"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 26 - 29

[x_los]

Week 7 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 26 - 29. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on June 20th.

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 26

[x_los]

This 'many different lights' comment reads a bit oddly.

This tl uses 'commoner' and 'common' in an interchangable way that doesn't entirely work for me, in English.

Changsu, my dude, I think that all you have to do to get Nihuang to completely support Prince Jing is to send her a meme that starts with 'it's Jingles, bitch! *beat drop*' Nihuang is already there.

'crafty clouds and deceitful winds' This feels like a chengyu? I could used a footnote.

It's especially poignant that the person Liyang ends up confessing all this to is Changsu, who also had a very different personality before their family got to him.

Is this the first time we've been told that Liyang is his aunt, i.e. about Changsu's place in this family structure?

It's really extra harsh that for some time, Liyang didn't know that this wasn't her fault at all.

'Framed' is an odd choice of words.

'sister': I feel the english tl should clarify this does not necessarily mean 'biological sister', because otherwise Liyang seems to be specifically spilling someone else's private affairs (and it doesn't help that the only candidate I know of, here, is Changsu's own mother). We all know she's referring to herself, but it'd be good if Liyang didn't seem to be saying potentially damaging things about the reputation of her sibling. (Whereas 'a close friend' could be far harder to definitively identify.)

What a way to learn your grandma really sucked, eh Changsu? Only your great grandma can be relied upon.

People who've seen the drama: 'I know who the spy is!!'

Re: Chapter 26

[dragonyphoenix]

Yes, the whole "who is the spy?" bit seemed odd to me while reading

Re: Chapter 26

[superborb]

halfcactus reports from discord that it's a variant of a chengyu which means “be subject to a myriad of changes” and “bewilderingly changeable”.

I think we know MCS is related because of the great-grandma scenes?

The Chinese is literally “closely related sister", though that can also be extended to be a friend as close as a sister, I think it shades closer to a "biological sister" meaning than just "sister" does.

Chapter 27

[x_los]

‘Half of a quarter hour’ This sounds very weird. Just say ten minutes.

‘Unwedded girl of the royal family’ This is a little confusing, because Nihuang isn’t, really.

So like, is palpable killing intent of this kind often found in traditional wuxia? I think of it as more of a xianxia intensification. Also I do feel this needs a gloss in an English tl, as it’s really not a concept at large in English-first texts.

Re: Chapter 27

[superborb]

It's literally of a 'princely' family. Noble is probably the better term.

Killing intent is standard wuxia. (I assume it influenced or was influenced by whatever gave rise to the killing intent that is an anime trope.)

Chapter 28

[x_los]

‘This is really our Yunnan temperament’ how so?

‘Perhaps his heart was a little disturbed’ the prince's, or the would-be rapist's?

If Sima is one of the final tournament contestants and Jingyan can just kick his ass, how good are Jingyan’s martial arts? Better than I assumed, apparently.

This is such a BIG escalation for things to go back to normal after? You seriously threatened to kill your own brother, you can’t really walk that back!

The high fucking comedy of deploying everyone's great-grandmother to defuse tension.

Re: Chapter 28

[superborb]

Something something ~the natural world vs city life~??

The prince's, I think -- in the Chinese the whole paragraph is one sentence.

I think Sima might have been 'helped' by an easier bracket too. But I expect Jingyan's martial arts are supposed to be good.

Normal levels of inner palace fighting.

Chapter 29

[x_los]

I really can’t remember how they get out of this bind (i.e., how suspicious it looks that half the cast showed up on Changsu’s instructions to witness the other half of the cast acting up).

Re: Chapter 29

[superborb]

To be fair to MCS, he didn't INTEND for this to happen. But poor planning on his part-- how was Nihuang going to avoid it even if it /was/ the Empress??