Mo Dao Zu Shi

Fandom
Name:	The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation The Founder of Diabolism 魔道祖师 Mó Dào Zǔ Shī
Abbreviation(s):	GDC, MDZS, FOD
Creator:	Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 墨香铜臭 Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Date(s):	June 27, 2019 - August 20, 2019 (The Untamed Broadcast)'
Medium:	Webnovel, Books, Manhua, Donghua, Live Action, Audio Drama
Country of Origin:	China
External Links:	Novel on JJWXC Exiled Rebels Translation
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Mó Dào Zǔ Shī, translated as The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, is a fandom based on a Chinese danmei novel that was adapted into multiple forms, including a live-action TV series, an audio drama, a donghua and manhua. The cnovel, audio drama, and the donghua are titled Mó Dào Zǔ Shī, but the live-action series goes by the name of "The Untamed" (Chinese title, Chén Qíng Lìng, sometimes abbreviated by fans as "CQL").

Canon

The story opens with the news that the long-time scourge of the cultivation world, the Yiling Patriarch — Wei Wuxian — is dead, to the great joy and relief of those who hear it.

Thirteen years later, a young man named Mo Xuanyu, at the end of his tether due to abuse by his family, offers his body as a sacrifice to resurrect Wei Wuxian so the Yiling Patriarch can exact revenge on those who hurt him.

Once again alive and in a new body, Wei Wuxian is soon reunited with old friends and enemies and finds that only one person — the righteous stick-in-the-mud who he thought would always oppose him, Lan Wangji — is willing to stand by his side.

Together they track down a series of dismembered body parts in a quest to uncover the identity of their owner — and that of their killer — and uncover deeper mysteries along the way.

The webnovel contains 113 chapters with 13 extras.

Adaptations

Donghua

Mo Dao Zu Shi - "The Founder of Diabolism"

An animated version based on the novel. Season 1 ran July - October 2018, season 2 ran in August 2019, and season 3 started August 2021. Foregrounds the action and horror while minimizing romance. An official English translation is available on Tencent's Youtube channel, with a premiere date of Aug 27, 2019. The title is not translated. See also Wikipedia:Mo_Dao_Zu_Shi.

The Founder of Diabolism Q

July 31, 2020 - January 29, 2021. chibi animation series. These are short stories based loosely on the characters and events from the book. Episodes are about five minutes long. Tencent's youtube channel has an official English translation, with the title listed as "The Founder of Diabolism Q". The English subtitled episode 1 was posted Aug 2, 2020.

Manhua

This is a webcomic adaptation of the story, closely following the events from the novel. Whilst less censored than some other adaptations, there are limitations on the depictions of outright romantic gestures. However, uncensored versions of certain panels have been shared by the original webcomic artist on Weibo. [[1]]

Audio Drama

This is an audio adaptation of the story, following the novel's events and timeline. This is widely considered the most accurate adaptation, as it features no censorship, with kiss scenes and other romantic moments openly included, albeit only in audio form. There are additional extra episodes, depicting small moments between characters that expand on the story, often based on information supplied by the original novel author. [[2]]

Audio Book

(Coming soon)

Live Action

This live-action C-Drama version of the novel includes lavish sets and costumes. It emphasizes the drama and some of the romance mixed with wirework action scenes and CG elements. This is the most censored version of the story, and the least accurate to the novel, but also the most widely known - especially among international audiences. However, in spite of necessary changes, the series is well-loved and still considered a heartfelt depiction of the characters and their world, and the romance of the original novel. See The Untamed. [[3]]

As a result of the number of different adaptations, it is not uncommon to see Frankencanon happening - that is, a mish-mash of details from various versions in the one fanwork.

Characters

• Wei Wuxian (魏无羡) / Wei Ying (魏婴) / Yiling Laozu (夷陵老祖): Main character and the Yiling Patriarch. He is brought up in the Yunmeng Jiang Sect after the death of his parents and meets Lan Wangji when he and his shidi, Jiang Cheng, are studying in the Cloud Recesses. Thirteen years after his death, he awakens in the body of Mo Xuanyu and reunites with Lan Wangji and they investigate a murder together. In fandom, he may be referred to by the initials of his courtesy name, WWX.

• Lan Wangji (蓝忘机) / Lan Zhan (蓝湛) / Hanguang-Jun (含光君): Love interest of Wei Wuxian and a famous cultivator of the Gusu Lan Sect. He is the only person left supporting Wei Wuxian after the latter's fall from grace. Lan Wangji is able to recognise Wei Wuxian in Mo Xuanyu's body due to him playing a song only the two of them had ever heard, and decides to take him to his home in Gusu. In fandom, he may be referred to by the initials of his courtesy name, LWJ.

Shipping

Popular ships include:

• WangXian, the smushname for Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian
• Jiang Cheng/Lan Xichen, a crack ship that gained early popularity within the novel fandom
• Xiyao, Jin Guangyao (Meng Yao)/Lan Xichen, or its cousin;
• 3Zun, the nickname for the threesome ship of Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao (Meng Yao)
• Xiao Xingchen/Xue Yang, or other ships focusing on the Yi City trio
• Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, a common background ship due to being canon, but less popular as a focus due to the controversial treatment of Jiang Yanli by Jin Zixuan (or because it's a het ship).
• SangCheng, Nie Huaisang/Jiang Cheng
• Ships focusing on the Junior Trio/Quartet such as Lan Sizhui/Jin Ling, Lan Jingyi/Lan Sizhui, or all four together.
• ChengXian, Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian. More popular in chinese fandom, in english fandom it has quite an amount of controversy surrounding it due to the incorrect assumption that the two are brothers, due to the translation of 'shidi' as 'martial brother'.
• YanQing, Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing is the most prominent femslash ship.
• Sangyao, smushname for the slash ship between Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao.

WangXian is by far the most popular ship, making up almost half of all MDZS/CQL works on AO3. Due to request of the author that the main canon pairing should not be broken up, other ships featuring Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are regarded with some controversy within the fandom. For example, as of June 2021 on AO3 there is no other top-10 relationship featuring Lan Wangji.

English-language Fandom

Rise and fall of MDZS and The Untamed English-language fanworks on AO3, 2018-2022

Growth of MDZS fandom (all languages) on AO3, 2018-2020

Proportion of MDZS fanworks in Chinese vs. other languages on AO3, 2018-2020

The English-language fandom started growing on AO3 around July 2018, the same month the donghua premiered. AO3 user rikke recalled that when they joined the fandom in late 2018, so little English fic had been posted that "there was no such thing as popular/unpopular, everyone just desperate to read anything that existed." In 2019 The Untamed was released, and fans could stream it with English subtitles legally, so the fandom exploded.

MDZS was eligible for Yuletide in 2018, and six fics were written. In 2019 MDZS book fandom was no longer eligible, but The Untamed and the donghua were still eligible; 31 Untamed and 4 donghua fics were written for Yuletide 2019. For Yuletide 2020, the donghua and MDZS Q were still eligible, to the annoyance of Yuletide purists. 11 donghua and 3 MDZS Q fics were posted.

Fan Translations

enxiao had uploaded machine translations of the first few chapters between January and May 2017 (titled "The Founder of Diabolism"), but abandoned the project when Exiled Rebels Scanlations started translating it: "Feels like my kid ran off to live with cooler and richer parents.... They’re saying they’re aiming for an every other day release schedule and their translation quality seems to be pretty good or at least better than mine so it’s a win/win for everyone." Exiled Rebels Scanlations' title was "The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation". They completed the main story in March 2019 and the extras in August 2019 (see the novelupdates page). Novelupdates links to two other fan translators who started their own versions in 2020, but other partial translations were also posted on tumblr. When publisher Seven Seas announced that an official English translation would be coming in December 2021, both fan translators linked from novelupdates stated that they would be discontinuing their projects. fanyiyi remarked:

Buying the official translation will not only mean that Mo Xiang Tong Xiu will be properly compensated for her hard work in writing Mo Dao Zu Shi, but also that English language publishing houses will become more aware of the demand for danmei and other Chinese novels beyond the limited selection that receive official translations at present. This will make it more likely that many other novels will receive official translations as well.

As of August 2021 the only existing complete translation of Mo Dao Zu Shi into English is by Exiled Rebels Scanlations.

The Exiled Rebels or "EXR" translation has been criticized for different reasons by different parts of fandom. Some fans have complained about sloppy copy editing, pointing the finger at the editor rather than the translator. Other fans characterized the translation as too literal, removing some of the nuance in the original Chinese, especially during sex scenes - for example, a line translated by @chiaki_himura as "wait a moment" and by froliczxc as "cool down for a minute" is translated by EXR as "stop for a bit." (This example comes from three--rings's MDZS: Sex and Consent part 2.) Still other fans have characterized the complaints against the translation as stemming from purity culture, or a lack of understanding of the danmei genre and a refusal to acknowledge that the same sexual material is present in the original source.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile, some fans have expressed approval of the EXR translation. For example, etymologyplayground deliberately wrote a fic in the same style, saying "i thought i'd take a little departure from my normal style and voice for this - i've done my best to yoink the general style + voice of the exiled rebels eng translation, bc i've always really liked it and found it beautiful and surprising." Regardless of what fans say about the translation, certain lines from it have become popular quotes in the fandom: for example, "wherever the chaos is" and "everyday means everyday".

EXR was also translating the manhua until January 2020, when they decided to stop translating and take down what they had posted so far because:

Recently we released a one-panel joke of the manhua and, as is with a fanbase that is way too large filled with readers who are entitled and can't take a joke, we got our entire three years worth of hard work scrutinized. Over a thousand people on Twitter claimed to 'fucking hate us' while badmouthing every translation we have ever done for GDC.

However, other fans have been actively translating the manhua so there are still places to read it. (An official English translation also exists.)

Fans over on Suibian Subs fansubbed the audio drama into English, and this was the main way that English-speaking non-Chinese-speaking fans could understand it for some time. It required joining their Discord server to access, however, and was not available to the public. When they closed in March of 2024, Treasure Chest Subs took up the mantle for subbing the audio drama.

Archive of Our Own Canonical Tags

For a long time the canonical tags on AO3 included tone marks for all characters (for example, "Niè Huáisāng" instead of "Nie Huaisang"), causing difficulties for fans navigating the site by tag because diacritics are hard to type. In response to discourse on twitter in July 2020 over whether or not having/not having diacritics was or was not racist, the tag wrangler pumpkinpaix identified herself as an MDZS tag wrangler who had pushed for the tone marks to be used on MDZS tags and in some of the 36 other Chinese-language fandoms she tag wrangled. Fans who disagreed with including diacritics were particularly angered by pumpkinpaix's comment that the choice to include them was "partially motivated by spite" and that the tone marks were not "the most practical or the most correct." pumpkinpaix also said that it would be difficult to change all of the canonical tags as at the time of her twitter thread MDZS had "120 canonical character tags, 857 canonical freeforms and 1,051 canonical relationships" that would need to be changed, working out to about 120 per MDZS tag wrangler.

In February 2021, tag wranglers began to switch canonical tags across several fandoms to versions without tone marks. One anon on fail_fandomanon said that "Judging by internal chatter, MXTX wranglers took a vote. The majority was against diacritics, that wrangler was outvoted, and that was that." Other anonymous users in the thread expressed both joy, relief, and excitement; many said that searching for what they want on AO3 and tagging works would be easier. (See Hello everyone. i'm one of the ao3 tag wranglers for mdzs for more information.)

Several months later, fans were disappointed to notice that the tone marks had reappeared.

On November 1, 2021, a coding update on AO3 fixed the autocomplete bug affecting diacritics in tags; typing in letters without diacritics would now return matching letters with diacritics. This change removed one of the main objections to tone marks in MDZS tags. As of June 2022, tone marks are still present on MDZS tags.

Podfic Fandom

growth of podfic in the MDZS novel tag on AO3

After the release of The Untamed and the increase in English-language fanfiction available, fans started producing more podfics for fic based on all the MDZS canons. Although podfics make up only about 1.1% of the total MDZS fanworks on AO3, from a podficcer's perspective MDZS is one of the largest podfic fandoms of 2020. The AO3 podfic works page, when restricted to 2020, lists the MDZS novel and The Untamed as the second and third most popular fandoms.

One topic of conversation in the fandom is how to pronounce characters' names. A few Chinese-speaking fans created pronunciation guides for MDZS podficcers:

• guide by twitter user xiatiancha (18 February 2019)
• Chinese pronunciation resources+tips by lunatique (19 November 2019)
• Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed Pronunciation Guide (COMPLETE)+ taking requests by lunatique (20 November 2019)
• mdzs name pronunciation guide? by pumpkinpaix (24 May 2020)

Not knowing any Mandarin has been a source of angst for some would-be podficcers, out of a desire for perfectionism and/or fear of causing offense. Others have posted queries in various forums asking about whether the names should be pronounced in an Anglicized fashion or if strict adherence to Mandarin tones is required. In a dreamwidth meta post Lunatique wrote,

Just as one should approach creating ANY content of ANY culture that is not their own; Do it with conscientiousness and be willing to put in the work.

Here’s my not-quite 3 steps guide to doing that:

Step 0 . Approach the Challenge with a Mindset of Positivity and Openness

Step 1 . Do your homework

Step 2 . Do your best.

A Behind the Pod podcast by non-native English speakers discussed pronunciation issues in Guardian and MDZS fandoms. One person pointed out that when the word you don't know how to pronounce is a character name, that has a bigger impact on the podfic than a random word. Reconciling Mandarin tones with the tonal "melody" of an English sentence can be difficult. They went on to agree that it was annoying when people didn't even try to pronounce words in their languages (French, German), but as long as people tried it was fine.

Later in the podcast, yue_ix commented that a lot of native English speakers had internalized a double standard whereby they enjoyed English-language podfics by non-native English speakers, but thought they (the native English speakers) couldn't do podfics with Chinese words because they didn't know how to pronounce them. "For most native English speakers, they have never been confronted with not being able to say the words, right? This is the first time that they are experiencing it."

For Voiceteam Mystery Box 2023, several MDZS podficcers participated in a podcast discussing character voices in MDZS podfic: Lotus Pier Lakeside Chats: Character Voices and Beyond, ^{Archived version}.

Official English Translation

MDZS and MXTX fans had long desired an official English translation of the novel, and there was much rejoicing when manga and light novel publisher Seven Seas Entertainment announced on August 5, 2021, that they had acquired the licenses for all three novels by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: Tian Guan Ci Fu, Mo Dao Zu Shi, and Scum Villain's Self Saving System. Suika, a fan translator who had done a complete translation of TGCF, would be the official MDZS translator. The editor would be Pengie, with cover art by Jin Fang and internal art by Marina Privalova.

The novel was released as a series of five volumes, with a new volume coming out once every few months. The first volumes of all three MXTX books were available in mid December 2021, and many many excited fans pre-ordered it. The final volume of MDZS was published in May 2023.

Translation wank may have been inevitable, but some fans on social media expressed disappointment with the quality of the translation with the publication of the first volume in December 2021, especially due to entire lines being accidentally left out, and other obvious errors. They compared it unfavorably to the translations of TGCF and SVSSS that came out at the same time (though later volumes of TGCF also received criticisms).^{[citation needed]} One commenter in a September 2022 fail_fandomanon thread thought the official MDZS translation was partly to blame for the fandom's decrease. Another commenter agreed, saying "It had [the] potential to bring a new lease of life and new fans. Instead the third volume is released on Friday and who cares? It doesn't bring opportunities for discussion, insight, fun, but rather wank or indifference. And since the [fan translations] were locked down, people can't enter the fandom through them."

In May 2022, Seven Seas announced that they would publish an official translation of the manhua starting in December 2022.

Chinese-language Fandom

Chinese fandom follows a rule that according to MXTX's wishes, in fanfic the canon ship Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji can't be broken up or "reversed" (Lan Wangji should always top). This rule was discussed in English fanspaces in early 2019: see fail_fandomanon and YSFYC_CRT on twitter, ^{Archived version}.

Wifi

MXTX has referred to Wei Wuxian as Wifi, which is a homophone of his courtesy name, Wuxian.

Fanwork Examples

Fic

• a stone to break your soul, a song to save it by rikke (2018 to 2019)
• The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts by aubreyli (2019)
• Linger in the Sun by etymologyplayground (2019)
• how to fall in love with a catfish: a guide by wei wuxian (disaster rat) by bwynn and Yuisaki (2020)
• The Same Moon Shines series by sami (2020)
• The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane (2020)
• beneath six layers of silk by darkredloveknot (2020)
• hunters seeking solid ground by Attila (2020)
• long way home series by idrilka (2020)
• Meng Yao vs. the Board of the Homeowner's Association series by Ariaste (2020)
• this river runs to you by sundiscus (2020)
• Being Known series by dragongirlG (2020)
• Moonlight Lotus by Wafsi (2021-2023)

Fannish Guides & References

• Mo Dao Zu Shi Writer Reference: Novel Chapter Summaries by threerings (2019)
• MDZS Audio Drama Episode Guide by pumpkinpaix(scribogenesis) (2020)
• Reference for Modao Zushi Writers: Chinese terms by chaoticjoy (2019)

Meta

• MDZS: Sex and Consent by three--rings: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4.
• meta and translations by hunxi-guilai: index page
• meta, answers, and scattered thoughts by bigbadredpanda: index page
• I REALLY WANTED TO LOVE THIS. - My thoughts on the MDZS English translation, youtube video by May Anne (Feb 19, 2022)

Podcasts

• Podcasting is Forbidden in the Cloud Recesses

Art

• Modern MDZS AU by artsy-alice on tumblr (2020)
• 雲夢回収係, ^{Archived version} by mdz_k_b on twitter, featuring the ships Wangxian, Xicheng, and Lan Sizhui/Jin Ling (Apr 11, 2020)
• Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling, ^{Archived version} by nightynightowl on twitter (Mar 10, 2019)
• Those left behind, ^{Archived version} by lokonity on twitter (Jan 20, 2020)
• dear diary today my cool uncle sighed at me send help, ^{Archived version} by khattrann on twitter (Apr 29, 2021)
• 물구나무 운동~, ^{Archived version} by 6uooU on twitter (Oct 13, 2020)
• 少年時代🥺, ^{Archived version} by reonokyusuto on twitter (Mar 9, 2019)
• MDZS characters as muppets by tinynarwhals on twitter (May 15, 2021)

Animatics

• 守護你的堅強與溫柔 MDZS 3rd Anniversary Tribute by Port of Zelda: art of zeldacw (2018)
• 【MDZS AMV】聶懷桑生賀手書 Double Lariat - by shevoj (2019)
• ［MDZS Animatic］Monster by Ho Ching Kwok (2020)
• ［魔道祖师］ therefore you and me by Tina D (2020)
• heirloom - mdzs animatic by boowvr (2020)
• [ MDZS ANIMATIC Sorrow | Lan Xichen] by nikudons (2020)
• || MDZS Animatic || Jin Ling won't say he's in love (zhuiling) by dorkSen (2020)
• 【mo dao zu shi animatic】 DaLaBengBa | kokoroisbleeding by kokoroisbleeding (2020)

Zines

• Into the Woods: A Mo Dao Zu Shi Horror Zine - AO3 collection (2020)
• Sangcheng Zine 2020
• MDZS Seasons Zine (2020)
• A Thousand Lights (2021)
• We Didn't Know Whether to Laugh or to Cry (2021), a non-dominant hand zine for all of MXTX's works
• Four Seasons: A MDZS Juniors Zine (2023)

Fannish Resources

• fandom wiki @ Wikia

Fan Communities

• MoDaoZuShi community @ reddit (Created Oct 27, 2018)
• Novel Update forum threads tagged founder of diabolism, mdzs, mo dao zu shi, grandmaster of demonic cultivation
• theuntamed_mdzs community @ dreamwidth (Created on 2020-01-01)
• MDZS thread at Holiwarka (in Russian)

Events

• MDZS Two Cakes Event (2022)
• MDZS Rarepair Week (2020 - 2024)
• MDZS Mixtape Exchange (2024)
• MDZS Diaspora May (2021), expanded to MXTX Diaspora May (2022-2023)
• MDZS Big Bang 2024 - AO3, tumblr, twitter
• MDZS Secret Santa (2020-2023) - carrd, twitter/X

Archives and Rec Lists

• 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 魔道祖师 | Módào Zǔshī (Cartoon), 魔道祖师Q | Módào Zǔshī Q (Cartoon), and 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) fanworks @ AO3
• MDZS, CQL and CQL RPF recs @ fancake
• MDZS and untamed fanart @ fanart_recs