WangXian

WangXian is the slash ship between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian from the Mo Dao Zu Shi fandom.

Canon
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji originate from the novel Mo Dao Zu Shi or The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, they can also be recognized from various adaptations of the novel, such as the manhua, donghua, audio drama, and the live action, which can be found under the alternative title, The Untamed (Chén Qíng Lìng in China). The plot remains fairly consistent throughout the adaptations, but can vary in their own individual ways.

In the novel, and most other adaptations, where the two meet as children, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian first meet as teenagers while Wei Wuxian is studying in Gusu for a small duration of time. Right off the bat, the two clash as Wei Wuxian tries to sneak alcohol into the Cloud Recesses after curfew. Lan Wangji, being introduced as a law of the Gusu Lan Si enforcer, immediately engages in a sword battle with Wei Wuxian. After this incident, Lan Wangji appears to have a distasteful view on Wei Wuxian. To his dismay, Lan Wangji is thereafter placed in charge of supervising Wei Wuxian's secluded punishment, where Wei Wuxian would intentionally try to gouge Lan Wangji for a reaction with various and absurd tactics, such as replacing the interior of his scripts with illustrated porn.

Afterwards the two seem to cultivate a one-sided friendship, where Wei Wuxian continuously attempts to get Lan Wangji to open up through trying to provoke him or genuinely offering acts of kindness. Due to Lan Wangji's naturally reserved personality, he never outright reciprocates any of Wei Wuxian's antics, but there are moments of vulnerability between the two, such as when they ended up stranded in the XuanWu cave. This is considered one of their most genuine moments in Wei Wuxian's first life, and shows a more vulnerable side of Lan Wangji as opposed to his normal aloof demeanor. It is also considered the most prominent indication that Lan Wangji had fallen in love with Wei Wuxian during his time at the Cloud Recesses. Throughout their time in the XuanWu cave Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both exhibit protectiveness over each other, Lan Wangji even pushes Wei Wuxian out of the way from the XuanWu's mouth, furthering his already existing leg injury in the process. After slaughtering the XuanWu, Wei Wuxian asks Lan Wangji to sing for him to fill the silence, and to Wei Wuxian's surprise, Lan Wangji fulfills his request. The song he hums was composed by Lan Wangji himself entirely for Wei Wuxian and was something only the two of them would hear in Wei Wuxian's first life, the unknown significance of the song to Wei Wuxian would later cause him to unintentionally expose his identity to Lan Wangji on Dafan mountain after reincarnating. The name of the song, Wangxian, is a portmanteau of Lan Wangji's and Wei Wuxian's courtesy names, which forms the official ship name for Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian.

After escaping XuanWu cave, Lotus Pier falls into ruins at the hands of the Wen Sect and Wei Wuxian's spiral into chaos begins. As the Yiling Patriarch, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's previously improving relationship skids to a turbulent halt during the Sunshot Campaign as Lan Wangji advises against demonic cultivation due to its harm on the body and temperament, he then pleads for Wei Wuxian to return to Gusu with him. Wei Wuxian mistakes his protectiveness as Lan Wangji attempting to imprison him for cultivating the demonic path and refuses each time Lan Wangji asks. Despite the constant rejection, Lan Wangji's feelings for Wei Wuxian do not falter. During the hunt at BaiFeng mountain, Lan Wangji steals Wei Wuxian's first kiss, followed by a frustrated, resentful deforestation session.

At the Siege of Nightless City, Wei Wuxian finally tips over the edge after the death of his senior sister, Jiang Yanli, and erupts into a mindless rampage. In the aftermath, an injured Lan Wangji flies off with a weak and disoriented Wei Wuxian on his sword in an effort to prevent him from being killed. He hides him in a cave and seemingly tries to confess his feelings, unfortunately, Wei Wuxian was too far gone to register any events befalling Nightless City, and mindlessly tells him to get lost. Lan Sect elders, including Lan Wangji's uncle, Lan Qiren, track them down and attempt to retrieve Lan Wangji to prevent him from being listed as Wei Wuxian's accomplice. Lan Wangji stands his ground and gravely injures all thirty three elders sent to find him. In the end, he is returned to the Gusu Lan Sect for punishment, whereas Wei Wuxian is sent to burial mounds. There, Lan Wangji is whipped thirty three times with the discipline whip, one for each elder he injured protecting Wei Wuxian.

Despite Lan Wangji's efforts, Wei Wuxian still dies after Wei Wuxian could not control the spirits with his dizi. The death of his elder sister Yanli made him feel that he was responsible. Lan Wangji then drags his injured body to burial mounds in an attempt to find any trace of Wei Wuxian, where he instead finds A-Yuan, a Wen Sect child Wei Wuxian took under his wing, and takes him back to the Lan Sect. In his mourning, Lan Wangji drinks for the first time, specifically the type of wine Wei Wuxian loved. Being a terrible drunk, he drunkenly asks Lan Xichen for a flute, seemingly looking for Chenqing (Wei Wuxian's dizi). Not finding what he's looking for, Lan Wangji breaks into the confiscated Wen brands and brands himself over the heart with the same brand Wei Wuxian received protecting MianMian during their encounter in the XuanWu cave. For the next thirteen years, after having recovered from his wounds, Lan Wangji begins rebuilding his tattered reputation through acts of heroism. He soon acquires the reputation of appearing wherever there is chaos, aiding people in whichever ways he can whilst carrying on Wei Wuxian's legacy in his heart, in some adaptations, namely the donghua, Lan Wangji is shown to have also been working to clear falsities in Wei Wuxian's reputation.

Thirteen years later (sixteen years in Live-Action), Wei Wuxian reincarnates into the body of Mo Xuanyu via sacrificed body ritual. Having the idea that Lan Wangji despises him, he attempts to avoid him at all costs. Unfortunately for him, he plays the song Lan Wangji wrote for him in an attempt to calm his ghost general, Wen Ning, causing Lan Wangji to immediately recognize him and go out of his way to protect him from his brother, Jiang Cheng. After having attempted to gross out both Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng by professing Lan Wangji was his type, he is instantly bitten by his own karma as Lan Wangji drags him back to Gusu. They continue to have a cat and mouse type dynamic until Lan Wangji outright says Wei Wuxian's name after an incident with a curse mark. From then on, the two begin working with each other to solve multiple mysteries that have emerged in the cultivation world.

Throughout this journey, the two's relationship begins to teeter the line between friendship and romance, mainly through Lan Wangji's drunken antics. The first time he's drunk he professes Wei Wuxian is his, only to be misunderstood by Wei Wuxian that he was talking about Lan Wangji's sword, which was currently on his back. The second time he's drunk, Wei Wuxian unconsciously kisses him, causing Lan Wangji to knock himself out. After these events their relationship becomes increasingly tender yet not confrontational, only after Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji sleep with each other during a heated, drunken bathing session, does Wei Wuxian realize he's hopelessly infatuated with Lan Wangji. Although, he does address that he holds feelings towards him a bit earlier, but expresses that he is afraid Lan Wangji doesn't feel the same.

During the final showdown at Guanyin Temple, being held hostage by Jin Guangyao, Wei Wuxian shouts that he doesn't regret what they did. He soon after confesses his love to Lan Wangji, who embraces him tearfully and recites his own words back to him in disbelief. In the drama, Lan Wanji wanted to reveal that his pupil and adopted son Lan Yuan/Lan Sizhui is actually Wen Yuan, A-Yuan. As the boy shared mutual respect and love for his adopted fathers. Wei Wuxian was grateful that Wen Yuan is still alive and embraces him. In Manhua, Lan Yuan embraces both Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji. Afterwards, the two elope and return to the Cloud Recesses to settle down. It was assumed that they went their separate ways in the drama series but Lan Wanji pursued him.

Songs
WangXian(忘羡) is the in-universe song written by Lan WangJi for Wei WuXian. The title translates to "Forgetting Envies" and also resulted in the naming of the ship. There are currently three versions of the song:
 * WangXian(忘羡) from the audio drama, which kept the in-universe title. It is performed by Wu En and Yu Zia.
 * XianYun(羡云) from the donghua(animation) adaptation and performed by HITA. The title translates to "Cloud's Longing".
 * WuJi(无羁) from The Untamed and performed by Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, the actors who play Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. The title translates to “Unrestrained”.

Fanon
The following for this franchise has existed since the novel first came into fruition but as of recent has reached an exponential amount of popularity. As more adaptations of the novel come to a close, others are continuing to pump out new content to sate an almost frenzied crowd. Recently, The Untamed, has proven to be a magnetizing starting point for many new fans, as it was recently localized on Netflix.

Fans on social media have even begun calling the series as a whole a pyramid scheme, as once one person gets into it, they begin passing it onto their friends, who inevitably end up doing the same.

On AO3, it is the most written ship for both characters as well as the most written ship in the Mo Dao Zu Shi and The Untamed fandoms.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * WangXian search on FanFiction.Net
 * Mo Dao Zu Shi tag on FanFiction.net
 * Mo Dao Zu Shi tag on FanFiction.net

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Trivia

 * A popular fan theory known as 'Thirteen Years of Inquiry' has been implemented, although altered, in one existing adaptation, being the donghua. This theory consists of the idea that during the thirteen years of Wei Wuxian's absence, Lan Wangji would play inquiry in search for his soul. This theory is commonly mistaken as canon, but has no existing foundation in the source material.
 * Live action itself also doesn't have any references to this theory. However, Lan Wangji's character song, which was recorded specifically for The Untamed, includes the lines about "The melody of the Inquiry echoing through the air but answered by no soul." Thus, this theory in The Untamed is shown as canon.
 * In hanzi, Lan Wangji's name is thirteen strokes, which aligns with the thirteen years of Wei Wuxian's absence.
 * In hanzi, Wei Wuxian's name is thirty three strokes, aligning with the amount of whip scars Lan Wangji acquired protecting him.
 * In the 2019 Cup of China, figuring skating duo Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu used The Untamed's version of WangXian for their ice dance routine. They even dressed the part. They continued to perform this exhibition throughout the 2019 - 2020 season.
 * WuJi is also a portmanteau of the pair's names, taking the other half of their last names WuXian and WangJi. Although the ship is not known by this name.
 * The ship has been featured on the Fandometrics most reblogged ships list multiple times.
 * It was the 7th most reblogged ship on Tumblr the week ending April 13th, 2020.
 * It was the 6th most reblogged ship on Tumblr the week ending April 20th, 2020.
 * It was the 11th most reblogged ship on Tumblr the week ending April 27th, 2020.


 * There was once an AO3 fanfic called "Sexy Times with Wangxian" that had over 4,000 tags during it's peak, it is the reason why AO3 now has a 75 tags per fanfic limit.

Media

 * All the symbolism behind the WangXian ‘ship in ‘The Untamed’ (FILM DAILY • JANUARY 2020)


 * The internet’s most beloved fanfiction site is undergoing a reckoning (VOX • FEBRUARY 2021)


 * From Now on I’m Taking All of My Storytelling Lessons From This Wild Epic About Love, Loyalty, and Necromancy (TOR • JANUARY 2022)


 * The Top Archive of Our Own Ships Say a Lot About Fandom (THE MARY SUE • JANUARY 2021)


 * The Untamed’s 10 best WangXian scenes that you simply can’t miss (HYPABLE • JUNE 2019)


 * Intoxicated By Emperor’s Smile: Queer Rep and Multidimensional Women in ‘The Untamed’ (HELLO ASIA! • FEBRUARY 2020)