"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 5-8

[x_los]

Week 2 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 5-8. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on May 16th.

I'll be doing a weekly post with thoughts on this community. Feel free to join in/discuss. If you'd like to join the Discord, contact superborb for an invite.

Chinese text: https://sj.uukanshu.com/book.aspx?id=17338
English translation: https://merelhyn.tumblr.com/post/641747965727358976/the-langya-list-epubpdf

SPOILER POLICY: I personally don't give a fuck or even like to give unearned credence to the concept, so since I'm writing the post, anything's fair game.

(If anyone is interested in dankodes running further poetry content during or after NiF, please let me know what you'd be keen to discuss. I'm happy to work with you on that. I'll probably ask this again once NiF draws to a close.)

Comments

Chapter 5

[x_los]

Tense shifts a bit weird here. More could be done to bring a declaration like ‘Princess Liang’ (bio) into alignment with English prose norms.

This weirdly figures subservience to her husband as the particular ‘joy of family life’ the Princess would be missing out on. Wouldn’t want to skip out on that one.

This wanky ‘oops!’ Go loss

And here's what I said last time:

- 'Princess Liyang, the only living sister of the Emperor' *living* doing a lot of work, here
- So what's up with Liyang's manor? Is it just so she can have property in her own right, as status or economic protection device, or does it play a ritual role that enables her to visit her family in the palace and perform religious devotion? The book mentioned it in re Buddha.
- I like this weird little wrinkle of tension between the brothers, where Xie Bi is more assuming and less gracious. Not in a mean way, more, he's the younger brother, he works hard but lacks Jingrui's delicacy
- Rolling my fucking eyes at 'o no somehow I lost the weiqi game' Changsu, bitch I'm sure.
- What no one is saying, bc of how tight the author is keeping the arc plot at this stage&bc the Emperor is a Queen of Hearts model, is that marrying Nihuang has to be a REAL FUCKING WEIRD prospect bc her last fiancé was Lin Shu

Re: Chapter 5

[dragonyphoenix]

'Princess Liyang, the only living sister of the Emperor' *living* doing a lot of work, here. *laughs* I completely missed that! Yes, *living* is doing a lot of work here.

I also was wondering about Changsu losing the weiqi game.

Re: Chapter 5

[superborb]

IIRC in the show, it definitely later serves as both status and economic protection, after the birthday party arc, since she can go live there, right?

XB is also fully in the political machinations of the court, which XJR gets the benefit of being able to ignore that.

Re: Chapter 5

[x_los]

That’s a point, maybe the book makes such a Thing of it so readers accustomed to the logics of court drama don’t believe MCS is wilfully tanking his aunt’s ENTIRE life when that happens.

Re: Chapter 5

[xmarksthespotwhereistand]

For later record keeping: the tumblr post that mentions Mei Changsu's skills (or lack of) with weiqi.

Chapter 6

[x_los]

'Freeze is' too modern

'Great leaps over buildings'— wuxia allows for that much qi gong, huh

This 'cutting chills' bit is a little unclear—does FL simply intimidate them, or is this killing intent shit?

D says Jin Yong makes a point about martial artists being bad soldiers, but NIF doesn’t seem to credit that: the country’s greatest martial artist is Commander Meng, firmly an army man.

Apparently this was all I managed to say about Chapter 6 last time:

- Bless chapter 6 for bringing in Commander Meng, the best fucking dude you could ask for

Re: Chapter 6

[superborb]

Unclear if metaphorical or real chills. I would think real given the other physical manifestations of qi here.

I think another example of NIF deviating from wuxia norms, with its focus on imperial power.

Chapter 7

[x_los]

- 'Recognising' functions quite weirdly in this poem.
- really wish tls would stop using 'play' in senses English doesn't allow for.
- 'reward me with treasures in place of Prince Yu' ?

All I said last time:

- 'the Empress’s nephew Yan Yujin came over finely dressed' oh so he is still a nephew rather than a great nephew, it was just confusingly stated. That makes more sense re ages.

And that was as far as I got in the book.

Chapter 8

[x_los]

- Okay, I now get the nature of the power play involved in re Prince Yu, but that was confusingly stated.
- MCS is very into Yujin's Principled Stand, and to me it doesn't register as a moral action really, just practical.

Re: Chapter 8

[superborb]

XJR's principled stand? I read it more (with the benefit of hindsight) as being about how his predictions are a decade out of date, with XJR being nearly an adult now and all. But perhaps I am reading what I want out of it.

Re: Chapter 8

[x_los]

Yeah, I did mean Jingrui. And I do think there’s an element of—‘I forgot people would change’, but also he says things about how impressive Jingrui’s response is like it’s a matter of morality not to impose on your guest, where I’d class it more as a lesser question of social norms.

[halfcactus]

ch5: 及笄之年 hairpin or marriageable age/post-hairpin ceremony (aka coming of age, 15 years old): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Li