I feel like people misunderstand the title of Mo Dao Zu Shi, or of what Wei Wuxian does as âdemonic cultivationâ (mo dao). Itâs not. It is, however, what most people in canon THINK heâs doing
Mo dao messes with the cycle of reincarnation, which is why the Yiling Patriarch becomes so reviled. The term mo dao is actually used only ONCE in the novel - when Wei Wuxian notes that people called him âthe grandmaster of demonic cultivationâ
It uses living humans, extracts qi out of them, and involves the destruction of golden cores, brainwashing, and effectively vampiring living beings for the sake of power. It doesnât use ambient resentment, it creates it by harming others.
The reason weâre continuously told (by people who know nothing of Wei Wuxianâs path) that heâs at risk of going insane is because thatâs what mo dao does. It warps the mind and body because the source of resentment is within the user
Wei Wuxian calls his cultivation âthe ghostly pathâ or âghost cultivationâ (gui dao). Hell, the only other person shown to match his expertise on the subject - Xue Yang - also calls it gui dao. Xue Yang !! Heâd be delighted to call his actions demonic !! If heâs insisting on calling it âghostlyâ, then that tells us that the difference matters
So what is gui dao ? First of all, we know that it doesnât mind-control people as a baseline - thatâs why Wei Wuxian ended up dying the first go around. We know that it utilises pre-existing resentful energy in the world to direct the dead
We know, also, that it requires a certain level of understanding of the dead. One of the spells Wei Wuxian creates is literally named Empathy.
We know that the power source is usually external (the Burial Mounds, the Stygian Tiger Seal), and that it, most importantly, doesnât create demons. It creates ghosts and fierce corpses. And because of this, it likely doesnât prevent reincarnation.
Why is the distinction important ? Because the former is what mo dao does. It creates mo.
Weâre told the difference - very intentionally - in one of the earliest parts of the story, when Lan Qiren asks Wei Wuxian the difference between gui (ghosts) and mo (demons) and yao, and gets the correct answer
Thereâs foreshadowing littered all across the earlier chapters, actually. I might make a post on that some day
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