Wei Wuxian

Wei Ying (魏婴), courtesy name Wuxian (无羡), is a protagonist of the serialized danmei novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) and its audio drama, manhua, donghua, and live-action drama adaptations. He is an extremely popular character in fandom and, with Lan Wangji, represents half of the juggernaut canon ship.
==History==
===Chinese fandom===
===English-language fandom===
==Common Pairings==
Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian is by far the most popular pairing. 
On the AO3, other ships for Wei Wuxian tend to be m/m: Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian (1063 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, Wen Ning/Wei Wuxian (214 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, Lan Xichen/Wei Wuxian (166 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, Jiang Cheng/Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (123 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning (114 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, Nie Huaisang/Wei Wuxian (90 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, Jin Zixuan/Wei Wuxian (88 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021, and Lan Xichen/Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (72 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021. Het ships include Wei Wuxian/Wen Qing (41 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021 and Jiang Yanli/Wei Wuxian (22 works)relationship tag accessed 1 January 2021.
==Fanon and Common Tropes in Fanworks==
(links to relevant trope pages, explain fanon characteristics)
=== Sexuality ===
Some fans headcanon Wei Wuxian to be bisexual, due to both his canonical romantic interest in Lan Wangji, as well as his tendency to otherwise flirt with women, especially when he was a teenager. In The Untamed, Jiang Cheng remarks that Wei Wuxian is "probably flirting with [some] Mianmian," referring to a female character who Wei Wuxian had defended before. Wei Wuxian is also very close to Wen Qing, another female character, who fans may also ship with him. Many fans tend to take these interpretations to state that Wei Wuxian is canonically bisexual, though no word specifically deigning his sexuality is ever used in any Chinese or translated text. 
Regardless, the dedication to this headcanon has led to quite a bit of wank within the Wangxian fandom. Many fans with this headcanon have accused other fans who call Wei Wuxian "gay" as erasing his bisexuality. Other fans are also not fond of the trope of Wei Wuxian battling his internalized homophobia (sometimes known as "Straight Boy Wei Ying") being represented in fanwork (though it does occur in canon), accusing the trope of also erasing his bisexuality. Despite this, bisexual Wei Wuxian is widely represented in fanworks.
===Family Relationships===
In canon Wei Wuxian is the orphaned child of Jiang Fengmian's friend and servant, and Jiang Fengmian takes him into the sect and makes him the first disciple. Due to Jiang Fengmian's suspiciously favorable treatment of Wei Wuxian, it is widely believed that Wei Wuxian is his secret love child. However, Wei Wuxian is never officially acknowledged as Jiang Fengmian's biological son, nor is he ever formally adopted into the Jiang family. Wei Wuxian refers to the Jiang siblings, Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli, using standard wuxia terminology: younger martial brother (shidi) and older martial sister (shijie). In contrast, a lot of English-language fanfiction simplifies his canonically ambiguous relationship to the Jiangs and presents him as a third "adopted" sibling. This is especially true in modern AUs and other non-wuxia AU settings.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfic===
* 
===Fanart===
* by aizel-kon on tumblr (Feb 12th, 2019)
* by tmvptm on twitter (Aug 31, 2019)
* by wuxxxian on tumblr (Jul 09, 2020)
* by elfinfen on tumblr (Sep 7, 2020)
* by lanbungee on tumblr. Also on twitter. (Oct 25, 2020)
* by mmungnothing on twitter. Also on tumblr. (Feb 18, 2021)
* by zelkams-art on tumblr (Mar 29, 2021)
===Vids===
* 
===Meta===
*
==Fannish Links and Other Resources==
* Wei Wuxian character tag, Wei Wuxian-centric tag, Wei Wuxian POV tag - fanworks at AO3
* character information at Wikipedia
* Wei Wuxian character page at MDZS wiki
* Bottomxian Week 2023
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Mo Dao Zu Shi Characters