Hi Orion! I was hoping you could clarify something for me and others!
Wei Wuxian’s name is from a poem right? Like I think I remember seeing something about that ages ago, that MXTX is a massive literature nerd and like 85% of MDZS is named after some sort of poem or another, which is part of what makes the ship name and song name of Wangxian fun as its yet another allusion there. I can’t find all of my sources anymore, and what with more stuff going around, I thought it would be good to get that back out in the wild.
I really loved the feeling of her paying homage to different works of art that she loves in MDZS, so I’m hoping this is still the case that what I saw ages ago is true. Cause Cloud Recesses is also like that too, right?
Wei Wuxian's name is an homage to Xu Ben! He was noted for his poetry and calligraphy arts. On a tangent his life was fairly interesting as he and his companions were of gentry and during his time it was integral to commingle with Buddhist institutions as they were the epicenter for literati. And Xu Ben was noted to be one of the literary greats for chinese poetry and their heavy emphasis of doaist confucian buddhism. He had also stepped away from deep politics for the life of a monk as did several of his other contemporaries.
But, on to the actual poem, which serves nicely on it's own for an inspiration piece for Wei Wuxian as a character. The verse his secondary name references is the final stanza:
(1) I have returned to this valley, to till the grain and fields.
My heart has settled, drunkenly with wine.
The spirit of the throne has been revitalized, and the boats drift down the Yangtzhe River.
Orchids are colored by the late sun, bamboo thickets dense as smoke.
I sit and watch the swallows from the eastern hall, (2) as I return with the dusk from the forest .
Old friends drift like clouds, (3) I'd like to chat about the scenery*.
It helps to live in noise, we learn to sit silently.
(4) For I've been blessed with an elixir, to compromise and turn.*
(5) l do not desire to envy the fish, for the unknown cannot be moved.
This does contain several idioms
1: Lit: return to the mountain gulch after giving up one's work, retire to the farm and tend the fields. A.K.A. I retired and really don't know, mind my own business
2: Lit. Return from the West Forest at dusk. The end of one's life
3: Lit. Scenery, water from the mountain. To ingratiate oneself to another by fawning
4: Lit. Restore the ability to satirize Yao and compile it. To forgive and forget, able to recover and make light of
5: Lit. have no ambition to be envious of fish, nothing outside is worthwhile. Wú xiàn yú zhì Do not envy and aspire to be the fish. Do not envy others or aspire just for monetary gain
Piece it together and it starts to sound a bit like the ending Wei Wuxian was able to achieve after a lot of hard work and trappings of the world.