PILGRIMAGE TO CHINA’S HEAVEN

MO XIANG TONG XIU — HEAVEN OFFICIAL’S BLESSING — VOLUME 2 (chapters 12 to 27) — 2022

In this volume, the author tries to deal with the “accusation” that this saga is deeply, though covered-up, gay by insisting on emotional friendships that are deeper than the plain friendship between two young men.

“Xie Lian had grown up in the Royal Holy Temple, practicing abstinence for most of his mortal life. His body and mind had always been guarded and as steady as the mountains. It didn’t matter what he saw, his heart was as still as water. Anything unseemly would make him automatically chant Dao De Jing [One of the fundamental texts of Daoism, written in the 4th century BC.] sonorously in his mind, keeping him completely indifferent.” (page 54)

Anything carnal or sexual seems clearly out of reach. And again:

“That sweet, seductive lady who had offered him wine was none other than the Wind Master Qingxuan! […] My [Xie Lian’s] chosen path of cultivation has always forbidden drinking and licentious acts. Alcohol can be overlooked once in a while, but abstinence from the latter is absolute. […] Actually, it also forbids hatred. A gambling hall involves extreme joy and anguish and can easily produce hatred, so it is a place best avoided. But if one can maintain control of one’s mind, unmoved by wins and losses, then there is no need to wholly avoid gambling.” (page 126)

If you add to these considerations the fact that what they look like, young beautiful more than plainly handsome males, does not correspond to their age and nature. Most of the characters are beyond plain human life and have reached a higher level: divine, godlike, ghostlike, even ghosts, or concerning Xie Liang who has been elevated three times, hence promoted to a semi-godlike statute since to be elevated is to be able to live in Heaven with the real gods, hence as a semi-god. Hence these “young” males are no longer young, far from it, some are even eternal or quasi-eternal, and no matter how much they like what they see and how strongly they may be appealed to what they see, they will by…