#gui dao

[myblurryreality]

I see this a lot in fics, especially ones that use demon cultivation versus ghost cultivation, but Wei Wuxian's cultivation isn't easy. I keep seeing people write it like it is some easy thing that people were doing in droves, but other than certain talismans, we aren't given any indication that anybody else learned how to use Guidao. It takes a certain level of mental fortitude, empathy, respect, humbleness and discipline to achieve to do even a tenth of what Wei Wuxian does.

[jiaoji]

WWX'S GHOST PATH IS MENTIONED ON THE BRASILIAN TRANSLATION I'M SO HAPPY

AND THERES A PRETTY GLOSSARY

[righteousinadversity]

So, you guys who follow me know that gui dao is evil TM is one of my most despised fanon of all time. I have written my fair share of metas and vent posts about it.

I hate the fanon idea that it is a corrupting force, a voice whispering in Wei Wuxian's ear and sending him over the edge. And often enough, it is either resentful energy as a whole that is placed at blame for the tragedies during the Burial Mound arc - as opposed to the sects who decided that letting innocents live was unrighteous apparently - or, there is another culprit. The Yin Hufu.

The Yin Hufu, that corrupts Wei Wuxian through whispers in the ear about death and vengeance and revenge. The Yin Hufu that is almost sentient with the cries of the dead souls, with its greed for violence.

The Yin Hufu that is also, by the way, completely fanon.

I always assumed the reason I disliked that fanon trope really circled back to my dislike for casting Gui Dao as the enemy and for the generally fuckery that CQL did by actually making it a corrupting force. But there was always something else that bothered me about it, and I recently figured out exactly what, thanks to my rambling about the Sentient Weapons AU idea.

See, there is supposed to be some semblance of sentience to the spiritual weapons in the MDZS universe. Suibian's loyalty and dare I say, love for Wei Wuxian meant that it locked itself away, refusing to let anyone but its chosen master wield it. The sword that would not answer to anyone answered the call of the tiniest sliver of Wei Wuxian's soul. Chenqing, despite not being used for thirteen years, is instantly a better weapon in the hands of the man who carved it, is the powerful flute capable of great feats in the hands of its master.

During the CR arc, Lan Wangji reprimands Wei Wuxian when he assumes that he is being disrespectful to his weapon by allowing it to be called 'whatever' one pleases, until Wei Wuxian clarifies that, no, his sword is quite literally named 'Whatever'.

Spiritual Weapons are meant to have some semblance of sentience.

And the Yin Hufu does not have that sentience.

It is a cold hard weapon, to be wielded by anyone as they please. It has no allegiance, no loyalty. It is a weapon of devastating powers, and it has no sentience at all - it simply is. Wei Wuxian realizes this the very first time he uses it, and once he realizes this, he sets about neutralizing it as best as he can. He ensures that it can be of no threat, and short of destroying it - which by the way, fucking killed him - he does his best.

The Yin Hufu is not terrifying because it is some corrupting force that will entice you to slaughter millions - it is terrifying because by possessing it, anyone, can slaughter millions. And in a universe like MDZS, where much of the gentry are salivating for power like that, it is a dangerous, dangerous weapon indeed.

[mdzsquoteoftheday]

'“Lan Zhan, you… I’ve heard more than enough of these words that you say, and you still feel that you haven’t said them enough? You say that it harms the body, but I’m fine right now. You say that it harms the heart, but I haven’t become that frenzied, have I?”'

[righteousinadversity]

For the last (probably not) time - Wei Wuxian was not a criminal who committed the ~terrible sin~ of disregarding societal laws by practising some forbidden form of cultivation and hence was ousted by society and punished for it. Stop using Gui Dao to excuse your morally corrupt/indifferent faves.

Gui Dao was looked down upon, but it is not a crime even in-universe. The only one who goes around acting like it is is fucking JC, who we literally cannot care less about. And even he doesn't care about gui dao - he cares about it being WWX's path of cultivation.

It is not a crime.

And to be fair, if it was, the entire cultivation world would be committing it, as popular as the use of WWX's inventions was. Not to mention whatever grey area the Nie cultivation falls into.

[righteousinadversity]

Gui Dao - A Brilliant Subversion

Gui Dao is set up as evil, corrupting cultivation from the beginning, and it is a very deliberate misdirection.

I have spoken before about how Gui Dao is not harmful, about how the popular fanon of recasting it as the main issue that led to Wei Wuxian's downfall completely dismisses the extreme trauma and stress Wei Wuxian went through and so on.

And while CQL is a major factor for why this fanon is popular, everywhere, I think another reason is that Resentment, or Gui Dao, is set up as what caused Wei Wuxian's downfall.

For much of the novel, in fact, right up to the Second Siege where we get the Burial Mounds arc flashback, the novel gives a heavy impression of the story being about a hero who fell, committed crimes, and the present timeline is his redemption arc, or him realizing his own faults and becoming better, his second chance, what have you.

But it is not.

Because he cultivates the Demon Path, Wei WuXian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.

This proves that one can only cultivate by following the right path. Using these dishonest practices would only seem beneficial at first glance. Look, what happened in the end? Not even a whole corpse was left of him.

I think we all know that a lot of the opinions about WWX in the prologue is, well, utter nonsense. However, the prologue does give us the general belief of the public, and certain facts as well, regarding the Siege, it is simply that it does not give the whole story.

The storyline of the present is very much in a mystery setting. What did WWX do? Why did he do them? What the hell is that arm? Who's the guy he's running from?

Something MXTX does a lot in MDZS is 'showing without telling' and she kicks it up a notch by telling us, almost the exact opposite.

So we are meant to realise from the moment the prologue describes WWX as a vengeful monster and WWX wakes up with no desire whatsoever for the same, that this book is not going to be a straightforward one. MXTX uses this in multiple other instances, like WWX's optimistic and devil-may-care attitude in the face of being hurt, LWJ's care for WWX, JC's claim that he can't protect WWX (What bullshit) when he absolutely could have and was morally obligated to, and so on.

A lot of fanon spawn from the telling, which is disproved by the showing, but people simply... disregard it? Don't see it?

Anyway. Moving on.

JC's first scene and the consequent Dafan mountain scenes also tell us that Resentful Cultivation was what led Wei Wuxian to his downfall and to becoming the monster he was described to be, especially when we pair it with his comment in the CR arc. But, like in the Mo Manor, it also shows us that the same cultivation is being used to save the junior ducklings, who apparently are always in close proximity to imminent death.

And in a similar vein, also shows us, that while JC does hold resentment for demonic cultivators, it is not because WWX became a demonic cultivator that he killed him, in fact, JC wants to kill and torture demonic cultivators because they could be WWX, and he'd rather torture a thousand suspects than letting the tiny possibility of WWX live happen. His hatred is centred around WWX, not the cultivation.

Jiang Cheng spoke grimly, “Break his legs? Haven’t I told you? If you see this sort of evil and crooked practice, kill the cultivator and feed him to your dogs!”

He thought that, after so many years, no matter how much hatred Jiang Cheng had held for him, it would have disappeared long ago. He didn’t expect that not only did it not disappear, it became richer as if it was a jar of aged alcohol. At the present time, his hatred had grown to affect even people who cultivated like him!

Jiang Cheng warned, “That’s enough. It’s fine if you talk about it, but don’t actually walk such a crooked path.” (CR arc)

When you reread, these are especially scenes I hardcore side-eyed, because JC had no issue, none whatsoever, with WWX's cultivation path when it benefited him, and the YMJ. And even then, it was his jealousy and general selfishness which leads him to abandon WWX, as opposed to hatred for the Cultivation path.

Now, regarding Gui Dao itself, we get this, said by WWX, as a response to JL thinking that MXY has fallen to demonic cultivation.

Although the cultivation method that he used in the past was often criticized and, in the long term, it harmed the cultivator’s health, it could be mastered quickly. It was also especially attractive because there were no limitations as to the cultivator’s spiritual powers or talent, making it so that there were always people who secretly practised it to find a shortcut.

Basically, this goes in with the general belief held by the cultivation world about Gui Dao. That it's easy, its a shortcut, its harmful blah blah blah, which when you look at their fear about WWX, and WWX specifically wielding that power really sounds like a bad case of sour grapes, and for multiple reasons. (I'd be more willing to care if the cultivation world wasn't openly using WWX's inventions based on the same, so-called, crooked path to aid their night hunts, but here we are.)

1) Gui Dao does not affect someone's health. WWX's health is not good at all when he came back from the BMs, or even during the Burial Mound arc, but that's not because of Resentful cultivation. It's called Malnutrition! And PTSD! 2) This is specifically framed as what JL believes, and JL whose uncle JC goes around dragging back anyone who he suspects for a demonic cultivator, and also because to JL's knowledge, WWX, the grandmaster of the Gui dao, killed his parents. He doesn't have reason to believe it as any good, which he outright says after Yi City.

Finally, Gui Dao is never once shown as being easy, and even Xue Yang the only one we actually see use the same cultivation, is not up to the same level as WWX, even with WWX's personal notes. It seems easy when WWX does it, certainly, but well, again, grandmaster. Also, about the Yiling Laozu imitators, while they are mentioned around 3 times, we never hear about any of these so-called imitators doing anything significant. So WWX's level of control of Gui Dao is not an easy thing.

Now, coming to the CR Arc.

“The essence of exorcising demons and annihilating ghosts is to liberate! You do not study the methods of liberation, and even think about increasing their energy of resentment! You reverse the natural order, and ignore ethics and morality!”

“Then, let me ask you again! How do you make sure that the resentful energy only listens to you and does not harm others?”

Lan QiRen raged, “If you thought of it, the cultivation world would not allow your existence! Get out!”

Hello, foreshadowing. Again, here, Gui Dao is implied to be the very reason why WWX eventually becomes the enemy of the world. Here, WWX is not theorizing or actually thinking of inventing Gui Dao, he saw that LQR was being prejudiced and biased towards him, and he says the things he knows will outrage LQR and his stubborn belief in orthodoxy or whatever the hell he is going on about.

(Also side note, that Resentful Cultivation does not, in fact, reverse the natural order. WWX states it as an alternative to suppression, which doesn't really fix the problem, or elimination, which calls for, well, literally eliminating the soul)

That, being said, a very, very important piece to note, is this response WWX gives to JC, in the prior mentioned comment about resentful cultivation.

Wei WuXian smiled, “Why would I leave the nice, broad road, and walk on a single-plank bridge on a dark, narrow river instead? If it really is that easy, people would have already walked on it."

Again, this points to the fact that Gui Dao isn't something to be invented on a whim, or something easily learned.

It is meant to make us question, of course, why WWX invented Gui Dao in the end?

There is, of course, the whole issue with the Nie Cultivation and its similarity to Gui Dao, and how it causes qi deviation, and while I would love to explore that, this is not the post for that.

Basically, Nie Cultivation causes unreasonable tempers and qi deviation and has since they were established. Gui Dao is never shown to cause these things, especially in the present timeline when WWX is not carrying the weight of the world and the horrific traumas constantly.

Anyway, its similarity does give the impression that it was what happened to WWX; that his cultivation drove him to a murder spree. That he fundamentally changed after his return from the Burial Mounds.

For example, WWX's scene in Empathy, where he is furious at JZX. This seems uncalled for, but when we get the background of the whole soup incident, much later, it makes far, far more sense.

Then the Burial Mounds arc. I have written about how this arc subverts every assumption we make up to that point, but it also subverts what the novel has insinuated from the beginning, that WWX was corrupted by Resentful Energy.

WWX uses resentful energy to save the Wens, to protect them from the world that would see them dead. He uses Gui Dao to protect himself from an ambush of 300 archers who specifically weakened him with the intention to kill him. He uses Gui Dao in a battle declared by the sects on the innocents he protected.

WWX was never corrupted. His heart did not change with resentful cultivation. Wei Wuxian's story is not a redemption arc. He has always been morally good, and the events people held up as his crimes were the victor's side of a brutal killing of innocents.

What resentful cultivation is, is a powerful, powerful tool that the sects salivated over or used and then denounced as heresy. It is not even like the Nie Sabres, that drives someone to irrational tempers and certain death. The wielder decides its nature, like normal cultivation. It certainly is not the reason for WWX's downfall. That would be the entirety of the sects, the classism, JGS, JGY and JC's absolute bs and so on.

I firmly, firmly believe that MDZS is a novel you have to reread. There are so many nuances we miss in the first read, because a lot of the information comes in fragments, and quite literally with regards to WWX's past.

When you talk about Gui Dao, please note that WWX uses Gui Dao consistently in the present timeline, and he does not ever, ever, ever become 'corrupted by it'. He never once is even driven to take revenge on the people who killed him! Instead, he is there, saving them from certain death, because his heart has never changed. The Burial Mounds and the War made him harsher during the Sunshot, and the World turned on him afterwards, and he continued to do what he believed was right in his heart.

Gui Dao is insinuated as WWX's downfall, the corrupted form of cultivation that turned a brilliant young man into an irredeemable villain. But then, it goes on to say, he was never a villain, and the reason for his downfall was his adherence to his morals in a corrupted society, not the corruption of the morals themselves.

[righteousinadversity]

MDZS: Anything can be a weapon— it only depends on how the hand that wields it matters

People: Demonic cultivation bad and poisoned WWX’s mind

It's so prevalent! CQL's influence is so stark in this.

Making Gui Dao bad just completely misconstrues the actual issues. The Classism. The Power Hungry society. The vengeance that continued after a war was over. The leeches in positions of power who would make anyone a scapegoat for their convenience. The reality that even people with good moral codes do wrong things, or turn blind eye to evil because it is convenient, because it is not their problem, because they are biased. That the world pushed a man who should have been hailed as a war hero to his death because of fear, because of greed.

It also completely dismisses the huge trauma Wei Wuxian went through from the moment Lotus Pier falls. He is powerful, but he is also painfully vulnerable. In the society, he himself knew he was on thin ice, and if not for the fear the people held for him, they'd turn on him and burn him to death. The trauma he goes through being dismissed as Gui Dao is fucked up.

What trauma, you ask? I have a goddamn list. It's chronological. Or you could also just have basic reading comprehension, that works too.

In WWX's second life, he still uses Gui Dao. In fact, he exclusively uses it, just like in his first life. But we don't see the sharp edges people blame as 'demonic cultivation' affecting the mind, because 1) he has had 13 years away from the world, away from constantly being on guard. 2) He is not being constantly reprimanded about the 'heretical' path or not carrying his sword, a painful reminder of the core he no longer had.

If y'all can't understand that, then I don't know what you've been reading.

[righteousinadversity]

If I read one more 'meta' comparing Gui Dao to drugs, I am going to flip and write a spite fic about WWX using Gui Dao to ensure victory against the Wens, protect innocents when the world wanted to kill them, cleanse a place of death and desolation to the point where you can farm there, and use it further to create inventions that brings a huge leap to night-hunting itself - Oh wait.

That's THE PLOT OF THE NOVEL.