| “ | Don't lose your head. When you encounter a mountain, there will always be a way through. | ” |
— Ling Wen
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Ling Wen (灵文, Líng Wén), also known as Ling Wen Zhen Jun (灵文真君, Líng Wén Zhēn Jūn) is the foremost Civil Goddess in the Heavenly Court and one of the notorious Three Tumors.[1]
Appearance[]
Unlike other female Heavenly Officials who wear colorful robes, Ling Wen choose to wear black robes without adornment, making her look serious and competent.[1] She seems constantly tired, sporting prominent eye bags from working too hard.[2]
In her male form, Ling Wen is said to be impressively proper, clad in a black robe and generously blessed with good looks.[3] However, maintaining the male form takes a lot of spiritual energy, and she couldn't keep using the appearance for a long period of time.[4]
Under Hua Cheng's daruma spell, Ling Wen appears to be a dark blue daruma doll with exceedingly serious expression and holding tiny scrolls.
Personality[]
Ling Wen is a Civil God known for being peerlessly competent and effective in her work. She is noted to be very professional and emotionless when speaking.[5]Despite commonly depicted to be polite and capable of staying calm in any situation[6], Ling Wen displays a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that shone most visibly when she is with Xie Lian[7] or, more prominently, with Pei Ming and Shi Wudu, her two closest friends.[3][8] In front of the latter two she could be ruthless, laughing at their harmless misfortunes but would also show affection and worry on their behalf. [9][10]
The Palace of Ling Wen has many temples built in her name but most of these temples revered her as a male god because of the denial and disapproval that a woman can become a good Civil Officer, which is the reason Ling Wen is disliked by other civil gods as female Heavenly Officials are few and are only expected to grind ink, lay out paper and look pretty. Behind her back, they speculated she gained her position through aggressive boot-licking, seducing the higher power, disguising herself as a man or a combination of all three.[3][6]
It is revealed that Ling Wen can be extremely cunning and merciless. She orchestrated the fall of Jing Wen and thus exact her revenge on him for the abuse she suffered as a subordinate of his.[11][12] According to the legend of the Brocade Immortal, she was also responsible for convincing a man that had fallen for her to commit suicide. In fact, she used the spiritual device to accelarate the fall of the kingdom that Jing Wen presided over. However, she talks about that man in a soft, kind matter and it is hinted that she planned to give him back a physical body through Tonglu Mountain's trial, thus the cruel legend and the way she speaks of him to do not correlate well.[13][14] After Jun Wu's true identity was revealed, Ling Wen willingly takes his side and becomes his assistant. Although she thus betrays gods she's had centuries of friendship with, she still offers Pei Ming to join them, indicating that she is most likely not acting out of malicious intent towards the others.[15]
Trivia[]
- Ling Wen got 7th place in the Battle of the Lanterns with 536 lanterns.
- By the end of the story, Ling Wen admitted that being a prisoner did better to her sleep schedule and stress level than being an active Heavenly Official.
- Despite being disliked by other Civil Gods, Ling Wen is respected by the Martial Gods.[6]
- There are a few folktales that characterized Ling Wen as female but in these folktales she would be a woman with no morals who seduced her way into power.[3]
- Her palace is commonly mocked as the "Palace of Worn Out Shoes" because of her past profession as a shoe-seller.[11]
References[]
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