Lan An (蓝安, Lán Ān) was the founder of the Gusu Lan Clan.
Appearance[]
His appearance is not described.
History[]
Lan An was born in a temple. He grew up listening to the chanting of sutras and became a famous monk at a very young age. When he came of age,[1] he took the “Lan” from qielan, from the Sanskrit word for temple, as his last name. He resumed a worldly life, becoming a musician.[1]
During his path of cultivation, he met the “fated person” he searched for in Gusu, and became Cultivation Partners with them.[1] A contemporary of Wen Mao, Lan An followed the latter's example and founded the Gusu Lan Clan.[2]
Lan An began the tradition of his clan's sacred forehead ribbon, teaching that one could only let go of all regulations when they are with the one they loved and cherished. Thus, a member of the Gusu Lan Clan should not easily give another person permission to touch their forehead ribbon, nor should they take it off as they please. Furthermore, they absolutely should not tie it on someone else – unless that person was their "fated person" (命定之人, mìngdìng zhīrén).[3]
After his cultivation partner passed away, Lan An returned to his temple for the remainder of his life.[1]
Abilities and Weapons[]
Music: Lan An became a famed musician.[1]
Relationships[]
Cultivation Partner[]
Lan An's love for his Cultivation Partner, and the teachings that resulted from their relationship, are still taught hundreds of years later. He seemed to have been devastated by their death, as after it, he left the cultivation world to return to his childhood temple.[1]
Lan Yi[]
Lan Yi was Lan An's granddaughter, though it is unknown if the two ever met.[4]
Trivia[]
- As a teenager, Wei Wuxian reflects that if the founder of the Gusu Lan Clan was a monk, he must have been an ascetic.[1]
- The Exiled Rebels Translation refers to Lan An's Cultivation Partner as his "wife," but the original text and alternate translations use gender neutral terms to describe them.[1]
- Whether Lan An was fifteen or twenty at the time of resuming a worldly life is debatable. Author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu has said the coming of age ceremony takes place at age fifteen in the world of Mo Dao Zu Shi,[1] but other chapters still refer to those under twenty but older than fifteen as not yet of age.[5]
References[]
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