PingXie (Chinese: 瓶邪), short for Men You Ping x Wu Xie (Chinese: 闷油瓶 x 吴邪) is the most popular pairing of Daomu Biji. Rising to fame since the early days of the novel, the pairing is a reason for many fans getting pulled into starting this gigantic series. The amount of fan materials dedicated to this ship is sensational. At one point in time, PingXie was even named as “China’s national couple”.
And until today, 14 years after the novel’s start, the PingXie ship is still going strong.
Bearing in mind that this pairing is not canon and the novel is obviously not BL, just exactly what makes everyone so emotional the moment PingXie is mentioned?
To answer that question, we would need to walk through at least 500+ chapters of Main Story (￣□￣」). In a bid to quickly explain the PingXie phenomenon, this post brings to you some of Men You Ping and Wu Xie’s most commonly-quoted excerpts.
Then you may see why PingXie is our obsession.
Other posts in this series: Part 2: PingXie Excerpts from Sequels
“Whether the truth is bearable or not can be judged by that person himself,” I said, “Perhaps it’s not that other people want to protect you – what if they just want to die? Do you understand the pain of not knowing the truth?”
Men You Ping went silent and we didn’t speak for some time. He finally said, “I understand,” then looked at me, “And I understand it far better than you. Compared to you, I have even more things that I want to know, but I don’t have anyone to grab like you.”
I remembered now that his memories were lost. I felt like slapping myself as the thought came over me, Of all things to compare myself to him, why do I choose this…
He continued, “I’m a man with no past or future. All I want to do is to find my connection with this world. Where do I come from, why am I here?” He looked at his own hands, “Can you imagine that if I disappear from this world, no one will find out, as if I have never existed, without a single trace left behind? Sometimes I look into the mirror and wonder if I do exist, or am I just a phantom of a person?”
I was speechless. I pondered for a while and replied, “You don’t have to exaggerate it like that. If you disappear, at least I will know.”
– Part 5: 蛇沼鬼城 / Ghost Kingdom Of The Snakes
_______
He quietly leaned back on the greenstone and said in a nonchalant tone, “He and I won’t be able to go with you.”
“What nonsense are you blabbering?” I chided at him.
He looked at me and smiled faintly, “Luckily you didn’t have to die because of me…”
I was stunned. His body shook up and he spurted out a big churn of blood.
“You…” I felt a loud bang in my head.
He still looked at me with that smile, his head slowly tilting down. He sat there as if he was casually resting. However, everything went completely silent.
– Part 7: 邛笼石影 / Deadly Mansion, Mystic Cave
_______
Thinking about it, Pangzi walked over and pulled the pile. I saw Xiao Ge, his faced buried in the clothes.
I stumbled and my body stiffened. At that moment, my mind went blank.
I couldn’t describe that emptiness in my heart. Suddenly I just did not know what I should do.
Xiao Ge died?
What a joke.
He really is dead? This must be the ultimate joke.
“Wake up, we’re home,” I patted his face. Inexplicably, I felt a bit funny. I turned and smiled and Pangzi, “Look at Xiao Ge.”
“I know,” Pangzi said. His voice was very low.
At that moment, my hands began shaking uncontrollably. I looked at my hands and realised I couldn’t feel any sorrow. My consciousness hadn’t yet caught up with the truth, but my body instinctively reacted to the despair.
My heart screamed, My f***ing God, Xiao Ge is really dead. Men You Ping is really dead!
There was such a possibility in this world: That Men You Ping could actually die.
This ancient mansion of the Zhang family was truly powerful. I thought Ghostman was only giving us a scare, but everything turned out shockingly true. Men You Ping was always incredible – like a miracle. His death suddenly made people realise that the world had become extremely real and cruel. Couldn’t all miracles be eternal? Still, there was no such thing as a miracle. Everything was a coincidence, and now the coincidence was no longer around.
After a while, I began to feel a shade of sadness. I felt that my instincts would collapse soon, but I could still sense that discomfort as my emotions tightened up. I was aware that I must not let my emotions take the better of me. If I subdued to this sadness, I might die here.
The feeling in my heart was strange. It wasn’t just sadness. I didn’t know if people could comprehend this complexity.
I always wondered what it would be like if Men You Ping died. I thought that perhaps it would be very sad. Maybe because I had too many thoughts and placed lots of pressure on my mental state, I became a little numb. But I believed that I could afford a moment of numbness now. The truth was right before my eyes, but this strange emotion was something that I couldn’t grasp hold of.
After that, my mind was all tangled up. I didn’t know if I should be sad or I should pretend to calm down and hold back the pain. Finally the former took the upper hand. As I stayed by his side, I didn’t do anything but kept staring at him.
– Part 9: 大结局 / Grand Finale
_______
After helping to touch up some support for his broken arm, I said, “No matter what you’re going to do, you must want to end up in a certain place, but in your current situation, you may die halfway. I think you should first recuperate. We might as well head back.”
He shook his head and said quietly, “This is a small matter. Let’s go.”
I said, “Your arm is like this because you saved me. If this causes your plan to fail, I will have so much regret. So I have to go with you.”
He said, “Then I will still use the method that I told you last night.”
“Do whatever you want. If you really want to knock me out, I won’t say anything about it. But I hope you know that if you need someone to accompany you until the end, I will not refuse.” I said. “I want to accompany you. This is my own decision, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
– Part 9: 大结局 / Grand Finale
_______
“I have to go back to where I should be,” he said.
“Where are you going? Is it far?” I asked. He picked up the chopsticks, silently took a bite and nodded.
“Then you’re coming here to…” I rarely talked to him in this serious manner. I felt embarrassed, so I added in bits and pieces to follow with the conversation.
“I’m here to say goodbye,” he said. “Now that everything was all over, I thought about my connection with this world and realised – it’s only you.“
– Part 9: 大结局 / Grand Finale
Translator and reviewer at Strictly Bromance blog. In essence, she lives to indulge in plot-driven stories sprinkled with camaraderie and slow-burn drama-free romance, especially more so if they belong to adventure, mystery or supernatural genre. A trope that she always thirsts after: “Comrades who go through life and death together”.
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I'm a little lost, what book mentions that Xiao Ge enters through the bronze gate and Wu Xie is waiting?
Hi Josi, I'm sorry that this is a late reply, I suppose you've gotten an answer to this by now. Xiao Ge enters the Bronze Gate at the end of Main Story, Book 9: Grand Finale :)
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After finish reading all your summaries of the novel, I actually left with more wonders & questions (I guess this is how they call as the so called string of fate wuxie got dragged in). It most likely we won't or never gonna find out what beyond the bronze gate (sadly) & wuttt Zhang qiling is not a name??! *Insert shocked pikachu face* I guess this mystery (Xiao Ge real name) won't be solved either & Xiao Ge will be forever the mysterious handsome quiet guy T.T. I guess I'm gonna stick with Men You Ping as closes to be his name
Why is the name of Xiao ge, Men you Ping if I may ask? and what is a novel is it the book side of a the drama or is it created by fans?
Hi Lix, kindly refer to this post on my Tumblr https://my-otp-list.tumblr.com/post/618521020373008384/i-recall-that-when-i-first-entered-the-abyss-of, where you'll find the explanation to Men You Ping's name as well as other characters.
Daomu Biji started out as a novel, not a drama. The first book was written in 2005, while the first drama (The Lost Tomb 1) came out in 2015. :)
wait so men you ping died. Thats gutting and i was getting into this series.
Hi Cale, no Men You Ping never died! In that excerpt where Wu Xie thought he was dead, he was actually *barely* breathing, then Wu Xie and Pangzi saved him in the nick of time. He does live all the way till The Lost Tomb: Reboot (which took place like 12 years after Main Story) and will live for a long time to come ^^!
thank god. i cannot imagine a world without Xiao Ge. i mean, no matter when or where it is, if Wu Xie is in trouble, i just expect Xiao Ge to be there.
Where can I find Pingxie fanfic, pleasepleaseplease I can’t find any
Hi Artemis, regrettably there are very few PingXie fic in English :( You may be able to find a couple of English fics at Ao3 under the tag The Grave Robbers' Chronicles. Else, if you are able to read machine translation, please drop me a DM at my-otp-list.tumblr.com and I can link you to a few Chinese fics.
I'm sorry I didn't reply for so long, but I saw your reply and I went to Ao3 and I love you and it's amazing and I really really appreciate your introducing me to the ao3 fanfics theyre amazing
Omg! so, at the end , men you ping has died ?...….what a sad miracle it was in the story. I really thought like wu xie that ha and ping will do more tomb raiding after he discovered who he was, but I guess I was wrong. ahhhh……. I really ship them a lot . I am crying while reading your blog.
No, he didn't die :)
That's why we got Daomu Biji: Restart telling the story after Xiao Ge comes out of the bronze door.
Just finished the main series and wow... Honestly the whole reason why i started DMBJ was because I had heard about how massive the PingXie ship was. Diving into the book, I was absolutely blown away because of how realistic and touching the friendship between Meng You Ping, Wu Xie and Pang Zi was. I have to admit though that the author really doesn't give readers many PX moments at all but like your excerpts show there were some beautiful and heart wrenching interactions between the two. Luckily with every minor PX moment the chinese comments were always flooded with shippers - you can imagine me squeeling and adding to the sea of PX fangirls.
I need to get into the sequel, but for now I'm settling in cosily with the chinese fanfictions to satisfy my PX cravings haha - and boy are they on another level. The current one I'm reading has me floored with the political intrigue and mystery, I'm probably 10 hours into it and boy this is definitely a sloooww burn (which tbh, if I can go through 8 book of main series with a handful of PX moments, I can most certainly deal with this).
Sorry for rambling - a lot of feelings atm and running into your blog post just made me want to spill it all out! (How unfair is it that no one I know has heard of DMBJ - where am I meant to put all these feels?!??!?!)
Even if people don't see PX as a ship, I would most gladly die a thousand times for the iron triangle. Their bromance is too good for this world <3
Hi 瓶邪王道,
Thank you for visiting the blog and for leaving your heartfelt comments about PingXie and Daomu Biji. Just like you, I got into this fandom mostly because I heard about how well-known this franchise is in China coupled with how enormous the PingXie ship is, albeit we are no longer at the peak of our fame (it's been 15 years!). In fact, the factor that had me stick around this series is because of the way the fans treasure the characters, the Iron Triangle bromance and the very special dynamic between Wu Xie and Men You Ping. Somehow, it just doesn't feel like they are shipped for the sake of... shipping for fun - their relationship runs beyond just simple bromance or romance (if you want to look at it that way). To me, it boils down to Men You Ping seeing Wu Xie (and Wang Pangzi also, we gotta be fair) as the final home - where his mind could rest, where he finally finds that connection to this world. I am majorly touched.
I wasn't there physically - knew about this series a tad too late - but I heard that on 17 August 2015, the day Xiao Ge came home, Changbai was filled with thousands of fans pouring in from all over China. Yes, just to welcome a man who-is-not-even-real home. That is too amazing. Just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.
Seriously, I fell down here and I hope I don't have to get back up. I won't even mind that Nan Pai San Shu takes forever to finish this series and to finally reveal to us 终极是什么？！This is an amazing, long-lasting, sincere fandom. Let us both celebrate that we are here and will still be here - for a long time to come.
瓶邪王道！
Let's hope the restart drama can reignite the fandom fire!
What fanfic are you reading if you don't mind me asking?