multifandom hoard of treasures

Personal Name: Su She (苏涉)

The 涉 in Su She’s name originally was used to describe walking through waters (e.g. 涉江 shejiang walk through a river). It later changed to broadly mean “to involve“ (as in the phrase 涉及 sheji), or even to meddle (干涉 ganshe). I'd say it's perfect for a character that seems to always have a hand somehow in the lives of the main characters of the plot, and who is trying to shake things up.

Courtesy Name: Su Minshan (苏悯善)

It’s meanings when read by itself:

悯 (Min) — can mean two things. One is to harbour sorrow (when used in the phrase min mo 悯默). Another is to feel compassion for someone in a worse situation (as used in the phrase lian min 怜悯)

善 (Shan) — kindness/goodness

Thus, by itself, his courtesy name can either be:

An acknowledgement that his is a life of both sorrow and compassion

An urging of him him to practice both sympathy and compassion in his life

Or even a suggestion that a source which Su Minshan can draw his compassion through empathy is from his own sorrows

Possible saying that his courtesy name is drawn from

I personally feel that it’s likely that Su Minshan was given his courtesy name from this saying from Li Ying Chang’s Treatise On the Response of the Tao.

Caveat that we’ll never know as MXTX has never confirmed it. This is just my guess and you can judge if it’s convincing! But it does have all the characters of Su Minshan’s courtesy name inside it.

宜悯 人之凶，乐人之善 ，济人之急，救人之危。 Yi Min Ren Zhi Xiong, Le Ren Zhi Shan, Ji Ren Zhi Ji, Jiu Ren Zhi Wei。

It roughly translates to: Feel sympathy for a person’s evil, rejoice in a person’s goodness, rescue them in their time of need, save them from danger.

First Half of the Saying:

Feel sympathy for a person’s evil, rejoice in a person’s goodness.

It’s very interesting to evaluate Su Minshan’s actions through this saying. How does Su Minshan respond to the evil within others — such in Jin Zixun who insulted him, compared to Jin Guangyao who relies on him as an accomplice for his crimes?

How does he respond to those who have been good to him? Such as Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji — who’ve saved him at least twice: from being sucked in by the waterborne abyss, and by aiding his escape in the cave of the tortoise of slaughter? (Though both times he embarrasses himself spectacularly with his incompetence......) Compared to how he responds to Jin Guangyao who remembered his name and gave him an out when he was being humiliated by Jin Zixun?

Meta-textually, it’s also fun to think about whether we should apply the maxim of “feeling sympathy for a person’s evil, rejoicing in a person’s goodness” to Su Minshan himself!

Second Half of the Saying:

rescue them in their time of need, save them from danger.

But also, delving into the second half of the saying, it’s interesting to think about the lives whom Su Minshan jeopardises — such as the cultivators gathered during the Second Siege of the Burial Mound and even his own Sect’s disciples. But also whose life he will rescue at any cost (Jin Guangyao once again). What actually drives his choices of who he saves or sabotages?

Su Minshan’s Sword: Nanping 难平 — Unrest

The name that Su Minshan gives his sword is also deeply meaningful — a reflection of his varied motivations. It’s just like how Jin Guangyao’s sword Hensheng can be interpreted multiple ways that parallels his journey and change as a person. Hensheng can mean birth of hatred, hatred grows, hating life, hating my lot in life — because of the varied meanings of the word sheng.

Su Minshan’s sword, likewise, has a few meanings. It’s a phrase composed of two word 难nan and 平ping. 难 nan means difficult (though the question is difficult for who)? 平 ping at its most basic means flatten, but it can mean a number of things, from peace, to parity, to fairness and equality, and even to suppress.

Altogether, the name of Su Minshan’s sword Nan Ping can be read as a personal expression of self-loathing or devotion. It can also be read as a political statement of the existence of inequalities in cultivation society, or even an oath that he’ll disrupt the existing order.

Personal Meanings of Nanping

1. Nanping as a Unrest in the Soul The most common use of the term 难平 nanping in everyday language is in the phrase 意难平 yi nan ping. It’s evoked in literary works like in a famous line from Dream of the Red Chamber (but also as an internet meme lol). Yi Nan Ping means “sentiment hard to quell”. It’s a thought, a memory or a feeling that you hold within you, that you simply cannot let go of, that you keep returning to time and time again.

Based on this meaning of Nanping, you can read it as an expression of Su Minshan’s obsessive jealousy and sense of inferiority towards Lan Wangji. Nanping, after all, is his second sword. He lost his first sword to the waterborne abyss where he had to be rescued by Lan Wangji. Perhaps this humiliating memory was what was on Su Minshan’s mind when he got his second sword and had to name it.

But Yi Nan Ping doesn’t necessarily have to be something petty that you find hard to let go of. It could also be feelings of love and devotion. For instance, coincidentally, Jiang Yanli’s character song for CQL is called Yi Nan Ping. It’s full of love and tenderness, where she longs for the peaceful days that she, her brother and Wei Wuxian spent in Lotus Pier before the war. You could read Nanping as referring to how Su Minshan likewise cannot forget that first act of kindness that Jin Guangyao showed him, and thus cannot stop himself from repaying him over and over for that act.

2. Nanping as an acknowledgement of Inferiority However, there’s another way to read the word 平 ping in the name nanping — where ping would mean parity. Where 难 Nan still means hard, Nanping can thus be interpreted again as Su Minshan’s own admission that it will be hard for his own capabilities to match that of Lan Wangji’s.

Political Meanings of Nanping

3. Nanping as Inequalities hard to Surmount in Society At the same time, the word 平 ping in Nanping can mean “equality”, such as in the phrase pingdeng 平等. Or it can mean “fair” as in the phrase gongping 公平.

Thus, Nanping can be interpreted as Su Minshan asserting that it will be hard for him to be treated as an equal in society or receive fairness. This would tie into Su Minshan’s allegations that he was treated unfairly while he was part of the Lan Sect, as well as his broader criticisms that outer Sect members are treated unfairly, compared to inner Sect members who are linked to the main bloodline of the Sect.

4. Nanping as Unrest in Society

Finally, the Ping in Nanping can mean to suppress, such as in the phrase pingpan 平叛, meaning suppress a revolt. This would be read almost as an oath by Su Minshan that he will disrupt the status quo in cultivation society, and that it will be hard for others to put him down.

Therefore, in that moment when Su Minshan’s sword Nanping breaks when it shatters against Lan Wangji’s Bichen as he tries to attack Wei Wuxian, it’s really interesting to think about the ways in which his sword — and in extension the things that he's done with it — has or has not lived up to the idea of Nanping. And which of the meanings of Nanping came true (or did not?)

I think it also feeds into the question — was all of Su She/Su Minshan's life nothing but vain strivings for that which he would never attain, tainted by all his sins? Or was it ultimately worth something, because he stayed loyal to someone to the bitter end?

Credit for the base idea goes to this person on twi ^^

https://x.com/i/status/2021448788666351746

I love them sm <3