Very detailed and comprehensive study on Jiang Cheng, thanks for sharing.
More JIANG CHENG COMMENTARY:
I actually also have a lot of sympathy for Jiang Cheng and I personally think that he is probably the most pitiable character in the entire show/ novel because his life journey has been one of the most complicated and tumultuous one and at the end of it, he's still left very much on his own while almost everyone else has either their own happy ending or at least someone who loves and cares for them. Jiang Cheng essentially has no one, and it does break my heart to see him walk away alone despite being fairly at peace with his lot in life.
Cliff scene:
My personal take about Jiang Cheng's actions at the cliff scene was that Jiang Cheng had zero intentions to stab or kill Wei Wuxian, which was why he aimed at the rock instead. Jiang Cheng was put in a very difficult situation at that very moment - his beloved sister, Jiang Yanli, was dead from trying to protect Wei Wuxian, the Sect Leaders and the mob were baying for Wei Wuxian's blood, and Wei Wuxian himself decided to end the whole fiasco by letting himself fall off the cliff. Jiang Cheng had also seen how Wei Wuxian was also initially protecting the Jiang clan during the first part of the battle when all the evil spirits were basically attacking everyone except for the Jiang clan members before Wei Wuxian lost control of them. I believe JiangCheng wanted to help Wei Wuxian too.
With Wei Wuxian hanging by a thread at the edge of the cliff from Lan Wanji's injured arm, Jiang Cheng knew that there was very little time left and I believe he made a split second decision which he thought was the best option for everyone. He pretended anger and vengeance, even added a loud, "Wei Wuxian, go die!" to convince everyone that he was out for Wei Wuxian's blood, stabbed in Wei Wuxian's direction to make it look believable and hit the closest rock instead. I think he was totally counting on Wei Wuxian to survive that fall down the cliff and intended to secretly rescue Wei Wuxian afterwards, which was why he didn't look too troubled when he saw Wei Wuxian fall and he immediately turned around and left the cliff edge, presumably to first convince everyone that Wei Wuxian was dead (hence ending the Wei Wuxian witch-hunt) and then to look for a way down to secretly rescue him as soon as he could do so. Jiang Cheng's confidence that Wei Wuxian could survive the cliff fall was likely not misplaced because he knew that Wei Wuxian had once survived a similar fall into the Yiling Burial Mound in the past. I'm sure Jiang Cheng had absolute faith that if Wei Wuxian could do it then, he could do it again. Unfortunately, I don't think he knew that part of the reason why Wei Wuxian could survive the fall into Yiling Burial Mound was due to the help of the Stygian Iron Sword and the sheer volume of dark energy permeating that place.
Hence, I think it must have come as a huge shock to Jiang Cheng when he later made his way down the cliff and could not find a trace of Wei Wuxian at all. He must have searched frantically high and low but came up empty. As for that 'only white bones were left' bit, I believe it was Jiang Cheng's deliberate spread of rumour to convince the cultivation world that Wei Wuxian was well and truly dead because I don't believe those 'white bones' were there at all. Lan Wanji later went to look and he said he couldn't find any bones (which gave me the impression that the 'bones' thing were really made up by Jiang Cheng to throw everyone off Wei Wuxian's trail).
This is why Jiang Cheng was the only one who held out hope that Wei Wuxian was still alive somewhere, in disguise or something, which probably accounted for Jiang Cheng's obsession through the ensuing years with hunting down anyone who showed even the slightest trace of exhibiting Yiling Patriarch-like characteristics. He definitely believed that Wei Wuxian was alive somewhere and in hiding or in disguise and was determined to seek him out.
What Jiang Cheng was planning to do once he really found Wei Wuxian is anyone's guess. I suspect that initially he might have hoped to harbour Wei Wuxian as a fugitive in Yunmeng Jiang's Lotus Pier, but that intention might have been forgotten and lost in his sheer obsession with locating him over the years, resulting in mad anger and frustration whenever each attempt failed.
All said and done, I believe Jiang Cheng still had a lot of brotherly love for Wei Wuxian, which was why he still kept Wei Wuxian's flute with him all those years, and still kept looking for him the entire time. It must have been terribly disappointing, once again, to see that Wei Wuxian had chosen to abandon him even after his resurrection from the dead 16 years later. For all the twisted and complicated mess that their relationship had become, at the end of the day, what hit home and hurt the worst for Jiang Cheng was the feeling of being utterly abandoned by the one single person whom he loved and still considered his family. That cry of hurt and pain in the temple: "You promised that you would stand beside me and support me. You said that although the Gusu clan had their Twin Jades but the Jiang clan also had their Two Prides. Why didn't you keep your promise?" is a stark echo of the cry of a little brother who could not understand why the older brother whom he loved, respected, trusted and looked up to, left him alone and broke a sacred promise. A promise which seemed that he, Jiang Cheng, alone treasured, remembered and still hoped to see fulfilled.
I'm glad to see that Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian managed to clear the air, clarify a lot of the misunderstandings that have been a baggage, burden and stumbling block on their backs for so long but it was Jiang Cheng's last unspoken secret (that still remained unspoken!) that really broke my heart. Wei Wuxian would never know that the reason why Jiang Cheng lost his golden core in the first place was actually a result of Jiang Cheng's own selfless sacrifice in an attempt to protect his loved ones, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli, in his own way.
I like that 'The Untamed' leaves viewers with this final shocking revelation because once again it is a grim reminder that not everything is always what it seems on the surface, and sometimes we are always too quick to judge a person or a character without really knowing the truth behind the whole story. Hopefully this will be a reminder to all of us not to be too quick to judge others, including Jiang Cheng.
