Shen Qingqiu

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## Debut

**Donghua**
Episode 1
**Manhua**
Chapter 1
**Web novel**
Chapter 1

**Novel**
Chapter 1

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***❝ Everything that's happened in the past... I'll repay it all to you today. ❞***

```

> - Shen Qingqiu
>
>

*This page is about **Shen Yuan**. If you are looking for the original Shen Qingqiu, please go to the **Shen Jiu** page.*
Shen Qingqiu 「沈清秋 (Shěn Qīngqiū)」 is the protagonist of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System.

Originally he was a 21st century web-novel nerd named Shen Yuan 「沈垣 (Shěn Yuán)」 who died of pure and simple rage at the atrocious ending of the webnovel *Proud Immortal Demon Way*. His rage was so great it caused the System to activate and send him to the universe of the novel he proclaimed to be trash in order to make a better story. He transmigrated into the body of Shen Qingqiu, Lord of Qing Jing Peak and master of Luo Binghe, the protagonist of the aforementioned novel.

As a modern-day fan of webnovels, Shen Qingqiu's greatest assets were his thorough knowledge of the *Proud Immortal Demon Way* setting alongside a familiarity with the common tropes in *xianxia* stories.[?]

## Appearance

In the novel, Shen Qingqiu is described as being a particularly elegant and handsome man with long black hair and black eyes. As he has successfully cultivated to mid-core formation, Shen Qingqiu retained a youthful visage described to be beautiful by Shen Yuan. He is commonly seen wearing green robes befitting of his station and holding a fan that he tends to use to hide his expression. Shen Yuan thinks that using the fan is just a way to be pretentious but continues using one even after he died and resurrected in another body further on in the novel. In some illustrations (Thai, Japanese and Russian), Shen Qingqiu sports a cinnabar mole (朱砂痣, zhushazhi). He also wears a xiao guan headgear.

Unlike the cold, arrogant air the original Shen Qingqiu exudes, post-transmigration Shen Qingqiu's temperament has been remarked to be extremely gentle and warm with a flawless mannerism.

When Shen Qingqiu creates a substitute body from the Sun and Moon Dew Flower Seed its described as having Shen Yuan's original face covered with a scraggly beard but being "eight points in ten similar to Shen Qingqiu" and "...80% similar to the dead man".[?]

## Personality

Shen Qingqiu is an extremely elegant man with scholarly air. He can come across as being somewhat distant and cold, but he occasionally will slip out from the distant immortal persona into a warmer, caring man toward his disciples. This treatment was so different from the original Shen Qingqiu that he remade the entirety of Qing Jing Peak, changing the young scholars into a 'trusteeship for ADHD children'.

Shen Qingqiu also possesses a thin face (that is, gets embarrassed easily), and would typically withhold affectionate gestures so as to not sully his good name and to act out of character. He's very self-conscious about his word choices and mannerism which mostly carried over from the original Shen Qingqiu. He strictly followed the code of decorum and would be angered if forced to deviate.[?]

And yet, contrasting to the refined aura he tried to project, most of Shen Qingqiu's thoughts during the story consist of him freaking out at various plot developments and sarcastically commenting on the situation. He has a colorful internal dialogue consisting of criticism directed at the world and cursing the author, Shang Qinghua, and this part of his personality often slips out around him as he will berate him for writing the ridiculous plot points they now have to deal with. That said, in both the novel and the animated series tends to portray him as a calm, introverted and aloof Shizun on the outside, but a nervous, needy and a mess of a person on the inside.

Shen Yuan began his transmigration while looking through the lenses of a reader where everything that happened was merely plot developments and the people were nothing but characters. As his character developed, he began to bond with them and realize that the people around him were actual people and treated them as such rather than mere caricatures.[?]

## History

Shen Yuan was the third son of a rich Chinese family who spent his days idling about. He had two older brothers who carried over the family's business and a little sister whom he spoiled, giving him ample free time and money to squander on the internet.

Shen Yuan mostly spent his time reading webnovels, particularly a famous stallion erotica by the title of *Proud Immortal Demon Way* by Airplane Shooting Toward the Sky. He was truly passionate about the plot and worldbuilding but hated it for squandering all its potential in favor of cheap plot development and pornographic material. This drove him to faithfully follow the story but criticize it with deep, thorough analyses, becoming an anti-fan so well-known even the author himself recognized his internet handle.

As his favorite novel drew to a close, Shen Yuan was so incensed by the ending that he died while cursing the novel. This activated the mysterious System, which transported him to the world of *Proud Immortal Demon Way* as Shen Qingqiu, Luo Binghe's teacher and the master of the scholarly peak, Qing Jing Peak.

## Abilities and Equipment

* **Xiu Ya Sword** Shen Qingqiu is in possession of the original Shen Qingqiu's sword, Xiu Ya, which was presumably obtained from Wan Jian Peak. Like other cultivators, he is able to fly on his sword and control Xiu Ya telepathically by forming a sword seal with his hand.
* **Martial Abilities** Shen Qingqiu also inherited the original Shen Qingqiu's impressive martial skills and techniques upon transmigrating. He is easily able to defeat the demon elder Du Bi in combat without using his arms.
* **Cultivation** The original Shen Qingqiu cultivated to the stage of Mid Core Formation, granting Shen Qingqiu **immortality** and an impressive level of cultivation ability.
	+ When in his Sun and Moon Dew Flower Seed body, Shen Qingqiu possesses a near unlimited amount of qi, allowing him to use powerful qi blasts and break through immortal binding cables, including the immortal binding net specially made by Sha Hualing.

* **Plucked Leaves Flying Flowers** is a technique used by Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. It is said to be more aesthetic than an effective battle technique, but Shen Shen Qingqiu uses the spell several times in the novel as a non-lethal (but still painful) way to disarm others.
* **The System** By gaining points (and sometimes through manipulation) Shen Qingqiu is able to use the System to affect events in the plot. While this can be an asset, oftentimes the System manipulates events in a way that backfires. He can also use the System's inventory to store and retrieve key items.
* **Fake Jade Pendant** For the majority of the novel, Shen Qingqiu has the fake jade pendant Luo Binghe's mother gave him stored in the System's inventory. If shown to Luo Binghe, this item can reduce his anger points by 5,000.

## Etymology

The name *Shen Qingqiu* (沈清秋 (Shěn Qīngqiū)) breaks down into *liquid* (沈 (Shěn)) and clear *autumn* (清秋 (Qīngqiū)). His sword, Xiuya (修雅劍 (Xiū Yǎ Jiàn)), can be translated into *elegant cultivating sword*.

Meanwhile, the name Shen Yuan (沈垣 (Shěn Yuán)) shares the same character as in Shen Qingqiu, while Yuan (垣 (Yuán)) is the character for *wall or city*. Though, this name is also similar in pronunciation to *abyss* (深渊 (shēn yuān)). His online handle, Peerless Cucumber (絕世黃瓜) is a dick joke.

## Trivia

* While his birth date is unknown, his death date is noted as September 21, 2020.
	+ In the webnovel, he clearly dies of rage at the lackluster ending of the *PIDW* novel, but in the donghua, he more specifically chokes on a mantou he's trying to eat while raging.
	+ In an earlier draft of the novel, he died while choking on yogurt, though, as there is no source for this anymore, it may have also been a mistranslation by fans.
* Shen Yuan was around 20 years old when he died. In Chapter 50 of the official licensed English translation he states "...(His) three views that have been formed over the past 20 years have been severely impacted" when he discovers Luo Binghe with Shen Qingqiu's corpse. In Chapter 47 of the BC Novels fan translation of the original webnovel on Jinjiang Literature City he states: "Big brother, even if I suffered a worse tragedy than not getting any sisters for twenty years I wouldn’t resort to becoming a cut-sleeve! Let alone hooking up with the male protagonist!"

* Shen Yuan's original body was described by himself to be thin and his face was that of a 'dispirited pretty boy sitting around waiting to die'.

* Luo Binghe was not his first kiss.50

* He jokes about passing the exam to Beijing University, one the worldwide top research university located in Beijing, China.
	+ He originally says  "Shang Qinghua, the character Shen Qingqiu had joked about before, 'Going to Tsinghua University, hehe, and I passed Beijing University's entrance exam', is the leader of Anding Peak." So in actuality he is mocking Shang Qinghua's name.

## References

1. ↑ MXTX Weibo Reply of Character Heights
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Novel/1
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Novel/9
4. ↑ Hunxi Guilai. (2020). Question you may or may not be able to answer — what’s up with the Jin bindi? on Tumblr
5. ↑  (2023). The red dot on shen qingqiu forehead. in r/SVSSS
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Novel/28
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Novel/26
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Novel/4
9. ↑ Novel/2
10. ↑ Novel/21
11. ↑ Novel/10