ON GHOSTS AND DEMONS: Wei Wuxian's "demonic" cultivation?
There are a few big misconceptions I have repeatedly seen in English-speaking fandom about things that are fundamental to the story of MDZS. One of them is thisâ
Wei Wuxian is not a demonic cultivator.
To prove this, let's take a deep dive into the original Chinese text of MDZS.
(Adapted from my original gdoc posted on Twitter on May 27, 2022. All translations my own unless otherwise stated.)
Demon vs. ghost
Let's start from the very basics. In addition to orthodox cultivation using spiritual energy and a golden core, there are two other forms of cultivation that are mentioned in the novel:
éé (mĂł dĂ o), or âdemon cultivation/path.â
鏟é (guÇ dĂ o), or âghost cultivation/path.â
To be clear, é mo "demons" and 鏟 gui "ghosts" (and thus their respective cultivation/paths) are not interchangeable because of the in-universe worldbuilding within MDZS. Using the characters in the term ĺŚééŹźćŞ "monsters," MXTX created four distinct categories of beings, each of which has a strict definition in the novel. From chapter 4 (jjwxc ch 13):
ĺŚč éäşşäšć´ťçŠćĺ; éč çäşşćĺ; 鏟č ćťč ćĺ; ćŞč éäşşäšćťçŠćĺă YÄo (ĺŚ) are transformed from non-human living beings; mĂł (é) are transformed from living people; guÇ (鏟) are transformed from the deceased; guĂ i (ćŞ) are transformed from non-human dead beings.
And of course, WWX hoards all the ghost-type pokemon monsters at the Phoenix Mountain tournament, and he only exerts control over corpses, spirits, and the like (aka people who have already died). (As opposed to Xue Yang, who appears to have been actively trying to make é "demons" out of living people with those "living corpses" of his, perhaps.) (And, ironically, in order to avoid showing necromancy / zombies on screen, CQL technically does show WWX practicing demon cultivation because everyone is "supposedly alive" even when they're corpses? Which is, funnily enough, far worse morally in the MDZS universe, lol.)
So, intuitively at least, we know that WWX must be practicing ghost cultivationânow let's look at some concrete examples from the book.
Running the numbers
1) éé (mĂł dĂ o) means âdemon cultivation.â As such, it must use living humans.
éé appears one (1) time in the novel.
Yes, once. The only time it appears is in the term ééçĽĺ¸ modao zushi, or the namesake of the novel, in chapter 2. This is a title the general public has given him through rumors:
éć 瞥弽ćšäšč˘ŤäşşĺŤäşčżäšĺ¤ĺš´ć ä¸éŞĺ°ĺŚăééçĽĺ¸ĺŚäšçąťçç§°ĺˇďźčżç§ä¸çĺ°ąçĽéä¸ćŻäťäšĺĽ˝ä¸čĽżçéľćłďźäťčŞçśäşĺŚććă Wei Wuxian wasnât called titles like âThe Evil Overlord,â âThe Founder of Demon Cultivation,â and so on over the years by others for nothingâhe knew these sorts of obviously shady formations like the back of his hand.
2) 鏟é (guÇ dĂ o) means âghost cultivation.â As such, it must use dead humans.Â
鏟é appears 12 times in the novel.
Here is the first instance that 鏟é appears, which I believe is the first time Wei Wuxian's method of cultivation is properly introduced. From chapter 3 (jjwxc ch 8):
čĺżćş [âŚ] 寚éć 瞥俎鏟éä¸äşćä¸čޤĺŻă Lan Wangji [âŚ] had never approved of the fact that Wei Wuxian practiced ghost cultivation.
Here's another quote from chapter 15 (jjwxc ch 71) for funsies:
čĺżćşççäťďźäźźäšä¸çźĺ°ąçĺşäťĺŞćŻéĺŁćˇčĄďźĺ¸äşä¸ĺŁć°ďźéďźâé労ăâ Lan Wangji looked at him as if he saw through his half-hearted bluff. He took in a breath, then said, âWei Ying.â äťć§ćĺ°éďźâ鏟éć躍ďźćĺżć§ăâ He stubbornly continued, âGhost cultivation harms oneâs body, and harms oneâs nature.â
3) éŞéćŞé (xiemowaidao) means heretical path/immoral methods/evil practices/underhanded means/etcâe.g., lying, cheating, stealing, bribery, and so on.
It appears ~24 times in the novel.
I mention this last term because it is often used to refer to Wei Wuxian's cultivation, but as a pejorative. Every instance of éŞéćŞé is said by or to quote someone looking down upon Wei Wuxianâs cultivation (Jin Zixun, Jin Ling, etc.) and referring to it derogatorily, whereas every instance of 鏟é guidao/ghost dao is said by someone discussing it neutrally and/or factually (Lan Jingyi, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian himself, random cultivators at discussion conferences, the narration, etc.). Here is a pertinent example with Jin Ling (derogatory) and Lan Jingyi (neutral) in chapter 9 (jjwxc ch 43):
éĺćéďźâćŻĺ¨č°čŽşčć´ďźć说çä¸ĺŻšĺďźčć´ĺš˛äşäťäšďźäťćŻä¸ŞçŚ˝ĺ ˝ä¸ĺŚç人渣ďźé労ćŻäťć´čŽŠäşşćśĺżďźäťäšĺŤâä¸č˝ä¸ćŚč莺âďźčżç§éŞéćŞéçĺ¨ä¸ä¸ĺ°ąćŻçĽ¸ĺŽłďźĺ°ąćŻčŻĽçťçťé˝ćĺ ďźćťĺ ďźççťďźâ âWe are discussing Xue Yang,â Jin Ling said angrily. âAm I wrong? What did Xue Yang do? Heâs scum thatâs lower than a beast, and Wei Ying is even more disgusting than him! What do you mean âdonât make sweeping generalizations?â As long as those practicing this kind of demonic, heretical path are alive, theyâll continue to bring disaster. We should slaughter all of them, kill all of them, annihilate them once and for all!â 渊ĺŽĺ¨äşĺ¨ďźéć 瞥ćć示ćäťéć˘ăĺŞĺŹčćŻäťŞäšĺ ĺ Ľäşďźĺˇéďźâä˝ ĺčżäšĺ¤§çŤĺš˛äťäšďźćčż˝ĺ沥说éć 瞥ä¸čŻĽćďźäťĺŞćŻčŻ´äżŽéŹźéçäšä¸ä¸ĺŽĺ ¨é˝ćŻčć´čżç§äşşďźä˝ ćĺż čŚäšąćä¸čĽżĺďźéŁä¸Şćčżć˛Ąĺĺ˘âŚâŚâ Wen Ning shuffled around. Wei Wuxian gestured at him to stay still, only to hear Lan Jingyi also join the fray, bellowing, âWhy are you getting so riled up? Itâs not like Sizhui said Wei Wuxian shouldnât have been killed. All he said was that people who practice ghost cultivation arenât necessarily all like Xue Yang. Do you have to go around breaking things? I didnât even get to eat any of that yetâŚâ
Tl;drâWei Wuxian does not 俎éé practice demon cultivation. When Wei Wuxianâs craft is discussed in a neutral and factual manner, it is referred to as 鏟é ghost dao.Â
In fact, Wei Wuxianâs imitators are also referred to explicitly as 鏟é俎壍 ghost cultivators.
éć 瞥ćŠĺ°ąĺŹčŻ´čżďźčżäşĺš´ćĽćąćžĺ°ĺ¤ćç䟟夺čéçç鏟é俎壍ďźćčżäşäşşééćźĺč˛čąĺ丼ĺćˇćă Wei Wuxian had heard a while back that over the past few years, Jiang Cheng had gone around snatching any ghost cultivator suspected of being possessed or reborn, detaining them in Lotus Pier to interrogate them using torture.
So why the confusion?
Of course, there is the matter of the novel's title, which I will get into in a second. But the real issue is a matter of translation.
The idea that WWX uses "demonic cultivation" is a misconception in English-speaking fandom due to issues with the translation of terminology. Of note, EXR actually did translate 鏟é guidao as "ghostly path" most of the time, though there were at least 3 instances of "demonic" and 1 instance of "dark," especially regarding the first few.
However, this misconception was perpetuated (and arguably worsened) by 7S's official translation, which not only mistranslated additional terms as "demonic cultivation/path" (at least in book 1), but also consistently mistranslated every instance of 鏟é as "demonic cultivation/path."
So why is this book called ééçĽĺ¸, commonly translated as "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation?"
One possibility is one posed in Chinese-language meta online, which often cites that WWX himself is a sort of é demon. While this may be trueâafter all, he can hear the voices of the deadâit doesn't quite explain the fact that the title sets him up to be the çĽĺ¸ or "founder."
My take is that this novel is very much concerned with hearsay vs. truth. This is one of the many monikers WWX is given by the public, who collectively view him as evil. (Also of note is that the non-cultivator public is not aware of all the nuances that cultivators learn re: distinctions between the ĺŚééŹźćŞ monsters.) In the quote from earlier, note that the first title we're given is actually ć ä¸éŞĺ° âThe Evil Overlord,â then ééçĽĺ¸ "The Founder of Demon Cultivation." Like, what can that be other than MXTX telling us, "please take both of these with a HUGE grain of salt, lol."
(And not only the title, but the very first lineâ"éć 瞥ćťäşă" / "Wei Wuxian is dead."âis a lie.)
I think the title is genius, honestly. It intentionally makes readers come into the novel with preconceived notions that Wei Wuxian practices éé demon cultivation and evil techniquesâjust like the public in the story. What better way to tell a story warning about the dangers of how easy it is to fall for misinformation and jump to incorrect conclusions?
(Though, in our case, perhaps it worked a little too well.)












