(turns around in historically accurate office chair) ah i see, you have found my s-- my torture dungeon

I think JGY should have fangs. LXC agrees.

Jin Ling & his Xiao Shushu appreciation, 'cause I don't see enough of it.

(It's worth mentioning that in the books, Jiggy doesn't push JL out of danger and JL still screams for him to run, and he still calls him uncle instead of Sect Leader as he does in the show. It's also worth mentioning that the show made some stunning choices in the Guaniyn temple scene regardimg JGY & JL. As half of the things I'm saying about that scene here only happened in the show.)

Look at our boy suffering for love

Since San Lang literally has dice with teleportation arrays that can take him anywhere he wants, this has to be the first time in 800 years that he's had to actually WALK from point A to point B. Supposedly ghosts are affected by too much sunlight; that doesn't seem like it would get to Hua Cheng with his power level, yet you can't deny our boy looks miserable.

I think he's most upset that this whole trek is happening because SOMEONE doesn't have enough spiritual magic to get them right where they wanna go. He might have even been fine with an extended trip if it was just him and Xie Lian, but those other two had to butt in. No wonder moments after this he's immediately picking a fight to make himself feel better.

Sleeping in Puqi shrine? Easy, gonna win over Xie Lian in no time

Trudging across the desert for hours on end? Gege, I'm going to die again please have mercy

Look at this exhausted pup!

either I just noticed something or I’m very late to the party but: jgy’s name

Guangyao 光瑶 (Light/Glory ; Jade per seven seas translation)

is a homonym of Guangyao 光耀 (which together means brilliance/honour/glory)

IS A HOMONYM OF guang yaozi 逛窑子 WHICH MEANS TO VISIT A BROTHEL????? NOTE THAT THE zi 子 IS THE SAME 子 AS IN SON?????

this is on purpose. right??? we all knew this man named his son a backhanded compliment (by using the suffix guang instead of the Jin generational zi, and by the fact that it’s a homonym for glory). BUT DID HE NAME HIS SON AN OVERT SLAP IN THE FACE ALSO

a sly snide open secret of an insult name????

screenshot of my mandarin dictionary 4 the ages but seriously What is going on. did we already know about this???

(homonyms don’t quite work like that in mandarin but I talked to my teacher about how she named her kids and she said people often do use “homonyms” (same sound different tone different character/meaning) to layer meaning onto names)

[disclaimer I am fluent but not a native speaker if anyone wants to correct me please do!!]

(tags via @out-there-tmblr)

PSA on single-character Chinese names

The usage of single-character names BY THEMSELVES is considered a little odd in modern Mandarin. Multi-character names are fine, for example, Wangji is fine by itself, but if you’re referring to him by birth name, you wouldn’t usually refer to him as JUST Zhan. You will have to use his full name (Lan Zhan), or add a prefix or suffix to the name, like A-Zhan, or Zhan’er. Unfortunately, the Netflix subs of CQL tends to omit the prefixes / suffixes from the names, thus translating A-Ying, for example, as simply Ying. This is an inaccurate translation.

There ARE occasions when single-character names may be used by themselves. For example, when JFM is referring to WWX early in CQL while talking to LQR, he calls him “Ying” and in LWJ’s letter to WWX, inviting him to JL’s hundred day celebration, he also refers to him as just “Ying” near the end of the letter (see below). However, this is somewhat formal dated usage, and is no longer common in modern Mandarin. I believe this is part of a larger evolution of Chinese language away from a more single-character focused lexicon, which I will explain below.

THE EVOLUTION OF CLASSICAL TO MODERN CHINESE

The modern spoken form of Mandarin evolved from an olden form of written Chinese, which I’m going to refer to as classical Chinese for simplicity’s sake (I believe historians actually have different names for different eras of ancient written Chinese). At the same time though, modern Mandarin is VERY different from classical Chinese. Classical Chinese is pretty much like… an entirely different language from modern Mandarin. I’m going to quote this meta which I encourage you guys to read in full for an analysis on LWJ’s speaking style:

Classical Chinese (which is heavily focused on single-character root words, thus condensing a lot of meaning into a relatively short sentence) was largely a written form of Chinese used by elites. Historians do not seem to believe that people spoke classical Chinese, but a vernacular form of Chinese which we don’t have record of. Typically though, languages tend to become increasingly diverse over large swaths of land, which leads to the emergence of dialects native to different regions. As a result, people from different regions may not actually understand each other.

However, China was united as a kingdom over vast swaths of land for many periods in dynastical history. It had a political system where magistrates stationed in even the faraway reaches of the kingdom reported to the emperor and his cabinet of ministers in the capital. As such, if you wanted to be a magistrate, you would have to learn this written form of Chinese, and take the imperial exam to be selected for the position. As a magistrate, you would be expected to correspond with officials from other regions in this written form of Chinese. This written form was thus able to bridge the differences in spoken Chinese.

But according to my Chinese teachers!!! (Disclaimer: they are high school language teachers, not Chinese history professors, so I cannot completely guarantee the historical accuracy of these claims,) When modernization happened, transportation became more advanced and urbanization became more and more of a thing. Thus, society saw a greater intermingling of people from different regions who couldn’t necessarily understand each other in spoken Chinese. This necessitated the emergence of a new common spoken tongue. Modern Mandarin, which is often referred to as putong hua (lit. common language), was thus born.

THE MOVE FROM SINGLE TO MULTI-CHARACTER WORDS

According to my Chinese teachers (see previous disclaimer again), modern Mandarin basically moved away from the single-character focused lexicon of classical Chinese, towards increased usage of multi-character words. For example, the modern word for “conflict” 战争 is made of root words 战 and 争 both of which rooooughly mean “conflict” as well. In a classical lexicon, the root words would likely be used by themselves, but modern Chinese mostly uses multi-character words.

And this, according to my Chinese teachers, was to improve the understandability of spoken Chinese. Chinese language has a GREAT NUMBER of homophones, which can get REALLY FUCKING CONFUSING. The Zhan (战) in “conflict” sounds exactly the same as 站 (to stand) 占 (to occupy) 湛 (as in Lan Zhan), and more. As such, while the root words 战 and 争 may carry the intended meaning perfectly well in writing, in speech, they individually sound like a bazillion other words. Which thus necessitates these multi-character words. 战 may have many homophones, but 战争 has a great deal less homophones.

So why do we generally not do single-character names in speech anymore? BECAUSE IT CAN GET REALLY FUCKING CONFUSING. Like if you wanted to say something as simple and functional as “go to Zhan” (去湛那边), the Zhan of his name (湛) is a perfect homophone for 站 (to stand), so it literally just sounds like “go stand there” 😭😭😭 At least if you use his surname (Lan Zhan), a prefix (A-Zhan), or a suffix (Zhan’er) it becomes a whole lot clearer that you’re referring to a person.

THE TLDR;

This is a very long and roundabout way to say: please don’t replicate the Netflix subs in your fics. If you’re referring to someone with a single-character name, add a prefix or suffix to the name, like A-Cheng, or Cheng’er, or else use the full name, Jiang Cheng. Multi-character names are generally fine, for example, Wanyin, Wangji, or Xichen are all fine. Wuxian seems to be a little bit of a grey area. It does not seem to be used by characters in the novel, probably because it sounds like 无线 (wireless), which is the reason why the Chinese fandom likes to refer to him as “WiFi” 🤣

#Btw op! What exactly is the difference between the a prefix and the er suffix? If you know?#(if you even see this) I BELIEVE that it might be regional. There’s this phenomenon / speech pattern in Chinese called erhua which um. For a lack of better explanation basically means ADDING “ER” TO EVERYTHING. It’s mostly a northern Chinese thing. Most southern Chinese don’t do it and/or CAN’T do it. I can’t do it. I can’t fucking pronounce it.

Anyway, I think A- might be a southern Chinese thing (I’m southern Chinese and we generally do A- here) and ‘er might be more of a northern thing. As for the meanings, I’m not 100% sureeee but PERSONALLY I feel like ‘er strikes me as more of a diminutive, but A- the way we use it here isn’t necessarilyyyyy a diminutive? It feels mostly more of a familiarity thing more than a diminutive? But don’t quote me on that. And err, maybe don’t internalize it as fact until it’s corroborated by other diaspora. I could be wrong.

It is my bounden duty to inform you that Zhu Zanjin, being a dancer, seems to just Do That sometimes:

Dancers just be like "Yes but have you considered my leg?"

@achilleasfury maybe the real cure to qi deviation is just to pet the feral sabre spirit until it calms down?

“So, the founder of the Lan Sect was a monk- no wonder! He ventured into the mortal world to meet one person, and, as she went, he went as well, leaving nothing behind on this Earth.”

Xichen and his cats but they get progressively bigger

ft. bonus dage

So 3zun, huh?