nnozomi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nnozomi) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sid_guardian2020-06-06 09:55 am
nnozomi) wrote in sid_guardian2020-06-06 09:55 am
Entry tags:
Focus on Zhao Xinci: I don’t want you to die stupid!
[Drama only below, because I haven’t read the novel; please mark drama vs novel as needed in comments. Also, I’m sorry this is so wordy; believe me, it started out MUCH longer.]
Who he is
Zhao Xinci is the Director of the Xingdu Bureau, the first chief of the SID, Zhao Yunlan’s estranged father, Shen Xi’s widower, and a reluctant headspace-sharer with Zhang Shi. In his field agent days he shared his son’s propensities for denim jackets and comfort over formality; as a senior bureaucrat he dresses like a dandy to rival Shen Wei (can I have a small fic about the two of them running into each other while purchasing ascots, please?) and favors a purple coat Zhu Jiu would envy. He is either Minister Gao’s direct superior, or has the upper hand anyway due to a long history of working together, greater competence, and a stronger personality.
After becoming the first SID chief, Zhao Xinci became more and more absorbed in his work, inflicting lasting damage on his relationship with his wife Shen Xi and their son, to which the coup de grâce was the death of Shen Xi as a hostage in the hands of Dixingren criminals. This (according to Zhang Shi) turned Zhao Xinci’s general law-enforcement dislike of Dixingren into an active obsession with putting down Dixingren criminals.
After a complex and tortuous path through the second half of the series, he ends up as part of an excellent triumvirate with Guo Ying and Li Qian, supporting the SID in extremis and providing competence, compassion, and smarts in administration as of the epilogue.
What he’s like
Zhao Xinci is a fascinating character: complex and ambiguous, ruthless but not beyond empathy, capable but lacking some of his son’s crucial skills, on the wrong side often but not necessarily a bad guy, inflexible but not humorless. He thinks on the fly almost as well as his son, but is much less inclined to change his behavior accordingly. Competence and efficiency are his watchwords; in episode 16 he reels off Guo Changcheng’s personal information effortlessly from memory, and assigns each SID member an investigative task suited to their specialties (including willingness to make use of Da Qing as a Yashou). He is not unwilling to shoot to kill, but not without provocation; he considers the Guardian Writ to back up the death penalty. He tends to follow the letter of the law where Zhao Yunlan is more likely to be concerned with the moral right of the matter. Zhao Yunlan notes, distinguishing him from Zhang Shi, that he’s a pragmatist with no concern for larger moral issues.
(He also has an incongruous name: 心慈, heart’s mercy, almost feminine (help me out, proper Chinese speakers?) and certainly far gentler than you would expect from a man of his demeanor.)
Two for the price of one
Zhao Xinci has shared his head with the Dixingren Zhang Shi for the last twenty years or so. Although initially promising “I won’t control you or take you over,” Zhang Shi tends to speak up in his host’s person at essential moments to soften Zhao Xinci’s approach to the SID and Dixing, but his ultimate morality is, to put it kindly, questionable. Zhao Xinci does give his consent to having Zhang Shi live more or less rent-free in his head, but it’s a) after the fact and b) very much a case of “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, up to you” (Zhang Shi implies that Zhao Xinci could hurt himself by trying to expel ZS forcibly, and ZXC has just seen ZS’s last host kill himself after “intermittent psychosis.”). Zhao Xinci, a pragmatist if ever there was one, accepts that he’s screwed and makes the best of it by getting ZS to provide Dixingren support for his work. It’s implied that ZXC’s mental cohabitation with Zhang Shi was actively bad for his health, with Zhang Shi’s activities as a source of cardiac stress leading to his emergency surgery on Reunion Night.
Notable moments
In Zhao Xinci’s conversation about his involvement with the superpower serum with Shen Wei (a bravura exercise in expressing large emotions through subdued restraint on both parts) he refers ominously to “protecting…the one both of us care about,” implying that a) he loves his son, and b) he knows Shen Wei does too (based on Zhao Yunlan’s defiant “He’s good to me” when he’s blind?).
In episode 29, we see a younger Zhao Xinci giving little!Zhao Yunlan instructions on proper investigation: an interesting combination of dad’s mania for efficiency with something of his son’s empathy. However, modern-day Zhao Xinci on his son: “that brat,” Zhao Yunlan on his father: “that old jerk.” When Zhao Yunlan offers on the rooftop to give his life in his father’s place, Zhao Xinci responds with dizzying venom, rendering his son completely speechless for almost the only time in forty episodes, even though he may know it’s not exactly true. When he can catch his breath, Zhao Yunlan retorts “I’m not like you. Instead of having regrets for twenty years, I’ll follow my heart [the advice younger!Zhao Xinci gave him] in the first place. Let me tell you that a sacrifice for family is worth it!” (consciously quoting Shen Wei?)
In episode 38, ZXC and ZS get a heroic entrance in time to help Zhao Yunlan overcome Professor Ouyang. Zhao Yunlan and his father get one last hug before the former heads off to Dixing, and Zhang Shi helpfully twists the knife: “How did it feel to hug your son? You’ve waited twenty years.” Zhao Xinci basically tells him to fuck off and I’m sorry to say I can’t blame him.
After forming a battlefield alliance with Li Qian and the patient Guo Ying to support Zhao Yunlan and the SID, Zhao Xinci fights with the Yashou in the big messy struggle of episodes 39 and 40. Sending Lao Chu, Zhu Hong, and Da Qing off to Dixing, ZXC tells them that it’s an honor for his son to have them as colleagues, a major admission for the prejudiced Zhao Xinci to make to two Yashou and a Dixingren. He provides Da Qing with the serum which will be a key part of defeating Ye Zun.
In episode 40, we see ZXC thriving, still in purple, along with Minister Guo and Director Li. A flashback shows him explaining the Lantern sacrifice to Zhao Yunlan, with an excruciating instant of silence between father and son in which Zhao Yunlan understands and accepts that he may be the one to step into the Lantern, and Zhao Xinci turns away from him in pain. Zhao Yunlan asks him to promise that if it does happen, Zhang Shi will step in for him and live his life well, Zhao Xinci accepts, and they have a horribly awkward, tearful hug. It could be that this is all Zhang Shi here, given “how did it feel to hug your son?” later on, but I really hope not.
Discussion questions
1. What are the similarities and differences between Zhao Xinci and his son?
2. How did Zhao Xinci and Zhang Shi interact over the years? Did they learn from one another? Was Zhao Xinci resigned to having Zhang Shi in his head forever, or what? What did Zhang Shi think of Zhao Xinci? (If Zhao Yunlan had actually shot him with the dark-energy gun, would it have killed ZS without harming ZXC, or what?)
3. What is Zhao Xinci’s relationship with Da Qing in particular? We talk a lot about Zhao Yunlan having been raised by cats; Da Qing and Zhao Xinci “worked together for ten years”—from the time the SID was founded, when Zhao Yunlan was, what, eight or nine on? How did ZXC and DQ get along?
4. Do we ever find out what “Xingdu” is anyway, as in the Xingdu Bureau? It looks like the hanzi are 星督, basically “planetary supervisory/Haixing Supervisory,” which is helpfully vague.
5. When does Zhao Xinci figure out that Professor Shen (or his earlier editions as grad-student Shen Wei, etc.) is the Black-Cloaked Envoy? Was he in fact instrumental in setting up this cover identity?
6. What, if anything, does Zhao Xinci know about Zhang Shi’s plans for the Lantern wick? If he knows, what does he make of it? Is he present in the episode-40 flashback to Zhao Yunlan learning about the wick, and/or did he condone the conversation?
Fanworks
I haven’t managed to sort through everything in which Zhao Xinci appears, so please rec and/or self-rec your favorites! I chose a handful here, trying to sort for some different takes and perspectives:
Purple (Like the Shadows in Your Heart) by anecdotalist
If someone were to ask Zhao Xinci later, he wouldn’t have been able to say when it was that things changed between him and his wife.
Prince of Thorns by Sylvia
A rose thicket encages the SID, Zhao Yunlan is trapped in unnatural sleep, and Shen Wei is forced to rely on Zhao Xinci’s assistance.
make up for my regrets by china_shop
Zhang Shi takes stock of his new life.
Light for light by lately
How Zhao Xinci saved the day and his son. A canon fix-it.
filled my lungs with oxygen by egelantier
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are enjoying their happily ever after together. But there's a price Shen Wei has to pay, over and over again, for both of them staying alive. Zhao Yunlan is prepared.
(N: Zhao Xinci just has a cameo in this one, but it’s a really good cameo.)
Also a shamefaced self-rec because I put a lot of my ideas about Zhao Xinci in here: Thinking Outside the Box
(Quick note just in case: Zhao Xinci and his relationship with Zhao Yunlan in particular can cut close to the bone for a lot of people, and he may be the most divisive character we’ve talked about yet, even including Ye Zun. Different opinions on him are FINE by me; let’s call this a place to share ideas rather than to try and convince one another of anything.)
Who he is
Zhao Xinci is the Director of the Xingdu Bureau, the first chief of the SID, Zhao Yunlan’s estranged father, Shen Xi’s widower, and a reluctant headspace-sharer with Zhang Shi. In his field agent days he shared his son’s propensities for denim jackets and comfort over formality; as a senior bureaucrat he dresses like a dandy to rival Shen Wei (can I have a small fic about the two of them running into each other while purchasing ascots, please?) and favors a purple coat Zhu Jiu would envy. He is either Minister Gao’s direct superior, or has the upper hand anyway due to a long history of working together, greater competence, and a stronger personality.
After becoming the first SID chief, Zhao Xinci became more and more absorbed in his work, inflicting lasting damage on his relationship with his wife Shen Xi and their son, to which the coup de grâce was the death of Shen Xi as a hostage in the hands of Dixingren criminals. This (according to Zhang Shi) turned Zhao Xinci’s general law-enforcement dislike of Dixingren into an active obsession with putting down Dixingren criminals.
After a complex and tortuous path through the second half of the series, he ends up as part of an excellent triumvirate with Guo Ying and Li Qian, supporting the SID in extremis and providing competence, compassion, and smarts in administration as of the epilogue.
What he’s like
Zhao Xinci is a fascinating character: complex and ambiguous, ruthless but not beyond empathy, capable but lacking some of his son’s crucial skills, on the wrong side often but not necessarily a bad guy, inflexible but not humorless. He thinks on the fly almost as well as his son, but is much less inclined to change his behavior accordingly. Competence and efficiency are his watchwords; in episode 16 he reels off Guo Changcheng’s personal information effortlessly from memory, and assigns each SID member an investigative task suited to their specialties (including willingness to make use of Da Qing as a Yashou). He is not unwilling to shoot to kill, but not without provocation; he considers the Guardian Writ to back up the death penalty. He tends to follow the letter of the law where Zhao Yunlan is more likely to be concerned with the moral right of the matter. Zhao Yunlan notes, distinguishing him from Zhang Shi, that he’s a pragmatist with no concern for larger moral issues.
(He also has an incongruous name: 心慈, heart’s mercy, almost feminine (help me out, proper Chinese speakers?) and certainly far gentler than you would expect from a man of his demeanor.)
Two for the price of one
Zhao Xinci has shared his head with the Dixingren Zhang Shi for the last twenty years or so. Although initially promising “I won’t control you or take you over,” Zhang Shi tends to speak up in his host’s person at essential moments to soften Zhao Xinci’s approach to the SID and Dixing, but his ultimate morality is, to put it kindly, questionable. Zhao Xinci does give his consent to having Zhang Shi live more or less rent-free in his head, but it’s a) after the fact and b) very much a case of “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, up to you” (Zhang Shi implies that Zhao Xinci could hurt himself by trying to expel ZS forcibly, and ZXC has just seen ZS’s last host kill himself after “intermittent psychosis.”). Zhao Xinci, a pragmatist if ever there was one, accepts that he’s screwed and makes the best of it by getting ZS to provide Dixingren support for his work. It’s implied that ZXC’s mental cohabitation with Zhang Shi was actively bad for his health, with Zhang Shi’s activities as a source of cardiac stress leading to his emergency surgery on Reunion Night.
Notable moments
In Zhao Xinci’s conversation about his involvement with the superpower serum with Shen Wei (a bravura exercise in expressing large emotions through subdued restraint on both parts) he refers ominously to “protecting…the one both of us care about,” implying that a) he loves his son, and b) he knows Shen Wei does too (based on Zhao Yunlan’s defiant “He’s good to me” when he’s blind?).
In episode 29, we see a younger Zhao Xinci giving little!Zhao Yunlan instructions on proper investigation: an interesting combination of dad’s mania for efficiency with something of his son’s empathy. However, modern-day Zhao Xinci on his son: “that brat,” Zhao Yunlan on his father: “that old jerk.” When Zhao Yunlan offers on the rooftop to give his life in his father’s place, Zhao Xinci responds with dizzying venom, rendering his son completely speechless for almost the only time in forty episodes, even though he may know it’s not exactly true. When he can catch his breath, Zhao Yunlan retorts “I’m not like you. Instead of having regrets for twenty years, I’ll follow my heart [the advice younger!Zhao Xinci gave him] in the first place. Let me tell you that a sacrifice for family is worth it!” (consciously quoting Shen Wei?)
In episode 38, ZXC and ZS get a heroic entrance in time to help Zhao Yunlan overcome Professor Ouyang. Zhao Yunlan and his father get one last hug before the former heads off to Dixing, and Zhang Shi helpfully twists the knife: “How did it feel to hug your son? You’ve waited twenty years.” Zhao Xinci basically tells him to fuck off and I’m sorry to say I can’t blame him.
After forming a battlefield alliance with Li Qian and the patient Guo Ying to support Zhao Yunlan and the SID, Zhao Xinci fights with the Yashou in the big messy struggle of episodes 39 and 40. Sending Lao Chu, Zhu Hong, and Da Qing off to Dixing, ZXC tells them that it’s an honor for his son to have them as colleagues, a major admission for the prejudiced Zhao Xinci to make to two Yashou and a Dixingren. He provides Da Qing with the serum which will be a key part of defeating Ye Zun.
In episode 40, we see ZXC thriving, still in purple, along with Minister Guo and Director Li. A flashback shows him explaining the Lantern sacrifice to Zhao Yunlan, with an excruciating instant of silence between father and son in which Zhao Yunlan understands and accepts that he may be the one to step into the Lantern, and Zhao Xinci turns away from him in pain. Zhao Yunlan asks him to promise that if it does happen, Zhang Shi will step in for him and live his life well, Zhao Xinci accepts, and they have a horribly awkward, tearful hug. It could be that this is all Zhang Shi here, given “how did it feel to hug your son?” later on, but I really hope not.
Discussion questions
1. What are the similarities and differences between Zhao Xinci and his son?
2. How did Zhao Xinci and Zhang Shi interact over the years? Did they learn from one another? Was Zhao Xinci resigned to having Zhang Shi in his head forever, or what? What did Zhang Shi think of Zhao Xinci? (If Zhao Yunlan had actually shot him with the dark-energy gun, would it have killed ZS without harming ZXC, or what?)
3. What is Zhao Xinci’s relationship with Da Qing in particular? We talk a lot about Zhao Yunlan having been raised by cats; Da Qing and Zhao Xinci “worked together for ten years”—from the time the SID was founded, when Zhao Yunlan was, what, eight or nine on? How did ZXC and DQ get along?
4. Do we ever find out what “Xingdu” is anyway, as in the Xingdu Bureau? It looks like the hanzi are 星督, basically “planetary supervisory/Haixing Supervisory,” which is helpfully vague.
5. When does Zhao Xinci figure out that Professor Shen (or his earlier editions as grad-student Shen Wei, etc.) is the Black-Cloaked Envoy? Was he in fact instrumental in setting up this cover identity?
6. What, if anything, does Zhao Xinci know about Zhang Shi’s plans for the Lantern wick? If he knows, what does he make of it? Is he present in the episode-40 flashback to Zhao Yunlan learning about the wick, and/or did he condone the conversation?
Fanworks
I haven’t managed to sort through everything in which Zhao Xinci appears, so please rec and/or self-rec your favorites! I chose a handful here, trying to sort for some different takes and perspectives:
Purple (Like the Shadows in Your Heart) by anecdotalist
If someone were to ask Zhao Xinci later, he wouldn’t have been able to say when it was that things changed between him and his wife.
Prince of Thorns by Sylvia
A rose thicket encages the SID, Zhao Yunlan is trapped in unnatural sleep, and Shen Wei is forced to rely on Zhao Xinci’s assistance.
make up for my regrets by china_shop
Zhang Shi takes stock of his new life.
Light for light by lately
How Zhao Xinci saved the day and his son. A canon fix-it.
filled my lungs with oxygen by egelantier
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are enjoying their happily ever after together. But there's a price Shen Wei has to pay, over and over again, for both of them staying alive. Zhao Yunlan is prepared.
(N: Zhao Xinci just has a cameo in this one, but it’s a really good cameo.)
Also a shamefaced self-rec because I put a lot of my ideas about Zhao Xinci in here: Thinking Outside the Box
(Quick note just in case: Zhao Xinci and his relationship with Zhao Yunlan in particular can cut close to the bone for a lot of people, and he may be the most divisive character we’ve talked about yet, even including Ye Zun. Different opinions on him are FINE by me; let’s call this a place to share ideas rather than to try and convince one another of anything.)
no subject
That scene on the rooftop, and Zhao Yunlan’s reaction, always hits me right in the heart. Zhao Yunlan might understand logically why his father is saying all those things, but it still hurts.
Absolutely. Zhao Yunlan is always three steps ahead of the conversation and always has a smart remark, so seeing him so knocked back is heartwrenching.
Maybe they have the same tailor? :D
Maybe they do! Inquiring minds want to know!
I always thought that Zhao Xinci knew from the beginning about Shen Wei. And that, yes, he was involved in some way in setting it up.
Me too, although I haven't really figured out the timeline.