Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedication and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise, can also fall... and fall he does, cast from the Heavens again and again and banished to the mortal realm.
Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time. Now only a lowly scrap collector, he is dispatched to wander the earthly realm to take on tasks appointed by the heavens to pay back debts and maintain his divinity. Aided by old friends and foes alike, and graced with the company of a mysterious young man with whom he feels an instant connection, Xie Lian must confront the horrors of his past in order to dispel the curse of his present.
Known by many names, Heaven Official's Blessing is the series that got me into the danmei genre. Many would be quick to write it off just because of the genre, but it is so much more than what you might expect. Over the course of 8 books, you are taken on a journey that spans 800 years, one that shows that undying love and hatred can withstand many lifetimes.
Danmei: a Chinese genre of literature and other fictional media that features romantic relationships between male characters.
The author of TGCF (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, or MXTX as many in the fandom call her) has written two other series:
For me though, TGCF is the one that left the biggest impact. I don't think there are words to describe the way the romance in this book makes me feel, not to mention the emotional rollercoaster that is the story the series tells. One chapter you will be hanging out with Xie Lian and Hua Cheng (our two main characters) while they garden or tidy up the shrine, and the next chapter they will be investigating a mysterious death that you figure out somehow connects back to him.
Now that all that formal explain-y stuff is done, it's time to fangirl. Just a heads up, there will be spoilers on this page, so if you are at all interested I reccomend you go read the books instead of looking at all my fangirl yapping!
Where do I even begin to explain how much I love Xie Lian as a protagonist. He is one
of, if not the strongest character in the whole series, but based on his outwars
presentation as a pacifist you would never guess. A lot of people tend to think Xie Lian
isn't powerful or someone who always needs help and saving, but that isn't true at all!
Even though he has his powers/ spiritual energy sealed away for most of the series, he
still kicks everyones butt. But thats what I love so much about his character! Even
though he is a pacifict and would rather solve things non-violently, it doesn't mean
that he isn't perfectly able to fight if he needs to.
Once you get to read about Xie Lians past in the story, you will come to realize that he
wasn't always a pacifist, hell he almost infected an entire village with a horrible
disease and pretty much killed a whole royal family of a city (granted it was to stop a
massacre but still). Another reason why I love his character so much - you get to see
exactly what he went through to make him behave in the way that he does throughout the
story. You see exactly why he is a pacifist now and why he thinks he needs to put
himself through trials like sealing away his spiritual energy and luck and investigating
suspicious things for Jun Wu.
AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HUA CHENG??? Bro was really using "exchanging spiritual
energy" as an excuse to make out with Hua Cheng ahahaha. No my dude, you're just in
love. Xie Lian's cultivation style demands abstaining from things like alcohol and sex,
so he was really just trying to make up excuses.
I love how immediately Xie Lian felt a connection with Hua Cheng, and his caring side really shows when he offered Hua Cheng to stay with him at his shrine despite not having a lot to offer. See, another reason to love Xie Lian, he will sacrifice anything to help people. But Hua Cheng never takes advantage of Xie Lian and is always there to help him in any situation, and would (and did) kill anyone who would try to take advantage of or badmouth him.
My favorite part of the whole series are the Xie Lian backstory chapters. MXTX does such a good job of developing his character, the scenes right after Xie Lian was kicked out of heaven the first time are some of the most heart wrenching things I've ever read. Seeing Xie Lian and his family poor and destitute, his kingdom destroyed, his friends abandoning him, and being tormented by White No Face- aaaaahhh it makes me sad just thinking about it. At least he had Wu Ming ♥
“If you don’t know the meaning to your life, then make me that meaning,
and use me as the reason to live.”
Hua Cheng is the man everyone wishes that they had. Hua Cheng is the man that would
treat you right. Hua Cheng would kill 33 heavenly officials just because they badmouthed
you. If my man ain't as devoted as Hua Cheng is to Xie Lian, I don't want him. My poor
guy had an unrequited crush for 800 years and some how stuck it out through sheer force
of will. Heck, he came back as the strongest, most powerful ghost because his love for
Xie Lian was just THAT strong. The only other MC I can think of who had a crush for
longer is Shen Wei from Guardian, but TGCF is way better than Guardian imo.
I just think it's funny how Hua Cheng thought he was so slick meeting Xie Lian in the
beginning and asking him to call him San Lang ("lang" being a term of endearment like
"dear"). He really met his idol and was like "actually can you please call me sweetie."
AND XIE LIAN DOES. We love that for them.
And then how Xie Lian goes back and tells all the hevenly officials that his new bestie
is some ghost called Hua Cheng and everyone is like NO STAY AWAY FROM HIM and Xie Lian
is just like "idk I think he's really nice."
Bro is ready to fight god to defend his boyfriend and I just think thats really neat.
I just... thinking about the fact the Hua Cheng was searching for Xie Lian for that 800
years but could never find him? I'm crying. Also Hua Cheng experiencing some of Xie
Lian's worst moments and still deciding to be by his side?
I mean, Hua Cheng was ready to destroy a whole city with Xie Lian just because Xie Lian asked him to, and when Xie Lian regretted his decision to unleash the disease Hua Cheng took it all upon himself and pretty much killed himself just to spare Xie Lian the guilt of massacring an entire city. Talk about devotion.
During the last part of the series, when Xie Lian is fighting Jun Wu and Hua Cheng gives literally all of his spiritual power to free Xie Lian from his cursed shackles so he can fight at full power... man I was crying the whole time. I remember seeing the illustration of Hua Cheng's spirit dispersing and being like "well that's it, I have depression and I don't wanna read anymore." But MAN am I glad I kept reading because the ending (and extra chapters) were so so worth it. I really took my time reading all of the extras because I really didn't want the series to be over.
“There is no banquet in this world that doesn't come to an end.”
My first encounter with the series was through the donghua (anime). I had just finished watching the Sk8 the Infinity dub (yes I am a dub enjoyer), and I saw Howard Wang (Langa's VA) post on Twitter about another show he was in called Heaven Official's Blessing. It looked pretty cool so I put it on myanimelist to check out when I needed a new show to watch.
A long time passed and I was looking for a show to watch and Crunchyroll reccomended Heaven Official's Blessing to me. I remembered seeing the post on Twitter about it so I decided to give it a shot and uh... yeah I actually didn't pay attention to the first episode whatsoever and I was so confused and thought the show just wasn't for me, oof. I'm pretty good about giving things a few chances before giving up on them, so later that week I sat down and really paid attention to the show and the rest is history. I binged season 1 of the donghua, learned that season 2 kept getting delayed, so pretty much immediately ran to Barnes and Noble to pick up the first couple volumes.
When I say I read everything at lighning speed, I mean it took me 1-2 days to finish a whole volume. The sad thing was was that when I started reading it I needed to wait for the last few volumes to release, so I couldn't just binge it all at once. I think needing to wait really encouraged my obsession with TGCF to grow hahaha.
Anyway, when season 2 of the donghua came out, I made Joe rewatch season 1 with me so we could watch season 2 together, and he actually really enjoyed it! So much so that I convinced him to do a book swap with me: I read his favorite series (Mistborn) if he reads mine (TGCF of course). He just finished reading book 4 as of me writing this and I've already read every Mistborn book (the original series and Wax and Wayne and Secret History lol).
There's this part in season 2 of the donghua with Wind Master and Feng Xin where Wind Master is in girl mode and touches Feng Xin, and cause Feng Xin is scared of women he just goes "KEEP THOSE THINGS AWAY FROM ME! JUST SWITCH BACK RIGHT NOW!" Idk why, but we thought that was the funniest thing we ever head and we quote that shit all of the time.
While we're talking about the dongua, can I mention that James Cheek does an immaculate job voicing Hua Cheng? Like, he has put every ounce of effort into that voice and it shows. Powerful, flirty, simp-y, it's everything Hua Cheng is. And Howard Wang as Xie Lian? He does a great job of playing the gentle pacifict, and I'm really excited to see him voice if/ when the backstory parts are animated? Reagan Murdock as Jun Wu, Jacob Eiseman as Shi Qingxuan, Jordan Dash Cruz as Qi Rong???? Literally an immaculate voice cast. Even if you're not a dub watcher you really should give the TGCF dub a try because it is so so so good.
Let's talk about shipping real quick. I'm a person who absolutely does not care who you ship, but I do have my opinions of those ships haha. Feng Xin x Mu Qing? Heck yeah, enemies to loves I agree. But Xie Lian x Jun Wu? No way, get real, the only acceptable Xie Lian ship in my eyes is Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. Dudes were literally made for each other and you want Xie Lian to be with Mr. holds a grudge for 1000 years? Nah nope I don't like it. But you do you, it's not too serious and it's just fiction so I'm not pressed about it.
"Last time, they spend eight hundred years running towards each other. This time, it only took an instant to fall into each other's embrace.
help me i am crying this is so beautiful. when i got to this part nothing could stop my tears.
“The one standing in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is ‘you’ and not the state of you.”
the fact the both xl and hc say it to each other? they really are perfect together
“Only after having met you did I rediscover that it's such a simple thing to be happy.”
xl really deserves to be happy, my poor boy ( ;´ - `;)
"I might not be able to decide whether the road is easy or not, but whether I walk it is entirely up to me"
honestly i just think this is the energy i want to have in my own life. my decisions are my own, even when i knowingly choose the difficult thing.
“I don’t know If you all missed me, but I didn’t think about any of you at all.”
tbh just hc being a king, we love it
Feng Xin: "What's with this band of dog shits, attacking people while they're down, so vile! Fuck your entire family!" Xie Lian: "If their entire families look like that, you sure you want to fuck them?"
this one made me laugh so hard while i was reading it i had to take a picture and send it to everyone i knew (they probably didn't think it was as funny as i thought it was). also xl swearing? just for the joke? i love it
"Body in abyss, heart in paradise"
all my homies hate jun wu
"Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry"
