#lan sect

Lan Sizhui during a night hunt: Wow, do you smell that? Reminds me of home for some reason.

Lan Jingyi: There’s a fucking corpse behind the tree.

Lan Sizhui: this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Truly delicious.

Lan Jingyi: it’s a fucking boiled

radish.

Lan Sizhui: Sometimes I wonder if the moon feels lonely, surrounded by so many distant stars yet always shining alone.

When we see Lan Wangji in WWX'S second life we see the change Lan Wangji has initiated in his own clan.

That change is embodied in the one Lan Jingyi.

He's loud, brash, emotive, unfiltered and sometimes rude, all of which are anathema to the Lan Clan's sacred ideals of comportment and image. While Lan Jingyi does get punished for infractions it should be noted that he's never dissuaded from his own nature. There is no alienation of Lan Jingyi from his clan. Lan Jingyi is fully Lan, we don't ever see him excluded and we don't see his relationship to his clan in any interpretable as estranged.

What does that tell us?

It tells us that the Lan Sect is changing. If we went purely on the Lan Sect we see in years prior it would not be surprising to see a character such as Lan Jingyi continually disparaged for his anathemic nature, looked down upon and excluded for his differences and punished for his 'undesirable traits'.

We do not see Lan Jingyi's passion being trained or beaten out of him. Instead, we see that the Lan Sect, especially through Lan Wangji's teachings and reforms, are doing their best to model Morality and Righteousness.

The flourishing existence of Lan Jingyi is a testament to the emendation of Lan Sect values; true righteousness being valued over the appearance of it, benevolence in action instead of in name. Mercy. Grace.

Lan Jingyi is the product of Lan Wangji's reforms and trials.

We see Lan Wangji suffer for his innate passion, punished for it by the hands of his own sect. But we also know Lan Jingyi never will.

Behold the Lan Sect!

Peerless cultivators! Magnificent fur fluffy like a cloud! The absolute pride of the blob Jianghu and they won't let anyone forget it!

every named lan clan member breaks some rules throughout the story. and it's not to show that the lan's are hypocrites but that the principles behind it all matters more than the actual rules by themselves, that the lan clan's people and its rules really aren't as inflexible and unreasonable as people think.

part of understanding the rules aimed towards discipline and righteousness is developing wisdom and discernment, knowing the when, why, and how of the rules. lan wangji masters these rules and knows when and how they can or should be broken and what the appropriate consequences should be

when drunk lan wangji commits his pretty crimes, wei wuxian posits that he is doing things he couldn't do as a child. lan wangji did have a longing for living a more unrestrained life which seems to have been sparked by wei wuxian entering his life (see: lotus seeds extra) and seems to really only want to live that life if it's with wei wuxian, which is fitting because, according to the lan clan customs, they are only allowed to let go of restraint with their fated person.

for wei wuxian, rule-breaking and being immature and the subsequent punishments are all part of childhood. wei wuxian gets punished for deliberately breaking the rules of the community in which he is a guest in and rules which he had been well-informed on. he mostly just has to copy texts and only gets a more severe punishment after multiple offenses on the same rule. when he becomes an adult, he very much acts mature and any mischief is done all in good fun but he also never does as much as he did when he was younger. he even helps enforce the rules himself because he understands that it's also a necessary part of growing up and life in general

"but if the lan's are so righteous, why didn't they save the wen remnants and participate in the siege of burial mounds?"

on the topic of the wen remnants, i will just link this nuanced meta on it

on the topic of the siege of burial mounds, it's politics and also justice. for one, wei wuxian had lan clan blood on his hands. wen ning, who was essentially wei wuxian's weapon, lost control at koi tower and ended up killing the lan disciples who were present to assist. it's also implied that some lan disciples were also killed when wei wuxian activated the yinhufu at nightless city. and so it's within their duty to seek justice for the lost lives of their own people. second, they can't not participate. it's in the best interest of the entire clan and its people, which was still in the process of rebuilding at that time, to not make enemies out of other clans, especially the jin's who, at that time, were the most powerful and who, through jin guangyao, were providing immense help in the said rebuilding process. even then, the lan clan and the nie clan were only there as back-up and weren't part of the main offensive force which were the jiang's and the jin's.

lan qiren's dislike for wei wuxian was, in the beginning, due to wei wuxian's immaturity. eventually, it was because he was very protective of lan wangji, his most precious nephew whom he loves and treasures. same goes for lan xichen. he gets mad at wei wuxian because he thought wei wuxian was playing with his little brother's feelings even after everything that lan wangji went through for him. (and wasn't wei wuxian the same towards jin zixuan in his relationship with jiang yanli even as they were about to be wed)