So, I Guess That Answers My Question About When The Live-action 2Ha Will Be Released.

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.)

refseek.com

www.worldcat.org/

link.springer.com

http://bioline.org.br/

repec.org

science.gov

pdfdrive.com

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.

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 :)

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:

How would you lure someone into reading MXTX's novels beyond the usual "the main CP is this and that"? Cos for example, every time someone tells me to read MDZS, they mostly just say Wangxian is married and have a child and leave it at that, which isn't encouraging at all??? Sorry to bother you with this question. I love reading your responses though!

Hi there anon!~

I think pitching MXTX novels as purely “couple is so-and-so” is also a bit of a disservice, too! One of my favorite things about many danmei novels is indeed that they are very plot-heavy and contain lots of thought-provoking concepts. For the sake of this answer, I will limit it to MDZS since you gave that as an example.

For me, the most interesting thing about MDZS is not necessarily that “Wangxian are married and have a son” but the actual struggles that both Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji endure in order to get to a point where they can be happy together. It takes one of them dying and coming back, plus the shattering of social complacency that occurs during the present timeline of the novel. And even then, that’s not even really the main focus of the novel, it’s more like a product of everything else that happens. Their history is also long and marred with anger, confusion, heartbreak, and understanding.

I have my own preferences of how I read Wei Wuxian, for example, that I think differs from other people’s. Same for how I like to interpret Wangxian. In an effort not to rock the boat, I’ll just say that I think Wangxian is a very compelling and interesting couple because they both put in work to make it work. I like thinking of how they are just very fundamentally different people, but do well together because they choose to.

But again, I think MXTX made a point also in not focusing too much on their relationship itself, but rather the plot and how/why it develops the way it does. She had something she wanted to say with this work, as she does with each one of her works. MDZS is first and foremost a murder-mystery with the background of a war story. It’s about the dangers of mob mentality, how fast the crowd will turn against you if you step out of line. It’s about how rocking the boat has far-reaching consequences, and how society often wants the easiest and cheapest way to morality. It’s about how the pressure to be perfect will shatter someone, yet the cracks may not show until it’s too late. How oppression can make both heroes, and monsters – and that sometimes, that distinction is simply a matter of who is telling the story.

(I also want to note that there’s also the one theme that MXTX seems to really favor, and is present in all 3 of her works: having one person on your side can be enough.)

These are all incredible concepts that I think are really worth reading the novel for. Not to mention, they are eternally relevant conversations to have. MDZS is a novel painted in gray, and deserves thoughtful consideration of such. (Of course, it can also just be a lot of fun!) Even how you view the main character is absolutely dependent on what perspective you want to see him through. This itself is really interesting and unique.

The way the novel ends, with a lot let unsaid – intentionally so – is bittersweet yet satisfying. Fascinating in the sense that yeah, not everyone gets a happy ending, but in a way that genuinely makes sense. (But if you’re worried, fear not, Wangxian do end up married and with a son, after all lol!)

Ultimately, these are adult novels, meant for an adult audience – and created as much for the purposes of having fun, as they are to be discussed and analyzed through a scholarly lens. So I definitely share your frustration in being pitched a novel purely on the couple, because YEAH I do care a lot about the couple (see: how I devote at least 80% of my brain power to thinking about Hualian kissing), but I also do want a story that is satisfying in more than just one way. I.e., is stratifying in both terms of its main couple’s relationship AND a fleshed-out plot line with lots of themes to analyze, because I like having fun in both of those ways!

I think even when we pitch other MXTX novels (or danmei novels in general), it’s helpful to do it the same way. To focus on what makes the novel great in its entirety, not just a small, reductive portion of it. Especially when it’s very clear that the author has so many things they’re trying to say with the work. However, I’ll end this here because this answer is getting so long lol! I hope this helped you out, anon, and maybe even sold you a little more on MDZS haha! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

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

MDZS Volume 4 Annotations

Part 5, pages 174 - 208

And so begins my “Please No American Slang!” tirade, plus a few more grammatical / vocabulary changes to make the story flow more clearly.

The Chinese for this is super funny. I could totally see Jin Ling staring at his JiuJiu, staring so hard that JC felt the stare and looked over to see his teenage nephew absolutely googly-eyed as he tried to Jedi-mind-trick / wish his JiuJiu into saying something nice to him.

Jedi mind tricks don’t work on JC, of course. (Wishes don’t work on him, either.)

More below the cut:

Read the notes 😘

je croix que nous devons arrêter de parler anglais et semplicemente ricominciare a usare la nostra prima lingua quia istud clarum dii signum est ita ut nos ne loquamur barbarorum linguam

Stars of Chaos Ch 32

Gu Yun upon learning that the rebels have a staff musician:

顾昀心想：“我们西北正派军连个会唱歌的蛐蛐都没有，这帮养私兵的军中居然还有乐师，天理何在呢？”

Gu Yun thought in his heart: "Us official Troops in the Northeast, we don't even have a cricket that can sing; but these private mercenaries have a personal musician? Where is Heaven's Law / Logic in this?!?"

And Cao Niangzi, most of the time around Gu Yun:

自从他见了顾昀这个披头散发的打扮，在顾昀面前就有点说不出话来，阴差阳错地便宜了那个聋子。

Ever since he discovered what Gu Yun looked like with his hair down, Cao Niangzi wasn't able to really talk around Gu Yun anymore, which was unexpectedly advantageous for the deaf man.