MXTX confirmed thats not even JC's real list he just cant be honest or vulnerable to other people. His actual list is more like "Not my mom. None of what my parents had going on In General. Good to Jin Ling." And honestly if you look at the list you can kind of see him edging around Not My Mom? A quiet voice! Good to a child who is not hers! A mediocre cultivator bc YZY felt trapped in her role as Jiang-furen and often fucked off for days or weeks at a time to go nighthunting!
i think overall we can say that the list is not really “this is what jiang cheng genuinely personally wants in a wife” it’s “this is what jiang cheng thinks is someone a) who will look good for him as a sect leader’s wife and b) who he could potentially tolerate in his house”
i also think there’s an analysis to make here about how the unclear balance of authority between his parents in lotus pier, and their constant fights over it and how that affected their reputations and how they treated their kids, is (along with the class values taught to him more directly by his mother) part of what leads him to believe that a clear hierarchy is necessary to any kind of relationship. which you can see in the list and also you know in the everything about his relationship with wwx. so you know it’s an understandable conclusion to come to for his time period and position in life, and it works out well for him as a sect leader, but it fucks over his personal relationships pretty considerably
Ngl the list makes me think of Jiang Yanli too.
Idk if it was ever mentioned when he was banned by the matchmakers, but lets assume it was ~5 years after everything went down. JC still holds on to the past, re: WWX's untouched childhood room, re: keeping Suibian, re: everyone he has issues with being dead, re: living in the same place that alm everyone u loved died. He's co-parenting Jin Ling, and again, all family is dead.
Bar not wanting his own marriage to reflect his parents, esp since he is the one who 'brought home a child' (JL), he wants family. The only other female presence in his life was Yanli.
And what was she?
Naturally beautiful, his Jie is the most gorgeous woman at every point of time.
Graceful, obedient, a not-so-strong personality, Jie acted as a mediator for his entire family.
Cultivation level not too high, I like the interpretation of it being Madam Yu, tho it fits Yanli too
Respected family, they were the same family.
And most importantly, must treat Jin Ling nicely. Yanli grew up with the same set of parents as Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying and at the very least, parented them both emotionally. There is no possible way she would have ever hated a child her husband brought home.
Subconsciously, to Jiang Cheng, marrying someone made them family, and he wanted his Jie back.
















