Mo Dao Zu Shi - Hogwarts sorting
Using the sortinghatchats model. Note: I’m only up to chapter 67 of the English translated chapter so these may change as we get more on the characters in the rest of the novel. There may also be spoilers up to chapter 67 of the novel.
Wei WuXian
WuXian is a Gryffindor Primary/Sytherin Secondary. His secondary is obvious, the way the he improvises, manipulates and thinks on his feet is characteristic of those with a Slytherin Secondary. When he notices the water ghouls on the bottom of WangJi’s boat, he thinks of a way to expose them without alerting them that he knows. In the XuanWu caves, when Wen Chao was telling his men to kill WangJi and ZiXuan, it’s WuXian that distracts Wen Chao with a quote and a not so subtle insult. Even the way to he uses Mo XuanYu’s reputation as a lunatic and a cut-sleeve to his advantage, putting on and pulling off that mask as he needs is indicative of his secondary. I suspect he has a Ravenclaw Secondary model and that’s the reason he has so many inventions to his name but at the core of his character is the ability to see a problem as potential for change ( “Even flying swords were a fantasy once”) which is Slytherin to the bones. His primary, however, is Gryffindor because “someone has to say it”. For WuXian if it’s wrong, it’s wrong and he has to act and speak out against it - no matter how often he’s told to keep his nose down or there’ll be consequences (that steadfast honesty in his actions is what inspires so many around him and earns him his loyalty - Wen Ning and WangJi the best examples). It’s what drives him to save MianMian, a girl he barely knows and has rejected him already as well as offer help to Lan WangJi when he finds out that he’s injured even though he knows Wangji would probably refuse and finds him annoying - he still asks because it’s the right thing to do. It’s also, I think but this may change depending on the rest of the novel, what ultimately drives him to fight against the Wen Sect because what they’re doing is wrong and so they have to pay for it through any means possible. Even his destruction of the Tiger Seal runs along these lines because he can trust himself to be righteous with its power and use it for the right causes but he doesn’t trust others - he destroys the seal because of its potential for harm is too great, and because of that it’s the right thing to do. Lan WangJi I struggled a little with Wangji, mostly because we rarely see his motivations and they’re often seen through Wuxian’s (dense) eyes but I think he is a Slytherin Primary (with a Hufflepuff model) and a Hufflepuff Secondary. It’s hard to sort him into any primary but Slytherin considering the kind of world-burning loyalty that he holds towards WuXian and how it’s such a large part of the story (and why we love him). His possessiveness of WuXian (“Mine”) I feel is also indicative of his primary. Also one of the only times we ever see him lose his composure is when the people precious to him are hurt (the burning of the Cloud Recesses, his father mortally wounded, his brother missing) and so I’m quite comfortable slotting him into Slytherin. However, in the cases outside of Wei WuXian, I feel as though he falls back on a very solid Hufflepuff model adopted from the Cloud Recesses. The dedication to fairness and value that he places on the traditions, customs and rules of his Sect speak to me of a community oriented Hufflepuff (look at the care that he takes of the juniors in the clan) and this is the model that he lives for most of his life. It’s very likely that this blends and overlaps with his Slytherin Primary as well, both of them being loyalist houses, with the GusuLan Sect/the Cloud Recesses also being a group/place he is loyal to. The primary reason that I think his Puff is a model rather than his primary is the way that he reacts to WuXian when he returns and kills Wen Chao in that his immediate concern is WuXian and what harm these techniques would do to him rather than a Puff’s inherent objection to the way Wen Chao is treated (or maybe by that point, the Wen Sect has already been dehumanised but I had to choose one way or another and this is it lmao). His secondary, I think, is Hufflepuff as well because when WangJi does something, he never does it in half-measures. Not matter how large or difficult the task is, he invests 150% and that’s what makes him the reliable, trustworthy person that we see (and that WuXian is slowly falling in love with). This dedication to a task bleeds into stubbornness for WangJi (as XiChen says “he has always been this stubborn even when he was young”) because he believes in the value of effort, hard work and doing things the proper way. WangJi is also somewhat of a community builder, this is seen in the way the juniors of the Lan Sect look up to him most likely because he has invested the time and effort to guide them, just as he is invests everything in order to take care of and help WuXian. Jiang Cheng Jiang Cheng is a Slytherin Primary and this can be seen in the way that he takes care of his own. Maybe it’s a product of the way which their world is but Jiang Cheng cares deeply for his family and would do anything to keep them safe. Where WuXian’s Gryffindor Primary cries out in the face of injustice at the Wen Sect, Jiang Cheng looks on in disgust but says and does nothing because if he does, his family would be at risk. It is not until WuXian dives in head first and gets into trouble, that he acts to help WuXian - and this happens constantly, no matter what kind of trouble WuXian gets into, Jiang Cheng is always there to help him out, a little grudgingly and resigned (and also while scolding him) but he is always there to help. It’s not until they fall out (and if I’m reading it right, because it hasn’t been translated yet, is something to do with WuXian’s role in YanLi’s death which would be abhorrent to Jiang Cheng’s Slytherin primary) and Jiang Cheng loses everyone important to him that he Petrifies and becomes the person we meet in the current timeline. However, even through his Petrification he can’t help but care for Jin Ling, his last familial tie and the way that he cares for and protects him is very characteristic of his Slytherin Primary, even through the Petrification. His secondary however is Ravenclaw - the way that he takes care of his people is through carefully laid plans (too bad it’s WuXian, who hates plans). On DaFan Mountain, he makes meticulous plans to protect Jin Ling and help him succeed, laying out the nets and planting people to hunt with him to make sure he isn’t harmed. When faced with the possibility that WuXian might return, his solution is to capture and gather information from every demon cultivator he can find - even when they are “proven” to not be WuXian. In this way, the nets, his rank and power as the leader of the Yunmeng Sect and even ZiDian are tools for him to utilise to further his purposes which is demonstrative of his Ravenclaw secondary. Jin Ling It’s a little hard to sort Jin Ling because we don’t see too much of him but from what we can see I think he is a Slytherin Primary and Gryffindor Secondary. His primary, like his Uncle’s, is the way that we see him prioritise the things he sees as his as well as in his hunger for recognition and opportunities to prove himself. When we see him getting closer to WuXian (who he still thinks is Mo XuanYu), he tells him to “stay by HanGuang-Jun’s side properly” because this is the brand of loyalty that feels most right to Jin Ling and he even warns “XuanYu” away from his sects. His tolerance for “XuanYu” as someone who he is getting closer to only holds as long as his two sects, towards which he holds a greater loyalty, are unbothered. Even the way he calls it “our sect” (and the way he angers when “XuanYu” visits Koi Tower) has a sort of possessiveness to it that is very Slytherin. This can also be seen when WuXian’s secret is revealed and their confrontation, the distress and pain that Jin Ling shows is indicative of the war inside of him with the burgeoning closeness with WuXian (and the loyalty he feels for him for the events they’ve been through) and the loyalty he has to his family, sect and his Uncle Jiang Cheng who we all know has taught him to hate demon cultivators. We don’t see the rest of his reaction in this scene but the parts we do see make it very obvious he is a Slytherin Primary. Jin Ling’s secondary was even harder to pin down but I have gone with Gryffindor because of the way he charges and blusters through every situation. While the ability to inspire is not yet there (and this may develop as he grows and matures), the way in which he approaches problems by diving headfirst into them and his bluntness, straightforwardness and honesty is very Gryffindor. When he goes against the Goddess statute his why is obvious - his Uncle, his desire to prove himself - but his how is what endears him to us, his willingness to charge in even when others are frozen around him and his conviction even in the face of death makes him a shining example of a Gryffindor Secondary.
Lan XiChen XiChen is a Hufflepuff Primary because he doesn’t just value fairness, fairness is what he does. When he asks WangJi about what happened at Koi Tower, his dear Slytherin Primary brother insists that whatever WuXian says is the truth, Xichen asks him how that truth can be judged. For him, it isn’t fair to denounce GuangYao purely on WuXian’s word just as it isn’t fair to denounce WuXian on GuangYao’s word even if he is closer to GuangYao and knows him better. He also, I think, displays a “people-first” mentality of a Hufflepuff Primary. He shelters WuXian at the Cloud Recesses and helped with his injuries even when he doesn’t know whether he is trustworthy and while we don’t exactly know why he does so, I feel it is a combination of his need to help someone injured and in need as well as his dedication to fairness because it wouldn’t be fair for him to not help WuXian when he could be innocent. This is also part of why he finds the notion of GuangYao’s actions so abhorrent - that he not only harms his sworn brother (remember, loyalty is also a Hufflepuff trait) but does it with a tool XiChen gave him to help MingJue, all of these things goes against XiChen’s Hufflepuff nature and that is why he is so shocked at the suggestion of it. His secondary however is Ravenclaw because of the way that he thinks things through and analyses them before he acts. When he is faced with a problem he researches and studies it before trying to solve it - with the Waterborne Abyss, once he realises the extent of the situation he goes back to Gusu to ask QiRen and find out more information on what they should do, when trying to figure out why and how the Cleansing song is different, he consults the books and plans runs tests to ascertain the effects of the song. Just as the way Jiang Cheng collects tools and information to formulate plans make him a Ravenclaw Secondary, Lan Xichen’s logical and analytical approach to problems and the way he depends on research and knowledge to back his actions demonstrate the way he belongs in Ravenclaw also.
