Xiao Ge is the child of a woman from a tribe called Cang Tribe (藏族人), no one knows who the father is, but he should be a member of the Zhang family. His mother is called Bai Ma.
In the same year that he was born, the Zhang family opened the tomb that contains the 3000 year old foetus. The foetus was supposed to be alive (secret of immortality) but it was found dead (in fact, I don't think that immortality exists in the books. immortality is a lie to cover up a bigger secret that the Zhangs are protecting - the thing behind the Bronze Gate). A dead foetus meant that Zhang family belief will be shattered, so the people who opened the tomb brought Zhang Qi Ling back to the family and lied to everyone that he is the 3000 year old foetus.
From then on he was brought up as the next leader of the family. As for Bai Ma, she was devastated that her baby was taken away from her, so she ingested this poison called 藏海花 (Cang Hai Hua, translated as Tibetan Sea Flower, which has 2 same words as Wang Cang Hai). This poison allows her to go into a deep long sleep, but when she wakes, she will only be alive for another 3 days. Her wish is to see her son grown up in those 3 days.
As for who his father is, there is some speculation that he is Dong Can, but the author never confirmed it. In the novel, Dong Can is from the Zhang family. He was searching for something and end up coming across the Kang Ba Luo tribe (康巴落).
In this tribe, there is a legend of a monster. The tribe leaders will choose a woman from the tribe to be a sacrificial bride to the monster in order to appease it. Dong Can then stayed at with the tribe to fight against the monster.
He never returned to the Zhang family. Afterwards people found out that he has been staying at a deserted temple, painting an oil painting. Decades later Zhang Qi Ling finds him and Wu Xie thinks that Dong Can fell in love with the sacrificial bride, who he didn't manage to save back then, which was why he lost all hope in the world and decided to "disappear".
However the tribes in the two stories are different so Dong Can might not be Xiao Ge's father. BUT if you put the two stories together it kinda makes sense too...
Wang Cang Hai is a person from the Ming dynasty. As for the start of their conflict, I read this somewhere but…
yep! they are quite a secretive bunch that even though they existed for centuries, their existence was only found out by Wu Lao Gou (Wu Xie's grandfather, head of the Wu family during Mystic Nine) in more recent years. Wu Xie himself didn't know about Wang until ToTS (i think) that's why we only know about it in ToTS because the novel is written in his POV LOL
(actually i think it's more likely that the author suddenly wanted to include the secret 10th family after he finished the main story, and since there was no mention of Wang in the books, he had to write that they were secretive and nobody knows of their existence hahahahha the first official mention of the Wang family is in Tibetan Sea Flower, which takes place 5 years after the main series ended. This is the book that talks more about Xiao Ge's origins)
Wang Cang Hai is a person from the Ming dynasty. As for the start of their conflict, I read this somewhere but…
haha okay here's the story!
Again, not sure if canon or fan theory. Pretty sure it's a fan theory so, just have some fun reading it :) in fact, after typing the previous comment, I went to look at the timeline of Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Fo Ye's birth (1890), which doesn't quite make sense cuz it's like 200 years apart LOL, so i'm quite sure it's a fan theory haha. But basically the conflict between Zhang and Wang is that one wants to protect the secret, and the other wants the world to know the secret (or wants to own the secret)
tl;dr - Zhang family believes that they are protecting the secret of immortality and the 3000 year old foetus in the tomb is still alive. one day they had no choice but to open the tomb only to find that the foetus is dead. news of the dead foetus will destroy Zhang's belief - for generations they believed it to be alive. The Zhangs that opened the tomb decided to use Xiao Ge (who just so happened to be born in the same year they opened the tomb) and trick the rest of the family that he is the 3000 year old foetus. They brought him up to be the next leader of the Zhangs, but Wang found out about the secret and let the Zhangs know that the 3000 year old foetus is dead, hence the demise of the Zhang family.
Here's the long version. So, for Wang Cang Hai (since the timeline didn't match, i think it's actually his decedents that did it) to destroy the Zhang family, he needs to know 2 things. One is the story of King Zhou Mu and the other is Xiao Ge's origins.
Legend has it that King Zhou Mu longs for immortality and in search of it, he visited Queen Mother of the West (this is actually a real legend that exists in Chinese literature. pretty sure the author used it as an inspiration haha, but the following is written by the author himself/fan theory). Queen Mother of the West agrees to give him the secret of immortality, but this comes with a cost - King Zhou Mu has to sleep for 3000 years first before waking up to be immortal.
Therefore he prepares a very grand tomb full of treasures for him to "die" in. This is so that when he wakes up he is still rich. He also prepares another body for himself to be immortal in - the unborn foetus - to be sleeping in the tomb with him for 3000 years, so that by the time they wake up, the foetus would have grown and be the perfect body for him. (apparently the way to immortality is to save his memories and transfer it to another body)
This is where the Zhang family comes in. They are to be the protector of his tomb, until it is time to wake up. That is why the head of the Zhangs are always called Qi Ling (起灵) - it means to raise (起) the spirit (灵). And whose spirit are they raising? None other than King Zhou Mu himself. (the story of why they are called Qi Ling is 100% fan theory haha)
So for generations, the Zhang family protected the tomb, but only the head of the Zhang knows the actual secret - everyone else only knows that it is related to immortality.
One day, the head of the Zhang was killed and so the secret went along with him. In order to know the secret, the higher ranked Zhang members decided to open the tomb, only to find a dead foetus. The members who opened the tomb knows that entire core of the Zhang family will be shaken if they found out that they have been protecting a dead foetus all along, so they brought back another baby and claimed him to be the 3000 year old foetus. This baby is none other than our Xiao Ge, the next Zhang Qi Ling.
The Wang family know that in order to break the Zhang family, they have to make use of the Zhang family's belief. So they went to investigate the origins of Xiao Ge and found out that he indeed is not the 3000 year old foetus.
(so here begins the story of Xiao Ge's origin) Once upon a time... there was a man surnamed Zhang. He travelled the world and arrived at a snowy mountain, where there lived a tribe. There, he met a girl named Bai Ma, and the two fell in love. Very quickly, they married and birthed a boy, whose name was never known. It was at this time when the Zhang leaders found the dead foetus. They needed a replacement - a baby who was just born. Who other than the newborn baby? So they went to the snowy mountains and snatched the baby from the lovebirds, and from then on, the baby is named Zhang Qi Ling.
He became the new leader of the Zhangs, underwent vigorous trainings, and was brought up to believe that he indeed was the 3000 year old foetus. That is, until one day, the Wang family found out about his birth and spread the truth among the Zhangs. And this is how the Wangs had the chance to destroy the Zhangs.
But because Xiao Ge became the leader, he found out that the Zhangs wasn't just protecting the tomb, they were also protecting the Bronze Gate, which holds a bigger secret than immortality. This is why he is still protecting the secret despite knowing that he is not the 3000 year old foetus.
Also, it is said that the tribe in the snowy mountains (i'm not sure what's the English translation for it but in Chinese they are called the Cang Tribe 藏族人) were also protecting another Bronze Gate, and they also have Kylin Blood, which is why Xiao Ge's blood is still pure despite being half Zhang.
Do any of you know when Wang Canghai was alive? I'm trying to find informations about start of Wang and Zhang…
Wang Cang Hai is a person from the Ming dynasty.
As for the start of their conflict, I read this somewhere but I don't know if it's canon or a fan theory (I never read the books haha) so take the following with a grain of salt.
Zhang Qi Shan (Fo Ye, leader of 9 Gates from the Mystic Nine)'s dad was kicked out of the Zhang family because he married an outsider. To keep the Zhang family's secret safe, the entire Zhang family had to relocate, including the ancestral tombs. They decided to hire Wang Zang Hai, who was best architect at that time, to rebuild their home and the tomb.
(So there are two Zhang families, the pureblood Zhang family, which Xiao Ge is from, and the "outsider" Zhang family, which is the Zhang family from the 9 Gates)
It was during this time that Wang Cang Hai found out about their secret and wanted to let it be known to the world, but the Zhang family was too powerful and his attempts to spread the news were futile. Then he realised that in order to defeat the Zhang family, he too needs to have an "organisation" like them, so he started his own Wang family.
Unlike the Zhang family, who place an importance on having pure Zhang blood, the Wang family has no blood relations. Anyone can join as long as they have the same belief.
Wang Cang Hai was also the one who broke the Zhang family up. As you can see, the Zhang family isn't as strong as they used to be. In fact, there is only Xiao Ge in the Zhang family who is still protecting the secret. The rest of the Zhangs are almost unheard of. There is another story regarding how he disbanded the Zhang family, but seeing that this reply is getting super long, I shall not dive into it unless you're interested hahaha
https://kisskh.at/56837-can-hai-hua
Xiao Ge is the child of a woman from a tribe called Cang Tribe (藏族人), no one knows who the father is, but he should be a member of the Zhang family. His mother is called Bai Ma.
In the same year that he was born, the Zhang family opened the tomb that contains the 3000 year old foetus. The foetus was supposed to be alive (secret of immortality) but it was found dead (in fact, I don't think that immortality exists in the books. immortality is a lie to cover up a bigger secret that the Zhangs are protecting - the thing behind the Bronze Gate). A dead foetus meant that Zhang family belief will be shattered, so the people who opened the tomb brought Zhang Qi Ling back to the family and lied to everyone that he is the 3000 year old foetus.
From then on he was brought up as the next leader of the family. As for Bai Ma, she was devastated that her baby was taken away from her, so she ingested this poison called 藏海花 (Cang Hai Hua, translated as Tibetan Sea Flower, which has 2 same words as Wang Cang Hai). This poison allows her to go into a deep long sleep, but when she wakes, she will only be alive for another 3 days. Her wish is to see her son grown up in those 3 days.
As for who his father is, there is some speculation that he is Dong Can, but the author never confirmed it. In the novel, Dong Can is from the Zhang family. He was searching for something and end up coming across the Kang Ba Luo tribe (康巴落).
In this tribe, there is a legend of a monster. The tribe leaders will choose a woman from the tribe to be a sacrificial bride to the monster in order to appease it. Dong Can then stayed at with the tribe to fight against the monster.
He never returned to the Zhang family. Afterwards people found out that he has been staying at a deserted temple, painting an oil painting. Decades later Zhang Qi Ling finds him and Wu Xie thinks that Dong Can fell in love with the sacrificial bride, who he didn't manage to save back then, which was why he lost all hope in the world and decided to "disappear".
However the tribes in the two stories are different so Dong Can might not be Xiao Ge's father. BUT if you put the two stories together it kinda makes sense too...
(actually i think it's more likely that the author suddenly wanted to include the secret 10th family after he finished the main story, and since there was no mention of Wang in the books, he had to write that they were secretive and nobody knows of their existence hahahahha the first official mention of the Wang family is in Tibetan Sea Flower, which takes place 5 years after the main series ended. This is the book that talks more about Xiao Ge's origins)
https://kisskh.at/56837-can-hai-hua
Again, not sure if canon or fan theory. Pretty sure it's a fan theory so, just have some fun reading it :) in fact, after typing the previous comment, I went to look at the timeline of Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Fo Ye's birth (1890), which doesn't quite make sense cuz it's like 200 years apart LOL, so i'm quite sure it's a fan theory haha. But basically the conflict between Zhang and Wang is that one wants to protect the secret, and the other wants the world to know the secret (or wants to own the secret)
tl;dr - Zhang family believes that they are protecting the secret of immortality and the 3000 year old foetus in the tomb is still alive. one day they had no choice but to open the tomb only to find that the foetus is dead. news of the dead foetus will destroy Zhang's belief - for generations they believed it to be alive. The Zhangs that opened the tomb decided to use Xiao Ge (who just so happened to be born in the same year they opened the tomb) and trick the rest of the family that he is the 3000 year old foetus. They brought him up to be the next leader of the Zhangs, but Wang found out about the secret and let the Zhangs know that the 3000 year old foetus is dead, hence the demise of the Zhang family.
Here's the long version.
So, for Wang Cang Hai (since the timeline didn't match, i think it's actually his decedents that did it) to destroy the Zhang family, he needs to know 2 things. One is the story of King Zhou Mu and the other is Xiao Ge's origins.
Legend has it that King Zhou Mu longs for immortality and in search of it, he visited Queen Mother of the West (this is actually a real legend that exists in Chinese literature. pretty sure the author used it as an inspiration haha, but the following is written by the author himself/fan theory). Queen Mother of the West agrees to give him the secret of immortality, but this comes with a cost - King Zhou Mu has to sleep for 3000 years first before waking up to be immortal.
Therefore he prepares a very grand tomb full of treasures for him to "die" in. This is so that when he wakes up he is still rich. He also prepares another body for himself to be immortal in - the unborn foetus - to be sleeping in the tomb with him for 3000 years, so that by the time they wake up, the foetus would have grown and be the perfect body for him. (apparently the way to immortality is to save his memories and transfer it to another body)
This is where the Zhang family comes in. They are to be the protector of his tomb, until it is time to wake up. That is why the head of the Zhangs are always called Qi Ling (起灵) - it means to raise (起) the spirit (灵). And whose spirit are they raising? None other than King Zhou Mu himself. (the story of why they are called Qi Ling is 100% fan theory haha)
So for generations, the Zhang family protected the tomb, but only the head of the Zhang knows the actual secret - everyone else only knows that it is related to immortality.
One day, the head of the Zhang was killed and so the secret went along with him. In order to know the secret, the higher ranked Zhang members decided to open the tomb, only to find a dead foetus. The members who opened the tomb knows that entire core of the Zhang family will be shaken if they found out that they have been protecting a dead foetus all along, so they brought back another baby and claimed him to be the 3000 year old foetus. This baby is none other than our Xiao Ge, the next Zhang Qi Ling.
The Wang family know that in order to break the Zhang family, they have to make use of the Zhang family's belief. So they went to investigate the origins of Xiao Ge and found out that he indeed is not the 3000 year old foetus.
(so here begins the story of Xiao Ge's origin) Once upon a time... there was a man surnamed Zhang. He travelled the world and arrived at a snowy mountain, where there lived a tribe. There, he met a girl named Bai Ma, and the two fell in love. Very quickly, they married and birthed a boy, whose name was never known. It was at this time when the Zhang leaders found the dead foetus. They needed a replacement - a baby who was just born. Who other than the newborn baby? So they went to the snowy mountains and snatched the baby from the lovebirds, and from then on, the baby is named Zhang Qi Ling.
He became the new leader of the Zhangs, underwent vigorous trainings, and was brought up to believe that he indeed was the 3000 year old foetus. That is, until one day, the Wang family found out about his birth and spread the truth among the Zhangs. And this is how the Wangs had the chance to destroy the Zhangs.
But because Xiao Ge became the leader, he found out that the Zhangs wasn't just protecting the tomb, they were also protecting the Bronze Gate, which holds a bigger secret than immortality. This is why he is still protecting the secret despite knowing that he is not the 3000 year old foetus.
Also, it is said that the tribe in the snowy mountains (i'm not sure what's the English translation for it but in Chinese they are called the Cang Tribe 藏族人) were also protecting another Bronze Gate, and they also have Kylin Blood, which is why Xiao Ge's blood is still pure despite being half Zhang.
As for the start of their conflict, I read this somewhere but I don't know if it's canon or a fan theory (I never read the books haha) so take the following with a grain of salt.
Zhang Qi Shan (Fo Ye, leader of 9 Gates from the Mystic Nine)'s dad was kicked out of the Zhang family because he married an outsider. To keep the Zhang family's secret safe, the entire Zhang family had to relocate, including the ancestral tombs. They decided to hire Wang Zang Hai, who was best architect at that time, to rebuild their home and the tomb.
(So there are two Zhang families, the pureblood Zhang family, which Xiao Ge is from, and the "outsider" Zhang family, which is the Zhang family from the 9 Gates)
It was during this time that Wang Cang Hai found out about their secret and wanted to let it be known to the world, but the Zhang family was too powerful and his attempts to spread the news were futile. Then he realised that in order to defeat the Zhang family, he too needs to have an "organisation" like them, so he started his own Wang family.
Unlike the Zhang family, who place an importance on having pure Zhang blood, the Wang family has no blood relations. Anyone can join as long as they have the same belief.
Wang Cang Hai was also the one who broke the Zhang family up. As you can see, the Zhang family isn't as strong as they used to be. In fact, there is only Xiao Ge in the Zhang family who is still protecting the secret. The rest of the Zhangs are almost unheard of. There is another story regarding how he disbanded the Zhang family, but seeing that this reply is getting super long, I shall not dive into it unless you're interested hahaha