History Literature / ZhenHun

The novels are licensed by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment, with the first volume being released in August 29, 2023.

''[[http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=1673146 Zhen Hun]]'' (镇魂), or more commonly known as ''Guardian'', is a fantasy ''danmei'' WebNovel written by Creator/{{Priest}} (who also wrote ''[[Literature/ShaPoLangNovel Sha Po Lang]]'').

* ActOfTrueLove: Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan do a lot of this for one another.
* AssholeVictim: The fruit cart arc.

* AWolfInSheepsClothing: A couple characters do not want various other characters to know what they are, because what they are is scary.
* BadLiar: Characters who lie in the novel are typically very bad at it, though that doesn't stop them from lying.
* ChaoticEvil: The Ghost Tribe are, all but two, varying levels of feral creature with the ethos of kill or be killed. Gui Mian (Ghost Face) and Ghost Slayer are the two most powerful and most intelligent members of the ghost tribe. All but the Ghost Slayer are sealed beyond the Giant Seal, with the Ghost Slayer having agreed to guard that seal.
* CelestialBureaucracy: Complete with burning paper money and the Yamas of the Ten Halls of Difu.
* Myth/ChineseMythology: The book using a fair amount of mythology including Pan Gu and Nuwa [[spoiler:and of course the immortal mountain Mount Kunlun personified]]

* CowardlyLion: Guo Changcheng. The SIU even makes him a weapon that works based on him being scared.
* CrapsackWorld: the world behind Nuwa's Giant Seal is very much this. Also, the world where the Little Ghost King was born wasn't much better.
* SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Zhao Yunlan in the third arc. Zhao Yunlan in the last arc.
* DarkSecret: Everybody's keeping them, most often from Zhao Yunlan; Chu Shuzhi is keeping one as well.
* DealWithTheDevil: Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei both seem to be rather fond of making these.
* DeadpanSnarker: Most of SIU is made up of these characters.
* DueToTheDead: What Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi do in the last arc.
* EldritchAbomination: The ghost ribe are all pretty eldritch.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt
* FromBadToWorse: The final arc of the novel is this.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Subverted! Though not for lack of trying.]]

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Guo Changcheng.

* KarmaMeter: The Ink Brush of Virtue.
* KarmicDeath: Ghosts are allowed to get exact their karmic revenge on people by the rules of the afterlife, unless the person they want to exact their revenge on is under the age of seven.

* Muggles: Guo Changcheng [[spoiler:subverted]].
* MoralityAdjustment: Shen Wei and Chu Shuzhi both get one of these over the course of the novel.
* MotherNature: Nuwa.
* Fridged Mom: Subverted.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Zhao Yunlan is very fond of doing this to multiple characters in the novel.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent
* SealedEvilInACan: The Ghost Tribe.
* SecretlySelfish: A character thinks he's this and tries to keep it secret then reveals it to another character. Subverted.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Again, Zhao Yunlan acts like he's not that smart on the surface, but give him one clue and he'll figure out a lot.
* StableTimeLoop: Sort of - subverted in a fix-it extra written after the drama came out.

* TimeAbyss: Pan Gu, Fuxi, Nuwa, and Shennong all qualify as this.
* TheOldestOnesInTheBook: The book uses a fair amount of mythology including Pan Gu and Nuwa [[spoiler:and of course Mount Kunlun]].
* TwoPersonLoveTriangle
* YaoiGenre: Explicitly so.

* RealityEnsues: Subverted - adorable moments of reality are peppered throughout the novel.

''[[http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=1673146 Zhen Hun]]'' (镇魂), or more commonly known as ''Guardian'', is a fantasy ''danmei'' WebNovel written by Priest (who also wrote ''[[Literature/ShaPoLangNovel Sha Po Lang]]'').

* HijinksEnsue

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Zhao Yunlan in the third arc. Zhao Yunlan in the last arc.

* AssholeVictim: the fruit cart arc.
* AdaptationDeviation: see the live-action drama, which isn't allowed due to censorship to mention anything in the last two arcs of the novel
* AWolfInSheepsClothing: a couple characters do not want various other characters to know what they are, because what they are is scary.
* BadLiar: characters who lie in the novel are typically very bad at it, though that doesn't stop them from lying.
* ChaoticEvil: the Ghost Tribe are, all but two, varying levels of feral creature with the ethos of kill or be killed. Gui Mian (Ghost Face) and Ghost Slayer are the two most powerful and most intelligent members of the ghost tribe. All but the Ghost Slayer are sealed beyond the Giant Seal, with the Ghost Slayer having agreed to guard that seal.
* CelestialBureaucracy: complete with burning paper money and the Yamas of the Ten Halls of Difu.
* ChineseMythology: the book using a fair amount of ChineseMythology including Pan Gu and Nuwa [[spoiler:and of course the immortal mountain Mount Kunlun personified]]

* DeadpanSnarker: most of SIU is made up of these characters.
* DueToTheDead: what Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi do in the last arc.
* EldritchAbomination: the ghost ribe are all pretty eldritch.

* FromBadtoWorse: The final arc of the novel is this.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:subverted! Though not for lack of trying.]]
* HijinksEnsues
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Guo ChangCheng.
* JudgementOfTheDead: subverted. Zhao Yunlan is not very happy with the Yamas of the Ten Halls of Difu when he sits before them, and he is absolutely not there to be judged: he is there to do some judging.
* KarmaMeter: the Ink Brush of Virtue.
* KarmicDeath: ghosts are allowed to get exact their karmic revenge on people by the rules of the afterlife, unless the person they want to exact their revenge on is under the age of seven.

* Fridged Mom: subverted.

* RealityEnsues: subverted - adorable moments of reality are peppered throughout the novel.
* SealedEvilInACan: the Ghost Tribe.
* SecretlySelfish: a character thinks he's this and tries to keep it secret then reveals it to another character. Subverted.
* SmarterThanYouLook: again, Zhao Yunlan acts like he's not that smart on the surface, but give him one clue and he'll figure out a lot.
* StableTimeLoop: sort of - subverted in a fix-it extra written after the drama came out.

* TheOldestOnesintheBook: the book uses a fair amount of ChineseMythology including Pan Gu and Nuwa [[spoiler:and of course Mount Kunlun]].

''Zhen Hun'' received a LiveActionAdaptation, which aired on Youku from June 13 to July 25, 2018 with a total of 40 episodes. It stars Zhu Yilong as Shen Wei and Bai Yu as Zhao Yunlan. The live-action drama is a ''very'' loose adaptation of the novel's plot.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Tropes that apply to the novel]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes that apply to the live-action drama]]

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zhenhun_cover_live.png]]
[[caption-width-right:310: '''Clockwise from top left:''' [[BadassTeacher Shen Wei]], [[BunnyEarsLawyer Zhao Yunlan]], [[SixthRanger Sang Zan]], [[FriendlyGhost Wang Zheng]], [[CatsHaveNineLives Da Qing]], [[NaiveNewcomer Guo Changcheng]], [[TheBigGuy Chu Shuzhi]], [[TheSmartGuy Lin Jing]], [[GorgeousGorgon Zhu Hong]]]]

* ABNegative: The reason Bai Suxia dies of blood loss is because her blood type is so rare and there are no near donors around to give her the transfusion that she needed.
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Though the showrunners truly try to come up with an explanation of everything that happens in the novel, sometimes they just have to leave the thing in place while giving no explanation for how or why a thing is happening.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the novel, Li Qian really did kill her grandmother by spiking her food with pills because she was fed up with taking care of a senile person. In the series, this isn't the case; her grandmother committed suicide out of guilt after seeing how stressed Li Qian was (by ingesting the sleeping pills that her granddaughter nearly took), and Li Qian only claimed that she killed her grandmother to distract herself from the grief of losing her most loved one.
* AdaptationDeviation: To start off, there's no ''alien'' race or anything related to mutations in the original novel.
* AssholeVictim: Sometimes, the characters who end up getting killed by the [[MonsterOfTheWeek episode's main villain]] were just plain unlucky. Other times, they had it coming.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: The familial version; Zhao Yunlan and Zhao Xinci aren't on the best of terms, but they do care for each other a great deal.
* BatmanGambit: Zhao Yunlan pulls one in Episode 13, which leaves the villains vulnerable to an attack and has Shen Wei fully reveal his true identity.
* BittersweetEnding: Emphasis on the bittersweet. Ye Zun is defeated and the humans, Demi-Humans, and Undergrounders are saved... but at the cost of Shen Wei's life. Thanks to Zhao Yunlan using his life force to power the Guardian Lantern, Haixing doesn't collapse and light finally appears in the Underworld, but the realm is now permanently sealed off from the rest of the planet. SID is reinstated and is currently flourishing with more members, but half of the original team is still dead. The series hammers in the bittersweet aspect in the final scene where Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei's souls meet in the temporal wormhole and promise each other that they will meet again someday.
* TheBusCameBack
* ButNotTooGay: Due to censorship laws, the relationship between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei is portrayed as a bromance rather than a romance. That being said, the tension is still there...
* ChekhovsGun:
** The blood of the Ghost Beasts. When Shen Wei (in his disguise) helps Zhao Yunlan find the second Sacred Item in the mountains, the latter remarks on how the blood of the monsters have a horrible smell. After the whole mission is done, Zhao Yunlan looks after a drunk Shen Wei, then catches the scent of Ghost Beast blood on the latter's jacket (since Shen Wei killed a Ghost Beast in his human form). He then puts two and two together.
** The Sacred Wood key that Zhu Hong's uncle gave to her, since it opens the door to the spot that serves as the second portal to the Underworld.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Li Qian, one of the characters involved with the first case that the SID has to solve, eventually reappears in the latter half of the series when she joins the research institute of the Seastar Administration and provides vital information that helps Zhao Yunlan recover from his temporary blindness.
** The shadowed figure that served as the villain the protagonists encountered in the first episode ends up being the one who sacrifices himself to free Shen Wei from the Pillar.
** The bartender that Zhao Yunlan would always run into whenever he enters the Underworld gets to help Zhao Yunlan reveal Ye Zun's true colors to the other Undergrounders in the GrandFinale.
* ChekhovsSkill:
** Shen Wei, being HopelessWithTech, responds to calls with telephones rather than cellphones. This comes in handy later on when figuring out the call number in one of the riddles Wang Xiangyang left them.
* TheChosenOne: Zhu Hong becomes the new elder of the Demi-Humans in Episode 37.
* EnfanteTerrible: Zigzagged for a character introduced in Episode 12. Zheng Yi might seem like a harmless mute, but she's actually a Undergrounder with deadly echokinesis, and she has no qualms about using her ability to harm others. That being said, she's not exactly evil; and once the conflict involving her is resolved, the Black Robe Envoy [[spoiler: doesn't bring her back to Dixing for trial]]. She eventually come back in the finale to assist the protagonists in driving back the rebel Undergrounders.
* EngineeredPublicConfession
* EveryoneHasStandards: Cong Bo may be an IntrepidReporter, but when Zhao Yunlan reveals to him that some of his scoops were inaccurate and ended up misleading the public, he's genuinely horrified as he thought he was sharing the truth. This is enough to prompt him into
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Wang Xiangyang was initially a kind shopkeeper whom the members of SID were the occasional customers of. But he does a complete 180 after his wife and unborn child died, and becomes one of SID's most troublesome foes in the latter half of the series.
* GracefulLoser
* TheHeroDies: Extra points for both of the protagonists dying.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow
* TheMole: Lin Jing turns out to be one for the Seastar Administration. He's not really happy about his role, however.
* LovingAShadow: A literal example happens in Episode 6, when a human realizes that he was dating a doppelganger Undergrounder the entire time. When the doppelganger is taken away and the real one returns, he decides to break off their engagement.
* MadScientist
* NobleDemon: [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Wild Fire]], the Undergrounder from Episode 18, is very much this. While he participates in underground fighting, he never used his abilities to terrorize other people, and what initially looked like heartless or self-serving actions on his part were actually done with good intentions. He's also not in league with the BigBad and was actually ''rescuing'' said villain's potential victims. It goes to the point that after he explains his story, Shen Wei chooses not to punish him. And even when Ye Zun rallies the entirety of Dixing into an all-out war, Wild Fire is one of the few who chooses to aid the protagonists.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat
* RealityEnsues
* RedHerring
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Zigzagged. Wang Xiangyang dies feeling remorse for his actions when the whole truth about the events leading to his wife's death comes to light. However, besides handing over the Merit Brush to the protagonists, his last words have him inform them that what he did cannot be undone, even if it's said as a cautionary warning instead of a final taunt.
* StableTimeLoop
* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: The opening theme of the live-action drama, "We Won't Be Falling", is sung in English, complete with perfect grammar and pronunciation.
* SymbioticPossession
* TokenGoodTeammate: Not every Undergrounder who escapes the Underworld to go the surface is a bad guy; some just want to live normal lives and aren't working for Ye Zun or his main lackeys.
* TragicVillain: Overlaps with TragicMonster. There are a few episodes where the MonsterOfTheWeek ''is'' causing trouble, which attracts the SID's attention; however, they're not exactly evil and can have sympathetic motives behind their actions.

[[/folder]]

* DealwiththeDevil: Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei both seem to be rather fond of making these.

* DueToTheDead: what Guo Changcheng and Cuo Shuzhi do in the last arc.

* ChaoticEvil: the ghost tribe are, all but two, varying levels of feral creature with the ethos of kill or be killed. Gui Mian (Ghost Face) and Ghost Slayer are the two most powerful and most intelligent members of the ghost tribe. All but the Ghost Slayer are sealed beyond the Giant Seal, with the Ghost Slayer having agreed to guard that seal.

* SealedEvilInACan: the Ghost Race.

* ChaoticEvil: the ghost race are, all but two, varying levels of feral creature with the ethos of kill or be killed. Gui Mian (Ghost Face) and Ghost Slayer are the two most powerful and most intelligent members of the ghost race. All but the Ghost Slayer are sealed beyond the Giant Seal, with the Ghost Slayer having agreed to guard that seal.

* CowardlyLion: Guo Changcheng. The SID even makes him a weapon that works based on him being scared.

* DeadpanSnarker: most of SID is made up of these characters.

* EldritchAbomination: the ghost race are all pretty eldritch.

* Muggles: Guo Changcheng [[spoiler:subverted]]

* TheOldestOnesintheBook: the book using a fair amount of ChineseMythology including Pan Gu and Nuwa [[spoiler:and of course Mount Kunlun]].

* ChaoticEvil: the ghost race are, all but two, varying levels of feral beasts with the ethos of kill or be killed. Gui Mian (Ghost Face) and Ghost Slayer are the two most powerful and most intelligent members of the ghost race. All but the Ghost Slayer are sealed beyond the Giant Seal, with the Ghost Slayer having agreed to guard that seal.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:subverted! Though not for lack of trying]]

* SealedEvilinaCan: the ghost race

* ChaoticEvil: the ghost race are, all but two, varying levels of feral beasts with the ethos of kill or be killed. Gui Mian (Ghost Face) and Ghost Slayer are the two most powerful and most intelligent members of the ghost race. All but Ghost Slayer is sealed beyond the Giant Seal.

* CrapsackWorld: the world behind Nuwa's Giant Seal is very much this. Also, the world where the the Little Ghost King was born wasn't much better.