"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 87 - 106

[x_los]

Weeks 21 - 26 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 87 - 106. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on October 31st.

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 87

[x_los]

- How does the curfew work in re Spiral Market Street?

- Yan Yujin waiting for elders to shut up has exactly the energy of a kid whose mom is having extended conversations outside the church door after service and will not leave.

Chapter 88

[x_los]

- Bless Xia Dong’s continued absence of chill.

- Gong Yu busting out “I’m unhappy in my marriage” for the zither.

- Can’t believe this book suddenly remembers it's part wuxia in full "Condor Heroes" style. A challenge at a banquet! What is this, is Apothecary Huang gonna show up in a skin mask? Because I hate that bitch.

Chapter 89

[x_los]

- ‘like a sword that had been bent’?

- What’s this net of light vs wall of light deal? I get the 'upgrade' connotation, but not really what this means in wuxia terms.

- But doesn’t Xia Dong basically have the evidence she needs, even if this guy’s wrist is fucked now? Is this just—-'we won’t pursue this further out of respect/pity'? Sure, he can't demonstrate the technique again before the emperor. But the emperor's not an expert himself--would he even benefit from more proof than Xia Dong's expert testimony could provide?

Re: Chapter 89

[dragonyphoenix]

My impression was that he did not display the technique, that he became injured because he wasn't fighting to his full ability (because he couldn't show the technique in front of Xia Dong and General Meng.)

Chapter 90

[x_los]

- This is a startling breakdown for Liyang/

- Oh, I didn’t realise Mistress Zhuo was also a martial artist. That males sense.

- Oh man, he’s just gonna murder everyone present with Xia Dong and Meng Zhi right there??

- A WITCHCRAFT DEFENSE?? I gotta know more about that as a law, omg.

- ‘And if that person came back’ what?

- “Finally someone remembers Fei Liu” I laughed out loud in the Starbucks.

- Omg, I can’t believe Prince Yu is useful. I mean I guess he’s a good tool, as well as just A Tool.

Chapter 91

[x_los]

- Why not just give Liyang something to make her miscarry? That sounds a lot safer.

- ‘The woman they were all pitying’ Are we pitying Liyang? Didn’t she intentionally get the Zhuo boy killed instead of her own?

- Oh, we use ‘retched’, etc. to talk about expelling the blood? Huh. I guess I didn't exactly think of it as vomiting, per se--more the consumptive cough action.

- Changsu watching his fail cousin Yujin finally remember about Trauma and sighing.

- ‘Two hours into the fight’ What the Chinese prose fuck is this timeskip? This is wild.

Re: Chapter 91

[superborb]

I just checked and it's the same translation problem -- should be 30 min, not 2 hours.

Re: Chapter 91

[dragonyphoenix]

Did she intentionally get the Zhuo boy killed? My impression had always been that the assassin killed the wrong child and then she didn't speak up. But, given that backstabbing environment she must have grown up in, you could be right. She may have been thinking of sacrificing the boy from the moment she invited the Zhou woman to share rooms.

Chapter 92

[x_los]

- Is Yuwen Xuan even still in the drama? He's sort of a Lin Chen figure.

- Ayyy, Marquis Yan might ride in!

Chapter 93

[x_los]

- Isn’t Xia Chun actually, literally her twin brother?

- AYYY, Marquis Yan!

- 'Waxy hand'? Weird.

- Wait, was Liyang married during the affair? I thought that the affair happened immediately before her marriage (and that the affair in fact spurred this OTT effort to marry her off). Was she married when this took place in the drama?

- How are tears trailing along her hairline to the tips of her ears??

- Oh huh, only now does Liyang find she cares about her husband. The drama was less definitive as to the timeline and her feelings.

Chapter 94

[x_los]

- What does this mean? ‘As for how Prince Yu controlled his soldiers, Mei Changsu had no suggestion whatsoever. In fact, Prince Yu was fortunate that Mei Changsu had refrained himself from making things worse.’

- Maybe this is harsh of me, but I do think the chief responsibility for all this lies with the OG perpetrators. Changsu is right that, sooner or later, Jingrui was going to find out much of this. Is it better to deliver the information less violently and overwhelmingly? Maybe! But that’s also just drawing out the trauma.

Chapter 95

[x_los]

- How much do people writing this stuff know about historical TCM? (Well, and when would you even peg 'historical' to, in a genre fantasia like this?) Or are they just using the beliefs current in contemporary TCM? This intellectual technology has to have evolved over the centuries, it can't be static or identical to modern usage.

- It's so harsh to give Changsu indirect responsibility for his younger cousin’s death like this. Damn. This chapter worked better for me than many others. I do understand why the drama dropped this plot line (to keep the story directed and to maintain sympathy for Changsu), but that is a real loss?

Chapter 96

[x_los]

- I really can’t remember what the deal is with this teacher.

- Psychologically, why is Prince Yu so into this power struggle? Why does he need the throne this badly?

Re: Chapter 96

[dragonyphoenix]

That's a good question.

Prince Ji does at one point say that any prince who says he doesn't want the throne would be lying. I don't agree with him. Prince Jing only wants the throne to fix the injustices of the past. If his brother Prince Qi had taken the throne, he'd have been perfectly happy with that.

Prince Yu is said to be the most like his father and we know the Emperor battled for the throne. The Empress, who raised Prince Yu, is very status conscious. She would have instilled a desire for power and rank. And, as her adopted son, he may have thought the throne was his by right from an early age.

Chapter 97

[x_los]

This truly is so enormously bitchy. Excellent work here from renowned bitch, Mei Changsu.

Chapter 98

[x_los]

It’s interesting that while Changsu can’t afford to tell this enemy who he really is and what all of this is really about, he finds a fairly effective--or perhaps even more effective---substitute for an emotional outburst by mirroring his enemy’s MO back at him. This position doesn't expose Changsu to real emotional vulnerability

'Death mission' is a weird phrase, and I'm not quite sure what the writer means meant by it here.

So if Xie only cuts off the Chiyan Army's line of retreat in doing this, who actually kills the Chiyan Army again?

I was just thinking it had been too long since I hung out with my homie Prince Jing. The drama was better at giving me Prince Jing time.

Chapter 99

[x_los]

‘but have we not all seen a pig walk?’ I mean not to speak of, dude. Not really!

This bell sequence is cool.

Chapter 100

[x_los]

The whole sequence with the great grandmother works well.

“and the best laid plans are built slowly with a strong foundation.” This is a very General Meng point, and he's not wrong.

Chapter 101

[x_los]

‘the neck-high grass parting before her like waves in the sea. It was Xia Dong, dressed in pure black robes, walking towards him slowly.’ This is a very cool entrance.

Chapter 102

[x_los]

‘Xia Dong’s cold attack’ What?

Xia Dong just pops in to unnerve the shit out of this guy, then leaves while doing the 'eye on you' gesture.

Re: Chapter 102

[superborb]

IIRC, a lot of the fighting moves are described with attendant cold?

Chapter 103

[x_los]

"Oh but Ouyang’s not a Grade 6, so he couldn't possibly take over the city guard, the job he is literally doing right now–-" Every civil service is alike.

I do like how the emperor is totally locked out this normal conversation between Prince Jing and his mother by virtue of being the emperor, and also a dick. This is a book about affluenza's effects on the brain--the hunger for anything normal and the impossibility of sating it while clinging to power.

Chapter 104

[x_los]

The emperor accidentally makes one (1) decision people like, letting Prince Jing visit his mom like a normal boy.

This herb-stuffed pillow Consort Jing made is interesting, I wonder how that’s done?

Chapter 105

[x_los]

‘When Prince Yu thought about the fact that this mysterious qilin prodigy, revered throughout jianghu, was now working for him, an unspeakable joy and delight welled up in his heart, and the jealousy and anger that had surrounded him like a fog on his entrance into Su Manor now dissipated like smoke into the sky.’ This section really is written like romance, which is interesting because we know that the way Prince Yu wants the things he wants is Wrong in the moral world of the novel. Once again, romance is evil.

‘Meng Zhi was not the only person in the hidden chamber. He was standing by the wall, and on hearing the sound of the stone door opening, he immediately turned. Beside him, sitting at the desk flipping through ‘Soaring over the Earth: A Chronicle’ by the light of the lantern, was Prince Jing Xiao Jingyan.’ Ahaha, awkward.

Not getting to finish your book is the worst, omg. Prince Jing, how could you do this to Changsu? He was in the middle of that!

Chapter 106

[x_los]

‘And then I realized that, in fact, Jingyan will not be able to see it at all...”’ Which is itself sad.

Truly an unexpected subplot for Banruo, with implications re Han nationalism that I didn’t get at all the first time I saw the show. I don’t think I’m comfortable with simply concluding that the show is ultimately and flatly conservative on this point? Banruo pointedly parallels Changsu, and while you could say that his legitimate masculine vengeance is characterised by a desire to preserve/build, and thus distinguished from her feminised desire to annihilate, I think even including her as a reflection of Changsu raises interesting questions that aren't easily dismissed (and which the novel makes limited efforts to neatly resolve, when it could easily lampshade this more).

What’s this ‘few curves’ business?