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MDZS Volume 4 Annotations
Part 3, pages 89 - 151.
Some important (I feel) tonal tuning and a little more anti-slang.
More below the cut:
MDZS Vol 4 Annotations
Part 2, pages 51 - 88
Part 2!
Some anti-slang annotations, a few Chinese Family / People Terminology reminders.
Yes, the literal translation is “miraculous.”
No, MXTX is not trying to invoke or reference either Jesus or Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
She’s just trying to show that WWX has fast reflexes.
More below the cut:
MDZS Vol 4 Annotations
Part 1, pages 1-49
I finally finished Book 4! It was beautiful! I loved it! But a lot of word and phrasing choices didn’t fit my personal interpretation of the MDZS world, and the final chapter of Book 4 was translated based on an earlier version of MDZS, so I have a ton of notes.
Alright. Here we go:
The author is very affectionately roasting LWJ here, and simultaneously showing how LXC is an expert at reading his enigmatic little brother. The contrast between the high-register language of the brothers’ conversation vs the relatively informal narrative language is obvious in Chinese, and serves to make this short and otherwise rather somber exchange more interesting and a little bit fun.
I had a hard time with contractions and slang in this book. I’m sure it’s in all the other books, too, but this time the “gonna”s and “gotta”s and “yah”s rubbed me the wrong way.
Every single character in MDZS (except Xue Yang) is highly educated and speaks with care and precision. WWX talks more colloquially than LWJ (or, rather, LWJ speaks like ancient poetry and WWX just talks), and JC tends to punctuate conversations with criticism and threats, but they all speak like they endured years of formal schooling and have hundreds of classical poems and ancient texts memorized.
Ok! Ok. So I’m going at MDZS Vol 4 very very slowly, and it took me until today to remember that other, much more talented people have already translated the updated/online version of Ch 95 (7 Seas ch 20 part 2).
There’s just no way to elegantly annotate Ch 95 — the newer online version has a few deletions and a bunch of little additions, and a few paragraphs that got moved up or down. It’s easier to just read this excellent translation.
Enjoy!
MDZS Chapter 95. “Sleeplessness” Part 6
Love to bathe
[Content Warning: drunk sex]
Lan WangJi ignored him and kept staring, as if afraid that Wei WuXian would run away as soon as he blinked. Wei WuXian reached out a hand to cover his eyes. Lan WangJi ducked half of his face into the water to avoid the hand, blowing out a stream of bubbles into the water. Laughing, Wei Wuxian lightly pinched his cheek and asked, “Er-gege[1], how old are you?”
Keep reading
I was just alerted to another review by my new favorite reviewer, Kali Wallace!
Apparently, she reviewed SVSSS as well as MDZS. It’s such a great review that it makes me want to maybe reread SVSS someday. Hmmmm.
Give them a read. It’s worth your while 💕
I watched that movie of Journey to the West! It was good. It didn’t register at the time that I was watching mpreg. But now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
Ah? What do you mean mpreg is built into the setting of MDZS?
I mean exactly what I said. It's part of the setting. Mpreg is part of MDZS setting.
Or rather, mpreg is part of any and all xianxia or Chinese fantasy settings. Mpreg is not impossible... or even truly rare... in xianxia setting. There are at least three different regular ways for men to get pregnant in this kind of setting, even for low xianxia like MDZS.
Xianxia is Chinese fantasy. Cultivators cultivate until immortality. The upper level of cultivation, an immortal becomes a facet of reality and bends the world to their will. Some can even create an entirely new world wholesale. What's getting pregnant compared to that?
Sure, the setting of MDZS is low xianxia. But we know at the very least a lot of MDZS cultivators are at the Jindan stage. Do you know which stage comes right after the Jindan stage?
元婴 Yuanying. The common English translation for this stage is Nascent Soul. But its real meaning is nascent / origin child/baby/infant.
How does yuanying come about? Well, a cultivator at the end of Jindan stage will go through tribulation. If they pass through tribulation successfully, the jindan (golden core) in their belly will collapse and out comes a baby. This baby then takes over the task of the jindan, circulating the cultivator's chi and feeding off of it. The baby will grow alongside the cultivator's progress, eventually maturing and potentially becoming a separate person should the parent allows it.
(Game interface from a Chinese cultivation game)
This stage is very well documented in actual real-world ancient texts by Wu Liupai, dating back to the 16th century. It's not a modern concept made up for entertainment. It's part of actual real-world Daoist practices and beliefs.
...And xianxia is the brought up to eleventh fantasy version of real-world Daoism. Think about it.
So in truth, every single high-level Jindan stage cultivator in MDZS is just one stage and one successful tribulation away from getting preggo whether they want to or not. (Yes. Every single one of them. Not just Wei Ying or Lan Wangji, but also Jiang Cheng, Lan Qiren, Lan Xichen, Xiu Xingchen, Song Lan, Nie Mingjue... if he didn't die, etc... Not Jin Guangyao, though. He's too weak to get pregnant. Jin Zixuan, maybe)
You don't even have to be a cultivator or in a xianxia setting to get pregnant (whether you are male or female or whatever). Artificially induced pregnancy has been a thing in Chinese folklore since the Summer and Autumn period (BCE). Several different classics mention a fruit called 孕果 yunguo (Lit. Pregnant Fruit). This fruit bestows the ability to get pregnant to anyone who eats it, regardless of gender. Sexual activity with a man is still required, though. Can't make something out of nothing.
And the most famous and widely known in Chinese folklore: water from the River of Mother and Child 子母河. Anyone who drinks this water becomes pregnant, regardless of gender (or even species, actually). You know the most famous person who drank it? The monk Tan Sanzang... and his disciple Zhu Bajie (a male pig), and Sha Wujing (a male fish). It's been made into several TV series and movies. In one of those movie adaptations, Tang Sanzang even carried the pregnancy to term as he wasn't willing to terminate a life and saw this as an opportunity to experience the female side of life.
In the same story, Journey to the West, a rock was pregnant with Son Wukong and gave birth to him.
You have to remember this. Ancient Chinese didn't really think of pregnancy as a biological process requiring sperm and eggs like we do today. They thought of it as a concentration and condensation of qi (breath of the world) until the 'mother body' was saturated with fetal qi and gave birth.
Real-world folklore texts are chockful of such instances where things got pregnant with the breath of the world and gave birth. And that's just regular folklore, not the brought-up-to-eleven version that is xianxia.
The Seven Seas MDZS translation is based off the uncensored Taiwanese novel version, which is great (uncensored), BUT there are just a few extra lines that MXTX put in later in the censored online version, after cutting out the smut, that are Really Really Good. Pure sugar.
(The ♥️Audio Drama♥️ is based off the newer online version, so if you’ve listened to the AD enough to have it vaguely memorized, these lines are Really Important to you.)
I’ll see if I can fit extra lines in the margins of my Vol 4, or if I need to just type it out and make big asterisks in the printed novel. They really are really really good additions. Some of my favorite lines in the entire book.
So, in Chinese, idioms are often allusions to historical events or short metaphors to vividly describe a situation. They pack a ton of meaning and imagery into 4 little words. They’re awesome. They add color and depth to the language, and show that the speaker/writer is highly educated.
So, in Chinese, using idioms makes you sound very smart.
In English, using idioms does not make you sound very smart. It may make you sound cute and funny and colloquial, and in the right context it can work very well, but when you hear, say, “let the cat out of the bag,” you don’t think “Wow. That person is such an intellectual.”
Admittedly, some idioms are relatively culture-neutral, like “call it a day” or “read the room” or “see the light.” I’d say that those are fine to use in translations. They don’t evoke cowboys or baseball players or midwestern farmers or anything else unique to English-speaking culture like that.
However, I feel that culture-heavy English/American idioms should be avoided in translations, especially of Chinese wuxia/xianxia novels. No one in XianXia-land knows American boxing — why the heck would someone be “down for the count?” Sword Cultivators don’t hang out a lot with fowl farmers — where would they have picked up the usage of “gander” as slang for “to look?”
Idioms are hard. Be careful.
This comic series is so much fun!
This really gives me hope that even though some people (🙁) can’t draw, they (we) can still make great content and brighten people’s days.
Go WangXian comics!
Wake up! Your legacy is in shambles!
[First] ->Next
Nothing to add. Perfectly put. ♥️ Our poor murder twinks ♥️
Common misconception, but the murder twink obsessed with revenge is actually Nie Huaisang. Jin Guangyao is a murder twink obsessed with self preservation first, Lan Xichen second, and the betterment of society through public works of infrastructure third.
魔道祖师 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
Book Annotations
I am reading MDZS trying to pretend that I do not speak Chinese and have little to no knowledge of Chinese culture, while at the same time matching what I feel when reading MDZS in English to what I felt when reading MDZS in Chinese. Any time I see something that doesn’t flow well or that doesn’t match my original feelings, I make a note. Any time I encounter something that I think will trip up my non-Chinese friends (师叔 shishu?), I make a note.
I love this story, and I don't expect my non-Chinese friends to remember the 5+ different things that Lan Xichen is called, so I have made a lot of notes. Here they are:
Book 1
Notes 1, pgs 1-65
Notes 2, pgs 87-147
Notes 3, pgs 148-209
Notes 4, pgs 210-263
Notes "7," pg 239
Notes 5, pgs 264-341
Notes 6: on the Appendix
Book 2
Notes 1, pages 1 - 86
Notes 2, pages 87 - 160
Notes 3, pages 163 - 198
Notes 4, pages 199 - 279
Notes 5, pages 280 - 318
Notes 6, pages 321 - 351
Book 3
Notes 1, pages 1 - 90
Notes 2, pages 92 - 217
Notes 3, pages 219 - 312
Book 4
Notes 1, pages 1 - 49
Notes 2, pages 51 - 88
Notes 3, pages 89 - 151
Notes 4, pages 152 - 174
Notes 5, pages 175 - 208
Notes 6, pages 210 - 234
Notes 7, pages 236 - 266
Notes 8, pages 267 - 288
Notes 9, pages 293 - 309
Notes 10, pages 310 - end
Book 5
Notes 1, pages 1 - 45
Notes 2, pages 53 - 131
Notes 3, pages 133 - 190
Notes 4, pages 193 - 267
Notes 5, pages 343 - 375
Notes 6, pages 383 - end
Gorgeous drawings, and an awesome AU story. ❤️❤️❤️
~ House of Gentians || Wangxian AU comic ~
~Synopsis~
An Alternate Universe set in canon MDZS world where Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian admitted defeat and surrendered to the other sects of the cultivation world. However, hearing Lan Wangji’s confession, which he doesn’t care much for, he proposed to make a deal with Lan Wangji – he will return with him to Gusu just like the other always wanted to, and even marry him, all in order to have Lan Wangji’s word that the Wen remnants will stay out of harm.
Wei Wuxian, being legally married to Lan Wangji, is now a member of Gusu Lan sect, and thus Lan Wangji can keep him out of harm. However Lan Wangji is bound to another contract as well: he promised to Lan Qiren and to the other sect leaders that the Yiling Laozu will stay confined in one place and never leave for the rest of his days. Thus, Wei Wuxian stays in the house that belonged to Lan Wangji’s mother, who shared almost the same fate as Wei Wuxian in the past.
Shattered, weak, defeated, golden-core-less and hopeless, Wei Wuxian takes what he believes to be his punishment, not believing that Lan Wangji actually wants to shelter him from harm, and not believing that he really loves him, thinking this all is some cruel joke. Lan Wangji will have to deal with all that, earn Wei Wuxian’s trust and prove him his feelings are true.
~Background of this project~
This comic started out completely randomly with just a quick sketch of Yiling Laozu (first drawing in the first arc). I imagined him confined in Lan Wangji’s mother’s house, married to him out of contract, and agreeing to do “wify-papapa” stuff with him with ambivalence, thinking it’s his part of the deal. The next few sketches are depiction of various scenes from that idea, but then slowly I started developing it into an organized continuous plot, and now I have ideas for the rest of it!
People on twitter and beyond seemed to like it and it really motivates me to continue! ~START READING HOUSE OF GENTIANS~ ARC 1 ARC 2
MDZS Vol 3 Annotations, part 3
Here is Part 3 of my annotations of MDZS Volume 3, pages 219-312. I hope it helps improve your reading experience!
(It's mostly cultural annotations and reminders of appropriately-untranslated words, with a few "remember when..." notes and a few re-translations of really thorny sentences that I admit have no good translation.)
(I had a field day writing "Good boy" over Jin Zixuan and "lame cousin" over JinZixun, but I didn't include all those notes here. Just be sure to pay attention to if Zixuan/Zixun has an "a" in it or not in Ch 15.)
(By the way, "Wintry Room" sounds really pretty in Chinese and not weird at all. Maybe "Winter Room" would be better?)
MDZS Vol 3 Annotations, part 1
Here is Part 1 of my annotations of MDZS Volume 3, pages 1-90. I hope it helps improve your reading experience!
(It's mostly cultural annotations and reminders of appropriately-untranslated words, with a few re-translations of really thorny sentences that I admit have no good translation.) (And a few places I re-translated to take out the fanciness. WWX, especially, usually speaks in a very simple, colloquial manner.)
Here is Part 7 of 7 of my annotations of First Edition MDZS, Volume 1 (one I missed the first time I posted):
https://youtu.be/X424BWOczS4
I now have something to aspire to. Imagine: a whole library of Just MXTX, or even Just MDZS ❤️
My books arrived from Taiwan. I’m going to start my Traditional Characters, top-to-bottom, right-to-left re-read from the inn in YunPing (where the bookmark is).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
😁
MDZS Weibo update, 1.22.2022 “Does the following collection of warm smiles from Hanguang Jun also touch you? There is still 1 day before Hanguangjun's birthday.”
Me: Yes, Yes it does! Hanguang Jun handsome Hanguang Jun.. may his days always be filled with warm smiles and happy moments with Wei Ying
This is most affirming thing I’ve ever read.
I am very grateful for this (amazingly funny and honest and raw and did I mention funny?) analysis of Why This Story Changed My Life.
okay love this tor dot com article exploring writing craft through the lens of the untamed fucking slaps and why
As I’m preparing my copy of MDZS to lend out, I’m re-reading about how crazy and difficult it is to translate XianXia.
Of course, I can’t share any of these posts with my uninitiated friends, since even the Name meta contains a spoiler. Ugh!
At least I’m enjoying it. And can maybe copy-paste abridged non-spoiler versions of some of these posts :)
松风水月 masterpost
Hi I’m jing (she/they, 海外华人) 🍆 You can find my mdzs/cql meta and translation posts on this blog :) Please note that I do not allow my meta and translations to be translated, reposted, edited, reproduced (including printing, and/or the distributing of electronic and physical copies), or used commercially.
General meta related to terms used in mdzs/cql
The real meaning of 走火入魔 / “qi deviation”
The real meaning of 青山不改 绿水长流 后会有期 (cql only)
The differences between gongzi 公子 and shaoye 少爷
The differences between dizi 弟子 and mensheng 门生
The C-fandom’s nicknames for mdzs characters (novel only)
Plot meta
CQL subs critique
On the names of Lan Wangji’s bunnies (novel only)
What Jiang Fengmian might have done differently
The ideal wife, according to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian (cql only)
The moment Nie Mingjue acted like a true Chinese parent in canon (novel only)
The 36 Stratagems in MDZS
Character meta
Jiang Cheng: Family, responsibility, and love
Lan Sizhui: What Lan Sizhui’s birth and courtesy names mean
Lan Xichen: What Shuoyue and Liebing mean
Lan Xichen: Fairness, justice, and love
3zun: Oath of fraternity
Analysis of speech patterns in mdzs from character to character
Translation notes
What really happened in the love confession scene in the Guanyin temple (novel only)
Wei Wuxian’s heart and temperament 心性
What Nie Huaisang was saying about Lan Wangji in the flower petal scene (cql only)
Lan Wangji never said “you are an awful person” to Wei Wuxian (novel only)
Misc
The meaning of “jianghu” 江湖
Using Chinese names
A short note on translation
Right panel style 右衽 and left panel style 左衽 in hanfu
Other links
🐥 Meta originally posted on Twitter 🎨 Main art tumblr ☕️ Ko-fi
I’m annotating the Official Translation of MDZS before I lend it out to non-Chinese friends, and as I was reading I realized that the Chapters are different! Paper Book ch 1 = online book ch 1-4!
Which is ok, fine, sure…but that also means that there are no incredibly cute chapter titles to make the relationship between author and reader feel more intimate. I love MXTX as much as I do partially because every few chapter titles felt like it was a charming little inside joke that she wrote just for me (and her other millions of readers).
Here is a screenshot and link to Awesome Charming Cute Chapter Titles:
Here are the English Translations, courtesy of the MDZS wiki ❤️:
So my questions now:
do I just Pencil In the Cute Chapter Titles in the paper novel where they would/should appear?
Do they matter as much when it’s so difficult to translate the completely different style that they are written in — cutesy slang — vs. the writing style of the novel — proper “period” XianXia? I mean, of all the LWJ references in the chapter titles, she only writes his actual name Lan Wangji “properly” twice. Twice, in over 100 chapters. I learned how to read slang in Chinese because of these chapter titles! (And the end-chapter notes, and some of the comments :)
What’s the best way to introduce this story to a non-Chinese, non-XianXia, non-BL-reader?!?!?
The portraits of Yiling Laozu
So true, so true.
Be sure to read all the comments, too.
whenever people in fandom refer to lan wangji as “lan zhan” there is an instinctive part of me that reacts like “how dare you be so informal, that is ‘lan wangji’ or ‘hanguang-jun’ to you” which is, frankly, absurd
(but also. how dare you be so informal)
Do you all know 杨可爱Yang Ke’ai yet?
She does lots of popular covers and mash-ups and “how to memorize 5-50 Chinese poems via music” songs in a Classical Chinese style (chinoiserie?) with a UKULELE. If you’re not watching her beautiful videos of her singing and playing music in full hanfu, you’d think she was playing a Pipa or a Guzheng or even a Guqin, but, no — that’s a Ukulele.
Anyway, have you all heard her Mo Dao Zu Shi mashup yet? 14 songs from Audio Drama, Donghua, and Fan Music (a lot of the creators of which were also part of the Audio Drama and Donghua).
It’s awesome and deserves many many views. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/plf5KFqvUhg
WangXian Phoenix Mountain Kiss Censored Panels?
Ok I don't know how official this is...if it's like that "leak" of WangXian's drunk kiss or just a really really good fanart, but these're SUPPOSEDLY the missing panels from WangXian's Phoenix Mountain kiss in chap 185 of the manhua that were chopped due to good old censorship.
It's so weird cuz I just read another danmei manhua that had their kiss intact and they even kinda showed a nonexplicit handjob, so if these are indeed official, I wish they wouldn't be so hard on MDZS.
~
credit to weibo in last image above.
There are Reasons for the Lan Rules! Imagine how crazy GuSu would be if they all roamed around wantonly like WWX…
lan xichen was really like *traumadumps the weirdest fucking story you’ve ever heard* *flute solo* “do you know my brother is in love with you?” at like 2am in the span of five minutes and no one stopped him
WHEN SANITY IS NOT HOME
Starring: DaGe, Director Nie, ErGe, and Yaomei.
Sorry, I can't breathe👻
Oh boy, it is not just bl and it might not even be canon. It is literally any possible ship I may get somewhere that might not be the top popular one but damn do they do their sneaky work and have an an a chokehold.
if I had a nickel each time I lost my mind over the second couple in bl ID BE SO FILTHY RICH BY NOW I could pay for the therapy I need to figure out what's happening
Νοt gonna lie this has the same vibe as the mdzs/untamed moment of jinguang yao saying "Lan Zhan, your life is in my hands" as he holds Wei Wuxian hostage
the sheer panic on kinn’s face when vegas pointed the gun at porsche
![[ Duality ]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f7e6850c282d671ca01d3d04d3c148e7/89a1139c1fe7932b-8b/s500x750/734ce76cf82431076a0550d9e863aa7d54ab3f5d.jpg)