What characters call each other (and themselves) in Guardian

[foxghost]

This post is made because I don’t want to wall of text on that Chinese names post.

As a translator, I like to normalise the usage of pinyin honorifics and titles the way Japanese honorifics and titles are normalised in anime/manga. If you’re familiar with anime/manga, I’m sure this list is familiar to you: -san -sama -kun -kaasan -niisan -neesan -sensei -senpai -chan -bucho -shacho. I see no reason at all why we can’t do the same with Chinese honorifics except for the easily translated occupational ones.

Now, the next bit is off the top of my head, and I’ve only read the book 1.5 times (i’m currently 48 chapters into a re-read) so feel free to correct please.

There are three major characters in Zhenhun that uses ‘special’ personal pronouns on top of the usual 'I’: Daqing, Lin Jing, and Zhao Yunlan. (I’m also attaching a list of how each character is referred to by the others, and it’s gotten long, hence the cut.)

Lin Jing uses 貧道 / pindao, which is a monk-specific pronoun. Daqing literally uses the emperor’s pronoun 朕 / zhen that’s basically the royal 'we,’ and he’s used 本座 / benzuo, which is actually quite appropriate because he’s practically a cat god, also how the queen / consort refers to herself. Either way, Daqing thinks of himself as royalty. (Cats, istg.)

Zhao Yunlan changes his pronoun based on the mood. He’s trying to be seductive in bed? 小的 / xiaode / this young one it is. Trying to convey that he likes them roleplaying Song dynasty royalty? 灑家 / sajia. Talking like a thug? 爺 or 爺爺 / ye / gramps. This has a double meaning by the way. The word 孫子 / grandson is also slang for 'coward.’ [addition: He refers to himself as 親夫 / dear husband and 老公 / the old man aka hubby in front of Shen Wei without a hint of irony.]

A sidenote: he adds “comrade” when he’s feeling especially sarcastic. When Shen Wei’s being stand-offish? Suddenly he’s Comrade Shen Wei. Zhu Hong being particularly rude? Comrade Zhu Hong.

Now, onto what people call each other:

Zhao Yunlan - the members of the S.I.D. thinks of him as 'leader’ most of the time, Zhao-chu (short for director Zhao) the rest. Chu Shuzhi thinks of him as 老趙 / lao-Zhao, Zhu Hong will SAY Zhao-chu to his face and refer to him in convos and in her head with utterly foul language, so anything from asshole to bastard to motherfucker to a slur, occasionally 鬼見愁 / guijianchou / even ghosts feel horrid when they see him. Shen Wei, when he’s feeling particularly effusive, calls him Yunlan, and only once, 阿瀾 / ah-Lan.

Kunlun - Shen Wei calls him Kunlun. Everyone else uses Kunlun-jun. 君 / jun is a very casual honorific that goes from just someone a bit older than you that you respect or a lord / king, and pretty much on the level (and sound) of -kun for Japanese. (It’s even written and used mostly the same way in kanji.) 

Shen Wei - ZYL will call him Shen Wei, xiao-Wei, 大寶貝 / great treasure, one time 大爺 / um, master? / during some impromptu roleplay. @dtriad reminded me that he also calls Shen Wei his 老婆 / laopo / lit. the old lady / wife as well as the more rare 媳婦 / xifu / daughter in law, and refers to him as such in conversation with everyone like he’s trying to show off. But mostly, pick a pet name, the cringier the more in-character. 寶貝 is as cringey as ‘baby.’ The S.I.D. called him Professor Shen in the beginning, and after they get familiar, Teacher Shen. They’ll even refer to him by Teacher Shen in conversation and only sometimes uses his full name. Daqing is the only one that is always aware of Shen Wei’s zhanhun-shi status and is respectful all the time. Sometimes he uses 大人 / daren / your honour instead of Teacher Shen.

Daqing - ZYL calls his cat 胖子 / pangzi / fatso. Sometimes 死胖子 / sipangzi / fat fuck, sometimes 死貓 / simao / damned cat. (I suppose you could make that  something fouler) Everyone else just uses Daqing, and thinks of him as black cat, or big fat cat.

Zhu Hong - most everyone calls her 紅姐 / Hong-jie / big sister Hong, even Zhao Yunlan defaults to it. (It’s never mentioned how old Zhu Hong is, but it takes hundreds ~ thousand years to gain human forms in folk myth.) Zhu Hong in narrative usually.

Guo Changcheng - almost universally called 小郭 xiao-Guo. I don’t think anyone even remembers his first name anymore. (ZYL used his full name only when he was very, very angry.) Shen Wei called him Officer xiao-Guo from the beginning; it’s just xiao-Guo now.

Chu Shuzhi - most everyone calls him 老楚 / lao-Chu. Except for Guo Changcheng, who went right for 楚哥 / Chu-ge early on.

Lin Jing - ZYL calls him 'fake monk.’ Everyone else just calls him Lin Jing.

In narrative, unless it’s from a character pov, priest defaults to full names, but this is bc she writes in omnipresent narrator pov.

[addition: space between your first and last names, but not between your first names. Naturally, this only gets confusing when your last names are compound. Ancient gods don’t have the distinction of first/last names. So, Kunlun, Nuwa, Shennong, Pangu, Chiyou.]

Feel free to add to this, or reply to the post if I forgot anything. (I likely have)