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wenzhou + pain

word of honor 山河令 » favorite relationships → wen kexing & gu xiang [½]

“Ah… Xiang?”

Her head was on his chest. Forcefully lifting it up, she gave him a smile, breath like gossamer. “Master, I said I was going to kill him, but that was a bluff. I don’t… have the skill… kill him for me, I’m begging you… kill him… for me.”

He nodded woodenly. Gu Xiang looked pained, and she felt aching, cold all over. It was like all of her warmth was pouring out of her back. She had to hold tightly onto his lapels, like a little girl. “It’s f-fine if I die… Brother Cao definitely would have wanted me to live well… but I… I’m not going to… be able to… Master…”

Wen Kexing covered her head with his bloodied hand. “Don’t call me Master,” he said, gentle. “Call me gege.”

She attempted to force a smile, but failed. No longer obeying her, her limbs began to spasm, and her eyes gradually unfocused. “Gege, you have to… kill him… for me…”

– 天涯客 Tian Ya Ke, Chapter 75

— who are you? wen. wen kexing. — the chief of ghost valley? aish, that was meant to be a secret.

Buddhist symbolism and themes in "Word of Honor"

There’s inevitably some Taoist and Buddhist influence in most Chinese dramas and novels because it’s so much a part of Chinese culture (even for works that aren’t “deeply religious”), but one thing that struck me about Word of Honor is that the running theme of redemption and Wenzhou letting go of the burdens of their pasts is obviously framed in Buddhist symbolism. 

First, let’s take a look at the worldview presented in Word of Honor, in particular the characters’ views on sin and redemption. 

Zhou Zishu mentions twice that he deserves to be fried in a cauldron of hot oil to atone for his sins (once to Han Ying in EP10, once to Wen Kexing in EP13). In the Chinese version of the afterlife, all souls of the dead go to hell to be judged, and are given punishments according to their behaviour when they were alive. After they have served their punishments, they are allowed to reincarnate in hope that they will do better in the next life, and get closer to enlightenment. 

In EP23, by lip-reading, Wen Kexing actually mentions a much more specific term for hell – 阿鼻 (Ā bí), or Avici. In Buddhist belief, Avici is the worst of the 18 levels of hell. Souls that are condemned to Avici do not get to be reborn, and instead are forced to relive their worst nightmares over and over again for eternity. It is reserved for people who have committed any of the five Major Offences: shedding the blood of a Buddha, killing an enlightened being, corrupting someone from the path of enlightenment, or killing your mother or father (guess why Wen Kexing thinks he deserves to be thrown in there T_T).

In EP3, Zhou Zishu also notes that the troubles of the world boil down to three things: greed, hate, foolishness/obsession. In Buddhism, these are the “three poisons” that prevent sentient beings from attaining enlightenment. 

On the flip side, the belief in enlightened ones or Buddhas are also present in Word of Honor.

In the first shot of Ghost Valley in EP1, there are a few Buddha statues outside Ghost Valley (Mt Qingya). I’m not confident about identifying all of them because I can’t see their hands (each Buddha has their distinctive hand gesture and may hold certain items) but one is probably Amitabha, who promised that all who call on his name at their death will be heard, and the one who is presented in wrathful yaksha form is Vajrapani, who protects those seeking enlightenment. The entrance to Ghost Valley lies between these statues, calling to mind the teaching “一念成佛，一念成魔” (the difference between enlightenment and damnation is but a moment’s thought). 

Another Buddhist figure who shows up repeatedly throughout Word of Honor is the bodhisattva 地藏菩萨 (Kṣitigarbha in Sanskrit). Han Ying has an altar dedicated to him in the room where he lets Zhou Zishu sleep off the alcohol; Wen Kexing quotes the bodhisattva’s vow “地狱不空，誓不成佛” (until all the hells are emptied of suffering beings, I swear not to become a Buddha) in EP8; and when Ye Baiyi is talking to Rong Changqing’s sword in EP32, he demands if his zhiji thought that he was the bodhisattva himself. 

地藏菩萨 is the bodhisattva of hell-beings and the guardian of children, particularly lost (dead) children, which makes him an apt guardian for the likes of Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang, but also Zhou Zishu and Zhang Chengling, who are both orphans.

The bedtime story that Wen Kexing tells Chengling in EP21 (and which he actually tries to tell Zhou Zishu in EP18 as well), about the traveller who climbed down a dry well to escape from a pack of wolves only to find that there were venomous snakes at the bottom and a beehive on the wall of the well, is based on 《佛说譬喻经 (The Parable Sutra)》 , also titled “The Reality of Human Existence”. Wen Kexing stops just before the ending of the original story though, omitting the moral of the story. The honey from the beehive represents the desires of humans: the need for sleep, hunger and thirst, greed for wealth, pride and desire for fame, and lust. In the original story, the traveller keeps trying to get more honey even though he is in a perilous position, instead of trying to find a way out, and it is a metaphor for how sentient beings are enslaved by their desires and fail to see the bigger picture. At this stage of the show, Wen Kexing is struggling to let go of the revenge that he’s been plotting for most of his life, so it makes sense that he does not reach the end of the story yet.

But luckily, the path to redemption in a Buddhist worldview is not that impossible to attain. In EP12, Zhou Zishu quotes 《五灯会元》, a Buddhist scroll from the Song Dynasty:  "坏人放下屠刀可立地成佛，好人做了坏事，难道就永远不得超生？” (A bad person who lets go of his weapon of slaughter can attain enlightenment, so why is it that if a good person makes a mistake, he is damned to eternal purgatory?) In Buddhist understanding, the “屠刀” (weapon of slaughter) isn’t necessarily a bloody weapon but the emotional baggage/obsessions that weigh one down.

The main goal of Buddhist practitioners is to come to the self-realisation that they cannot attain enlightenment if they keep holding onto their emotional baggage, and in a way Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu help each other work through their issues and let go of the burdens that have been plaguing them. Although immortality isn’t the end goal of Buddhism, they both more or less remove themselves from the vulgarity of the world, and I think it is a fitting ending for them :)

[insp]