If there’s a prize for rotten judgement
I guess I’ve already won that
No man is worth the aggravation
That’s ancient history, been there, done that!Who’d ya think you’re kiddin’
(“I won’t say I’m in love” Megara’s song from Disney Movie Hercules)
He’s the earth and heaven to you
Try to keep it hidden
Honey, we can see right through you
Girl, ya can’t conceal it
We know how ya feel and
Who you’re thinking of.
Megara’s song from the Disney Movie Hercules seems written for Mo Ran who, for the whole reading, has made me feel like one of the Muses. Yes because the so-called Taxian-Jun keeps saying that he loathes Chu Wanning, his extremely hansome Shizun, when actually just like Megara with Hercules, he is in love with him. Mo Ran and Chu Wanning are the protagonists of The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, the xianxia danmei novel written by Rou Bao Chi Rou and published in english by Seven Seas Entertainment. It’s the second danmei I read after Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation which I loved from the beginning to the end, and I didn’t think that I would have loved so much another book. Instead Erha has fascinated me for multiple reasons, first of the characters and their characterization, starting with Mo Ran himself.
But first, a look at the plot of the book.
THE HUSKY AND HIS WHITE CAT SHIZUN VOL.1: THE PLOT
Cruel tyrant Taxian-jun killed his way to the throne and now reigns as the first ever emperor of the mortal realm. Yet somehow, he is unsatisfied. Left cold and bereft, abandoned by all he held dear, he takes his own life…only to be reborn anew.
Awakening in the body of his younger self–Mo Ran, a disciple of the cultivation sect Sisheng Peak–he discovers the chance to relive his life. This time, he vows to attain the gratification that once eluded him: all who defied him will fall, and never again will they treat him like a dog. His greatest fury is reserved for Chu Wanning, the coldly beautiful and aloofly catlike cultivation teacher who betrayed and thwarted Mo Ran time and again in their last life.
Yet as Mo Ran shamelessly pursues his own goals in this life he thought lost, he begins to wonder if there might be more to his teacher–and his own feelings–than he ever realized.
CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION
MO RAN
A DEPRESSED EMPEROR
After finished reading Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xian Tong Xiu, I didn’t know what book to read. I was unsure, I could have read one of the other best-selling books from the same author but I wanted to give it a try to other stories. The options I found were The Husky and his White Cat Shizun and Thousand Autumns. To take a decision I asked on social media but above all I read an extract of the first chapter of both books.
Mo Ran is the evil Emperor of the Mortal Realm, he has conquered all the Cultivation World, he has reached an impressive Cultivation level. He has destroyed all his enemies, he has taken his revenge against every person who had him wrong, included his loathed Shizun. He has apparently achieved everything, however he is done and he feels empty. The book starts with him in his Palace alone, depressed while he watches a puppy dog that has been gifted to him grow, play and in the end die.
I didn’t expect a beginning like this. It took me aback almost as the beginning of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation with its “REJOICE WEI WUXIAN IS DEATH!”. My reaction was basically the same, a confused expression and a suprised “What?”. So I decided, this is my next reading and I loved it in the same way.
MO RAN HAS A PARTICULAR PERSONALITY
Mo Ran’s characterization and personality is one of the thing that has impressed me about The Husky and His White Cat Shizun. You start reading about this 32 years old man who has done a lot of despicable things, according to what other characters like Xue Meng says at the beginning. Then you read what he has written on the grave of his passed away wife and concubine. STEAMED CONSORT and DEEP FRIED EMPRESS is what Xue Meng reads on the woman’s grave when he comes to Mo Ran’s Palace to face him one and for all. Meaningful about his personality is also the way he has named his Reign Period. I won’t report it, if you’re curious go to page 14-15 of Volume 1.
What I’m saying is that Mo Ran’s personality has the same duality of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde or Dorian Grey and his painting and it’s fascinating.
The thirty-two year-old Mo Ran was different from the fifteen-year-old Mo Ran in many respects. For example, the fifteen-year-old him had still know gentless in love and intimacy. However, the thirty-two-year-old him knew only violence.
(The Husky and His White Cat Shizun Vol.1 Pag.34)
Mo Ran and Emperor Tanxian-Jun are two completely different sides of the same person like Jekyll and Hyde. From a hand, we have Taxian-Jun who has committed a lot of atrocities that are only mentioned at the beginning of the story. On the other side we have Mo Ran. He is literally an Husky, friendly, smart, sarcastic, loyal and absolutely funny in his way of being straightfoward and a little shameless.
You follow him after being reborn in his 16 years old self like in the movie 17 Again. He is sometime so dumb that you forget he is actually a 32 years old man. It’s amazing because that is his true nature, his real self that due to a painful and traumatic event has changed.
A GREAT GRIEF CAN CHANGE COMPLETELY A PERSON
Something happened to Mo Ran. Something really painful that has changed him and that we descover during the story through Mo Ran’s flashbacks about his past life or other life. As I said before, a traumatic event, that is the loss of a loved one, has led him on a dark path. Here it would be interesting talking about how a huge grief can affect someone both in physical and physochological way.
In psychology, the Kübler-Ross Model states that grief is a process based on 5 stages: Denial, Anger, Bergaining, Depression and Acceptance.
The model is as interesting as complicated to explain in detail. Lets say that a huge loss can change completely a person. It can change their way to be, their way to live, their way to think and their way to establish relationships and to interact with others.
Mo Ran’s way to process his loss becomes clear in the following books. In this first book we can say that he has never accepted the loss of his loved one and he has fallen directly into the anger stage that has led him to depression.
BLAMING OTHERS IS A COPING MECHANISM
Blaming someone else is a mechanism to cope with a trauma, it’s easier blaming others rather than admitting to be responsible or in some way involved. Mo Ran’s case is complicated because neither him or the person he has always blamed are actually responsible for what happened. This person is his Shizun.
Chu Wanning is a character as fascinated as Mo Ran. He shows the same duality and a great profundity.
CHU WANNING
AN ALOOF MASTER WHO ACTUALLY CARES A LOT
“He had an elegant face, with long and even brows, and beneath, that of pheonix eyes. His demeanor was graceful, dignified, and otherwordly; even in the face of demonic miasma and bloody rain, his cool and distant expression remained unchanged. It wouldn’t have looked strange or out of place if he were to sit down on the spot to light incense and play the qin”
(The Husky and His white Cat Shizun Vol.1 pag.70)
If Mo Ran is an Husky, Chu Wanning also called Yuhen of the Night Sky and Bidou Immortal is a cat. He is described as an handsome man, elegant, almost ethereal, always white dressed with an introverted personality, aloof and severe. Since the beginning of the story, Mo Ran describes him as cold and disinterested. He keeps repeating that he hates him for what happened in the past but his attraction for him is evident. Chu Wanning indeed looks as if he doesn’t need anything. He is one of the most powerful cultivator and he is considered highly from the Sect leader and the disciples who are from a certain point of view scared by him.
Actually, and this one of the thing that has hit me most, there is a lot behind this mask of unapproachable young Master. There is a desire for contact, for relationship and human consideration that makes your heart ache.
“Yuhen of the Night Sky, the Bidou Immortal. Unloved from head to toe, uncared for whether alive, dead, sick, or suffering. It seemed he has never needed another’s support, even from birth, never need anything to depend on, never needed anyone for company. So there was no need to say it hurt and even less point in crying. He would just go back and dress the injury himself, cut away the torn and dead flesh, and apply some slave. It would be fine.”
(The Husky and His White Cat Shizun Vol.1 Pag.198)
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
Chu Wanning’s duality is just this. Behind the image of a powerful and almost invincible martial artist, there is man who feels lonely, who would like to have someone who takes care of him like he, in his own way, takes care of his loved ones.
One of the things that Mo Ran has always criticized about his Shizun is his lack of empathy. From his perspective, Wanning has never cared for anyone and he has always thought about himself and his mission. However, this is not true. During the reading, we get to know with all the characters and regarding Chu Wanning, we see how much he cares for his disciples and for his Sect.
He cares a lot, especially for Mo Ran who is the first person who has dared to approach him but he does not know who to demostrate it and the reason will be clear in the following books.
Chu Wanning is the perfect representation of the concept of “No man is an island” and that we shouldn’t judge anyone from their appearance without knowing their story.
AN HAITANG FLOWER
Chu Wanning is often associated with the Haitang Flower. Haitang are a chinese typology of flowers with pink petals. Wanning has a Haitang Flowers tree in the courtyard of the Red Lotus Pavillion where he lives. He also uses them in his communication spell that has called Haitang Blossom.
Haitang and Lotus Flowers have a deep meaing in Chinese Culture.
Lotus Flower means rebirth, purity and change. It blossoms in the mad but it remains clean and pure. It symbolozes the strenght to fight against the adversity remaing true to ourself, uncontaminated and pure.
Haitang Flower instead, regarding romantic relationship, means “unrequired love” or bitter love”.
So, Lotus Flower is Mo Ran who has reborn after all he went through in the past, still uncontaminated by all the hate and evil that has led him to become a cruel emperor. The Haitang Flower represents Chu Wanning’s love for Mo Ran. A love that he thinks is unrequired when actually it isn’t (If only Mo Ran stopped doing like Megara repeating that he hates him when it’s not true).
OTHER CHARACTERS
I talked a lot about the two protagonists of the story who, it should be clear, are well characterized. They interact with a lot of other characters who are at different levels well characterized like them.
I mention only the most important that are Shi Mei and Xue Meng who, Chu wanning’s other two disciples.
Xue Meng is Mo Ran’s cousin, the son of the leader of Sisheng Peak, very proud and stubborn. He is a good martial artist and he has a high consideration for his Master and his Sect. Shi Mei can be defined as Mo Ran’s best friend (to not say pseudo-love interest). He is described as a boy with delicate features and a soft personality. He always intermediates between Mo Ran and Xue Meng to prevent them from arguing.
BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT
Regarding the narration, it is alternated between past and present through flashbacks.
These flashbacks are similar to the ones in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. In Mo Xian Tong Xiu’s novel, the narration sometime stops and we are suddenly dragged in the past of the protagonists to come back to the present later.
In The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Mo Ran’s past is sometime narrated by him in a sort of stream of consciousness that gives has small clues about what happened. Other times, like in Mo Dao Zu shi, we are dragged in the past of the protagonists and we live what they have lived.
To notice is that the narration has the same duality of its protagonists, not only because it takes place between past and present as just said but also for the way Mo Ran describe his past or his other life, especially his relationship with Chu Wanning.
When Mo Ran describes his past life with Shizun, he describe it a dark, regretful and angry way but when we see them together in the flashbacks their relationship looks like a tender marriage. It’s fascinating, there is always this double point of view that contributes to give a more complete vision of the story’s events.
Anyway, the story flowing and really grabbing. The chapters are shorts and the small drops of Mo Ran’s other life are intriguing and make you read them like when eating cherries, one after another.
TO CONCLUDE
I loved this first volume of The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, the story, its characters and above all the symbology, the deep inner meanings. Just like for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, I liked the references to the Chinese Culture and Mythology that allow me to learn new things.
The book has been adapted from the original chinese novel and I found the adaptation quite good. It is also has been adapted into a live-action c-drama called Immortality that everyone can’t wait to watch. However, it seems to be stuck in a never ending check for censorship and there are not many information about if and when it will be released.
Mo Ran and Chu Wanning are played respectively by Chen Feyu and Luo Yunshi who, from what it is possible to see from some leaked frames of the drama, are simply perfect in their role, aesthetically speaking.
Let’s see in the future what will happen. In the meantime, there are other books to read. Indeed, The Husky and his White Cat Shizun includes for now 7 books published by Seven Seas Entertainment. The 6th was released on August 20th 2024, while the 7th will be released on December 3rd 2024.