PART 2: XIE ZHENG (5 Layers)
#1 Disguised Warrior
谢征
(xiè zhēng)
PART 1 — BIRTH NAME
谢 (restraint): Refined and courteous, who understands propriety. Inherently reserved, restrained and can be difficult to approach emotionally.
Xie is a prestigious aristocratic surname historically associated with noble figures like Xie Xuan, who were refined yet iron-blooded.
征 (conquest): Great ambition, determination and decisiveness. A commanding presence. Strategic depth and the willingness to relentlessly pursue a goal.
It refers to “expedition” or “campaign,” directly foreshadowing his fate as both a ‘God of War’ and avenger.
Combined Meaning: To pursue one’s relentless goal beneath the guise of humility and restraint. One who never flaunts, and remains controlled, calculating and quietly advances his plans from the shadows.
PART 2 — FICTIONAL NAME
The fictional name, Yan Zheng, that Xie Zheng gives Fan Changyu is actually a wordplay from his own.
言正
(yán zhèng)
言: Speech
正: Righteous
Combined Meaning: It suggests someone that is righteous in speech and conduct. A character that pursues justice, correcting right from wrong.
In ancient times, the word 征 was also written as 正, and the ‘彳’ radical was only added later. The alias is not only a disguised identity of his real name, Xie Zheng, but also a lingering trace of 征’s original meaning.
#2 Medal of Valor
翎子
(líng zǐ)
Pheasant plume. The two long feathers that dangle up high during Marquis Wu’an’s iconic entry scene. This appearance often remind people of figures like Sun Wukong or Lü Bu, and would assume they were the blueprints for it.
They weren’t.
PART 1 — THE ORIGINS
The feathers were first bestowed by King Wuling of Zhao upon his bravest warriors, during the Warring States, ~300 BCE. That’s more than two thousand years ago from now.
During those periods, it wasn’t just a costume, but a medal of valor. King Wuling used the feathers of the Brown-eared Pheasant, a “warrior bird” that would fight to the death rather than retreat. Wearing those plumes meant you were the fiercest soldier on the field.
It was only during the Ming Dynasty that figures like Lü Bu, who lived 500 years after the monarch, were finally reimagined for the opera stage.
By the time Sun Wukong reached the screens centuries later, the pheasant plume had evolved from a soldier’s badge into a visual shorthand for rebellion and peerless power.
PART 2 — MODERN ELEVATION
In the modern day, depictions in Chinese drama and opera often use the feathers of the Reeves’s Pheasant, notably because they were much longer reaching up to 2 metres, and more fitting for the elevation of visuals.
“Pursuit of Jade does not pursue strict archaeological reconstruction but rather a xieyi-style Eastern aesthetic expression. Through Xie Zheng's pheasant plume, we sought to break the barrier between the stylized theatricality of traditional opera and the sense of realism in film and television. This plume is an extension of Xie Zheng's soul, the spine [strength, courage and assertiveness] that refuses to bow in turbulent times.”
— Director Zeng Qingjie
So, when you see those feathers dancing in modern dramas, you’re not just looking at a character trait.
You’re looking at a 2,300-year-old lineage of “fighting to the end”.
#3 Courtesy Name
九衡
(jiǔ héng)
九: The number nine
衡: Balance
The courtesy name that Grand Tutor Tao bestowed upon Xie Zheng carries three, purposeful layers.
First Layer — 九 (Nine)
九 is the ultimate yang number. The apex of Heaven. The position of the sovereign.
Grand Tutor Tao looked at Xie Zheng and saw someone cold and sharp in bearing, born under a solitary and calamitous fate, carrying the grief of a massacred clan.
He was never destined for the mold of an ordinary subject. An ordinary name could neither contain him nor be worthy of him. Only the extreme number “nine” could match his innate pride, his fate, and the position of power he was always going to occupy.
Second Layer — 衡 (Balance)
Xie Zheng's birth name contains 征 (zhēng), whose original meaning is conquest, aggression, a blade-like sharpness. Left unchecked, this nature tends toward extremism and ruthlessness.
衡 (héng) is the scales. The law. The principle of balance.
The intention is to bind his ferocity and killing edge with the law of Heaven and Earth. To keep him from losing himself to hatred.
Third Layer — 九衡 (Jiuheng)
It was as if Grand Tutor Tao was blessing Xie Zheng:
“You were born with the bearing of the highest order. You will one day stand at the apex of power. May you stand there, uphold what is right, redress the injustices of the world, powerful without bias, unyielding without madness.”
It's not merely to "think carefully before acting."
It is to stand at the highest place and still hold the scales of justice. A spirit noble enough to deserve great power. An edge sharp enough to need restraint. And buried wrongs that only someone standing at the very top could ever bring to light.
Grand Tutor Tao also bestowed the name Jiuheng to Xie Zheng so that he would always reconsider nine times before making a serious decision.
#4 Elite Authority
武安侯
(wǔ ān hóu)
武: Martial force
安: Peace and stability
“武安” (Wu’an) is an elite military honorific title that is often bestowed upon the bravest generals who are able to bring peace and stability to the nation through their martial prowess and leadership.
The rank of Marquis (侯) is the second highest of the five noble ranks, excluding royalty, that sits above all.
Xie Zheng is not just an honorary Marquis. He holds real military power, territory and court political weight. In the drama, we often hear Xie Zheng say “本侯” (běn hóu) or the Princess say “本宫” (běn gōng). The subtitles translate it as “I”, causing most people to miss the full unspoken authority and character subtlety.
When Xie Zheng says 本侯, he is not simply saying "I." He is speaking from his full Marquis authority. Every instance is a formal stance, his highest identity used to back his words, suppress conflict, and make final rulings. No one in that court can override what follows.
To outsiders, officials, or enemies, he uses 本侯 (běn hóu). Hierarchy maintained. Noble distance held. Authority asserted without raising his voice.
本侯 (běn hóu) can sound arrogant to non-natives. In Chinese culture, it is the opposite. Inborn aristocratic restraint. Calm, self-disciplined, naturally prestigious. Not loud. Not performative. Just born to hold that rank, and carrying it accordingly.
But when he’s alone with Fan Changyu, he sets it down.
He is a supreme noble to the nation, but only an ordinary man in front of her. Most viewers read the same word "I" throughout, and they never see him lower his rank for her.
#5 Matrilocal Marriage
赘婿
(zhuì xù)
A live-in husband.
In imperial China, it was the most humiliating arrangement a man could enter.
Associated with poverty. With weakness. With the inability to provide a household of one's own. Men who entered 入赘 marriages were documented as such in the Tang Code, the Song Dynasty records, and the Ming Code. The stigma was written into law.
To the people of Lin'an, he was just Yan Zheng. A man of no particular standing, agreeing to an arrangement they would have expected of someone like him.
A man who privately knew himself to be second in the entire nobility ranking, accepting the most stigmatized marital role in the social order under a borrowed name.
No one saw the gap. Only he carried it.
Not only did Xie Zheng lower his rank for her, he also entered an agreement that would bring humiliation to him without second thought.
The neighbors didn't know it was strategic. They just saw a man of supposed low standing accepting an arrangement that the entire social order considered beneath any man of dignity.
That’s all they ever saw.
He left as Yan Zheng, as a live-in husband. He left as the man no one looked twice at and casually returned as Prince Regent.
PART 3: BONDS & RELATIONSHIPS (7 Layers)
#1 Strings of Fate
缘分
(yuán fèn)
Most people reach for "fate" as the translation. It's not wrong. It's just not enough.
Yuanfen is a predestined encounter. The right person, the right moment; a meeting that was always going to happen. It's the invisible thread, not the whole story. Yuanfen creates the beginning. It doesn't promise anything after.
Fan Changyu finding Xie Zheng in the snow is Yuanfen.
宿命
(sù mìng)
If Yuanfen is the encounter, Suming is the weight you were born carrying.
Suming is an inevitable destiny. Not a path you chose, but a burden written before you arrived. The consequences of past actions, leading toward a fixed point. It follows you regardless of what you love, what you build, what you leave behind.
Xie Zheng’s blood debt, his 17-year mission of revenge, is his Suming. A blood debt he cannot put down.
命运
(mìng yùn)
Mingyun is the path of life. Every event, every turn, from the moment you arrive to the moment you don't.
But unlike Yuanfen or Suming, Mingyun can be forged. Most of it is already laid out. And yet the decisions you make, the direction you fight toward, the effort you pour in — are the variables that can bend it.
Fan Changyu carved out her own Mingyun with her butcher’s knife. When two paths intersect without intentional decisions to do so, it’s also considered as Yuanfen.
You might be asking, can all three of them align simultaneously?
The answer is, yes.
Yuanfen (缘分): Fan Changyu found Xie Zheng in the snow.
Suming (宿命): Xie Zheng's 17-year revenge was connected to Fan Changyu's father, Wei Qilin.
Mingyun (命运): His life path was always leading back to the capital. She carved her way there. Both paths converged, before they chose to bend them back toward the village. Together.
Xie Zheng & Fan Changyu are a perfectly matched cosmic pairing, and Grand Tutor Tao saw it before either of them did.
An easier way to remember this. You have YSL for lipstick, and YSM for fate:
Y = Yuanfen (缘分)
S = Suming (宿命)
M = Mingyun (命运)#2 Cosmic Pairing
天生一对
(tiān shēng yī duì)
A match made in heaven.
Most people know ‘yin and yang’ as a symbol. Two teardrop shapes, black and white, curling around each other. White for ‘yin’, black for ‘yang’.
The bathtub scene is merely the tip of the iceberg.
In Chinese cosmology, it is a framework for how the universe holds together.
Yin and yang are not opposites. They are complements. Two forces, each governing its own domain, neither complete without the other. Where one is present, the other is waiting. They don't cancel each other out. They hold each other up.
PART 1 — CORRECTING IMBALANCES
Xie Zheng (谢征) → Jiuheng (九衡)
Xie Zheng’s nature contains strong masculine and martial symbolism. Conquest and aggression. This translates to a strong Yang. Grand Tutor Tao’s intent was to balance his Yang with Yin: his Courtesy Name.
Fan Changyu (樊长玉) → Shanjun (山君)
Changyu’s nature is gentle, refined and inwardly reserved. Despite being born in the Year of the Tiger and possesses immense natural strength, the character 玉 (jade) softens and suppresses her sharpness. This translates into a strong Yin.
By bestowing her Shanjun (that contains Yang energy), Grand Tutor Tao sought to help Changyu reveal what the jade had been hiding; her bold and powerful true nature.
With their Courtesy Names, Xie Zheng primarily represents Yin, and Changyu represents Yang.
PART 2 — COSMIC PAIRING
Xie Zheng: Yin, Heaven, the civil path.
Fan Changyu: Yang, Earth, the martial path.
One commands the balance of Heaven’s law, the other guards the pulse of the Earth and its mountains.
They perfectly complement each other, forming a harmonious yin-yang pairing not only in name symbolism, but also in personality and fate.
During the bathtub scene, Xie Zheng was in white robes, and Fan Changyu in black. This correlates with their cosmic fate and pairing, both a reflection of their intended representations.
Xie Zheng commands from the center and steadies the court. Fan Changyu governs outward and protects the nation.
Grand Tutor Tao wasn’t just bestowing Courtesy Names, he was blessing them with a perfectly matched pairing.
#3 Intimacy
在下
(zài xià)
PART 1 — SAVIOR
When Xie Zheng first wakes up after being saved from the snow, he introduces himself as Yan Zheng. But what most people miss is the exact way he did so.
在下 (zài xià) is a highly polite, humble, and formal way to say "I" or "me" when introducing yourself in Chinese.
It literally translates to "under" or "below" (下) "here" (在). By using this term, you are figuratively placing yourself below the person you are speaking to, showing respect and modesty. This is often used in imperial China when speaking to an official, or someone of a higher rank.
Xie Zheng used this term not only to lower himself when speaking to her, it is also a form of respect for saving him. Even when he returned as a Marquis, he never once pulled his weight on her (refer to Part 2 of the Pursuit of Jade series).
PART 2 — SPIRITUAL SURRENDER
In imperial China, a person's birth name was private. Public address used courtesy names, titles, or kinship terms.
If Xie Zheng allows Changyu to use his given name, not his pseudonym ‘Yan Zheng’, not his title ‘Marquis of Wu’an’; it is not a nickname. It is legal and spiritual surrender.
It means: I belong to you.
PART 3 — SCARCITY OF VOICE
When Xie Zheng teaches Changyu to read and write, he’s not simply providing her education.
Communication was scarce during wartime and letters were proof of life. Exchanging ink was a form of intimacy that exceeded beyond physical restriction.
By teaching her, he is also opening a door, elevating her status and bringing her into his world.
#4 Love Language
过招
(guò zhāo)
In the martial world, your techniques are not just skills.
They are secrets.
How you move. How you read an opponent. Where your instincts go under pressure. These are things martial artists guard carefully, because an enemy who has seen you fight knows exactly how to end you.
When Xie Zheng spars with Fan Changyu at the riverbank, he shows her how he moves. He shows her how he reads an opponent. He shows her where his instincts go.
For a man of his caliber, that is not a casual exchange. That is full exposure. In the martial world, you only do that for someone you trust completely.
PART 1 — SOFTNESS OVERCOMING HARDNESS
He starts with one hand.
Two people sparring, and he is using half of what he has. Not because he underestimates her. Because he is giving her room.
Then she nearly falls back into a branch. He pulls her toward him without hesitation. And in that moment, he stops defending himself entirely.
He's not parrying. He's not reading her next move. He's not protecting himself. He is only making sure she doesn't get hurt. She knows it immediately. She strikes him in the abdomen while his guard is completely open, while he is still pulling her back.
A man who has survived seventeen years of hiding, of calculation, of never leaving himself exposed, drops every instinct the moment she is in danger.
The way he moves throughout the spar is its own layer.
His arms and wrists redirect her force rather than meet it. He goes with the flow of her attacks, absorbing and deflecting rather than resisting. In Chinese martial philosophy, this is 以柔克刚 (yǐ róu kè gāng). Softness overcoming hardness. The principle that yielding is not weakness. That the softest force, applied correctly, can redirect the strongest blow.
It is the same principle encoded in his courtesy name Jiuheng (九衡). Balance over brute force. Restraint as the highest form of control.
PART 2 — LOVE LANGUAGE
And then Changyu says it herself.
She had to test his abilities before she could fight him properly.
She was reading him the entire time. Every move she made in the first half of the spar was assessment, not full commitment. She respects him enough to take him seriously as an opponent.
Two people who can genuinely fight, and he is deflecting instead of striking. Absorbing instead of pushing back. Using everything he knows to make sure she doesn't get hurt in the process.
That is not technique. That is care, expressed in the only language they are both fluent in at that moment.
He showed her everything. She studied everything he showed.
Most audiences watch it as a fight scene. They see the choreography. They see the river. They see two people who are clearly good at this.
What they don't see is what is actually being exchanged.
#5 Animal Symbolisms
海东青
(hǎi dōng qīng)
In Chinese literary tradition, how a person is described in animal terms tells you everything about how the world sees them.
And sometimes, how they see themselves.
PART 1 — SOLITARY WARRIOR
Xie Zheng is associated with the 海东青. A gyrfalcon, one of the largest birds of prey in the falcon family. In ancient times, it was known as the “god among ten thousand hawks.” It is also classified as a first-class nationally protected animal in China.
Solitary. Fierce. Loyal only to its own nest.
It does not flock. It does not follow. It circles alone at heights other birds cannot reach, and when it strikes, it does not miss.
This is the animal the story assigns to the man who spent seventeen years in hiding, planning, waiting. An eagle with nowhere to land. Power with no home to return to.
PART 2 — LIVELY PIG
Fan Changyu is associated with a little pig.
Simple. Warm. Grounded. The kind of creature that makes noise and takes up space and fills a household with life.
In the opening of the drama, we see a pig leaving tracks in the snow. Throughout the series, we also see pig imagery everywhere: pig-shaped lanterns and pig-themed signs outside the butcher shop. Xie Zheng uses a little piggy as a gavel when preparing her for court.
PART 3 — MATERNAL WARMTH
The contrast is not accidental. The gyrfalcon and the pig exist at opposite ends of every imaginable register. One is the symbol of imperial hunting culture. One lives in a market butcher's yard.
Having lost his mother at seven and born into the army, Xie Zheng grew up emotionally deprived.
The matrilocal marriage, albeit fake, allowed him to subconsciously return toward maternal protection through Fan Changyu’s warmth and domestic liveliness.
The home he never had.
#6 The Phoenix
“北雁南飞，遍地凤凰难下足”
(běi yàn nán fēi biàn dì fèng huáng nán xià zú)
During the scene where we see Song Yan harassing Fan Changyu, Xie Zheng steps in to intervene with just one line.
“北雁南飞，遍地凤凰难下足”
“As the wild goose flies south, it finds the ground covered with phoenixes that there is no place for it to land.”
PART 1 — THE PHOENIX
In Chinese culture, the “phoenix” represents nobility, or high ranking elites. The “wild goose” represents a commoner or a scholar traveling to the capital.
But in this context, Song Yan is the northern goose.
Xie Zheng is mocking Song Yan for overestimating himself and chasing a status he can never truly belong to. The implication is not just that Song Yan is outranked. It is that he doesn't belong here by nature.
Fan Changyu is the phoenix.
PART 2 — HIDDEN PRAISE
The phoenix in Chinese mythology does not land just anywhere. It perches only on the Wutong (梧桐) tree. It drinks only from sacred springs. Its presence is supremely selective.
A butcher's daughter being called a phoenix by a hidden Marquis isn’t just a simple rebuttal, and he’s not only protecting and standing up for his wife.
It’s a highly regarded praise.
In Chinese culture, the phoenix isn’t just a bird. It’s the highest symbol for an outstanding woman.
When Xie Zheng calls Changyu a phoenix, he’s saying:
She is noble in temperament, elegant and extraordinary.
She has dignity, inner strength and great character.
She stands above average people, like a royal.
She’s one-of-a-kind, rare and incomparable.
It’s the highest form of compliment.
Xie Zheng is praising her for being ethereal, noble and an extraordinary woman that no one can match her.
#7 Harmony Over Vengeance
以大局为重
(yǐ dà jú wéi zhòng)
To prioritize the greater picture above all else.
In Chinese cultural thinking, the nation comes before the individual. The family comes before the self. Collective stability comes before personal grievance. This is a moral framework woven into centuries of storytelling, philosophy, and ideals of what it means to lead well.
Hatred exists. But it is held. Restrained for the sake of what is larger than any one person's pain.
Wei Yan is not just an enemy. He is family. In Chinese culture, the maternal uncle holds immense familial authority: one of the highest bonds of trust that exists. For an uncle to orchestrate the massacre of his own nephew's clan is not just a crime. It is one of the deepest ethical violations the culture recognizes.
Xie Zheng knows this. He has carried it for seventeen years.
When Xie Zheng chooses to spare Wei Yan, he’s not forgiving him. He’s not letting him go. He’s absorbing the hatred. Containing it.
Choosing the stability of the court, the survival of the innocent, the preservation of order, over the one thing he has wanted since he was a child.
That’s not weakness. It’s the highest form of strength Chinese cultural values recognize.
Not the strength of emotional release. Not the strength of the blade. The strength of carrying unresolved hatred and not letting it become destruction.
In Chinese cultural narratives, this is what separates a great man from a powerful one.
The ideal leader does not act on what he feels. He acts on what the world needs.
Not because the anger is absent.
Because the responsibility is greater than the self.
