Dashing Youth Relationship Chart: Amended Edition

Dashing Youth Relationship Chart: Amended Edition

There was a major character missing. I added him.

Original version below

The tragedy of Yi Wenjun is that she traded a gilded cage for a wooden one, when all she wanted was to be free.

The keeper of the wooden cage gave her hope, yes, but would never have let her leave. His stories were just stories, and she never got to see the world.

Because of how Yi Wenjun’s oppressive father raised her, she constantly feels like a shadow of herself. The only time her character has ever truly felt alive to me was near the end of the Blood of Youth’s novel, when she was flying through the chaos of her son’s creation, bantering with Jin Xuan as he pleaded for her to return to safety. Her interaction with him near the end of Dashing Youth slightly reminded me of that scene and of why I like her novel counterpart so much.

Freedom is what Yi Wenjun desires above all else, but obligation weighs down her wings. And while her sons never experienced the gilded and wooden cages they were raised in as prisons, she did. Even then, she tried to do what was best for them, rather flawed as that attempt was.

Dashing Youth ring-related musings

There is no question that Dashing Youth loves its rings. The indulgent ways the camera lingers on them is most prominent in the case of Zhuo Qing and Xiao Zhongjing, but there are other ring-wearers in the show, such as Xiao Xie, Master Tu, and Yan Bietian. Unsurprisingly, considering what rings (particularly thumb rings) tend to symbolize, the thing they all have most in common is their power and/or wealth. There are possibly deeper connections to be drawn between these characters, but I thought I’d focus on sharing my discoveries on the materials Zhuo Qing’s and Xiao Zhongjing’s are likely composed of.

My initial thoughts were along the lines of black jade for Zhuo Qing’s and carnelian for Xiao Zhongjing. However, in my search for similar rings online, I found that, among other colors, agate can come in black and red. Carnelian seems to often be compared to red agate, so my guess may not have been far off. Individually, the symbolism of carnelian and black jade likely fit the two characters a bit better, though them wearing the same type of stone could be seen as representing unification in their relationship.

Notable in this respect is their sun-and-moon symbolism, where Zhuo Qing is heavily associated with the Moon in terms of aesthetics and scene framing/transitions. Associating Xiao Zhongjing with the Sun isn’t a far leap, particularly considering the plaque hanging in Zhuo Qing’s hall, as well as the gold Xiao Zhongjing wears and the power he holds as emperor. The ring colors reinforce these associations, red-orange for the warmth of sunlight and black for the cold of the night.

Yan Su as Zhuo Qing in Dashing Youth 少年白马醉春风 (2024)