#Chinese parable

[interstellar-superdrive]

Did you know? The farmer and the horse story told in "The Sign" is a real Chinese parable. It promotes the Taoist views on good and bad luck.

Long ago, there was a widowed Chinese farmer. The farmer and his only son labored through the cold winds of winter and scorching rays of summer with their last remaining horse. One day, the son didn’t lock the gate of the stable properly, and the horse bolted away.  When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a sadness this is! Without your horse, you’ll be unable to maintain the farm. What a failure that your son did not lock the gate properly! This is a great tragedy!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

[thisnoah]

@braisedhoney *汉服-ifies your narrator*

I had no choice, I thought his jacket was like a 袍服 and then my ancestors suddenly held me at gunpoint as I drew

[yeenstation]

my headcanon is that Stanley from The Stanley Parable works in the Chinese room

[sethian123]

Two Mountains Crumbling in Daylight

(Manichaean poem inspired by the old Chinese parable: "The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains")

Eons ago, near two flowing rivers in old China

Lived an old, white clothed man ninety-nine years of age

Who glared at two mountains he knew from his long-dead childhood

Who glared at the giants he always had dreams of

The first was a mist covered mountain, where all beasts were blind

With whispers of meaningless legends and theories

The second was a fiery mountain singing in passion

With trees and bushes with golden leaves, but no fruit

Both these mountains trapped the souls of the damned under the dirt

Both buried the light in the damp cyclical tomb

The souls were angels who defended their land from the night

Horsemen who guarded against the Prince of Darkness

The inner soul of light within the old man awakened

The youthful hoopoe bird within chirped for freedom

He began his work, to dig into the mountains themselves

He started to craft a path for all to travel

A wiser old man came up and saw the sweat raining down

And chuckled at the absurdity raining down

“Oh friend, you cannot remove one grey hair from the giants

How in heaven’s name can you crumble these mountains”

The foolish grey-haired man, singing and young in his caged heart

Said these words, roaring with his liberated mind

“My children shall tear the mountains by their blood-covered hand

My grandchildren shall destroy them with their chisels

My offspring will fight as unsleeping armies in the night

My offspring will never surrender their grand fight

The birds of the blue sky will peck the mountains piece by piece

The worms of earth will eat the fortress bit by bit”

These words reached the wise man’s inner heart beating with wonder

These words reached the sun and moon’s delicate bright souls

So the ships of light carried the message to the blue sky

The Infinite Father of Greatness and Lightness

The blue sky ripped apart the revolving grey clouds of might

The expanse of azure blue split all into two

Daylight shone in the highest firmament of dark violet

Daylight shone in the lowest crannies of Sheol

These two mountains vanished as if they were nothing at all

These two watchtowers crumbled in the gentle flames

Leaving no fortresses between the two flowing rivers

Leaving only an untouched garden, eons old

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Reference: Alchemy

Some scholars say alchemy comes from the Greek cheo, meaning “I pour” or “I cast,” since much of alchemy has to do with the working of metals.

But many believe the word comes from the Egyptian Khem, meaning “the black land” (land with black earth), and see that as indicating Egypt as alchemy’s place of origin:

The Arabic article al was added to Khem to give alchemy.

Alchemy is an ancient art, at the heart of which lies the manufacture of a mysterious substance called the Philosopher’s Stone.

Later, as the science (some call it a pseudoscience) progressed, the article was again dropped, to become chemistry.

Alchemy certainly is the early history of chemistry.

The Philosopher's Stone - the highly desirable and legendary object that is said to transform base metals—such as lead—into gold.

However, the gold in this instance symbolizes not just the valuable metal, but enlightenment and eternal life, and Alchemists are concerned with their own spiritual and personal development as well as the pursuit of the seemingly unattainable goal.

The Chinese differentiate these different kinds of alchemy as nei-tan (the alchemy of spiritual transformation) and waitan (the straightforward “lead-into-gold” type).

The motto of the Alchemists is Solve et Coagula, meaning “Solution and Coagulation.”

The work of the early Alchemists was necessarily a secretive and clandestine matter, and its secrets are still held within a rich encrustation of symbols, pictures, oblique references, double meanings, and riddles.

Alchemical symbolism features animals, birds, colors, and parables as well as archetypal symbols such as the Cosmic Egg.

The key tenets of alchemy are encompassed in something called the Smaragdina Tablet, or the Emerald Tablet.

The tablet is said to have been found by Alexander the Great in the tomb of Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes the Thrice Great) who is the founder of all things alchemical.

The Alchemical Tradition exists/existed in Ancient Egypt, China, and India, but its most recent incarnation was in medieval Europe.

Those who dabbled in alchemy include the famous and the infamous, such as John Dee (astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I), Paracelsus, Albertus Magnus, Christian Rosenkreuz, Nicholas Flamel, and Isaac Newton.

Some of the chemical treatises are befuddling to even the most learned of scholars, but the very word “alchemy” is almost in itself a symbol, conjuring up images that are magical, mystical, and marvelous.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[neramontagueofficial]

Many, although most concern a desire the change the world around you rather than a great change of the self.

There are exceptions though, I remember once seeing a masked play that depicted the Fool who awoke one morning with a sudden great pain of the self: they had been tricked and awoke one morning with a new life, and one they had found quite foreign to them.

They lived the life they were given but felt themselves missing what they had left behind. Their hands shaped to their work, as the Fool is quick to learn. Their peers became their friends, as the Fool is easy to bond. But their new life was haunted by the specter of what had come before. They found themselves seeking out a way to go back, and so sought out aid.

First they found the Harlequin, that changer of faces, who told the Fool that they had been tricked: the night before the Fool had played thrones deep into the early hours with the Harlequin, wine flowing, and had joked that they did not get to venture out enough and wished to see something new. The Harlequin granted them their wish, and now offered them another new face.

The Fool felt despondent. They asked instead for their old face, and the Harlequin deliberated. This was not within the Harlequin's power, for the Harlequin delivers the new and the illusory. They said that they can offer the Fool a mask, but cannot unmask them. The Fool pondered this, and then offered the Harlequin thanks, for the Harlequin had meant to aid even as they doomed the Fool to this loss.

Then the Fool sought out the Magus.

The Magus saw into the Fool and knew what had happened at once. The Fool got on their knees and begged, for who else but the Magus could remove the Harlequin's tricks. And so the Magus told the Fool of what they saw beneath the mask: the full story of the Fool's former life, their family, and how that family is doing without them. Happy that the Magus could unmask them, the Fool asked the Magus to remove the mask, and the Magus declined. They can see beneath the mask, sure, but the Magus is a shaper of knowledge, not of the world.

As an apology, the Magus pointed their finger towards the Pathfinder. They could guide the Fool home, but beware, for the home they return to may not be the home they've left. The Fool took heed of this warning, but listened more strongly to the sharp pang of sorrow they had felt at the loss of their family. They thanked the Magus for their wisdom, and for the warning, and traveled forward to the Pathfinder.

Finally, the Pathfinder stood, lantern high, to greet the Fool. They knew what the Fool wished to find, and knew how to strip the Fool of that mask. But they warned that time had passed without them, and the Pathfinder only knew how to return in space and not in time.

The Fool asked to have the mask lifted anyway, and the Pathfinder obliged. The light of the lantern made the edges of the mask clear, and the Pathfinder removed the mask and set the Fool on their path.

The Fool returned home to found their children died from age and their grandchildren adult and foreign. They were home, but knew not what home they had returned to. The sorrow at the loss was gone, but replaced with a new one at the time they had missed, for they were a stranger anew in their old home.

At last the Fool sought out the Builder, whose hands had aided in shaping the streets that the Fool no longer knew. They told them of their journey, and the dilemma they found themselves in. They went off to find adventure, wished for home, and found home a new land they are a stranger in. They asked the Builder how they withstand the change, and the Builder looked upon the Fool and offered them a chisel and a hammer.

The Fool was at first concerned and then joined the Builder in their work. In time the Fool saw the work of their hands in the buildings around them, and felt home become familiar again, if only for the world they had carved from it.

I admit that I don't know if this story would help you, for I feel it is about a different problem from the one you face, but I offer it on the chance that it helps.

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH.

I FUCK WOMEN.

[eyezthecampcounselor]

👁️INTRO POST👁️

Meet the artist!

Last updated: dec 24 '24

ASKS ARE OFF UNTIL DEC 28TH

Hi! I'm Eyez or Ken or Margo! My pronouns are he/him🏳️‍⚧️!!

I am a minor so please take that to mind when you talk to me, like, please don't be weird if your 18+

(purple: what I like most)

I like Pepsi and mt. Dew 🥤

Insta: eyecantibal

discord: eyecantibal

Art archive side blog: eyezreblogz

pfp by @/whattheheckins

DNI: Homophobes, Transphobes, p3dos, pr0shippers, racists, bigots, fascists, people who make AI "art", and other idiots

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT REPOST MY ART WITHOUT CREDIT.

I believe in peace and freedom for every country (ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE IN NEED RIGHT NOW!🍉)

✏️What I post!: Art, music rants, random thoughts, and reblogs

Link to my ocs master post: https://eyezdrawz.tumblr.com/post/763241944591761408/oc-master-post

❤️Main interest!:

Camp here and there (my fav podcast and this is what I mainly draw/write about) (finished podcast)

Malevolent (two episodes i need to listen to)

TMA (finished podcast) (not caught up with tmagp)

Old gods of Appalachia (need to relisten to)

Interview with the vampire (TV show and movie, currently ready the books)

Hannibal NBC

Midnight Mass

Joker (2019)

The Stanley parable

FNAF

BG3

Dead plate

8:11

Tokyo ghoul

vampires

Cowboys

Vulture Culture/Bones

Heavy Gore/blood/body horror/Eldritch horror

Ocs (Santiago, Mikeal, Andias, and Bernadette)

And more!

🎵Music I listen to!

Will wood/will wood and the tapeworms (fav artist)

The Dear Hunter

Shayfer james

Amigo the devil

System of a down

The Hush sound

Hozier

Penelope Scott

Bear ghost

Tally Hall (and other tally hall related bands/members/projects)

Chonny Jash

And more!

All of my special interests/fixations: vampires, gore, gothic lit, bones, vulture culture, my favorite animals (deer, vampire deer (Siberian musk deer/Chinese water deer, wolves, hyenas, shrikes, maned wolves) human anatomy+medical terms and examination

Characters I relate too:

Armand from iwtv (I kin him so much it's not normal)

will graham from Hannibal

the butcher from malevolent

John doe from malevolent

Arther Fleck from joker 2019

random blinkies I like✌️: (i did not make these blinkies, all credits go to the people who made these) (chnt hourglass blinkie made by @/delicatecentipede)

Are you a writer? A poet? An artist? A singer? A creative person? Consider joining the poets discord! (14+)

https://discord.com/invite/nvq4nRkkXx

[animefeminist]

Becoming Monstrous: Yurikuma Arashi and transmisogyny in the school system

Content Warning: Discussion of queer/transphobia (including slurs), online and workplace harassment, grooming, systemic violence

Spoilers for Yurikuma Arashi, referenced spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica

“This is the nature of systems: the moment you reject them, you are forced to realize that they’re the very ground you’re standing on.” -Ikuhara Kunihiko

Two bears are presented with a choice: will you be invisible, or will you eat humans? They look like teddy bears, and they are on trial. wo girl bears–two lesbian girls–Ginko and Lily, standing before three male judges deciding whether or not they should have the right to exist. In order to have their love approved, they declare: they will eat humans. They transform, taking on human form as they don hypersexualized bear girl outfits, and they enter the world of the school.

Yurikuma Arashi places this strange set-piece towards the middle of its first three episodes. It exemplifies the show’s style, told as it is in enigmatic parables. Ostensibly, Yurikuma is about a human girl named Kureha seeking answers about the deaths of her mother and girlfriend while getting into a love triangle involving the two bears who have infiltrated her school disguised as humans.

However, everything in Yurikuma Arashi is more symbol than literal representation, and I have often mulled over its meaning as I’ve navigated entering the teaching profession as a nonbinary Chinese person. Like the bears, I’ve often asked myself: what do I sacrifice to be allowed to exist within the school?

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[don-dake]

unexpected 成語 (idiom) lesson on

Bluey ～ The Sign (S03?E49?) 🙀😻

The story that Calypso was reading to Bluey's class? That is the story behind the Chinese idiom,

塞翁失馬 [焉/安知非福]

usually, only the first part (塞翁失馬) is uttered in practical use

🇭🇰🇲🇴 coi³ jung¹ sat¹ maa⁵ [jin¹/on¹ zi¹ fei¹ fuk¹]

🀄 ㄙㄞˋ ㄨㄥ ㄕ ㄇㄚˇ [ㄧㄢ/ㄢ ㄓ ㄈㄟ ㄈㄨˊ]

🀄 sài wēng shī mǎ [yān/ān zhī fēi fú]

Literal meaning: The old man of the frontier lost his horse (how could he know if this is not fortuitous?)

Meaning: Similar to the sayings, “a blessing in disguise”, “every cloud has a silver lining”.

And there's actually a Wiki entry for this! Quote from Wiki:

“One of the most famous parables from the Huainanzi (淮南子; 'Master of Huainan'), chapter 18 (人間訓; Rénjiānxùn; 'In the World of Man') dating to the 2nd century B.C. The story exemplifies the view of Taoism regarding "fortune" ("good luck") and "misfortune" ("bad luck").

The story is well-known throughout the East Asian cultural sphere and is often invoked to express the idea of "silver lining" or "blessing in disguise" in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese.”

The Chinese language nerd in me was getting increasingly stoked as Calypso read out more and more of the story…I was like, wait a minute…this sounds bloody familiar…and then I had my Aha! 🙀 moment…😸

[modrinth]

⭐ Featured projects of the week, Vol. 14

💐 Mix and match with decorative flowers! 🐉 Build with stunning new blocks inspired by Chinese architecture 🖥️ Get trapped in a meticulous recreation of The Stanley Parable 🤖 Pilot gargantuan high-tech mechs

All in this week's collection: https://modrinth.com/collection/of5ZXlE7

[akumuusu]

Disclaimer: Most of what I know is through google research, symbolism will be Chinese due to the media’s origin unless specified otherwise.

Link click Bridon Arc/Yingdu Chapter spoilers

Opening:

Solely visual aspects:

The camera at the start of the OP is the same one Lu Guang has in his hands when he first met Cheng Xiaoshi.

Butterfly motif number 1

~ white butterfly right before Cheng Xiaoshi drags Lu Guang.

~ white butterfly symbolizes purity, healing and innocence in English. Seeing as Lu Guang gets dragged outside of his body as a younger version of himself, this is likely referring to the first timeline.

~ Butterflies overall symbolize love and romance in Chinese folk tale, which adds a lot to the common butterfly motifs.

Liu Xiao was holding open the very end of the collection of ‘Sonnets’ by William Shakespeare

~ the final Sonnet, Sonnet 154 is about unbreaking love

~ Sonnet 154 is a retelling of ‘Cupid and the torch parable’, the moral of said story being, quote, “without trust, there can be no love”

~ Sonnet 154 is often considered to be a pair with Sonnet 153.

A feather falls into (what we can assume to be) Cheng Xiaoshi’s blood

~ feathers have many spiritual meanings, but the most accurate to assume one for this context would likely be the association to otherworldliness or heavenly messages.

Everything in Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi’s room burst into photographs, most of which being of jobs they’ve taken, while Lu Guang stands in the middle of the room, shielding his eyes with his arm.

Directly after the previous excerpt, there’s a montage of Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling just having fun, not much to add to this one other than it pulled on my heart strings a little bit.

We see Lu Guang standing still in a bunch of colored different settings, back to the screen. It goes to the basketball court where he and Cheng Xiaoshi met, of which was greyscale, he wipes his eyes with his arm, visibly sobbing before an arm (presumably Cheng Xiaoshi’s) grabs his wrist and drags him away, the entire scene gaining color.

What we can assume to be Lu Guang’s notebook’s pages flips backwards, all of the pages are the exact same words, until it finally reaches a different page. Atop said page is a bookmark of sorts with the word ‘Rewind’ written on it in large, clean letters, different handwriting from the journal, they look printed.

Throughout all of this, any and all appearances of Lu Guang are colored and rendered differently from the rest of the artstyle. His coloring is finicky as well.

Solely auditory aspects

“I wish I could tell you the truth”

~ There is something keeping Lu Guang from being capable of telling Cheng Xiaoshi about the time loop. (And it better not be Vein or so help me GOD)

“I stopped painting excuses red”

~ this line implies that Lu Guang, to some degree, blames himself. I believe it means that at some point he stopped blaming Cheng Xiaoshi’s deaths on the universe or things out of his control and began to blame them on himself. ‘Painting excuses’ meaning blaming it on something else, while ‘red’ refers to the danger of the world.

“Rewinding right in front of the eye”

~ someone knows of Lu Guang’s rewinds.

~ We can assume it to be one of the new evil trio, as Li Tianchen never showed any form of awareness to this fact.

“I followed every end of the signs”

~ Lu Guang has tried everything he can think of to change Cheng Xiaoshi’s fate, all of which leading to ‘dead ends’ (Cheng Xiaoshi’s death)

“But I couldn’t make it to you”

~ We can take this line either metaphorical or literal

~ On the metaphorical hand, it would simply mean that he failed, but in the literal sense it could mean that Cheng Xiaoshi was too far away to save, which also brings the question of whether thats metaphorical or literal.

“Trapped in endings I don’t want you to know”

~ I believe this is the answer to the first line, that as much as Lu Guang wants Cheng Xiaoshi to know the truth, he can’t tell him about his own deaths leading to his inability to be honest.

If you have anything to add, please say so! I would love to hear others interpretations

[nateconnolly]

🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨for Better Call Saul ⚖️ 🏛️💼

Confucius was so pained by the death of his disciple Yan Hui that he exclaimed, "Oh! Heaven has bereft me! Heaven has bereft me!" (Analects 11:9). It was 481 BC (Malaysian Han Studies), the same year that the ancient Chinese narrative history Zuo Zhuan tells us that hunters in "the west, the great wilds" (Durrant et al., 243) captured a lin -- a mythological creature sometimes called the "Chinese unicorn" (Taylor). The appearance of a lin was considered "miraculous and prophetic," (Durrant et al., 243), but the no one was able to identify the lin until it was brought before Confucius.

I have been unable to consult the complete text of the Zuo Zhuan, but Durrant et al.'s abridged version does not clarify whether the encounter with a unicorn came before or after Yan Hui's death.

Is this story about magic interrupting grief? When Confucius says, "It is a lin" (Durrant et al., 243) and nothing more, does his brevity suggest that he has other burdens on his mind? While the tale undeniably exemplifies his "broad learning," (Durrant et al. 242), it might also serve as an instructive parable about grief. While there are those who caution against studying the biographies of philosophers at the expense of actual philosophy, in the case of Confucius, "the biographical... is philosophical" because his life "display[s] [his] ideas incarnate" (Olberding 283). His grief for Yan Hui is particularly important because its magnitude is so "uncharacteristic" (Olberding, 296). In Confucian philosophy, grief is not merely something we experience or endure -- it is "a measure of our having lived well and richly" (Olberding 283). Perhaps the story of the lin -- a unicorn that elicits no awe -- dramatizes the power of Confucius' all-consuming grief, and, therefore, the richness of his life.

Or is it an ironic tale about an omen gone wrong? What if hunters found the unicorn before Yan Hui died? After all, the lin was an "auspicious omen" and "herald [of] future greatness" (Taylor). Perhaps Confucius was not excited because he did not care about mythology: although he "didn’t reject the supernatural... he chose to focus and emphasis the development of the natural world and humans’ role in" it (Havens 35). If the omen did not actually signify the future, that certainly suggest time is better spent focusing on human life, on human love -- which would make the death of a student all the more painful.

Lalo kills Howard in Saul's apartment ("Plan and Execution," 48:40).

Bibliography

Confucius. Analects : With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by Edward G Slingerland. Indianapolis ; Cambridge: Hackett, 2003.

Durrant, Stephen W., Wai-yee Li, and David Schaberg. The Zuo Tradition/Zuozhuan Reader : Selections from China’s Earliest Narrative History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020.

Havens, Timothy. “Confucianism as Humanism.” CLA Journal 1 (2013): 33–41. https://uca.edu/cahss/files/2020/07/Confucianism-as-Humanism.pdf.

Malaysian Han Studies. “Yan Hui – MAHANS,” n.d. https://mahans.edu.my/yanhui-eng/.

Olberding, Amy. “The Consummation of Sorrow: An Analysis of Confucius’ Grief for Yan Hui.” Philosophy East and West 54, no. 3 (2004): 279–301. https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2004.0020.

Schnuaz, Thomas. “Better Call Saul.” AMC, May 23, 2022.

Taylor, Joanne. “Qilin (Chinese Unicorn).” World History Encyclopedia, May 22, 2024. https://www.worldhistory.org/Qilin/.

[morsmortish]

this probably doesn't work with the chinese black family headcanon (and with the magical world in general), but i can't stop thinking about walburga as the daughter of two religious fanatics, speding her afternoons reading the bible in her room as a child and, on halloween, praying to god to save the souls of all the children who stopped at her house asking for sweets...

honestly all my hcs exist in various aus from canon…is canon reg chinese? nope! but i will write extensively about how him being chinese fits into the same series of events as canon, and how he is influenced by this culture and what it means for the story? yep! but it is still an alternate universe where the house of black are not white (because let’s be real. in canon, they are. sadly.)

and this. the house of black alternatively existing as part of an extremist christian faction…that’s the SHIT! thinking something more akin to a cult, like scientology or likewise. not much space for original ideas or individualism or even existing much outside of one’s faith, until who one becomes is intrinsically linked to the values of the church…okay! i see you!

walburga is taught wrong and right more in the sense of sinful or not sinful. she recites psalms and proverbs and parables, but beneath that, she lacks a true sense of identity. perhaps it scares her when she sees her own children start to experiment with self-expression and/or existing outside of the religious values she raises them on. this freedom of deciding one’s identity is something she never had, and watching her children reject what she believes to be the ‘safety net’ of religion is so terrifying to her. for walburga, as long as her faith is strong, she is protected. she’s never know any other way. and all she wants as a mother is to protect her children, but watching them start to form their own paths, away from her, away from religion, away from purity and safety…

[sanmonmusoutan]

they're not quite fleshed out, but i thought i'd share my headcanons for the past lives, and former human names, of gummi, chocolate and pine before they became jiangshi...!

to me, narrow created the jiangshi when it was younger as just something to draw. then, later, when narrow grew up, it created names and backstories for them. some of those backstories are partly based off of figures in history, particularly an emperor from the chinese sui dynasty, and a chinese philosopher. for the time being, these are surface-level inspirations, but i intend to do further research later on 🙏

themes of death, grief, and suicide follow, so please exercise caution when reading...!

gummy: her human name was kugumiya megumi. (久々宮 恵, surname → first name.)

kugumiya is a surname that consists of the kanji 久, meaning a long time, 々, a kanji indicating repetition of the last, and 宮, meaning shrine or palace. 恵 means blessing. these meanings did influence my thoughts for her backstory...! not only that, gumi appearing in both names is intentional, since i figured narrow would try to implement name puns in each name.

she was a musician (as pictured in the image,) and she was affiliated with a shrine. perhaps she played for religious ceremonies, or simply as a hobby alongside her shrine duties.

gummi was a cheerful girl, someone a little too fond of sweets and other delights. to others, she was an embodiment of fun and joy. though, in truth, she held lots of grief close to her heart. grief for all the people in her community that passed away, but most specifically, the mentor figure in her life. the person that taught gummi music.

she played music for fun and joy, but also as a tribute, as something to channel her prayers and feelings into. the concepts of grief and tribute are major themes for her.

gummi's cause of death was being lost at sea. perhaps after playing something to the ocean, to let the lost hear her. or, simply playing, frolicking.

chocolate: their human name was chou kanra (長 神羅, surname → first name.) 

長 means long, which has no specific relation to chocolate, but it is a homophone to 蝶, meaning butterfly, which is related to their character. 神 means god or deity, and 羅 means silk or gauze. it is not as clear of a name pun as gummi's human name, but still somewhat similar sounding... it is meant to be vaguely either chinese or japanese, as narrow hesitated to give them a clearly chinese name at the time.

chocolate was an author, philosopher, and perhaps a poet too. the main inspiration for their character is zhuang zhou's butterfly dream parable, something that is mentioned within the song itself, as the second to last lyric. it details zhuang zhou dreaming of being a happy and carefree butterfly, but awakening from the dream, finding himself contemplating if he is a man dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being a man.

in this timeline, chocolate was the one who wrote this parable, much later than it was first written. their sole focus in life was writing, honing philosophies, contemplating the intricacies of anything and everything around them. in particular, they were dedicated, if not madly obsessed, with their butterfly parable. chocolate constantly wrote about it, debated it, and even wished to test and prove it.

mental illnesses, their obsession in philosophy and literature, and their wish to prove their parable and metamorphose, eventually got to them. chocolate died by suicide, falling from a height, the flight of a butterfly that they wished for.

pine: his human name was bai nanbao (拜 南宝, surname → first name.)

拜 is a rare surname in chinese, meaning to bow to or to worship. the hanzi for it is also used to transcribe bye-bye in chinese. (拜拜 👋) a grim nod to pine's nature as a jiangshi... also, the variant of this hanzi that is used in japanese is 拝, which appears in the lyrics of for dear life as 拝まれて. 南 means southern, and 宝 means treasure. the romanisation system commonly used for chinese is pinyin, where 拜 would be bai and 宝 would be bao. this is what i use. however, in wade-giles, they would be pai and pao. when pronouncing the name with the W-G romanisation, it sounds much more like pineapple... 🍍

he was mostly known as a brash and arrogant crown prince in late imperial china, but was also an artist. pine's character is directly inspired by emperor yang of sui, an emperor regarded as one of chinese history's worst tyrants. in his youth, the emperor had his older brother deposed through lies and deceit, then ran more schemes to secure his place as crown prince.

an excerpt from the wikipedia article on him is as follows:

Emperor Yang was also a patron of the arts, having expanded the number of foreign orchestras (from across Asia) at the Sui court from seven to nine. He was, in fact, quite a gifted artist himself, but one prone to horrible fits of jealousy and stubbornness, who seldom listened to the advice of more talented individuals. He was a talented poet but killed two poets after he found their stanzas to be superior to his own.

pine was quite similar. he was conceited yet still horribly insecure in his craft, brutal in his pursuit of being the best artist. pine behaved as he pleased, all while trying to earn the favors of his parents and secure himself a role as the heir.

he abused and fooled around with his newfound power, which likely caused him to get into deep trouble. his cause of death was capital punishment, being beheaded. i headcanon that as a jiangshi, his head falls off sometimes because of that... 😭

here are more thoughts, and below them, picrews that are how i imagine the three looked like as humans...! these are not historically accurate, especially pine's. his is meant to look much more like a c-drama prince 😭

[wizardsvslesbians]

A largely genderswapped retelling of the classic Chinese novel Water Margin (called Suikoden in Japanese, I mention for no reason in particular.)

Water Margin is about 108 dudes rocking - being violent, amoral and unstoppable all over the countryside, eating people, etc - and this book is about how girls can also rock, but it also tries to be an uplifting and empowering story about queer women, and an action movie, and a parable about fighting the deep state by assassinating rural judges. It's a mess, but so is the source material.