青, or the most confusing colour word in old Chinese ever.

This is because while there is a modern distinction between 綠 green and 藍 blue, in the past we had 青 / qing for ‘nature’s colour’. In any old text (and old words still used) it could mean, depending on context:

1. blue
2. youthful / young
3. pale yellow.
   
4. green / verdant
5. the band of colour just above blue in the rainbow (紅橙黃綠青藍紫, which puts 青 in between green and blue）if you’re a kid but when you get to form 1, you get that the rainbow is actually 紅橙黃綠藍靛紫, so the blue-green we thought was blue green is now blue.
   
6. The blue of blue white porcelain (青花瓷）
   
7. clear sky blue - 青天.
8. indigo blue (青出於藍而勝於藍 / qing comes out of the indigo plant and yet it is more vibrant than indigo)
9. black.

Also, 青衫 may read “green clothes,” but together and describing historical / mythical figures it just means “scholar’s robes,” where the word 青 means ‘young’ and the robes could be any colour. It describes the style, not the colour.

A line from Peach Blossom Debt:
青衫公子站起身，本仙君驚且喜，恍若東風拂過，三千桃樹，花開爛漫。
The young noble clad in scholar’s robes stands, and this immortal one is pleasantly surprised, as though the east wind chanced by and every brilliant flower on three thousand peach trees blossom.

So, a very important question — what colour are Kunlun’s robes? Chapter 68:

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