around with the Jiang Sect’s disciples.

Here is our first description of Lotus Pier itself, which on the surface looks pretty good. They let people come in much closer and the children can even come within the sect to watch the cultivators training without being scolded.

But there is still a thread of exclusion in it. They let people come up to sell just outside of the sect, but there’s no mention about them crossing in. The children can sneak in to watch the cultivators practice and sometimes play with the disciples, but there’s no hint of them being taken in or trained.

Lotus Pier lets the common people see them, but there’s little true interaction or crossing over.

There were only five people within the large hall. In front of everyone was a small, square table, on top of which were a few dishes of food. Head lowered, Wei WuXian only had a few mouthfuls as somebody tugged at the corner of his sleeve. Turning around, he saw Jiang YanLi pass over a small dish. Inside the dish was a dozen peeled lotus seeds, soft and white, fresh and succulent.

Even within the halls itself, there is still a great divide between classes that is more subtly noted. Wei Wuxian is allowed to eat with them, but for a sect that is supposedly more relaxed and not classist aside , why do they have a great hall with only five people eating in it?

Madam Yu scolded, “Of course you’ll go! Or else would your sister go? Look at her, still happily peeling lotus seeds. A-Li, stop peeling them. Who are you peeling them for? You’re the mistress, not somebody’s servant!”

Hearing the word ‘servant’, Wei WuXian didn’t mind much. He had finished all of the lotus seeds in the dish all at once, chewing as the soft, refreshing sweetness filled his mouth. Jiang FengMian, on the other hand, raised his head slightly, “My lady.”

Madam Yu, “What, something I said? Servant? You don’t want to hear the word? Jiang FengMian, let me ask you—this time, do you intend to let him go?”

A lot of other people have gone over all the other text that proves that Wei Wuxian is a servant of the Yunmeng Jiang, but here it is again. Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are close, but it is emphasized that she is the mistress and he is the servant. He is permitted to eat with them, but Jiang Yanli making him some lotus seeds is crossing the line.

Now we could assume that this is all Yu Ziyuan’s influence, but I don’t think so. While she is fierce and assertive, her influence on Yunmeng Jiang is surprisingly minimal for all the noise she makes. She lives in a house alone with other members of her family that she brought from Meishan Yu and her two trusted servants, spends nearly all her time out night hunting and mostly shows up to scream at everyone and leave. What she mostly does is make it louder. It was always there.

Her influence certainly exists in the sect, but she didn’t exactly bring the classism with her. It already existed there with Wei Changze and his reputation, and Jiang Fengmian’s father being interested in arranging a marriage with an old, reputable sect regardless of how his son felt about it. A sect that didn’t care wouldn’t have these details given to us.

“Now, hold on Sangsang,” I can hear you say as you read this, “what about the event with Wang Lingjiao and Madam Yu? Doesn’t that show that it’s her influence that made this happen?” To which I say, no! Not at all. It’s just that the way that servants work in the Jiang sect are a little different from the Wen sect. They are bodyguards and companions to the members of the main family, hence why Wei Wuxian is allowed to eat at the table with them, but it does not equality make.

“After they had finished the tour, Wang LingJiao finally arrived at the main hall. Without anyone’s invitation, she presumed her seat at the head table. She sat for a while. Seeing that nobody was going to serve her, she slammed the table with a frown, demanding, “Where’s the tea?”

Although she was enveloped in lustre, her mannerisms showed no courtesy at all. She acted like a complete buffoon. Having spent the journey with her, everyone was used to seeing this. Madam Yu sat down one seat lower. The wide hems of her robe and sleeves spread out, making her figure appear to be even more slender, her posture even more graceful. JinZhu and YinZhu stood behind her, both wearing light smirks on their faces.

YinZhu replied, “There is no tea. Get it yourself if you want any.”

Wang LingJiao widened her eyes, shocked, “Don’t the Jiang Sect’s servants ever do anything?”

JinZhu, “The Jiang Sect’s servants have more important things to do. Nobody ever needs others to do things like pouring tea. They’re not crippled.”

Wang LingJiao examined them, “Who are you?”

Madam Yu, “My personal maids.”

Wang LingJiao spoke with disdain, “Madam Yu, your Jiang Sect really is outrageous. This can’t be the case. Even maids dare interrupt a conversation in the main hall. Servants like this have their faces slapped in the Wen Sect.”

If this were specifically a trait brought over from Meishan Yu and not something that were baked into the sect to begin with, it would stand out. The scene is two arrogant women taking their preconceived notion of statuses against each other, but there is no doubt in the position of servants and where they stand in Yunmeng Jiang, only what their responsibility is.

The most damning evidence however is most apparent not in Wei Wuxian’s descriptions, but his father’s. And this is consistent throughout the story long before they start calling Wei Wuxian a servant as well.

Wei Changze left the Jiang sect of his own accord before Wei Wuxian was ever born and died as a rogue cultivator who had married the disciple of Baoshan-sanren. By all means that should have been how he was remembered if Yunmeng Jiang really hadn’t had the classism problem before Madam Yu moved in and Wei Wuxian shouldn’t have been equally raised as a servant to Jiang Cheng because Jiang Fengmian had the power to give him status even as a full disciple. In addition, we know from interviews that Jiang Fengmian owes Cangse-sanren a life debt. To take in their son into his family or raise him as a full disciple would be the closest he could get to fulfilling that obligation. Wei Wuxian could have escaped it if Jiang Fengmian were the sort of man I sometimes see him presented as, a perfect man aside from Yu Ziyuan’s changes in the sect who doesn’t

However, even Jiang Fengmian, who does get uncomfortable when Yu Ziyuan shouts servant too much around him, automatically makes him a servant from the beginning, a special playmate for Jiang Cheng. Jiang Fengmian had a personal servant who was close to him as he grew up, someone who he could rely on, and he immediately elects to repeat that. He has a life debt, he supposedly has these morals. But instead he reinforces it and locks Wei Wuxian down into servitude to the Jiang sect and obliges him even at the end of his life to do his duty.

As a wrap up on perspectives, let’s look at this block of text from Poisons.

However, soon afterward, the MeishanYu Sect proposed an alliance through marriage to the YunmengJiang Sect. The leader of the Jiang Sect back then was quite interested, but Jiang FengMian had no such intentions. He didn’t like Yu ZiYuan’s conduct and felt that the two wouldn’t be an appropriate match. He had politely refused the offer a handful of times. However, the MeishanYu Sect set about multiple factors, putting pressure on Jiang FengMian, who was at the time still fairly young and had nothing to lean on. Along with the fact that, not long later, ZangSe SanRen had become cultivation partners with the most loyal servant at Jiang FengMian’s side, Wei ChangZe, and rode off into the sunset, roaming around the world, Jiang FengMian finally gave up.

Although Jiang and Yu were married, they had ever since been a grudging couple. They had always been living apart and held the most disagreeable of conversations. Aside from the strengthening of their sect’s powers, nobody knew what other benefits they had attained.

What we get out of this is that Jiang Fengmian’s father was all for a politically advantageous marriage to a wealthy, old sect, something incongruent with the supposed image of them not caring about status. Nothing actually changes aside from them being married yet not in agreement. But the servants still exist as they did before she married in. Additionally, any claims that Wei Changze might have had status of his own as head disciple or anything like that is roundly defeated by the fact that he is clearly listed as a servant here and will never escape that title even in death.

Yunmeng Jiang is not just a sect in general, it is listed as one of the Five Great Sects. The things they say and the power they wield are accepted and the things they say of the people within or formally of their sect have merit. Jin Guangyao once adopted into Lanling Jin is recognized as a son of the sect for all of the classism surrounding him. Jin Guangyao points out that if Jiang Cheng had stood beside Wei Wuxian, the other sects would have dulled to grumbling and not stood up against them, hence why the division between the two had to be solidified. It stands to reason that were Wei Changze acknowledged as a full fledged, free cultivator, especially before he left the Jiang sect, that would be known. But he is forever a servant in the world’s eyes and that includes the Jiang sect before Yu Ziyuan ever married in. The same thing that damns Wei Wuxian as everyone sees him as rising above his status in a sect that supposedly is supposed to be unrestrained and honest.

They are, they are unrestrained in attitude and honest in their classism.

Wei Wuxian himself never complains about his treatment in Yunmeng Jiang aside from being displeased with the whipping and the only one attacked whenever all the boys are getting into trouble. No matter where he goes, it does act as a barrier, even in Cloud Recesses once the other boys realize that his status prevents them from getting in trouble with him. It’s part of why Lan Wangji accepting punishment alongside him absolutely stuns him and his first reaction is to try and say that Lan Wangji doesn’t deserve it. He knows the narrative, even if he doesn’t actually like it that much.

He has no problem stating that he is a servant, challenging Jiang Cheng on what’s so wrong with it, but it is consistently used to put him down by the world around him, even when he is in that supposed bastion of freedom, Lotus Pier. Just because it has a looser attitude at the seams does not mean that he ever escapes that stranglehold of status no matter where he is and what he does. If it really mattered so little in Yunmeng Jiang, then why is it so well known that he and his father were servants to the sect? It is only once he marries Lan Wangji and their marriage is acknowledged by Gusu Lan that he seems to shake those shackles at last, there is a freedom in his actions post canon only matched by when everyone thought he was Mo Xuanyu and he finally had the ability to breathe.

Very early on, he even has a line that people often seem to forget when talking about how he could act in Yunmeng Jiang, both in people who want to condemn his actions and people who want to say that he was happy in Lotus Pier aside from Madam Yu while he’s gearing up to make a complete mockery of Madam Mo.

“In terms of running wild, Wei Wuxian was definitely a master. In the past, if he wanted to run wild, he would have to keep his status in mind, but now, he was a lunatic anyways, which meant that he could do whatever he wanted to, whichever way he wanted.”

MXTX is big on showing, not telling, but she gives us enough information to be able to make the connections on his status and how ill suited Yunmeng Jiang always was to him. There is a lot of irony, both humorous and dramatic in those early chapters with his statements on how no one would want to marry into Gusu Lan and how he has no need to memorize these rules, but also it’s very clear that he’s having a much better time at the Lectures than he ever was back in Lotus Pier. He is an unrestrained spirit, to be sure, but for all that Yunmeng Jiang professes it in their motto, he and Wei Changze were forever bound by their status even after they both died.

The sect that is initially presented to us as the free sect he should thrive in ties his wings down, the sect built to be honest and unrestrained. But the sect built by an ascetic priest who fell in love is the place where he finally can spread his wings in all their vivid glory, truly free at last.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #yunmeng jiang #jiang sect #jiang fengmian #jiang cheng #canon jiang cheng #yu ziyuan #jiang yanli #mdzs meta #the classism in mdzs setting #the meta I threatened to write before #perhaps once it was the sect that people seemed to think it was #but if that was the case it was much longer ago than it sounds #yu ziyuan didn't break the sect she just revealed what was already there #for all of her attitude she is incompetent in impacting anything on the story #including the sect that definitely had servants that were bound to the sect far more deeply than fandom likes to acknowledge that they were #every single sect is mentioned as having servants #yunmeng jiang is no different #and just because they let people look in doesn't mean they LET them in #if anything it's almost crueler to let them see what they will never be allowed to have #it's still just as barred to the children around lotus pier as it is around jinlintai or cloud recesses #just they get to watch the cultivators practice sometimes and even not get chased away for it

[reileinaxiu]

MDZS Fanon Pet Peeve: the Jiang heir

Warning: Some cursing and expletive language.

I just noticed/realized is that there are fics out there with JWY, the bane of all matchmakers and decent women in all the land, would actually make his head disciple or any other person who wasn't Jiang blood into his heir.

Yes the classist, bigoted, JWY, naming some cultivator he recruited in the war to inherit his position as Sect leader.

I'm sad to know that there are actually fics out there that portray JWY as someone who could care less about the background of their heir and choose them for competency. Or worse. Choose them because they were apparently surviving Jiang disciples that WWX had trained because apparently sentimentality (which JWY never had).

I think worst of them all is when they think JWY would actually appoint WWX as the Jiang heir especially post canon.😱

See where I'm going here? That just goes to show how those writers understood him. Which is to say not at all.🧐

That's why I'm always struck by some fics that show JWY as dying a bitter single unlikeable person that he truly is at the end of the book. Those were particularly good 😊. I found more realistic compared to the drivel that I cannot unread.

I sometimes wish my brain can do selective amnesia so I can unread all the OOC JWY fics I've read in my dark history. 😓

Let's take a look at why he would never allow someone who was at least not his own child or blood relative to become an heir of YunmengJiang and why he shall remain a bachelor for the rest of his lonely angry lifespan.

First of all, I don't think it was really mentioned, but I doubt JWY is the last Jiang besides JL.

He might be the last main line Jiang there is within immediate succession. Maybe he had relatives who married out to come back to bolster the ranks or there were non-clan Jiang disciples who were not prevented from nighthunting were out on a hunt and escaped the massacre to rejoin the sect.

How many besides the main clan are actual gentry? Not a lot unless they married in or they were civilian gentry that joined (I'm calling it civilian gentry cause there was the Mo Family who were a non-cultivation family ruling their village)

I'm guessing not a lot in the Jiang Clan too. The Sect more or less survived the war but the Jiang Clan was probably down to JFM, JYL, and JWY. With JYL marrying out and JFM and YZY dying, the Jiang Clan was unfortunately left with JWY to continue the bloodline. Sucks for them.

YZY would probably roll in her grave, claw her way out of hell, and become a fierce corspe just to make sure that no one other than her children or her grandchildren were to inherit the throne of sect leader. And I believe JWY would think the same as her or seek approval from his parents even after death. Nor would he grant the Jiang name to anyone that wasn't his blood related family. Plus I think he'd rather slit his own throat than adopt some child.

Another thing is the tag Adopted WWX that gets me annoyed sometimes. In the novel he was never adopted he was just taken in as a ward and treated like nuisance. So it confounds me that people actually write how WWX was always in the clan registry or that JWY had the option of naming WWX as Jiang Heir.

If in the novel JFM couldn't deign to give WWX at least legal familial support through adoption why would JWY?

JWY who blamed WWX for a lot of things he never did and still blames him. Who couldn't even look at WWX's relationship with LWJ without sneering in disgust. Would actually give him a position of power that means the most to his egotistical life. Yeah nuh uh. 😑

As for a Jiang heir, he also would never appoint any of his disciples that position. Much less if they were rogue cultivators or backgroundless civilians that he recruited during the war. Much lesser if they were trained by WWX of all people.

He treats all of his disciples like subordinates where his command was unquestioned. What WWX was not are the qualities he looks for in his disciples. JWY would prefer all of his disciples to stay far away from any behavior WWX had. His disciples didn't blink an eye to when WWX was being dragged into an inn to most likely be tortured to death.

As long as JWY lives and breathes and has the final say so he would never appoint, WWX or any of his disciples Jiang heir. Only by some miracle he actually gets married and has a child will the Jiang Clan have an heir because he is mostly like to die single. Also YunmengJiang sect would probably be fine under temporary leadership of someone who is not the Jiang Clan heir.

So why would he forever remain a single fermented grape?

JC stans are probably the only ones that would marry him and those don't exist in the MDZS universe.

One. He was blacklisted by all the matchmakers in Yunmeng.

I would say it takes skill to become rejected by an entire region of eligible families and their daughters. But no he is just an ***hole who can't keep his opinions to himself and aims to be as rude and derisive as possible towards perfectly fine ladies. In the audio drama he insulted a lady's choice of colors and perfume for smelling like, and I quote, "noxious poison". I mean wtf?! If that's how he treats all the females then it's no wonder he's not married yet. Plus three more off screen blind dates that went horrible.

Two. He will never marry because he has standards.

Standards he will probably not budge on. Those were: naturally beautiful, graceful and obedient, hard-working and thrifty, coming from a respected family, cultivation level not too high, personality not too strong, not too talkative, voice not too loud and must treat Jin Ling nicely.

The last one is the only relatively reasonable standard he has set. The rest is just him being picky he might as well get a doll dress it in red and marry it.

Three. No one in their sane state of mind would marry someone with the reputation of a rabid dog.

JWY, has gone on to torture people of inconsequential backgrounds, to death, for years. I say inconsequential because I doubt he would target people who had societal backing. People like Xue Yang who was under the Jins and proven to be a homicidal demonic cultivator with a record of massacring entire clans who he did not pursue because he is a coward.

The slightest suspicion not always with verified proof a person gets dragged to Lotus Pier to be flayed to death with a lightning whip. He barely even proves any of his victims to be demonic cultivators before whipping them or interrogating them further. Lots of firm connotations and even secondhand accounts of people being violently whipped on the the docks of Lotus pier.

WWX as MXY was already allegedly proven to not be possessed but JWY still insists on dragging him to Lotus Pier.

WWX dodged a bullet when LWJ was there to protect him.

Someone tell me if I'm not too far off and this is a viable argument that JWY will remain heirless or at least single for the rest of his f***ed up natural life? And would never name a Jiang heir that doesn't meet his requirements. Maybe even add to this discussion. Much appreciated 😌.

References:

https://modao-zushi.fandom.com/wiki/Jiang_Cheng

Jiang Cheng | Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Wiki - Fandom

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #anti jiang cheng #anti jc #fanon peeves #canon jiang cheng #jc's canonical marriage prospects #mdzs meta #mdzs fanon pet peeves #fanfic pet peeves

[labyrynth]

PSA for “canon jiang cheng” folks:

please stop using the “subordinate” thing as a basis for your arguments. that word does not mean what you seem to think it means.

y’all talk about jc asking wwx to be his subordinate as if it’s like some show of disrespect. some of y’all literally use it as “evidence” that jc “never cared about wwx” and that he “never viewed wwx as anything but a servant” but like.

my friends. subordinate literally just means “someone with a lower rank (than someone else).” it does not carry any connotations of subservience, servitude, lesser worth, or disrespect.

we understand how sect leadership works in mdzs, yes? there is One (1) sect leader.

Everyone who is Not the sect leader, but is affiliated with that sect, is Subordinate to the Sect Leader.

nobody ever claims that lan xichen didn’t care about lan wangji, lan qiren, or any of the juniors, even though they were all subordinate to him as the sect leader.

nobody ever claims that jin guangshan viewed madame jin, jin zixuan, or jin zixun as “just servants” or even servants at all, even though they were all subordinate to him as the sect leader.

hell, nobody even claims that nie mingjue viewed meng yao as “just a servant,” even when meng yao actually WAS a servant!

[edit: apparently some people are taking objection to calling meng yao as a servant? y’all, they literally made him be their water boy. what would you call that?]

that’s just how leadership works! being subordinate isn’t a bad thing!! it’s just “a person who has a boss”

“right-hand-man” IS a subordinate position to “sect leader,” and it’s also literally the highest position jc could have given wwx without quite literally making wwx sect leader!

so like. unless you ARE legitimately arguing that jiang cheng should have forced wei wuxian to become sect leader of yunmengJiang, just…please drop it.

that word Does Not mean what you Think it means. the thing you are Mad about is Made Up. please just let it go.

#mdzs discourse #mdzs talk #mxtx talk #*kicks hornets nest* #canon jiang cheng #IF YOURE GOING TO BE WEIRD AND WRONG AT LEAST BE WEIRD AND WRONG **ACCURATELY** #it was only a matter of time before i tagged a mdzs post with discourse… #i’m just surprised it’s not about jgy #that one catmom person and the fanatic are such egregious repeat offenders #like can you please take off your ‘jiang cheng is an evil supervillain abuser’ glasses for like 5min and realize how ridiculous you sound #can you please behave like a normal person who makes normal person judgements #and doesn’t just swallow whatever weird random rumor you heard from someone’s cousin’s friend #weird judgements like ‘jiang cheng beats children and murders people in his front yard’ #i’m still not over that post it was just so 💀💀 #like you really think if jc wanted to murder people he couldn’t find a better place to do it than his front yard?? #i have them both blocked but i saw a weird reblog on someone else’s post #and i was like ‘wow what a weird and nonsense reply that sounds like they’re replying to someone other than op’ #and sure enough #like…setting aside the fact that what jc was actually asking to be able to depend on wwx #esp in context he was looking for support PERSONALLY. not as ‘heir to jiang’ but as ‘jiang cheng son of jfm and yzy’ #bc he never felt recognized by his parents! BOTH of them overlooked what he had achieved in favor of praising wwx (jfm) or scolding jc (yzy) #if jc didn’t care about wwx or thought he was above him then why wouldn’t he refute the twin prides thing? #what jc was asking was ‘can i depend on you to be my lifelong friend’ #‘can i trust that you will always have my back’ #in retrospect if things hadn’t gone to shit so soon after they prob would have sworn brotherhood once they were actually. you know. adults. #anyway #jc is a lot more complicated than y’all want to make him out to be #if your perception of a character limits them to a single emotional spectrum then you’ve done something wrong #he’s a prickly boy that’s it. it’s not that complicated. #hedgehog boy. if u pet him the wrong direction it’s gonna be pokey. ur supposed to pet the OTHER way. it’s not his fault if u pet him wrong.

[spriteofmushrooms]

I totally believe that Jiang Cheng cares about beauty because he's just trying to order a wife with all the best specs. He cares a lot about public perception and think the point of the joke is honestly a) it's a bit rich for him to demand socially sanctioned perfection when he himself is notably not perfect and b) he's never going to be happy in a relationship until he can be a little more vulnerable about what he wants in a partner.

If MXTX cared about Jiang Cheng, I think that would be a valid read--he's going to get a good grade in being a man with a wife, etc. But in interviews, she said that the most important thing to him is that a woman must be beautiful. She said that he's straight, and the only reason he and the other sect leaders aren't married is because they're focusing on their cultivation. For MXTX, the only reason Jiang Cheng is the way he is is because he's one of the forces who shaped Wei Wuxian. You can tell because his mother was a great beauty renowned far and wide, and MXTX seems to think he looked at his mother's life and thought, "I want to put someone through the agonies she suffered." Even though Jiang Cheng rebuffed the betrothal for his sister when he thought she didn't want it; even though he told Wei Wuxian that as long as Yanli was happy, that was all that mattered. Somehow, MXTX thinks beauty is his first priority.

Even if your Jiang Cheng is a straight allosexual, his first priority for a life partner isn't going to be "sufficiently decorative."

Doylist explanation, though, is that MXTX didn't want to bother naming women--which is another thing she said in interviews. Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang should be married with children; their sect eats cultivators young. Jiang Cheng should be married; he has no clan members to support him and YunmengJiang desperately needed alliances. Lan Xichen can get away with being Jin Guangyao's side piece because the Lans gained alliances with the Jin and Nie sects through the venerated triad, but Jiang Cheng is utterly alone. It's frankly irresponsible of him to be a middle-aged virgin, but here we are.

#pallas.rtf #mdzs #hi anon

[add1ctedt0you]

Chengxian fic rec list

[a vessel for your good intent] by sugar_shoal

Summary:

I have a core again, Wei Wuxian thinks as the snow piles up around him. A core and a life and warm wine and a warm bed and a willing, wonderful man waiting for him, and these things all fill him. Nothing is wrong. He’s fine.

He takes a drink.

---

Wei Wuxian gives away his golden core, and gets something in return.

In All Seasons by sugar_shoal

Summary:

Wei Wuxian dreams, one night, of true summer.

your laughter, wall-cracking by Runespoor

Summary:

Wei Wuxian in YunmengJiang feels transient. Jiang Cheng HATES it.

due time (the plausible deniability remix) by Runespoor

Summary:

Wei Wuxian is bad at waiting, but it's months before Jiang Cheng comes home.

keep my heavy-footed devotion by pomegranites

Summary:

The night before his mutually agreed upon split from Yunmeng Jiang, Wei Wuxian has a final drink with its sect leader.

rods & cones by fanfictiongreenirises

Summary:

Jiāng Chéng glanced at him. “You’re still here? I thought you said you had somewhere to be.”

Had he said that? All Wèi Wúxiàn knew was that being here, around Jiāng Chéng and the juniors, it was heady. He’d never done well with moderation.

“Well, it seems we’ll have to stick around a bit longer,” he responded, slapping on his biggest grin. “There’s something going on in this town.”

Jiāng Chéng’s eye twitched. “You haven’t even been here half a day and things are already going on?”

Wèi Wúxiàn runs into Jiāng Chéng and a group of Jiāng juniors in a small village, where the townspeople are systematically having their memories erased at the end of each day. Things escalate from there.

#chengxian #Mdzs

[aitchnkay]

Jiang Gunian Made A Change Part 15

Jiang YanLi strode past the Jiang encampment, idly noticing that her disciples were practicing diligently. And that the fortune teller, Xia KeXin, was sitting in... something. A chair? But with curved slats on the bottom? And she had a bowl of yarn and was using some sort of metal stick to weave the yarn into something. Odd woman.

However, YunmengJiang disciples weren't her destication. Walking into the Nie section, she spied her goal: Meng Yao. "Please take a walk with me, Meng Gongzi," she entreated.

"How can I be of use?"

"I know all about you. I know who your parents are." His face darkened. "I know what kind of people they are. Or were. I know how intelligent you are. What I don't know is if you can be an asset to this rebellion or a liability. I would prefer you as an asset to be retained rather than a liability to be discarded."

He stopped walking, facial emotions smoothing out to blankness. "I'm not sure what Jiang Guniang means. I am a loyal servant to Nie ZongZhu, his brother, and the sect."

"Servant?" Jiang YanLi tipped her head sideways in thought. "Perhaps. Loyal? I am well aware of where your loyalties lay. Speaking of which... how many are on your kill list, and how many are here?"

"Kill list? I do not have a kill list, Jiang Guniang."

"Don't play stupid," she admonished. "I know you have a list of people who insult you because of your mother's profession. I know you fully intend to remove them, permanently. I need to know how many of them are here."

"Why?"

"Because we are going to war. I need every able bodied fighter I can get. I don't need you taking advantage of a situation and taking out any of them before the battles begin. If you need them dead, it's much easier for me to send them to the front lines once the war starts. So." She looked straight at her potential adversary. "How many. And who."

"Why would you do that for me?" He sounded genuinely confused.

"I have been elected leader of this camp. I can do some of the work. But strategy? That's not one of my strengths. It is one of yours. You can think of moves and countermoves and plot out the shape of the war, change plans as new information comes in. I need that. But if I have to execute you for murdering the men who call you a bastard, I lose that expertise. I have no desire to lose an asset to idiocy. So. Answer me."

He seemed to think, then nodded. "I have fourteen men on my kill list. Three are here. That one, black ribbon, bronze guan, the one with blueish gauntlets next to him. White ribbon, overly gaudy sheath, laughing like a donkey."

Jiang YanLi looked at each of the men indicated, trying to memorize their faces. "Just those three?"

"For now." He seemed amused.

"Meng Yao... Obviously I've never met your mother, but I do know what kind of woman she had to be. A woman who would use her meager earnings to educate you in hopes that you would be accepted by your whore mongering father? I wish I could have met her. She seems like a woman worth knowing."

"She was a prostitute."

"Do you know why there are prostitutes?" He just looked at her blankly. "It's because there are men who refuse to not use them. If all men would stay celibate except within the bonds of marriage, there would be no need for women to sell their bodies. I would hazard a guess that the men on your kill list have gone to pleasure houses and availed themselves of the services there.

"Your father is more to be despised than you. He used your mother and refused to accept responsibility for the consequences." She laughed lightly. "Wouldn't it be poetic if you were to lead the rescue party that saves him?"

"I think I would like that."

"Do we have a deal then? You become my strategy advisor and I will handle those on your kill list."

"Agreed."

"Excellent. Now, as my advisor, please tell me how you communicate with Nie ZongZhu." He looked blankly at her. "Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi are leaving on a reconnaissance mission. You have a way to communicate. I need to know if it is something they can use to communicate with me."

Meng Yao looked around at the Nie soldiers drilling or relaxing. "I have a set of boxes. The boxes are paired. What is placed in one is teleported to the other. They're small, about the size of a box for rouge. The spiritual energy required to operate them is almost negligible."

"And you have been in contact with Nie ZongZhu all this time?"

"Yes."

"May I have a pair?"

"Of course." He bowed.

"Thank you, Meng Gongzi," she bowed in return. "I look forward to our new partnership."

#wangxian #the untamed #chen qing ling #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #cql #jiang yanli #meng yao #jin guangyao