sid_guardian | Focus on Sang Zan: devoted

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Focus on Sang Zan: devoted

"I hear the flowers saying they don't belong to anyone. They belong to everyone."

"Everyone was born with rights."

Sang Zan is devoted to:
* freedom from slavery
* Ge Lan/Wang Zheng
* the SID

Sang Zan in mask

In the drama, Sang Zan goes from slave to freedom fighter to Patriarch to despot to prisoner to librarian. Through his story we learn details about the complexity, customs, beliefs, and violence of the Hanga Tribe. Before he leads a slave uprising, the Hanga are ruled by the aristocracy, and the treatment of Sang Zan's family (and, presumably, of slaves in general) is cruel. After Sang Zan becomes Patriarch, the cruelty is directed at those who were the nobility, and Sang Zan's devotion to Ge Lan becomes his downfall, when he won't kill her, shelters her, and even plans to run away with her.

Wang Zheng says Sang Zan changed after her execution. He becomes vicious and calculating, playing his political rivals off of each other and killing them in turn. They are the same men who had Ge Lan executed, and their deaths seem to be Sang Zan's revenge. To punish him, the tribe will burn Ge Lan's place of burial, and it's there that they confront him and tell him they will make him a slave again.

Sang Zan as patriarch

Sang Zan: "All I've ever done in my life was to escape the identity of a slave. I thought I had succeeded. But now I understand, the Hanga Tribe will go extinct sooner or later. No one can save us! This time, it shall be over for all of us!"

When he produces the Mountain-River Awl and activates it, it turns the Hanga into "half-men, half-ghosts" and they are frozen in rock inside the mountain. Sang Zan is imprisoned with the Mountain-River Awl in a pillar of stone and ice that is chained very much like Ye Zun's Sky Pillar is.

Sang Zan in library

One of the character themes of Sang Zan is communication. When he meets Ge Lan as a masked slave, he speaks forthrightly to her and her bodyguard (who, by the way, switches loyalties with apparent ease after the uprising, and then leads the group who want to make Sang Zan a slave again). When Sang Zan removes his mask, he becomes shy. When Ge Lan and Sang Zan are alone together and happy, he's quiet with her. But then he boldly leads the slave uprising (wearing his mask) and doesn't hesitate to execute a noble (Ge Lan's brother?). As the Patriarch he's confident, becoming arrogant.

After being imprisoned in the pillar for a hundred years, he has difficulty speaking and needs many things explained to him. Wang Zheng has to teach him to write.

Sang Zan with Wang Zheng

Sang Zan's troubled past is disturbing, but once he joins the SID he's loyal, thankful, and resourceful. (It's one of his traps that causes Tan Xiao to let go of the Mountain-River Awl, to soar into Zhao Yunlan's hand.) Zhao Xinci/Zhang Shi calls him a young person "with a calm heart." Sang Zan and Wang Zheng are devoted to each other, rarely leaving each other's side, and it's shortly before their tragic but noble sacrifice that Sang Zan finally speaks clearly to her: "As long as I'm with you, whether living or dead, it's all good."

* What changes for him when he removes his slave mask for Ge Lan? He tells her nothing will change, but he accepts the flowers she gives him and her friendship, and then her love. Does he see this as an opportunity to get close to the Patriarch and plot the uprising/exact his revenge?

* Ideas/thoughts for how Sang Zan got the Mountain-River Awl? He says it's "the treasure I got unexpectedly...they told me this is a holy tool." Who are "they?"

* Did wearing the Mountain-River Awl change his personality after Ge Lan's death? We are told repeatedly that prolonged exposure to the Holy Tools corrupts humans.

* Was he literate in the past? When he orders a rival's death as Patriarch, he holds up a written slip, but it's clear he'd already decided the man's fate. However, he can read as the SID's librarian, because although Zhao Yunlan questions Sang Zan's comprehension when he asks for everything the library has about the Holy Tools, Sang Zan delivers exactly that.

* What is Sang Zan's character like in the novel?

Sang Zan and Wang Zheng face the enemy

Fic:
with their hearts open wide by

teaotter
Author's summary: Ah, young love!
My summary: Charming, brief, slice-of-life story about two couples in SID.

What's your favorite color? by

weilongfu
My summary: A sweet, short fic with a WeiLan focus about Sang Zan learning to communicate and understand. (It's labeled 'chapter 10' because it's part of a series of drabbles and short fics the author posted as one multichaptered work.)

Icons:

naye

enviropony

tinny

tassosss
More at this post

So-- what are your thoughts about Sang Zan? Do you have recs or links for fic, meta, picspams, and other fanworks that focus on Sang Zan? Feel free to rec your own Sang Zan fanworks!

Come talk about Sang Zan!

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In the drama, Sang Zan goes from slave to freedom fighter to Patriarch to despot to prisoner to librarian.

That is a very nice summary. :D

* What changes for him when he removes his slave mask for Ge Lan? He tells her nothing will change, but he accepts the flowers she gives him and her friendship, and then her love. Does he see this as an opportunity to get close to the Patriarch and plot the uprising/exact his revenge?

I never saw this as him planning revenge; and I think we're probably mean to read the taking off of the mask as getting to see his real personality. I think he found her pretty, was suprised by her kindness, and then fell in love with her, quite straightforwardly. If she'd just been a means to an end he could have discarded her after getting his revenge and his position - it would have made his life a lot easier.

* Did wearing the Mountain-River Awl change his personality after Ge Lan's death? We are told repeatedly that prolonged exposure to the Holy Tools corrupts humans.

I guess that's possible? But I don't think it's necessary for his character development to make sense, and neither do Zhao Yunlan of Shen Wei. They killed his love, he hates them with the fire of a thousand burning suns, simples.

I don't really have any further views on him. I find slave/patriarch Sang Zan a lot more interesting than librarian Sang Zan. He's very nice and his romance with Wang Zheng is very sweet but idk, I just never truly got invested in him.

If she'd just been a means to an end he could have discarded her after getting his revenge and his position - it would have made his life a lot easier.

Completely agreed with that!

I find slave/patriarch Sang Zan a lot more interesting than librarian Sang Zan.

Yeah - or his librarian phase would be more interesting if it were more connected to the rest? I really wish we'd got more about how he changed, rather than just seeing the end result.

Warning: long comment is long!

Sang Zan goes from slave to freedom fighter to Patriarch to despot to prisoner to librarian

That's a great summary!

Sang Zan fascinates me not just because of the scope of that arc, but because of how it ties in to the drama's themes about (misguided) revenge and redemption. Out of the show's many minor and major villains, arguably his thirst for vengeance is the least mis-aimed - he's going after the people who actually caused Ge Lan's death, and everyone else is collateral damage - and yet he's also the one we actually get to see afterwards, being a better person.

(And I also feel it's really important that his anger and desire for vengeance, if not his actual deeds, are validated by the Black-Cloaked Envoy himself, who says he would feel exactly the same if something like that had happened to the person he loved!)

In that way, he's also the opposite of Ye Zun: where Ye Zun blames the wrong person, Sang Zan doesn't. Where Ye Zun's imprisonment in the pillar only meant he was stewing in his own hatred, and ended up reinforcing his worst side, Sang Zan's imprisonment seems to have done the opposite, so that when he came out of it he'd left his vengeful side behind. (Granted, easier to do when the targets of his ire were long dead, but it seems to have turned him more gentle, rather than making him an even more vicious person than before.)

I really wish the show had given a little more focus on what happened to him in the pillar, and how he became the man we see in the present.

(It's one of his traps that causes Tan Xiao to let go of the Mountain-River Awl, to soar into Zhao Yunlan's hand.)

I love that so much! Go, Sang Zan!

Does he see this as an opportunity to get close to the Patriarch and plot the uprising/exact his revenge?

I think it's the opposite - it complicates things for him. It would be so much easier if Ge Lan were just another representative of the established social structure he's trying to destroy! But he likes her right from the start, and then falls in love with her, and so things aren't as clear-cut any more, and that's what ends up destroying them both (and their entire tribe).

Ideas/thoughts for how Sang Zan got the Mountain-River Awl? He says it's "the treasure I got unexpectedly...they told me this is a holy tool." Who are "they?"

I think that ties in with how the hell the Hallows ended up in Haixing in the first place, and maybe gives us a hint towards that? The Sundial could have ended up as Li Qian's family heirloom in any number of ways, including being smuggled out of Dixing and sold on the black market, but the Awl being found in a remote location like that could suggest that maybe the Hallows just vanished from Dixing and appeared somewhere on their own. Or maybe there's a portal to Dixing on Hanga territory - the randomly appearing youchu would fit with that - but even so, I'm having trouble coming up with a scenario where someone would deliberately deposit one of the Hallows there just like that.)

Also, "they" implies multiple people - I checked; it's 他们, plural. Multiple people handing the Hallow to him seems a strange scenario. But I could easily imagine "they" being Hallows-induced visions; we know the Awl can induce those ...

Did wearing the Mountain-River Awl change his personality after Ge Lan's death?

I never got the imporession that it did. And whatever the Hallows may have done to Zhao Yunlan's health, there's also no hint that they had any influence on his personality/disposition?

Was he literate in the past? When he orders a rival's death as Patriarch, he holds up a written slip

Oh, that's a good observation; that completely passed me by! I always had the impression he was illiterate and that Wang Zheng taught him to write and read, but then him functioning as librarian the way he demonstrably does would be quite a stretch. So presumably he had some degree of literacy, but perhaps not much? Perhaps he could read a little but not write? I don't know ...

And I also feel it's really important that his anger and desire for vengeance, if not his actual deeds, are validated by the Black-Cloaked Envoy himself, who says he would feel exactly the same if something like that had happened to the person he loved!

Such a good point! Wow.

the drama's themes about (misguided) revenge and redemption
YES. Misplaced vengeance and love vs. justice are two of the major themes of the show imo and I think it's interesting how Sang Zan walks the line better than... uh, any of the characters I can think of who seek revenge.

Yeah, and there's another parallel/contrast with Ye Zun - Ye Zun starts by taking down his abuser, and that's entirely reasonable, but then he turns his anger against everyone. And his time in the pillar only made him worse.

(I like Ye Zun! But yeah, villain.)

One of the character themes of Sang Zan is communication.

Ooh, that's an excellent point! I'd been wondering about his stutter and what it represents. Like, whether it's meant to be a brokenness. Because he doesn't seem broken, in his contemporary form, you know? He seems at peace. So, yeah, it fits better in the frame of communication -- but even there, there's an irony, because he's actually very good at communicating his feelings to Ge Lan/Wang Zheng (especially if you compare him to some of the other lovers in the show).

While I was writing my Ye Zun time travel fic, I noticed the parallels between Sang Zan's backstory and Ye Zun's -- both slaves who rebelled and killed their brutal oppressors, both imprisoned by the Hallows. I think the show also deliberately parallels Sang Zan/Wang Zheng and Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan (if nothing else, they use the same love theme for both of them, I think?), and Sang Zan and Wang Zheng were parted by death and found each other again, so...

Anyway, this is a great post. Thanks! ♥ ♥ ♥

(Sorry if this is incoherent! My head is a mess atm.)

Edited 2020-03-22 06:35 (UTC)

I think the show also deliberately parallels Sang Zan/Wang Zheng and Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan

Ha, I knew I was forgetting something I wanted to talk about! The show does use the same song for both pairings (the ending theme, actually), which is all about lovers being separated. And Wang Zheng's "I waited for you for a hundred years" echoes Shen Wei's "I searched for you for ten thousand years":

SW: 我找了你一万年 - wǒ zhǎole nǐ yī wàn nián
WZ: 我等了你一百年 - wǒ děngle nǐ yī bǎi nián

There's also what the Envoy says about them not letting go of each other in life or death, which is very relevant to Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan. Ge Lan and Sang Zan were separated by death, found each other, and died again by sacrificing themselves to protect someone else ... same themes, arranged differently, but it's almost a promise that death doesn't have to be the end, right?

I'm sure I'm forgetting something else I wanted to mention - I've been pretty scatterbrained this week - but heh, I guess this is a start. *g*

Ge Lan and Sang Zan were separated by death, found each other, and died again by sacrificing themselves to protect someone else ... same themes, arranged differently

Unless the separation-by-death maps to the ten-thousand-years-apart (Wang Zheng has amnesia & Zhao Yunlan doesn't remember; Sang Zan & Shen Wei both in Hallows stasis), in which case it's arranged the same but sadder.

I think it can be both? But I feel like "they literally died, and that wasn't the end of their story" is also an important part.

I really like this way of putting it. :D

One of the character themes of Sang Zan is communication.

I've been thinking about this since I read your post, and I think that's really key not just for Sang Zan but also the whole misguided revenge theme, which so often comes down to people not talking to each other. And also the "keeping secrets" theme which is prominent in the main Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan arc.

Sang Zan, never mind that he loves Ge Lan, is still clearly holding back a lot. She's shocked when the violent rebellion kills her father and brother; she didn't know/understand that that was where things were going. And Sang Zan didn't tell her, for obvious reasons. After he comes back from the pillar, there aren't any more secrets between them. And despite his troubles with speech and writing, he's much more open and ready to do his best to communicate clearly.

Do you think Sang Zan's speech troubles can be taken as making a thematic point about striving for communication against impediments?

I love Sang Zan! Although apparently I didn't upload his icon to my list :-( I've always wondered what would happen if he was put in a position in the modern day that required his old "skill set." I would have really enjoyed seeing that. He's so dedicated to Wang Zheng and to his peaceful job, but I feel like the things he did haven't quite left him behind. I think he'd step up if people needed him, and with Wang Zheng at his side 100% instead of conflicted over her family, it really would be something to see.

I think he'd step up if people needed him, and with Wang Zheng at his side 100% instead of conflicted over her family, it really would be something to see.

Ooh, that would be really interesting. Agreed!

Oh, that's an interesting idea! Yeah, it would be pretty cool to see what he could do now.

I totally agree that he's still the person who led a slave uprising! :) He knows how to be quiet and deferential to people he depends on for survival, but he's the one who attacks the government guards (making a joke about books being powerful after all) and threatens to skewer them like pigs.

I fear there's a tendency to treat people who aren't fluent or confident in the mainstream language as though they're somehow shy or simple, and Sang Zan is not only learning a new language but an entirely new world. It makes perfect sense to me that he appears eager to please when he might actually be trying to figure things out. He certainly demonstrates his knowledge of weapons, intimidation tactics, and sacrifice in the present day. ♥

I love all of your observations and questions about Sang Zan! ♥ And communication as a theme for him is fantastic. :)

After being imprisoned in the pillar for a hundred years, he has difficulty speaking and needs many things explained to him. Wang Zheng has to teach him to write.

She has to teach him whatever the modern-day Haixing language being used in Dragon City is, but there's reason to speculate that he might have been literate in their old language. :) I think it's charming that we see him trying to use "modern" language with her even when they're alone together, but the premise of Wang Zheng's recovered memories was the rediscovered cave writings in the area of the earthquake/rockslide. Those writings were incomprehensible to modern researchers but recognizable to Wang Zheng, so I always assumed that she and Sang Zan spoke (and read/wrote) a different language in the past that was lost with the extinction of the Hanga tribe.

Oh, that's a good point about the cave writings!

Though the whole language issue is confused by the fact that Sang Zan, in and out of the pillar, immediately speaks the same language as everyone else in Haixing and Dixing (which is the same language they spoke ten thousand years ago, LOL), and I don't even know how to fanwank that.

Sang Zan, in and out of the pillar, immediately speaks the same language as everyone else in Haixing and Dixing

IKR! :D I admit that I put that down to a convenience of storytelling. ♥

Oh, yeah, absolutely, I just like trying to look at things from an in-universe perspective.

and I don't even know how to fanwank that.

Meteor radiation? XD

LOL!

PS, The screencaps you chose are great! I really enjoyed the reminders of so many aspects of his life!

However, he can read as the SID's librarian, because although Zhao Yunlan questions Sang Zan's comprehension when he asks for everything the library has about the Holy Tools, Sang Zan delivers exactly that.

Didn't Sang Zan have a slip of paper with the characters he was supposed to look for written on it? My impression was that someone had written down "Hallows" and probably all their names for him to look for, and he had visually matched those references in all the books he scanned. It seemed to me as though he wasn't able to sort the context of those references for relevance, and that was why he just put a post-it wherever they appeared and Zhao Yunlan (for like two seconds) planned to go through and check all of them (before deciding to leave it to Shen Wei). :)

I've chewed over the contrasts between how Sang Zan came back vs. how Li Qian's grandma came back and the different ways they were treated by their caretakers. I don't really have anything to say about it, alas, but it's something I ponder.

Thank you for this write-up! Love reading people's thoughts about the minor characters that don't get much meta.

I must admit that I've never given Sang Zan too much thought, but this post and the comments have given me so much to consider!

I've always been really fond of his and Wang Zheng's relationship. It had solid development despite being a minor character pairing, and I thought it really tracked well against both parties' character development and Sang Zan's journey of redemption.

Ideas/thoughts for how Sang Zan got the Mountain-River Awl? He says it's "the treasure I got unexpectedly...they told me this is a holy tool." Who are "they?"

I have this thought that the Hallows have a tendency to show up where they're likely to be used. Which has zero basis in canon, I know, but I've always maintained that they're at least semi-sentient, so. I mean, across different points in time they somehow or the other ended up in the hands of people who were in situations where they were particularly compelled to use them despite being warned of their dangerous/unpredictable effects - Li Qian and the Dial, Sang Zan and the Awl, Wang Xiangyang and the Brush, even Zhao Yunlan and the Lantern. It all seems too weirdly convenient to be coincidental... So maybe the Awl was unearthed in Hanga tribe land, and Sang Zan as the leader at the time naturally took possession of it?

Of course this also brings up the question of when, exactly, the Hallows were lost to Dixing (and through that, when Shen Wei woke up again). Tbh I can't remember how long ago the Hanga uprising was supposed to have been...?

Did wearing the Mountain-River Awl change his personality after Ge Lan's death? We are told repeatedly that prolonged exposure to the Holy Tools corrupts humans.

I'd say it didn't - his characterisation seemed pretty consistent throughout. And I always figured that the corruption they were referring to was more physical illness/shortening of lifespan/death than anything psychological.

I mean, across different points in time they somehow or the other ended up in the hands of people who were in situations where they were particularly compelled to use them despite being warned of their dangerous/unpredictable effects

Oooh, yes, that's a good point! I've also wondered if there's some degree of timeloopiness involved. The Awl can induce visions of potential futures, so the Hallows don't necessarily functiom in linear time. Maybe they turn up somewhere because they "know" they're supposed to?

Tbh I can't remember how long ago the Hanga uprising was supposed to have been...?

The Envoy says in episode 10 (27:25) Ge Lan died a hundred years and seven months ago.

Of course this also brings up the question of when, exactly, the Hallows were lost to Dixing (and through that, when Shen Wei woke up again).

Zhang Shi says at one point it was "decades ago", which sounds like it's after the Awl turned up in Hanga territory ... (Time travelling Hallows?)

Zhang Shi says at one point it was "decades ago", which sounds like it's after the Awl turned up in Hanga territory ... (Time travelling Hallows?)

Oh, right, see, now that's what confused me! I remembered both those things so I figured, "One of them must be wrong," and decided I just didn't remember the Hanga timeline properly. So it really was like that in canon... Geez, show, keep your act together! >_<

I like the time-travelling Hallows theory! So many avenues for exploration in fic. Their applications don't seem limited to what we saw in the drama, so it'd be really interesting to explore the various ways they might be used depending on the user's needs/personality/abilities. (Like in Etched into Bone, with the Merit Brush!)

So many avenues for exploration in fic.

Right? The Hallows have endless potential; you can do SO much with them even just building on what we see, and there's absolutely no reason there couldn't be entirely different applications too.

(Like in Etched into Bone, with the Merit Brush!)

♥ ♥ ♥

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