Heaven Official's Blessing

Heaven Official's Blessing, also known by its Chinese title "Tian Guan Ci Fu" or TGCF, is a danmei cnovel by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It was serialised on JJWXC between August 2017 and June 2018.
==Canon Background==
Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the crown prince of the Xian Le Kingdom and was a beloved and respected leader. He ascended to heaven at a young age, but was cast down a short time later. He ascended for a second time and stayed in the heavens for the same time it takes to burn a stick of incense (about five minutes) before being cast down again. Now, he ascends for the third time as a laughing stock of all three realms.
The story has 244 chapters and 8 extras.
=== Characters ===
*Xie Lian (谢怜) - main character and former crown prince of Xian Le Kingdom
*Hua Cheng (花城) - romantic interest of Xie Lian and Ghost King (鬼王) of the Heavenly Realm
*Mu Qing (慕情) - Martial God of the southwest
*Feng Xin (风信) - Martial God of the southeast
*He Xuan (贺玄) - Ghost and one of the Four Great Calamities
*Shi Qingxuan (师青玄) - one of the five Elemental Masters
*Pei Ming (裴茗) - Martial God of the north
*Jun Wu (君吾) - Heavenly Emperor
*Quan Yizhen (权一真) - Martial God of the west
*Yin Yu (引玉) - former God and servant to Hua Cheng
=== Donghua ===
On October 26, 2019 multimedia site Bilibili announced a donghua adaptation of the novel would be coming in 2020Heaven's Official Blessing confirmed for a 2020 release. The first season was released October 2020 - February 2021. The show became available on Netflix in April 2021.
=== Manhua ===
A manhua adaptation is currently ongoing since 2019, with art by popular fanartist Starember and is able to be read on Bilibili in Chinese and English. There are currently four completed volumes. 
=== Live-action TV ===
A live-action series, titled Eternal Faith, began production in 2021, directed by Chen Jialin. At one point set photos were leaked online, leading to some fans expressing dismay about the quality of the production. (Other fans started using them as photo references. Example)
==Shipping==
Shipping preferences differ between Chinese and English fandoms, but Hualian is by far the most popular. On AO3 it takes up the majority of fanfiction available. As many fans dislike having the main canon pairing being broken up, other ships featuring Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are not as popular, but are still available. Some examples include shipping Xie Lian with Feng Qin, Mu Qing, Jun Wu, or Shi Qingxuan. Hua Cheng is sometimes shipped with He Xuan, and the Hua Cheng/Mu Qing ship has also been recently been gaining popularity.
===Beefleaf===
Twitter user cucumberbros drew art of the ship Ming Yi/Shi Qing Xuan and posted it to the website Privatter and locked it with a password. The password was the ship name and they represented each character with an emoji to hint at what the password should be. The emoji was a meatbone and leaves falling in the wind (🍖🍃), which soon circulated as "beefleaf". The ship name in English is now almost exclusively referred to as "Beefleaf".
===Fengqing===
The international fanbase is largely credited for popularising the slash ship known as "fengqing", a fanon pairing between Feng Xin and Mu Qing, two characters who are very belligerent towards one another in canon. Among Twitter users, its common to see "fengqing mains" (people who ship the two immensely) use the sword (⚔️) & bow and arrow (🏹) to depict their corresponding weapons. Another common portrayal of the two includes the cat and dog (Mu Qing being the cat, Feng Xin being the dog). The most common dynamic associated with the ship is Rivals to Lovers, with many fics taking place in the time after canon when it is implied that Feng Xin and Mu Qing will finally be able to start setting their differences aside.
== English-language Fandom ==
===Fan translation===
The completed English translation is by Twitter user Suika. Suika is credited for bringing the TGCF novel to an international fanbase, and is also credited for the English popularity of the novel. Suika famously translated one chapter per day and would make daily updates on the Google drive holding the translation, until all 244 chapters were completed. (In a fail_fandomanon thread discussion, anons disagreed about how widely known Suika's translation was before it was finished: "I know one of the other slower translators was pretty salty about it because they had no idea that Suika's translation existed, and felt the whole thing popping up at once took interest away from their version.", fail_fandomanon thread started 2021-03-31.)
Snail Paced Translations translated the first two chapters in August 2017 before dropping it when they left for college. Sakhyulations then started translating from the beginning in December 2017Novel Updates Wayback Machine copy, releasing chapters on an irregular schedule through at least June 2019 with chapter 23.Wayback Machine copy of the Novel Updates page, 10 July 2019. Suika's twitter indicates they took over translating circa November 2018 "for friends cuz I don't wanna cry alone"., 9 November 2019. Accessed 11 June 2022. Suika later said that when they started translating, there was no English fandom for the novel, they "never imagined this would blow up the way it did", and that they really enjoyed getting to see other people on twitter reacting to the translation as they posted it. Suika's twitter timeline shows they finished the last chapter in August 2019 and then did more editing until November/December., tweet by yummysuika, 8 August 2019. Accessed 12 June 2022., 13 November 2019. The finished chapters were then linked from Novel Updates between November and December 2019; Suika then went back to translate the early chapters to have a complete set by July 2020.Wayback Machine copy of the Novel Updates page, 10 January 2020. Meanwhile, apparently unaware of Suika's translation until it was added to the Novel Updates page, Deep Dream Translations took over from Sakhyulations and translated chapters 25 to 40 between October 2019 and November 2020., accessed 11 June 2022.
After completing the novel, Suika also released pdf, epub, and mobi translations and created a carrd linking to them. (The eight extras were translated by other people and are not included in the compiled ebook version.) Access to these fan translations was removed after the announcement that Seven Seas would be publishing an official translation.
===Official English Translation===
On August 5, 2021, the manga and novel publisher Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they had acquired the licenses for all three novels by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: Tian Guan Ci Fu, Mo Dao Zu Shi, and Scum Villain's Self Saving System. Each novel would be split into multiple volumes, with a volume published once every few months. TGCF would be published in eight volumes, the first released in mid December 2021 and the last to come out in 2023. The translation for the official release was done by Suika, who had also done the fan translation, and edited by Suika's friend Pengie, with the cover art by 日出的小太陽 (tai3_3) and internal art by ZeldaCW.
There was much rejoicing in the English fandom at finally getting an official translation, and many fans pre-ordered one or more of the novels. Some people expressed concerns about the cost of the books, especially TGCF; at US$20 per volume, Americans would be paying US$160 for TGCF alone. Meanwhile, Suika had understandably taken the fan translation offline, which until recently had been available for free and was presumably very similar to the official product. Compared to other fan translations, TGCF was reasonably good, but whether it was worth US$160 was another question."The TGCF fan translation is...fine for a fan translation. It's fanfic quality. Asking people to pay $160 for it is ridiculous." , fail_fandomanon thread, 15 December 2021. On the other hand, cnovel fans were hoping to show that there was an English market for cnovel translations, and not buying TGCF and other MXTX works could mean losing the chance to get other cnovels translated in the future. 
Font wank occurred when the official covers were revealed on September 30, 2021. Many twitter fans expressed excitement about the cover art and said they were looking forward to reading the book. However, some comments were critical of the font choice. Examples:
*"As a designer, the font bothers me. I see what everyone is raving about. Why didn’t you guys use the same or a similar font as you did for MDZS covers? Im still happy for its release tho", 1 October 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
*"the fonts in all 3 covers look too kiddy. it looks like a children’s book. you wouldn’t want to attract the wrong demographic …", 1 October 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
*"yes I have a bachelor’s in graphic design. No I would not like to speak about the tgcf book cover font", 30 September 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
*"love the covers for mxtx’s books but i will never in my life be over the fact they made tgcf’s font look like That!! i get what they were going for, but they packed so much into the font it’s actually hard to read", 1 October 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
*"Looking at the other translated covers compared to this one I'm just- I think you should change the font, this book have the heaviest content out of all three but looking really Disney like it belongs in the children's or young-adult section", 30 September 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
====== Other fans thought people were overreacting: ======
*"Logs in. See's people acting like the tgcf novel cover font is gonna ruin their entire lives. Logging back off again 😴", 1 October 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
*"the eng cover of tgcf is perfectly in line with cover designs for translated light novels, including the font. plenty of jp releases with adult content have similar styles. all this “think of the kids!” hand-wringing over a font choice is very weird", 1 October 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
*"when is there NOT mxtx tl wank. it's my 1st time seeing people get so worked up over the translated novel font choices though w/c i think is hilarious", 4 October 2021. Accessed 11 June 2022.
====TCGF rewrite and censorship====
After MXTX announced that she would be rewriting and adding more to the books, as well as additional extras chapters, fans were overall excited. However, there was also some pushback and wank over what people believed would be censorship of the more romantic parts of the models. Other fans argue that such fears are far overblown, that more shipping content will be added, and that the rest of the fandom should 'be grateful' for how obvious the romantic content is in the novel despite censorship in China
== Chinese-language Fandom ==
Chinese fanspaces are known for being both impressive yet vicious. Debates throughout the fandom take an alarming turn most of the time, as people spew death threats and argue about canon and post-canon parts of the novel. Despite having a few menacing fans, the Chinese fandom is overall extremely welcoming and is quite notable for their historically accurate cosplays and unlimited fancontent (largely thanks to TGCF being native to China).
== Other ==
=== Spanish Official Translation Wank ===
The first two books of the TGCF novels in Spanish, published by Norma Editorial, were met with criticism from some of the fanbase, who felt that the translation contained several inaccuracies. Javier Román García, the translator of these first two books, faced criticism for various choices, such as translating "gege" into Spanish, rendering "Crimson Rain Sought Flower" as "the tanhua of the rain of blood," and translating "White No-Face" as "white clothes." Additionally, "Four Supremes" was translated as "Four Plagues," and "Highness" and "Majesty" were used interchangeably for Xie Lian. Some readers accused the translator of insufficient research, over-localization, and a lack of footnotes to clarify these changes.https://twitter.com/Yunzzelf/status/1784288012723163407
In response to the criticism, Román García acknowledged some of the errors but defended other decisions, explaining that he had to work within a set deadline. He also described his role as more of a "co-author" than just a translator. This statement was generally interpreted as arrogance by fans, who have since referred to him in a derogatory way as "the co-author of TGCF" or simply "the co-author." While Norma appointed a second translator for the remaining books, the new translator, Marina López-Duarte Bandini (aka Hitora) later stated that Norma had decided to discontinue her contract, using her translations only for books 3 and 4, and reinstating Román García as the translator for future volumes.https://twitter.com/Hitora19_/status/1839933939693031918
Hitora, was highly regarded by fans for being a passionate danmei and MXTX fan and knowing the source material well. She had also translated The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System into Spanish, a translation that received praise. Many fans were devastated over Norma’s decision to terminate her contract and replace her with Román García once again, as they felt her deep understanding of the genre and the author's work resulted in a more faithful and nuanced translation.https://twitter.com/fallingasaleaf/status/1839994968913424493https://twitter.com/untamedwwx/status/1840073036634128878 After the news was out some fans said they won't be completing the collection.https://twitter.com/elrinconcitobl/status/1840001604327514194
== Fanac ==
=== Events ===
* TGCF Gotcha for Congo
=== Conventions ===
==Fanwork Examples==
===Fanfic===
* The Heart and All its Chambers by etymologyplayground. rule 63 Hualian femslash modern AU. (2019-05-28) podficced by exmanhater (2020-11-07)
* three part fate, seven part courage by astrocosmos. "Feng Xin and Mu Qing discover the traumas Xie Lian has kept hidden from them, and the trio have a talk that's eight centuries overdue." (2019-11-26)
* No Paths are Bound by CataclysmicEvent. "A re-telling of TGCF where Xie Lian has his cursed shackle placed in his eyes, blinding him." As of October 2022 it is the longest fic under the TGCF tag and the only fic over 1,000,000 words long. (2022)
* ’Til our compass stands still by edenwolfie. canon-divergence different first meeting with mutual pining and identity porn (2022-2023)
===Fanart===
Russian:
*Xie Lian by ales on vk (29 Mar 2022)
*Hualien by ales on vk (21 Dec 2021)
*Hualian nighttime scene by ___anteiku on twitter (Sep 25, 2021)
Gen:
*hey dude can i interest u in a book that is 2000 pages long, a group portrait by broresteia on tumblr (July 29, 2021)
*He Xuan portrait by huaepiphany on tumblr (Oct 9, 2020)
*Xie Lian meeting the Rain Master by huaepiphany (Mar 5, 2023)
*Hua Cheng by xtevestrange on twitter ( Dec 25, 2021)
*Mu Qing, Feng Xin, and Hua Cheng by Fawnmisty_ on twitter ( Jul 28, 2022)
Ship art:
*Hualian for MerMay by atthis on twitter (2 May 2022)
*beefleaf art by redgitanako (Dec 26 2021)
*beefleaf by meru90 on twitter (Jun 30, 2022)
*husband's jacket is equal to a trophy #tgcf #hualian by zmarqa on twitter (Jul 10, 2022) 
*Hualian art by To_Dot_ on twitter (Jul 15, 2021)
===Comics===
* The Ghost King isn't dressed by auchrauch on Tumblr based on the extra of the same name (August 2023)
====Doujin====
===Vids===
*【天官赐福】花怜 Hualian - Love Like You by Melt Strules, animated fanart (Aug 12, 2019)
*Hualian - Umbrella by MrFarewellIsDead, donghua vid (Jan 6, 2021)
*Everything Stays by Rhea314, donghua vid (Jan 22, 2021)
====Animatics====
* Heaven Official's Blessing // Hualian // Animatic by Strottine to As the World Caves In by Matt Maltese
* Moon Waltz | TGCF animation by auchrauch to song by 月のワルツ (dongdang cover) by 諫山実生 (Dec 30, 2021)
* TGCF - shine, shine, shine (animatic) by slouph to Hamburg song - Keane (Apr 6 2023)
* A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night (六兆年零一夜物语) (subbed on youtube to English and Russian, originally posted to bilibili) to Glutamine (ぐるたみん) — Rokuchou Nen to Ichiya Monogatari (六兆年と一夜物語)
====Short-form edits====
=== Zines ===
* Unconditional, a multifandom zine focused on fantasy romance book fandoms (2023)
* unfulfilled: a tgcf calamities zine (2023)
* Four Calamities Zine (2023)
*Solstice Zine - twitter, carrd, instagram (2021-2022)
*Heaven Official's Kitchen - twitter, carrd (2023)
*Heart in Paradise, a cancelled HuaLian zine
*We Didn't Know Whether to Laugh or to Cry, a non-dominant hand zine also featuring SVSSS and MDZS fanart (2021)
=== Cosplay ===
*beefleaf cosplay by zoejoeyk on twitter (Jul 24, 2022)
*悦神 天官赐福，百无禁忌 by 墨球 (mo qiu) - a xielian cosplay with dance choreography both as the ancient prince of Xianle and in his daozhang outfit
==Fannish Resoures==
*Heaven Official's Blessing at Novel Updates
*fandom wiki on Wikia
*adaptation information for English language fans on carrd
*TGCF novel fanworks and TGCF donghua fanworks on AO3
*Heaven Official's Blessing fanart collected with permission by tumblr user miyakuli
*Heaven Official's Blessing fanart reblogged by lansizhuis
*tianguancifu community on Reddit
*Discussion thread for Heaven Official's Blessing on Novel Updates Forum, September 2018
*Is TGCF overrated? thread at Novel Updates Forum, November 2020
== References ==