Guiping

Guiping is the femslash ship between Guizhong and Madame Ping from the Genshin Impact fandom.

Canon
Guizhong and Madame Ping are both immortals from Liyue. Along with this, they're both also NPCS as of now. They have, however, never interacted in-game. Although in the event "The Exquisite Night Chimes", in a cutscene, we learn that they were close friends.

Guizhong and Madame Ping started out as rivals due to their disagreement on the meaning of music. Madame Ping believed that music comes from the soul and can't be replicated by machinery, while Guizhong believed mechanisms, such as the Cleansing Bell she made, are capable of producing simple melodies. They endlessly argue until Rex Lapis finally puts a stop to their arguing. After Guizhong and Madame Ping stopped arguing, they finally got along, going on many adventures in the mountains together. They talked about music, mechanics, and the affairs of the mortal world.

Once Guizhong died, Madame Ping spent her time alone in the mountains reminiscing while playing her zither. Once she was satisfied with her tune, she played it in the clouds, though never played the melody again since the only one who could understand it was gone. Madame Ping believes that the Guili Plans is everything, most likely because it represents Guizhong. Madame Ping pestered Rex Lapis to give her the Cleansing Bell, and would use it only to play the tune Guizhong had composed on it. In game, Madame Ping spends the daytime in Yujing Terrace watching over the Glaze Lilies, Guizhong's favorite flower.

Paimon and Ganyu ask Madame Ping to play her tune on the zither for the Lantern Rite, but Madame Ping refuses since it's been a long time since she played, and doing so makes her think of her past with Guizhong. She tells Ganyu she has not completely moved on, but her grief did get easier with time.

Quotes
"Tell me, Cloud Retainer… when the one attuned to my soul is no longer here, who else could hope to understand this tune?"

- Madame Ping to Cloud Rentainer about Guizhong

Fanon
Guiping isn't the most popular ship within the Genshin Impact fandom as a lot more people ship Guili and see them more as friends. However, with the 3.4 event story, lots of people have began shipping these two. Many fans who originally shipped Guili started shipping this ship instead.

Some fans have compared Guiping to WangXian from MDZS, because both are rivals-to-lovers where one is an inventor who died in a war (Guizhong and Wei Wuxian) and the other mourns them by playing a song inspired by them (Madame Ping and Lan Wangji).

They currently have 55+ works on AO3.

Fandom
FAN-FICTION

Trivia

 * Guizhong and Madame Ping's story is likely based on the story of Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi. These two were best friends, and Zhong Ziqi often remarked on Bo Ya's playing, describing it as flowing water and tall mountains. However, like Guizhong, Zhong Ziqi died while his friend was away. In a fit of rage, Bo Ya smashed his instrument and, similar to Madame Ping, vowed to never play again, as the one who understood his music had already died.
 * The word 知音 (zhīyīn, meaning "intimate friend" or "soulmate"), which Madame Ping calls Guizhong in the original Chinese text, originated from this story.