Arg. Sorry That The Vol 4 And Vol 5 MDZS Are Taking So Long To Post Notes On.

Here is Part 3 of my annotations of First Edition MDZS, Volume 1, pages 148 - 209

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 5, pages 153 - 237.

Another ten...

Just in case you can't remember from way back when, A-Yan was the youngest of the previous emperor's sons (youngest brother of the current emperor). He was a friend of Gu Yun's, and he died in childhood.

And, in case you don't already know, and I can't remember if Priest ever actually told us, "Hanshi" is the courtesy name of Jiang Chong.

I think Priest thinks that all of her readers are really smart, 'cuz she keeps assuming that we just Remember or can Infer things.

No one purposefully touches ash. It sometimes falls on the ground, and then we accidentally step on it. (And the Chinese word used here is 踩 = step on.)

白龙鱼服 white dragon fish clothes, as in Chang Geng was out there incognito and none of the commoners around him knew his high status.

此人也不知道是胸怀山川，还是真没心没肺...

胸怀山川 = his chest contains mountains and rivers = very broad-minded and open. "Tolerant of his circumstances" is a good translation; I just like the imagery of mountains and rivers.

没心没肺 = no heart, no lungs = (among other meanings) totally heartless. Immune to emotion.

Probably Working Off Different Versions again! But I like my old pirated online version (-pout-). Here is the pirated online version and my lame translation of it:

长庚当然不是要哭，Of course Chang Geng was not on the verge of tears,

他正强压着心里掺杂着幻觉的杀意，he was currently forcefully suppressing the mixture of killing intent and hallucinations in his heart (he was very very mad at the emperor),

整个人都快炸了。 his entire person was about to explode.

I like the imagery of the sky being soft and whole, like a blanket falling upon you, rather than fragments.

(I really love the imagery of 天塌下来当被子卷 = sky falls down, treat it as a blanket and wrap yourself up in it :)

"还有钟老将军没教过我的"

OK. I am here to share my confusion. The translation is totally true and valid, but I feel (sigh. feelings again.) like this sentence can carry more than one meaning, or maybe should imply something more (in the version I read, anyway).

So: my idea is that Chang Geng is crazy smart and he's giving Gu Yun all sorts of good ideas, so Gu Yun is all "Wow, you learned a lot from old General Zhang," and Chang Geng replies with "And I also have lots of original ideas that did not come from old General Zhong, I am way smarter than anyone you have ever met, you had better listen to me and do what I recommend."

That is my interpretation of those 11 little characters, anyway, which I think makes slightly more sense in this context.

Top: in case you aren't keeping a list of all the characters as they are introduced, Emperor Wu was the emperor two emperors ago, also Gu Yun's mom's dad = Gu Yun's maternal grandfather. He is the one who overthrew the previous dynasty, but he had no surviving male heirs and so gave the throne to the previous emperor, who was the dad of the current emperor. (I got so confused on my first read-through that I started a Character List on my second read-through.）

Bottom: 鸟尽弓藏. From mdbg.net: "lit. the birds are over, the bow is put away (idiom); fig. to get rid of sb once he has served his purpose"

浑水摸鱼。 Mdbg.net again: "to fish in troubled water (idiom); to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain"

Chinese has lots of cool idioms <3

And another ten are done!

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

WHEN SANITY IS NOT HOME

Starring: DaGe, Director Nie, ErGe, and Yaomei.

Sorry, I can't breathe👻

I’m looking forward to this (badly suppressed excitement I’m about to text this trailer to Everyone i know. Michelle Yeoh is and always has been a superhero!!!!!)

Everything Everywhere All At Once | A24

Starring Michelle Yeoh

My Danmei 耽美 Literary Adventure

Seven Seas Chinese Danmei novels, Notes Masterlist

Some of my favorite books, especially, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Stars of Chaos, and Guardian, are now officially in English! Thank you, Seven Seas.

These notes are here to help friends who may not speak Chinese or have enough Chinese cultural background to understand the nuances presented in these works, or are just getting confused with all the different terms of address.

Please forgive me if I have missed anything, and dm or comment if you have anything to add!

魔道祖师 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

by MXTX

二哈和他的白猫师尊 The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun

by Meatbun 肉包不吃肉 (Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou)

Usage of the word "Master" vs "Teacher"

How to pronounce people's names (bc it does NOT follow the rules of English pronunciation)

Book Annotations

杀破狼 Stars of Chaos

by Priest

Vol 1-4 are here!

（Volume 5 notes will arrive next.)

镇魂 Guardian

by Priest

Coming eventually :)

Thank you, @anambermusicbox !

September 29 Day Countdown (6/29): 2019/02/19 Global Chinese Golden Chart 《流行音乐全金榜》 Live Broadcasted Radio Interview on Dragonfly FM

Highlights:

(14:15) Interviewer talks about how Zhou Shen’s activity on Weibo is completely unlike a celebrity; Zhou Shen mentions that Gao Xiaosong says he’s never acted like a celebrity and often tells him: “Zhou Shen, you’ve already debuted for so many years, how is it that you actually behave less and less like a celebrity?”

(21:40) “What are Shengmi to you?”:

Zhou Shen: They’re an inexplicable existence. Because, I’ve told them so many times, that I’ve always never understood what motivates them—not only my shengmi, but even just fans in general—what motivates them to support their favourite singer or idol. I feel like, personally, I can’t do much for them. All I can really do is sing some songs. […] I feel at a loss; I feel like I have no way to guarantee something good to repay them for their continuous support, for their love. Because I’m a really insecure person, and yet they’re able to give such an insecure person some sense of security… you can imagine how great their strength is.

(26:45) Interviewer asks if Zhou Shen has a 小名 (family nickname):

Zhou Shen: Because 深 and 星 are pronounced exactly the same in hunanese, my family has always called me Xingxing. When getting me registered, they asked the person doing the registration to register “our family’s Xingxing”, and the person said “okay, and your family name is Zhou,” so they literally registered me as “Zhou Xingxing” (周星星) (*Interviewer laughs*).

[I didn’t know this was my original legal name] until my high school entrance exam, when they called out “Zhou Xingxing” during rollcall, and no one responded. They thought it must’ve been a typo at first, because when they called the name out, the entire class was like “HAHAHAHAHA WHO THE HECK IS NAMED THAT”, and I was also there laughing like “HAHAHAHAHA WHO THE HECK IS NAMED THAT” (*laughs*) And then after everyone was called, they asked whether there was anyone who hadn’t been called. I said “I haven’t” and they said “Okay this must be you”, then everyone was like “HAHAHAHAHA YOU’RE ZHOU XINGXING” […] Afterwards, I went and legally changed my name back to Zhou Shen.

Keep reading

So, a rant and a request for advice before I begin my dreadfully important hunt/research:

I’ve been loving the WeComics app, originally for reading Mo Dao Zu Shi in English (before I improved and trusted my Chinese), then for a bunch of other Chinese and translated-from-Chinese manhua. I’ve barely been on tumblr recently because I’ve been head-over-heels in love with 化龙记.

And then I noticed that 化龙记 is also in English on the app as “Tale of Dragon Morph”, so I open it up and, Lo and Behold, there is more/new chapter-header art! And so many more panels that help explain the flow of the plot — it makes sense now!

But as I read the English version, I notice that it’s Missing Scenes. Useful, important scenes that help with Character Development and Logical Flow.

What’s up with these manhua? Why are there different missing scenes in each language? Is it just WeComics?

Is there a manhua app out there that is Complete?!?!?

Help!!!

—————————-

Grumpy follow-up: WeComics is being taken over by WebNovel, which doesn’t appear to have Any manhua at All 😠.

And KuaiKanManHua is typically censored. No cute images of one character washing another’s back, no super-useful panels showing how the protagonist escapes his lecherous captor’s bedroom. Nope.

Sigh. I will keep searching.

The sweetest scene ever ❤️

Your name engraved herein (2020), dir. Kuang-Hui Liu

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Volume 3, Notes 4/5, Pages 267 - 350

I had to look up this poem and its meaning. In essence, the poem is about revolution. Kicking out the old aristocracy and installing a new regime. Via nice, sweet poetry about birds flying away from Wang and Xie's homes (the "noble halls") into the homes of ordinary folk.

The nice Chinese 5-word version of "heads up their asses" is a much more elegant "顾头不顾腚" = attend to the head an forget the buttocks, as in "can only handle things coming from one direction".

Croaker is a type of small fish. 小黄鱼。

“若非烂到根里，恐怕也不会养出这种滚刀肉一样胆大包天的地方官。”

The "stubborn as cheap jerky" phrase is the translation of 滚刀肉, which is, broken apart, "rolling""knife""meat", like meat that is so sinewy and hard that it turns your knife instead of just letting itself be cut.

The "in their crooked ways" phrase is, I think, just an extra little modifier to help you understand that these difficult officials are not just stubborn, (and definitely not righteous,) but also crooked.

Pg 304: When I read this in English, it felt to me like the emperor was questioning if he himself still held power; in Chinese, it sounds to me more like he is stating that someone is trying to hide a really big secret, and he is questioning who that wrong-doer is.

"朕倒不知道这朝中是谁一手遮天了。"

Bad translation: "We (royal) do not know who in this court is using his hand to cover the sky." (一手遮天 One hand cover sky = "to hide the truth from the masses" mdbg.net)

Here is another place where the English confused me a little bit. Because, of course, it's really hard to translate.

方钦心里暗叹一声“扶不起来的东西”

Bad translation: Fang Qin sighed in his heart (he did the sigh entirely in his head, so no one actually saw him sigh), "hold him up and he still can't stand, that less-than-human thing."

Fang Qin is majorly disparaging Assistant Minister Lv here.

It's customary for older, retired men to put their bird in a carry-able size cage and then take it out on a walk to a local park or into the local wilderness, swinging the cage all the while so that the little bird can exercise its perching muscles and enjoy some fresh air. It's called 遛鸟, just like walking your dog is 遛狗。

The verb used here is 讹 é = error / false / to extort （mdbg.net), and where I have found elsewhere as "blackmail" or "cheat".

Sassy bird, yes?

"White Cut Chicken" is 白斩鸡 which is an amazing dish that we used to have every time we had banquet-style dinners at any Cantonese restaurant. It's super good. The only way I like to eat chicken. Very tender boiled chicken, served with a side of green-onion oil. Oh I'm getting hungry.

Top: Chang Geng is limping. His leg was hurt in the crash-landing.

Bottom: A 肚兜 is a cute hanky-sized bit of cloth with ties that go around the neck and the waist. It's meant to keep the belly warm. I usually only see little kids (like, babies and toddlers) in period movies wear them (and that's all they wear if it's warm enough).

If you watch the animated masterpiece Nezha 1979, a dudou is the only thing that Nezha wears from the time he emerges / is born until he kills his first dragon prince. You have to prove yourself as a dragon-killer before you get to wear pants.

They come in adult (woman) sizes, too, but that's for another day.

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

皮皮/pipi is one of priest's nicknames!

having a preference is totally understandable! i just think it's maybe a little unreasonable to accuse the 7s translators of missing/deleting sentences/paragraphs when they've stated upfront that the manuscripts that they're working from are different from what's been posted online. after all, it's not like they can go and arbitrarily add in the stuff that pipi deemed extraneous enough to delete while polishing her manuscript. 😅

I will fix my typed-annotations right now. Thank you!