I love how people in mdzs are like ooooh ghost flute Chenqing aaaaah so scary but this flute. Has teeth marks from a child on it. Wei Wuxian aka Evil Yiling Laozu takes care of a child and lets him teethe on his Scary Demon Ghost Flute. And then in tgcf they’re like ooooh E’ming, Evil Deadly Scimitar, aaaah don’t touch it or even get near it!!! But then Xie Lian goes and pets it and it squeals with delight at the attention.

And then there’s Luo Binghe whose sword fucking possessed him lol

Some misconceptions on WWXs flute...

Chenqing was just a normal dizi. Yes, it had a reputation, but at the end of the day it was simply a flute with a tragic backstory. It was not made of bamboo as others have claimed in recent posts. That's his second flute he made after coming back to life. Chenqing is described as being made of dark wood - alluding to it being made from a tree in the burial mounds - which are black.

It's not a vessel to channel anything, it's a tool WWX uses to calm his mind and therefore the ghosts he is controlling, that's all. WWX uses empathy to harness his cultivation method, he and others can do this without Chenqing or any instrument at all.

But yes, it is funny that this simple, ordinary dizi is thought to possess some unspeakable magic powers and has an infamous reputation for unjustly killing thousands. When in fact, it was an ordinary instrument that aided WWX in helping the dead use up their resentment and move on while fighting in a war, saving innocent people post-war and defending himself against attacks.

All the while, being a toddler's teething toy and a fidget spinner for WWX as well.

Web Novel Weapon Tournament

[Please be courteous in the notes. Don’t make me block you.]

Chenqing - Wei Wuxian's dizi (MDZS)

Wiki Link

[No Propaganda submitted]

A Rock from Lout of the Count's Family

Owner: Cale Henituse 

Submission: 

[spoilers for chapters 700+] Listen there's nothing quite like having a scene where the protagonist straight up beats the main villain with a rock. A regular, averagely sized rock. And then also chucks the same rock into the face of a literal deity. It was glorious. It was therapeutic. #rocksweep

10.31.2023

All flavors of wei wuxian

Happy birthday!!!

Which wwx version is your fave? I love all!

Here it is! A redraw of my first post to this blog! I tried to put about the same effort into the redraw as I'd put into the original (which admittedly was not a lot).

I kept the design more or less the same, too even though I've updated the way I draw him now. Original was posted on Dec. 21, 2019.

Redraw Posted on Nov. 7, 2023.

For reference, the original version can be seen under the cut!

Next chapter of Jiaoren is up ! I hope you'll like it, both the chapter and the art ;) It's Changing art for once and I challenged myself with the light work. I had ton of fun with it :D

See you next week with the last chapter about the fire palace time !

great news! wei wuxian is dead!

click for better quality | id in alt

AU where everything is exactly the same except Wei Wuxian is exclusively playing Teenage Kicks by The Undertones on Chenqing

Meaning of 陈情 Chenqing

This is going to be a rehash of the old Taming Wangxian footnotes, but I’ll be adding a little more. 

The term 陈情 Chenqing has two meanings.  The first would be to reminisce past relationship (former friendship), and the second would be to provide a full account of (an issue).  

To gain further context about this term, let us look at where it originated from.  It was first originated from Wenxuan (‘Selections of Refined Literature”) compiled by 萧统 Xiao Tong, the Crown Prince of the Liang Dynasty.  In the Wenxuan, there is a segment called the 陈情表 Chenqing Memorial (to the throne), which is a letter written by Li Mi, a scholar of the Western Jin Dynasty to the Emperor Wu of Jin.  The Emperor Wu of Jin had employed him to work in the palace stables but Li Mi wanted to take care of his elderly grandmother.  His father died, his mother remarried and he lived with his grandmother.  So he wrote this heartfelt letter about his family circumstances and the hardship that he’s facing.  (It’s basically a resignation letter lol). The story didn’t end well and he was removed from his post, defamed and he died at home.

This term is also used in the modern context of confessing before a court.  Hence, a 陈情 Chenqing is almost like a plea of sorts.  It fits so well as firstly, Wei Wuxian is essentially treated like a criminal throughout the entire book and everyone in the series expects a “confession” from him.  The confrontation at Nightless City was almost like a court that wanted to trial him.  And secondly, from the historical context of the word, it could have hinted that it wouldn’t make a different no matter what he said and he wouldn’t have ended well.  

陈情 and 随便 are commonly thought to depict the shift in Wei Wuxian’s character. 随便 (suí biàn) represents his youth; he is carefree, relaxed and without worry.  陈情 on the other hand, is a depiction of his loss and loneliness. Chenqing was created from his time in the Burial Mounds - it’s a turning point for him because at this juncture, he had no means to give his own account or prove his “innocence”, simply because he has walked the demonic path. He’s unable to tell his loved ones that he lost his jindan, and as much as he misses his past relationships, he’s unable to relive them because he’s labelled a “demonic” Yiling Laozu.  

An interesting titbit can be found in the title of the Untamed, 陈情令 (chén qíng lìng). There are two possible interpretations to this. 

(i) The main focus of the story is on Wei Wuxian and his character growth, hence placing 陈情 in the title puts the emphasis on him. 

(ii) 陈情一曲令天下 (chén qíng yī qū lìng tiān xià) - According to a forum, the producers have  used this line to describe the drama’s title. It can be translated to, “a song from Chenqing commands the world”, aptly depicting Chenqing’s power.  

I love Chenqing  so much! T_T Have a little portrait of Xiao Zhan as Wei Wuxian while he plays it - I hope you like it 💙

Prints and other stuff on my RedBubble and Threadless (I’m Wisesnail on both <; )        

MDZS novel fans, does anyone know if Chenqing is like... special? Like the public in the novel reveres it as a powerful weapon, and I know that the animated series directly links Chenqing's origins to the Xuanwu of Terror, but I'm actually not sure if the novel ever shows this instrument to have any unique abilites. In contrast, the tiger seal is so powerful that Wei Wuxian makes sure to split it up so that no one can use it to raise an army of the dead. I have no doubts that it's special because its powers are stated explicitly, and in fact, it's so special that part of the plot revolves around antagonists trying to restore it. Meanwhile, I'm like 70% sure that Chenqing is just a nice flute that Wei Wuxian picked up somewhere. He doesn't spare any thought to keeping people from using his dizi, he doesn't care to pursue it when he comes back to life, a literal random piece of bamboo works exactly as well as Chenqing does, and Wei Wuxian is even comfortable letting a child that he loves use it as a chew toy. So was half of the Yiling Laozu's iconic weapon set just a prop that he used to flex his musical skill?

Day #16: Music for MXTXTOBER23

I just wanted to draw him, that is it 😎

Web Novel Weapon Tournament

[Please be courteous in the notes.]

A Rock from LCF/TCF

Owner: Cale Henituse 

Submission: 

[spoilers for chapters 700+] Listen there's nothing quite like having a scene where the protagonist straight up beats the main villain with a rock. A regular, averagely sized rock. And then also chucks the same rock into the face of a literal deity. It was glorious. It was therapeutic. #rocksweep

Additional Propaganda

Chenqing - Wei Wuxian's dizi (MDZS)

Wiki Link

I just love the amount of detail MXTX puts into this novel ❤️

A flute in the shade of ink stuck to his waist, hanging down with crimson-colored tassels.

Chapter 49

Immediately after, his gaze landed on the coal-black, red-tasseled flute by Wei WuXian’s waist.

Chapter 71

Chenqing is described as being made of dark wood, so dark it is ink black in colour. Which is not just a fashion statement...

Burial Mound used to be an ancient battleground. In the years afterward, people had gotten used to tossing inside nameless corpses, causing there to always be dark, resentful energy throughout the year. In the end, it became the nightmare of everyone in the Yiling area. As though tainted by the energy of resentment, within the woods on the mound, all of the leaves and branches were as black as death.

Chapter 67

WWX obviously crafted this flute during his torturous stay in the Burial Mounds, while developing his cultivation technique. Which is why Chenqing is dark in colour, because it was made from the black wood in the forest that is situated there. MXTX doesn't overlook a thing! It's just incredible!

Thinking more in-depth about Chenqing, I can't help but wonder what (if any) feelings WWX has towards his flute. He carved it during one of the most traumatic times within his life, while trying to survive in a hellish place filled with yin energy and entities full of resentment. He used this flute to cultivate a new path, exact revenge, kill thousands and save innocent people with it. With all that in mind, the instrument could possibly evoke some pretty painful memories for him.

Luckily I think WWX tries not to focus on things like that, choosing not to dwell on the past. He is very adept at focusing on the positive things in life. In fact near the end of the novel, he seems pretty happy to have his original flute back and even reminisces about A-Yuan teething on it as a toddler later still. So perhaps he sees the flute more as a reminder that he is a fighter, that he not only "attempted the impossible", but achieved it.

Or maybe WWX just sees it as a useful, but nice accessory to go with his black robes - a fashion statement after all! 😅

i have lots of thoughts on personified spiritual weapons, but chenqing is a special case cos unlike suibian (who i hc as ♂) & the yin hufu (that i hc as a 🐯), chenqing is both a girl and takes on a bipedal but non-human form. idk, my thoughts spiraled, i have many headcanons about chenqing being a bone-flute and why stop at Bone when she could be a Demon's bone?