Martial Siblings

Synonyms:	师弟 (shidi) (younger male), 师兄 (shixiong) (oldermale), 师哥 (shige) (older male), 师姐 (shijie) (older female), 师妹 (shimei) (younger female)
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Martial siblings are a form of relationship found in Chinese media, indicating a siblinglike bond between characters raised or taught under the same sect, organization, discipleship, or anything similar. In the same regard, the master of the sect or discipleship is regarded as the disciples' martial father/mother or grandfather/grandmother.

It has been the subject of debate within Mo Dao Zu Shi (ChengXian) and Genshin Impact (Kaeluc) fandom, based on some international fans' interpretation of martial siblingship being similar or equivalent to familial siblingship, thus making shipping martial siblings together incest. Many Chinese fans, both English-speaking and non-English speaking alike, disagree.

Fan Perspectives

Martial siblings and normal siblings are NOT the same. The biggest thing to consider is the SETTING. Martial siblings are VERY NICHE to CN due to the existence of wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan. You can read more in-depth about said setting and terminologies here and here; and since we’re specific about MDZS which is under the xianxia category then here's a direct baidu article about it.

The presence of “sects” is very prominent in this trope/theme and in a certain area, there’d usually be a sect associated with it (eg in Yunmeng it was the Jiang, in Gusu it was the Lan, etc). People with the affiliation would send their children in these sects usually at an early age so they can be trained properly and thus introducing the whole “grew up together” trope. For CN culture where every relationship is very specific (eg what Person X would call their mother’s eldest brother, their mother’s youngest brother, and their father’s brother are all different but in EN, it’s all just called ‘uncle’), the way we term and denote each relationship is vital. An example would be that we’d call our mother’s younger brother as “jiujiu” which is definitely not the same as what we’d call a ‘martial uncle’ which can be “shibo” (elder martial uncle) or “shishu” (younger martial uncle). In sibling context, we’d normally call older brother and older sister as “ge” and “jie” but in martial sect context, they’d be called “shixiong” and “shijie” respectively. This is why Jiang Cheng calls Jiang Yanli as “a-jie” and NOT “shijie”; and why Wei Wuxian calls Jiang Yanli as “shijie” and NOT “jie”. It’s also common for sectmates to marry each other but definitely not when it comes to blood siblings, etc. Notice how the gender, age, and blood affiliation is noted with these relationship terms and this (again) shows how relationships in the cultural context isn’t something just general and that they have their own meaning as compared to how EN language just compounds everything to “uncle” or “siblings”. This is why I would strongly advise against drawing parallelisms with 1) cultures outside of CN and 2) context of modern times wherein the existence of wuxia/xianxia do not exist in the first place.

“but i feel uncomfortable with this trope” — and that’s perfectly valid! your own takes are your own depending on how you process them, after all. what’s not okay is brandishing western lenses on this theme/trope destroying the element of setting and imposing their own standards to it to sound morally superior. it’s really very simple: no one’s forcing anyone to read stuff they don’t feel comfortable.