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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:
- blue
- youthful / young
- pale yellow.
- green / verdant
- 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.
- The blue of blue white porcelain (青花瓷）
- clear sky blue - 青天.
- 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)
- 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:
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.
( Read more... )不死不滅不成神 (what does it mean?)
Oct. 11th, 2018 05:02 pmWarning: This is probably spoilery.
( Read more... )沈巍 / Shen Wei - What’s in a name?
Oct. 4th, 2018 03:09 pmSo I tagged in that other post #I could go on and on about Shen Wei’s name, and so why not.
This is the exchange between Kunlun and Shen Wei, the first time they meet. (chapter 77, so mildly spoilerish. The more spoilery part, I hid under a cut.)
“You can’t speak? Impossible.” Kunlun Jun drapes shapelessly onto the large boulder, lifting a brow. “Got a name? What are you called?”
“… Wei.”
“Which Wei?”
“…Mountain ghost.”
“Mountain ghost?” Kunlun Jun stretches out over the boulder, lifting a brow, “Appropriate, but a bit weak. Look at this world: mountains and oceans joining one to the next, towering peaks linking in an unending chain. Why not add a few more strokes, make a Wei.”
[TN. 嵬, what the ghost king introduced himself as, means “rocky terrain.” 嵬 is written with the radical ‘mountain’ on top of ‘ghost’. 巍 means ‘towering’ and keeps both of the radicals of 嵬]
Now let’s move on to 沈 / Shen, for a moment.
( Read more... )
