I feel like I say this a lot, but because I spend so much time in fandom spaces I’m always somewhat aware of what new media are coming out or are gaining massive popularity—especially in the genres I’m most interested in, and especially if they involve the LGBTQ+ community. It’s like I’m sensing vibration in the Force—as well as reading the keysmashed texts of all my friends telling me that it’s awesome incredible amazing the most heartbreaking story I’ve ever seen the most beautiful piece of media I’ve ever consumed.
All this to say, I did know what Mo Dao Zu Shi was. I had seen GIFs floating around Tumblr and Twitter and heard friends talking about it—and I had a vague understanding that it was one of the most famous examples of the contemporary danmei and xianxia literature, as well as a mass phenomenon both in its home country of China and abroad. But I’ve only recently gotten into it—and I love it so much. It’s everything I like packed into a single story: it’s got beautifully complex characters, a textbook “fall of the hero” trope, discussions about morality and orthodoxy, pathos, drama, love, sword fights, and magnificent wigs.
Both the novel and all the adaptations that were derived from it definitely deserve a chance and your utmost affection, and that includes The Untamed, the C-drama inspired by Mo Dao Zu Shi. And while they have the same characters and the same overarching plot, it wouldn’t be quite right to consider them the same exact story, so let me share some of my newly-acquired knowledge to help you fall into this spiral as well. Don’t worry, I’ll keep everything spoiler-free—because there’s nothing like experiencing this story with very little previous knowledge, I believe.
First and foremost, Mo Dao Zu Shi—also known in English as The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation or The Founder of Diabolism, even though the more literal translation should be Demonic Path Ancestral Master. Mo Dao Zu Shi is a novel written by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, or MXTX, as she’s known in the fandom, between 2015 and 2016 and originally published on the Chinese online platform Jinjiang Wenxuecheng before it was picked up by Pinsin Studio and traditionally published in 2016. It belongs to both the danmei and the xianxia genres—the first one belonging to the whole boy’s love area of media and the second one indicating a fantasy story heavily inspired by Taoism, Chinese mythology, and other traditional Chinese elements.
The story of Mo Dao Zu Shi is complex and twisty, alternating the present timeline with flashbacks of what the characters went through in their shared past. Its main characters are Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, two cultivators who meet when they’re teenagers and end up entwined for the rest of their lives. They’re surrounded by a spectacular cast of supporting characters—Jiang Cheng my beloved and my beloathed—who all contribute to making the story as gripping and as impossible to put down as it is.
The romance scenes are quite explicit, and the fight scenes don’t pull any punches either with the gore and the horror. We’re talking walking corpses and malevolent ghosts, so be warned. If you want to start your journey with the novel, then you’ll be happy to know that Mo Dao Zu Shi is also being currently published in English by Seven Seas—the story has been divided into five volumes, with the first one released in December 2021 and the second one coming mid-May 2022.
Then there’s the drama, Chen Wing Ling—more famously known in English as The Untamed, even though the original Chinese characters offer some fascinating interpretations which definitely deserve looking into. Produced by Tencent Video and available worldwide on Netflix, it counts fifty episodes in total which aired in the summer of 2019, starring actors Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo as Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji respectively. It was one of the highest-grossing dramas of its year, as well as a critical darling for both its performances and its costumes, and it’s also incidentally one of the most addicting series I’ve ever watched. Its fandom exploded, with Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji becoming one of the most popular pairings on the Internet.
The story in The Untamed is as complex as the one in Mo Dao Zu Shi—even though some plot points have been altered, and the characters never physically change since they remain portrayed by the same actors throughout the entire run of the drama. The way the story is presented is also different: while Mo Dao Zu Shi has many smaller flashbacks divided throughout the chapters, The Untamed has one massive flashback spanning thirty episodes. That way you get all the information you need to know about the characters’ past before continuing with the intrigue.
The Untamed is also less gory; where Mo Dao Zu Shi has walking corpses, The Untamed has smoke-like magic, and is less violent—characters might get bruised up sometimes, but nothing too bad to unsettle their magnificent lace front wigs. And then there’s the whole issue of romantic scenes, which have been completely cut by censorship. That doesn’t make The Untamed any less danmei, though, to be completely honest. The subtext hasn’t gone anywhere, and the entire cast and crew try to tell you this is a romance in every way possible— starting with the very musical theme of the drama, Wuji, sung by Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo themselves. Go read the lyrics at your own risk, because tears—and some spoilers—are just around the corner.
Hopefully, this will have made navigating between Mo Dao Zu Shi and its most famous adaptation a bit easier—since getting into a new fandom, especially one as active and sprawling as this one, can always seem a bit daunting at first. And of course, The Untamed is only the most famous of the Mo Dao Zu Shi adaptations, definitely not the only one, though. There are also an audio drama, a donghua and a manhua, so there’s plenty of content waiting for you once you fall irredeemably in love with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji and their world.
(image: Tencent Video)
