Thanks! *cracks knuckles getting ready to type*
Below is more like…a genre analysis as well as personal headcanon, because after I calmed down from my wangxian feels and yunmeng bro feels, I’m so fucking pissed about MDZS’s treatment of its female characters.
First, some pre-amble: I’ve watched wuxia for as long as I can remember, and having consumed some older classics such as 射雕英雄传， 神雕侠侣， 天龙八部 with my parents growing up, MDZS’s portrayal of its female characters deeply disappoints. And this is a commentary not just on this one work, but for many works across the genre. Currently online novels are very popular, many of which have been turned to tv series. I have to say that something strange and detrimental has happened to female characters in general. If the show is a 大女主剧 aka it’s based on the story of one female lead, she is portrayed on the surface as a “strong female character” (aka she’s good at fighting, strategizing etc), BUT for some reason the male lead is still “better” than her in terms of martial arts, mystic arts, etc etc etc, such that when she’s in trouble, he can swoop in and save her heroically. >_> In these stories, the female lead has VERY few if not no female friends at all. Or, if she does have female friends, they either turn against her, or they get killed off, or they are related to her (sister, aunt, mother etc). Female characters are often pitted against each other, and female leads are isolated and are not given opportunities to form deep and lasting relationships with other female supporting roles.
ON THE OTHER HAND, in stories where females are supporting characters, such as MDZS, what happens is exactly what you see with Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, Qin Su, and Mian Mian’s character. They get sidelined, reduced to very few personality traits and are killed off to advance male characters’ plot arch. (Yanli, sista pls, your can’t use ‘soup’ to solve every single one of your problems). There are exceptions of course, such as the show “Nirvana in Fire”, but NIF isn’t really wuxia, but more like pseudo-history/political, and it is truly a rare gem.
The Untamed tv show actually tries very hard to correct some of the author MXTX’s bullshit in this regard and gives female characters more screen time. But in the words of my mother (who is a A-class show binger; any wuxia show in recent years and in the past, you name it she’s seen it) “Look at Yu Ziyuan, she’s so “厉害” (scary, skilled, powerful), I have no idea why Jiang Yanli can’t cultivate; maybe she has poor health.”
The truth is, in a family - a cultivation Sect - where both the Sect Leader and his Lady wife are strong cultivators and martial artists, there is no sensible reason why their daughter can’t cultivate/fight. Yunmeng Jiang has both male and female disciples, so it’s not a matter of only passing on skills to male descendants. Yu Ziyuan herself is dubbed “Purple Spider” - that’s a friggin’ title. What people don’t understand is that in Wuxia, to have a title or a nickname, you really have to earn it. That alone should speak to Yu Ziyuan’s status.
And you all saw how Yu Ziyuan reacted to Jiang Cheng always coming up second to Wei Wuxian; she’s angry as hell. She is the proverbial tiger mom, who expects a lot of out of her children. In that meal scene, Yu Ziyuan admonishes Jiang Yanli because Yanli is sitting there quietly and peeling lotus seeds for her brothers. She says something to the effect of “look at her, still peeling lotus seeds! What else can you do? You’re a master, not a servant!” That really struck me because it implies that Yu Ziyuan would’ve wanted her daughter to be less passive, more active and possibly even cultivate.
People’s general assumption has been “Yanli chose to be a nurturer” - well, sorry friends, but that’s not how it works in traditional Chinese families, especially not in the wuxia genre. Culturally and contextually, that just isn’t plausible. If choice is involved, it is something developed in later years, when the teenage rebellion phase kick in. However, cultivators train from childhood, and if your parents want you to learn something, to train, to follow in the family footstep, you do not say no. So even if Yanli chose to be a pacifist, she would’ve still known how to fight, she would’ve still had a golden core - but as we see, that is not the case. She can’t fight, has no core or at best a very weak core. Especially the children of the Sect leaders, girl or boy, if you don’t know ANYTHING about cultivation, that is nothing to be proud of. It brings shame on the family. There’s a saying in Chinese 虎父无犬女（子）- which roughly translates to tiger fathers do not have dog daughters/sons. Children are expected to live up to their parents’ reputations. So to sum up: in keeping with wuxia genre’s normal tropes, Jiang Yanli could not have reasonably “chosen” to be a nurturer/pacifist. She cares so much about her family, she would’ve wanted to make her parents happy and proud.
In other genres, such as historical dramas, yes, daughters are kept demure, passive and virtuous (but never uneducated) so they will make suitable wives in the future. But in Wuxia, that is not the case and has never been the case. If anything, in Wuxia, men and women enjoy more equality than in any other genre.
Sword: Part of the reason why Jiang Yanli carries a sword… well I think logistically, that’s more for visual effects and symmetry of the scene than anything else. I don’t think the sword is part of the novel or the donghua, only the live action. We’ve certainly never seen her use it. But i have my own hc regarding this sword. (see below).
Health: I’m not sure about the book, but the show does imply that Jiang Yanli is not of the greatest health [disclaimer: i have an educational background in biomedical sciences, i’m not just pulling ideas out of thin air]. We first see her fall ill at Cloud Recesses, and Wen Qing goes to tend to her. Yanli says it’s because the weather has been rainy. While it is true that cultivation allows cultivators to have greater health, even just a regular person doesn’t fall ill just because it’s raining. Secondly, when they were searching for wwx and lwj, Jiang Cheng has to help her hike around Cloud Recesses. I’m sorry, but what average healthy teenager with no co-morbidities has trouble hiking? Your 65 year old grandpa with congestive heart failure has shortness of breath upon exertion, but not a healthy 18 year old, cultivation or no cultivation. And after Lotus Pier’s tragedy, Jiang Yanli falls ill again, which I suppose you can attribute to stress, heartbreak and being soaked by the rain. Overall, I suspect the show tries to explain/imply her lack of cultivation on her health.
And finally, the headcanon:
My person headcanon for Yanli is that she doesn’t cultivate, not because she doesn’t want to or was never taught, but because she can’t due to medical complications. Especially because she has a sword, I think once upon a time when she was very little, her parents did what any cultivator parents would do which was prepared her for cultivation. I hc that once upon a time, before Jiang Cheng was even born, Jiang Yanli was a cultivator, and even had a golden core.
Her sword (in my private mind) is named Wuyun 五蘊 (five skandhas/aggregates) stemming from the fact that her younger brother’s sword is Sandu 三毒 (three poisons). Sandu and Wuwen are related concepts in Buddhism.
[The three poisons (of ignorance, attachment, and aversion) are the primary causes that keep sentient beings trapped in reincarnation cycle. The five aggregates of clinging are the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging. Suffering arises when one identifies with or clings to the aggregates. This suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates.]
(Better explanations can be found on wiki lol, I apologize to all theology majors out there, this is not my forte!!!). As siblings, it makes poetic/literary sense for their swords to have similar theological stems. (I also hc that WWX’s sword should’ve been sidi 四諦, a related buddism term for “four noble truths” except he’s a disaster boi and named his sword “Whatever”, which tbh, is the essence of buddism LMAO)
But because Yanli is presented to have such poor health, in my hc she is born with a congenital condition, specifically a congenital heart defect (a VSD is what I prefer but i’m really stretching science and medicine here haha). The defect is small when she was a baby but as she grows, the defect grows proportionally such that it is no longer sustainable for life. In modern day, without surgical intervention, Jiang Yanli can’t possibly live, but since this is the magical land of cultivation, the healers does a very advanced and dangerous technique that harnesses the spiritual energy of Yanli’s small golden core to repair the damage on her heart. The consequence however is that her entire golden core is consumed in the process and her “spiritual root” 仙脉 is exhausted. She will live, but she will never be able to cultivate again. Any attempts of cultivation will be endangering her life. I think the healers would’ve warned her against and scared her with things like “you don’t want to be the reason your parents loses a daughter.”
Okay, I’m done. Thank you for letting me vent. I kind of wrote a little bit of what i think happened to Yanli’s ability to cultivate in narration in the reblog of this post. I may or may not be planning a yanli-centric and wen qing-centric fic… but we’ll see. haha .
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