Characters / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi - Jin Guangyao

aka: Mo Dao Zu Shi Lanling Jin Clan Jin Guangyao

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi - Character Index
Main Characters: Wei Wuxian | Lan Wangji
Five Great Clans: Lan Clan of Gusu | Jiang Clan of Yunmeng (Jiang Cheng) | Jin Clan of Lanling (Jin Guangyao) | Nie Clan of Qinghe | Wen Clan of Qishan
Other Characters: Other Clans | Yi City Group | Miscellaneous Characters

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Jin Guangyao (金光瑶) né Meng Yao (孟瑶) - Lianfang-zun (敛芳尊)

Voiced by (Mandarin): Yang Tianxiang (animation), Jiang Guangtao (audio drama), Su Shangqing (web series)
Voiced by (Japanese): Akira Ishida (animation, audio drama, web series)
Voiced by (Korean): Lee Ho-san (animation)
Played by: Zhu Zanjin (web series)

Height: 170 cm
Weapon: Hensheng | 恨生 (urumi)

^{Click here to see Jin Guangyao before he became the Cultivation Chief} 

"To seek pity even after doing all the bad things— that's the kind of person I am."

The current leader of the Jin Clan of Lanling and Jin Ling's paternal uncle. The illegitimate son of the late clan leader Jin Guangshan, his meteoric rise to the position of Cultivation Chief was not without its difficulties. He swore an oath of brotherhood with Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen, and is the third and youngest brother. Together, they were called the Venerated Triad.

On the surface everything is smooth-sailing for Jin Guangyao, but if you look deeper, he was involved in Wei Wuxian's death 13 years ago... and if you investigate some more, the trail of violence and tragedy doesn't stop there.

Because of the role he serves in the overall story, be warned that all spoilers are unmarked.

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Tropes A-E

• Adaptational Villainy: While the novel often leaves it ambiguous how malicious his intentions are, the Animated Adaptation's incarnation of Jin Guangyao is portrayed to be more ruthless and extreme in tying up loose ends and removing any potential threats to his ambitions. He has a more active or clear role in hurting some victims (e.g. Jin Rusong, Qin Su, Sisi), he's more vengeful especially towards Nie Mingjue, and it's clearer that he (initially) wants to drag Lan Xichen with him to his death. At the climax he even tries to unleash an army of fierce corpses around the area using the Yin Tiger Tally, whereas in the novel all he wants to do is escape punishment and flee to another country.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: Jin Guangyao's sword, Hensheng, is described to be a "soft sword", which makes its function similar to that of a single-bladed urumi. In the manhua, his sword is shown to function like a typical jian (sword) instead. However, the Animated Adaptation shows that Hensheng can function as both a typical sword and a whip-sword, with its form changing depending on how Jin Guangyao intends to use it at the moment.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. While he is still skilled, the Animated Adaptation does not leave him with as much opportunities to show his repertoire of skills in the Guanyin Temple arc, and he's immediately subdued every time he tries to make any move. By comparison, it takes some careful provocations and well-timed attacks in the novel (before Nie Mingjue shows up) for the others to start throwing Jin Guangyao off his tracks.
• Adults Are Useless: While he's a kind and gentle uncle and guardian to Jin Ling, there's almost no indication that he did anything to help the latter in his social life, since his nephew grew up in Golden Carp Tower getting bullied by the other junior Jin disciples and has trouble getting along with people his age. While he gave Jin Ling a dog to cheer him up, Jin Guangyao did little else to intervene whenever Jin Ling gets accosted by others. What further implies this is when Wei Wuxian correctly guesses that Jin Guangyao advised Jin Ling to never fight back and always try to get along with others whether he agrees with them or not.
• Affectionate Nickname: Lan Xichen fondly calls him "A-Yao". When he switches to calling him by his clan leader title, it's a good indication that he's lost all faith in him.
• Always Second Best: He laments to everyone present at the Guanyin Temple that despite all his efforts he was always one step behind Jin Zixuan solely because of the legitimacy of their births.
• Ambition Is Evil: It's not hard to see why Jin Guangyao wanted to rise above his origins, but the lengths he goes to in order to gain and keep his place in the Jin Clan are extreme, such as killing the entire Tingshan He Sect to please his father.
• Animal Motifs: In an official artwork from the donghua team, Jin Guangyao is shown with a fox, and in another, he's drawn with fox ears and a tail, befitting of his cunning nature.
• Anti-Villain: Despite his willingness to kill or hurt people for his own benefit and the shocking acts he's committed, he looks out for civilians and genuinely treats his loved ones with care. Additionally, although they don't excuse him, some of his misdeeds were triggered by other people mistreating or belittling him. When the story begins, his only villainous activities appear to be his experimentations with Wen Ning and his attempts to restore the Yin Tiger Tally; he otherwise seems to be mostly focused on carrying out his Cultivation Chief duties, and he only acts up midway because the protagonists are on to him.
• An Arm and a Leg: At Guanyin Temple, Lan Wangji cuts off Jin Guangyao's right arm to force him to release Jin Ling, whom he was holding hostage. In The Untamed, it's the left arm that goes off instead. In the donghua, his right arm is sliced off to stop him from using the Yin Tiger Tally.
• Bastard Bastard: Deconstructed as it's the poor treatment he received throughout his life due to the stigma against bastards, especially those born to prostitutes, that lead to him turning into the villain he is in the present.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: A surefire way to not be the target of his murderous schemes is to look past his origins and, in spite of knowing his past, treat him fairly and kindly. While he will still use you as a pawn in his plans, he'll make sure to spare you. Lan Xichen (his sworn brother who never looks down on him) and Sisi (the only one that defended him and his mother when they were abused at the brothel) are two of the people that are fortunate enough to avoid the worst of his schemes. Jin Guangyao also fell in love with Qin Su because she was one of the few people who never mocked his lineage, although that unfortunately didn't make their Surprise Incest any better.

• Big Bad: While not apparent at first, he's revealed to be the biggest thorn in Wei Wuxian's side both then and now, having helped orchestrate his downfall thirteen years ago and trying to use him as a scapegoat in the present as well. He's also the culprit behind the murder mystery the main leads are attempting to solve.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While he acts polite in the outside, secretly he may be already plotting someone's demise. Even with the person he himself claims to have never thought of harming, he still takes advantage of their kindness for his benefit. This is played up more in The Untamed where he often bears a sadistic expression when he isn't putting up his formal and friendly facade.
• Blind Obedience: Jin Guangyao acknowledges that he would follow every order Jin Guangshan gave him no matter what it entailed, all in the hopes of receiving a morsel of his father's approval.
  Jin Guangyao: To this father of mine, I once had hopes as well. In the past, as long as it was his command, whether it be to betray Sect Leader Wen or protect Xue Yang or remove anyone who disagreed, no matter how foolish it was, how hated I’d be, I’d obey regardlessly.
• Break Them by Talking: He knows how to get to a person with words alone, and with the right phrases, can anger or confuse them. Both Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are even repeatedly warned to not listen to anything he would say, and they get easily wrapped around his finger when they choose to listen despite their better judgement.
• The Chessmaster: He's very thorough with planning out his schemes and manipulating events into his favour. In killing both Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangshan, he does so in a way that plays into people's expectations, thus making their deaths seem unsuspicious. In the former's case, he was so subtle that his victim didn't even realize that it was happening.
• Combat Pragmatist: He'll use underhanded means in combat when he needs to, such as backstabbing Wen Ruohan during the Sunshot Campaign and holding a qin string against multiple people's throats to force the others into defense.
• Consummate Liar: Jin Guangyao is a masterful liar, as proven when Lan Xichen reveals to him the discovery of Nie Mingjue's dismembered body. He acts convincingly shocked and horrified, when he himself was the one who had murdered Nie Mingjue and later scattered his various body parts across the land.
• Crazy-Prepared: He's very careful to leave no trace behind when he's setting a plan in motion. He isn't even afraid of hiding a qin string inside his own body just in case he would be in a situation where he's rendered weaponless.
• Defiant to the End: Jin Guangyao chooses to walk to his own death by angering Nie Mingjue's corpse, and he uses his last breath to rant furiously at his former sworn brother.
• Depending on the Artist: Although everything else between the two designs is the same, his hairstyle prior to becoming the Cultivation Chief differs in the donghua and manhua; in the former he wore it in a high half-ponytail, whereas in the latter he wore it in a bun.
• Determinator: Nothing and no one will stop him from achieving his goals of attaining power and recognition and fulfilling his mother's dying wish of earning his father's favor. Not even shedding blood and deceiving the people around him are enough to deter him.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • He killed the Jin commander he served under in Langya for abusing him, disrespecting his mother, and stealing the credit for his work.
  • After enduring his father's abuse for too long and realizing that he'll never truly earn his approval, he finally snapped and set up Jin Guangshan's murder in the most poetically ironic way possible.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Whether he was working for the Nie Clan or for his father, no matter how hard he worked he would always either be brushed aside, mocked, or have the credit taken from him.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: While he hates being referred to as the Son of a Whore, he deeply loves his mother and built the Guanyin Temple statue in her honor. He also tries to bring her remains with him while he's planning to escape to Dongying.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Although Lan Xichen feels hurt after learning about Jin Guangyao's true colors since it meant the latter breached his trust, he still can't bring himself to hate his friend. Jin Ling feels the same way and sheds tears for his death, since Jin Guangyao is still his family and helped him cope with his loneliness growing up.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He might have killed several people in his ambition to climb the social ladder of the cultivation world (including his own family (both guilty and innocent) and sworn brother), but he has never once thought about harming Lan Xichen, who was the only one who didn't look down on him for being a prostitute's son.
• Even Evil Has Standards: If there's one immoral thing he's not proud of doing, it's incest. He was horrified to learn that Qin Su is also his half-sister shortly before their wedding day and never touched her again afterward.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Allegedly, the reason Mo Xuanyu got kicked out of the Jin Clan was because he was making passes at Jin Guangyao who is not only married, but is also his half-brother.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Even though it's Nie Huaisang who tricks Lan Xichen into thinking Jin Guangyao was really attempting something, the latter feels betrayed when Lan Xichen stabs him and rants over how he never once thought of hurting his sworn brother.

Tropes F-N

• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Downplayed. Jin Guangyao is described to have an "advantageous face", with clean and attractive features. This helps him look very approachable and polite, which makes it easier for him to mask his more villainous side as the Big Bad.
• Fake Defector: During the Sunshot Campaign, Jin Guangyao pretended to defect to the Wens and secretly sent Lan Xichen intel. This culminated in him successfully killing Wen Ruohan by stabbing him from behind. Nie Mingjue was still angered by his actions, however, as his former right-hand man had also resorted to killing or capturing many of their allies (including himself) during his ruse.
• The Farmer and the Viper:
  • Lan Xichen befriended him, vouched for him and taught him his techniques. Despite Jin Guangyao considering him a close friend, he betrays him by using the song Lan Xichen taught him in a murder plot against their sworn brother Nie Mingjue.
  • Nie Mingjue was the one who originally spoke up for and defended Jin Guangyao, but it didn't stop the latter from making a lot of trouble for him (including plotting his death).
• Faux Affably Evil: He's so affable that he takes a moment to have a pleasant chat with Wei Wuxian over his love life even while threatening him. He doesn't bother using his politeness towards his enemies to mask his malicious side.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Horrible and irredeemable many of Jin Guangyao's actions may be, he lived a difficult childhood and adolescence simply because his mother worked as a prostitute, which cast a huge shadow over him. However, some people make it clear to him that it is no justification for him to commit crimes in order to elevate his status.
• Hated by All: By the time the final arc kicks in, almost everyone from the cultivation world has turned their backs on him after some Awful Truths about him come to light.
• Hat of Authority: One of the most distinctive traits of his get-up is his gauze hat, which is worn by government officials in China. Although he began wearing this hat long before, when he was only a disciple of the Jin Clan, the trope fully comes to effect after he succeeds his father as the Jin Clan leader and becomes the first Cultivation Chief.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. Jin Guangyao knew exactly what kind of person Jin Guangshan was, but he thought that he could still gain a bit of his father's favor and affection for many years. He would only realize the futility of this after he had dug himself too deep.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In the beginning of the story, he's the well-respected Cultivation Chief and leader of the Jin Clan. Following the Second Siege, he's lost all credibility thanks to his misdeeds coming to light (including his incestuous marriage and his father's murder). On the run with no way back, all Jin Guangyao can do is go to Guanyin Temple to retrieve his mother's remains and attempt to flee to another country.
• Humiliation Conga: Nie Huaisang makes sure that Jin Guangyao will not go down peacefully in every manner possible. First, he reveals to the latter's wife that she's also his half-sister — this prompts her to confront him with suspicions about how their son really died before later committing suicide, and another person reveals the same information in public to the other cultivators. Second, he has a prisoner of Jin Guangyao tell the story about Jin Guangshan's murder, causing him to lose whatever good image he had built up of himself in the cultivation world. Lastly, Wei Wuxian speculates that Nie Huaisang dug up the body of Jin Guangyao's mother and had it desecrated (and Nie Huaisang himself implies that he did something to it). After his sins are revealed, Lan Xichen understandably loses faith in him, and Nie Huaisang finally uses this distrust to trick him into mortally wounding him before he is ultimately killed by Nie Mingjue's corpse.
• I Did What I Had to Do: When Nie Mingjue tries to kill him due to how many Nie Clan Disciples and Retainers were killed while he was posing as Wen Ruohan's aide, he claims it was a necessary evil to sell his act as a Double Agent before offering his own head to him. Jury's out on how sincere he was about this though.
• Light Is Not Good: Dresses in the same gold as the rest of his clan, his surname translates to gold and his courtesy name contains the characters for 'light' and 'mother of pearl'. Is also a highly ruthless schemer and manipulator.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He experiences what Wei Wuxian went through after the Sunshot Campaign, from having his popularity wither away, to getting wounded by the person he trusted most, and getting torn apart by a fierce corpse — the corpse being someone he murdered, no less. The cherry on top is that he realizes too late that the mastermind behind it all is the person he never suspected. The karma factor hits home even more in The Untamed, as the Adaptational Villainy he underwent makes him directly and deliberately responsible for almost everything bad that happened to Wei Wuxian (with the sole exception of the Wen Clan's actions).
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Inverted. Everyone ignores the identity of his father and focuses more on how he's the Son of a Whore, which is their favorite insult against him.
• Lonely at the Top: Downplayed and implied. While he attained the title of Cultivation Chief, which nets everything that he's striven for, the price Jin Guangyao pays is that he can never be safe around anyone. While he does have loved ones — a wife, a nephew, a close sworn brother — and achieved the rank and recognition he had always sought, to ensure his safety he has to keep everyone at arm's length and always look behind his shoulder.
• Made of Iron:
  • It takes a lot of endurance and toughness to still be able to stand — let alone live — after being kicked down the stairs of Golden Carp Tower (which isn't a short fall) twice. For emphasis, the second time he was kicked down, it's stated that he only landed after rolling down more than 50 steps.
  • After getting caught killing his commander in Langya, he stabs himself with his sword — all the way through his stomach and out his back. When Nie Mingjue tries to tend to him, he freezes his qi and sprints away. Wei Wuxian assumes that he probably knew how to avoid "vital areas" while stabbing himself, but it's still surprising that he could do so much with such a wound.
  • Considering every injury he suffers at Guanyin Temple, it's remarkable he manages to stay alive until the very last moment. He first gets severe chemical poisoning on one arm, loses the other arm, gets stabbed through the chest, and then finally gets his neck crushed. He dies only from the very latter.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's very good at manipulating others to gain their support, put the blame on someone else or go forward with his schemes. For example, after Qin Su's suicide, he quickly directs the blame towards Wei Wuxian.
• Master Actor: Xue Yang calls him an even better actor than himself, and Jin Guangyao proves to be capable of putting up an innocent front or play the fool if needed. After receiving news of Nie Mingjue's dismembered corpse, he acts convincingly distraught despite being the one responsible.
• Meaningful Name: Jin Guangyao's title Lianfang-zun means "to hold back/restrain fragrance". Fragrance here is a common metaphor for virtue, so his title means to embody virtue in restraint, but it can also be a possible allusion to his two-faced nature.
• Meaningful Rename: Downplayed. He initially only goes by his birth name Meng Yao, but he takes his father's surname and adopts the courtesy name Jin Guangyao to symbolize the recognition of him being a member of the Jin Clan.
• The Mole: During the Sunshot Campaign, Jin Guangyao went undercover as a Wen soldier and provided Lan Xichen with vital information from the inside.
• Never My Fault: He refuses to admit responsibility when called out on many of his immoral or less ethical actions and claims he had no choice, even when he most definitely did.
• Nice Mean And In Between: When the Venerated Triad was around, Jin Guangyao balanced out the harshest sworn brother Nie Mingjue and the kindest sworn brother Lan Xichen, as he was polite but also pragmatic. Although he got along well with Lan Xichen and still does, he often clashed with Nie Mingjue due to his defense of the Jin Clan's dubious ways.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Even though she was a prime witness in his indirect murder of Jin Guangshan, Jin Guangyao spared Sisi because she was the only prostitute who showed kindness to him and his mother. This would backfire on him when Sisi is rescued and tells her story to the other clans, hastening his downfall.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Although a capable fighter who killed many during the Sunshot Campaign, most of his Big Bad behaviour involves him Break Them by Talking, lying through his teeth and manipulation. If he does have to resort to violence then he uses more subdued methods, such as secretly playing music that triggers (instead of soothes) Nie Mingjue's qi deviation . His cultivation isn't as impressive as other big-name cultivators, so he knows better than to directly go against them in that area.

Tropes O-Z

• Perpetual Smiler: He's often seen with a polite, customer service smile on his face.
• Pet the Dog: Despite his villainous side, there's multiple people he treats well with little if any ulterior motives:
  • Even while secretly using him for his schemes, he's genuinely fond of Lan Xichen and has never once considered hurting him.
  • Jin Guangyao has shown kindness to Nie Huaisang ever since he became the latter's sworn brother, encouraging and defending his interests in the arts. Even after Nie Mingjue's death, he's still close to him and helps him out with his clan duties. Unfortunately, this no longer mattered to Nie Huaisang when he found out about what Jin Guangyao did, and responds by plotting a long-term plan that would result in the latter's ruin and death.
  • He acts as the gentle uncle to Jin Ling, and even gifted Fairy to him when he saw that his nephew was feeling lonely. Unfortunately, he's not above ordering his men to kill said dog when it threatens to become a nuisance to his plans, and he doesn't hesitate to hold his own nephew hostage to ensure his escape.
  • He seems to genuinely care for Su She and treats him as a friend instead of a tool he could easily discard.
• Photographic Memory: He has an excellent memory and picks up details within first meeting/glance. This proves to be extremely useful in building relations in his quest of ascending to power, as he's stated to have never forgotten a face, along with the preferences, social circumstances and other information of the person behind the face. This also enables him to copy passages of the Collection of Turmoil from the Lan Clan's secret library just by looking at them once.
• Playing the Victim Card: By default, Jin Guangyao resorts to painting himself as the wronged party whenever he gets caught red-handed. More often than not, he genuinely believes that he is a victim who did what he had to do in order to survive.
• Precision F-Strike: He's normally polite and well-spoken, so when he speaks in a more crass tone it's a good indication of how furious he's become:
  • When he mentions how Jin Guangshan deserved to die the way he did, he's so agitated about it that his choice of words are uncharacteristically vulgar.
    Jin Guangyao: An old stallion that gets in a rut wherever it goes really deserves such a death, doesn't it?
  • In his final moments, he yells at Nie Mingjue, "我肏你妈!" While this literally translates to "I'll fuck your mother!", the context of the phrase also runs along the lines of either "Fuck you!", "You son of a bitch!", or "You motherfucker!".
• Properly Paranoid: Jin Guangyao always looks over his shoulder, making sure to cover up all his tracks and that no witnesses were left. However, because of his arrogance and a few slip-ups, he starts becoming more paranoid of being found out.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Downplayed. After his demise, he and Nie Mingjue are left to fight together in the coffin they're entrapped in, both as fierce corpses. Due to the danger they pose if left unattended, the coffin is sealed for a hundred years so that the two cannot escape and are unable to properly pass away for that long.
• Shorter Means Smarter: At 170cm, he's the shorter than several of the other members of the main cast, including his own nephew Jin Ling who is 172cm tall, but is also a ruthless and cunning schemer.
• Signature Headgear: His most iconic feature is his gauze hat, better known in China as a futou (but without the wing flaps). It's typically worn by government officials. In The Untamed he also wears it because he was given a similar hat by his mother when he was little. After Nie Huaisang successfully ousts him, he takes the hat as a Battle Trophy.
• Slave to PR: This is both a strength and a weakness of Jin Guangyao. On one hand, his need for recognition drove him to outperform his half-siblings and seize control of the Jin Clan, rising to get the highest position of Cultivation Chief amongst the cultivator families. On the other hand, his need to maintain his power, if not his good reputation in the cultivation world, has driven him to several unscrupulous acts which eventually come back to bite him in the ass.
• Social Climber: Growing up in a brothel, his mother encouraged him to earn his father's favor and climb up the social ladder to solve their problems in life, which he succeeded to do so as he became Nie Mingjue's right hand man and rose to be the Chief Cultivator at the present time. His father took advantage of his desperation to earn a spot in the Jin Clan and forces him to commit heinous crimes while never intending for him to rise up in rank. The latter's denial of him is the last straw, turning him from The Idealist to giving him a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder as he became willing kill his friends, enemies and even family just to secure his spot in the cultivation world.
• The Social Expert: Jin Guangyao is an expert with words and knows just what to say to simultaneously please the crowd and manipulate the situation to his favor.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He is the Big Bad and speaks in an eerily calm manner, almost never raising his voice even in his colder and shadier moments.
• Son of a Whore: His mother was a prostitute whom Jin Guangshan favored for a while before getting bored of her. His origins have attracted a lot of belittlement and ridicule from others.
• The Spock: This was his role among the Venerated Triad. If Lan Xichen was the mediator, Jin Guangyao would go by logic and pragmatism and act after planning ahead, in contrast to Nie Mingjue who had a Black-and-White Morality and was the most temperamental of the three.
• Staircase Tumble: As a child, he was once kicked down the stairs while trying to defend his mother from a irate customer. His first meeting with his father and attempt to be accepted as part of the Jin Clan resulted in him being kicked down the stairs of the Golden Carp Tower while being mocked for being a Son of a Whore. Nie Minjue later on did the same thing to him while arguing about Xue Yang's fate, which is what broke the camel's back and had him decide to arrange his death.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He apparently greatly resembles his mother, since many assume that the statue in the Guanyin Temple is modeled after his likeness when it's actually hinted to be modeled after the latter.
• Surprise Incest: He fell for Qin Su and was set to marry her when he found out that she's actually his half-sister, thanks to Jin Guangshan's womanizing ways. Wanting to avoid the political backlash, he went ahead with the marriage but never touched her again.
• Sworn Brothers: He became sworn brothers in Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue in a ceremony after the Sunshot Campaign, forming the Venerated Triad. Unfortunately, while he's close to the former, his relationship with Nie Mingjue was far more strained.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity: While Jin Guangyao genuinely cares for Lan Xichen, it doesn't stop him from using their friendship to either further his plans or receive protection from someone's suspicions. By the time the final arc rolls in, he has already pushed his luck too far.
• Torture Technician: When he was infiltrating the Wen Clan as a spy, Jin Guangyao crafted all sorts of torture devices to get himself in Wen Ruohan's good graces. He keeps some of them in his secret chamber in Golden Carp Tower.
• Trauma Button: Getting kicked down the stairs of the Golden Carp Tower while being derided as the Son of a Whore when he first tried to get into Jin Guangshan's good graces was his darkest memory. Nie Mingjue doing this to him following their argument over Xue Yang's fate was what broke the camel's back and prompted him to arrange his former sworn brother's death.
• Tranquil Fury: Even when he's legitimately pissed off, he still puts on a smile and talks as gently and articulately as possible. He only loses the tranquil bit in his final moments.
• The Un-Favourite: He was the least favoured child of Jin Guangshan due to his mother being a prostitute (as well as his father's distaste for educated women). When he sought out his father as a teenager, he was kicked down the stairs of Golden Carp Tower on his and Jin Zixuan's shared birthday. He was only accepted into the family after becoming a war hero in the Sunshot Campaign, but he was still treated more like a servant than family. After Jin Zixuan's death, Madam Jin took her anger over Jin Guangshan's infidelity out on him to the point where he had to hide bruises and wounds from her abuse. It's also implied Jin Guangshan brought the 14-year-old Mo Xuanyu back to Golden Carp Tower just to spite Jin Guangyao.
  Jin Guangyao: Why is it that even though we were born on the same day, Jin Guangshan could host a grand banquet for one son, and watch with his own eyes how his subordinate kicked his other son down Golden Carp Tower, from the first stair to the last!
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When Wei Wuxian looks into Jin Guangyao's past days working in a brothel as a young adolescent, he (and the reader) sees that Jin Guangyao wasn't always the ruthless backstabber he is now.
• Villain Has a Point: Despite his immoral ways, he has very good perspectives on his enemies and does hold some rationale when trying to justify his wrongdoings.
  • When defending his actions from Nie Mingjue, he brings up a good point when saying that one's standing in life determines how valid others find their actions and words to be, and it's easier for people with enough money and/or authority to get away with what they say or do compared to those who have no such privileges.
  • He's not wrong when he tells Lan Xichen that no matter what he achieves, regardless of the means he would employ, it would all be ignored and disregarded simply because he's the Son of a Whore.
  • Jin Guangyao raises a valid point in the climax when he tells Wei Wuxian that, no matter what action the latter would make, the cultivation clans would always come to see him as an enemy.
    Jin Guangyao: [to Wei Wuxian] At best, you're the untamed hero; at worst, you offend people wherever you go. Unless all those whom you've offended lived their lives safely, as soon as something happened to them or someone did something to them, the first person they suspect would be you and the first person they seek revenge on would also you. And this is something you have no control over.
  • Jin Guangyao points out that Jiang Cheng didn't help matters with Wei Wuxian as he allowed his pride, envy, and insecurities to strain his relationship with his martial brother, whereas Wei Wuxian would have been nigh untouchable if he had been trusted by his old friend more. While he says it mainly as retaliation to Jiang Cheng calling him a Son of a Whore, his words are so cutting that the latter has no rebuttal to spare.
    Jin Guangyao: Clan Leader Jiang, if only your attitude towards your shixiong was just a bit better, showing everyone that your bond was too strong to be broken for them to have a chance, or if you exhibited just a bit more tolerance after what happened, things wouldn't have become what they were.
• Villainous Breakdown: While he mostly stays calm at Guanyin Temple even as he gets cornered without any way to talk or kill his way out of it, he starts going off the rails when Lan Xichen stabs him. The audio drama even has him ranting, laughing and screaming like a madman.
• Villainous Incest: When it's revealed that Jin Guangyao knowingly married Qin Su and had a child with her even after finding out they're half-siblings, the cultivators are disgusted and consider it even more proof that the man is morally corrupt. However, subverted in that the situation is more complex: Jin Guangyao had genuine feelings for Qin Su before he found out the truth, and he married her purely out of fear of the political consequences that would come with backing out. He never slept with her again — Qin Su was already pregnant when he made the horrific discovery, and said child may have been killed in order for his potential defects to remain undiscovered. Although Jin Guangyao meant well with how he handled the situation, Qin Su is understandably horrified that she was deceived this whole time nevertheless and calls him out on it.
• Villains Want Mercy: He admits to always wanting sympathy from others when confronted about his true character.
• Villain with Good Publicity: His good standing in the cultivation world is a perfect cover for all of his misdeeds, which briefly becomes a problem for the Hero with Bad Publicity Wei Wuxian. Thanks to Nie Huaisang's machinations, by the finale Jin Guangyao is Hated by All instead.
• Weak, but Skilled: His cultivation isn't nearly as high as most of the other characters', but he has his Photographic Memory and knows how to fight both smart and dirty.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He did all kinds of things to impress his biological father and be formally accepted into the Jin family, but to no avail. This eventually led him to kill Jin Guangshan.
• We Used to Be Friends: Believe it or not, Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue had an amicable relationship in the past. Jin Guangyao looked up to the latter, who would defend him from anyone who talked badly of him, and even tried to recommend him to the Jin Clan. However, things soured really quickly when he came upon Jin Guangyao murdering his superior in cold blood.
• Would Hit a Girl: Albeit not directly.
  • Implied with Qin Su. It's amibiguous if he meant for her to die, but he takes advantage of her suicide to make himself a victim rather than actually feeling any remorse for triggering her Sanity Slippage. He admits in his final moments that his wife is one of the many he's killed, suggesting he at least feel responsible for her death.
  • He won't hesitate to wipe out clans, men and women alike. He annihilated a clan after one of its clansmen (allegedly) murdered Jin Rusong, and he ordered the death of another one in the "Villainous Friends" extra.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • He's implied to be somehow involved in his own son's murder when the child was just a few years old, in case the latter would later show signs of being inbred. It's never clarified how it happened, but when questioned about it all he tells Qin Su is, "A-Song had to die."
  • In the "Villainous Friends" extra taking place during the Time Skip, he indirectly killed off a clan that had people of all sorts of ages, including children.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After all the unfortunate events that befell him, Jin Guangyao saw his marriage to Qin Su as something that he hoped to be one of the few good things in his life and thought he finally had everything going for him. Unfortunately he was then suddenly informed by his bride-to-be's mother that he and Qin Su are brother and sister. He went ahead with the wedding anyways due to fear of political backlash, but never touched his wife afterward and may have also killed their son to avoid letting the truth leak.
  Jin Guangyao: Brother, do you know how I felt when Madam Qin came to me to secretly reveal the truth, just as I thought everything was perfect?! It wouldn’t have scared me more if a streak of lighting sliced through my skull!

Tropes that apply to Jin Guangyao in The Untamed only

^{Click here to see Jin Guangyao before he joined the Jin Clan} 

^{Click here to see Jin Guangyao as a child} 

• Adaptational Early Appearance: While he first appears about the third-way mark into the novel, in this series he's first introduced in the flashback arc when he accompanied Nie Huaisang to the gift-giving ceremony in the Cloud Recesses and met Lan Xichen long before the Sunshot Campaign began.
• Adaptational Villainy: He's ten times more malicious in the series compared to the novel. He oftentimes acts smug, cruel, and sadistic and crosses many more lines than he ever does in the original canon:
  • While he never planned Jin Zixuan's death in the novel, in the series he deliberately manipulated the events at Qiongqi Path so that Jin Zixun would accuse Wei Wuxian of cursing him — leading to Wen Ning to kill both him and Jin Zixuan, with Wei Wuxian taking the blame for everything. He may as well have intentionally masterminded all the other events where the latter would serve as The Scapegoat, and also acted with the intention of bringing him down himself even before his father started to have the same intentions.
  • While getting kicked down the stairs of Golden Carp Tower by Nie Mingjue is what sparked Jin Guangyao to slowly poison him in retaliation in the novel, in this adaptation he already started poisoning him prior to the incident and also took sadistic delight in informing Nie Mingjue of what he did to him before watching him succumb to qi deviation. The spin-off film Fatal Journey makes him worse by having him teach Nie Huaisang the altered Song of Clarity, falsely informing him that it will help his brother calm down whenever his temper gets bad. Unfortunately for him, this is also how Nie Huaisang finds him out.
  • Unlike the novel, he went ahead with his marriage to Qin Su and then consummated it even while fully knowing that he would bear her an inbred son that he (likely) would eventually have killed.
  • While he has no intentions of needlessly harming his nephew while holding him hostage with a qin string in the novel and only starts doing so by accident while panicking, in this adaptation he slowly and deliberately injures Jin Ling to the point of almost killing him.
• Advertised Extra: He's featured in plenty of the promotional posters and trailers for Fatal Journey. However, while he still plays an important role in the movie, his screentime runs up to five minutes at best.
• Ax-Crazy: Due to Adaptational Villainy, his live-action incarnation is more deranged and violent which is demonstrated best at Guanyin Temple. When he tells Wei Wuxian why compassionate and selfless people like him are bound to have short lives and lays into Jiang Cheng about how he failed to trust his martial brother, his physical and verbal mannerisms are rather unhinged and wild. Contrast that with how cold yet composed he gives said speeches in donghua and the audio drama, and the audience can get the hint that Jin Guangyao here is only wearing a Mask of Sanity and he (or at least part of him) has some deep-seated mental issues that were left unchecked.
• Cain and Abel: Unlike the novel, it's hinted that Jin Guangyao's envy of Jin Zixuan for being the favoured son was enough drive for him to deliberately kill his half-brother.
• Evil Laugh: In the live-action series, he gives an evil chuckle when Wei Wuxian's real identity gets exposed to the entire cultivation world and when he holds the latter hostage at Guanyin Temple.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's implied that the reason Jin Guangyao really has it out for Wei Wuxian in the adaptation has something to do with both envy and spite.
• Large Ham: There are times when he talks and acts in an overly punctuated and dramatic fashion.
• Obviously Evil: His crafty and scheming side is visibly more overt in the series.
• Psychotic Smirk: He gives a sinister smirk few times when he sees that things are going according to his plan, and in a few instances, even sports a Slasher Smile.
• Villainous Incest: In The Untamed, he and Qin Su consummated after their marriage and after he found out they were related, driving home how disturbing he is as the Big Bad.

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