Amira

I.... can't answer this normally so we have to make do like this @ladysunami .

然而,摩挲一阵,江澄便强制自己将丝丝敌意克制起来。

他虽很不愉快,但身为一门之主,却也有更多的考量,不能像金凌这种 小子那般冲动。自从清河聂氏衰落之后,如今三大世家里,兰陵金氏和姑苏 蓝氏两家由于家主私交甚笃,本来就甚为亲近,他独立把持云梦江氏,在三 家之中可以说处于孤立状态。含光君蓝忘机是威望甚高的仙门名士,其兄长 泽芜君蓝曦臣则是姑苏蓝氏的家主,兄弟二人一向和睦,能不撕破脸皮,最 好不要撕破脸皮。

再来,江澄的佩剑“三毒”与蓝忘机的佩剑“避尘”从未正式交锋过,鹿 死谁手犹未可知。他虽有这枚家传宝戒“紫电”在手,蓝忘机那具“忘机”琴 却也有赫赫威名。江澄最无法容忍的就是落于下风,没有十成把握,他不考 虑和蓝忘机动手。

江澄慢慢收回了摩挲那枚戒指的左手。看来蓝忘机已打定主意要插手此 事,他再做恶人也不方便。暂且记下这一笔。江澄做出权衡,转头见金凌仍 愤愤捂嘴,道:“含光君要罚你,你就受他这一回管教吧。能管到别家小辈 的头上,也是不容易。”

他语气嘲讽,也不知是在嘲讽谁。蓝忘机从不争口舌之快,听若未闻。 江澄话中带刺,又是一转:“还站着干什么,等着猎物自己撞过来插|你剑 上?今天你要是拿不下这大梵山里的东西,今后都不必来找我了!”

金凌狠狠瞪了魏无羡一眼,却不敢去瞪罚他禁言的蓝忘机,收剑入鞘, 对两位长辈施了礼,持弓退走。蓝思追道:“江宗主,所毁缚仙网,姑苏蓝 氏自会如数奉还。”

江澄冷笑道:“不必!”选了相反的方向,信步下山。身后客卿噤声跟 上,心知回去免不了一通责罚,愁眉苦脸。

However, after a moment of contemplation, Jiang Cheng forced himself to reign in his hostility.

Although he was very unhappy, as the head of a clan, he had more to take in consideration than a young man like Jin Ling, and couldn't act upon impulses. With the decline of the Qinghe Nie Clan, among the three other major clans, the Lanling Jin Clan and the Gusu Lan Clan were already extremely close due to the close personal relationship between their clan leaders. He, independently leading the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, was in a relatively isolated position among the three. Hanguang-jun, Lan Wangji, was a highly respected figure to those who were cultivators and his elder brother, Zewu-jun, Lan Xichen, was the head of the Gusu Lan Clan. The two brothers had always been harmonious, it was better to avoid such a public falling out and avoid breaking any ties.

Just as well, Jiang Cheng's sword "Sandu" and Lan Wangji's sword "Bichen" had never actually clashed, and the outcome of such a battle had yet to be seen. Although he possessed the family heirloom ring "Zidian," Lan Wangji's guqin "Wangji" was also equally renowned. What Jiang Cheng could never tolerate the most was being at a disadvantage, and without absolute certainty of victory, he would not consider engaging Lan Wangji in combat.

Jiang Cheng slowly withdrew his hand that had been touching the ring. It seemed Lan Wangji had made up his mind to intervene in this matter, and it would not do for him to play the villain when it was no longer convenient. The matter would be set aside but he would remember it. Jiang Cheng weighed his options, then turned to see Jin Ling who was still covering his mouth indignantly, and said, "Since Hanguang-Jun intends to discipline you, accept his guidance this time, It's no easy feat for him to extend his authority over the youths of another's house."

His tone was mocking, and it was unclear just who he was mocking. Lan Wangji was never interested in verbal sparring and acted as if he hadn't heard. Jiang Cheng's words were laced and barbed, he spoke again, What are you standing there for? Waiting for the prey to stumble and run into your blade? If you can't get what lurks on Dafan Mountain today, don't bother coming to look for me again!"

Jin Ling shot a fierce glare at Wei Wuxian, but didn't dare to aim it at Lan Wangji, who had silenced him. He sheathed his sword, bowed to the two elders, and retreated with his bow. Lan Sizhui spoke, "Sect Leader Jiang, the Immortal-Binding Nets that were destroyed will be compensated in full by the Gusu Lan Clan."

Jiang Cheng sneered coldly, "No need!" He chose the opposite direction and strolled down the mountain. The guest disciples followed behind him silently, their faces pulled long with worry, knowing that they would inevitably face punishment upon their return.

So we'll start here regarding the context I will be extrapolating on for this:

“江澄最无法容忍的就是落于下风，”

Here alone there are already three major words of emphasis 最-zuì- most, 的-dí really(major emphasis of declarations) 就是- further emphasis of something being exactly and precisely stated. "What Jiang Cheng could never tolerate the most was being at a disadvantage,".

It has been established at his introduction that Jiang Cheng set up the nets as a cheat for Jin Ling. He is at the advantage of being able to do this as he has the power to do it without those below him having their dissent acknowledged and it affecting him.

He has the advantage to threaten a nameless (to him) and supposed mo dao cultivator (and it is later established he does torture and kill people he suspects, even when he is wrong, and is unquestioned (due to his status). Jiang Cheng did not expect Lan Wangi to interfere with his own morally crooked actions, as he ironically just told Jin Ling to kill those of crooked practices.

He is angered at his cheats being ruined by Lan Wangji, thusly categorizing himself exempt from moral duplicity. But he is very aware of the disadvantage he is now in, power-wise, as well as politically. He cannot blatantly dismiss Lan Wangji, nor can he outright attack Lan Wangji who is well respected by cultivators despite not being within the major political sphere and well liked by his brother who is one of Jiang Cheng's fellow leaders.

He cannot afford to isolate himself further as his tie to Lanling Jin is proxy of Jin Ling. Where he could kill and harrass a nameless mo dao user, he does not have that advantage when confronting Lan Wangji. Either aggressive avenue he pursues would be to his detriment, disrespectful at minimum to the entirety of the Lans if he continues mocking Lan Wangji, and seen as weak physically if he did fail in a battle losing any superfluous respect he holds amongst the sects and clans as one of its leaders. He does not have the pragmatic knowledge either to engage Lan Wangji in a battle to confidently say he can win without a doubt.

He can however continue to take it out on Jin Ling who he is blatantly mocking in stand in for Lan Wangji, and others below his status as his guest disciples dread repercussions from him for this interaction and none can choose to stand against him.

"Is the narrative implying Jiang Cheng would never fight someone where he was at the disadvantage", barring extraneous situation (one being when he is protecting Jin Ling from Nie Mingjue's power jockeyed with resentment corpse), yes. That has become his modus operandi ever since he chose to condemn Wei Wuxian as a power hungry traitor and agrees to his death for the power hungry Jin Guangshan out of resentment. We also see shades of this when he continued to tell Wei Wuxian to let Wen Chao parade and tried to stop him from protecting Mianmian. He does not pursue impulses that are to his major disadvantage and when they are failures as well as repercussions despite doing the right thing, he instead put the onus of blame on the victims.

"Choose your battles" is indeed the philosophy Jiang Cheng has in comparison to Yunmeng Jiang's "Attempt the impossible". Because where one can and does end in failure, his way is nihilistic but certain, especially in his continued path as a politically isolated leader. Is he necessarily cautious, no, he just understands who exactly he can condemn without repercussions to himself and he will not engage in battles that he cannot afford to lose face over.

Like, the go-to explanation for Westerners any time they encountered an element of art made in Japan that they didn't understand and couldn't be arsed to do the reading for is to argue that it spawned from an ambiguous timeless bioessentialist Japanese culture that was simultaneously paedophilic and childlike, terminally shy yet unapologetically horny, at once boyishly misogynistic and Orientally feminized, at once bushido and cyberpunk- a motley collection of misunderstood jokes, colonialist fantasies of the other, sci-fi nerd anxieties about Asian robot replacement and homonationalist/feminationalist condemnations of an imagined backwater.

The Western racist mind-factory of course reproduces many of these elements wholesale when it comes to China, but goes one step further, since it isn't even dedicated enough to lazily generalize or misrepresent a totalized 'Chinese culture', because that would require admitting the Chinese have an actual public life. No, if you want to pass yourself off to an audience of consumerist imbeciles as a 'China expert', you simply need to argue that an evil communist government agent is secretly puppeteering every cultural product of China in a way specifically targeted at the enjoyment of you, the noble Western content-feeder.

Don't want to do the reading to understand a reference to Taoism or Confucianism? "The evil CCP is making writers promote traditional Chinese philosophy because they don't want them to read and reference our Freedom Philosophers!" Don't feel particularly attached to a Chinese setting in a Chinese game? "The damn CCP is trying to steal our money by promoting tourism and forcing these poor developers to feature areas from their own country rather than Europe, which everyone really wants to set every narrative in!" Think a piece of media is featuring too much sex? "The evil CCP is whitewashing its many human rights violations that the CIA told me about the other day by using sex to attract fans!" Think a piece of media is not sexy enough? "The evil CCP is trying to stop people from engaging in sex because they've brainwashed the public into robots!"

Agree with a Chinese story's politics? "The devious CCP will be mad about this one, I hope the developers are safe!" Disagree with a Chinese story's politics? "The nefarious CCP must have burst into their offices and made them write this, because the native political views of a Chinese person are of course identical to my own" Think a Chinese story has good gay rep? "Wow, how'd they sneak this past the CCP censors? Are the masses rebelling against the regime?" Think a Chinese story doesn't have enough gay rep? "The CCP threw the one homosexual on the writing team out of the window, a guy I know from the SinoCrimes Twitter account confirmed this".

To the Western mind, every positive thing that they ever feel about Chinese media has to be framed as a valiant act of resistance against the communist party, because the foundation of modern Western liberal political thought is something along the lines of "I need to convince myself that the government wants to oppress me for listening to hit music and reading bestselling books because I use the loud online pretension of progressiveness as a substitute for a personality". Anything they deem negative about a Chinese story is of course the result of an oppressive omnipresent all-seeing government that is somehow simultaneously colossal enough to micromanage the lives of nearly a billion-and-a-half people while also being petty enough to want to fuck you over on movie night.

It's remarkable how, in an age where cultures across the world can be closer than ever and there are so many patient people happy to teach you about their society, Westerners have somehow managed to become more racist in their consumerism. Once in a while, the Western racist of yesteryear could at least try and visualize a Japanese person who was enjoying themselves, but to imagine the Chinese happy and their (statistically incredibly effective at raising living standards!) communist government as an actually positive political force would be like losing the Cold War ten times over.

"'Mo Dao is 10 years old!'

Happy 10th anniversary to Wangxian!"

—MXTX via MaoErFM, 2025

"And what I hoped for was 'on and on the WangXian melody drifts; the song ceases yet the figures persist'.

The clamour will take its exit, while you and I will persist.

—Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 2016.08.12"

(translation by Exiled Rebels Scanlations)

"I no longer like to tell my readers 'I love you'. These words are too light and yet these words are too heavy.

I hope each of you who enjoys this book can be like Lan Wangji in virtue and Wei Wuxian in character.

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 2018.10.31"

Love I think for her is learning and retaining the ideals, the values of your beloved. It was found in LWJ passing on Wei Wuxian’s values to the juniors or WWX passing on JYL’s kindness to Jin Ling. I love how each and every person tried to make sure that the essence of their beloved didn’t vanish after their death.

it is very common to see lwj depicted as someone who can't distinguish right from wrong without being told by the rules, which is, like. not the case. he very much can tell the good from the bad and the in-between in the novel. yes, he was a spiky teenager, yes he couldn't properly express his worry for wwx in the latter's first life, yes he has regrets. but to say that only through suffering does he finally come to deserve wwx's love after his resurrection? that's some bullshit, really

And you'll be like, "That sounds bad." And she'll be like, "No no. It's totally not that bad. It's just a meme. Men say it too. Like if a man does something silly he'll be like, 'I am like those women who do not deserve to vote.'" And you'll be like, "Does that make it better?" And she'll be like, "Well there was one guy who tried to make 'Men shouldn't vote' a popular meme. But it never caught on and also he got yelled at a lot."

Wei Wuxian controls the resentful death. Wei Wuxian controls the resentful death in a novel where characters are slaughtering whole clans, hundreds of people strong for shits and giggles. Wei Wuxian himself was murdered along with 50 of his charges for shits and giggles. He lived on the trash dump mountain of resentful corpse TWICE!!! He was catching the swords of active cultivators when he had NO golden core. Someone shot him in the chest, and he pulled the arrow out, threw it back hard enough to KILL the shooter, and went on to live for another 3 months. He only died because his own technique backfired while he was destroying his own weapon. His death was directly caused by the corruption of every single named character in a power, and fandom acts like it’s just a “given” that these useless ass characters get to live longer than Wei Wuxian rather than a goddamn mercy. Cause if he was really the villain like mainstream fandom acted, none of your favs would be alive. None of them.

Xie Lian stepped into the crossfire of two blows meant to kill, one from a god and the other from a supreme-level ghost king. His only injury after absorbing the power from both blows was one (1) injured hand. He goes toe-to-toe with 33 ascended gods with nothing but a branch and beats their asses. He had one (1) curse collar for this fight. He goes toe-to-toe with a god and treated it as a training lesson. He went toe-to-toe with the EMPEROR OF THE GODS and holds his own for a while. He’s wearing two curse collars. He’s wearing TWO (2) curse collars for both of those!!! This man could rip through several kingdoms with his bare hands. He could probably storm the heavens themselves with his bare hands! And an army of gods—the same people who watched his kingdom be embroiled in civil war on the direction of their emperor and then cannibalized his followers to bolster their own power—would be powerless to stop him. If he was really the villain like mainstream fandom acted, none of your favs would be alive. None of them.

and the other is the death of Charlie Kirk, a fascist podcaster, getting shot by one of his countrymen, as he argued is their right as Americans.