Idk friends, I'm not convinced that Su She is a comrade
Like first of all, the class commentary in mdzs/cql is not clear cut. The story seems to have some scathing things to say about the gentry and the ruthless pursuit of spiritual and/or political power, but it exclusively features the voices of said gentry and spiritual elite and reduces the "common people" to, come on, Literal puppets. The only person who both has lines/a role in the story, was not born into a wealthy clan and/or spiritually powerful cultivation sect, and who Doesn't die a horrible and tragic death is Wen Yuan/Lan Sizhui... because he gets adopted by a powerful and wealthy clan. (If you want to argue that Wen Ning doesn't exactly die his horrible and tragic death, then sure, but he's still in the same adopted-by-gentry boat as Sizhui [And Wei Wuxian, for that matter].)
(Maybe I'm mistaken in sort of equating spiritual power and wealth/political power! But I think there's a case to be made there: all wealthy clans are spiritually powerful (though not vise versa); the ruthless fixation on advancement; cultivation requires elite knowledge (you can have innate power, but without training you can't use it... or you have to resort to spiritually-corrosive "wicked tricks"). Minor sect cultivators can hardly compete with, say, the 400+ spirit net efforts of a major clan heir, but they're not totally out of the running in any other situation. Being any kind of cultivator gives you power over "regular" people-- including, in some cases, the power to manipulate them as literal puppets... I think it's a reasonable association to make: the powerful class= the wealthy and/or cultivators.)
Either way, the system ofc favors the wealthy, most of whom were merely born into their positions of power. Ya boy Su She points that out in heaps. He's not wrong, but he's also hardly a mouthpiece for the common people. Su She talks all this smack, but he still desperately wants to be a part of the elite he scorns. He is loyal unto literal death to Jin Guangyao, whose vision is not to dismantle the shitty class system, just to get to the top of it and execute his revenge. I feel like that's where Su She is, too. He voices some of the unfairness of the system, but only cares insofar as it applies to him. If you want to give him a pass for selling out the Lans hiding in Cold Water Cave then fine, they kinda ditched him first. But he gives up fellow guest-disciple (cql) (in the book she is only a servant!) Mianmian to Wen Chao and he totally abandons his own sect that HE founded, when he gets exposed at the Burial Mounds. Su She is what we call a class traitor.
Tbh, I think that's more interesting than him being a Man of the People bc it's helped me see what I think are some core mxtx themes:
Mxtx is extremely well-versed in wuxia and xianxia and writes a lot of genre subversion. She's super aware of all the literary conventions and uses them to drive her plot-- see her first major work SVSSS. I've typed "the system" a billion times so far in this posts lol and I think that's the crux of this issue here abt mdzs and class. I don't think mxtx is necessarily making a bold statement so much as cleverly using these conventions as her brush. When we analyze stuff I think we REALLY want to make it into some kind of allegory with a strong societal message. What I'm seeing here is mxtx being meta. She's writing characters who have their own in-universe lives, but who also grapple with being characters in a Story that has Rules. I see this in TGCF too. Whether it's Fate or Society or The System or The Status Quo, that's the main adversary in a mxtx story, beyond any villainous characters. I don't think she's preaching these as immutable inevitabilities for our universe, just shining light on the tragedy that these characters have to operate within the limitations of their medium. These really human characters with their relatable inner monologues even have the ability to recognize the trappings of their narrative universe, they just... can't escape the roles they're bound to play. (Y'all seen Princess Tutu? Like that.)
It makes for some damn good books/manhuas/dramas! But I think it means there's another layer to consider in any analysis... and tldr: that I'm not about to give Su She any, like, "credit" for the shit he says. He's not sticking up for commoners, he is realizing and bemoaning his narrative role. If you're looking for a Hero of the People, both A-Qing and Mianmian are right there!! (but that's another post)
