cashew | I had a eureka moment last night

So I was having a discussion with a friend on the traits that makes a story and characters shippable (which started as me complaining that my obsession with HSR is actually just a desperate want for some low brow period drama that has lots of political machinations and shippable hot men), then, long story short, we got to talking about Water Margins (水浒), and then got onto the subject of 卢俊义/燕青.

And then I was like: OMFG 燕青=彦卿!
(The two names are homophones.)

OK, that's the main gist, so let me explain 卢俊义/燕青 and how Water Margins probably infected an entire country of BL shippers with a specific BL kink:

The basic plot of Water Margins is a bunch of people decided to become outlaws because of various drama. These people formed a small outlaw group on the mountain Liangshan (梁山), which is next to a river (title drop), and for a while grew their numbers by recruiting more and more people to fight against the system (total 105 men and 3 women). After resisting the government for a long time, the group finally surrendered, reintegrated into society, then all of them got either killed or murdered by the untrustworthy government people. A few managed to escape by continuing to become outlaws and at the end everyone joined up again in the sky as stars. The End.

During this recruitment period, there was a guy called 卢俊义 (Lu Junyi) who was both very rich and very good at fighting. So the people on Liangshan wanted to recruit him. Their plan is to convince 燕青 (Yan Qing) first, because Yan Qing is very, very important to Lu Junyi.

How important?

Lu Junyi brought orphan Yan Qing into his family estate when Yan Qing lost his parents. Per customs, Yan Qing was brought in as a servant. However, Lu Junyi cared for him like a son, giving him an education, personally teaching him how to fight, and so on. One day, when training, Lu Junyi was struck by how beautiful and white Yan Qing's body was, decided it's a waste to let it stay unmarked, so paid a master tattoo craftsman to cover his boy with pretty marks.

Original quote:

为见他一身雪练也似白肉，卢俊义叫一高手匠人，与他刺了这一身遍体花绣，却似玉亭柱上铺着软翠。

Later, we find out from Yan Qing that Lu Junyi has been neglecting to have sex with his wife so she cheated on him. (I'm not exaggerating.)

Original quote:

燕青又道：“主人脑后无眼，怎知就里? 主人平昔只顾打熬气力，不亲女色，娘子旧日和李固原有私情，今日推门相就，做了夫妻。主人若去，必遭毒手！”

In addition, Lu Junyi calls Yan Qing "小乙". In olden times "乙" refers to the oldest brother (part of polite speech). However, since Lu Junyi is not only older than Yan Qing, but is also his master/father-figure/teacher, it's inappropriate to elevate him as such, so by adding 小 (small) in front of the name, it turns the address into a nickname whilst elevating the person he's addressing. When talking to other people, Lu Junyi refers to Yan Qing as "我那一个", which literally translates to "that one of mine".

Ahem.

On Yan Qing's side, he saves Lu Junyi's life multiple times, lots of sobbing and grabbing involved (“燕青痛哭，拜倒地下，拖住主人衣服”), and never calls Lu Junyi as anything other than Master (主人 or 主公). Even after joining the outlaws on Liangshan, where everyone is supposed to be equal (because fuck society), Yan Qing continues insisting on referring to Lu Junyi as "Master".

After the outlaws surrendered to the government and got reintegrated, Yan Qing decided to run away and remain an outlaw. In his last scene with Lu Junyi, he bids his master goodbye and promises to stay close by in case his master ever is in need of him.

Original quote:

卢俊义道：“你辞我，待要那里去？”燕青道：“也只在主公前后。”

So...kinks. Obviously there's master/servant, older man/younger boy, guardian/ward, teacher/student, possessiveness, literally marking his person, crying...so much crying...

But also, a very specific thing that I've noticed in HSR fandom is the desire for multiple social identities all mixed up into one love interest (this is a common thing that happens to Jing Yuan). I was actually a bit confused why that was such a common trope until last night and was like "Right...that ship."

But man, 彦卿 is such a fucking downgrade from 燕青.