“If you don’t know how to live on anymore, then live for me. I have no answer to the question you asked. However, if you don’t know the meaning of your life, then make me that meaning, and use me as your reason to live.”
This quote comes from the first season of Heaven Official’s Blessing Donghua. Xie Lian tells these words to a very young Hua Cheng saving him not only physically but above all emotionally, giving him unconsciously a reason to live. This quote one of the things of their story that has impressed him, how just some words can change completely a life.
Heaven Official’s Blessing is one of the most known xianxia danmei novels. Written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, it has been published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment and it has been adapted into a manhua (comic) and a donghua (anime) of 2 seasons.
I haven’t read the books yet, Heaven Official’s Blessing includes 8 books that tells the story of this young Heaven Official, the once-human Crown Prince of the lost kingdom of Xianle who ascends three times and the powerful and terrifying King of the Ghost Realm. A long and beautiful story, according to my young sister who is a huge fan. She made me curious and suggested me to watch the donghua. I watched it and here is the review of the first season.
HEAVEN OFFICIAL’S BLESSING DONGHUA: Synopsis and information
Produced by Bilibili and Funanimation, the first season of Heaven Official’s Blessing includes 12 episodes released from October 31th 2020 to February 14th 2021. It was written by Chunri Youling (春日幽鈴) and directed by Li Haoling (李豪凌). It follows more or less the story of the first volume and it’s available on Netflix.
SYNOPSIS
Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Xianle. He was loved by his citizens and was considered the darling of the world. He ascended to the heavens at a young age; however, due to unfortunate circumstances, was quickly banished back to the mortal realm. Years later, he ascends again–only to be banished again a few minutes after his ascension.
Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious ghost who rules the ghosts and terrifies the heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this ghost king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time
THE CHARACTERS
In this first season of Tian Guan Ci Fu, we get to know with some of the many characters who appear in the story. First of all obviously, the main two protagonists Xie Lian and Hua Cheng also called Sang Lan.
XIE LIAN: Heaven Official, Prince of Xianle and God of Misfortune
As previously said, Xie Lian is a Heaven Official who was once a human prince of a Kingdom called Xianle. In the first season of the donghua, we don’t know much about his kingdom. What we know is that Xianle was a flourishing Kingdom that was destroyed 100 years before due to a war and above all to an unknown disease that decimated almost all the people. Xie Lian ascended to the heaven three times but something happened to him. Something related to his past as a prince has affected his present reputation and has made the other officials and people of the Heaven consider him as a sort of fool.
The first episode opens in fact with Xie Lian’s third ascension. The people of the Heaven are surprised and curious to see who is the new official and you don’t expect to see them disappointed when they see the newcomer. Xie Lian is not welcomed by anyone but Ling Wen, a civil goddess who informs him that his ascension has caused some damages to some temples and houses and he has to repay them. So, the third time god embarks on a mission in the mortal realm to gain the needed credits and the story starts.
XIE LIAN’S APPEARANCE AND ATTITUDE
Xie Lian is introduced as a calm and collected young man who, no matter what the situation is, always smiles and has a kind and altruistic attitude. He doesn’t seem bothered by what the others think about him or Hua Cheng. For example, the Ghost King is described as a powerful and terrifying menace. However, Xie Lian doesn’t judge him ex ante, he shows to be careful but not totally diffident. He has spent hundred years to collect and sell scraps after his banishment after his second ascension, getting the name of Scrap Immortal.
Xie Lian is smart and always tries to use words before fighting. This is a fascinating aspect. It is linked to the concept of honor in Chinese Culture according to which an honorable man should be an expert in both art and war.
Anyway, Xie Lian’s attitude is admirable, smiling and being calm in front of the difficulties and in front of the people who makes fun of you isn’t easy, it requires a strong will and a strong mind.
He is indeed powerful but we don’t see him at his full potential in this first season.
Regarding his appearance, Xie Lian wears a white robe. He has a spiritual device called Rouye 若邪, a sentient string of white silk always wrapped around his wrist.
HUA CHENG/SANG LAN: King of the Ghost Realm and Crimson Rain who Sought Flower
Hua Cheng can be surely described in this first season as mysterious. We and Xie Lian get to know him through the words of the other characters of the story at first. The other gods of the Heaven describe him and give us some information about him. We don’t know much, it is said that the King of the Ghost Realm is evil and powerful, he has challenged and defeated 33 gods in the Heaven and is dangerous. Xie Lian is surprised and curious when he hears this because Hua Cheng did nothing bad but helps and leads him to the temple he was looking for during his mission in the Mortal realm.
He has two forms, the human and the ghost one. When he is in his ghost form, we never seen him fully, he always hides in the shadow, we only see his profile and his smile towards Xie Lian.
In the first season of Heaven Official’s Blessing Donghua, we get to know him more in his human form as Sang Lan. He pretends to be a young boy who has left his home and wants to help Xie Lian in his adventure.
Hua Cheng is one of the four calamities of the Ghost Realm, the stronger one, also called Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
Xie Lian: The name “Crimson Rain Sought Flower” is beautiful. Where does it come from?
Sang Lan: It’s nothing special. One day, after destroying a ghost’s nest, he noticed a flower under the bloody rain and he protected it with his umbrella.
HUA CHENG/SANG LAN’S APPEARANCE AND ATTITUDE
The King of the Ghost Realm, both in his human and ghost form, appears confident, nonchalant and calm. It’s evident his interest for Xie Lian since the beginning but he never does anything strange or ambiguous as if his only intent is staying by his side (which it is). In both his forms, he wears a red robe and black boots, but when he is human the style of his clothes is simpler. When he is in his ghost form instead, he is always announced by the presence of some spiritual silver butterflies and has a sentient scimitar called E’ming 厄命 as a spiritual device.
It’s interesting to know that in Chinese Culture butterflies symbolize love, freedom, longevity, romance and rebirth. It’s meaningful, if you think that both he and Xie Lian have reborn as two immortal beings, a Heaven Official and a Ghost, and that there’s a profound bond between them. My sister told me something about that without spoiling too much but you can see yourself. Their bond blossoms in this first season but it’s clear that is something strong and profound that roots in their past.
Anyway, talking about Hua Cheng’s personality, he is smart and shows to know a lot of things about gods and ghosts. It’s him who indeed tells Xie Lian the reason behind his name as Crimson Rain Sought the Flower. He shows his knowledge without fear and in the same way he let Xie Lian test him. It’s like if he is waiting the right moment to reveal himself or that Xie Lian discovers it.
OTHER CHARACTERS
As I said previously, there are a lot of characters that appear in the story, a lot of gods with whom Xie Lian interacts like Pei Ming and Pei Su, Shi Qingxuan, Fu Yao, Nan Feng, to not mention all the people he meets when comes back in the Mortal Realm. With some of them he exchanges just few words like Pei Ming, with others he spends a lot of time like Fu Yao and Nan Feng.
Fu Yao and Nan Feng are two minor gods who works for two other bigger gods. Both of them care about Xie Lian and decide to help him in his mission. It is worth to talk about them because they are really good and funny characters. They look like an old couple, always bickering and arguing over the decisions to take but both on the same page towards San Lang. They dislike him and don’t trust him, so they are unwilling to let Xie Lian alone with this stranger.
NARRATION, TIME AND PLACE
One could think that a story full of characters is hard to follow but I followed it without too much difficulty. The story flows smoothly, the rhythm is constant, the 12 episodes slides one after another, you reach the end sooner than expected and you want more. As for the time and space of the story, they are both undetermined. Heaven Official’s Blessing is a xianxia story, so that means it takes place in a fantasy world in a not defined period of time. It’s surely Ancient China but it is not defined the year or the dynasty.
THEMES
To talk about themes, it would be better to know all the story in order to have more information and a wider point of view. This because there are things that are yet to be explained such as the past of both Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, the reason behind the transformation of the first and the banishment of the second and many other things.
However, even a part of a story can include the themes that will be treated in detail later. The themes you can find in this first season of Heaven Official’s Blessing Donghua are:
- Courage and Perseverance shown by Xie Lian in pursuing his purpose to built a temple for him and find some followers, not matter what the other think about him, no matter his past. He is a fool because he likes scraps? Fine, he likes it and he won’t stop and that’s admirable.
- Loss and Grief linked to the past. Both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng’s past in this first season it’s just mentioned. We know that they both suffered, Xie Lian lost his kingdom, his people, his family and friends. We see his pain briefly during a mission when he meets a young boy who has the same disease that has decimated his kingdom and we see his sorrow expression when the memory flows in his mind and we see a short flashback of people running and screaming. Similarly for Hua Cheng, we see him as a lost child with an injured eye, it’s another short flashback but the emotions are clear. He has lost everything and it’s in that moment that Xie Lian’s words, with which I started this article, became his lifeline.
- War and Peace is a theme directly linked with the above-mentioned theme. We see briefly the devastation of the war in the kingdom of Xianle and another kingdom called Banyue. We see some flashbacks about both the wars, the struggles of soldiers and civilians and in some cases their consequences. Xie Lian participated in both wars in different roles, we know little about Xianle but in the war of Banyue, we see him as General. It’s interesting to see how in the flashback he tried to resolve the conflict with diplomacy. Diplomacy in Chinese Culture is greatly considered, it’s important to build long lasting relationship based on mutual respect, trust and honor among the counterparts. Its an approach that China has always have in its political and economic relationships.
- Friendship for which the saying says “A friend in need is a friend” and that’s suitable to describe Fu Yao and Nan Feng as Xie Lian’s friends. Among all the gods, they are the only ones who accept to help the just ascended Official to complete his mission to refund all the people damaged in the Heaven during his last ascension. They show to care for him and in their own way to support him, giving him advices and protecting him even from Hua Chen who they mistrust.
- Appearances vs. Reality revolves around the idea that things are not always what they seem and this regards Hua Cheng/San Lang and the Heaven’s s reputation and appearance. As previously said Hua Cheng is described as a dangerous being, a menace, a treat for everyone and everything, someone bold enough to challenge the gods, a sort of plague but is it true? Is he really the coldhearted creature they describe or there is a reason for his doing? And again, Heaven is supposed to be a peaceful place where there are not conspirations or hidden plans but something is fishy about the place. Why Xie Lian ha been banished? The gods seem, with few exceptions, only prideful being but what is the true? What happened among them? Surely, everything will be explained in the story.
IN CONCLUSION
To conclude, I’ve talked about the characters, about time and space, about the narration, about the themes of this first season of Heaven Offiacial’s Blessing Donghua and maybe I’ve been a bit to wordy. The last thing to talk about is my opinion, did I like this animated series? Will I keep watching the following seasons? The answer is yes, I liked it. I liked Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, their personality and characterization. I would like to have Sang Lan’s confidence in what I say and do and Xie Lian’s strength to not let anyone’s words and opinions let me down. I liked the story, I know it has been simplified, it’s obvious but it’s flowing and enjoyable and got me curious to see how it will continue. So yes, I will watch the second season, the books are already in my TBR list.
I can’t say if it is a good adaptation of the books but the beside that, the story works for me. When I read the books, I will be able to say more about that.