#hunxi book tag

[hunxi-after-hours]

finally reading Victoria Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor and it’s really got all of the good fantasies in it. sky ships and sea trains. a functional imperial bureaucracy. the loneliest god-emperor you’ve ever seen and a big sprawling rambunctious family to love him. death-defying devotion to your friendships. a deeply intimidating clothier who will give you a personal makeover upon promotion. a lot of competent people trying their level best to survive mountains of paperwork. disgustingly gorgeous textiles. academic digressions into historical research that hijack entire chapters. an unspecified cataclysm that fractured time, space, and maybe reality, but don’t worry that was a thousand or maybe just twenty years ago and we built a functional bureaucracy out of the debris eventually. we’re dismantling the aristocracy and it’s taking a moment, but the rehauling of the meritocratic exams is bringing promising young candidates from the hinterlands to reform the future. oh by the way we rolled out universal basic income. the spreadsheets are many but so are your assistants helping you make sense of it. you are finally loved and appreciated and recognized for all you have done. you are bringing the fire back to the hearth of the world. you’re doing it, you’re doing it, it’s really happening. put your pen down, the meetings can wait until tomorrow. you can rest now

#and I’m only halfway through the book #this is quite possibly the longest non-Stormlight book I’ve ever read #by which I mean it is EIGHT HUNDRED NINETY EIGHT PAGES #it’s beautiful though #hunxi book tag #The Hands of the Emperor

[impossibletruths]

I was tagged by @dressrosaa (ty!!!)

Three ships: many, but I’ve been feeling some fresh new feelings about xuanli, vaxleth and queliot recently. it’s a ship renaissance over here

First ever ship: ship in the sense that I understood what shipping was it was aragorn/arwen. that shit was formative. actually looking back on it I also recall being a strong supporter of harry/hermione (as opposed to my bff at age 12 who was a romione stan) (clearly one of us was right and one of us got very into fanfiction)

Last song: the bts in the soop theme song technically but I was listening to evrythingoes while making dinner so we’ll say that

Last film: I went to see Moonfall at the movie theater over the weekend thinking it would be campy and bad but fun and then I walked out halfway through when it was just The Worst Movie I’ve Ever Seen?

Currently reading: I recently finished She Who Became The Sun and I’m trying to start Zen Cho’s The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water but I’m kinda in a slump at the moment. I also have an anthology I got for the holidays sitting on my bedside table and a copy of Nimona and a linguistics book. mostly I’m re-reading old wips (rip)

Currently watching: I started the Legend of Vox Machina and I’m having Adaptational Feelings about it (mostly in that I think it’s a delightfully well done adaptation but it’s not my adaptation, if that makes sense). also just started Arcane and like. obviously I’ve seen it all over my dash but I thought the creepy eyeball guy underwater and the skinny gay scientist boy were the same character and they’re? not??????

Currently consuming: I just finished a delightful dinner of roast brussel sprouts with balsamic glaze and had a nice lil ice cream for dessert

Currently craving: more ice cream but I’m all out now :(

Rules: tag 9 people you want to get to know better. do I even know 9 people? okay I’m tagging @basket-of-epiphanies @hunxi-after-hours @mischief7manager @surprisegents @serenity-the-firefly @curriebelle @evilroachindustrial @two-crabs and @forcekenobi. and also you! yes you! anybody who wants to do this please consider yourself tagged

#on the one hand: haha I get to read all my wips #on the other hand: Why Are They Not Done Yet etc #tag game #about

[sinni-ok-sessi]

I got tagged by @hunxi-after-hours (thank you!)

three ships: watch as I panic and forget every fanfic I've read in the last month. uhhh. jingsu with overtones of narrowly-avoided tragedy; I can't remember the ship name, but Sui Zhou and Tang Fan from Sleuth, specifically as part of The Polycule of the Ming Dynasty, which will one day absorb the entire city; wangxian still

first ever ship: I think it might have been Holmes/Watson? I stand by it

last song: I am apparently listening to the entire Crane Wives discography through a LYB lens, so I think technically The Moon Will Sing

last film: I haven't seen a film in so long, it might be The Green Knight?

currently reading: uh. mostly student essays tbh, interspersed with Women Warriors and Wartime Spies of China, a book I got cheap in the university book sale. Wish I'd read it earlier in my thesis-writing because it has interesting things to say about women cross-dressing as soldiers and I love to cite books I was going to read anyway

currently watching: Reset and also Winter Begonia

currently consuming: a satsuma. if it's for LYB-related reasons, no one needs to know

currently craving: the end of term. I know we only started like three weeks ago, but please. I yearn to never teach old english again

now the hardest part of any tag game: remembering literally anyone I regularly interact with in order to tag them: @esoanem @goingsparebutwithprecision @betweencrossedblades @blysse-and-blunder @comradegrantaire @verbforverb @tallangrycockatiel I'm sure I do know other people but my mind is blanking, so if anyone wants to do this, have at it and do tag me in it!

#hunxi I am very 'omg senpai noticed me' about you tagging me for this #your linguistic register post was what finally tipped me into watching cql (Will Watch Shows For Sociolinguistics) #tag game #it's hard to remember other media I've consumed when my brain keeps presenting me with new and interesting variations on Jingyan Feelings

[meichenxi]

Learn Chinese with CQL: 乃

One of the sentences in my last post on 岂 contained the following sentence: 

抹额乃重要之物, 非父母妻儿 岂能触碰?

LWJ: The headband is a sacred object, no one apart from parents, spouses and children can touch it. 

The particle 乃 naî was new to me, and may be new to you too, so I spent some time looking! It is a highly literary word (the earliest example I have here is from the 3rd or 4th century BC!!) and as such has had plenty of time to change. Unlike 岂, it doesn’t really seem to appear in any non-formal, non-literary contexts at all (apart from the internet slang 乃萌  = 你们). 

The meanings of 乃 are very varied: according to Wiktionary, it means:

you

thus, therefore, so

‘to be’

but

才

etc…

I’ll concentrate on the first three meanings, since at least in CQL they seem to be the most common. 

Short linguistics interlude:

 This word is actually etymologically related to 你 and 那, as well as some Tibetan words - which is awesome, since there are fewer obvious cognates in Mandarin to the non-Sinetic side of the Sino-Tibetan family since so many sound changes have happened. The fact that it is related to both words for ‘you’ and ‘that’ explains its two widely different meanings - why it is used as a personal pronoun, but also as a copula…bear with me. There are certain patterns of change throughout language which repeat themselves across many languages, from all over the world. The change from a word meaning ‘this, that’ to a word mean ‘is, to be’ is one of these, and is hugely common in the history of Chinese as well. The copula 是 actually used to mean ‘this, that’ as well, as well as a bunch of other old copulas, so as weird as it looks it is a common enough relationship)

USAGE 1: to be

Admittedly the script of CQL isn’t the world’s most extensive corpus, but 乃 used with this meaning is by far the most common of the six. 

(note: because there is a LOT of vocabulary potentially unfamiliar to many, I will give the pinyin and English translation, and leave you to pick out whatever words are new for yourself: this post is already long enough. All translations mine; take especially the literary ones with a pinch of salt)

 Example 1, Lan Wangji:

抹额乃重要之物.

mó é nâi zhòngyào zhī wù

‘The headband is an important object.’

Example 2, Lan Wangji: 

应该是感应到我乃蓝氏族人

yīnggāi shì gânyìng wô nâi lánshì zúrén

‘It is probably that it senses I am a member of the Lan sect.’

Example 3, Lan Qiren:

家训乃我蓝氏立身之本!“

jiāxùn nâi wô lán shì lìshēn zhī bên!

‘The family precepts are the very root of how we in the Lan sect conduct ourselves!’

Example 4, Lan Sizhui:

尔乃何人？

êr nâi hé rén?

‘Who are you?’

Here he is quoting the opening question of Inquiry 问灵, hence the unusual formality. 尔 here is a formal word for ‘you’ as well. You can sense a pattern in how Lan-ish this is…But just to reiterate hunxi’s post that lives in my brain forever about Wei Wuxian as a linguistic chameleon, here’s his compliment to Nie Huaisang on his fan:

Example 5, Wei Wuxian:

此乃当世极品啊

cî nâi dāngshì jípîn a

‘This is a superb product of the contemporary age’ = ‘This fan is extraordinary’

USAGE 2: so, therefore, thus 

乃 is often used together with 是, and the meaning ranges from a simple copula, just like the above, to something more like modern 就是, 倒是. In the CQL script at least this is also fairly common. 

Example 6, Lan Yi:

抱山乃是我这一生唯一的挚交

bàoshān nâi shì wô zhè yīshēng wéi yī de zhì jiāo

‘Baoshan was the only genuine friend I had in my life’ :((((

Example 7, Wei Wuxian:

晚辈乃是抱山散人之徒 藏色散人之子, 魏婴

wânbèi nâi shì bàoshān sànrén zhī tú cángsè sànrén zhī zî, wèi yīng

‘This one (lit. ’later generation’, opposite 前辈) is Baoshan Sanren’s disciple Cangse Sanren’s son, Wei Ying’

Example 8: someone naggy dunking on demonic cultivation, maybe Lan Xichen or Jin Zixuan…

身为世家弟子, 佩剑乃是殊荣!

shēn wèi shì jiā dìzî, pèi jiàn nâi shì shūróng

‘As the disciple of one of the world’s foremost clans, carrying your sword is (=should be) an honour!’

In the examples 6 and 8, 乃 could be substitued for 就是 or 倒是 in more modern language. 

USAGE THREE: you

This usage in particular appears to be very, very old: there are no examples of it in CQL as far as I have found. There are a lot of identity-adjacent personal pronouns used, humbling or honorific, but no uses of 乃 as just a regular second-person pronoun (though we do get 尔). I’ve pulled one final  example from Wiki instead - only one, I’m afraid, because all the others were horrifically complicated to translate. 

Example 9, 3rd/4th century BC, 书经 ‘The Book of Documents’:

朕心朕德， 惟乃知。

zhèn xīn zhèn dé, wéi nâi zhī

‘My heart and my morals (= ‘my innermost feelings), only you know.’

Two points here: 朕 is a first person pronoun, and 惟 is an alternative to 唯 as in ‘唯一’ ‘the only’. 

There we go, that’s it!! I hope you found that interesting. If anybody decides to film a prank video where they start a Chinese class introducing themselves by saying ‘在下乃…’, do tag me. 

加油！

- 梅晨曦

#two! posts! in! one! day! it's all fun and games with melissa #learn chinese with cql #learn chinese with lwj #learn chinese with wwx #chinese #langblr #classical chinese #chinese grammar #grammar #learn chinese #literary chinese #honestly this series = I like #very fun #also the 3rd century BC?????? #do you ever speak and just...feel the weight of history in your mouth #in the 3rd century BC English was busy just...being proto-germanic #the oldest really English old English (as opposed to being dubiously 'germanic') is from about 450 CE #to put that in perspective #from 4th century bc that is EIGHT CENTURIES LATER #and now it's being used on the internet as slang #these things...I don't enjoy going to museums much #too adhd etc #but when we speak isn't it incredible that we preserve without knowing it #vestiges of hundreds of generations of lovers and children and classmates #in our verb systems and irregularities - I'm looking at you Verner's law #it's just....it is astounding #whenever anything else lets you down words will always be there #there's always something to learn and always something to wonder at #and you can feel the weight of all those people that have gone before us #they are some of the oldest objects we have words

[baoshan-sanren]

hi!!! a friend just made my day with this news and i wanted to pass it on to you IMMEDIATELY. i've been away from tumblr basically all of this week so apologies if you already were aware, but nirvana in fire is now available on viki!!! so much easier than trying to cobble the watch together between dm and yt. just wanted to let you know. :) hope you're well!

I SAW THAT HOLY CRAP

I actually have a copy that a friend graciously shared w me because I couldn’t deal with watching a 45 min episode of anything on dailymotion, especially a drama where I need to pay attention, but I’m fucking amazed that Viki actually has a subbed version now because holy shit, being able to listen to it, even with very limited knowledge of the language, def makes a difference.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, Nirvana In Fire is a historical/political drama based on Hai Yan's book Lang Ya Bang (瑯琊榜). Short summary: During the great unrest of 4th-century China, war breaks out between the feudal Northern Wei and Southern Liang dynasties. General Lin Xie of Liang takes his only 17-year-old son, Lin Shu (Hu Ge), into battle and successfully fights off the hostile Wei army. But when a political rival frames General Lin Xie, it causes the deaths of 70,000 Chiyan army soldiers. Lin Shu is able to escape with his life with the help of a loyal subordinate. Twelve years later, Lin Shu establishes the Jiangzuo Alliance and returns to the capital as the Chief Mei Changsu. When the Northern Wei forces mount another attack, to what lengths will Mei Changsu go to protect his own people? “Nirvana in Fire” is a 2015 Mainland drama series directed by Kong Sheng and Li Xue.

I mean, just the accuracy of the period costumes in this drama is fucking incredible, and if you’ve seen @hunxi-guilai make language references, or references to correct courtesies, titles, clothing, or even ornaments  by using nif tag, this is the show they’re talking about. Although my attention deficit ass is still struggling to get into it, the drama comes highly recommended by all the people who, shall we say, know their shit. And now you can watch it right here.

#琅琊榜 #Lángyá Bǎng #nirvana in fire #thank you love!!! #thekingandthelionheart #ask for ts

[pumpkinpaix]

Catch-Up Meme

Tagged by @hunxi-after-hours and @minmoyu (*lies down and fistbumps you both*)

Rules: answer + tag 9 people you want to get to know better and/or catch up with!

Favorite color: sunlight, like really good gold sunlight when it falls on pretty much anything

Last song / album: oh gosh, you know I'm not sure?? last full album that I've been listening to is probably Far by Regina Spektor

Last movie: In the Heights!! first movie in a theatre since *gestures* and my friend and i saw it in the small foreign films/indie cinema so there were almost no people and that was Excellent

Currently Reading: god i WISH i were reading something rn, but I've been stalled out on the tyk extras for months :( but a book I've been thinking about picking up on the recommendation of a friend is Alec Ash's China's New Youth

Currently Watching: just finished the Loki series which is the most joy I've gotten out of marvel since 2012 which is nice. also watched wandavision (fairly fun), fatws (not fun at all 😭), and leverage redemption (!!!!!) so!!

Currently Craving: some peace and quiet

Coffee or Tea: i like the idea of both but i actually don't drink much of either :(

i can't bring myself to tag people rn, but if you want to do this, feel free to jump in and say i tagged you <3

#ask meme #im just burnt out im sorry 😭 #minmoyu #hunxi after hours #cyanoupdates

[axiang-n-chengling-s-dads]

I wrote this yesterday while crying and wasn't going to post it but then I read this excellent meta by @hunxi-guilai (sorry for tagging you if you didn't want to be, I can remove it if you wish) and was like 'time to actually have feels about lqr and his nephews ig' so here it is

no but do you ever think about Lan Qiren looking at Lan Wangji visibly falling for Wei Wuxian who was just like Cangse Sanren, same grin same mischievous glint in his eyes and would ultimately fall to the same fate as his mother had

and then thinking about the tiny toddler he had to raise and feed and tell that his mother passed away, had to drag the child away from the doors that held no one inside them, the way he taught him over and over and over what was good and bad so that he would never meet his parents' fate and wanting to scream and shout at Lan Wangji

because didn't he have some right over him? Some way of stopping him?. He tried to give his nephew all the right books and gave him all the most severe punishments and then his nephew went to visit the very kind of person Lan Qiren had tried to save him from. he was so conflicted-- was he supposed to be lwj's uncle or the Lan sect leader? He didn't know but he tried his best to be both but he didn't put his hand on lwjs shoulder when he saw his desperate face asking for the books in the forbidden chamber, he thinks he should have

and then Lan Wangji took the hits of the discipline whip in front of him and asked him "What is right and what is wrong? What is black and what is white?" And looked so very sure of his love that made him blind to everything, and how Lan Qiren would have wanted to shout that it didn't matter what was right and wrong because there were rules

and yes rules sounded bad but they were the ones that had helped him when he was barely an adult and had two children and an entire sect thrown upon him

there were rules and there were consequences of thinking there weren't any, and then he watched his nephew face the same fate of isolation that his father, Lan Qirens brother, had faced and he could do nothing about it but only watch and grieve in silence, because he's known since he'd seen the two young boys together that history was to be repeated and that they would never escape their fate

he watches lwj raise a child, names the child after yearning and he breaks every second because it is like watching his own reflection as he picked up lxc, barely a toddler, for the first time, and watches his nephew play inquiry for hours every night and cry over the guqin as his scars bleed and stands powerless, dwelling in his own inadequacy in saving the people he loved most.

but then it's 16 years later and Wei wuxian has come back to life and been forgiven for his crimes and though Lan Qiren hates him he lives in the same walls of Gusu that he himself does and

one day Lan Qiren is walking the grounds and he sees wangji and Wei wuxian together and his heart clenches with ready resentment, except-- wangji is smiling.

not just a small barely-percivable smile but the kind that has lit up his eyes and curves his lips and lifted his face and he's looking at Wei wuxian who is mad with laughter and suddenly Lan qiren wants to shout

he wants to shout till he is hoarse and sob till he is empty because he doesn't know whether he should be his uncle or the lan sect leader but he so wants to be for once just lwj's uncle and dissolve into a puddle because somehow, by some miracle, his nephew did not fall into the hands of cruel fate, and that he doesn't care if wwx is a demonic cultivator but he made lqr's nephew smile like THAT and made him happy and he can see lwj's sorrrow from the 16 years ebb away and he wants to thank thank thank wwx for it but he cannot he should not, and ultimately he will not. but there is something else he can do

so later that day he calls wwx and wwx reluctantly comes there and lqr can see the trepidation and for a second he thinks of how stupid he's being because wasn't he the person to place himself directly against the boy in front of him?, but then he remembers lwj smiling and he takes a deep breath and then talks, more than he ever has and probably ever will with wwx.

he tells him about a girl with a perpetual skip in her step and a glint in her eye and who cut lqr's beard and smuggled liquor into cloud recesses and it's not the best way to say a thank you he knows, but he hopes its enough as he sees wwx's eyes well up with grateful tears.

#sorry for the long post lol #lqr #lwj #lxc #lwj' s parents #cql meta #not really meta but just ranting ig #cql #mdzs #wangxian #hc #cql hcs

[bladedweaponsandswishycoats]

Wei Wuxian, NO!

-concerned textual scholars, archivists, and librarians everywhere

(this is only about 50% a shitpost...)

Proposal: The most unrealistic thing that happens in the entirety of The Untamed/  陈情令  is not the fact that people fly on swords, nor the possibility of immortality. No, it’s the fact that Wen Qing did not absolutely eviscerate Wei Wuxian for treating her medical texts with such little care for their value, rarity, and fragility. She should have poked him so full of needles for this, seriously!

^Leaving an open flame unsupervised within feet of valuable and highly flammable (and probably old and potentially one-of-a-kind) manuscripts/wood slips? Ahhhhh! Nooooo! What are you thinkingggg?

And more: THIS IS NOT HOW YOU HANDLE RARE BOOKS, WEI WUXIAN:

Someone please send this boy to a workshop on proper book/manuscript handling methods. 

(I do get that, extra-textually, this is how popular media envisions textual research/library montages—the Scoobies in Buffy are JUST as bad in how they treat their demonic texts, but still, why accept that when yelling at Wei Wuxian is more fun?!)

Tagging @hunxi-guilai​ since you too like yelling about old texts.

#do I need to write a crackfic #where canon divergence happens #because Wei Wuxian's #terrible book habits #change the course of events forever? #I probably won't #this post will have to be enough #the untamed #陈情令 #wei wuxian #wen qing #mdzs

[souridealist]

as fair a definition of satisfaction as I’ve ever heard: that whole thing on wei wuxian and regret that I almost left in the tags on that ask

yes I did go back and look at that conversation in the snow AND some meta about it. a clear conscience. a heart without regret. does wei wuxian have regrets in the end? well after all that loss, after so much of other people’s suffering... how could he not? and yet: he did the best he could. he never walked away from a wrong and let it happen.

I think when Wei Wuxian made his wish on that lantern -- and I’m working with the netflix subtitles here, so, Y’KNOW, but -- 

I, Wei Wuxian, wish that I can always stand with justice and live with no regrets.

When he makes this wish, I think, Wei Wuxian believes that one will lead to the other. that if he never lets an injustice pass him by, he will have no regrets. That if he is that kind of righteous, he will be able to look back at his life and say, “yes, I am happy with how this turned out.”

well. He did not, in fact, let injustice pass him by, and he lost everything that mattered to him, even if he got some of it back. And he didn’t even save more than a few of the people he was trying to save. Does he have no regrets?

when we get to that moment in the snow, episode 43, and... yeah for this I’m going way less with the show’s subtitles and more with the much better translations done by the inestimable @hunxi-guilai in various places but. 

Wei Wuxian leans against the door, he considers the deaths of the people who believed in him . And the ones he cites, specifically, Wen Ning, Jiang Yanli, there’s a very short window of conscious time when he believes both of those people to be completely dead? Even fewer in his first life. He had a few battle-filled hours in which to miss them both, that’s it. But those, I think, are the deaths he feels guiltiest about. Wen Ning, whose death he didn’t speak up in time to prevent, whose strange resurrection and vulnerability to others’ control led to so much suffering -- his own, other peoples’. Jiang Yanli, who died for him. (I think that’s why he doesn’t mention Wen Qing, here - that he grieves her death miserably, but that he grieves it differently. That he blames himself less for her choice. That she had to paralyze him to do it.) 

And then:

Lan Zhan, I toast to you. Having one person in my life who truly knows me is enough. No matter how they slander me, I can ask my heart and find no regret in it.

Is he happy with how things turned out? Right after citing those losses, those deaths? The pain in his voice at shijie? Is this what he wanted, the life he wished for on the lantern? No. 

And yet.

in the Vorkosigan books, which are one of my favorite stories of all time, there’s an exchange. Miles Vorkosigan suffers severe prenatal damage from an assassination attempt on his pregnant mother, and as a result he spends his whole life and the whole series dealing with severe physical disabilities including dwarfism. He’s caused a lot of physical pain by them, and is deeply intrinsically shaped by the ableism around him. It frustrates him a great deal, especially while he’s young. He does a lot of mad, reckless, foolish, brilliant, genius things. Eventually, in a late-series book, a woman asks him: if he could go back in time and prevent that attack, change things, would he do it?

He paused, and drew in breath, and let it out slowly. “I’ve made a lot of grievous mistakes in my life, getting here, but... I wouldn’t trade my journey now. I’d be afraid of making myself smaller.”

She cocked her head, measuring his dwarfishness, not missing his meaning. “That’s as fair a definition of satisfaction as any I’ve ever heard.”

Yeah. That.

It’s not what Wei Wuxian thought a life without regrets would look like, I don’t think. It’s not what he wished for on that lantern. And yet, he did manage this much: is he sure he could do better, if he could go back? No. And if he isn’t, doesn’t that mean he did the best he could? 

...Maybe. Yeah.

He wouldn’t trade his journey now. He might lose more than he gained, in that. 

Maybe that’s as close to a life without regrets as any of us can get, in a world where so often there is no right thing, only a least-wrong one. and maybe that, and someone who knows you, is enough.

#anyway I'm tempted to do a LOT of vorkosigan series quoteswap graphics #especially from the memory / komarr / a civil campaign triptych #the untamed #wei wuxian

[hunxi-after-hours]

Surit Yeni ranks in the top five list of how fast I’ve gone ride-or-die for a character thanks to this exchange alone

#hunxi book tag #Ocean’s Echo #no sophomore slump for Everina Maxwell

[wangxianficrecs]

This might be a long shot, but I have been looking for a wangxian fic that was a Ninefox Gambit AU. I read the actual book so that I could understand the worldbuilding, and I am really disappointed that I cannot find it again.

A quick search on AO3 turned up @hunxi-guilai‘s

through carrion glass, the stars

by tombenough_and_continent

T, 13k, songxiao (is that the name for song zizhen x xiao xingchen?) background wangxian

Summary:  Wei Wuxian does not walk out of the Burial Mounds after three months.

Instead, Xiao Xingchen does.

I haven’t read it yet, but it looks intriguing.  (What is carrion glass?)  Just from tags and summary, I don’t think the focus is on wangxian, though....

***ETA***

Ah, @also-dragons just said, ”while this is a great fic, this is not a ninefox gambit au. it probably came up because the term 'carrion glass' is a reference to ninefox gambit. i think anon is referring to a full ninefox gambit au.”  

#fic finder #songxiao fic finder #ninefox gambit #mdzs #the untamed crossover #Anonymous

[ateanalenn]

The Untamed / MDZS, resources post, stuff I needed as a writer

ORIGINAL POST AT DREAMWIDTH! (and updates will be there too and maybe on tumblr, if I remember)

(this is a copy paste, the formatting might not survive)

(also available on AO3)

The Untamed / MDZS, resources post, stuff I needed as a writerApr. 11th, 2020 05:46 pm ateanalennFinding info for this show / how to write about / pitfalls to avoid was a pain :( I guess that's part of having fandom on Tumblr. Since Tumblr's search function only works by selling a kidney and sacrificing a goat, I had to rely on Google. Which, not great. Anyway, useful stuff I found to understand this fandom: • MDZS on Dreamwidth: theuntamed_mdzs (active) mxtx (community focused on all the works by the author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Not active, but it's there) theyilingweisect (community sharing fics, meta, discussions. Not active either since jan 2020) • MDZS aka Mo Dao Zu Shi (book) aka Grandmaster of Demobnic Cultivation / The Untamed (drama) (there's also an audio drama, a manhua, a donghua, ...) - the novel's en glish fan translation at Exiled Rebels (complete ) As far as I know, this is the most popular translation, though I would like to know if anyone has another translation that they think fit best. - the drama is streaming on Netflix, Viki, WeTV & Youtube. From what I heard around, Netflix and Youtube are the most accessible, obviously, but Viki has the best subtitles (and a whole lot of annoying pubs though). I think that I heard somewhere that there are fan subtitles made, will update if I find the link again). • About names: • The Untamed: A Primer Basically an overview of what is this drama, a few spoilers (but under arrows to open so less risks to see something you didn't want to see). Useful list of titles for the main charas! (ex: Wei Wuxian:    Young Master Wei    Wei Ying (use of this name denotes “I feel affection for you”)    The Yiling Patriarch (use of this name denotes “I think you are evil”)    A-Xian / Xianxian (use of this name denotes “I am your loving older sister, have some soup”)    Lan Wangji:    Second Young Master Lan    Lan Zhan (use of this name denotes “I feel affection for you”)    Hanguang Jun (use of this name denotes “I respect you, and you are also famously very beautiful”)    Wangji (use of this name denotes “I am your older brother and I wish you’d make a friend”) ) • Another primer tumblr by sonickitty with a few where-do-I-find links • Alexandra Rowland explains What Is The Untamed twitter (with pics) • How Ancient Chinese Names Work - Learn from The Untamed Detailed explanation of what's going on with the names (aka Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, Hanguang-jun) • Dramatis Personae for Modao Zushi the book dw (another detailed who's who/names list) • Names again, Chinese/Mandarin conventions twitter (aka ex the accents aren't necessary, they're there for pronunciation and some explanation of who would use full name/shortened name) • Infographic: birth name vs courtesy name vs title vs respectful address  twitter • Quick table / honorifics guide tumblr by cleyra • Mo Dao Zu Shi | 魔道祖师 The various adaptions tumblr by gravitydefyingtears • A list of MDZS FanFic Common Misleading tumblr by kazeki • A conversation about linguistic register, Lan Wangji, and I guess Wei Wuxian can come too tumblr (pretty important text to understand how lwj speaks) • Writing Lan Wangji's speech patterns (aka say the most in the least words) and the follow up Lan Wangji moving into the lowest, most vernacular linguistic register to try and get through to Wei Wuxian tumblr by hunxi-huilai • Using "You/I" vs "Title-as-you" tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Sword names tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Honorifics: jun vs zun tumblr by hunxi-guilai • THE spreadsheet: Mo Dao Zu Shi Character Name Chart, recced by flamebyrd (of who uses what for whom) • Misc Info: • 59 slides of awesomeness by chatcolat. Who's who, plot summary, humor. Beware, so full of spoilers you'll cry if you want to keep some mystery, but! concise recap of what happens in the show to keep the timeline in mind. • Everything about those cultivation sects in ‘The Untamed’ Quick who's who of the various sects (Gusu Lan, Lanling Jin, Yunmeng Jiang, Qishan Wen, Qinghe Nie. Protip: first word is basically the location, second is the sect/clan name). • Reference for Modao Zushi Writers: Chinese terms ao3. "This is to provide a reference for writers who are unfamiliar with Chinese literary conventions or terms used in canon." • Resource list dw: Libitina's twitter links for Meta, Linguistics, Costumes, Food, Edits, Art. • Actual drama title vs English drama title twitter • How "Mo Dao Zu Shi" became "Chen Qing Ling" became "The Untamed" tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Very necessary meta about why the novel/extras seems to have so many sex consent issues and how translating to English potentially gives a very different overall feel to the scene (ex: ExR = "you're too much, you're way too much" becomes chiaki_himura's "you're good, you're too good", becomes bigbadredpanda's "you're amazing, you're the best"). Also, Chinese language enables to shorten sentences which makes stuff implied, 's your job to see context clues.) • hunxi guilai's master list of various detailed topics re-Chinese language/customs tumblr • "Wangxian" is such a clever portemanteau tumblr by untamedconnotations • Song Lan didn’t just say that Xiao Xingchen was “nice-looking,” he basically said that Xiao Xingchen was smokin’ hot except like, in two characters and blanketed with literary respectability. tumblr by hunxi-guilai (this is only relevant because xxc IS the most beautiful person, really and needs to be protected at all cost) • The Unclean Realm isn't "unclean" has in dirty/bad, it's most probably to show the difference of way of cultivating vs the other sects tumblr by hunxi-guilai • WuJi, the love song's fan translation tumblr by iarrod • Timeline: • 59 slides of awesomeness by chatcolat. Who's who, plot summary, humor. Beware, so full of spoilers you'll cry if you want to keep some mystery, but! concise recap of what happens in the show to keep the timeline in mind. • A google spreadsheet, via mihanada's GoDC timeline wip (Year/Event/Notes/Ages/...)     • MDZS Timeline, that meta AO3 post on speed by TheWickling. Useful if you want all the details, a bit difficult to navigate/understand when you just landed in the fandom. Still very useful. • And the sequel: On Character's Ages  ao3 "A collection of meta on the possible ages for different  characters in MDZS and what ages they would be during key events in the  timeline." • Modao Zushi, birthdates/timeline dw Dirthdates starting with 0 = wwx's birth year. Succinct & useful. • Maps • Fan made mdzs / untamed worldmap twitter • Places of The Untamed - Where They Are in The Real World • IRL sect locations reddit • Google Map of clan locations in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation tumblr • Lotus Pier really is one of the most underrated but beautiful places. twitter • Gifsets and images: - Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed drama character guide! deviantart picture = name, who's who in pics. - The Untamed sect sigils - In Which LWJ Gives Not A Single Shit, A Thread #LanWangji #WangXian #cql #TheUntamed SPOILERS for most of the show twitter - The various stages of hairstyles + accessories twitter - SongXiao are in love, got married, are living happily ever after,(FITE ME) twitter by shenweiss - Realizing that wwx is wearing lwj's silk undershirt and the follow up: Qiren's face when he notices xD twitter - gingersnapwolves's Untamed tumblr tag - thewickling's mdzs tumblr tag - hunxi-guilai's cql tumblr tag - compilation of wangxian just being gay and making everyone feel like a third wheel twitter by weiwxngji - wwx swoons a lot and he's gorgeous twitter - Alexandra Rowland explains What Is The Untamed twitter (with pics) - grinding ink requires great patience, often represents that one is willing to wait for another’s feelings twitter - sad compilation of wangxian gazing into each other’s eyes that no one asked for, you’re welcome twitter - This frontal view of Wei Wuxian laying on Lan Wangji’s lap is everything. twitter - Lotus Pier really is one of the most underrated but beautiful places. twitter - Sometimes you see something, a picture, a video, just a snippet of a short moment, and you SEE the love. twitter - CQL’s working title was hot murder husbands twitter (this is amazing) - Lan Wangji just looks a thousand times more intimidating with golden eyes twitter - #TheUntamed’s spinoff webmovie #FatalJourney posters twitter (yessss, nhs, one of my fav) - Don’t you love how exactly 0.5 seconds of this video is Lan Zhan explaining that only spouses are allowed to touch the headband and the rest of the entire 2(!) minutes is a complication of Wei Ying touching it anyways... he said I wanna marry you. twitter • Fic Recs: - DW guest Post: Untamed Fic Starter Pack (a few fics for each subject (ex post canon, juniors centric, ...) - Twitter thread starting with Alexandra Rowland asking for fluffy MDZS/Untamed fic recs. (good new-fandom starter too!) - That twitter thread collecting a list of lady-centric Untamed/MDZS fics Which, good, because as much as I love the fandom, once again women don't exactly come out on top. How many are still alive at the end? I can think of one previously Jin sect lady, but that's it on top of my head, soooo. - Libitina also has posted a lot of mdzs fic recs dw - A "they're students in lockdown and socially distancing" WangXian ficlet tumblr by besanii And bonus: a capybara enjoying a good scritch because I love those dog-sized guinea pigs, seriously, that twitter account is my daily dose of cuteness Also, have some guinea pig on a cutesy bridge PS: I thought that this would be fast because I didn't have that much info to collect at one place, buuuut. It's been 5 hours and it turns out that I did lol.   Still, if you have anything else of potential interest, don't hesitate to leave a comment, please :D

#the untamed #resource #dreamwidth blog post #writer info #references

[hunxi-after-hours]

I would very dearly like to know more about the invention of Chinese language typewriters if you care to tell!

oooooh okay so there's actually a GREAT book I read about this earlier this year: Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu (who is, y'know, a Yale professor. casual)

she tracks several key figures over the course of a century and a half and the various contributions they made to the journey of the Chinese language through industrialization and into the 21st century. like, the difficulty of learning a logographic language with tones is well-known, but have you ever given thought to what the absolute nightmare of trying to communicate via telegraph in Chinese was? have you contemplated the magnificent horror of typewriter logistics with logographic characters, and the ensuing debate over whether or not Chinese characters are indivisible units? because yes radicals are a thing but 火 and 灭 and 烧 and 热 all technically have the same flame radical but it's shaped/proportioned differently in each, so what does THAT mean if you're trying to carve a physical stamp to put in a typewriter to be compatible with other radicals to form a comprehensible and shapely character?

anyways, Zhou Houkun is a hero because I think I simply would have wept and given up

#and the journey continues into the 21st century!! there are debates about Unicode!! #I haven't read many nonfiction books this year but they've all been fire #hunxi book tag

[hunxi-after-hours]

ooh, what's the snow-bound manor mystery book?

(in reference to this here post)

I picked up a copy of Leech by Hiron Ennes and it was so WEIRD and DISTURBING and UNFAIRLY WELL-WRITTEN; the primary conceit of the book is "medical gothic horror" (yep) but it's also a subtle reconception of a post-post-apocalyptic world.

wait, why am I trying to explain it when Hiron Ennes describes it beautifully in this interview:

I always have a hard time explaining Leech. I describe it as post-post-apocalyptic soft-sci-fi gothic body horror, and if you’re on board by the end of that, you’re on board. It opens in the frozen province of Verdira, ruled by a despotic baron whose personal physician has died under mysterious circumstances. We follow the doctor’s not-quite-human replacement, who must contend both with a spreading parasitic disease and the demands of the manor’s inhabitants: the baron, who is kept alive by a retinue of machines, his solicitous but overworked son, a daughter-in-law in a perpetual state of ill-fated pregnancy, two mischievous grandchildren, and a silent but hypercompetent houseboy. Leech has got all the good stuff. Autopsies. Parasites. Dogsledding. An isolated gothic manor with a bloodstained past. The technological and biological remnants of dead civilizations. You know, the usual.

anyway, I inhaled the book in like 36 hours flat because once I got halfway through I literally could not set it down — sat on a park bench slowly freezing as the sun set because I couldn't tear my eyes away from, well, the beautiful and desolate destruction that was the language, the narrative, the characters, the world

hey @torbooks back me up here, doesn't this book get its hooks into your brain and live there rent free, much like a certain [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]

#hunxi book tag #at any given moment I am probably screaming about Émile #(adds another nickel to the 'shilling for Tor/dotcom books again' jar) #@cat who runs the torbooks blog I know you were reading LEECH earlier I saw your post go by

[hunxi-after-hours]

i read the way spring arrives on ur rec, and loved it so much!! i ended up rly appreciating the nonfiction essays the most, they provide such valuable context for the genre (xueting christine ni's essay abt female web novel authorship was incredible!) highly agree with ur point abt it being essential reading for danmei (esp western) readers. so thank u for making me aware of it!

oh oh oh!!! so glad that I could bring this book to your attention and that you got so much out of it!

I feel like I should clarify that The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories doesn't contain danmei, nor is it about danmei; rather, I think it is important and necessary reading because it provides a great deal of the context for the literary and cultural environment that danmei is contained within. through the translated short stories, you can experience such a wide range of literary imagination, from Xia Jia's experimentation co-writing with an AI to the haunting, fable-like atmosphere of "The Woman Carrying a Corpse" by Chi Hui to vicious devastation of "Dragonslaying" by Shen Yingying to the fantastic, dreamscape world of "The Way Spring Arrives" by Wang Nuonuo... and the essays examine translation from various perspectives (Emily Xueni Jin's "Is There Such a Thing as Feminine Quietness? A Cognitive Linguistics Perspective" and Yilin Wang's "Translation as Retelling..." and R. F. Kuang's "Writing and Translation: A Hundred Technical Tricks") while incorporating theory and context into discussions of speculative literature written by women and nonbinary authors in China

the increasing international attention paid to danmei over the past few years often operates in a vacuum: beyond the language itself, most international readers have no concept of the history, the culture, the literal context of the literary landscape. what is internet literature, and how does it differ from traditional publishing? what are the dynamics of social expectations, gender, and tradition that influence and inform what authors write about? what are the wounds and fears, exploration and experimentation, heartbreak and history woman writers (and beyond) engage with in contemporary Chinese literature, and how are they mediated through genre?

all of which is to say, The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories is a great place to start learning more

#not to be like 'DIVERSIFY YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CHINESE LITERATURE BEFORE MAKING MORAL PRONOUNCEMENTS ON DANMEI' but like. do that #hunxi book tag #I understand why people's engagement with Chinese culture would begin with cdramas and end with reading translated danmei #but I hope no one's taking that as a comprehensive understanding of Chinese culture #because it's such a wild and wondrous and scary and vast place to discover #and I'd hate for people to look away before they even get to the good stuff

[hunxi-after-hours]

oh! oh oh oh! how dare this book come after me with the exquisite pain of wishing and wanting the people you love most in the world to recognize all you’ve done, to appreciate the work and effort and immense sacrifice you have put into coming back to them, into fitting yourself into the molds of who you once were that no longer fit you for the sake of their happiness and comfort!! and the deep, wrenching relief and embarrassment and release of realizing that all this time, all you simply had to do was open your mouth and ask!!! that in all the years you spent silently waiting for them to notice out of some misguided humility, that they were waiting for you to say something yourself!!!

#hunxi book tag #how DARE they!!! #the exquisite miscommunication born out of very intelligent people giving each other space #and reading uncharitable responses in the silences!!! #how very dare they!!! #you are loved!!! even here!!! especially here!!! after the end of the world!! at the end of your journeys!!! #The Hands of the Emperor