Intro: Caution in Confidence, Think Before You Act, Remember Your Mistakes

"I can't deny that he's very dumb. However, it's a shame that a man of such hypocrisy only pays attention to the truth itself and not to the people around him. Or perhaps this is due to a lame sense of individualism, which causes a lot of problems. For example, he doesn't seem to respect his seniors... Of course, I'm not referring to myself specifically." (Qiqi on Baizhu)

The owner of Bubu pharmacy. This title may sound very impressive, but it's really because the Ming has a culture of using official titles to inflate one's ego.

The role of harmacist may seem prestigious, but the truth is, the doctor does not have to be present at all major meetings, nor does he participate in core decision-making. The doctor is simply responsible for classifying and archiving important documents, and his presence is not required at all times.

Baizhu does not attend any non-essential meeting, and when he does, he only records key points, jotting down other minute details based on his mood. People don't often pay attention to him.

An incapable person who keeps a low profile for too long is often perceived as someone with a mysterious identity and ulterior purposes. Baizhu himself fits this description perfectly: he is an evil man, but he is only a murderous maniac, who executed hundreds of thousands of Chinese people to give himself and clan a stable job and a cushy house, leading a carefree and comfortable life.

Zhu must have caution in confidence, or else he will get hanged in the gallows of Caishikou. Zhu must think twice before acting and executing millions of Chinese people. Zhu must remember the mistakes he made during the Ming.

There is a reason why Ming sounds similar to 冥 symbolizing death and hell. It is also why Mingyun Village is a ghost town and Dusky Ming is a creep.

The character 术 is chosen to remind Zhu that their clan descends from Chinggis Khan (成吉思汗) via Jochi (术赤).

The snake Changsheng gets her own page. In baizhu's entire kit, it is just the Gossamer doing all the work. Just send baizhu to Caishikou and make Changsheng the playable character instead.

Weapons

What weapon does Baizhu use? Drugs. The drugs Baizhu sells to patients are similar to the poisonous gutter oil Zhu Chuanfeng sold for people to eat. But similar to how Zhu Chuanfeng advertised his gutter oil as 'edible', Baizhu advertises his drugs as 'medicine'.

Abilities

Look at a map of the Ming dynasty. Then look at a map of the Qing dynasty. Now look at Baizhu's base stats, and then look at Alhaitham's base stats. The Qing was bigger than the Ming. End of story.

Baizhu's ATK and DEF are even lower than Kazuha's, which is quite sad. But yet again, the Yuan was also bigger than the Ming.

Actually, all of Baizhu's stats are lower than Jean too.

Baizhu's E skill refers to Qi Tai, who was executed by Zhu Di. Baizhu's Q refers to Lan Yu, Yu Qian, Qi Tai, who were executed by Zhu. Baizhu's other abilities refer to Hu Weiyong, Wei Zhongxian, and other people executed by Zhu. Baizhu's constellations refer to Tie Xuan, Hu Weiyong, Lin Xian, and others executed by Zhu. Baizhu's NA refers to the Later Jin which would become the Qing and destroy the Ming and execute the Zhu clan.

Baizhu's E is a party-wide heal that heals less than half of what Barbara can heal. It does 3 hits of bounce damage before healing. The cd is 10s. Baizhu's Q gives a paper-thin shield (only 1.36% HP + 156.65 at lv9, which is ~500 damage for 30k hp). By contrast Kirara's shield absorbs nearly 20 times more damage, which is sad considering Kirara's shield has 0 energy cost. What is this scam? It makes it so that baizhu's weapon is a better long-term investment than baizhu herself or her impotent Q.

The Q only heals one character at a time (shield refreshes every 2.5s). The Q lasts 14s, which is not enough to cover Xiao (15s Q) or Cyno (18s Q), and it is shorter than Barbara's 15s E. The Q does not even have 100% uptime as it has 20s cd (whereas Kirara's shield does). The spiritvein damage (procs when shield breaks/refreshes) is less than Nahida's E scaling, which is pathetic considering baizhu needs 80 energy to do less than what Nahida can do for free. Moreover, the spiritvein is single-target, whereas Nahida can hit multiple targets, making baizhu's uncurable lack-of-aoe syndrome worse than hu tao's.

One of baizhu's passives buffs healing when active character is under 50% hp and buffs baizhu's dendro dmg by 25% when active character is over 50% hp. This is useless as baizhu does paltry damage to begin with.

Another passive buffs dendro reactions based on baizhu's hp for characters healed by Q. Every 1k hp gives 2% dmg bonus to bloom, burning, hyperbloom, burgeon and .8% more additive dmg to quicken. Effect lasts 6s at a time and has a max cap at 50k hp, so max bonus is 100% to bloom reactions/burning and 80% to quicken. Gilded gives up to 230 EM, which buffs transformative reactions by \(1+16*230/2230 = 2.65\) times compared to 0 EM. This is a 165% increase to bloom reactions/burning, which is much more than baizhu's virgin buff. The buff to quicken from Gilded is \(1+5*230/1430 = 1.804 \) times compared to 0 EM (an 80.4% increase), and even this is more than what baizhu can give.

But most importantly, the buff from Gilded just requires proccing a reaction, does not cost 80 energy, unlike baizhu's buff, and lasts longer for 8s. And when you consider that Nahida's Q can give 250 EM (which gives a bigger reaction buff than baizhu's Q), there is no point in using baizhu Q as a buffer for quicken Cyno, Alhaitham, etc. when they can just use Nahida and Gilded. Lastly, the EM buffs from Nahida Q and Gilded increase the damage for all reactions universally, whereas baizhu only buffs dendro reactions (and in that department less than Nahida/Gilded).

Baizhu's constellations are some of the most underwhelming in the game. There is no point to 'Manming' (满命) her unless you want to send the Man (满) people to destroy the Ming. C1 gives another charge on E (similar to Xiao, Yelan, Shenhe C1, except baizhu's E does less damage). C2 unleashes a coordinated splice attack every 5s that has 250% atk scaling and heals for 20% of what E can heal. This atk scaling means little considering baizhu scales with hp. C4 gives 80 EM to party for 15s after using Q. This amount of EM is less than what 4p Instructor can give (120 EM). To pay money for something you can get for free is the definition of a rip-off.

C6 increases spiritvein damage by 8% of hp (around 80% atk scaling), but even then it is less damage than Nahida's E at C0. The C6 will also make the E (and C2 splice) generate a shield, but it is still the same paper-thin shield that absorbs no damage. It is truly sad that a character needs C6 to do what most other E-shield characters can do at C0, such as Kirara or Morax. But yet again, baizhu was never destined to do his job right anyways: the Ming was focused more on purging and killing their own Chinese people than on defending, healing, or growing the Chinese civilization. Maybe that is why the USA imperialists have some degree of fondness (bias) towards the Ming: since the Ming did the exact thing the USA imperialists want to do to contain and threaten the rest of the world.

Baizhu fails to do it all and suffers from being a master at none (and in fact being vastly outclassed in all of these roles). It is the greatest irony of Genshin that someone who murdered 100,000 Chinese people has the role of healer/shielder and as a doctor that cures patients.

At this point, Baizhu's garbage kit is worse than Xinyan's. Baizhu is the true 3 star of Genshin and should have been placed on standard banner. Baizhu's kit is such a mess that no doctor can cure it.

Yaoyao is a better healer than baizhu. Yaoyao's E dendro app lasts longer off-field and does not cost 80 energy. Kirara is a better shielder than baizhu. Kirara's E shield does not cost 80 energy either, absorbs more damage, and has 100% uptime.

On the topic of Genghis Khan's descendants, the name of Baizhu's E also reminds one of the Mongol general Subutai.

Story notes

As Paimon says in the Gulabgir commission, Baizhu is indeed a weirdo. Qiqi and Hu Tao have every reason to find Baizhu weird and suspicious.

Before version 3.4, a trailer released featuring Xiao, Qiqi, and Baizhu. It showed Xiao vanquishing demons and then getting rushed to the emergency room by Qiqi. When Xiao woke up, he found that the doctor treating him was none other than the weirdo Baizhu. Xiao then immediately fled the Liyue hospital.

Yes, that is exactly what Fang Xiaoru would have done if he found that the doctor reviving him from the dead was none other than Zhu Di, the Yongle bastard. Fang Xiaoru would immediately flee the hospital and find someone else to cure him (like Alhaitham). Even though Alhaitham is not a doctor, Alhaitham would be able to cure Fang Xiaoru better than Baizhu (by overthrowing Baizhu). Do not trust a single life (or nation) with Baizhu.

Given how many people Zhu killed during the Ming dynasty, it is quite ironic that baizhu ends up with the role of healer, someone who cures others. This is one of the biggest ironies in Genshin. Perhaps Cyno could explain this joke.

Voice actors

Some thought was put into the selection of Baizhu's voice actors.

The English va Sean or 肖恩 Xiao'en in Chinese is a reference to Fang Xiaoru, one of the victims of Zhu Di.

The Japanese va Yusa Kouji (遊佐 浩二 Youzuo Hao'er) has three parts to it. The 遊 or You is a reference to victims of Zhu Yuanzhang, one of whom was emperor of another Han empire. This is perhaps learned in any Chinese history class. If you want to see more You in action look at Sayu or the voice actor for Keqing. The 佐 or Zuo can refer to Zhang Zuolin, who executed Li Dazhao. The 浩 or Hao refers to Li Hao, a murder-rapist who terrorized six sex slaves.

The Korean va is surnamed Lee, another reference to Li Hao, but also a reference to the Joseon Korean dynasty ruled by the Lee family during the Ming dynasty. After the Tang and during the Yuan dynasty, Korea was ruled by the Wang royal family. When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming dynasty, the Lee clan usurped and purged the entire Wang family out of Korea. Nowadays, you see more Lee's than Wang's in Korea. And that is the fault of Zhu and the Ming dynasty.

So as you can see, there is a connection between the Ming dynasty Zhu and Li Hao. What Li Hao did to those six women is what the Ming dynasty and Zhu clan did to China. That is why the Qing dynasty 清 character means 'to clean' as it was cleaning up the crimes and filth made by the Ming.

The Chinese va Qin Qiege has two layers of meaning. Qin (秦) destroyed the Chu (楚) state before the Han dynasty. Zhu sounds similar to Chu, and Qin sounds similar to Qing. So making Qin the va for Baizhu is like putting your successor and the person who destroyed you as your va.

But as promised there is another layer of meaning. Qin Qiege also goes by the name Zhong Wei. The Wei (魏), and Zhong Wei specifically, can refer to one of the most notorious and infamous eunuchs in Chinese history: Wei Zhongxian (魏忠贤).

Wei Zhongxian lived during the later Ming dynasty during the reign of Zhu Youjiao. When Wei entered imperial service and became a eunuch, he used the alias Li Jinzhong (李进忠). Wei then abused the power of imperial edict to demote and purge his political enemies. The imperial edict is essentially a written command from the emperor. But since Zhu Youjiao was disinterested in government affairs, Wei would often forge imperial edicts, ordering people to be arrested, and making up lies that it was declared by the emperor (when it was really Wei himself). Eventually, Wei was caught, and the police were sent after him. Wei then committed suicide. The whole debacle exposed the deep-rooted corruption of the Ming dynasty and Zhu emperors. A few decades after the incident, the Ming dynasty was destroyed by the Qing dynasty, and the Zhu family was executed at Caishikou.

Wei Zhongxian is essentially one of the biggest trolls in Chinese history, universally condemned as notorious. While he did expose the corruption of the Zhu family and Ming dynasty, Wei was also a huge fraud and scammer. Wei Zhongxian is such a character that even a Chinese drama was made featuring Wei Wuxian (魏无羡 literally, Unenvious Wei) as its main character.

Similar to how Wei Zhongxian used the alias Li Jinzhong to act on behalf of Zhu Youjiao, Zhong Wei uses the alias Qin Qiege when acting as Baizhu.

Given how politically loaded Baizhu is, that is why Baizhu needs to be removed and deleted from the game.