croptoptux

We're starting with Frontier Works (FW) Volume 1 pages 10-13. There are two parentheticals in this first chapter alone–which is only a hair over 3 pages–despite having a decent sized glossary on page 4.

• What does 奪舎 dassha mean in the context of Daoism? From what I can tell, this isn't a Japanese word really.
• 鎖山石獣 chinzan sekijuu (“stone animal figure chained to a mountain”) is a tad more straightforward, but again, it’s not Japanese. Not even Google sensei had a good answer.

Sometimes they really do just shove Chinese in there.

鬼 is an important term, so I want to make a note of it up front. This word is not glossed グゥイ Gui3. I’m assuming it’s read “oni” until the book tells me otherwise. It should be noted that while oni is a distinct item native to Japanese folklore, it can encompass a second definition closer to the Chinese usage, e.g. 亡魂、死人の霊魂。That whole “fierce corpse” bit—which I distinctly remember from the donghua, but am blanking on whether it was in the 7s translation—is a different word, 凶屍; I double checked that for my own sanity.

I cannot fathom why people beyond the immediate Jiang household might refer to Sect Leader Jiang by his personal name as an adult. The glossary and dramatis personae make a big deal out of the difference between 姓・名・字・号—family name, personal name, courtesy name, and sobriquet. WWX and JC are both very likely in their 20’s at the time of WWX’s death, so why is the peanut gallery using their personal names in their gossip? Why am I seeing “Wei Ying”? Why isn’t there a “Jiang Wanyin” in this passage? I can only think of two scenes where JC is called “Jiang Wanyin” at all: 1. when he introduces himself to Lan Xichen, and 2. when he’s trying to kick WWX and LWJ out of the Jiang family mausoleum near the ending. Maybe Chinese culture is less strict on that point than I’m used to? Maybe it’s just MXTX being inconsistent. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Because I’m comparing two different translations, rather than translation to source text, I’m having a hard time making judgment calls about who added superfluous information and who dropped lines. Going through this chapter line by line, I did find a good number of mismatches, mostly on the Japanese side being more verbose than the ExR trans. I doubt I’ll have the spoons for this level of pedanticism going forward. Do not ask me how many hours it took to rekey all these quotations... Edit: I'm starting to think that ExR has a tendency to drop adjectives.

Example 1

“The Yiling Patriarch has died? Who could have killed him?” “Who other than his shidi, Jiang Cheng, putting an end to his own relative for the greater good.” (ExR Prologue pg 1)

「よしよし、いい気味だ！それで、あの夷陵老祖（いりょうろうそ）にとどめを刺したのはいったいどの英傑だ？」 「誰って、そりゃあの奴の弟弟子で雲夢江（うんぼうジャン）氏の若き宗主、江澄（ジャンチョン）だろう。」　(Frontier Works pg 10) “Here here, serves him right! So what in the world sort of hero dealt the finishing blow to that Yiling patriarch?” “Who? That’d be the bastard's junior disciple [= shidi] and the young sect leader of the Unbou Jiang clan, Jiang Cheng.” (trans by OP)

Note: Unbou is one of the potential ways of reading 雲夢 Yunmeng in Japanese.

Example 2

Where ExR uses “crazy”

“In fact, I would have thoroughly examined the disciples of the clan again, so that he doesn’t do those crazy things he did later on.”

Frontier Works uses 残虐非道 “atrocious, inhumane”.

Example 3

“Although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei Wuxian the final blow. Because he cultivates the Demonic Path, Wei Wuxian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.” (ibid.)

「おや？そりゃ私が聞いた話とちょっと違うぞ？魏嬰 （ウェイイン）は自分が作り出した邪術の反動を受けて、手下にしていた鬼どもに噛みちぎられ喰われて死んだんじゃないのか？生きたまま木っ端微塵に噛み砕かれたって聞いたぜ。」 (Frontier Works pg 10-11) “Oh? That’s a bit different from the story I heard? Didn’t Wei Ying suffer a rebound from the evil sorcery he made himself, and got mauled to death by the ghosts he made his subordinates? I heard he was totally chewed to wood chips alive.” (OP)

Well… that’s a leap.

Example 4

“Did you forget about the day that 3000 skilled cultivators were completely annihilated?” “I heard that it was more than 3000, possibly 5000.” “He’s most certainly out of his mind.” (ibid.)

「あの奴の手には何があったか忘れたか？一晩で三千以上の名士たちをどうやって全滅させたのか？」 「五千じゃなかったっけ？」 「三千も五千もそう変わらないだろう。五千の方が信憑性があるけどな」 「まさに残虐非道……」(Frontier Works pg 11)

“Did you forget what happened at that guy’s hand? How he annihilated over 3000 distinguished gentlemen in a single evening?” “Wasn’t it 5000?” “3000, 5000 doesn’t change anything. Though 5000 is more credible.” “Truly atrocious…”

Example 5

A couple sentences after this, ExR deletes the line about how a hush fell over the crowd when someone mentions the Inkofu 陰虎符 (uhhh are we going with these days? “Yinhufu”? “Yin tiger tally”?), and then the second line when the peanut gallery starts chattering again. WWX’s “dishonest practices” are called 邪悪 “evil”. Either ExR is downplaying WWX’s notoriety or Frontier Works is embellishing his reputation.

Example 6

“Not everything was because of his cultivation path. Wei Wuxian’s personality is quite immoral. One’s deeds will be paid, one way or another; what goes around comes around.” (ExR Prologue pg 2)

「結局、魏無羨自身が邪悪な人間だったから、天の怒りに触れ人の恨みを買ったんじゃないか？因果応報、すべては返ってくるのさ……」 (Frontier Works pg 11) In the end, Wei Wuxian himself was an evil person, so wasn’t he touched by the heavens’ anger and incurred the people’s resentment? That’s karma–everything comes back [eventually]…“ (OP)

ExR feels like a Buddhist mantra; Frontier Works is looking for 天罰 Divine Punishment.

Example 7

If it was the first, then all is well. then again, nobody doubts the fact that the Yiling Patriarch has the power to move mountains and empty seas. (ibid.)

前者なら皆歓声を上げ大喜びだが、夷陵老祖は天地をひっくり返し、山海を入れ替える程の力を持っていたのだーーあくまで噂だが。 (Frontier Works pg 12) If it is the former, everyone would raise their voices in cheer and great delight, but the Iryou patriarch had enough power to turn over heaven and earth, and swap mountains and seas—only [according to] rumor.

Ok, now Frontier Works is just slandering WWX’s credibility with subjunctives.

Example 8 (final)

More and more people were starting to believe that, maybe, the Yiling Patriarch actually perished. Even if he was capable of turning the world upside down, it was finally his turn to be toppled over. Nobody would remain at the top for all of eternity–legends are only legends. (ibid.)

その頃には、「実は魏無羨も噂ほどすごくはなかったかもしれない。やはり彼の魂は正真正銘、体とともに消滅したのだ」と多くの人々が信じるようになっていた。かつては手のひらを反すだけで天地を揺るがすほどだった男も、結局最後は自分がひっくり返される側になってしまったのだと。一人の人間が、永遠に神として崇められることなどない。伝説なんて、所詮ただのお伽噺にすぎないのだ。(Frontier Works pg. 12-13) By that point many people came to believe that Wei Wuxian probably wasn’t in fact as amazing as the rumors claimed; that his soul was genuinely destroyed along with his body. In the beginning, he was a man who could shake heaven and earth by merely turning over his hand, but in the end he was the one who got flipped over himself. A single person cannot be worshiped as a god for eternity. Legends, after all, are nothing more than fairy tales.

Note: That might be too Shinto: “God” doesn’t quite sit well with me. “Spirit” feels better? 天神？鬼神？天津神？邪神？荒神？This is all kind of relative to the kami’s relationship with humanity, after all. I’ll let the professional Japanologists and Sinologists fight that one out. Honestly, I’d love a recommendation for Chinese folklore resources.

Overall, I don’t think these deviations are necessarily “objectively bad”. Example 1 makes is a much better introduction of a character and his relevance than just blindly name dropping him and a relationship chart. I do quite like how the banter of the peanut gallery flows together. Other deviations go a little more heavy handed with the spiritual undercurrent. Is it just me or does this feel kind of Buddhist?