Sha Po Lang - Blog Posts
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[ Danmei in order of appearance: "Heaven Official's Blessing," "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation," "Scum Villain's Self-Saving System," "The Husky and His White Cat Shizun," "Remnants of Filth," "Thousand Autumns," "Peerless," "Stars of Chaos," "Guardian," and "Ballad of Sword and Wine." ]
Happy mother’s day…
Lol
Sha po lang gu yun
sha po lang
changgu chang geng + gu yun
chibi
https://kre.pe/ZPQd 전신스디 1.5
When summer break started, I read 2HA, but it wasn't enough to throughly emotionally damage me. So after 2HA, I read Copper Coins, then Sha Po Lang, then Cold Sands, all without breaks, just continuous reading, immediately moving on after each one (haha, the plots are great, the pain makes me feel alive, and I'm one of the notorious binge readers among my friends).
But Yu Wu... Maybe it's because I'm so attached to Mo Xi and his extreme loyalty, but yeah... Yu Wu is what finally broke me. I'm almost done reading the novel but I just read chapters 189 and 190, and these chapters emotionally killed me. Yu Wu totally killed my binging steam and I will need a short break before I move on to my next read.
Just felt like sharing, I feel so numb rn ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ
Just finished reading Sha Po Lang. Chang Geng best boi
Have some memes
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Volume 4
I finally finished Volume 4! It was great. I love Chang Geng and Gu Yun. And poor Shen Yi and awesome Chen QingXu.
I have a a bunch of little Interesting Cultural Tidbits; maybe two alternative translations; and two places where retaining the webnovel's paragraph breaks would have been very helpful. Here we go:
Yah, so -- they were not planning on visiting friends over the next few days while they were busy infiltrating the rebels; rather, they had, over the last few days, made some good friends and built relations strong enough to make "come over for dinner" seem like a reasonable next step.
No, Gu Yun is not about to eat an American Hamburger; rather, he says that he wants "车大的烧饼把拉车的活驴夹成火烧" which is, roughly, a northern Chinese flatbread sandwich (meat layered between two pieces of flatbread). Word-by-word, this "donkey burger the size of a horse cart is
车大的烧饼flatbread as big as a horse cart
把拉车的活驴 take the live donkey pulling the cart
夹成火烧 and put it in between, to make it into a hot sandwich.
Donkey burger!
Here, Fake Prince Yan is calling his companion, the Fake Xu Ling, "少东家 Young Master" because that's a polite way to refer to your boss's son (or any big boss's son?) when you are talking to him. In normal English, this would read like "Even you have gotten embroiled in this mess."
I think the grammatical tense on this might be off. He hasn't had his birthday yet, so I think it might read more smoothly as "...noodles on his birthday, and he would also have to publicly confess his errors in governance that day." ... 过个生日连碗面都没人给下，还要当着天下痛陈自己执政过错。
Three-headed and six-armed god of war! It's a Nezha reference. You all know Nezha, right? Nezha 哪吒 is my favorite god <3
“Fish in muddy waters" is 浑水摸鱼, which means "to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain" (www.mdbg.net)
This is one my favorite idioms: 瓜田李下， which is short for 瓜田不纳履，李下不整冠, which means "don't fix your shoes in a melon field; and don't adjust your hat/hair-crown in a plum orchard," which we can summarize as "Don't act suspicious."
top: 睁眼说瞎话 eyes open, speak blind words. Blatantly lie. It sounds really cool in Chinese.
bottom: “千金之子，坐不垂堂” I had to look this up. It's a saying from the Han Dynasty. The situation is that roof tiles would sometimes fall and hit anyone sitting below, so they discouraged rich kids from sitting under the eaves where the tiles could fall.
"... and behave yourself!" is a very good translation for the meaning of this sentence.
But it's so much cooler in Chinese: 不准作妖！ which means "don't be a 妖," and 妖 means (mbdg.net again) "goblin / witch / devil / bewitching / enchanting / monster / phantom / demon"
Here's another place where the translation is perfectly good, but 下毒手 is so much cooler. By itself,
毒 = poison, 手 = hand,
下毒手 = to attack murderously / to strike treacherously
You all know the idiom 螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后, yah? Here comes mdbg.net again: "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind (idiom, from Daoist classic Zhuangzi 莊子｜庄子); to pursue a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger."
把腰扭到胯上。 "...undulating his hips until they were level with this waist..." which I guess means that he was walking with a prominent sway to his hips?
This is the perfect translation for this idiom. The idiom, in Chinese, is 一朝被蛇咬，十年怕井绳 = (modified mdbg.net) once bitten by a snake, scared for ten years at the sight of the rope used for drawing water out of the well.
大人有大人的道，小人有小人的路。
大人 here is (mdbg.net) "title of respect toward superiors"
小人， in contrast to 大人, means （mdbg.net) "person of low social status (old) / I, me (used to refer humbly to oneself) / nasty person / vile character"
I think it makes a little more sense if it reads "Lords and ministers have their bright open boulevards; small petty people have their own paths."
Never had Fang Qin 碰过这么硬的钉子 since the day he'd left his mother's womb.
碰钉子 literally means "hit nail"; figuratively, it means (mdbg.net) "to meet with a rebuff."
这么硬的钉子 = such a hard nail.
So 碰过这么硬的钉子 gives the image of Fang Qin running into a fence or something with a long, hard nail sticking out of it. :)
Pg 241. 侧耳过去听 just means "turned/leaned his ear (head) closer to listen (better)". No one was putting their ear on Gu Yun's lips here.
发作 means "to lose one's temper". I feel like "bite his head off" is a bit extreme for anyone to except of Prince Yan -- Prince Yan is too refined to bite anyone's head off.
In English, I feel like "what's the matter with you" is very confrontational and accusatory.
The Chinese here is 你到底怎么回事？, which I feel translates better as "What is actually going on with you?" or, more awkwardly, "What is the full situation of what is going on with you?"
This is so cute: "little bastard" is 兔崽子 which literally "bunny-rabbit child" and figuratively (mdbg.net) "brat / bastard". So...
Gu Yun: Which baby bunny was standing guard and ratted me out!?
Chang Geng: I am that baby bunny.
The "pawn" here is a not pejorative. 马前卒 is "lackey / errand boy / lit. runner before a carriage" (mdbg.net).
In the online version I read, there is a paragraph break and a time frame here that really helps with understanding what's going on.
"....civil official who could barely ride a horse.
One year ago, survivors of the navy...."
"In less than a month..." (just showing that they have been there for a few weeks.)
"Silver tongue" in Chinese is 见人说人话、见鬼说鬼话的三寸不烂之舌。
见人说人话、See people, speak people language.
见鬼说鬼话 的 See monsters, speak monster language.
三寸不烂之舌。 three inches not <soft / rotten /worn out> tongue.
Cool way to say "silver tongue," yah?
I think the grammatical tense should be brought forward. The ship is falling apart right now, in book-time.
Another paragraph break that I feel should have been retained to show that we are moving from outside the temple, where we can see the flames, to inside the temple, where Chen QingXu is suffering from the smoke.
__________________________
And that's it! Volume 4. I love you, Chang Geng. You have my heart, Gu Yun!
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Volume 3, Notes 5/5, Pages 358 - end
The "Imperial Censorate" here is 御史台, which is the department, not the person. Chang Geng would never slap another person in full view of the court; but he would not hesitate to admistratively slap another department if he felt it was justified.
So. The classic punishment for adultery was to be put in a pig cage and thrown into the river to drown. I don't know how I know this little bit of trivia, seeing as I was raised in the west and my only contact to Chinese culture was my very conservative Chinese mother; but I know this. Adulterers get drowned.
谋事在人，成事在天。 Plotting depends the person, success depends on the heavens. I just wanted you to know that it's symmetrical in Chinese, even though it doesn't translate that way.
The "tactlessly" here is a translation of 不长眼色， which I think could be explained better as "not reading the room" or "not taking hints."
It's not that Ge Chen is tactless so much as he is clueless to the tension between Gu Yun and Chang Geng.
In the online Chinese version that I read, the line is "Zixi! Don't go!" which explains why Chang Geng is reaching out to grab him in a panic -- he thinks Gu Yun is leaving him.
Page 382
Top: The Chinese here is "看看我说话!" which can be translated as either
-- "Look at me while I am talking to you," (though that feels weird) or -- "Look at me and speak - respond to me,"
...both of which are a little different from what is actually written in English. The "look at me when you speak" translation threw me for a second because Chang Geng isn't speaking and hasn't said anything for a while.
Bottom: Liangjiang is 两江 which is Two Rivers. (The north side and the south side of the river?)
This section is actually so pretty:
“天时地利、花前月下、水到渠成”
The perfect time (天时) and place (地利); in front of the flowers (花前) and under the moon (月下); when success is assured (where water flows (水到) a canal will inevitably form (渠成)).
Carriage Door. The carriage door opened, and out came Shen Yi. He had hitched a ride with Miss Chen so that he could leave his home unnoticed.
(When I read the English, I thought that the door was the courtyard door and got really confused.)
----
And that's it for Volume 3!
I love 杀破狼 <3
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
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
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Volume 3, Notes 3/5, Pages 152 - 265
Cute trivia: in the online novel, this entire paragraph is One Sentence. 9 commas. No semi-colons.
This is (part of the reason) why it takes me 3-12 months to read a single Priest novel.
In case you don't already know, there is a lovely story about an emperor who had a male lover who fell asleep on the long, voluminous sleeve of his robe; and rather than wake the lover, the emperor just cut off his sleeve so that he could go work without bothering his sweetie. And now 断袖 "cut sleeve" is another word for "homosexual man."
I love the idiom for this situation: 投鼠忌器 "throw" "mouse" "afraid" "devices," or "afraid to throw anything at the mouse for fear of breaking the vases."
So, 蹂躏 does translate as "violated," but it also translates as "savaged" or "trampled," both of which I think fit here better.
Here, 完蛋 a little more vulgar than I like to think of it. I'm pretty sure this is a phrase you can use around elementary school kids. It means "to be done for," like "Uh oh. We've been caught."
Top: "Bat out of hell" in Chinese is 赶投胎似的 = like he's rushing to be reincarnated. (I find Western theology- based idioms disconcerting in Daoist/Buddhist- based novels. I understand that they convey the meaning most accurately, but it still weirds me out.)
Bottom: So cute! They are using food-based euphemisms. The Chinese for "eat his fill" is 吃了顿荤的 = "eat a meal with meat" ¬‿¬. And then they break the metaphor with "ended up in the wrong position" (on bottom instead of on top). And then return to the food euphemism with "nearly choked to death." Cute, yah?
xiansheng 先生 = "Teacher", in this context.
I added a （1) and a (2) because I started getting confused.
I also added unnecessary Chinese on "If you're so smart", that it started out (in the online version, anyway), as "你有注意" "If you have ideas,..."
OMG. If you go to a robust Chinese dictionary and search for the Chinese translation for "me," you will get SO MANY WORDS back.
One of those many words is 孤, which was used by feudal princes for a time? And 孤 usually means "lonely" or "solitary."
He climbed on Gu Yun's shoulder. 肩膀。
Either way, he's being carried around by Gu Yun and leaving drool marks on Gu Yun's shoulder <3
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Volume 3, Notes 2/5, Pages 97 - 151
This was actually a really easy read, maybe because it's been almost a year since I last read this in Chinese and so I am not remembering awesome idioms every page; but, anyway! Here we continue <3
In case you don't already know， a huli jing 狐狸精 is a fox spirit. Famous for being super sexy.
In the online Chinese version I read, there was no actual mention of Gu Yun's movements, but more his mindset: 失魂落魄地走了 = "walked off in a daze". Because of the steel plates and all his injuries, I guess it was not a smooth "walking off" so much as a forlorn stumbling, but I don't like the word "hobbled" used on Gu Yun.
Chinese: "整日里便是在我耳边嘀咕." The meaning is the same as "yakking my year off," but it sounds much more elegant in Chinese, of course: "All day, is at the side of my ear, muttering / whispering / chatting quietly...”
Top: again, it just sounds better in Chinese. English is "like a house on fire," Chinese is "投缘" = "kindred spirits" or, broken apart, "thrown, fate."
Bottom: many official ceremonies are carried out with official, kneeling, head-to-floor bows. In this case, it will be an official ceremony to celebrate Ge Chen becoming Zhang Fenghan's adopted son.
(I love how Chang Geng never actually says "So! Ge Chen wants you to adopt him," but instead says a bunch of nice things to Master Fenghan, and Master Fenghan says some nice things back, and then Chang Geng concludes with "We'll call you with the date of the Adoption Ceremony. Bye!")
I love names in Chinese!
So, Du Wanquan is 杜万全， where
Wan 万 = 10,000 ("a very large number") and
Quan 全 = "complete, all", and
the two words together 万全 = absolutely safe / surefire / thorough （mdbg.net).
Good name for the God of Wealth, yah?
In case you don't remember, Zhong-lao is Old Master Zhong / General Zhong, who came out of retirement to help lead the forces in the South. He trained up both Gu Yun and, much later, Chang Geng.
"Speak of the Devil" in Chinese is "说曹操曹操就到."
曹操 Cao Cao was the king of Wei during the 3 Kingdoms Period (the very very beginnings of the 3 Kingdoms period).
Though I think in the actual story, Cao Cao actually saved a fellow ruler who had been thinking of asking him for help against an attack; but before the fellow could send out his messenger with the request, Cao Cao and his army suddenly appeared and crushed the attackers.
The translation is fine. I just feel like in the phrase 朝廷挤出点口粮实在不容易, using "must have" for the English just feels better.
"When a person hid their wounds WITH THEIR TWO HANDS so that none could see, no one had the right to pry AWAY their hands."
It all makes sense once you realize that the verb used here is 捂 wǔ = "to enclose / to cover with the hand (mdbg.net)."
脏癖 dirty habits/inclinations (because Liao Ran didn't like bathing）
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Volume 3, pages 1-84
First, let us all show our appreciation for the illustrator who put horrified soldiers in the background when Gu Yun is about to play a little song on his jade flute:
(sorry my color balance is all wacky. Please pretend you see the lovely blue sky and the snowy white robes.)
(The "yet" confused me, so I changed it to an "And.")
...to land in a kneeling position, all cool-like.
In Chinese, the phrase equivalent to "snatch from the jaws of death" is "从阎王那里抢回了..." = "snatched back from (the Ruler of the Underworld) Yan Wang (or Yanluo Wang)."
In English, it's "harbor improper intentions," but that makes me feel like someone is going to seduce and then abandon someone else; whereas in Chinese, the phrase is "心怀不轨,” which is more along the lines of "intentions that do not follow the proper rules." 'Cuz god-sons are not supposed to think romantic thoughts about their god-fathers.
The “bei" here is the word for "North". 北。
And does anyone else like to laugh at how Chang Geng's new title, 雁王 Yàn Wáng, is now a homophone of the Ruler of the Underworld 阎王 Yánwang ？
天地没良心。 Heaven and Earth do not have a conscience / kindness.
It's super minor, but I was a little confused until I re-worded this in my brain to be "My actions here are not done out of my filial obligation to you; these actions are just me doting on you."
Chang Geng is not being disrespectful by denying filial piety to a godfather, but, rather, he is showing that he is doting on Gu Yun as a lover.
急行军 is translated as "forced march" in my pre-installed iphone Dictionary, but the Chinese explanation is "in order to complete an urgent task as quickly as possible, act with the utmost speed."
So I understand "急行军中实在被他们弄得基恩恼火” as "it was infuriating to have to deal with them while we were in such a terrible rush."
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Vol 2, Notes 8/8, pages 370 - end
The story is progressing!!!
“muttered into... ear" in Chinese here is 咬耳朵道, "bite ear said." Totally lets you know where Gu Yun is when he's talking to Tan Hongfei, yah?
Chinese for the entire 长庚 quote: 可惜没有长花容月貌，掷果盈车的大帅不肯要。
花容月貌 - flower appearance moon appearance (it sounds good in Chinese, trust me)
掷果盈车 - throw fruit fill carriage. There was this famously beautiful man name 潘安 Pan An (247-300 AD) who was so famously beautiful that when women saw his carriage coming, they would link hands and slow it down just to get a peak at him, and then they would throw flowers and fruit at him in appreciation, so that by the time he got home, his carriage was full of fruit and flowers. Famous Chinese Beauties <3
启明 Qiming -- Pleco: "Classical Chinese name for planet Venus in the east before dawn"
混账. Pleco: Noun. Vulgar. "scoundrel; bastard; son of a bitch"
But you can't say the latter two to Chang Geng, and I don't want to talk about body parts like that between Gu Yun and Chang Geng, so I think we should all read this as "Unreasonable Impudent Scoundrel."
And that's it! I hope you enjoyed learning about heel ropes and pills of immortality and historically significant hotness with me. I learn huge amounts of (Chinese and) Chinese culture every time I pick up a Priest book, and I hope you all can enjoy it as much as I do.
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Vol 2, Notes 7, pages 339 - 366.
Another eight notes...
The idiom for "too late" in Chinese is 黄花菜都凉了 "The Yellow Lilly (chrysanthemum? Yellow lily?) dish is already cold", which I had to look up.
Apparently, there was a time and place in ancient China where, when the fancy nobles would throw a banquet, they would serve 黄花菜 as the final dish. If you delayed attending so long that the 黄花菜 was already cold, then you had completely missed the banquet. You were too late.
牲口 is, technically, "draught animal" or "beast of burden," but I'm pretty sure what Priest means here is "those cold-blooded war beasts."
top: I think of it as two separate, unrelated, consecutive actions.
bottom: 铁膝飞足, iron knees flying feet, is so easy to read in Chinese. (This is the first time I've ever seen the word "poleyns.")
top: "young and inexperienced" in Chinese here is 初出茅庐, "first time out of the thatched cottage."
初出茅庐 is the coolest little idiom. So, in the Three Kingdoms period, there was a scholar called Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei, leader of the Shu Han, begged Zhuge Liang to become his advisor and, after three visits, Zhuge Liang agreed. This was the first time that Zhuge Liang accepted such an advisory position, and the "first time" that he left his thatched cottage (it was wartime. There was a lot of travel involved with advising a king/warlord).
Anyway, Zhuge Liang was a genius and immediately won a lot of battles through superior strategy.
next: for "dig in his heels before the capital," I feel like that could be more clearly written as "hold the capital."
next: regarding "unsalvageable situation," he's talking about his relationship with the emperor.
last: "No eggs remain when the nest overturns" is a common idiom, 覆巢之下无完卵。 We're all in it together.
"running to the market" 赶集 is a way to describe how things are noisy and busy and people are running back and forth (not bright and merry with people buying gifts for each other).
I think... the indescribable smell is the mix of gunpowder and blood...
If you don't know already, the Origin Myth for Where Humans Come From is that the half-snake goddess Nuwa made humans out of clay :)
I'm not sure why, but in English I thought that one of the Western soldiers was laughing; but in Chinese it's really clear that none of the soldiers are laughing.
Four more...
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Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Vol 2, Notes 6, pages 263 - 333
This novel is really too beautiful.
"Adoptive father" is usually the guy who takes care of you after your own parents die; but here, the "adoptive father" is someone that the young people took in to take care of in his old age.
I like how in the Chinese formatting, Priest just ends the previous paragraph with "... ..." and then starts the next one with "Until the easterly winds of change..."
This sounds weird to say, but I really like the formatting and syntactical style of all the Chinese novels I've read.
... 一条漆黑的阶梯舌头凭空垂下来...
I got confused with "staircase unfurled", since staircases don't move.
The end of the staircase is likened to a tongue, 阶梯 舌头, and, of course, tongues unfurl.
More translation confusion: in Chinese, 阶梯 doesn't distinguish between a solid staircase and, say, a rope ladder; and the (online) text 凭空垂下来 translates to "hangs down, out of nothing," kind of like "appears out of thin air" except it's hanging, so, "from nowhere."
矿物. I had the worst time trying to translate this. It is, officially, "ore," but Violet Gold is a liquid whereas "ore" is a solid.
I gave up and just wrote that little note that 矿物 means "thing that you have to mine out of the earth," regardless of its physical state.
I really liked those paragraphs that aren't in this version.
So, those 7 paragraphs:
Everything metal that was on Gu Yun had been taken away, but that didn't mean that Gu Yun was at the end of his tether / didn't have options available.
He had a secret skill -- when he and Shen Yi were little, they used to play a game in the marquis's compound, "who can steal pieces off the puppets the fastest." Two wild children -- when they had nothing else to do they would get together to study how to disassemble the puppets guarding the marquis's entrance. There was one time when Shen Yi didn't dodge fast enough, and when he was being naughty the puppet mistook him for an enemy and hit him so hard that he was thrown up to the roof and his little life almost ended. Of course, Gu Yun was not able to escape a beating from the old Marquis.
The blood-lesson (beating) did not help Gu Yun gain any memory (learn from his mistake), and instead he became even more bold. The two of them repeatedly studied for a long time -- they were sure that there must be a special/secret/expert method, to be like those slight-of-hand pickpockets and pull a piece off the puppet as they passed by.
In the end, they discovered that, yes, there were pieces that could be taken off, but only parts of the mask or the piece on the elbow where the label/mark was, those types of non-critical parts, so Gu Yun's unrivalled skill had never had a chance to be demonstrated.
But, now it looked like it could be used.
The first day that the puppet delivered food, Gu Yun stealthily (eyes quick hands fast) reached out his hand, hooked and pulled, and easily removed the rusty label-plate from the puppet's elbow ----
He sharpened that plate on a rock, used it pry open his handcuffs, then finally did a big lazy stretch. Afterwards, he cut a piece of his bedsheet and braided it into a rope, caught a little rat, and at every meal he would save two mouthfuls of food to feed it, and play with it when he had nothing else to do.
top: More edited-out lines :( If Priest didn't want us to fall in love with these lines, why did she give them to us in the first place :(
"...resist heaving a sigh and spinning the metal plate he was playing with like a pinwheel."
bottom:“ 他还不如每天嫌我给他捣乱呢。” which the translators did a fine job translating, but I like "giving him trouble" more than "getting on his nerves". 捣乱 is, literally, "pound/beat disorder," so you can see how it suggests more "messing things up."
I find it very interesting that a typical (I think? I'm not really that well-read) form of address for a high-ranking Senior Official is 爱卿, which I think translates better to “My dear Senior Official ..." rather than "subject".
一视同仁 "treat all alike." Which means that the old marquis treated his dumpling-sized son the same as he treated everyone else (though he did finally relent to hold his little son's hand).
"谁要是这时候给我热俩烧饼，我就把谁娶回家” In Chinese, it's really easy to avoid numbered and gendered language. In this sentence, the word "谁" "whoever/someone" works in both parts of the sentence.
top: A little bit was added.
bottom: Same as last time. The Chinese is very symmetrical: "Whoever is afraid to die is the first to die."
We are getting close to the end.... :)
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
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
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
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Vol 2, Notes 3, pages 63 - 87
Another ten pages of notes!
Like I've posted before, Priest has more plot than I have reading comprehension, but, after a few rereads, I think I know what's going on.
In case you are in my same boat but you can't read my handwriting: Fu Zhicheng was originally a bandit, so the emperor at the time (the previous one) was worried (with good cause); but Fu Zhicheng was still given command because there was no other option at the time -- no one else was strong enough to hold the area.
土地公. Soil God. Local god.
I learn all my Chinese Mythology and Religion via trying to understand Priest novels.
静虚 Silent Empty. It's a very good name for a Daoist monk.
穿一条裤子 Wear one pair of pants. Isn't that super evocative? :)
And yet another place where I feel that the original paragraph break would have been very helpful for reader comprehension.
"Consolatory" = to console him on the loss of his mother.
It's the same poem referenced on page 54.
In the version I first read, the implication was that the wooden bird was there the entire time, and you only noticed it as it was flying away.
望穿秋水 look, penetrate, autumn water ( autumn water = "trad. description of girl's beautiful eyes" according to mdbg.net).
Nice way to describe looking at/for something really intently, yah?
Yet another sentence that was not in the (pirated) online version that I read. It doesn't really matter, I know, but I lived in that book for a year, so, well. It wasn't there before.
Another possibly different version, plus different ways to translate 冷笑 (if that is what was in the newer edit given to the translators).
In the version I read, there is no mention of facial expressions; Chang Geng just acts.
If Priest added a 冷笑 (I think that phrase has been used with Chang Geng before), then I would translate that as a Bitter Smile or a Cold Smile rather than as a sneer, since, in my head, only yucky villains sneer, and Chang Geng is a super elegant handsome symmetrical graceful mastermind who sadly but frequently lifts the corners of his mouth without any warmth reaching his eyes.
绊马索 trip horse rope.
Top:
男鬼 male ghost/monster/zombie (some type of supernatural being, derogatory)
...pulverizing the double layer of iron. Those mech-suits are Thick.
Bottom:
远在天边，近在眼前。 Far as the side of the sky, close as in front of the eyes. <3
And that's another ten! Just 44 more to go... :)
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Vol 2, Notes 2. Pages 48 - 62.
Ten more pages of notes...
饮鸩止渴 drink poison (legendary bird with poisonous feathers) stop thirst. It's a cool way to say "What you're doing may be helping you in the short term, but it's killing you in the long term," yah?
I really like how in Chinese, each rank of royalty has its own honorific, so when Chen QingXu says "殿下," we know she means "the prince" (or similar ranking), not "the emperor."
"陈轻絮管杀不管埋" "Chen QingXu took care of killing but did not take care of burying." ie She didn't deal with the consequences of her actions, but satisfyingly symmetrical in Chinese.
｡ﾟ ( ﾟ≧ᗜ≦^ﾟ)ﾟ｡
得罪君子不得罪小人。(Because, you know, an upstanding gentleman might get mad, but he won't resort to dirty underhanded deeds to get his revenge on you, whereas you never know what low deeds a petty person will stoop to to get his revenge.)
Top: 肉麻 is a cool word. We don't really have it in English. It's a little like "cringy"？ It's how you feel when someone does something too romantic or overly emotional in front of you.
Bottom: I guess Chinese crows foretell misfortune.
Formatting again. I really appreciate paragraph breaks.
Characters = words, reading, literacy. (Not "characters" as in "people.")
Missing paragraph in the print edition, again. But I really like this paragraph!
In case you can't read my writing: Shen Yi is feeling sorry for himself. Gu Yun grew up as a rich boy yelling "Mommy!" When he got older and joined the Black Iron Battalion, he didn't have a mommy anymore, so he treated Shen Yi as his new "Mommy!" to take care of things for him.
Below the missing paragraph, I have a note that "Dage" is 大哥 = Big Brother = "Boss," like you would call a mob boss "Boss."
And below that, in the online version, the entire quote from the bandit is "废话，还不放箭！包围！包围！” = "Nonsense. Why haven't you released the arrows yet! Surround them! Surround them!"
谁不想死谁先死. "Who does not want to die, who first dies." It's very symmetrical in Chinese.
The other note is about how we call people we deem useless as "饭桶 rice barrel," because all they do is eat rice.
老大 old big = Boss.
说人话 talk human speech = talk like a normal human being!
人模狗样 human, mold/model, dog, type/shape. It's a disparaging way to say "poser!" (Dogs are generally looked down upon in Chinese culture, at least in compound words and idioms and such.)
OK. And this ten is done!
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼
Vol 2, Notes 1. Pages 21 - 46.
A very kind tumblr user had to educate me that, yes, Priest edited her work after it was published (stolen on to?) on pirate websites, and so, yes, the translators were working off of a different version than I read.
But I LOVE the version I read, so I'm sharing it with you. You get BOTH.
Please excuse my angry "MISSING PARAGRAPH!" hand-written notes, as I did not realize that official edits were made post-pirate-publication.
Below are many possibly-unnecessary cultural notes that I think are just really neat, plus differences between versions. (I love the old one!)
Here we go:
Very cool word, 帅。
Usually, I read or hear it in reference to some guy being very cool. Devilishly handsome. Dashing.
Here, 大帅 is used as "Commander-in-Chief," which is the same thing as "Marshal," which can mean (dictionary.com) "a military officer of the highest rank" as well as the one I'm more familiar with, "chief of a police or fire department in some cities."
I just like how, in Chinese, I can also-interpret that everyone is calling him "Big Handsome."
Yah, Chen QingXu is a Boss. Who introduces herself as, like, a snake-oil peddler.
讷于言 The young soldier was bad at words. Not sparing, not careful; just bad.
悬壶济世 hang pot save world, because so much of Chinese medicine is boiling herbs for patients to drink.
No one is putting powder in leather sachets. It's dried herbs.
I usually agree with the Seven Seas' formatting, but I think it would be more clear if those sentences were broken into the original two separate paragraphs.
Top: Gold Tank = container for violet gold. It took me a second to figure that out.
Bottom: 小兄弟. I love how you can combine the "older brother" 兄 with the "younger brother" 弟, add a "little" 小 in the front, and it becomes, effectively, "Bro," but respectful.
In case you can't read my tiny bad handwriting: there used to be another paragraph here about how Gu Yun wants to see Chen QingXu because his meds are losing effect. The effects of drinking the meds used to last for months, then weeks, and now they only last two days.
And on the facing page, in the illustration, Chang Geng should be ON his horse.
It hits a little different, I think, to say You have to bathe and change your clothes just to walk your horse? And it has to be this exact time and place?
锋芒毕露 "sharp point must expose"
After years spent guarding the Silk Road, Gu Yun's propensity to show off had gradually faded...
OK. I think ten is enough for this post. More to come...
My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost
Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links
Concept arts and sample insert illustrations by Marina Privalova (@Baoshan_Karo) for Sha Po Lang Russian Edition of the book shared by Istari Comics Publishing.
If you haven't seen the beautiful cover arts, here's the link.
Yes, the same artist behind MDZS insert illustrations for EN and RUS license.
Yelling about this again since it's a big pet peeve of mine but please be aware!!! that "kill the wolf" is not!! a valid translation of Sha Po Lang!! it's not even a "literal translation" it's just MTL gibberish trying to make sense of a term with no English translation
pasting the explanation I gave on twt below the cut-
杀破狼/sha po lang corresponds to three different stars 七杀/qi sha ('seven killings'), 破军/po jun ('vanquisher of armies'), and 贪狼/tan lang ('greedy wolf'), which are significant in a system of Chinese astrology called 紫微斗数/zi wei dou shu
when these three stars appear in certain positions in a natal star chart, they compose the 'sha po lang' star formation, which foretells change and revolution, a turbulent fate which could lead to one making a name for oneself in chaotic times, or ending up destitute
famous generals are often born under this star formation as well - as you can see, there are a lot of ties with the themes of the novel itself
but, however, it doesn't really have a proper english translation, hence why i'm in favor of the 'stars of chaos' version of the title
if you want to look at the actual stars (look closer at the vol 1 cover for a little easter egg!)
qi sha = polis/mu sagittarii
po jun = alkaid/eta ursae majoris
tan lang = dubhe/alpha ursae majoris
thank you minirant complete
Chang Geng x Gu Yun “Sha Po Lang/Stars of Chaos”
Illustration: Marina Privalova
杀破狼： I’m up to chapter 98 on my Stars of Chaos Reread! And I must proclaim,
Poor Chang Geng! He’s a full-blooded healthy young man (except for the curse) (and the stab wounds) (but he’s fine, really!) and all he wants is a little sugar from his sweetie! But mean mean Gu Yun keeps (nervously) poking him full of acupuncture needles (doctor’s orders, sadly) or sending him away unkissed (ok, so Chang Geng almost got them killed a couple times there) or making him put his hands away and Sleep! (Because he’s bleeding from multiple wounds. Whoops.)
The cruelty!!
On the flip side, Poor Gu Yun! Everyone thinks Gu Yun is a lecher and a libertine, but he’s the one who has to keep a straight face when Chang Geng sneaks in a dirty suggestion or licks him in public (ok, it was at night and it was raining and chaotic, but, still). And every time he’s left alone with little (not so little) Chang Geng, he gets attacked (romantically) and Chang Geng tries to (amorously) eat him!
Sigh 🥰
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 7
By Priest, English translation by 7 Seas
Pages 415 - end. (Last 3 little notes!)
Last two under the cut.
殃及池鱼 is the idiom she’s building on. Priest is so funny.
皇叔 = 😁😍🥰。
王国舅 = …well, he’s not Gu Yun.
Stars of Chaos - All The Notes List
All The Seven Seas Books Masterlist
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 6
By Priest. English translation by 7 Seas.
Notes on culture and translation decisions.
Pages 288 - 414.
More under the cut.
长庚低声道：“让开。”
Chang Geng doesn’t shout. He lowered his voice and politely warned the people around him (that he was going to stab them if they didn’t) “Move aside.”
Definitely check the Glossary for 江湖 Jianghu. It’s the foundation of an entire genre of story, very nearly of the entire Chinese culture.
Gu Yun is never careless! And he also doesn’t care what you think of him.
Hmmm. Self-deluding people of limited education and even less critical thinking skill. Never seen one before.
姐姐。Big sister. Polite way for teenager to refer to a young lady.
Yao Zhen knows that Gu Yun’s version of the story will get him into trouble. Shen Yi must be glad that at least it’s not him having to fabricate Gu Yun’s story this time!
No French warning. Just a 小心 = “Careful!” as he attacked.
“功夫扎实，主要看自己肯下多大工夫，功夫厉害，主要是战场上生死一线的情况多了，谁教都一样。”
It’s hard to translate. The first and second half of the argument match perfectly, and we’re talking about a topic for which English doesn’t really have the vocabulary.
扎实 = solid, strong.
厉害 = intense, amazing, devastating (in a good way).
Stars of Chaos - All The Notes List
All The Seven Seas Books Masterlist
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 5
By Priest. Translated by 7 Seas.
Pages 249 - 281
Cultural and translation notes.
Yah. Gu Yun is being his usual, trying to be cute and naughty and a good dad all at the same time.
As for that word “catch” vs “trap/cheat”: there is no good connotation to the word 骗. 😝
More under the cut.
The first time I read 光棍 I thought it was some obscene joke. Then I saw that it’s just the casual, colloquial way to refer to single men. Hmmmm.
I love 妖 ♥️。
难看 sometimes means ugly, and other times it just means that the person doesn’t look as happy and healthy as usual. Gu Yun is never “unpleasant” to look at!
大师 Dashi is a title. Just a title. Liao Ran is nobody’s “master.”
Nothing about Chang Geng is nauseating! He’s just… a little clingy of late.
I got confused for a moment if “old” meant “in the old days” vs “old people.”
It means “old people” here.
Shen Yi is respectful to Gu Yun the way a best friend and work-partner is respectful — intimate and deep (and full of nagging advice)(and wary of getting punched in the nuts at any moment); not distanced and absolute in the way that Military Chain of Command usually requires.
Nearly everyone calls Gu Yun by his title, 大帅 dàshuài = commanding general, commander-in-chief, “Big General,” Highest Military Leader in the Land. But where everyone else means it sincerely, the Shen Yi in my head always says it half-sarcastically (unless they are in battle. Then it’s sincere). They’ve been best friends since they could read and write. There is no distance between Gu Yun and Shen Yi.
Stars of Chaos - All The Notes List
All The Seven Seas Books Masterlist
Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 3
By Priest. Notes on the 7 Seas English translation.
Pages 148 - 202
As they mention in the Appendix, Priest doesn’t use naming conventions in conventional ways. She also never introduces characters’ courtesy names - she just uses them and assumes that you’ll figure out who it belongs to eventually and will totally remember it three / thirteen chapters later.
More under the cut
Chinese uses （在我）身上 a lot to mean “at me” “to me” “on me.”
On being a laughingstock of a godfather, here are those 12 words, 2 commas: “头回给人当义父，当不好，见笑。”
As for the note at the top of this page: 他本想要照顾一辈子的小义父化成泡影. While the text reads “the godfather (that he had wanted to take care of for his entire life) became the shadow of foam,” the meaning is closer to “his idea of his godfather (the man he loved deeply and wanted to take care of the rest of his life), that idea dissolved away as surely as the shadow of foam dissolves into nothingness.”
The fun part of this (translation) is that in Chinese, this entire paragraph is all just one sentence. 5 commas, one em dash. You’d think it would be more difficult to understand with so little punctuation, but it actually works very well and very clearly - descriptions that require a whole separate sentence in English are just modifiers in Chinese; and parts of speech that have to be specified in English are very clearly implied in Chinese, with no ambiguity at all.
Gu Yun never treated any of the princes badly. He was just a difficult child himself.
It’s clear in the Chinese that Chang Geng lost his temper because the Celestial Wolf Prince was speaking irreverently of / to Gu Yun, and no one is allowed to be rude to Gu Yun! (Except maybe Shen Yi, but that’s a different, more familial, type of irreverence.)
Yes. Hanlin Academy. Remember this phrase - you’ll see it, like, twice more. Book-smart kids who tested into imperial government.
They like to use the word “puppet,” whereas anime-fans might be more used to “robots” or “mecha.” Same same.
Stars of Chaos - All The Notes List
All The Seven Seas Books Masterlist