琅琊榜 Nirvana in Fire
Nov. 1st, 2015 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
issenlloReading the 《琅琊榜》 novel on kindle, which is great, by the way - also for the fact that on my kindle, I can look up any word I don't know. Because my command of Chinese, especially for classical phrases, is charitably described as juvenile. Chinese is hard. :-p
The novel starts of by being more preambly - I get the impression that the author initially started out to write a slightly different type of novel - than one might expect of a net-novel that was being updated regularly (there are bits of author-ish comments and exhortions for readers to upvote the novel, presumably that being the mechanism in which she is paid).
Anyway, the novel starts out describing how Lang Ya Hall is a well-known place where information about anything under the sun can be bought, and also that it releases Top Ten lists for: Best martial practitioners, beautiful women, gentlemen, etc. It segues into a particular lady Piao who is beautiful enough to be on the Top Ten List for more than 10 years. She has, of course, countless admirers, of which one is Xiao Jingrui, whose own unusual backstory as a child of two families is described:
Many years ago, there was an epidemic in the capital, and the Eldest Princess of the Liang kingdom, who was married to Duke Xie, took refuge in a temple on Mt Rui. She was pregnant at that time, and happened to meet the wife of the well-known pugilist Zuo Dingfeng, who was also pregnant and staying at the temple. The two ladies became friends and one night, during a heavy thunderstorm, both went into labour unexpectedly. Lightning caused a small fire to break out and in the chaos, both infants became mixed up. The situation became worse when morning arrived and one of the babies died. Each mother insisted that the surviving child was hers, and eventually, they asked the king to decide. Unable to decide, the king declared that the child be given his own surname，Xiao, and in the manner of his own sons, be named Jingrui ("rui" for the Mt Rui), and that the child would henceforth live with either family in alternate years.
So, Xiao Jingrui grew up with twice the amount of pampering and also twice the amount of expectations, but luckily, he had a kind, generous spirit and strove to make both sets of parents happy.
(Jingrui sounds a bit Gary Stu to me, really, by the author's description of how noble he is, how talented, how noble, how kind-hearted, how generous, etc, etc. He is even on the Lang Ya Hall's Top Ten list (for Gentlemen), at the No. 2 spot, just below Mei Changsu(!). The effect of all this consequence is to make me think there's something seriously wrong with the Top Ten list*, because Mei Changsu**, when he appears, is so badass that Jingrui is like a babe.)
Bonus: Yan Yujin, son of the Duke Yan, who is described at first as a happy-go-lucky young nobleman only interested in wine and song, but as Mei Changsu discovers, Yujin is actually quite intelligent and astute and politically shrewd while being a good bro to bestie Jingrui. Go Yujin!
*Then again, the author scores for commenting that the Gentlemen's List is largely made up of noblemen, and Mei Changsu - as a non-nobleman, as far as anyone knows - would not have made the list were he not the leader of the powerful Jiangzuo Alliance, the biggest pugilist sect in China. Basically, being a plebe, he has to be 100x better than people with blue blood and powerful parents. He has to be a total mover and shaker before he gets to the top of the list. Points for showing the inherent unfairness of the system.
**You would think that Mei Changsu is the Gary Stu, being so powerful and intelligent, whilst acting so courteously, and I think there are definitely moments where the author sort of dumbs down the other characters to make him look smart. But it's also obvious that he's using his influence for his own agenda, and his manipulative side does come out, which is not pleasant. Whereas Jingrui is always, always, ALWAYS kind and understanding; I'm cynical enough to regard it as unreal.
The novel starts of by being more preambly - I get the impression that the author initially started out to write a slightly different type of novel - than one might expect of a net-novel that was being updated regularly (there are bits of author-ish comments and exhortions for readers to upvote the novel, presumably that being the mechanism in which she is paid).
Anyway, the novel starts out describing how Lang Ya Hall is a well-known place where information about anything under the sun can be bought, and also that it releases Top Ten lists for: Best martial practitioners, beautiful women, gentlemen, etc. It segues into a particular lady Piao who is beautiful enough to be on the Top Ten List for more than 10 years. She has, of course, countless admirers, of which one is Xiao Jingrui, whose own unusual backstory as a child of two families is described:
Many years ago, there was an epidemic in the capital, and the Eldest Princess of the Liang kingdom, who was married to Duke Xie, took refuge in a temple on Mt Rui. She was pregnant at that time, and happened to meet the wife of the well-known pugilist Zuo Dingfeng, who was also pregnant and staying at the temple. The two ladies became friends and one night, during a heavy thunderstorm, both went into labour unexpectedly. Lightning caused a small fire to break out and in the chaos, both infants became mixed up. The situation became worse when morning arrived and one of the babies died. Each mother insisted that the surviving child was hers, and eventually, they asked the king to decide. Unable to decide, the king declared that the child be given his own surname，Xiao, and in the manner of his own sons, be named Jingrui ("rui" for the Mt Rui), and that the child would henceforth live with either family in alternate years.
So, Xiao Jingrui grew up with twice the amount of pampering and also twice the amount of expectations, but luckily, he had a kind, generous spirit and strove to make both sets of parents happy.
(Jingrui sounds a bit Gary Stu to me, really, by the author's description of how noble he is, how talented, how noble, how kind-hearted, how generous, etc, etc. He is even on the Lang Ya Hall's Top Ten list (for Gentlemen), at the No. 2 spot, just below Mei Changsu(!). The effect of all this consequence is to make me think there's something seriously wrong with the Top Ten list*, because Mei Changsu**, when he appears, is so badass that Jingrui is like a babe.)
Bonus: Yan Yujin, son of the Duke Yan, who is described at first as a happy-go-lucky young nobleman only interested in wine and song, but as Mei Changsu discovers, Yujin is actually quite intelligent and astute and politically shrewd while being a good bro to bestie Jingrui. Go Yujin!
*Then again, the author scores for commenting that the Gentlemen's List is largely made up of noblemen, and Mei Changsu - as a non-nobleman, as far as anyone knows - would not have made the list were he not the leader of the powerful Jiangzuo Alliance, the biggest pugilist sect in China. Basically, being a plebe, he has to be 100x better than people with blue blood and powerful parents. He has to be a total mover and shaker before he gets to the top of the list. Points for showing the inherent unfairness of the system.
**You would think that Mei Changsu is the Gary Stu, being so powerful and intelligent, whilst acting so courteously, and I think there are definitely moments where the author sort of dumbs down the other characters to make him look smart. But it's also obvious that he's using his influence for his own agenda, and his manipulative side does come out, which is not pleasant. Whereas Jingrui is always, always, ALWAYS kind and understanding; I'm cynical enough to regard it as unreal.