#Emperor Mingde

[feng-huli]

Fan Jinwei will be reprising his Dashing Youth role as Emperor Mingde in the Dark River show, this time sporting a goatee.

[xiao-brothers]

Emperor Mingde: I want the 6th prince to always have peace. His title will be Lord Forever Peace.

Officials: What about the rest of your sons.

Emperor Mingde: Eh, just give them different colours.

[xiao-brothers]

The fact that it was such common knowledge that they don’t even think twice about saying it in front of the other princes lol.

"I don't know if being a favorite son is a blessing or a cursed..." - Probably Xiao Se 😆

I actually feel bad for Xiao Chong in this scene. Emperor really show strong favoritism over Xiao Chuhe(Xiao Se) and even officials are aware of it.

[rose-tinted-vision]

would you watch the blood of youth or dashing youth first?

Hello anon!

So Dashing Youth (少年白马醉春风) is meant to be a prequel to The Blood of Youth (少年歌行), which tells the story of their predecessors and sheds more light on what happened before/during the current Emperor Mingde's rule (and The Blood of Youth does make multiple references as to What Happened Before).

I'd say you can watch either first, it's just a personal preference- whether you want to watch it in chronological order (Dashing youth first) or not (Blood of Youth first).

Though I do half wish that I didn't remember what went on in The Blood of youth, because I'm now watching Dashing Youth with the Knowledge of What Happens in the future...(it's just a personal preference, dw!!)

If anyone would like to add their opinions on this question, feel free to reblog!!

[mycatwantstoeatpins]

Blood of Youth recap - episode 14

Xiao Se asks Lei Wujie what he considers a hometown. Lei Wujie says it's a place you’re destined to return to and Xiao Se says Tianqi City is his hometown.

Xiao Se asks Sikong Changfeng if he thinks he should return to Tianqi City; he says yes, but that he won’t try to persuade him. He asks what Xiao Se thinks of Qianluo.

Xiao Se speaks to Wuxin in a dream, saying he’s troubled but doesn’t have any doubts.

Sikong Changfeng tells Lord Bai he supported Lord Langya two decades ago, not Lord Bai’s father, and he will support Xiao Se.

Xiao Se rejects the decree since no one else will fight for his uncle Langya and dares Lord Bai to kill him. Qianluo defends him against Zang Ming but Xiao Se is stabbed.

Lord Bai tells Zang Ming he already knew Xiao Se would reject the decree.

Lord Bai leaves Xueyue City and Shao Han sends him a message saying to proceed with the plan and go to Wushuang City.

Wuxin has a visitor (the man from the dungeon?) - Xiao Yu (Lord Chi), the seventh son of Emperor Mingde - who comes with Minghou and Yueji. Xiao Yu’s mother was Yi Wenjun (Consort Xuan) so he’s Ye Anshi’s half-brother. Luo Qingyang, the Lone Sword Deity and City Lord of Muliang City, was also in love with Yi Wenjun.

Wuxin says there’s no kinship between them but the idea of ruling the world by making Xiao Yu emperor is interesting. Xiao Yu asks Wuxin to stop or kill Xiao Chuhe. Wuxin says Xiao Se must not die.

Sikong Changfeng tells Tang Lian to escort Ye Ruoyi to the Tang clan for treatment. Xiao Se says he’ll go with Lei Wujie to a tournament at Lei Fortress.

Lord Bai meets Wushuang.

Qianluo meets Xiao Se on the roof, where he’s drinking. He tells her about Tianqi City.

Sikong Changfeng warns Xiao Se he’ll be in danger when he leaves Xueyue for the tournament.

Sikong Changfeng tells Li Hanyi Xie Xuan will also be at the tournament.

In Wushuang City, Wushuang tells Song Yanhui and Lei Yuzhen that Lord Bai learned his breathing technique from Jinyu and sword from Yan Zhantian.

Lei Wujie tells Xiao Se they’re going to Wangcheng Mountain to try to reunite his sister and Zhao Yuzhen.

Zhao Yuzhen tells Li Fansong Xiao Se tried to charge him 800,000 taels for the destruction of Dengtian Tower and asks if Li Fansong saw Li Hanyi in Xueyue.

[sansajonquil]

shancai had started a new job at jumadeung reaper management, she working as a maid part-time as well as attending mingde university. she wore a white dress that was frilled on her neck and grey colouring. as she walks, she sees a man pass by in the corridor. she smiles nervously at seeing him and bows, having only met the jade emperor in interview, and he looked quite intimidating.

he pauses at seeing her, in momentary reverie of the rm team, she being unfamiliar to him. he was quite tired yet happy he escorted a soldier to peace with the other reapers. seeing her was a crackle in the fire of his reverie. he asks, ‘ are you the new girl? ‘ cold eyes looking at her in appraisal. she nods, ‘ mm, yes. I am a maid here, so I mainly cook and clean. ‘ she hands over her resume to him, which he looks over.

he sees her name is dong shancai, centred on top in times new roman. she was currently studying nutrition at mingde university, which he paused at, having heard of this famous university ; having been there during his reaper duties. it was known for having a variety of courses, as well as a group called f4.

her resume was pretty long - briefing on her skills, her cover letter explaining how caring for the deceased would and could make her life’s wisdom meaningful. he generally would skim over long resumes, yet it was quite interesting, this one. he tells her, ‘ let’s have a meal together to discuss, ms shancai. ‘

[feng-huli]

When it comes to surviving multiple emperors, there are a few important traits to have:

1. Lack of loyalty

Loyalty leads to willingness to keep an emperor alive and even dying for him. Dying, of course, goes against the goal of survival. The Emperor being alive for a long time goes against the goal of there being multiple emperors.

2. Cunning

Being cunning is essential to the eunuch’s survival. He needs to know what words to say and when not to say them. He needs to know how to make himself valuable. He needs to know when things aren’t going his way and who to turn to when that happens.

3. Ambition

The eunuch needs to want things. To hide away wealth, to make connections, to be respected. He needs to have the determination to plot, to do whatever footwork necessary to get what he wants. This may make survival more difficult, but it’s priceless in stirring things up for the multiple emperors objective.

So, applying this to some of my favorite eunuchs…

Gao Zhan: smart, but too loyal and not ambitious. He’ll serve his emperors as long as he lives, and he’ll do it well. Too well for there to be much turnover on the throne.

Jin Xuan: cunning and ambitious, but, complicated as his loyalties are, there is only one emperor that Emperor Mingde will allow him to serve—and it’s him.

Zhuo Qing: ambitious and cunning, but only plots against Emperor Tai’an in small ways while taking large risks for him—like facing off against the Immortal Li Changsheng. After Emperor Tai’an’s death, Zhuo Qing is only thirty-six years old and has nothing holding him back but the mausoleum he’s forced to guard. He definitely has potential, but things…didn’t work out.

Finally, we have Jin Yan. He’s cunning, he’s ruthless, he’s greedy. He lies and he charms. He has a martial brother who doesn’t even share the same shifu but is still willing to die for him. He does a rebellion’s worth of footwork just to get what he wants. Failure though it was, it worsened the emperor’s mental and physical condition, but instead of Emperor Mingde punishing him, he lets him live happily ever after with his loyal shixiong. Even when Jin Yan loses, he wins.

They foil plots against them for breakfast, receive a bit of light bribery for lunch, and finish off the day with widescale manipulation.

These characters may nominally be servants, but they hold all the power in the Palace and are going to live long, long lives.

Write-ins, propaganda, and images are welcome!

[stiltonbasket]

Heeyy, so for the first ever prompt I request from you, I will like to ask anything related to Nie Huaisang in the Soulmate AU (preferably not sad stuff, but you can make me cry and I will say thank you, so I will be happy with whatever you decide to write ♡)

take some sad and happy nhs!

_

A year after his brother’s death, Nie Huaisang has more or less recovered from the grief of being without him.

He will never be his old self again, certainly; losing his da-ge saw to that, and if it hadn’t, then realizing that Jin Guangyao had murdered him would probably have finished the job. But Nie Huaisang can govern his sect, and hold himself together in public (except when he cries on purposes at conferences, so he doesn’t qi deviate at the sight of all the golden robes in Jin-zongzhu’s court) which is why no one suspects that he knows the truth about his da-ge’s passing, even Lan Xichen.

Not that Nie Huaisang would tell him, even if Xichen did suspect. Not this soon after Da-ge, anyway.

“I know you don’t like Jin Guangyao,” he murmurs, resting his cheek against  Lan Jingyi’s fluffy little head. “You and me, we know the truth, don’t we?”

Somewhere in the distance, Lan Yuan trips over a rabbit and bursts into laughter as he tumbles into the soft grass--and barely a second later, baby A-Yi lets out a burbling chuckle of his own.

Huaisang isn’t vain enough to believe that his nephew was laughing at him, so he looks around and tickle’s the child’s cheek with his pointer finger to see if that might make him laugh again. A-Yi smiles, showing off two tiny teeth and a small pink tongue, but he doesn’t laugh; at least not until another loud giggle echoes from the spot where A-Yuan is assembling a rabbit council and crowning himself their emperor, making Jingyi squeal with delight and kick his chubby feet against Nie Huaisang’s chest.

“Oh,” Huaisang breathes, trying not to cry. A-Yuan does not notice, since his rabbit councilmen are staging a rebellion and trying to scatter towards their burrows, so Nie Huaisang covers Jingyi’s ears and turns his back to Lan Yuan--and every time A-Yuan laughs, Lan Jingyi laughs a tiny baby laugh of his own.

Zhiyin, Nie Huaisang realizes, as his little nephew starts whining in distress after too long spent out of A-Yuan’s field of view. Oh, A-Yi.

Lan Xichen is delighted with the news, and for the next several weeks, he and Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang nearly weep with happiness every time the two cousins reflect each others’ laughter in concert, like a beam of light bouncing endlessly between two identical mirrors.

“They even look like each other,” Lan Qiren hums one day, seemingly unaware that Nie Huaisang is sitting close by and helping Lan Yuan comb his hair. “A-Yi, stand by your tang-ge, hm? Don’t let anyone separate you, ever.”

Unbidden, Nie Huaisang’s thoughts return to Jin Guangyao and then to his brother, who was forced to cast away his mingding zhiren and an unborn, unknown child of his blood in an attempt to protect them both--and then to Huaisang’s brother-in-law in all but name, who knelt before the gates to Nie Mingjue’s private quarters and begged his sworn zhiji to let him in after the fateful qi deviation that resulted in A-Yi’s birth.

They had both wept, slumped on either side of the gates while Nie Mingjue forced himself to remain away from his beloved and Lan Xichen cried out A-Jue, my zhiyin, come back to me, and then da-ge died without ever learning that he would have become father to a beautiful son only six months later.

Don’t worry, Lan-xiansheng, Huaisang thinks grimly. There will be no more separation, no matter what else that man’s father asks of him, and I’m going to drive him to ruin if it is the last thing I do.

[eternalgenie]

Eastern Palace Reading Guide+Epilogue Summary (Heavy Spoilers)

Fei Wo Si Cun’s Eastern Palace has been invading my feeling heavily for these past few days. I started reading the novel only a year ago since I’ve heard many good (bad) review of it. Some called it “the ultimate tragic story in the history of romance C-novels”. And that tells A LOT. 

Long story short, since I knew that the novel isn’t completely translated I just let it be. Until early this year when I decided to gear up for the release of the drama adaptation, I found the summary spoiler-y page for the rest of the chapters that havent been translated. I read it, and.. I was so devastated...

Li Cheng Yin and Xiao Feng are....that thing... They conspicuously have infiltrated every quarter of my being. That being said I will definitely write more about them. This particular post is just gonna be a simple and summary guide to the Eastern Palace novel and its epilogue+a few additional chapters. 

THE WRITING UNDER NUMBER 3 CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS, PROCEED ONLY IF YOU HAVE DONE NUMBER 1 AND 2.

How to read Eastern Palace in order.

1. 

Let’s start with the translated chapters of Eastern Palace. There are a total of 42 chapters + epilogue chapter in Eastern Palace. Novel Update has them translated up to chapter 25, and here is the link https://www.novelupdates.com/series/eastern-palace/ 

----------------------------------end here--------------------------------

 2.

Next, to get insight into what happens more in the flashback and what happens after chapter 25, basically you can go to this page, link http://xia0yuer.tumblr.com/post/24595824421/review-of-eastern-palace-and-scene-translation-an?is_related_post=1#axzz5fgRstQdU they did a one chapter translation and brief summary for the rest of the story.

 ---------------------------------end here---------------------------------

 3.

So we have arrived at the edge of our demise. How could a story be this tragic, how could a character be this cruel. We all hate Li Cheng Yin. We root and cry for Xiao Feng. I was looking for an answer and it happened when an amazing Twitter friend of mine, Riya, who have read the rest of the chapters and the epilogue by herself enlightened me when I asked her opinion on whether Li Cheng Yin have truly loved Xiao Feng or not. She then told me the detailed explanation on what happened in the epilogue. I also then braved to read the epilogue myself. 

I’ll give you the link to our Twitter conversation and the original novel (below this summary)

Twitter Conversation 1

Twitter Conversation 2

Twitter Conversation 3

Twitter Conversation 4

From Pei Zhao chapter, it is said that Li Cheng Yin never believed in the river of forgetfulness. So he was certain he will die with Xiao Feng the first time they jumped into the river. The second time Xiao Feng tried to kill herself, he was ready to jump following her but Pei Zhao held him back.

Pei Zhao also mentioned when he rescued both Li Cheng Yin and Xiao Feng from the river the first time they jumped together, he saw how their hands are tied together with a belt. Pei Zhao thought the prince must be wanting to be together with Xiao Feng in death.

The epilogue is set 30 years after Xiao Feng’s death and is in the POV of Pei Zhao’s son. Pei Zhao also had a daughter named Liu Niang (which eventually ended up together with Li Mu, Li Cheng Yin's son-this was written as separate short story). From here we learned that Li Cheng Yin had only two kids from different concubines. The two kids were also a daughter and a son, the daughter was named Chaoyang, while the son was named Li Mu (Amu). It is told that Chaoyang received Li Cheng Yin’s full love and was the most carefree and cherished person in the palace.

Li Cheng Yin conferred a title Queen of Mingde for his beloved crown princess Xiao Feng. It is also said that Li Cheng Yin never take anyone as his official empress after he took the throne as The Emperor.

Liu Niang, Amu, and Chaoyang liked to play together and they were close to each other. Li Cheng Yin believed Chaoyang was his daughter with Xiao Feng and told everyone that she really resembled Xiao Feng. In actuality, she wasn’t. Li Niang and Amu once asked a nanny is it true that Chaoyang looked like the late crown princess (Queen Mingde) and the nanny answered she actually did not. The nanny then described Queen Mingde as someone who is so beautiful and although she has thin and pale body, her beauty did not look anything like Central Plains’ women.

Eventually Chaoyang died. Li Niang and Amu were deeply sad about her death but she thought to herself that there was other person that was far more affected by Chaoyang’s death, and that was The Emperor.

Pei Zhao visited The Emperor in his old age and convinced him that Xiao Feng was long dead and Chaoyang was also not her daughter. Li Cheng Yin refused to believe it and kept saying that she was only going back to Xi Liang. Pei Zhao added a little detail by saying that more than 10 years ago he visited Xiao Feng’s grave and the grass was already so full, meaning that Xiao Feng had long gone and The Emperor should accept it

Some other additional details that Riya found from FWSC weibo and other fans’ page

Li Cheng Yin came across Xu Baolin (who was wearing red dress at that time) when he was drunk and fell for her silhouette that reminded him of Xiao Feng. Hence, Xu Baolin is pregnant.

FWSC wrote a deleted scene in the epilogue. Not long after Chaoyang’s death, Li Cheng Yin passed the kingdom to his son and he went to wall from where Xiao Feng jumped. He jumped and successfully took his own life in the same place Xiao Feng died.

The daughter name was named Chaoyang, but her pet name is actually A’Huang. Amu, her half brother liked to call him A’Huang too. It is said that the name A’Huang is based on the phoenix where the other word for phoenix was ‘Feng Huang’. So it might be related to Xiao Feng as well.

On the additional new scenes, it is revealed that Xiao Feng wasn’t actually her birth name and it was something like Malzima. It is the name of a tree with red leaves/maple. Gu Xiao Wu (Li Cheng Yin) told her that maple leaf is called “Feng” in Central Plains hence he gave her the name ‘Xiao Feng’, the ‘Xiao’ was added because there is ‘Xiao’ too in ‘Gu Xiao Wu’.

They had some pets together. She gave him her 2 gerbils to raise. One of them dies and he tries to find another gerbil which looks exactly the same because he didn't want to break her heart. 

Note that both Riya and I read the epilogue with the help of google translate. So please take this with a grain of salt as the translation may not be accurate but it did give a brief and general understanding as to what happened in the epilogue.

Link to the original novel

Thank you for reading until the end, hope we can be sad together! Also feel free to correct me and tell me if you have come across other posts that have done another translation or brief summary on the epilogue or additional chapters part :D

[psitrend]

The art of Jiao Bingzhen during the Qing Dynasty

New Post has been published on https://china-underground.com/2019/12/27/the-art-of-jiao-bingzhen-during-the-qing-dynasty/

The art of Jiao Bingzhen during the Qing Dynasty

Jiao Bingzhen (焦秉贞; born in Jining, Shandong; 1689–1726) was a noted painter and astronomer.

He is regarded as one of the first Qing dynasty painters to be influenced by the Jesuits at the Directorate of Astronomy.

Later he became a Roman Catholic. His favourite subjects were portraits, whole figures, landscapes and buildings.

Related articles: The Jesuits at the Chinese Imperial Court, The Amazing Art of Giuseppe Castiglione at the Chinese Imperial Court

Leaf 2 from the painter’s album entitled “Landscapes” (山水). Ink on paper. Width 26.4 cm, Height 26.2 cm. Located in National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Leaf 2 from the painter’s album entitled “Paintings of Ladies” (畫仕女圖). Ink and color on silk. Width 20.4 cm, Height 30.9 cm. Located in National Palace Museum, Taipei. between 1689 and 1726. Scan from “New Visions at the Ch’ing Court”

Empress Cao Growing Grains and Rearing Silkworms, from Virtuous Empresses and Empresses Dowager in Successive Dynasties, by Jiao Bingzhen, early 1700s AD – Peabody Essex Museum

Empress Deng Admonishing Her Clan for Extravagance, from Virtuous Empresses and Empresses Dowager in Successive Dynasties, by Jiao Bingzhen, early 1700s AD – Peabody Essex Museum

Empress Mingde Taking Care of Grandchildren, from Virtuous Empresses and Empresses Dowager in Successive Dynasties, by Jiao Bingzhen, early 1700s AD – Peabody Essex Museum

The Xuande Emperor Carrying the Palanquin of Empress Dowager Zhang, from Virtuous Empresses and Empresses Dowager in Successive Dynasties, by Jiao Bingzhen, early 1700s AD – Peabody Essex Museum

Rice cultivation: four men transplanting rice seedlings (?) in a paddy field, while behind them two men irrigate the field. Woodcut, 1696.

Source: wikimedia , wellcomecollection

#Jesuits, #QingDynasty

[feng-huli]

On the steps before Pingqing Hall, past and present

[feng-huli]

An emperor’s hand

[feng-huli]

“Since when did you learn to insinuate?”

[feng-huli]

“…Since those from Tianwaitian are here, I want you to take care of them for me.”

[feng-huli]

"Who does anything with all of his heart?"

[feng-huli]

❤️💜