Annotating The Novel - Blog Posts
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?!?!?