The Doctor is in
and already digging at the Genshin Community lol. I'm not sure if that was intentional but if you guys have been following us theorycrafters it's already been made popular to believe that Baizhu is hiding some nefarious secret or past behind his benevolent exterior as a healer. Something about how he's got this mysterious illness and that's why he's been keeping Qiqi around him. Until it was disproven by the Archon Quest some theories even claimed that Baizhu was the original Dendro Archon whose illness was a mortal injury he suffered during the Cataclysm which forced him into hiding and letting Kusanali replace him pretty much faking his death like Zhongli.
So I got a chuckle out of Zach questioning Sean about Baizhu's intentions. Always nice to hear his Moon Carver voice too.
That said it's still no indication that the theories surrounding the man aren't justified. He's still got that mysterious illness and he does still keep Qiqi around. In fact I'd say there's even a little more to fit into the nefarious column. From the livestream it seems like he's got that practically memable ideal about seeking immortality a la several Chinese Emperors. Hope he's not been chugging any mercury lol
Ok anyway that's not all we already know about Baizhu. His Constellation was also shown which is Lagenaria. That probably means nothing to people on our side of the world. I mean you look it up and it's a kind of gourd.
But if you guys are familiar with Ancient China or have Chinese friends this specific kind of gourd was often hollowed out to be used as water bottles. And if you can put water in it you can put other liquids in like liquor. Or the many kinds of TCM herbal remedies that were typically taken as a tea. Perfectly suited to Baizhu.
And as usual looking at the English version's Latin-based names only tells half the story. In its original Chinese Baizhu's Constellation is 悬壶 xuan hu which specifically references this kind of gourd when it's used for medicine. I think the name comes from a Chinese folktale.
On top of that though there's the phrase 悬乎 which is a homophone of 悬壶. 悬乎 means teetering on the edge with the implication that the person is gambling with his life and the outcome of whatever he's doing can go either way. If that's miHoYo's implication with Baizhu I can only wonder what his illness is and what ramifications his philosophy on life and death will have going forward.
If we consider the Gnostic basis of Genshin not to mention the Buddhism then Baizhu's blasphemous haha. Eternal life is frowned upon and we can see in Genshin itself immortality is a curse by Celestia that prevents the hilichurls and pureblood Khaenri'ahns from returning to the natural cycle which will also stop them from being reborn. In Gnosticism seeking immortality would be purposely condemning yourself to the physical world of the Demiurge never to be able to ascend and return to the true god in the Ogdoad. In Buddhism being trapped out of the natural cycle of reincarnation means you will likely never reach nirvana. Hu Tao's family got it right. Baizhu's barking up the wrong tree.
Maybe that'll be brought up in his Character Quest.
Posted Apr 1, 2023, 9:57 PM UTC
I love the way you ended this
" In Buddhism being trapped out of the natural cycle of reincarnation means you will likely never reach nirvana. Hu Tao's family got it right. Baizhu's barking up the wrong tree. "
Hopefully we get to learn about this in the future. Hu tao might have some moral complications with the idea that baizhu's chasing. Or maybe she won't cause she's so sure that NOBODY can escape the cycle of life and death. And then be horrified if he does.
I feel like eternal life would be akin to escaping erosion itself. I bet Celestia wouldn’t be too happy about that…
I feel like Eternal Life is what makes you subject to Celestia's Erosion in the first place.
If that's the case it'd have some implications about Zhongli and Azhdaha
And it does, as seen in his second story quest.
Or perhaps erosion is an attempt to stamp out anyone who attempts to live for too long; it’s like a fail safe.
The implications for the Khaenriahans are interesting. It’s like they’re were quarantined and stretched to their biological limits until their very atoms fell apart. It’s like entropy.
I don't think it's the same. The knights of the chasm are immortal and severely eroded, after all
True, although that’s less eternal life a la what Baizhu is seeking and more the inability to die while nevertheless wasting away. That might sound like pedantic hairsplitting, but it’s sort of a Tithonus situation. One is (presumably) ideal and one is a punishment.
Also the hilichurls we find down there. There are a few that can't even move anymore and it was explained by Dainsleif that that was the point. Celestia cursed them to be immortal and unable to return to the cycle. It was further backed by Chlothar with the naturalized Khaenri'ahns further cursed to become unthinking hilichurls. I theorized that was probably a double punishment for them since they originally came from the Seven Nations so by migrating to Khaenri'ah it was like actively rejecting the Heavenly Principles compared to pureblood Khaenri'ahns always living outside of them.
It seems I'm a little late to the party so I don't know how much more I can add. I'm with SolsticeGelan. I feel the game's leading us towards the idea that immortality is wrong so Baizhu is trying to achieve something that's going to cause problems if he actually succeeds. I'm actually wondering if Qiqi's going to play a role in that since she was brought back to life in this reanimated fashion and barely has functioning cognition.
All that said I wouldn't say nobody can escape the cycle just that immortality isn't the way to do it. I've made other theories about it but the short of it is I think it's about going above the cycle. There's a heavy basis of this game on Gnosticism and the goal of it is to ascend the physical world back into pretty much heaven and the Monad. At the same time this fits with Buddhism where to stop the cycle of reincarnation a person needs to reach nirvana. After that they are no longer part of the cycle.