Chapter 4 雅騒 Elegance and Clamor

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. fujibakama 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)