At least now I have one person's math on Jing Yuan's age

[cashew]

The math.

I'm noticing three assumptions:

1. Using modern interpretation of 少年 even though the Chinese used in Xianzhou material is semi-archaic (such as calling domesticated cats 狸奴 and not the modern name 猫). As I've mentioned before, up until 1911, the phrase 少年 was used to refer to people as old as 25-30 years old.

2. Zero regard for appearance and age mis-match, especially when judging age of long lived species. No acknowledgement of the fact that Baiheng is also described as 少女 and thus should be around the same age (appearance-wise) as Jing Yuan.

3. Asserts that Xianzhou Natives long lived species matures at the same rate as short lived species as fact without citation. The only "support" we have is the lore stating 成年后身体不再衰老. Note that for Foxians the wording is 成年后面目不老.

The thing about point three is that for Xianzhou Natives the description is "after maturity the body no longer undergo senescence", while Foxians state "after maturity the appearance no longer ages". This is immensely important difference! This means Foxians age physically, but their appearance don't. In contrast, Xianzhou Natives don't undergo senescence, which does not mean lack of growing, it only means the falling apart aspect of growing stops.

So basically, Xianzhou Natives have lobster biology. Much like lobsters eventually grow too big for their physiology to keep up with the energy cost (2nd law of thermodynamics does not forgive and never forgets!), the Xianzhou Natives' system (in this case their brain) starts breaking down at the 800-1000 year mark due to not being able to process the psychological trauma.

But this still means we have zero clues on the maturation rate of all the long lived species (Xianzhou Natives, Foxians, Vidyadhara) and no way to guess at the actual age.

I notice that the math post once again asserts that Dan Feng was 600-700 years old with no citation. Given 2.5 patch confirming that Vidyadhara do appear old and decrepit toward the end of their cycle (per Dan Heng's own words), Dan Feng's fairly young appearance is pretty good evidence he was nowhere near the end of his cycle. (Edit to add: OTOH, Qingzu's appearance throws that claim out the window, so it's more like the appearance is not a very good estimate for age. We need actual events.)

One thing I am wondering is if the Sword Champion title is something one can get repeatedly. The math post asserts Jingliu got it for the first time and that was the day Yingxing gifted her the sword, but we actually have no clue how the Sword Champion thing works. Previously the assumption was the Wardance might have something to do with it, but we know in 2.5 that traditionally the 龙尊 is actually the one charged with being the ringmaster (that's how they translated 守擂?) and the whole thing has nothing to do with swords Champion competition. So the Sword Champion is something else. (Plus the last time Jing Yuan took the job instead, why?) Anyway, point is, is Sword Champion title that needs defending? Because if so, then it's very likely at the time Jingliu got her sword from Yingxing, that wasn't her first time as Sword Champion.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

From Jingliu's lore:

"The high elder of the Luofu, as haughty and detached as the high moon in the sky, felt an irresistible temptation to duel with her upon witnessing her peerless martial prowess with just one simple glance.
The spear and the sword sparred for many years without a conclusion, until she cleaved ocean tides in twain with a single slash in the Dragonvista Rain Hall, and finally won the high elder's concession."

Seems like either Dan Feng used a normal spear before Cloud Piercer, or this was after he got that from Yingxing.

[cashew]

Ah, ok, I see. Original Chinese:

如月般孤高傲岸的罗浮龙尊，因目睹她的神技，竟生出一较高下的胜负心。 枪与剑争锋多年，苦无结果。最终她于显龙大雩殿中一剑分断海潮，终于赢得龙尊钦服。

枪与剑 here is metaphorical, referring to 丹枫 and 镜流 respectively. But also 争锋 isn't a duel/spar. That's bad translation. 争锋 means side-by-side competition, like a race. So this is a case of mistranslation.

Edit to add: 争锋 can be thought of as like

A: "I can hit a target from 100 paces."

B: "Well I can hit it from 200 paces."

And that type of competition also makes more sense than sparring, since 镜流 would probably not want to accidentally hurt the 龙尊 in a friendly duel and have to explain how this happened to her superiors. The fact that what convinces 丹枫 of 镜流's superiority is her "cutting a wave in half"... Ain't no way she was doing that in a spar where both sides hold back from going all out.

Also, if the writers actually wanted to describe a spar, that would've been 过招 or 切磋.

Edit 2: 争锋 is also a more "hidden" (隐晦) style of competition, with the extended meaning 争风吃醋, a non-direct competition .

[tanithryudo]

If Dan Feng is able to compete in any martial capability with Jingliu, he's fit for the Wardance. It's not like we expect Jing Yuan to be her equal either.

If Dan Feng was an egg or crawling toddler, Jingliu wouldn't be competing in any capacity with him. She's got better things to do with her time than babysit.

[cashew]

If Dan Feng is able to compete in any martial capability with Jingliu, he's fit for the Wardance.
...
If Dan Feng was an egg or crawling toddler, Jingliu wouldn't be competing in any capacity with him.

We don't have the timing of these events. As long as there's the possibility of the Wardance happening pre-Quintet, then there's the possibility of 丹枫 being an egg when the Wardance was happening.

Whether 丹枫 was equal to 镜流 martial ability-wise doesn't affect the timing. That tangent was me expressing surprise at the conclusion that 丹枫 was able to hold his own against 镜流 during the early years of the Quintet.

As I've said before, it's far more likely that 丹枫 foisted the job off onto 景元. There's a very slim possibility that Wardance happened before Quintet formed. Like it's not been completely shut down as a possibility, just very unlikely at this rate. Much like shota!景元 during Quintet era is becoming more and more likely. Canon hasn't outright stated this is the case, but it's heavily implied in patch 2.5.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the future we get outright confirmation that 景元 was actually super young for most of the Quintet era and ret-conning the 玄黄 PV scene of adult!景元 drinking with the group, since it seems the writers are writing whatever the fanbase wants to see (up to a point - clearly canonizing BL is a no go) and the fanbase seems to really have their hearts set on 景元 being the youngest and the baby of the group.