I Finally Found An English-Language Explanation Of What Happened In The Novel 镇魂 Guardian By Priest!

Chinese 🤦🏻‍♀️

Just this once, I wish they had not simplified a character. I keep mixing up the words for “old friend” vs “enemy”.

Like, really? One stroke difference?

Friends are old 古 but you want to…lick your enemy 舌?

https://youtu.be/X424BWOczS4

I now have something to aspire to. Imagine: a whole library of Just MXTX, or even Just MDZS ❤️

The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun v1

(English 7Seas version) Notes 2 of 2

Here are more notes from vol.1 of 2Ha!

Let's start it all off with a quick silly note.

In Chapter 1, the translators found a bunch of different words for "dog" - cur, mongrel, etc - whereas in Chinese it all was just phrases with the one word 狗。I thought it was a great translation.

Whereas here in Ch (page 184ish), the translators chose the one word "screw" while in Chinese we had all sorts of different euphemisms conveying various degrees of affection and marital harmony.

It's cute.

Here's another note on Language Use. 师尊/师父 as "Master" vs as "Teacher." Yes, the English term "master" fits as "the person who is very much higher in rank and teaches you stuff," but I feel like the Chinese ShiZun/ShiFu conveys a lot more obligation than "master." It's much closer to "teacher" or "father" than it is to "slave-holder."

(More notes and photos under the cut...)

It's the teacher's duty to make sure that their students are learning well. A teacher's reputation rests entirely upon their students' character and accomplishments. Students are supposed to trust their teacher as they would their own parent, and teachers are supposed to honor and live up to that trust.

Anyway, that's why on page 307 I crossed out "master" and wrote in "teacher," instead. Chu Wanning saw it as his duty to raise Mo Ran right, and if Mo Ran turned out wrong, it must have been Chu Wanning's fault. Yeah.

Anyway, here we are. Volume 1, page 184 - end.

Terms You Might Want To Know For Your Wuxia/Xianxia Fic

MXTX's danmei are getting increasingly popular, and the fandoms are getting more fic-happy. I've noticed that some writers seem interested in writing their own fics but are concerned of making mistakes with niche honorifics and titles. I've noticed some that have jumped right in, but have made innocent errors that I'd like to correct but fear coming off as rude or presumptuous. And so I've made this list of terms that covers the basics and also some that are a little more niche since they're usually directly translated in cnovels.

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything one needs to know or would want to know concerning ancient Chinese honorifics and titles, merely what I myself consider useful to keep in mind.

Titles

Shifu: 'Martial father'; gender-neutral

Shizun: 'Martial father'; more formal than 'shifu'; gender-neutral

Shimu: ‘Martial mother’; wife of your martial teacher

Shiniang: ‘Martial mother’; wife of your martial teacher who is also a martial teacher

Shibo: elder apprentice-brother of your shifu; gender-neutral

Shishu: younger apprentice-brother of your shifu; gender-neutral

Shigu: apprentice-sister of your shifu

Shizhi: your martial nephew/niece

Shimei: younger female apprentice of the same generation as you

Shijie: elder female apprentice of the same generation as you

Shidi: younger male apprentice of the same generation as you

Shixiong: elder male apprentice of the same generation as you

Shige: elder male apprentice of the same generation as you, specifically one who has the same shifu as you or is the son of your shifu

Zhanglao: an elder of your sect

Zhangbei: a senior of your sect

Qianbei: a senior not of your sect

Wanbei: a junior not of your sect

Zongzhu: Address for a clan leader

Zhangmen: address for a sect leader

Daozhang: Daoist priests or simply a cultivator in general; gender-neutral

Daogu: Daoist priestess or a female cultivator; not as commonly used as 'daozhang'

Xiangu: Daoist priestess or a female cultivator; not as commonly used as 'daogu'

Sanren: a wandering cultivator

Xianren: 'Immortal Official'; a title of respect and power like 'General'

Xiuzhe: 'Cultivator', can be shortened to 'Xiu'

Xianjun: 'Immortal Master/Lord'

Xianshi: 'Immortal Master/Teacher'

Dashi: 'Great Teacher', address for monks

Xiansheng: Teacher/Sir; in ancient China, the connotation is very scholastic

Houye: address for a duke

Jueye: address for a noble lord, ei. a duke, marquess, earl, etc.

Wangye: address for king/imperial prince

Daren: address for imperial officials

Furen: Madam; the wife of an imperial official/nobleman OR a married woman granted a rank by the royal family

Nushi: Madam; the counterpart of 'xiansheng', connotation is scholastic

Taitai: Madam; address for an old married woman of the gentry, either wife or mother to head of household

Laoye: Old Lord; Address for an adult man with adult children of the gentry; possibly head of household

Nainai: Madam; Address for a married woman of the gentry, possibly wife of head of household

Ye: Lord; address for an adult man of the gentry, possibly head of household

Shaonainai: Young Madam; address for a woman married to a young man of the gentry

Shaoye: Young Lord; address for a young man or boy of the gentry, generation lower than head of household

Xiaoye: Little Lord; can be a synonym for ‘shaoye’ OR the son of a shaoye if ‘shaoye’ is already being used within the family

Xiaojie: Young Mistress; address for an unmarried woman or young girl of . . . the gentry and only the gentry, I believe. Correct me if you know for certain this is incorrect. (WARNING - It's an archaic term that should really only be used in an archaic setting if being used as a title instead of a suffix, because the modern vernacular has it as a term for a prostitute in mainland China. [Surname]-xiaojie is fine; Xiaojie by itself should be avoided.)

Gongzi: ‘Young Master/Lord/Sir'; ‘Childe’; young man from a household of the noble or gentry class

Guniang: 'Young Master/Lady/Miss'; ‘Maiden’; an unmarried woman or young girl from a household of the noble or gentry class

Laozhang: 'Old battle'; polite address for an unrelated old man of lower status than you

Laobo: polite address for an unrelated old man of a higher status that you

Laotou: 'Old man'; informal but not derogatory, implies fondness/closeness

Laopopo: 'Old woman'; informal but not derogatory, implies fondness/closeness

Please note that all of these listed above can be used as stand-alone titles or as suffixed honorifics.

Strictly Prefix/Suffix

-shi: 'Clan'; the suffix for a married woman, essentially means 'née'. (ex. Say Wei Wuxian was a woman and married into the Lan clan through a standard marriage. She would be called 'Wei-shi' by her husband's contemporaries and elders when not in a formal setting. It implies lack of closeness; used by acquaintances.)

a-: A prefix that shows affection or intimacy.

-er: A suffix that shows affection or intimacy; typically for children or those younger than you

-jun: 'Nobleman'; a suffix for a greatly respected man

-zun: 'Revered One'; a suffix for a greatly respected man

-ji: A suffix for a female friend

-bo: A suffix for an older man of your grandparents' generation

-po: A suffix for an older woman of your grandparents' generation

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 4, pages 90 - 144.

Ten more pictures with notes about the novel! More text that may have been edited out of the print version!

Half of the sentence is gone!!!!!

"...and Chang Geng at that time had not even known what luxury and riches were, but had unexpectedly and resolutely left the marquis's residence; he would rather wander the wide 江湖 Jiang Hu than return to being a 'frog in a well' rich prince."

"Frog in a well" is 井底之蛙, which means "very limited worldview" since frogs in wells can't see more than their tiny patch of sky.

There is no mention of bloodlust in the version I read. It was just "In previous years, Gu Yun still frequently muttered about beating up this person or beating up that person..."

Yah. Priest has LOTS of plot. Constant bouncing between what happens in the imperial court vs in the outside-the-official-government world.

"粘". Priest even put that word in " ". It can mean sticky, adhesive. Not like a clingy girlfriend, more like magnets or glue.

It's very romantic right here, anyway. :)

Text, plus my bad handwriting: "Who knows what my brothers and comrades will think when they hear the news! What do you think, Marshal!?" meaning "What do you feel in your heart?! Do you really think this is fair?"

停 can mean "parked" or "landed," which I think makes more sense here since "stored" has the implication that the hawks are packed away, but, in this case, the hawks were flying just a little bit ago and now they are "landed," or "parked."

There some additional sentences in the version used for translation, I guess.

The Chinese from the version I read: 我若说出傅志诚私运紫流金谋反一事...

My bad translation: If I speak about Fu Zhicheng's smuggling Violet Gold conspiracy this one matter...

My interpretation: "the treason of smuggling violet gold," since he is referring to one matter, not two.

But it would not be weird if Priest later edited it into two matters of treason, one of smuggling and another of rebellion.

Chang Geng is elegant and graceful. He does not hunker. He settles.

炼丹 ”Make pills of immortality"

This "alchemy", Chinese version, is not to turn whatever into gold, but instead to find ways to extend your life; like how my mom puts turmeric in absolutely everything and reminds me to eat more blueberries and tomatoes and goji berries and...

OK! That's it for these ten photos! More later :)

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume TWO 2 二

(The one with the very pale cover)

(English 7Seas version) Notes 1 of 4

Pages 1-132

I am constantly impressed with how well 2Ha has been translated. It has been an absolute joy to re-read, but this time in English.

I don’t expect everyone to know that “zizi” is another word for “older sister,” though, so here are some notes to help you get through the novel if you aren’t already a fluent Chinese-xianxia reader:

(Also, I’m on mobile today, so Vol2 notes will be separated into four 🙄 posts instead of two.)

More under the cut…

Link back to my Masterlist

Book / Author recommendation time! Please support Daniel May so that he can keep writing so that we can keep reading his work ❤️.

Daniel May (best pen name ever 😉) recently released Blood Sports, previously working-titled Equestrian Mafia Daddy. You can read it on Kindle Unlimited, buy it a bunch of places?, and/or join his Patreon for it and more.

Here’s one of my favorite lines from this book:

And another:

I first read his work in AO3, Yi City fanfic. He made all the Yi City pain go away… (except for all the super scary painful angsty stuff he also writes, but he tags his fics well, so I know what to reread and what to avoid).

If stories are food (well, ingestibles), Daniel May is my pusher, and I hope you’ll get hooked, too.

CLADISTICS ruined my life

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:

zhou shen + a non-exhaustive list of chinese new year 2021 appearances

↳ 归处 / gui chu: happy camp + jiangsu tv ↳ 大鱼 / da yu ↳ got it (with mao buyi) ↳ 我在这 挺好的 / wo zai zhe, ting hao de ↳ 灯火里的中国 / deng huo li de zhong guo (with zhang ye) ↳ 牛仔很忙 / niu zai hen mang ↳ 达拉崩吧 / da la beng ba ↳ 微光海洋 / wei guang hai yang ↳ bonus clips: singing 吉祥三宝 + 恭喜发财 + 同桌的你 edit to add: ↳ 达拉崩吧 / da la beng ba (with morin khuur and dombra by shui guo xing qiu) ↳ 春天到万家 / chun tian dao wan jia (with zhang ye)