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some of dd’s wrap-up posts compared to his cql wrap-up post 🙃

这些点点滴滴我以后通通不想忘记！ I’ll never forget even the tiniest thing from this experience (©)

oh man... I don’t have it with me, but while I was watching CQL, I kept a running list of “missing scenes I wanted to see” on a piece of scratch paper I had taped to my wall. A lot of those missing scenes ended up on this blog in one form or another anyway (Sunshot Campaign wangxian? Sunshot Era!Lan Wangji? Literally everything about Wei Wuxian and those three months in the Burial Mounds?)

But you know what I’m feeling, right now? Jokes on you, I’m always feeling this -- I wish CQL had more fight scenes. 

And not just like, the super quick shots we got of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen tearing their way through hordes of fierce corpses during the Sunshot Campaign (though that was wonderful and aesthetic, thank you for that CQL production crew). I wish they had the time and the budget (and the space in the story) to really develop the ways various fighting styles inform our understanding of characters.

Ever since I took one (1) class on stage combat/theatrical violence, I’ve been fascinated by the amount of character analysis and deliberate performance choice goes into choreographing and performing fight sequences. Every little detail can be so rich in terms of character content: say person A has provoked person B to physical violence via, oh, insults about their parentage. First of all, we learn a great deal about person B -- what is their berserk button? What can get them to snap and lift a hand with intent to cause harm? Second of all, what is person B’s instinctive response? A punch indicates some level of training in combat, because 1) punches are not instinctive to throw, and 2) it’s very easy to fuck it up and break your thumb or hurt your wrist. Or does person B go for a slap? Slaps read differently from punches; for one, they have a weird amount of gendered connotations. For another, they’re open-palm blows, which seem, on the surface, to be less aggressively violent than punches, but can deliver the same amount of force. Or does person B go for a collar grab? A classic move -- inflicts no damage, but indicates how seriously upset you are. Or perhaps a shove? Does that send person A to the ground, or back into a wall? What does that tell us about person A’s experience with violence?

...and so on and so forth.

The fight between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian in the Qinghe Nie courtyard lasted approximately... what, twenty-five seconds? and I went off on it for over a thousand words. Okay, fine, I wasn’t talking solely about the fight choreography itself, but the point still stands -- we can learn so much about characters in a well-choreographed fight scene, and I’m dying for more.

If Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen’s fighting styles are anything to go by, we can assume that Gusu Lan’s sword forms emphasize elegant, momentum-driven lines, all fluidity and continuity of motion (it’s about maximizing those Sleeve Aesthetics, y’know). If Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s fighting styles are representative of Yunmeng, we can see that the Yunmeng Jiang style focuses on strength and stamina; the two of them tend to catch their blows from their opponents on their blades/hilts/flutes rather than simply deflect and move past. Meanwhile, the Lanling Jin school of combat seems to give equal weight to both empty-handed brawling and swordwork; in the Xuanwu Cave, Jin Zixuan doesn’t seem fazed by fighting empty-handed in the slightest, unlike Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji, who avoid fighting empty-handed if at all possible and pick up weapons as soon as they can. Jin Zixuan in general tends to be more willing to get up-close-and-personal in fights; he often moves into and through other people’s ranges, rather than keeping them firmly at arm’s/sword’s length the way, say, Lan Wangji does.

Again -- fascinating. What does that tell us about Lanling Jin culture? The ability to fight and defend oneself while weaponless? Does that point at a history of political turmoil, where Jin Sect members have needed to learn how to defend themselves just in case, oh, I dunno, all swords were confiscated at the door for a peace-talk that is now devolving? Or is this a fighting style unique to Jin Zixuan himself, and if so, what does that say about his training and education? does this mean that Jin Zixuan sometimes goes out bar brawling with Mianmian??? inquiring minds wish to know

We don’t get a ton of songxiao fight scenes (one of the biggest tragedies of CQL is that we never get a back-to-back badasses/battle couple fight scene with songxiao), but how does Xiao Xingchen’s movement style differ from other characters? He’s incredibly light and fast on his feet, but doesn’t seem to deliver the same amount of force that, say, Jiang Cheng could deal in a single blow. Meanwhile, Song Lan is a brilliant fighter (when he’s not, uh, being terribly provoked by Xue Yang); all swift, crisp movements backed by an immense amount of power. Speaking of Xue Yang, he and Jin Guangyao incorporate a certain amount of psychological warfare into their fighting styles, which subsequently rely on the need to maintain distance with their opponents (to avoid getting Stabbed Whilst Evil Monologuing).

This is one of my favorite scenes and I never get tired of watching it. It's probably not surprising since we have gushed about it the moment it came out. We joked a lot about how Lan Wangji—pure boy extraordinaire who got his rude gay awakening and endured countless gay panics over the years thanks to his dense crush Wei Wuxian—finally had: 1) Wei Wuxian on his bed, 2) Wei Wuxian in his clothes, and 3) the liberty and familiarity to just open up the other boy's robe and have a fun gay time. 

But honestly? All jokes aside, what I love about this scene is that is actually so good and pure. Look at how properly Lan Wangji is taking care of his Wei Ying. Wei Wuxian woke up in the middle of the bed, while Lan Wangji was sitting elsewhere. From the looks of things, he was there from night 'til morning, and did not take advantage. If he did, we would know. Lan Wangji punishes himself when he does something he shouldn't, but here he came out of meditation calm, if tired-looking. It must have been a long night for him, patching up Wei Wuxian.

Even when he opened Wei Wuxian's robe—another scene we gushed and joked a lot about—again, look at how he does it. His eyes stay on the wound and respectfully look down instead of straying. There is no peeking, no distractions for Lan Wangji other than to ascertain that Wei Wuxian is indeed all right, because gods know the boy can't be trusted with his own well-being. 

The Untamed

Episode: 29

ohhhhhh we’re hitting some peak wangxians tonight!

okay so for a little context, this is right about when we find out that Lan Wangji has taken on the responsibility of Chief Cultivator. Wei Wuxian expresses his surprise at Lan Wangji’s choice, to which Lan Wangji responds that the two of them swore an oath, to 锄奸扶弱 chujianfuruo / eliminating the wicked and supporting the weak，无愧于心 wukuiyuxin / to have a clear conscience.

Wei Wuxian thinks about Lan Wangji’s words for a moment, then nods sagely before this exchange:

Wei Wuxian: 蓝湛 Lan Zhan, 你不愧是含光君 ni bukui shi Hanguangjun. / Lan Zhan, you are truly worthy of being Hanguang-jun.

Lan Wangji: 你也不愧是魏婴 niye bukui shi Wei Ying/ And you are truly worthy of being Wei Ying.

The key word that’s tripping people up here is 不愧 bukui – literally, ‘to not disappoint’ or ‘to not be unworthy of’ or ‘to not fall short of.’ The idea is that there is some kind of image or trait or archetype that something is associated with, and to say that something 不愧 bukui that image/trait/archetype is to say that it does not disappoint that image/trait/archetype – or, removing some of those double negatives, that something lives up to its reputation. So for example, we could say:

 此剑 cijian / This sword

不愧是 bukui shi / is worthy of, does not disappoint

干将铸造的 Gan Jiang zhuzaode / forged by Gan Jiang [a legendary Warring States swordsmith]

to get to a sentence that more or less conveys 

this sword does not disappoint its making by Gan Jiang, 

or, with less negatives, 

this sword truly lives up to its reputation of being forged by the legendary Gan Jiang.

It’s a little twisty in English, that’s for sure. But back to wangxian! What Wei Wuxian is saying here is that Lan Wangji truly deserves his title as Hanguang-jun, Light-Bearer of the cultivation world. He’s marvelling that Lan Wangji is exactly as good as people think he is. It’s also fun to note that Wei Wuxian starts out that sentence at Lan Wangji’s most intimate, informal address – Lan Zhan – and ends it at his formal title – Hanguang-jun. Re-translated a little more loosely, we’d get:

Wei Wuxian: Lan Zhan, you truly live up to your title/reputation as Hanguang-jun.

Lan Wangji, on the other hand, completely turns the compliment back on Wei Wuxian by inverting the sentence/sentiment. What he says might be best understood as straddling several English translations of the phrasing:

Lan Wangji: And you do not disappoint Wei Ying / 

And you are worthy of being called Wei Ying / 

And you live up to the reputation of Wei Ying.

The idea, here, being that 1) Wei Wuxian has lived up to the idealistic young Wei Ying who’d promised on a floating lantern all those years ago to eliminate the wicked and support the weak, and 2) that Wei Ying is the highest, idealized form of Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian comments that Lan Wangji has lived up to his lofty title of Hanguang-jun; Lan Wangji, in inverting the sentence and placing Wei Wuxian’s personal name where Wei Wuxian put Lan Wangji’s title, is effectively saying that Wei Ying is the most admirable thing Wei Wuxian could be, and that he lives up to it.

god, no wonder we get the adorable scrunchy smile of pure loving joy from Wei Wuxian at that compliment, Lan Wangji is such a smooth-talking little MINX I canNOT–

why would you relegate that in the tags?!

 All of my memories keep you near In silent moments imagine you here All of my memories keep you near Your silent whispers, silent tears 

-Within Temptation, Memories

I saw this and couldn’t help it. Bichen is like boomerang. But a torch is neither. T.T Poor LWJ. 

WangXian is the melody composed by Lan WangJi for Wei WuXian. It is how he recognized his soulmate after the latter’s death, even though Wei WuXian now occupies a different body. WangXian is also translated as Forgetting Envies, and is a portmanteau of their names.

But first, a little background on the connotations of the family names, all of which are common enough but will subconsciously shape how these characters are perceived in the minds of a reader who is a native speaker. If you know Chinese, you might even get the feeling that the author got pretty tongue-in-cheek about the naming of her characters.

The Jin clan is gaudy and loud about their wealth. The word Jin 金 is literally “gold”. The Lan clan has family emblems that are cloud-themed. The word Lan 藍 is literally “blue”. The Jiang clan has roots in a province with lots of ponds and rivers. The word Jiang 江 is literally “river” in reference to bodies of water in Southern China.

The surname Wei 魏 is familiar to history majors, as it’s one of the three nation-states in the Three Kingdoms Period. However, if you’re also a WeiLan shipper from the Guardian fandom, then you might have heard that Shen Wei’s name Wei 巍 means “Mountain god entrusts himself to Ghost”. (I might do another post on this sometime.)

In Wei Ying’s Wei 魏 there’s no mountain 山 involved; that’s the top part of the character in Shen Wei’s Wei 巍. The original meaning of the word 魏 is grand and majestic – the left half of that character means god or entrust, while the right half means ghost. Fitting surname for a grandmaster who deals with the deceased.

Now the fun part with the personal names.

Lan Zhan’s formal name Zhan 湛 means deep or clear, without impurities. It is often prefixed to the front of the word “blue” to describe the color of sunny cloudless skies, azure.

(As an aside, his elder brother Lan XiChen’s formal name is Huan 渙, and means an expansive spreading of water with connotations of dispersion. Both Zhan and Huan have the water word root on the left half of the character.)

Wei Ying’s formal name Ying 嬰 literally means babe. In ancient times it used to also refer to necklaces, but that didn’t stop people from naming their sons thus. Historically there are at least a handful of well-known figures with that name. The Taoist term YuanYing 元嬰 refers to a state of primordial transcendence, often considered an intermediate phase on the path toward deity.

The author really nailed it with their courtesy names.

WangJi 忘機 / 忘机

Wang 忘 means to forget. In English it may have negative connotations because it’s associated with a passive disease and loss of treasured memories. In Chinese the act of actively forgetting can also be a positive renunciation of worldly troubles, so the character is somewhat more romantic than an English speaker would assume.

Ji 機 / 机 is typically used in common speech to refer to machines, mechanical things, opportunities, worldly things that have many parts intricately connected with each other. In more metaphysical discussions, it implies the intertwined destinies and sophistication of the mundane.

I’ve seen a classy tea store selling leaf blends named WangJi, among a collection of other poetic references and reminders of the otherworldly. To forget the secular calculations and intricacies of the world is to live freely and without distractions; as an antonym of precision, it has heavy Taoist flavors because of its seclusive connotations.

WuXian 無羨 / 无羨

Wu 無 / 无 means none, nil, the lack of.

Xian 羨 means envy. WuXian is a perfect name for someone who embodies the untamed, envious of none. His outlook on life is never to bemoan his fate, come what may. He doesn’t know the meaning of jealousy. He is complete in and of himself.

WangXian as a portmanteau is so clever – even though the other portmanteau is brilliant as well: WuJi 無機 / 无机 is pronounced exactly the same as the Chinese term for “untamed” 無羈 / 无羁 (yes, those are the two characters you see inside the red stamp next to the show’s title logo).

When a native speaker hears the term WangXian 忘羨, they get the basic meaning of “forgetting envies”, but at the same time they’re inevitably reminded of this famous idiom:

只羨鴛鴦不羨仙 Zhi Xian YuanYang Bu Xian Xian Literally: Only envy the mandarin ducks, and not the deities. (Alternatively: A pair of love birds is more enviable than immortality.)

Storytelling via fight choreography

Here is the excellent analysis that this vidder is most famed for, and probably also one of the most watched wangxian clips on douyin.