Character Parallels and Foils In The Lan Family

The different members of the Lan Family each play an important role in creating character foils and parallels that uphold the themes of the Mo Dao Zu Shi novel. This page will focus on the narrative character relationships between:

• Lan Xichen and Qingheng-Jun
• Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji
• Lan Wangji and Qingheng-Jun

Related terms:
See also:	Mo Dao Zu Shi Lan Wangji Wei Wuxian Lan Xichen Qingheng-Jun Jin Guangyao Nie Mingjue
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Analysis and Overview of the Important Characters

Lan Wangji

Lan Wangji is the younger son of Qingheng-Jun and Madam Lan. He is the first in line to become the clan leader of Gusu Lan and the second son of Qingheng-Jun and Madam Lan. While born to Qingheng-Jun and Madam Lan, since they were both in seclusion, he was primarily raised by his uncle Lan Qiren. As a student of Gusu Lan, he grew up under the Gusu Lan rules and was known for his obedient nature. This also led him to be quite repressed in his childhood as his understanding of the rules stated that he should minimize questioning his surroundings or acting based on emotion. This meant that compared to his brother, he was much less expressive and social. However, he was an extremely talented cultivator. Before the time skip in the novel, he is known as a strong cultivator but an extreme rule follower, which is reflected in his initial relationship with Wei Wuxian. When the war began, he took an active role and built a strong camaraderie with Wei Wuxian. However, due to Wei Wuxian’s ghost cultivation and the support of the Wen remnants, their relationship becomes much more strained as Lan Wangji chooses to condemn his actions and attempts to persuade Wei Wuxian to change because he has been always taught that ghost cultivation was incorrect and due to the popular opinion at the time being that Wei Wuxian’s actions were immoral. This conflict between his loyalty to his community and his loyalty to Wei Wuxian is a central feature of his at this time. This changes during and after the siege on the Burial Mounds. During the siege, he attempts to support Wei Wuxian but is captured and punished for his actions. In the aftermath, he returns to the Burial Mounds and is able to retrieve and save Wen Yuan. The death of Wei Wuxian and the other Wen Remnants is a turning point for Lan Wangji as he concludes that his rule-following nature was incorrect and that things must be considered in a much more case-by-case and gray manner. He was able to critically think more deeply about the rules he was following and what the impact of following them would be if his goals were to be just. This is why after the timeskip, he is much more willing to put the rules he grew up with aside and question the goals and morals of those around him. He also uses this time to work through his emotional repression to better understand his emotions and the reasons his emotions exist. This nuance is what ultimately allows him and Wei Wuxian to solve the mystery of Nie Mingjue’s murder and start a life together.

Lan Xichen

Lan Xichen is the older son of Qingheng-Jun and Madam Lan. After the death of his father, he becomes the clan leader of Gusu Lan. He, like his brother, was primarily raised by his uncle Lan Qiren. Lan Xichen also grew up under the Gusu Lan precepts, and while not as technical of a rule follower as his brother, he does learn obedience from a young age. He also grew up with a close relationship with Nie Mingjue, the heir to the Qinghe Nie Clan. He is also an extremely talented cultivator. When the war begins, he goes underground and builds a close relationship with Meng Yao, a cultivator in the Nie sect and bastard son of Jin Guangshan,  who took care of him in the aftermath of the attack on Lan Xichen’s clan and the death of his father. This close relationship is reflected after the war as Meng Yao, now Jin Guangyao, Nie Mingjue, and Lan Xichen form a sworn brotherhood known as the Venerated Triad.  Similarly to his brother, he is not taught to question the status quo and those in power making him easy to manipulate, and this is reflected in his story. Despite Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao’s deteriorating relationship, Lan Xichen never questioned the reasons for that outside of what was visible to him, which was that Nie Mingjue’s health and cognitive ability was deteriorating. This intense trust in Jin Guangyao blinded him to the murder that happened soon after the siege of the burial mounds and the extremely shady actions that Jin Guangyao took after entering the Jin clan. This also reflected in the way that he never questioned the demise of the Wen remnants. After Wei Wuxian comes back and the truth of Nie Mingjue’s murder is revealed, the shock of Jin Guangyao’s betrayal leaves Lan Xichen so shaken that he enters seclusion.

Qingheng-Jun

Qingheng-Jun is the father of Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji. He was the sect leader of the Gusu Lan Clan until his death. We know very little of him and his story as during the novel he is in seclusion until he dies in the Wen attack on Gusu Lan. We do know that he, like Lan Wangji, experienced the Lan predisposition of falling in love one time and extremely intensely. Qingheng-Jun fell in love with Madam Lan, extremely intensely, and it was not known whether she reciprocated, although the implications were that she did not. After she killed an elder, she was to be killed, but Qingheng-Jun married her to save her. However, due to his shame over breaking the rules to marry her and perhaps the coercive nature of their marriage and the birth of their two children, he entered seclusion, never to come out until he died during the Wen attack on Gusu.

Lan Xichen and Qingheng-Jun

Themes Addressed

The ultimate theme that this character contrast is meant to represent is the impact of toxic relationships and the burdens of duty. The book underlines how important relationships are, whether familial, platonic or romantic to creating the person you are and the way that those relationships change you, for better or for worse. However, Lan Xichen and Qingheng-Jun showcase the negative aspects of relationships, especially when those relationships are intrinsically toxic. It also highlights the nature of duty and the way that leadership creates certain expectations that can crush a person, and when not properly addressed, can cause a relapse of the same toxic cycle.

Analysis of the Character Parallel

Qingheng-Jun and his relationship with Madam Lan was extremely unhealthy as Qingheng-Jun had a one-sided love for her and leveraged his position of power over her to force her to marry him or else she would die. On top of that, her pregnancies were also coercive in nature due to their complete lack of relationship during their marriage. Qingheng-Jun married Madam Lan not only because he was in love with her, but also because she represented something that was for him to choose and not decided for him. Growing up being groomed to be the leader of a clan that is as rigid as Gusu Lan creates repression that comes out in unhealthy ways, and Madam Lan represented a way in which Qingheng-Jun could make one choice for himself and have one person who would allow him to be him without any masks or expectations, no matter how toxic or regressive it was. However, the conflict with duty and his inability to properly balance himself within his life led him to be able to not be able to come to terms with the atrocities that he committed and instead led him to ultimately seclude himself from both his duty and the toxic relationship that he created.

Lan Xichen was under similar circumstances, exacerbated by the faults of his father and the impacts of a war that placed him in power at a young age. He was led by duty, which meant rebuilding his sect and bowing down to powers stronger than him, even if that meant complacency in the bad actions of other sects. His place to ‘be himself’ was with Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue, however as Nie Mingjue’s health deteriorated, his trust fell more and more in line with Jin Guangyao. This allowed Jin Guangyao to manipulate Lan Xichen to look past his wrongdoings or take advantage of Lan Xichen’s kindness to do things like exacerbate Nie Mingjue’s illness. In an attempt to not fall into his father’s bad example of toxic relationships as a result of the expectations placed upon him, Lan Xichen created a different toxic situation. The lack of balance in his community and in those he trusted, and the lack of trust in himself doomed him to the same fate as his father: secluding himself from both his duty and the aftermath of the toxic relationship he was in.

Lan Wangji and Qingheng-Jun

Themes Addressed

The contrast between Lan Wangji and Qingheng-Jun is meant to showcase the importance of choice in love and relationships. While it is implied that the Lan family seems to have a condition where they fall in love only once and that that love is extremely intense, the actions that the Lans choose to take with their emotions highlight that they can center themselves in their love or center the one that they love.

Analysis of the Character Foil

Qingheng-Jun falls in love with Madam Lan at first sight, but in his pursuit and marriage with her, he never seems to center her emotions. Once he is in love with her, he struggles to prioritize her and instead views her as an extension of himself or an object that he must have. He never gives her any semblance of freedom other than allowing her to live, and even that becomes a punishment for her in the end. His emotional repression made him cling to her as something that allowed him to feel even at the expense of her. It is to the point that it could be said that he was in love more with the concept of her than actually with her as a human being.

Lan Wangji, on the other hand, went in the complete opposite direction. He valued Wei Wuxian more than he valued any potential relationship with Wei Wuxian, which led to their relationship having a much healthier basis. When Lan Wangji first falls in love with Wei Wuxian, he chooses to distance himself from him, and while reckless and coercive decisions are made towards Wei Wuxian by Lan Wangji, particularly at the Phoenix Mountain Hunt when Lan Wangji forced a kiss on Wei Wuxian when he was blindfolded, those decisions were never repeated. Throughout the narrative, Lan Wangji’s respect for Wei Wuxian as an equal continually outweighed his want to be in a romantic relationship with him. This is partially since he saw the mistakes that his father made and how those mistakes ended in the death of his mother and refused to repeat that cycle. These were active anf continuous choices made by Lan Wangji that ultimately showcased that he had a choice and providing that choice to an equal partner created a relationship that Qingheng-Jun could have had with Madam Lan had he treated her similarly.

Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen

Themes Addressed

The character contrast between Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen is meant to emphasize the theme that justice must come with nuance and balance. While both these characters are considered honorable and good, only Lan Wangji questions the world around them and thus applies their understanding of justice more consistently. Consequently, Lan Wangji is able to build relationships and balance because his priority is being true to himself rather than maintaining a facade for the sake of others.  

Analysis of the Character Foil

Lan Xichen’s definition of justice, priorities, and the basis for which relationships are made is through the lens of the Gusu Lan conditioning to follow rules and authority. This does not allow for nuance as many of the rules are interpreted at face value and applied across all contexts. His priorities are the clan’s priorities and he accepts the clan’s priorities without looking deeply at what they are and why they exist. The same goes for his relationships. He chooses to believe that Jin Guangyao is just because he helped him and supported him without looking too deeply at the other activities that Jin Guangyao or his family are involved in. He chooses to believe that the death of Wei Wuxian and the Wen remnants is just because his peers have similar beliefs. He does not know nor does he care to investigate to learn further about many of these things. This ignorance prevents him from forming other meaningful relationships as well, leaving him isolated and trapped in one singular understanding of reality and justice until that reality is destroyed, leaving him unable to cope.

Lan Wangji directly contrasts this. While he had the same upbringing as Lan Xichen, his exposure to Wei Wuxian who constantly questions things led him down that path as well. Due to this relationship and the Siege on the Burial Mounds that ended in the death of the Wen remnants, he began looking for answers and nuance in the world around him in a way that Lan Xichen had never done. He did not choose to believe Wei Wuxian because he loved him, he chose to believe Wei Wuxian because Wei Wuxian was extremely transparent to Lan Wangji as to why he did things, even if they were things that Lan Wangji disagreed with. This deeper understanding of human decision-making allowed him to create his own sense of justice that could and would go against the popular notion of what is just and build relationships with others outside of Wei Wuxian, a notable one being his relationship with Lan Sizhui and, to a lesser extent, the other juniors. This self-driven balance leads him to a much happier conclusion than that of his brother.