大学で日本語を勉強していた時、就職活動に対しては大学院生やジェットプログラムの参加者以外の勧告がなかった。先生たちも我々学生達のように迷い込んでいて、大学に残るという唯一の安全な選択肢を選んだじゃないかと思う。ご存じない方々に紹介すべかろう。ジェットプログラムは文部科学省が英語教育か文化交換のため外国人を輸入するプログラムなので、我々外国人の学部学生の中、競争が厳しく、落ちる可能性が高いものの、皆目指してみた。教育の方が入りやすくて日本語の一言も知らなくても入れると言われる。こういう参加者が日本のどんな学校でも送られる。万が一都市に設置された学校に就く。運転免許がないので公共交通のある都市へ行かせてくださいと面接で言ってしまった途端、落ちるなんて当然じゃないかと思って、結局落ちた。それにもうすぐ十年経って、今でも田舎の高等学校で英語教育をしているはずという夢を見る。否、「悪夢」というべき哉。
Corresponding ExR: Refinement part 1 FW pages 105-114
I have been on the fence about how to manage this one for agonizing months—perhaps over a year at this point. The way that Chinese works is, simply put, morpheme hell. Everything is a morpheme, sometimes bound, sometimes free, but morphemes don't obey the laws of parts of speech cleanly. And this is extra true for Classical Chinese—though I doubt MXTX was thinking that far ahead. (I'd be curious how much Classical Chinese is part of a standard Chinese school curriculum.)
I am reasonably convinced that the chapter title is probably a pun on the Lan clan motto: 雅正. Ya3zheng4 is a set phrase in Chinese, but utter nonsense in Japanese. According to Mandarin Bridge, it means “correct (literary) / upright / (hon.) Please point out my shortcomings. / I await your esteemed corrections.” However, if one were to dissect it, as one might expect to with Classical Chinese, we have [elegant]+[right]. Is 雅 an adjective or an adverb? Is 正 an adverb, an adjective, a noun, or even a verb? ExR translated this as simply “righteousness”; 7S as “Elegance and Righteousness”. Whatever the answer, 雅騒 ought to be parallel in its translation in order that the blatant allusion (i.e. the joke) lands. I'm going to play it safe for now but some potential alternatives I've workshopped thus far include:
This needs much more thought before I commit to anything.
If I'm starting to have one complaint here it's that Zheng sensei the translator is throwing in a good number of Chinese words and assuming you'll just know them or look em up. Perhaps this is the style of the genre. I don't know. I've not read many full length novels, much less Chinese style dramas, in JP yet. MXTX's writing is not a standard example of the Wuxia genre.
Some vocabulary from inline notes:
家規 kaki: an example of blatant Chinese, and means 家訓 “family precept”
簫 shou: Lan Xingchen's instrument. It looks like a recorder at clarinet scale.
清談会 seidankai: “A meeting where representatives of each cultivation clan assemble and hold a conference.” I do have to wonder if Qingdan has any relation to this process. From what we've seen, these conventions are mostly politicking meetings, not philosophy discussions.
藤草 fujibakama: thoroughwort. Eupatorium. The standard spelling is 藤袴. Why they chose to use a non-standard spelling is beyond me.
source: https://flower-photo.info/products/detail.php?product_id=111
The “Cloud Recesses” (some unknown place deep in the clouds) feels like it's probably a reference to something. I'm less sure “Lotus Pier” is but it's likely. I'd love for someone who can do primary source research to help me track down the references in the 3zun's names but that's way beyond my skill level.
ExR san, where did the Zen come from?
In such a tranquil place, one's heart would be still like water. Only the echoes of a bell tower could be heard vibrating through the air. Although it was incomparable to a holy temple, the cold mountains still send forth a lonesome air of Zen. (ExR)
山も人も、すべてが静けさに満ちていて、ここにいると凪いだ水面のように心が静まっていく。時折聞こえてくるのは高楼から響く鐘の音だけだ。寺院などではなく、一世家だが、ひっそりとして清澄な場所だ。(FW pg 104) The mountains and the people, everything was abundant with silence. Being here, one's heart would quiet like a calmed surface of water. Occasionally, the only thing one might hear is the sound of a bell echoing from a tall building. It wasn't a temple or anything, but rather the home of a prestigious family [another Chinese word]; it was a still, serene place.
“Morning reading” is clarified as “reading and sword practice”. Perhaps this is from watching too much anime, but whenever I see 結界 kekkai in a piece of text, I assume the “barrier” is magical rather than physical. That implication seems completely lost in ExR.
“It's all because of the unhealthy trend that the YiLing Patriarch started. There are so many people who copy him and cultivate that foolish method... (ExR)
Verdict: passable but I don't love it.
“It’s all the Yiling Patriarch’s fault for starting the trend with his evil craft. There are way too many people playing around with that senseless cultivation method of his…” (7S pg 121)
Verdict: absolutely not. You tried and got a rake to the face.
「あの夷陵老祖のせいで、邪道が流行りだして、真面目に修行しないで彼の真似をしようとする人があとを断ちません。... (FW pg 107) “It's all the Iryou Elder's fault that the unorthodox path is trending, and the [number of] people who try to imitate him without training seriously is without end.
This was a cute addition.
Each person wore the Lan Sect's uniform, with flowing, plain robes as white as snow. ほとんど藍家の雪のように白い校服を着ていて、皆落ち着いた雅な雰囲気を纏っている。(FW pg 108) They were mostly wearing the Lan household's uniform, white like snow, and were all clad in a calmed, elegant atmosphere.
Something I'd really love to know from someone who can do Chinese research better than I is how “Golden carp tower” came from 金麟台, because what's written here reads to me as “golden unicorn terrace”, even knowing that the golden carp legend is the same as the one surrounding Gyarados. I remember researching this once and Kotobank lead me to a fairly long poem about the construction of the Qilin Pavilion at Weiyang Palace 未央宮. I need to track that note-to-self down and post separately.
I can’t get over the image of LWJ’s clothes being a neat little block of tofu like at the grocery store.
The set of white clothes was folded extremely neatly, almost making one's hair rise. It looked like a snow-white piece of tofu—even the forehead ribbon was folded without any creases. (ExR)
その白い服は非常に几帳面に畳んであって、まるで真っ白い豆腐のようだ。しかも、抹額まで少しの歪みでもなくきっちりと畳まれていることに、思わず鳥肌が立ってしまう。(FW pg 113) Those white clothes were extremely meticulously folded, as if it were a pure white tofu. Moreover, even the headband was folded precisely without any distortions—so much so that it gave him goosebumps in spite of himself.
This was also a nice addition
The water in the spring was freezing. (ExR) 冷泉は肌を刺すような冷たさ... (FW pg 113) The cold spring had a skin piercing like chill...
Vibe check...
In the different sects, there was a type of discipline whip to punish disciples of that sect who made significant mistakes. After the torture, the scars wound never disappear. (ExR)
仙門には大罪を犯した門弟を懲罰する時に使う戒鞭（かいべん）というものがあって、ひとたびこれに打たれたら、その傷痕は永遠に消えない。 Among the cultivation world, there was a thing called a discipline whip which is used in order to punish disciples who had committed serious crimes. Each time one was struck by this, the scar would never disappear. (FW pg 113)
ExR: Arrogance Part 5 FW pg 93-104
The first thing that drew my eye was trying to figure out what Wen Ning is wearing in this scene. He’s described as wearing a 袍 hou, which is noted as 丈の長い上着 “an outer garment with a long length.” And in my brief half hour of research, I think I might be dealing with a false cognate here. Hou from my research on wikipedia and kotobank, are very specifically a type of outer garment generally warn by ancient nobility and some military officers as far back as the Nara period (710-794 CE). See item B below (reposted diagram of a 束帯Sokutai from Wikipedia. The hou is only a piece of the full getup.) They all have round collars. Many of them have raw edges in certain places where you would expect seams. Some of them also have an extra large decorative lower hem (this example does not).
Meanwhile Chinese 袍服 pao2fu2 does not point at a single garment (“generic robe”) so much as a category of garments with a particular style of construction: the whole thing is cut out of one piece of fabric (if I’m reading this correctly??). This garment style goes back as far as the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC – 256 BC). The round collar isn’t standard on the Chinese side the way it is on the Japanese side. Just based on the images it looks like a cross collar would be more common (which makes sense if you’re trying to minimize seams). Based on this discrepancy, I’m curious what novel-only Japanese fans would draw Wen Ning wearing. If only I had a twitter…
Fun trivia: The Japanese “kimono” is based on an 8th century CE style of pao2fu2.
Then again, as ExR states in their note about Jiang Cheng’s clothing—people draw him wearing whatever so don’t worry about it too much.
As I stated in Arrogance Part 4, I will be damned if I use “fierce corpse” for 凶屍 kyoushi and I refuse to use it. It just sounds dumb. I will not be doing a deep dive about the “fairies” in “fairies, beasts and evil spirits”, which FW translates as 妖獣と殺鬼 (“supernatural beasts and killer ghosts”).
Please allow me one dumb pun for WWX’s trashy flutestry—耳障り it’s ear-itating
Oyaji gyagu asside...
Now quotations. I swear I won’t be as long winded as last time.
One cultivator shouted at the top of his lungs, “Close in on him!” (ExR) 「奴を囲め！」と一人の修士が声を張り上げた。(FW pg 95) “Surround him [derogatory]!” one cultivator raised their voice.
Just a thought: 奴 yatsu could be any third person singular pronoun. “Surround him” is just as reasonable a conclusion as “Surround it”. I could envision the Cultivation World objectifying the poor guy after over a decade of our protagonist’s absence. “Close in on” is too verbose for a mob.
“Didn’t you bring signal firelights with you? Don’t you know to use them when you meet something like this? What are you pretending to be strong for? Scram over here!” (ExR) 「お前は信号弾を持っていなかったのか？あんな手強いモノが出てきたのになぜすぐに打ち上げない？無茶をするな、とっととこっちに来い！」(FW pg 97) “Didn’t you bring a signal flare? Why didn’t you use one when there was such a strong thing appeared? Don’t be so reckless, get your ass end over here right now!”
Ok, that’s embellished a little, but don’t tell me Jiang Cheng wouldn’t swear like that. “Scram over here” is just awkward. “Scram” is motion away from; “come here” is motion toward. This is contradictory.
In an instant, shock, disgust, anger, and disbelief all crossed Jiang Cheng’s face. (ExR) 一瞬にして、驚愕、憎悪、憤怒、そして信じられないという気持ちが胸の中で交錯し、混ざり合って江澄はきつく顔を顰める。(FW pg 98) In an instant, feelings of astonishment, abhorrence, indignation, and disbelief interlaced in his breast, blending together as Jiang Cheng severely scrunched his face.
Not saying ExR is wrong. Just that they could do better. If I really wanted to force the alliteration, I could go with “feelings of astonishment, abhorrence, anger, and apprehension”, or might need to think a little harder to find something else. I would prefer to use something a little stronger than “anger” for 憤怒 funnu, since 憤り ikidoori “resentment” came up a lot in the prior chapter, and I personally read it as foreshadowing for all the people who eventually got brutally murdered.
With an assured stroke, it was as if a rock had created thousands of waves in water. The sound of the zither had created countless ripples in the air, colliding with Zidian. The latter waned, and the former waxed. (ExR) Steadfast as he plucked the string, like a rock in a river rousing ripples, the sound undulated in the air. It clashed against the purple lightning, canceling the attack. (7S pg 111)
その指が弦を無造作に引くと、たった一つの石が千の波を引き起こすが如く琴の音は空気中にさざ波を無数に作り、紫電とぶつかり合って衝撃を相殺した。(FW pg 99) No sooner did his finger simply pluck the string, like a single stone bringing about a thousand waves, the sound of the koto made innumerable ripples through the air, colliding with Zuden and canceled out its impact.
Zidian=Zuden. ExR’s is the odd one out this time. I like 7S’s alliteration there.
With a slanting crack of his whip, Zidian slashed out with the semblance of a poisonous dragon, precisely landing on the center of his back! (ExR) He raised the whip and swung, and the purple lightning swam forth like a vicious dragon, striking him in the heart of his back! (7S pg 112)
…手を上げて鞭を斜めに振り下ろす。紫電はまるで毒龍の如く泳ぎ出し、ちょうど彼の背中に命中した。(FW pg 99) He raised his hand, and swung the whip down on a diagonal. Zuden swam forth just like a poisonous dragon, hitting him directly on the back.
Again, I like the Japanese best.
Lan WangJi, “…” Jiang Cheng, “…” He was both shocked and enraged… (ExR)
藍忘機は無言だった。江澄もしばし言葉を失っていたが、驚きのあまり急に怒鳴り声を上げた。(FW pg 100) Lan Wangji was silent. Jiang Cheng had also lost his words for a short while, but with great surprise he suddenly raised his voice in anger.
While there is a beauty to everyone saying “…”, there is better clarity making it a sentence.
In fact, the shout made Jiang Cheng, who cared about maintaining his reputation above anything else, unable to make another move. でないと紫電が虚名を博したことになる。面目を命と同じくらい大事にする江澄は、二度目を打つことはできなくなった。(FW pg 100) If he didn’t, he’d earn Zuden a false reputation. Jiang Cheng, who cherished face just as much as life, became unable to strike a second time.
hmm…
“In my opinion, he was probably bitter from being unable to cultivate using the correct method, he ventured off onto the wrong path.” (ExR)
ACCEPTABLE
“In my opinion, he was probably indignant at having failed in cultivating the orthodox path, and so he deviated. (7S pg 113)
ACCEPTABLE
私見ですが、おおかた彼は正道の修行に失敗し、腹いせに邪道に走ったのだと思われます。(FW pg 101) In my personal opinion, I think [humble] for the most part he failed at cultivating the orthodox path, so in retaliation he ran along the unorthodox path.
Don’t forget the passive can be used in active voice when you’re trying to be polite. “In my personal opinion, it is thought that…” is overly literal and a little nonsensical.
I’m translating the following two paragraph because there are 2 jukugo and 3 notes to trip over. Inline notes have been separated out.
Although he was infamous, people had to admit that, before the YiLing Patriarch Wei WuXian had betrayed the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he was known for being a handsome young man and a refined cultivator skilled in the six arts. He ranked the fourth among all of the young masters in the cultivation world, being described as lively and cheerful. On the other hand, the ill-tempered Sect Leader Jiang ranked five, surpassed by him, so most people weren’t so bold as to mention the matter. Wei Ying was a frivolous and wanton person who loved to have tangled ties with pretty girls. Nobody knew how many female cultivators he had troubled with his charms, but it was yet unheard of that he was also attracted to men. (ExR)
そもそも、現在の評判は良くないとはいえ、夷陵老祖魏無羨がまだ雲夢江氏から離反する前、彼は美男子として広く知られていた。六芸を見事にこなす風雅な名士として、世家公子の風格容貌格づけても第四位だったことは認めざるを得ない。世間の人々は、彼のことを口々に「豊神俊朗」と称賛したーーだが気性の激しい江宗主は第五位で、魏無羨に負けていたので、余計に話を持ち出すのは憚れた。 魏嬰は軽佻浮薄で美しい女性と遊ぶことが何よりも大好きで、いったいどれほど多くの仙子たちがこの遊び人に泣かされてきたか知れない。だが、彼が男も好きだったという話は今まで誰も聞いたことがなかった。(FW pg 101-102) One could say that presently he didn’t have a good reputation to speak of in the first place, but before the Iryou Elder Wei Wuxian defected from the Unbou Jiang clan, he was known far and wide as a handsome man. As a refined personage who was splendidly accomplished in the six arts^1, one could not help but acknowledge him as ranking fourth among all the young masters of the cultivation world in terms of personality and appearance. The public unanimously admired him as beauteous and vivacious^2.–but Sect leader Jiang who had a viscous temperament ranked fifth, and because he lost to Wei Wuxian, was afraid of what others might think if he broached the subject too much. Wei Ying was frivolous and loved nothing more than playing with beautiful women, and it cannot be known just how many senshi^3 were made to cry by this playboy. But to this day no one had ever heard that he also liked men.
And those notes:
六芸：身分のある者に必要とされた技芸で、礼儀・音楽・弓術・馬術・書道・算術のこと Six arts: arts necessary for any person of social standing, i.e. etiquette, music, archery, equestrianism, calligraphy, arithmetic.
豊神俊朗：顔が美しく朗らかで生き生きとしていること Houshin shunrou: someone with a beautiful face, cheerful, and lively
仙子：仙門に所属し、仙術を修行する女性の敬称 Senshi: a title of honor given to women affiliated with the cultivation world and practice cultivation.
Cf. ExR’s notes via English Wikipedia: Rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, mathematics. Japanese Wikipedia says something different. With regard to the Six Arts, Japanese Wikipedia says:
六芸（りくげい、六藝）は、中国の古代において二つの異なる意味で使われた。一つは儒教の六つの経典で、六経ともいい、五経とほぼ同じ意味である。もう一つは周の時代に教えたとされる六つの技芸である。まれに「ろくげい」と読む。本項では後者について解説する。 Six Arts (rikugei) has two different definitions with regard to ancient China. The first is the six Confucian sacred texts, also called rikukei, and has about the same meaning as gokei (“the five classics”). The other is six arts taught during the Zhou dynasty. Rarely read “rokugei”. This article explains the latter.
Later in the article it swaps out 馬術 “equestrianism” for 馬車を操る術 “technique for manipulating a horse-drawn vehicle”. That sounds a lot more like “charioteering” to me. (If anyone else wants to get lost on Wikipedia, the reason there are five Confucian Classics instead of six is because the “Rites of Zhou” is considered apocryphal.)
Also throwing this out there, “whether a human or a god” is usually “human or buddha”, but I’m not going to argue too much here. God is an acceptable substitute for Buddha, considering the source culture is Buddhist influenced and the target culture is Christian influenced.
Ok 2 last things…
His face was emotionless. “Mark your words.” (ExR) “As you say,” he said expressionlessly. (7S pg. 117) しかし、藍忘機はその言葉を聞いて、無表情のまま体ごと魏無羨の方を向いた。 「言ったな」 (FW pg 104) However Lan Wangji heard what he said, and turned his whole body to face Wei Wuxian without expression. “You said it.”
What he says in Japanese is really just “say-[perfect aspect]”. Everything else is completely subjective to the translator and I my gut feeling is that Chinese is not that different in this particular case. You could translate this a dozen different ways and they’d all be correct.
Because you asked, it’s 私 watashi because he’s a very polite stick in the mud. And it’s even more obvious retrospectively that Lan Wangji had significant influence in Lan Sizhui’s life because he also uses the same pronoun. Everyone else is an 俺 ore. If you haven’t watched enough anime to know the semantic differences between those, I’m sure you can find it in like 3 clicks. I don’t have time to write that essay. If I did, I’d make a separate post and it’d probably be 20 pages about the semantics of gender and pronouns in Japanese and how much can change on a dime.
Ok that should do it for my tumblr backlog.
ExR trans: Arrogance Part 4 FW pages 81-93
I am not a comparative religion expert, and I make no pretense of it. I’m just someone who reads Wikipedia too much.
観音 Kannon = Guan1yin1 = Avalokiteśvara, one of the most popular bodhisattvas in all of Buddhism. Bodhisattvas are people who have achieved Buddhist enlightenment but decided to stick around to help others achieve enlightenment too. Much like other Indian theological figures, they can have many forms, so what ExR says in their notes is not entirely correct. It just so happens that Avalokiteśvara in art tends to have more masculine depictions while Guanyin has more feminine depictions, but they’re not mutually exclusive. Further readings Seriously, I type in 男姿の観音 (“male kannon”) and the first result is a photo gallery of a master Buddha sculptor in Kyoto, Japan.
九天玄女 Kytuuten gen'nyo = Jiu3tian1 Xuan2nü3 = Dark lady of nine heavens 7S readers, I highly recommend you pencil in some umlauts on pages 90 and 388. I know that English is allergic to diacritics, but this one is important. “nu” and “nü” are totally different sounds. The Dark Lady of Nine Heavens is a figure in Chinese folklore described as an immortal in Daoism and a goddess elsewhere. As stated, Xuannü presides over war, sex, and longevity, a la wikipedia. Not sure where 7S got “protectress of the nation” but I’m going to chalk that up to them doing more primary source research than I did. The big story mentioned on Wikipedia revolves around her being a mentor to the Yellow Emperor, who has a long list of accomplishments as a mythological figure in his own right. Xuannü is the elder sister of 九天素女 jiu3tian1 su4nü3/kyuuten sojo, the Pure Lady of Nine Heavens, another music and sex deity. There’s a third sister mentioned on the English page but somehow not the Japanese or Chinese pages, cai4nü3 彩女, the Colorful Lady. I think she must be better known by another name, since I’m not getting any search results. Japanese wiki also links back to a few more literary appearances of Xuannü: in 12th century Chinese literary classic Water Margin 水滸傳 shui3hu3zhuan4/suikoden (chapter 41), 16th century novel The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt 三遂平妖傳 san1 sui4 ping2 yao1 chuan2, and 18th century Japanese travelogue Journey to the East 東遊記, touyuuki (yes, that’s blatant literary homage to Journey to the West 西遊記 xi1you2ji4/saiyuuki) Further reading on Jiutian Xuannü I’m not linking the Taoist sexual practices page… you go look that up on Wiki yourself.
玉皇大帝 gyokukoutaitei = yu4huang2da4di4 = Jade emperor Basic reading material here. The Jade Emperor is a deity in both Chinese folklore and Daoism. Most of you are probably reading TGCF. If you’re curious enough to look up Junwu as a mythological figure, I won’t be redundant. It is strange to me that FW defines him as a 神 kami. Daoism doesn’t seem to be keen on gods, I thought? I really need to do some further reading…
Note to self: I need to read the Classic of Mountains and Seas at some point. It was quoted at the beginning of every segment of Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow, and I was really curious about it back then, and I am even more now.
ExR uses “Erjin temple” but FW just uses 寺院 jiin. They’re totally different words. Erjin temples, as ExR notes, are a specific kind of temple built well into the mountains. I’m still not sure what the base word is to back check a Chinese dictionary whether it’s a term affiliated with a particular religion or not. Jiin appears to be a catch all for Buddhist temples. “A building in which statues of Buddha are enshrined, where monks/nuns live, where religious worship, training, and ceremonies are performed.” The Encyclopedia Nipponica has a long article on word origin and usage of each of those characters, 寺 ji and 院 in respectively, and their usage differences between India, China, and Japan, and I will stop myself from going on that tangent here.
Customary units of measure are a trip. It’s one of those things that changes based on your location and time period. 1 丈 zhang4/jou = 10 尺 chi3/shaku. The Dancing Devi is about “3 丈” tall. Is this thing really 3 meters/9.84 ft tall in traditional units?
Some references for metrics
Jin Ling insults the thing anyway.
“Powerless goddess without status” (ExR) “some nameless rogue deity” (7S pg. 92) 聞いたこともない野良神 (FW pg. 83) “a stray deity I've never even heard of”
Not to be confused with the manga by the same name. 野良 nora is the “stray” you’d use for “stray cat”. I’m giving this one to 7S.
Also! ExR, with all due respect, your use of idiom leaves much to be desired. There are some phrases which inexplicably happen to be near identical across multiple languages. “Strike while the iron is hot” is one of them. “[Kill] two birds with one stone” is another. Why is this footnoted?
The townspeople of Buddha’s Feet were all astonished and thought that it was a magical stone formed by gathering he energy of heaven and earth… (ExR)
佛脚鎮の人々は非常に驚き、これは天地の霊力が結集した神の石だと信じて…… (FW pg 81) The people of Buddha’s Leg Garrison were extremely surprised–they believed that this was a stone deity concentrated from the spiritual power of heaven and earth…
ExR you are dropping adjectives again…
What happens in the cave had enough differences on both sides I got thrown off a few times.
With a few shings, everyone in the cave had either drawn their swords or taken out their talismans. At the same time, a person suddenly burst in from outside the temple, holding a gourd of medicinal alcohol. He threw it toward the stone statue, and raging flames sprouted from it, illuminating the stone cave so that it could even pass for daytime. … Before, the statue clearly had one foot lifted and both of its arms raised upward, of which one was pointing directly at the sky, its form graceful. However, amid the crimson and yellow flames, it had lowered both its arms and its foot. there was no doubt–it definitely wasn’t a mistake of the eye! (ExR)
石窟の中の者たちがそれぞれ剣を抜いたり、呪符を取り出したりする音が響く。ちょうどその時、祠の外から突然誰かが駆け込んできて、薬酒入りのひょうたんを天女像に向かってぶちまけた。石窟の中は、たちまちむせかえるような強烈な酒気で満ち溢れる。その男が呪符を一枚取り出して素早く石像に投げつけると、神座の上の石像から轟々と烈火が燃え上がり、石窟の中をまるで昼間のように照らした。 … 先ほどまで石像の両腕は上がっていた。片方の腕は天を指し、足も片方だけ上げていて、その姿はなんともなまめかしく色気があった。それが、今や炎の中のその手足はすべて下ろされている。決して見間違いなどではない！(FW pg 83-84) The sound of the folks in the cavern drawing their swords or pulling out talismans resounded. At that very moment, someone from outside the shrine suddenly rushed in, turned a gourd filled with medicinal alcohol toward the celestial maiden statue, and dumped out its contents. The inside of the cave was flooded with the overpowering smell of liquor as though it was choked all at once. That man pulled out a talisman, and no sooner did he promptly throw it toward the stone statue, conflagration erupted thunderously from the stone statue on the altar*, illuminating the inside of the cavern as though it were daytime. … Up until this point, the stone statue had both arms raised. One arm pointed toward the heavens, and it lifted both feet and just that one arm; and its form was really crudely adorned, and had sex appeal. Now, amongst the flames its limbs were all lowered. There was absolutely no mistaking it.
神座 shinza isn’t quite an altar. It’s the part of the shrine where the “god” “sits”. There’s no snappy one-to-one English word that I know of. I no longer recall if I had said so in a previous post, but part of the reason I go back and forth between “Celestial Maiden” and “Devi” is because of the donghua’s interpretation of this statue having extra body parts the way an Indian depiction of a many formed non-human being would. I also like the alliteration of “dancing devi”. You could argue 色気 iroke is “grace” but that’s not the first definition of the word. According to Jisho.org, “grace” number 4. The extra olfactory imagery combined with the more powerful flame imagery of the Japanese I think sets the scene a little better. I would like to know what happened to the “crimson and yellow” flames, but alas. You could also argue I under translated 見間違い mimachigai by not specifically including the explicit visual factor 見 mi. “Misjudgment” didn’t feel right; “mistake of vision” was too verbose. I’d have to think a lot longer to come up with something better, but I still have a ton more quotations to go through.
Lan JingYi’s face was pale with terror… (ExR)
蘭景儀が死んだような顔をした。(FW pg 85) Lan Jingyi made a face like he had died.
Poor kid
“…Dead souls are a lot easier to absorb than living souls… This creature only eats living souls, and knows of a way to obtain them. It is both powerful and selective in terms of food.”
死霊の魂は生霊の魂よりも遥かに吸い取られやすい…それなのに、あの天女像は簡単に食べられる死霊の魂じゃなくて、わざわざ生霊の魂だけを選ぶような偏食だ。(FW pg 86) The soul of a spirit of the dead is by and far much easier to absorb than the soul of a spirit of the living…Despite that, that devi statue appears to be a picky eater who chooses not the souls of dead spirits which it could simply eat, but only souls of the living, on purpose.
I need to revise my glossary yet again. The last time I saw 生霊 ikiryou, I thought WWX was talking about astral projection. A “Wraith” is “an apparition of someone that is believed to appear as a portent just before that person’s death.” (Wordnik.com) so I thought it might line up nicely. I was wrong.
Also at some point in this discussion, around page 88ish, they stop using plain old 魂 tamashii to describe what the Dancing Devi consumed and switch over to 魂魄 konpaku, which, if I’m reading this Wikipedia page correctly, has different theological implications. TLDR Chinese spiritualities postulate that you don’t have just one soul, but several, and they come in two varieties: 魂 hun2 is connected to human mental capacities while 魄 po4 pertains more to the flesh. You can have multiples of each. When you die, 魂 hun2 separates from 魄 po4, which is why your spirit wanders off but your corpse remains.
“Wait, so you’re really not a lunatic?” (ExR) 「ちょっと待てよ⁉あんた、本当は阿保じゃなかったのか⁉」 (FW pg 86)
No, he’s not a simpleton either.
Lan JingYi, “All of these are just your guesses, right?” (ExR) 「そりゃそうだけど。でもこのまま仮説を立て続ければ、きっとすべての辻褄が合うはずだ。」 (FW pg. 88) “That may be so. But if you keep raising hypotheses like this, they should all be consistent eventually.”
They better be given how much text I’m rekeying.
The goddess statue was originally just an average rock which happened to look like a person. Having accepted a few hundred years’ worth of worship without any reason, it had gained some powers. Yet, because it was greedy and its thoughts ventured off the wrong path, it had wanted to quickly increase its powers by eating souls. …the creature in Dafan Mountain wasn’t any sprite, demon, ghost, or monster, but a goddess! This was an untitled goddess born from the hundreds of years of incense. Using the items used to deal with evil spirits and beasts to deal with it would be like using fire to distinguish [sic] fire! (ExR)
天女像は、たまたま人間の姿に似ていたため、奇しくも数百年も祀られ続け力を得たが、もともとただの石の塊でしかなかった。しかし非常に欲深い天女像はいつからか魔が差して、信じ難いことに魂魄を吸って食べることによって力をさらに増幅させようと目論んだようだ。……大梵山にいる怪異の正体は、妖魔鬼怪の類ではなく、神だったのだから！ 食魂天女は、数百年にわたって祀られてきた野良神のなれの果てだ。だから、殺鬼や妖獣を退治するためのものを使って戦うのは火で火を消そうとするのも同然だ！(FW pg 89) The devi statue miraculously gained power through continued worship over several hundred years due to the fact that it somewhat resembled a human, but originally it was nigh but a clump of rock. However, the extremely greedy devi statue at some point succumbed [to its greed], and as hard as it is to believe, appears to have schemed to magnify its power even more by consuming souls… Because the true face of the mystery of Mount Daibon was not some type of creature, demon, ghost, or monster, but a deity! The soul eating devi was a shadow of its former self–a stray deity worshiped over hundreds of years. So fighting it by using thing for exorcising killers or beasts would be no different from trying to extinguish fire with fire!
When I first saw “ventured onto the wrong path” I was a little nervous we might have another questionable compound ending with ending 道. It didn’t quite go where I thought it would. On the other side of this equation is 魔が差す ma ga sasu, an idiom both containing a key word, 魔=demon, and meaning “to be possessed by an evil spirit” as definition number one. I liked definitions two and three better, “to give in to an urge, to succumb to temptation”, and I would also like to emphasize there’s absolutely no way this stone statue could ever be a “demon,” as per the definition of which in Chapter 4, given that it was “originally a clump of rock”. 妖魔鬼怪 youmakikai isn’t a word in Japanese, but yao1mo2gui3guai4 is in Chinese, and there’s a set translation for it. Without the context of Chapter 4, I would ascertain ExR is overtranslating 妖魔鬼怪, but with that context, taking it one character at a time is perfectly fine. I’m using my own and totally ignoring ExR’s note. There’s genuinely no satisfying way to parse 妖 you (ayakashi)/yao1, and as far as I know, there aren’t enough examples of them in this novel to even bother trying. I’m not typing up the whole paragraph from 7S but they use nefarious being for 妖魔鬼怪 and malicious spirits for 殺鬼や妖獣. I see why they might have done that (e.g. lack of context) but I do not agree.
Wei WuXian couldn’t help but to comment, “Why are you blindly worshiping him? Even his own inventions were a mess! (ExR) Wei Wuxian replied helplessly, “What are you blindly believing ion him for? Anything he came up with was utter bullshit. (7S pg 100)
「あんな奴の言葉なんてむやみに信じるなよ。あいつは自分のことすらちゃんとできない、めちゃくちゃな人間だからな！(FW pg 90-91) “Don’t believe whatever that [sort of] guy says so indiscriminately! He [derogatory] was a mess of a man who couldn’t even take care of himself properly!
The reason I bring this one up is because I’m not sure exactly where his “inventions” comes from? It is bothering me.
To extinguish fire, water was needed. Therefore, if magical weapons didn’t work, what about dark sorcery? (ExR)
DISAGREE
You need water to extinguish fire. If spiritual devices wouldn’t work, then how about demonic tricks?! (7S pg 101)
DISAGREE
火を消すには水を、仙門法器がダメなら、邪門鬼道の技を使うしかない！(FW pg 93) To extinguish fire, [missing verb] water; if the tools of the trade of the school of cultivation were no good, then one could only use the techniques of the evil school of the ghost path!
I’m being overly literal with 仙門法器 senmon houki for the sake of a parallel structure that’d otherwise be dropped entirely, because I thought it was cleverly worded. For the record’s sake, these are totally made up strings of characters. They’re not real words. I have to do mental back flips to make them real words. Break down as follows. Translation… is pain.
This should have been a last resort for him, but however, with the situation already like this, it didn’t matter what he summoned. It’d be fine as long as the dark energy was strong enough and the killing intent was keen enough, so that it could rip the soul-consuming goddess into pieces! (ExR) He shouldn’t have done this unless it was absolutely necessary. But with things as they were, he no longer cared hat was summoned, as long as it was murderous enough and vengeful enough. As long as it could rip apart the soul-eating Heavenly Maiden, it was good enough! (7S pg 102)
万策尽きるまで、この手を使うつもりはなかった。だがこうなったら、どんなモノが召喚されてももう構わない。邪気が強く凶暴で、あの食魂天女をズタズタに引きちぎってくれるモノであれば！(FW pg 92) He didn’t plan on using this tactic until all other means were exhausted. But at this point he didn’t care what sort of thing he summoned. As long as it was something with strong malice and ferocious, that could tear that soul-eating devi to pieces!
I really don’t like ExR’s “dark energy”. 7S is a little more piecemeal than FW’s is, but it’s certainly closer to my back translation.
The word only referred one person—the right-hand man of the YiLing Patriarch Wei Ying, who had helped with the tyrant’s crimes, stirred upwind and waves, played the jackal to the tiger, overturned the world with him, and most of all was a fierce corpse who should have been turned into ashes a long time ago—Wen Ning! (ExR)
この単語を指すのはただ一人。それは夷陵老祖魏嬰の第一の手下で、彼の悪逆を助けて騒ぎを引き起こした共犯者であり、天地を覆すほどの力を持ち、とうの昔に焼き払われ灰にされたはずの凶屍――温寧！ (FW pg 93) This word referred to only one person. That was the Iryou elder Wei Ying’s number one subordinate, the accomplice who assisted his atrocities and provoked uproars, a revenant who had the power to overthrow heaven and earth, and who was supposed to have been burnt to the ground and reduced to ashes–Wen Ning!
As stated in the above post, I will be damned if I ever use “fierce corpse”; it sounds dumb. Interesting turn of phrase there in the ExR translation but I’m not sure what exactly it’s pointing at. Maybe that was an addition on their side? 焼き払われ灰にされた is pretty redundant, and if I wasn’t back translating most of the time, I would have dropped one of them.
Li Bai (701–762) is a Tang dynasty poet known for a) mundanity and b) embracing the booze. I’m not saying his entire body of work expresses his ideal world is best seen through beer goggles, but being at least tipsy is definitely a recurring theme… Hu2si1 (JP: Kokushi) san1ren2 is a hermit friend of Li Bai. That is all the information I can find on him. (The dictionary entry for 道士 doushi covers both Daoists and Buddhists, so without Chinese reference material, I’m at a loss as to which is correct.) Li Bai was also friends with Du Fu. Extremely influential guy. I’m doing a fabulously poor job of introducing him. I’m also too lazy to look up a date for this poem. Honestly the only reason I’ve translated this at all is because it comes up as a citation for 忘機 bouki/wang4ji1. As much as I’ve stared at this, I don’t love this translation. I could do better. Source text from here.
Classical Chinese
暮從碧山下 Dusk descends from the verdant mountain 山月隨人歸 The mountain and moon follow people home 卻顧所來徑 Yet looking back upon the road I just came down 蒼蒼橫翠微 A green mountainscape lies hazily ahead 相攜及田家 Carrying each other to reach rice paddies and houses 童稚開荊扉 Children open briar doors 綠竹入幽徑 Green bamboo enters the secluded path 青蘿拂行衣 Fresh ivy* brushes my travel clothes 歡言得所憩 Joyful words acquire a place to rest 美酒聊共揮 Fine liquor passes around as we chat together 長歌吟松風 We sing long songs to the pines and wind 曲盡河星稀 Melodies exhausted the river and stars are rare 我醉君復樂 I’m drunk you keep having a good time 陶然共忘機 Tipsy together we forget worldly concerns
*青 qing1 is usually blue but it describes “green” plants. I’m using “fresh” to not be redundant. I’ve looked at four dictionaries for what plant 蘿 luo2 could be. Lin Yutang says “turnip,” Mandarin Bridge says “radish,” Denshi jisho says “moss” or “ivy.” The “modern Japanese” translation below uses “ivy” so I will too. And image searching just gives me a strange assortment of plants and cartoon women.
I’m not translating the Classical Japanese on this one because it makes several choices I disagree with.
來る所の徑を卻顧すれば would make more sense as 来る所の徑を却って顧みれば even if it sounds a little repetitive. 卻顧 is not a word as far as my usual dictionaries tell me. I don’t like the way 6 lines (童稚 through 長歌) have an unnecessary space after the first two characters. Just add a comma! 美酒 聊か共に揮ふ I propose 聊 is a verb here, not an adverb. 陶然として共に機を忘れん I’ll take “pleased+thus” as “tipsy” but I think separating 忘機 into 機を忘れん is a bit much? I’m hard pressed to find a definition of 機 that even makes sense. It’s a “loom”; it’s a “machine”. It can be stretched into “opportunity”, “impetus”, the “inner workings” of something either physical or abstract, like the heart. bangs head on desk
Here’s the Modern Japanese translation
日暮れに碧山から下ってくると、 山月も我々についてくる、 下りてきた道を振り返れば、薄暗い山中に道がぼんやりと続いて見える 君と連れ立って田家につけば、子どもらが門を開けて迎えてくれた、緑の竹が幽徑まで生い茂り、青いツタが我が衣にまとわりつく 談笑しながら体を休めるところを得て、ともに美酒を酌み交わそう、松風に乗せて長々と歌を歌い、歌い終われば天の川もかすかになる 私は酔った、君もまた楽しめ、この境地に遊んでつまらぬことは忘れよう
Whenever we descend from the verdant mountain at dusk, The mountain and moon both come with us If we turn back to look at the path we’ve come down, We can see the path continues hazily into the gloomy mountains Accompanying you when we reach rice paddies and houses, Children open their gates to welcome us Green bamboo grows on even secluded paths Fresh ivy clings to my robes We acquire a place to rest our bodies while in pleasant conversation Lets pour drinks from this fine liquor together Singing songs for a long time on the [sound of] wind blowing through pine trees When we’re done singing the milky way grows faint I’m drunk, you keep having a good time Let’s stay like this for a while and forget about boring things
Absolutely bold take there proposing that 機 worldly affairs =つまらぬこと boring things
Alternative translations * https://www.istudy-china.com/li-bai-descending-zhongnan-mountain-and-meeting-si-the-hermit-with-english-translations/ * https://allpoetry.com/Down-Zhongnan-Mountain-
Yueyang tower is a major tourist destination on the shores of Lake Dongting, Yueyang City, Hunan province, China. Further Reading
Source text from this website. I’ve swapped out the Japanese specific variants for their traditional Chinese counterparts. According to the summary notes, apparently there’s a civil war going on around the time of composition, very likely the An Lushan rebellion of 755-763 CE. One of the alternative English translations below alleges the date of composition of this poem around the last 3 years of his life, so it’d have been around 767 CE when he finally got to tour this place.
Classical Chinese
昔聞洞庭水 今上岳陽楼 吳楚東南坼 乾坤日夜浮 親朋無一字 老病有孤舟 戎馬關山北 憑軒涕泗流
Long ago I heard about the waters of Dongting Now I ascend Yueyang tower Wu and Chu split east and south Heaven and earth float there day and night Not a word from my friends or relatives Old age and illness make for a lonely boat War horses close off the mountain’s north [side] I lean on the railing; tears and snot stream [down my face]
Classical Japanese translation
昔聞く洞庭の水 今上る岳陽楼 呉楚東南に坼（さ）け 乾坤（けんこん）日夜浮かぶ 親朋（しんほう）一字無く 老病孤舟（こしゅう）有り 戎馬（じゅうば）関山の北 軒（けん）に憑（よ）って涕泗（ていし）流る
No major differences between this and the above.
Modern Japanese translation
昔から、洞庭湖の水の美しさを耳にしてきたが（願いがかなって）今まさに（湖を見渡せる）岳陽楼に登っている。 呉の国と楚の国は、この湖によって東と南に隔てられ 天と地が、水面に、日夜を問わず浮かんでいる。 親戚、友人からは一通の手紙も無く 年老いて病である私には、１そうの小船があるだけである。 関山の北では、戦いが続いているが 軒に寄りかかって故郷を思うと、涙が流れてくるばかりだ。
I’ve heard about the beauties of the water of Lake Doutei since long ago but now (my wish is granted and) I’m just about to climb Gakuyourou (which overlooks the lake). The countries of Go and So are separated by the lake east and south Heaven and earth are floating on the water’s surface regardless of whether it’s day or night. I haven’t received a single letter from my friends or relatives, so for me who is old and infirm, there is but one small boat. To the north of the closed off mountain pass, the war continues, but as I lean against the eaves and think about my hometown, all I can do is cry.
Other people's translations * https://eastasiastudent.net/china/classical/du-fu-yueyang-tower/ * https://frankwatsonpoet.com/du-fus-climbing-yueyang-tower-300-tang/
Corresponding ExR: Arrogance part 3 FW pages 73-81
三毒 san1du2 (jp: sandoku) “Three poisons”–the name of Jiang Cheng’s sword. Explanation from Wikipedia. (There’s more Buddhism in this book more thank I expected.)
In the Buddhist teachings, the three poisons (of ignorance, attachment, and aversion) are the primary causes that keep sentient beings trapped in samsara (cycle of reincarnation).“
忘機 wang4ji1 (jp: bouki) “To be free of worldly concerns”–the name of Lan Wangji and his qin. Explanation thread from Taming Wangxian (I'd love to get my hands on their translation if anyone has, but that seems like a hell of a long shot at this point). According to the Fukyuuban jitsu via Kotobank, there’s a Li Bai 李白 poem I should take a look at, 下終南山過斛斯山人宿置酒 “descending the Zhongnan mountains, passing by Husi sanren’s inn, and preparing wine for dinner”. I will translate this in a separate post.
沢蕪君 takubukun = zewujun. I’d love to know about why Lan Xichen is lord swamp turnip. There’s clearly some sort of Daoist textual reference I’m missing, but I would not know where to even start looking for that.
梢頭 shoutou “outermost edge of the treetops”. Adding this because I could only find it in a kokugo dictionary.
乾坤袋 kenkonbukuro “qiankun bag”. Firstly I’m surprised that the more common character for “bag” is used here, as opposed to 嚢 (because of 鎖霊嚢 sareinou “chained spirit bag” last time). Secondly, 乾坤 kenkon is actually translatable. “Heaven and earth”, “yin and yang”, “the universe”, “Northwest and southwest”. The Fukyuuban jitsu even leads me to a Du Fu poem, 登岳陽楼 “Climbing Yueyang tower”, which I will also translate in another post. It seems to be a term used in religion and mysticism but my preliminary research doesn’t point to any one belief in particular. Baike points me at Daoism. Other sources point at the I Ching, which isn’t necessarily a Daoist text; it appears to be an unaffiliated mystic text in that it predates other religions or major philosophies. I’ve also seen it as part of the names of some Buddhist temples. (I found a translation+commentary in the library of the I Ching and I am utterly terrified. It's enormous! At least 700 pages with a hard cover.)
照妖鏡 shouyoukyou demon reflecting illuminating mirror I’ll give ExR a pass because Mandarin bridge says 照 zhao4 can mean “to reflect”. Japanese carries no such meaning. To reflect in a mirror is 映る utsuru.
燃陰符 nen'infu gloom yin burning talisman, which burns dark yin energy. (This is a straight up mistake from overtranslation.)
Don’t think I don’t print out a chapter of Exiled Rebels every weekend to not scrawl all over it with a red pen. You better believe I’m fixing it, and I will be fixing my Seven Seas books on the reread too!
Moving onward to quotations…
Also, Jiang Cheng’s sword, “Sandu,” had never made actual contact with Lan WangJi’s sword, “Bichen,” and it was not yet decidable whose hands would the deer die on. (ExR)
それに、江澄の剣「三毒」は蘭忘機の剣「避塵」とまだ一度も正式に手合わせをしたこともなく、どちらが上かわからない。(FW pg. 74) Besides, Jiang Cheng’s sword “sandu” had never formally contested Lan Wangji’s sword “bichen”, so [missing subject] did not know which was better.
ExR, there was no good reason to foot note this idiom.
As Wei WuXian pulled the corners of his mouth, Lan WangJi spoke again, “Do your tasks.” The command was simplistic and clear, without any fancy vocabulary for decoration.
魏無羨も口角を少し上げると、意外にも蘭忘機が口を開いた。 「――夜狩だ」 その一言は簡潔明瞭で、飾り気のない言葉だった。(FW pg. 75) No sooner did Wei Wuxian raise the corners of his mouth, Lan Wangji unexpectedly opened his mouth. “–[We’re] night hunting.” That brief comment was clear and concise, and candid.
From what I can see here, 飾り気のない kazarike no nai is a set phrase in Japanese, but ExR either doesn’t have the same circumstances or they’re taking it overly literally. 飾り気 kazarike means “affectation, pretense,” or, literally, “decorated atmosphere”, therefore “without pretense” = “candid, plain, unaffected, frank, unpretentious”. If I shove it into Chinese-Japanese weblio, I get 直性子 zhi2xing4zi5 which is borderline nonsense when I shove that back through Mandarin Bridge. What it suggests instead is 直腸子 zhi2chang2zi5, a forthright person, or literally 直 zhi2 “straight” + 性子 xing4zi5 “temper”. Meanwhile the example sentence is 私は飾り気のない人が好きだ = 我喜欢直爽的人 = “I like straightforward people.” 直爽 zhi2shuang3 is at least a word I can look up! I really need a better Japanese<>Chinese dictionary.
Continuing that scene…
After a moment, Lan WangJi spoke again, “Do what you can. Don’t force anything.” (ExR)
しばらくして、蘭忘機は言い渡した。 「全力を尽くしなさい。だが、無理は禁物だ。」(FW pg. 75) After a bit, Lan Wangji ordered: “Do your best. But, excess ought to be avoided.”
Truth be told I didn’t realize 全力を尽くす zenryoku wo tsukusu and 頑張る ganbaru were synonyms. Now I know. Now you know.
The voice was deep and alluring. (ExR) His voice was deep and captivating. (7s pg 85) 彼の声が低く重厚で… (FW pg 75) His voice was low and profound…
Is the Chinese narrator trying to say “masculine timbre” = “sexy” to WWX-who-is-definitely-not-attracted-to-men-at-this-time? From what I can tell, the Japanese narrator is trying to establish a characterization here. LWJ is a solemn, composed, and dignified ideal Confucian gentleman. I always imagine him as a man of few words, and when he does speak, it’s generally not much louder than a whisper, since he rarely raises his voice at anyone.
He couldn’t let a single grain of sand appear in his eyes, which was why he had never approved of Wei WuXian cultivating the dark path. (ExR)
Verdict: Disagree
Back then, he’d been extremely against Wei Wuxian cultivating the demonic path. (7S pg. 84)
Verdict: DISAGREE
間違いは決して見逃さず、魏無羨が鬼道を修練することに関しても強く反対していた。(FW pg. 76) He absolutely would not turn a blind eye toward a single mistake, and strongly opposed anything concerning Wei Wuxian cultivating the ghost path.
The above should speak for itself. Good grief…
Ever since then, he had reminded himself of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect’s motto—do it even if it was impossible. 雲夢江氏のあの家訓を忘れるな――「成せぬと知りても、為さねば成らぬ」と。(FW pg. 78) Don’t forget that Unbou Jiang clan family motto–“Even if you know you cannot succeed, if you don’t try it won’t happen.”
In case this one made your head spin, let’s go through the entry for nasu. 為す is just the verb “to do”. It’s spelled that way because sometimes Classical Chinese uses 為 wei2 as the verb “to do”. (為 tame “purpose” is derived from 為 wei4.) From there you can also extrapolate “to perform, to attempt” as secondary definitions. Meanwhile 成す is the transitive of “to become” which in turn becomes “to make something thus, to form, to succeed at, to accomplish”. They’re going heavy handed with the classical here. To make this easier to parse, in modern Japanese you’d read it 「なせないと知っても、なさなければ、ならない」と。That make more sense?
Back on tumblr i had a really long meandering post about trying to parse out some glossary terms for this section that really didn't work out well and I still haven't figured out how to repost it in a clear, concise manner. That having been said, the following are based on my attempts to hash out that glossary so every type of beast or spirit introduced has a unique entry.
It lit up as soon as it was taken out, meaning that there was a spirit not far away from Wei Wuxian. (ExR)
取り出してすぐ火についたというのは、近くに陰霊がいるということだ。(FW pg 79) Catching fire as soon as it was taken out mean that there was a shade nearby.
As much as every word containing 霊 can mean “spirit”, I’m purposefully trying to tease them apart. 陰 is “yin” but it can also be read kage “shadow”. That’s how I arrived at “shade”.
This was a ghost, probably killed with a weapon which was smashed onto his head. (ExR)
この老人は「死霊」だ。おそらく誰かに凶器で頭を殴られて殺されたのだろう。(FW pg. 80) This old man was a “spirit-of-the-dead”. He was probably bludgeoned to death [lit. beaten and killed] by someone with a dangerous weapon.
ExR, you’re dropping adjectives again.
This wasn’t the soul that a living human had lost. (ExR) これから考えても、これは生きている人間から魂だけ離れた「生霊」ではない。 Even thinking about it from here, this wasn’t a “wraith”–just the soul separated from a living human.
Not sure if the Japanese side decided to embellish here, but I’m including it because it’s yet another new term.
One cultivator answered, “They left here, for Goddess Temple.” (ExR) 「彼らならここを離れて、天女の祠に行きましたよ。」 (FW pg. 80) “Them, they left and went to the Celestial Maiden’s Shrine.” “Them, they left and went to the Devi’s Shrine.”
She’s not quite a goddess, she’s a ten'nyo, a tian1nü3! This word can go one of a couple ways. One is in the realm of Immortals, Xian 仙–“Celestial Maiden.” Literally “heavenly lady”. Pretty self explanatory. The other is Buddhist, that’s a devi, ie. the feminine of “deva” (which is 天人 tenjin/tian1ren2 for those of you who want to do more research). In Buddhism, devas are not necessarily “gods” either. Based on my Wikipedia research they sound more like super humans or titans. “Minor god” is stretching it.
To quote the Buddhist cosmology Wikipedia page:
It is to be understood that deva is an imprecise term referring to any being living in a longer-lived and generally more blissful state than humans. Most of them are not “gods” in the common sense of the term, having little or no concern with the human world and rarely if ever interacting with it…
Based on the depiction of the statue in question in the donghua, I am leaning toward a Buddhist interpretation. (When I first saw it, I thought the statue was of a bodhisattva, since statues of 觀音/观音Guan1yin1/観音 Kanon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, are exceedingly popular. I was wrong. It had too many arms.) As far as I know, only Buddhist icons have multiple arms like that in far east Asian traditions outside of India. I am open to correction.
One more thing! 祠 hokora is Shinto. It’s a wayside shrine built for minor folk 神 kami. In Japanese tradition, they’re supposed to be tiny. In Chinese tradition, they appear to be full sized shrines. Below is a Japanese hokora. OP guesses it probably isn’t much taller than a child. Shot in the dark: maybe 1.3 m or 4 feet max.
This Chinese website explains the difference between a whole ton of different types of religious institutions: 寺 si4 (temple, often Buddhist), 廟/庙 miao4 (ancestral temple), 祠 ci2 (memorial temple); 觀/观 guan4 (daoist temple); 庵 an1 (small hut or hermitage/small Buddhist temple/nunnery). This image below of a Chinese ci2 comes from the linked website.
OP cannot make out the name of the place. The image is too compressed to be legible. To reiterate for the nth time, my Mandarin is absolute trash. From what I can make out without resorting to machine translation, this kind of shrine is usually built to commemorate some sort of great personage and maintained as an ancestral hall. DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR THIS. If I were to venture a guess how tall this thing is, (considering that a standard door frame is 7 feet) maybe 4.5 m/15 feet total?
The point I’m trying to make is in China, 祠 are a full sized building, while in Japan they are puny scale models because they serve completely different purposes. Gotta set expectations.
Wei WuXian inquired again, “Which deity is the temple built for?” (ExR) 「どういう神が祀られているんだ？」 (FW pg. 80) “What sort of divinity is enshrined [there]?
Ok ExR, you get a pass this time. For my own pedanticism’s sake, I’m going to stop rambling and just link some wiki pages for kami 神 and shen2 神 respectively. Teasing these apart is a headache and I’ve already been at this post for who knows how many hours I’m getting a screen headache for real.
“The round-faced girl spoke, “I, I think it’s a natural stone statue of a goddess.” (ExR)
「ええと、自然にできた一体の天女神の石像らしいです」 (FW pg. 81) “Um, it appears to be a naturally formed stone statue of a celestial maiden spirit.”
Having both ten'nyo and kami in feels unnecessarily redundant. I’d really prefer either “devi” or “divinity” but not both.
In addition according to this fan blog (which may not be live anymore):
舞天女尊（ぶてんにょそん）…食魂天女（しょっこんてんにょ）とも呼ぶ。元々自然にできた石像だったが、それを見た人々が崇めるようになり怪物に化けた。参拝者の願いを叶える代わりにその者の魂を吸い取る。ドラマ版では陰鉄を刺されたことで怪物に化け、アニメ版では鬼腕が取り憑いて怪物に化けた。 There revered dancing devi, aka the soul consuming devi. Originally a naturally formed stone statue, but the people who saw it came to worship it and it transformed into a monster. Instead of granting the worshipers’ prayers, it absorbed their souls. In the drama, it transformed into a monster because it was stabbed with yin iron, while in the anime it transformed into a monster because the ghost arm possessed it.
I think I have an answer for whether the 食魂殺 shokkonsatsu soul-eating killer is a 鬼 ki or a 怪 kai. I would at this point categorize it as a 怪 kai not because it’s dead but because it never lived in the first place, combined with the specific use of the term 怪物 kaibutsu (“monster”).
I really need to fix my glossary.
Corresponding ExR: Arrogance part 2 FW pages 62-73
Vocab first because we have a lot of it 縛仙網 bakusenmou While I don’t love “divinity binding net”, I don’t see any easy way around it either. 仙 sen/xian1 is obnoxious as previously discussed here. Have a wikipedia page for good measure. There are a couple things we can do here. Either leave them alone as Xian, or find a suitable, consistent, translation to add to the glossary. Just spitballing here: so there seem to be three ways of looking at Xian1:
The grammar of bakusenmou is “(verb+object)-overarching noun”, which we make do with in English by flipping it to “(object+verb)-overarching noun”. It seems strange to me that Daoist cultivators might hunt “xian” for sport. It’d be more likely that they’re hunting supernatural creatures, like yao1guai4 妖怪, right? “Immortal binding net”? “Xian-binding net”? hmm jury’s out for now.
仙督 sentoku I’ll leave this as “cultivation chief”. It’s nice and snappy and I don’t feel like I could come up with something better.
仙剣 senken Just mentioning this one because ExR keeps dropping adjectives. Suihua and Bichen are not just any old swords, they’re senken/xian1jian4. “Cultivation swords”? “Magic swords”? “Immortal swords”?
傲岸不遜 gouganfuson = arrogant, haughty. It’s a sign of literary refinement if you can find a situation to shoehorn a yojijukugo into, so kudos to Zheng/Chêng sensei and the translation team for this one. (Not sure if the translator is mainland Chinese or of a different corner of the Chinese diaspora, thus both Pinyin and Wade-Giles.)
乱葬崗殲滅戦 ransoukou senmetsusen = Mass graveyard [Burial Mounds] extermination campaign Adding this b/c I know long kanji chains freak people out
陰霊 inrei “yin” + “spirit” I don’t have anything concrete for this one at the moment. Sounds like a type of gui3 鬼, so some synonym for “ghost” might be apt.
剣芒 kenbo from the inline note on page 67.
仙剣が放つ光。またそれによる攻撃。 Light released by an immortal blade, or the attack by which.
Magic sword casts BEAM ATTACK :)
鎖霊嚢 sareinou = “chained spirit bag” I am surprised to see that last character since the more common version of it is 袋. IIRC the audio drama team had the exact same thought in the Loc team round table (PASH! 2023 Jan ed./2023 Illustration file. I'll link that when I finally upload it).
叔父上 ojiue This ought to have been glossed. Just in case you were wondering, there are three different kanji for “uncle”.
Japanese hierarchy is not nearly that complicated. 伯 is not commonly used. I have only seen it come up in 伯爵 hakushaku “count, earl”. 舅 shuuto is apparently father-in-law.
逢乱必出 houranhisshutsu “Meet Chaos Certain to Come out” There’s a whole paragraph explaining this one, so I’m not going to.
禁言術 kingenjutsu “forbid speaking technique” “Silence spell” works. I like it.
I should get this out of the way up front.
邪道 jadou/xie2dao4 IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR 魔道 madou/mo2dao4 OR 鬼道 kidou/gui3dao4. It is a Buddhist term and its mistranslation is a central point of contention from what I’ve read of many fan translation criticisms, including BOTH 7S and ExR. To quote the better portion of Wikipedia:
邪道（じゃどう）は、仏教用語で、仏道に外れた不正な教えのこと。転じて、一般に、本筋に沿わない不当なやり方を評していうのに用いられる。 Jadou is a Buddhist term, meaning improper teaching that strays from Buddhist Teachings. Meanwhile, it is generally used to comment on an unfair way of doing things that does not act in accordance with the main thread [i.e. “go against the grain”].
不正 fusei and 不当 futou are pretty loaded words.
仏教の語義：仏教に反する教え（六師外道など）。邪（よこしま）な意をもって他者を貶めようとするもの。 Meaning in Buddhism: Teachings that contradict Buddhist teachings (such as the Six Heretical Teachers). Something which has evil ideas and tries to denigrate others.
I cannot stress this enough: Religion is a form of politics. The supposed heretics are rivals of the Buddha in the religious sense and very likely politically as well. The Six Heretics themselves, based on only their wiki article, are a fatalist, several nihilists, an antagonistic, and an atomist. Is that really “heretical thinking”? They’re all arguably adjacent philosophies. There’s an entire tangent to be made about the intersection of Hinduism, politics and social mobility in the Maurya Empire during the rise of Buddhism. I’ll leave that essay to someone better informed.
一般的な用法：一般的に正道と認識されているものとは異なるやり方に対して、非難を込めた論評として用いられる（後述）。辞書では「本来の目的からはずれたやり方」あるいは「正当でない方法」といった解説がなされている。 General usage: used in contrast with something for which there is a generally accepted “correct” methodology with a diverging way of doing things; used as a reproachful criticism (discussed below). Explained in the dictionary as “a way of doing things which is contrary to the original purpose” or “an injust method”.
正道 seidou another loaded term. Scare quotes added by OP.
The boy on the ground was fuming, “You damn gay! Good for you, taking this sort of wrong path because you didn’t have enough spiritual powers to do anything! Watch out for your life! Do you know who came today? Today, I…” (ExR)
Verdict: Permissible
The youth yelled on the ground angrily, “Dam,n cut-sleeve! Lookit you, going down the demonic path just because your spiritual power is too weak to cultivate into anything worthwhile. Do you know who’s here today?! I’m gonna…” (7S pg. 74)
Verdict: Disagree
ふいに地面に伏せていた少年が怒鳴った。 「断袖野郎！お前、霊力が低くて仙術の修練が上手くいかないからって、こんな邪道に走るなんて……気をつけた方がいいぞ！今日は誰が来ると思う⁉俺の……」 (FW pg. 67) The boy lying face down in the dirt suddenly yelled angrily. “Cut sleeve bastard! You said you sucked at cultivation magic practice because you had low spiritual power, and now you’re running along this unorthodox path… you better watch out! Who do you think’s coming today!? My…”
仙術 senjutsu, another slippery term. “Wizardry” doesn’t quite feel right unless you’re okay with swapping out “cultivator” with “wizard” in all instances.
The boy presumed that, after being chased from the LanlingJin Sect, Mo XuanYu had chosen the dishonorable path, which was a reasonable conclusion to draw, saving Wei WuXian from a lot of unnecessary trouble.(ExR)
Verdict: Permissible
…so this youth also thought Mo Xuanyu had strayed from the right path after being driven out of the Jin clan of Lanling. It was a perfectly logical suspicion and it saved Wei Wuxian from further unnecessary trouble.“ (7S pg 74) Verdict: Permissible
おそらく少年は、莫玄羽も蘭陵金氏から追い出されたあと、邪道に目覚めたと思っただろう。彼はそう考えるのも無理ではなく、そのおかげで魏無羨は余計な釈明をせずに済んだ。(FW pg. 68) The boy probably thought that, after having been chased out of the Ranryou Jin clan, Mo Xuanyu also became conscious of the unorthodox path. It wasn’t an unreasonable thing for him to think, and thanks to that, Wei Wuxian didn’t have to bother with unnecessary explanation.
Jiang Cheng spoke grimly, “Break his legs? Haven’t I told you? If you see this sort of evil and crooked practice, kill the cultivator and feed him to your dog!” (ExR)
Verdict: Disagree
Jiang Cheng said darkly, “Break his legs? Haven’t I told you that when you run into heretics, you should kill them outright and feed them to your dog?!” (7S pg 75)
Verdict: Permissible within a margin of error
「脚をへし折るだと？教えたはずだぞ。こういう邪道を使う輩に出会ったら、すぐさま殺してお前の犬の餌にでもしろ！」 (FW pg. 69) “‘Break his legs?’ I’ve told you this before. When you come across people using this sort of unorthodox path, kill them immediately and make them into dog food!
At the present time, his hatred had grown to affect even people who cultivated like him! (ExR) And that rage was taken out on every cultivator who imitated him! (7S pg 77) まさかこんな風に、彼を真似て鬼道を修練するすべての者に当たり散らすほどまでになっていたとは！(FW pg 69) And [to think] it’d gotten to the point where he’d [JC] find fault with everyone who imitated him [WWX] by practicing kidou [the ghost path]!
I’m not even sure if 鬼道 kidou is even part of this even part of the original text or the Japanese felt the need to really hammer the point home here.
Alright, now the actual text
When Wei Wuxian describes Jin Ling as “rich” there ought to be an air of being impressed with just how wealthy this brat is both times. ExR and FW do this; 7S does not.
The motto of the Ranryou Jin clan is
“opening the doors toward wisdom and aspiration, illuminating the world with the vermilion light (ExR)” the conviction to open the doors to wisdom, allowing the vermilion light of eternity to shine upon the world. (7S pg 69)
「知恵を啓き、確かな志を胸に、朱の光で世を照らせ」 (FW pg. 63) “open up to wisdom, and with clear resolve in your breast, illuminate the world with vermilion light.”
This 啓く hiraku is for opening the mind to enlightenment specifically. I can see where ExR and 7S got their translations from. Sometimes you need to supply your own punctuation and a few prepositional phrases in order to make things make sense.
“Get out of here! It’s disgusting just looking at you, you damn gay”. (ExR)
「さっさと失せろ！お前を見るだけで吐き気がする。この断袖野郎」 (FW pg. 66) “Get lost already! Just seeing you makes me nauseous. Damn cut sleeve bastard.”
I’m not sure if “gay” was really mean enough. Either use “cut sleeve” and foot note it or find a meaner word. There are enough inflammatory words for “homosexual” out there.
“What an attitude! I suppose you didn’t have a mother to teach you?” (ExR) 「まったく、親の顔を見てみたいよ」 (FW pg. 66) “Good grief, I wanna see my parent[’s face]”
This is a major derivation but it feels in character. (* UwU voice* ) Oh, you’re so intimidating, I want my mommy. Who of us wouldn’t try putting a sassy teenager in their place with sarcasm?
There was some stuff I had wanted to add about the introduction of Jiang Cheng, his appearance, and how he killed the paper doll, because the JP side is more verbose, but this post is already ungodly long. I will skip it.
Lan Wangji intro scene.
Mourning clothes! (ExR) （出た！万年喪主） (FW pg 70) (He’s here! The eternal chief mourner.)
One last thing about Jiang Cheng. It’s two separate sentences in the same paragraph.
He narrowed his eyes, his left hand casually stroking the ring on his right hand’s index finger… Whenever Clan Leader Jiang started touching it, it meant that he had the intent to kill. (ExR)
彼は目を細め、左手で故意にか知らずにか、右手の人差し指にはめてある指輪を軽くさすり始めた。 そして江宗主がそれを触り始めるということは、つまり殺意が芽生えたことを意味する。(FW pg 73) He narrowed his eyes and, whether he did so purposefully or unknowingly, began to lightly stroke the ring on his right pointer finger with his left hand… Thus whenever Sect Leader Jiang started to touch it, it meant that murderous impulse began to bud.
That’s all for now.
Corresponding ExR: Arrogance Part 1 FW pages 54-62
槐の木 enju no ki Japanese Pagoda tree—technically they’re from mainland China. Have a picture:
大梵山・大飯山 this pun doesn’t work. The homophone just isn’t there. In Chinese, both would be pronounced da4fan4shan1. In Japanese you have daibonzan and daihanzan. Could it have been force fit with another kanji? Honestly, that’s above my pay grade. They could have just added furigana and called it a day. There are a ton of kanji that mean “Buddha” because a ton of Hindu mythos come preinstalled with Buddhist literature. 梵 bon is not only Buddha but also Brahman—the Hindu creator god. 佛 butsu points at Shakyamuni Buddha, i.e. Siddhartha Gautama himself, but has fallen mostly out of use. In modern usage 仏 butsu appears to be preferred.
EDIT: I had a thought. 大盆山 daibonzan Mount Great Platter.
Source: https://happylifestyle.com/9123
The settlement of “Buddha’s foot” fo2jiao3zhen4 at the base of Mount Dafan/daibonzan, 佛脚鎮 bukkyakuchin threw me off for a couple reasons. “Foot” and “leg” are effectively interchangeable as they’re both pronounced ashi. I had to triple check what the difference is.
鎮 chin is “tranquil”; it’s only used to mean “town” in China, and even then, what kind of town seems to change over multiple dictionary entries. From the Seisenban Nihon kokugo daijiten via Kotobank
Definition 6: From the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534 CE) forward, the name of the land protected and public order maintained by the stationed military force, or the name of that army corps. = Garrison Definition 7: End of the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) and through the Five Dynasties period (907-979 CE), a strategic and economic location to which a Jie2du4shi3 (regional military governor in ancient China, 節度使) would dispatch their underlings, and administrate both civil and military government. From the Song dynasty (960-1279) forward, a small city belonging to a prefecture. Alternatively, a large town with bustling commerce. Also see “flower market.” =Town
Given that MDZS is effectively a Wuxia story set in “Jianghu”, and Wikipedia says that Jianghu stories usually take place somewhere between 1000 BCE and 280 CE; I want to use “Buddha’s Leg Garrison” as my preferred translation, but MXTX sensei lives in the 21st century just like the rest of us, and she’s not necessarily writing historical fiction here, so “town” is probably the right way to go.
The “Compass of Evil” 風邪盤 fuujaban–I’m afraid I can’t come up with anything significantly better. 風邪 is kaze “cold”, but “compass of illness” just doesn’t work in context. It’d be best to take each character individually. Correction: I like “compass of ill winds” a lot better than “compass of evil” for 風邪盤 fuujaban. (7S pg 60)
I’m afraid I don’t have much to report about 遊猟 yuuryou “hunting” or 夜狩 yogari “night hunting”. 猟 leans toward game hunting while 狩 doesn’t necessarily. However 狩 also has secondary definitions of “gather” and “raid”. Nothing stands out to me at this time.
悪鬼殺鬼 doesn’t appear to be a word on the surface, and probably should have furigana, as I could potentially read it as either akki sakki or akki sekki. Akki is self-explanatory, a “demon” or “evil spirit”. Sekki is “a fearsome thing which kills people and destroys things.” (I surmise that the second “things” is supposed to be the 万物 wan4wu4/banbutsu of the universe in religious literature.) Also synonymous with the aforementioned akki and rasetsu, a “rakshasa” from Buddhism (via Hindu canon). 悪鬼羅刹 akkirasetsu IS a word I was able to find: “man-eating fiend”. Interestingly enough, when they’re talking about soul-consuming beasts 食魂獣 shokkonjuu and spirits 食魂殺 shokkonsatsu later in the chapter, 殺 (“to kill”) is used for “spirit”. I have another post somewhere where I go on a meandering journey trying to keep a glossary straight, and I'll repost that eventually, probably less meanderingly.
It felt like a bit of a leap of logic for because I couldn’t find any other precedent during my research. So part of the reason I went with “spirit” for 食魂殺 shokkonsatsu is because that’s what ExR did, because of the taxonomy explanation on pg. 61, and because of my desire for inter-textual consistency. (I am seriously considering whether to throw that last part out entirely, but if I do that then readers might get confused when I say, for example, the Lan Clan resides in “Some Unknown Place Deep in the Clouds” or “Unshinfuchish” 雲深不知処, but “Cloud Recesses” is nice and snappy, and I like it as a set translation.) I’d even offer you “soul-eating killer” as an alternative translation, since that’d be more literal.
For 死霊 shiryou, Denshi Jisho offers “spirit of a dead person; ghost; departed soul”. And as I said last night, I’m trying to reserve “ghost” for 鬼 exclusively to get to the bottom of the 魔道・鬼道 debacle. EDIT: The JP text seems to be pretty consistent about referring to WWX's novel magic as 鬼道 kidou/gui3dao4. Meanwhile, if you look up “ghost”, there are 164 entries on Denshi Jisho–only the first 18 are somewhat relevant. The Kodansha English-Japanese Dictionary (1st ed. edit Kawamoto Shigeo et al.) has 8 entries. What is the nitty gritty difference between a ghost, specter, apparition, revenant, fiend, and phantom? We’re really splitting hairs now. As an overarching statement, I doubt English demonology has enough overlap with Sino-japonic demonology to truly answer this question without any arguments, and I don’t have the time or academic resources I would want to really get into the weeds. (I’m probably going to have to start keeping a running glossary too…)
For pagination’s sake, I did crack open the 7S version, and I like what I see there a little better than ExR for a handful of the quotes I cherry picked below.
He had Wei of starting conflict, you might say. (7S pg 63)
Kudos for the pun working.
Even though the difference was but one word, they were completely distinct creatures. Fiends belong to the ghost category while beasts were of the monster category. (7S pg. 66)
I like this alternative translation up until this point, but I do need to provide the next sentence. That’s where I don’t like it anymore.
To him, it was likely that the landslide had destroyed an ancient tomb, and, with lightning splitting the coffin open, a resting spirit has been let out. (ExR)
In his opinion, all this might be the fault of the old graveyard that had collapsed from the tremors of the landslide. Once lightning struck one of the coffins, any ancient fiends that were resting within would be unleashed. (7S pg 66-67)
おそらく山崩れで墓地が壊されて雷が棺に落ち、その中で眠りについていた古の悪霊を呼び起こしてしまったのだろう。(FW pg. 61) In all likelihood, the grave had been broken in the landslide, and lightning had struck the casket, which probably aroused the ancient evil spirit that had been sleeping in there.
ExR, you’re dropping words again. 7S, you’re introducing new taxonomies that haven’t been mentioned yet in an assumption that they’re synonymous. This is naïve at best. Get Wrecked in Lan Qiren’s class.
霊 = “spirit, soul” as per New Nelson entry #6532 悪霊 = evil spirit. Denshi Jisho also suggests “demon” but I think that needs to stay in reserve for now. 悪魔 = fiend but I might want that to say in reserve for now because of that second character…
And now back to the regularly scheduled post from that massive tangent... First thing that caught my eye this chapter was actually the donkey.
“You’re definitely destined for wealth, even harder to please than me.” The donkey spat at him. (ExR)
「お前って本当にいいご身分だよな。俺よりも手がかかる。」 やれやれとため息をつく魏無羨にロバは「フン」と強く鼻息を吹きかけた。(FW pg 54-55) “You’ve got great social standing. You take even more to deal with than me.” The donkey gave a loud snort to the exasperated Wei Wuxian.
There’s another segment on the next page where the donkey “opens its mouth” for an apple, but I’d advise imagining it peeling its lips back to “bare its teeth” 歯をむき出す.
The word for “lunatic” here is 変人 henjin “eccentric”. That must have been why it was in my notes last time!
…they also wanted to come over to rest by the share and have some water. However, seeing that there was a wild donkey tied to the tree and a lunatic with heavy makeup and disheveled hair, they were reluctant to go over. (ExR)
先客と同じように木陰に入って涼み水を飲もうとしたが、そこには鳴き叫んで暴れるロバが繋がっている。加えてその隣には、顔に化粧をし、髪も服装も乱れた変人が座っているので、怖くて近寄ることもできない。(FW pg 55) Just like the preceding visitors, they decided to cool off in the tree’s shade and drink water, but a thrashing donkey was tied to it braying and shouting. In addition, sitting beside it was a weirdo with a face full of makeup, and both hair and clothing in disarray, so they were afraid and unable to approach.
I wish the ExR translation made 失魂症 shikkonshou “soul loss disease” more apparent in their translation than just “disease”.
“If there isn’t, then how did the seven people lose their souls? They couldn’t have all attained the same disease, could they? I, for one, haven’t even heard of this disease at all.”
「それなら『失魂症』についてはどう説明するんだ？七人も町の魂が失われたんだぞ、まさか全員が同じ奇妙な病にかかったなんて言わないよな？そんな病聞いたこともない！」(FW pg. 57) “If that’s the case, how do you explain ‘soul loss disease’? Seven people in this town have already lost their souls. Don’t tell me they’re all afflicted by the same strange ailment? I’ve never even heard of such an illness!”
逢魏必吵 this is a weird one. My gut tells me it should be read hougihisshou but it IS GLOSSED “houweihisshou”. I feel like it should be a pun of some sort, but I just don’t have the Chinese knowledge to find it. I also did a quick search through a yojijukugo dictionary for similar phrases and came up empty handed. The phrase itself means “Meeting Wei [Wuxian is] Certain [to cause a] Quarrel”.
This was the so-called “much ado about Wei”. If there was ever a poll to find out whose popularity was the most lasting in the cultivation world, the winner would be no other than Wei Wuxian. To be honest, the cultivator wasn’t wrong. The Compasses of Evil in use today was the first version that he made, and were, indeed, not specific enough. He was in the middle of making improvements when his “den” was destroyed, so he had to put everyone through the inconvenience of using the imprecise version one. (ExR)
いわゆる「逢魏必吵」――魏無羨が関わると、本人がいようがいまいが、いつも争いの種になる――のままだとは思いもしなかった。 もし、善悪は問わず、仙門で最も長い間注目を集めた人物が誰か、投票で選ぶことがあったなら、間違いなく彼がぶっちぎりで一位に違いない。 ただ正直に言うと、先ほどの修士たちが言っていたことが間違ってはいなかった。現在使われている風邪盤は彼が作った第一版で、確かに精度に欠けていた。改良版に着手はしていたのだが、完成する前に乱葬崗に攻め入られてしまったのだ。だから皆には悪いが、引き続き不完全な第一版を使ってもらうしかない。(FW pg. 58) He didn’t even think that things would remain as per “meeting Wei is certain quarrel” so to speak—if Wei Wuxian was involved, whether he himself was there or not, it always was the seeds of a dispute. If there were a vote to choose who in the cultivation world had garnered attention the longest, regardless of right- or wrong[doings], there would be absolutely no doubt that he would be in first place by a huge margin. Just to be honest, what those cultivators had said back there wasn’t wrong. The compass of evil being used today was the first version he made, and it certainly was lacking in accuracy. He had started working on an improved version, but the Burial Mounds were invaded before it could be completed. So sorry to everyone, but they have to continue to use the incomplete first edition.
Note: The more I look at this text, the more I think I’m going to start retranslating proper names. Based on the three definitions pulled up by Mandarin Bridge for 乱葬崗 luan4zang4gang3 (ransoukou even though that’s not a Japanese word), I get “unmarked mass graveyard”. I'm starting to dislike “burial mounds”. The image isn't graphic enough.
Wei Wuxian considered the situation and figured that it was most likely a soul-consuming spirit, not a soul-consuming beast. Although only one word was different between the two they were completely different beings. A spirit was a ghost, while a beast was a monster. (ExR)
魏無羨は考えた。 （おそらく食魂獣の仕業じゃない……これは、食魂殺だな） 両者は一文字しか違わないが、全く違う種類のモノだ。「獣」は実体を持つ妖獣類で「殺」は実体を持たない死霊類に当たる。(FW pg. 61) Wei Wuxian Considered this. (It’s probably not the work of a soul-consuming beast… this is a soul-consuming spirit.) While the difference is but a single character, they are completely different types of things. “Beasts” pertain to a type of monster with a physical body, while “spirits” pertain to a type of departed soul without a physical body.
Note: I’m specifically avoiding using “ghost” here, because I want to reserve that for 鬼 gui3. At this point, I’m not totally sure if gui3 are a subset of the above or a totally different category, but my money is on the latter.
Finally, the end of the chapter! This is literally the best place you could possibly name drop “Jiang Wanyin.” Why is no one being polite about this guy? He may be an asshole with a temper on a hair trigger but he is in a position where you better be using keigo. Where’s your keigo, guys? Where’s your formal speech?
“What can we do? He’s a sect leader. No matter which clan you choose to offend, you shouldn’t offend the Jiang clan, and no matter which person you choose to offend, you shouldn’t offend Jiang Cheng. Let’s just pack up, leave, and feel sorry for ourselves!”
「仕方ないよ、向こうは一世家の宗主だぞ。いうじゃないか、『どこの世家を怒らせても江家だけは怒らせるな。誰を怒らせても江澄だけは怒らせるな』って。もう荷物をまとめて帰るぞ。今日は運が悪かったんだ！」 (FW pg. 61-62) “There’s no helping it. The sect leader of a great clan is over that way. Don’t they say ‘whatever household you may anger, do no anger the Jiang household. Whomever you anger, don’t anger Jiang Cheng.’ I’m grabbing my stuff and going home. My luck’s been bad today.”
Corresponding ExR chapter: Aggression Part 3 FW pages 41-53
I know I’ve mentioned this before there’s been a bit of ambiguity regarding whether the body part rampaging Mo Manor is a hand or an arm.
Suddenly A-Ding cried, “Hand… His hand! A-Tong’s hand!” (ExR) その時突然、阿丁が泣きだした。「手……阿童の左手がぁ！」 (FW pg. 44) In that moment A-Ding suddenly burst into tears. “His hand… A-Tong’s left hand–!”
It’s a hand in this one segment. I’m using “burst into tears” to indicate more clearly that “cried” here should be the weeping kind, not the shouting kind.
On the next page
Suddenly saying this… It doesn’t seem like a coincidence. (ExR) （突然こんなことを言うなんて……まぐれとは思えない。）(FW pg. 45) (Suddenly, saying this sort of thing [out loud]… I can’t think of it as a fluke.)
Clunky, but within a reasonable margin of error.
Moving forward a few pages to when Wei Wuxian turns the deceased Mo manorial lords into his minions… Do you think he is allowed to swear? やがる is an auxiliary verb meaning “to have the nerve to do X”, and in a lot of cases, it can be used as a free pass for an emphatic and/or expletive.
“Wake up!” (ExR) 「起きやがれ！」 (FW pg. 49) “Get the fuck up!”
In case you were wondering, he was politer to the first batch of corpses.
We finally get our first instance of 凶屍 kyoushi/xiong1shi1 on FW pg 50! I’d been wondering when that word would show up. I really hate “fierce corpse” but ExR’s use of “cruel corpse” instead doesn’t make it any better. I don’t think this term translates. As far as I know, zombie lore in English comes out of Central African mythology via the Caribbean. I worry that there are not enough similar base concepts between these two cultures that we even have the vocabulary to express the concept with words that are not Chinese.
And finally, 含光君 han2guang1jun1 = gankoukun. Sobriquets don’t get glossed. What’s it mean? May I direct you to this post?
Alrighty, now time for the thesis part. One of the central motifs of MXTX’s writing style is setting up a characterization based on third hand accounts, and then using the characters’ actions to subvert those expectations. The very first instance of this is in MDZS is the irony of Wei Wuxian, in the body of Mo Xuanyu, being the smartest person in the room despite never taken seriously. What do we actually know about Mo Xuanyu himself? What has he actually told the reader? He hasn’t. He’s very dead at this point. Everything we know is filtered through A) Wei Wuxian, and B) a third person limited POV narrator, both of whom are notably not omniscient. What we can take away from the diary entries is only what Wei Wuxian can surmise (FW pg. 18-19).
さらに悪いことに、莫玄羽にいったい何があったのか莫家に戻った時にはまるっきりおかしくなっていた。ごくたまに正気に戻るものの、まるで何か恐ろしいものでも見て、精神をやられたかのように–。ここまで読み解いて、魏無羨はぴくりと眉を動かした。絶袖はまだしも、気が触れていたとは。これで合点がいった。(FW pg. 19) And to make matters worse, what on earth happened to Mo Xuanyu when he returned to Mo Manor, he had become completely funny. Although on rare occasion he returned to sanity, it was as if he may have seen something dreadful and whether his mind suffered damage–Perusing up to this point, Wei Wuxian cocked an eyebrow. Better gay than touched in the head. This is what he made out.
Note 1: おかしい okashii means “funny” in both the comical and the eccentric sense. It runs the gambit from “amusing” to “strange” to “wrong.” It gave me a slight headache trying to translate Lan Jingyi’s 「あいつは本当におかしい！」 “aitsu wa hontou ni okashii!” in Aggression part 1. I almost went with “What a weirdo!” but decided against it because I wanted the double entendre. I am being overly literal above to demonstrate ambiguity.
Note 2: まるで......のように is a two part subjunctive. I am highlighting this because it’s the strongest “if” in the entire info dump. Everything up until this point is a “based on evidence, WWX concludes that” sort of subjunctive. Japanese can get pedantic with subjunctives.
Note 3: 気が触れる ki ga fureru = to go mad; to go crazy; to lose one’s mind. Also see 気が狂う ki ga kuruu (via Jisho.org)
Preliminary conclusion: Despite the commonality of polygamy at this time, there are clear political advantages that he does not have due to his lack of blood relation to either the legal or favorite wife in either the Jin or Mo clans, combined with his discontinued apprenticeship. Anything Mo Xuanyu does is going to be an uphill battle. Untreated trauma is definitely involved. Do I trust a normal teenager to tell me they’re insane? No. Would I trust a fictional one? Even less. Sanity is relative.
Now what does everyone else say about him?
According to the Chinese literate side of the fandom, the novel and the donghua both use the same word to describe Mo Xuanyu's condition, 瘋子 feng1zi5. Lin Yutang’s Chinese-English dictionary of Modern Usage defines 瘋子 as madman, half-crazy person, a “nut.” This is not a Japanese word. In fact, the only word I can find that uses the same character is 瘋癲 fuuten, which can be either insanity, or a vagabond/wanderer (Jisho.org). The Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary offers 1) 狂気 lunacy, mental derangement, madness, insanity 2) 家出した若者 delinquent youth, a youth vagrant.
If I shove 瘋子 into the Weblio’s Chinese-Japanese dictionary, I get the definitions 気違い kichigai = madman, enthusiastic (derogatory) and 狂人 kyoujin = crazy person, lunatic. I’m going to add this additional note from WaniKani.
Based on this, I can conclude that Donghua!Mo Xuanyu is mentally ill, and being described in a highly derogatory manner.
I have NOT watched the Japanese dub anime so we’re going to put that on back burner for now.
The Japanese dub audio drama I only went in to double check what Mo Ziyuan and Madam Mo call Mo Xuanyu in the first 12 minutes. I did NOT bother listening to the whole episode. Transcriptions and translations below. Bold is OP’s emphasis.
00:05:10 魏無羨：お前は…… 莫子淵：ふざけるな！このイカレ野郎目！！ 莫子淵：お前が今住んてるのは誰の家で
Gi Musen: You are… Baku Shien: Don’t fuck with me! You damn bastard nutcase!! Baku Shien: Whose house do you [think] you’re living in and
Note 4: Gi Musen = Wei Wuxian; Baku Shien = Mo Ziyuan.
00:09:23
魏無羨：（M）ふん、つまらん 莫夫人：早く追い出して！ 莫夫人：このイカレ野郎を出したのは誰！
Gi Musen: (mentally) hmm, boring Madam Baku: Get rid of him quickly! Madam Baku: Who let this bastard nutcase out!
00:11:23 莫家の下僕男A：早く行こうぜ、病気が伝染っちゃう 莫家の下僕女A：あのイカレ野郎、また出てきたの？
Male Baku household servant A: Hurry up, let’s go, or we’ll get infected Female Baku household servant A: That bastard nutcase got out again?
Jisho.org defines いかれる ikareru as: 1) to break down, to become broken; 2) to be crazy, to be nuts; 3) to be infatuated with; 4) to be outdone by someone; to be beaten in a contest. 野郎 yarou Bastard in the above instances is simply for its derogatory meaning, and has no implications of linage. So you see how I ended up with イカレ野郎 = bastard nutcase? Japanese audio drama!Baku Gen'u (=Mo Xuanyu) is also mentally ill, and it is being described in a derogatory manner.
Back to the novel! Over these past 40 pages, I’ve seen several different words come up in addition to what was written above.
痴れ者 shiremono fool; dunce; idiot (via Jisho.org). This is the most common one, and what the Manorial lords and their servants all call Mo Xuanyu. Even Lan Jingyi calls him this once in frustration. I’m not going to to the full nine yards on this one. I did quite a bit in the Aggression part 2. But just for completeness’ sake, I give you a couple more.
「俺を蹴ったな！この痴れ者め、殺す気？」 (FW pg. 46) (Lan Jingyi speaking) “He kicked me! Damn idiot, you got a death wish?”
From The Digital Denjisen via Kotobank
From Meaning.jp
And from Word-dictionary.jp
I am genuinely unsure if there are any unspoken connotations of this word, and thus far I have not been able to dig any up. I need to watch more period J-dramas.
バカ baka idiot; moron; fool (we’ve watched enough anime. I don’t need to provide all 14 definitions listed on Jisho.org)
このバカ、こんな時まで笑うなんて！虚け者なのだから (FW pg. 44) What a moron, laughing at a time like this! Cause he’s an airhead…
虚け者 utsukemono fool; blockhead; idiot; dunce (see example above). The more common spelling of this word is 空け者. I like “airhead” for this one because 虚 “void” 空 and “sky” both also mean “empty.” Let’s take a look at a couple more dictionaries.
うっかりしている人。中身のしっかりしていない人。単に「うつけ」とも言う。(Weblio) An absentminded person. Someone who does not take proper hold of their substance. Also said utsuke.
For utsuke because I didn’t get a result for utsukemono 1) 中のうつろなこと。から。からっぽ。 2) 愚かなこと。ぼんやりしていること。また、そのような者。まぬけ。(Digital Denjisen) 1) To hollow out the inside of something. Empty. Vacant. 2) Foolishness. To be absentminded/careless. Or someone who is thus. Half-wit.
恥知らず haji shirazu shameless (Madam Mo in response to Wei Wuxian’s allegation of theft against Mo Ziyuan)
「この恥知らずが、皆さんの前でなんてことを！阿淵はあなたの従弟なのに！」 (FW pg. 28) “What a thing to say in front of everyone, you shameless person! Even though A-Yuan is your cousin!”
阿保 aho fool; idiot; simpleton
(Lan Jingyi speaking)
「え？あの阿保を捜してどうするんだよ？俺に殴られるのが怖くて、どこかに逃げたんじゃないかな」 (FW pg. 52) “Eh? What’re you gonna do if you go searching for that dimwit? He probably ran off somewhere cause he was scared I was gonna punch him.”
変人 henjin eccentric. Truth be told, I’m not sure why this is in my notes. Past me didn’t leave a page number.
There is a specific word for madness I was looking for, something containing this character: 狂. And there is only one instance I found where it shows up (not counting the chapter title).
With nails that multiplied in length, foam gathering at the corners of her mouth, and shrieks that were enough to uplift the ceiling, she [the animated corpse of Madam Mo] looked extremely insane. (ExR)
右手の五本の指の爪は数倍にも長く伸び、口元には白い泡を吹き、甲高い咆哮は屋根を吹き飛ばそうな勢いで、もはや狂気の沙汰だ。(FW pg. 50) The nails on the five fingers of her long hand extended by several times, white foam spewed from her mouth, her screeching roar had the force to blow a roof clean off, and she was already in a state of madness.
TLDR: Japanese novel!Mo Xuanyu is generally described by other people as a dunce, not necessarily a lunatic. The only “insanity” to be had is a dead person’s fighting style.
A little thought experiment I keep finding myself in, as I’m sure a lot of people do who are reading literature in a language they are learning, is “if I were to translate this into my first language, how would I say X?” I would need a word that
“Oh, don’t listen to him. He’s just ___.”
“Idiot” is the clear choice, as it is the most common denominator of all of the above, but I feel it’s not strong enough to devalue all of MXY’s credibility. “Simpleton”, “airhead,” “dimwit,” “halfwit,” “moron,” “blockhead” again, not mean enough. “Dunce” or “fool” might be on the right track, but they’re not really in the modern vernacular, so still not strong enough on their own without going out of my way to make the rest of the setting and everyone else’s speech patterns artificially archaic. “Maniac” doesn’t seem accurate to the characterization. “Deluded” perhaps? “Deranged” feels too close to “raving mad”. “Beyond help” or “lost cause” or “unreasonable” would work in the above instance, but not necessarily in other instances, like “He kicked me! Damn ___!”
…and this is how I found myself up the creek without a paddle, and asking whether I have to start looking at yesteryear’s terms for the disabled to find a label mean enough to destroy credibility. FOR EXAMPLE, I would not be opposed to an autistic reading of the character based on the above amalgam of terminology, but endorsing such a reading would be going into head canon territory and straying too far from the original text. I don’t know what’s going on deeper in the fandom. I see a lot of arguing I don’t want to deal with, and the less I know, the better I feel.
All I can and will say about Japanese Novel!Mo Xuanyu is that no matter how he is labeled by his relatives and household servants, the kid is caught between a rock and a hard place on multiple fronts. Being homosexual in a homophobic world isn’t helping, nor is whatever enduring trauma he experienced right before his return home from cultivation training. His anger and frustration before his untimely demise were likely justified. It is highly unfortunate he found catharsis in death, but without it, this story would have no protagonist.