#Western Xia

[moononmyfloor]

Homage to Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage in Young Blood 2 (大宋少年志2)

From the show's Weibo

Western Xia Bald hairstyle, Taoist Lotus Crown, Men wearing zanhua, Song dynasty pearl makeup and Su embroidery

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More posts by me

[k-star-holic]

Shin Hye-sun, Lee Chae-min, not Ahn Bo-hyun?

[aire1111]

Phoenix headed konghou harp, Sui Dynasty (581-618 A.D.). Mogao Caves, cave 327, of which Chang Dai-chien would paint a replica. That painting was titled "中的飞天" Flying Sky or Flying Feintian.

[taiwantalk]

i'm amused by this more than some of you could imagine. for a while, i've come to think that mongolians caused 3 major changes to the world but are mostly poorly told or rewritten by different countries.

for example, did you know that chinese textbook in the last 100 years, even taiwanese textbook, pretty much mentions practically nothing about the golden horde period in russia and ukraine and only consider mongolians as ethnic minority anomaly between 1235 and 1279. meaning, most of present day chinese think europe was only invaded by mongolia after china was taken.

so by this video, mongolians would have been invading both europe and china concurrently. and one could say that mongolians had already occupied moscow and parts of modern day ukraine around 1235 when mongolians were only on the verge of taking the ethnic han dynasty called "southern song" which took nearly 44 years to complete.

the significance is not the accuracy or the truth in history but that the chinese govt and taiwanese govt had systematically brainwashed citizens to believe that mongolians were always part of chinese continuity.

at the same time, most of people outside of china and taiwan probably would not realize nor understand that the communists (ccp) and nationalists (kmt) both paint mongolian as culture of tribal barbarians who were always the hostile threat to han chinese.

weird right? it's quite conflicting if you think about it. here's another subtle thing. during the initial mongolian expansion to conquer china, the 2 neighboring dynasties, western xia and jinn, were always written in textbook as if they were equivalent to barbarian civil wars unrelated to china, or at the time, southern song.

now look at where western xia or jinn were to modern day china. remember, chinese culture paints these dynasties as if they're barbarian dynasties not relating to han chinese. well, by today's geography, these dynasties would be the predecessor of present day beijin, shanghai, tianjin, dalian, or even parts of north korea.

the problem in russia's case, is that the people of russia were looking forward to wars. putin gave russian people a leadership to rally around.

the moral of the story is, democracy does not fall on your lap with you sitting by the sideline.

[loxare]

A game I've been playing in early access for the past half year, Immortal Life, came out fully wednesday, and I love it so much and think that everyone should play it. Anyways I wrote a thing

Mu Xia hummed as she carefully placed the plate of dumplings in her basket. They were a new recipe, pork and chive, and she really hoped her shijie liked them.

Carefully balancing her basket on her arm, pushing aside the kitchen curtain with the ease of long practice, she nearly dropped everything when Ji Yaohua’s voice called out, “Mu-shimei! I was just speaking to your mother about importing things for the inn. She told me to ask you about anything you needed for the kitchen.”

Basket balanced once again, Mu Xia smiled. “Oh course, Ji-shijie, thank you. It will be our usual list, but could you see if you can get more of the chives? If these turn out, I think they’ll be a hit with the customers.”

Yaohua leaned in, curious. “What are they? They smell good.”

“Pork and chive dumplings! I have some extra in the back if you want, but these are for Shijie!” In this context, there could only be one Shijie. The farmer of the Misty Valley was the reason she was even a part of Guiyun Sect after all.

Li Mengqing appeared from around the corner, summoned by the call of a new food to try. “I’ll get them! Just on the serving table?” Not waiting for an answer, she slipped into the kitchen.

“What’s the occasion?” Yaohua’s eyes narrowed slightly. “If it’s her birthday you have to tell me. She refuses to say.”

That sounded like Shijie. “No, not at all. I just haven’t seen her in a few days, so I wanted to check on her and make sure she was eating well.”

A strange look crossed Yaohua’s face. It looked pained, but also glum and mischievous for some reason. “I see. I think she’ll enjoy those a lot. Say hi for me.”

“I will!” Ji Yaohua’s strange moods wouldn’t deter Mu Xia. “See you later Ji-shijie, Li-shimei!”

After Mu Xia was gone, Mengqing came out and passed Yaohua a dumpling. “Ji-shijie. If Shijie hasn’t been seen in a few days...”

“Yes.” Yaohua took a bite of the dumpling. It was very good indeed. She’d have to research where to obtain chive seeds. The Misty Valley could support nearly any kind of plant in its soil, so it was just a matter of sourcing. And having Shijie grow them would be much cheaper in the long run than importing chives. As for Mu Xia... “She’d have to find out sometime. Besides, if it’s been a few days, Shijie could probably use the food.”

“Hm. True.” Mengqing ate another dumpling. “Hey, do you think it’s possible to make a red bean dumpling?”

She’d never had a sweet dumpling before. “I’m sure you can convince Mu-shimei to try.”

The walk to the Misty Valley was pleasant. The weather was warm, and a bit breezy. There was rain on the horizon, but it wouldn’t hit until tonight. She spoke briefly to Zhou Qian’er about the day’s catch, and to Chen Yuanzhou about fishing her up a few puffer fish for an upcoming banquet.

The Misty Valley hummed with power as it always did. She could almost see the crops growing as they absorbed the spiritual energy, cycling it and sending it back into the earth, stronger. That was one of the things that had surprised her, after she’d started cultivating. Mu Xia had been to the Misty Valley before, usually on her way to the Sunset Forest to pick scarlet sage, but never before had she been able to see the energy she had always felt in the place. It had always felt alive to her, vibrant in ways that she hadn’t been able to comprehend. It was no wonder that Shijie was so strong, if this was where she lived, worked, cultivated.

Speaking of. “Shijie? Are you here?” She checked both fields, poked her head into the Blessed Land, knocked on the door of the freshly renovated house. But she was nowhere to be seen.

Then, suddenly, a flash of light. The same as the others when they teleported somewhere else. Mu Xia couldn’t wait to learn that technique. “Shijie, you’re home! I brought- ” She stopped short.

It... was Shijie. She could tell. But the usual flowing robes and perfectly styled hair were in horrible disarray, and covered in... substances. Mud was the least egregious of the substances, but Mu Xia could also see some sort of green-grey plant sap that smelled horrible, more green goop, and blood (?!) in various shades and consistencies. “Shijie?!”

Instead of asking for help or something, Shijie wobbled and mumbled, “whatimezit?”

“I...” Mu Xia checked the position of the sun. “Almost dusk.”

“Mmm,” Shijie nodded. “Worms.”

And she teetered off, in the direction of her silkworm hut. Mu Xia followed helplessly. As Shijie pulled a large bundle of mulberry leaves from her storage ring, Mu Xia asked, “Shijie, are you alright?”

Shijie nodded again. “Jss tired. Still got,” she paused, trying to visibly count up her remaining tasks.

That wouldn’t do at all! “No, you’ve got nothing to do until you’re cleaned up and rested!” Mu Xia spread the rest of the leaves over the worms, grabbing Shijie’s arm and pulling her towards the house.

Shijie pulled away before they could enter, detouring to the waterfall. To Mu Xia’s shock, she stood under it for a few minutes, allowing the water to wash away the substances. Then she stripped her clothes off, replacing them with a clean, dry set from her ring, while Mu Xia went “Eep!” and turned around.

Finally, Shijie sat down at her table, Mu Xia across from her. The waterfall had woken her up enough to speak in full sentences, so when Mu Xia set down the basket and opened the lid, her eyes lit up and she said, “Dumplings! Thank you Mu-shimei, I was starting to get hungry.”

“Aren’t you capable of inedia?” It wasn’t healthy, to survive on inedia for too long, but at the very least it prevented the feeling of hunger. Shijie didn't usually rely on it, but it was useful when she went to the secret realms and didn't want to fill up her storage rings with food.

Shijie made a noise of affirmation and swallowed her dumpling. “Yeah, but not for more than a few days. Maybe once I hit Core, but not yet.”

Mu Xia subtly pushed the plate closer. “What were you doing anyways?”

“I needed more golden disks. I used them all up learning spells, which means I don’t have enough for research and development, or to upgrade my axe.” Shijie ate another dumpling. Jin Li crept off of his nest and sniffed at one, then wrinkled his nose. “If I can do that, I can get past those ironwood tree roots that are blocking the path to the eastern forest, see if I can find out what’s in there. Maybe there’s a great treasure that we can use to rebuild the sect.” She looked critically at the half of a dumpling she was holding. “Do you think I can get seeds for chives? I’d like some more aromatics to work with, and these are good. Do you have the recipe?”

Mu Xia nodded. “I finished developing it today. If you liked them, I was going to introduce them to the inn menu.” Shijie had very good taste. If she liked something, odds were it would do well with many customers.

“The usual arrangement then.” Ingredients, to repay the time Mu Xia spent developing her recipe, and to thank her for her generosity. “Assuming I can get chive seeds in.”

“If you can, I’ll see about getting more recipes with them in.” Mu Xia fidgeted with her sleeve. “Shijie, is that. Is that how you usually look when you leave town for a few days?”

Shijie huffed, offended. “I wasn’t gone for a few days, I have to be back every day to feed the worms. They’re very important Mu-shimei.”

“Of course,” she said, conciliatory. “But why didn’t I see you yesterday then?”

A long moment of silence. Shijie was more awake, but still not to her usual calibre, it seemed, as it was taking her a minute to think that through. “Oh, I guess I did feed them at 3 in the morning yesterday. And the day before. And then it was straight back to the desert.”

“Shijie! How long has it been since you slept?” Another long pause, that Mu Xia didn’t let her finish. “Go to bed! Right now!”

“But I have to sweep the forest for flowers, and then I have to schedule some classes for tomorrow, and I need more krill so I have to fish some of those up tonight, and having more pearl dust is always useful and -”

“Go to bed!”

It took another few minutes of corralling her, but eventually Shijie was laying in her bed, Jin Li curled smugly on her chest, preventing her form moving. In just a few seconds, she was asleep.

Mu Xia breathed a sigh of relief. Then she got out her paper crane talisman. Shijie did so much for them. They could do a few things for her, at least for tonight.

[oc-menagerie-archived]

Roleplay Starter Call for Western Bandit Xia!

A Western AU for Xia where she is a bandit who loves to flirt with others and with danger. Besides traveling around and stealing hearts, she sometimes sings and dances at saloons as well. Known as the Wild Rose, Xia rarely stays in one place for too long, especially if others start suspecting she may be stealing some of their goods.

Like or reblog to be tagged in a roleplay starter with bandit Xia!

[absolxguardian]

I read the Vow of Silver Dawn (although mostly machine translated), which is a Chinese web novel Disney commissioned because the sequels weren't doing well in China, since they didn't have any nostalgia about it. And it was very pro-jedi (in fact oddly unconcerned that the big reveal at the end meant that the protagonist didn't even know of his home planet and had his name westernized. But his master also made sure he knew the native language of his home planet). There are in fact three moments where they explained Jedi in a specifically Chinese cultural context. Paraphrased since I'm in an airplane about to take off:

"While the Jedi were free from earthly desires, they were also committed to the preservation of life" (as in, these are Buddhists but they actually do stuff)

"Jedi were less like knights and more like committed followers of the Dao"

And then there's an entire chapter where the mercenaries Sean (the Jedi protagonist) is teaming up with prank him by talking about moral cultivation in the martial arts, which are what I understand are concepts in Wuxia stories. Sean falls for it completely because it's consistent with his pre-existing training.

Basically, when Disney wants to make Star Wars popular in China they emphasis that the Jedi are combo Buddhists/Daoist Wuxia heroes.

Truly mystifying take I just saw:

Sorry for bursting in with negativity, but I truly did think that the pro-jedi side of SW was going to be less… like this. This is just Sinophobia at this point. Blaming China for Disney’s American/Western writers’ choices is rather telling of this person’s own biases.

This is not to absolve the CCP of anything. I’m not denying that the Chinese government is in fact a colonial force when it comes to ethnic/cultural minorities in China - but do you truly think that those mostly white writers with an anti-jedi stance is doing good ol’ CCP propaganda? For real? Yeah, no, surely these writers are free from their own, primarily Eurocentric ideals! It’s all Chinese propaganda! You’re so smart(/sarcasm).

And while the Chinese film market is rife in censorship (much like how Disney censors parts of their own shows even in the US, wow!), the media itself is far from actively hostile towards Buddhism as a whole. In fact many aspects of Buddhism, such as Shaolin, etc is rather popular in Chinese (Wuxia) media.

Not to mention the large population in China that believes in Buddhism (3 main branches, Han, Tibetan and Theravada), or follows some of its teachings - according to this 2018 survey, around 4% of the Chinese population are “formally” Buddhists, and 33% of Chinese adults, (~362 million adults!) believe in Buddha and/or a bodhisattva. I myself have grandparents who believed in Han Buddhist ideals and spent a few days every other month at a Han Buddhist temple, and have another friend who diligently follows Tibetan Buddhism.

In the end - blaming anti-jedi writing by mostly white writers on “Chinese propaganda” is truly such an interesting choice. Yeah, sure. That’s what happened. This is a conspiracy theory alright.

[lgbtpopcult]

Best WLW Shows on TV Right Now by Country Part 2*

Here's your warning ⚠️: Some of these countries are just as evolved about their representation as any western TV Show. Some are just taking their first steps into representation and it's timid and/or flawed. If you want to see where things are at in that country or practice the language go for it.

Tunna blå linjen (Thin Blue Line) and Dystopia, Sweden

Cyanide, Indonesia

Original title: Sianida

Aldri voksen, Norway

Fair City, Ireland

Xia Ye Zhi Dao Feng De Tian (The Lost World), China*

It's a Chinese drama, there are limits to what they can show

Demente, Chile

Las Villamizar, Colombia

Rojst ’97 (The Mire 97), Poland

Undercover, Belgium

Jutro će promeniti sve (Morning Changes Everything), Serbia

Bir Başkadır (Ethos), Turkey

Καρτ Ποσταλ, Greece*

Each episode is standalone episode.

Hotel Mondial, Germany

Mine, South Korea

Ruxx, Romania

Stella Blómkvist, Iceland

Señorita 89, México

Special shout out to the 2018 season of The bachelor in Vietnam that did that

[natalieironside]

The reason it's so hard for modern scholars to read Western Xia script is b/c historically it was written by two scholars working side-by-side

You see, it takes two to Tangut

[howlingmoonrise]

Hi! Same anon here! Don't worry I barely sent the ask like a day ago :P

Thank you for giving such a detailed answer! I gotta say, I never considered the Ds to be akin to plants (I did think of them being the chinese equivalent to kamis tho, I think the term was xia?) but I can see what you mean by that, maybe like trees? I like the idea of sentient sacred trees taking on human forms, wouldn’t it be cool if the "real" Tsuki-hime was one of their kind?

In a less serious note, when I read the plant part, my dumb ass brain started to think about Trigun, and Vash as a plant being in his universe with completely opposed ideology to the Ds, the one of unwavering love and faith in humanity despite most humans in Trigun being far worse than any of the literal evil ones in PSOH, and what would happen if they ever met :'D

Also, do you have any theories on why our D was sick and apparently needed a transplant of some sort? Personally I always thought that he may have been born "flawed" either due to their kind's equivalent to genetic degradation on their biology, or alternatively a literal manifestation of the ideals conflict between Sofu D and Papa D? Both?

Sorry if I ask too many questions, I had no idea PSOH had a surviving fandom until the 7seas announcement!!

huh. you know. i was fairly sure the term kami had been mentioned in at least one of the translations but i just checked the last two chapters in both and apparently not? though the el dorado chapter seems to confirm the meaning if not the name when it mentions the touch of a "dying god" and accepts d's blood, at a minimum; i'm not sure if the japanese original text uses the word "kami" either, but it's possible.

anyway, i've been kind of going with the assumption that they're something similar to that - not exactly gods in the western divinity sense, but more like beings of the land. i probably absorbed the term kami in regards to the Ds from fandom, but now that you mention it, it doesn't make all that much sense since he's chinese. the term in question in chinese seems to be "shen" (written with the same character) but it doesn't appear to be an exact equivalent in terms of meaning. i'll have to look more into it!

yeah the plant thing for me comes from several occasions generally associated with d and life/death (as mentioned before, the gattolotto extra, d entering a state of despair, d's blood turning into rare plants when he's running from vesca, d being taken over by plants when falling into despair, the plant core of the papasplosion) and also from the hilarity of leon only ever getting anywhere with a lady if they're plants (as per the flowers and the detective extras) and d lowkey also being one and following this trend 😂 though that latter bit is more the shipper goggles than anything lmfao

BUT!!! MORE IMPORTANTLY!!!! *rubs hands together* you fool! you just activated my trap card when it comes to talking about d's illness and all issues surrounding it! i love discussing this topic and poking fun at the tokyopop translation and putting up a murderboard full of red string for theories!

okay so the first thing you need to know is that the tokyopop translation took some. liberties. and is not entirely accurate. they seem to paint papa as far more of a villain and sofu as far more of a saint than they are, for one, and an important implication about d's health kinda goes in the wrong direction based on this. as such, if you only read the tp translation, you may be caught off-guard by some of what i'll say below.

once again under the cut because i'm a rambler!

things we know about d's illness:

needs sugar to keep from getting faint/dizzy

extremely low endurance at times (which makes leon think that he might have a heart condition) that either triggers or is triggered by his illness, as per the dragon chapter

may or may not be related to his eye (either as a symptom or a cause)

some sort of pain attack is involved? in the donor chapter we see him hover his hand in front of his throat, though it might be while it's in motion to go elsewhere, such as his heart (the dragon chapter has both the highlights near the throat, but the hand placed by his heart/lungs)

papa mentions to the pseudo-sister that d's body was "born incomplete" - whether this is true, he thought it was true (more on this below), or it was a simplification for her sake (as she had the mentality of a child) is not clear

d apparently is lacking several things, or they are in the process of failing (also as per the donor chapter). THAT BEING SAID, there is an interesting point here

needs sugar to keep from getting faint/dizzy

may or may not be associated with his eye

some sort of pain attack is involved? in the donor chapter we see him hover his hand in front of his throat

the illness has been present for at least several years, presumably for as long as d can remember (though not necessarily from birth; more on this later)

papa has been studying and trying to cure this illness also for years

after d drinks a "medicine" processed from the orangutan hybrid's body the symptoms seem to stop - i'm pointing this out as more of a curiosity thing, because on other occasions d couldn't as much as eat fish flakes without some ominous remarks about his bloodlust almost awakening again or something of the sort (you'll excuse me if i don't go looking for this particular quote right now)

papa mentions to the pseudo-sister that d's body was "born incomplete" - whether this is true, he thought it was true (more on this below), or it was a simplification for her sake (as she had the mentality of a child) is not clear

d's body had several things apparently lacking or in the process of failing (also as per the donor chapter). THAT BEING SAID, there is an interesting point here

this post from one of tumblr user @chaikat's psoh liveblogging japanese translation notes (several of which you'll see me mention at other times in this post because the info in there is just THAT crunchy) points out the following:

When Nue Erh says she’ll give D what he lacks, the part where she says “my eyes” in the eng version is actually specifically “this eye” in the jp version.

keep this quote in mind for a bit!

and now, back to the revelations of the final chapters!

aka, the panels that give me fucking brainworms:

uh??? hello??? one could understand that endless asexual reproduction of the same being through centuries would eventually result in mutations, and in fact it was under this assumption that i laboured when i first read psoh, but this conversation points to a different cause entirely, originating from sofu's interference.

doesn't help that the tokyopop version is wildly different, too:

tokyopop's version doesn't seem have anything to do with either d's illness or eye whatsoever, alas 😬 and considering several of their past instances of mistranslations and ad-libbing on this manga, i'm far less likely to believe their version of events.

another detail i didn't notice on my first go-arounds: the fact that the first words sofu d says in response to papa's accusation imply that the undertaking of q-chan's form took a sacrifice, and that this is related to d's eye. it took me this other translation notes liveblog post to realize that the two things were connected, since there's an entire other page with side-comments in the middle breaking up the dialogue flow.

ANOTHER most excellent thing that chaikat's commentary brings up and that i haven't seen on either translation is that sofu specifically mentions using the eye, or the term yorishiro:

(small text above Grandpa D): I borrowed one eye for the yorishiro.

i cannot claim to be even remotely close to an expert on shintoism, so here's a quote from wikipedia (which might or might not be correct) regarding yorishiro:

Yorishiro were conceived to attract the kami and then give them a physical space to occupy to make them accessible to human beings for ceremonies

i'm not sure if sofu d used it as this exact purpose, or if there's any sort of tradition in manga to lend it a slightly different meaning (jshk for example uses it as an artifact that stores the powers of the being connected to it, and something similar to this would make some sense to me here since he's shifting into a different form and putting his powers/presence away). either way, sofu has definitely used at least a portion of d's body for his own purposes without consent, so we cannot discard him using more.

*puts tinfoil hat on* it is at this point i bring up our precious orangutan sister's words again! she's listing the things she was made to replace in d's body, with the specificity of one singular eye. coincidence? i think not! i'm not entirely sure i agree that she means the left eye as considered in chaikat's post, but as an exercise let's think up the motivations for both possibilities:

replacing the left eye (purple, papa's colour): implies that the eye that was interfered with by sofu has bypassed the illness, and d's original one remains imperfect and bound to deteriorate; implies also that papa/sister know that the right eye is not a concern when it comes to d's health situation, which does track with papa's later accusation

replacing the right eye (gold, sofu's colour): implies that something is wrong with that eye, in ways that go far beyond the bounds of d's illness, since the original one would be okay to leave as-is; since papa is aware that the gold eye was caused by sofu, it would make sense to want to replace it due to both his resentment for sofu and concern for d

it is also worth mentioning that sofu never seems to have devoted any time to trying to cure d's illness, unlike papa (who was deemed incapable of raising a child by sofu, which may or may not be true), and that his reaction to the death of both his son and stray animals in a forest fire is to not even blink twice.

sofu having removed d from papa's care, mixed with d having mismatched eyes as a child under sofu's care, and the fact that we don't really see a mention of q-chan being around at that time make me poke interestedly at sofu d - because even if you buy that he *checks notes* only traded his grandson's eye to turn into a tiny cute creature in order to keep an eye (heh) on him, that doesn't really... track with the timeline of when he actually left d alone and had cause to become q-chan? which makes me wonder what sofu's actual use for the eye was, since he presumably had it since d was around-ish maybe five years old. (remember me saying "for as long as d can remember, though not necessarily from birth"? yeah.)

does this mean that he caused the illness? probably not, but fun to think about in connection to everything else! especially because the main point i'd expect d to ask when papa mentions the mutations/changes resulting from the inumerous replications of the d line would be his ?now-cured? illness, but what he does actually ask about is his eyes, despite papa and sofu - supposedly perfect clones - also having eyes that differ from the other (papa's being purple, sofu's being gold). one would think the illness would be the priority, but no! unless the two things are connected, and-- *continues to add red string to the murderboard*

anyway this is the theory i find the most fun to play with!

slightly less unhinged ones would probably be just. you know. normal replication mutations and genetic degeneration and stuff? or if you go with the tokyopop translations and i remember correctly, there are some implications that papa experimented on d before sofu took him away, but take that with a grain of salt. another thing that comes to mind is also the alice/daughter chapter, where after several generations the resulting rabbits were killed by the sugar and stuff consumed by the original generation - it could also be something like that, because since they're clones their bodies wouldn't have changed to adapt to the times, different foods, different air quality, etc, which would translate into poison for the newest generations.

i hope i didn't go too far down the theory rabbit hole, oops! 😂

[jttwaudiodrama]

Tracing the origin of the monk, the monkey and a horse

To give you an idea of how multi-sourced the story of Journey to the West is, this is a Dun Huang cave painting from the Western Xia Regime (A.D.1038-1227) featuring one of the earliest depictions of Xuan Zang heading west accompanied by a monkey-esque creature and a horse.

Check the link below to see the painting in the actual cave:

It is on the upper left edge of the wall that is left to the entrance of the cave.

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[k-star-holic]

Andong Station District, Boy - The first picture of a man's life "Warmness in coldness, resembles me"

Source: k-star-holic.blogspot.com

[cerberus253]

okay, what if it was for the eight demon sorcerers meet other cultures and discover that humans can actually have a varienty of skin color, and also the cases of people with albinism or vitilige! And honestly, i feel like some of them could be surprised or curious, especially with the fact that also heterochromia exists too! And it would be cool they discovering how some of the countries are noawadays! Such as brazil, america, mexico, china, russia, and also england! It could be pretty cool, especially at they reaction to afro people aswell!^^

Well, according to mine and another Questioner's research, the Eight Demon Sorcerers must have existed at least before 220 BC (last Dynasty of Ancient China). With that being said, even during the first recorded Dynasty of China (the "Semi-Legendary" Xia Dynasty) at around 2070 BC, humans were all over the world. Not as plentiful like today, but still present on almost every continent.

("Overview map of the world at the end of the 2nd millennium BC," Wikipedia)

Now, according to the cartoon, these were the locations of their kingdoms: - Tso Lan- The Moon - Shendu- China - Po Kong- Japan - Bai Tza- Southeastern coast of Europe (Atlantis, the Mediterranean Sea) - Dai Gui- Western coast of Europe (Spain?) - Tchang Zu- Western coast of the USA - Hsi Wu- Eastern coast of the USA - Xiao Fung- Latin America

This means they had the closest interactions with people in America (USA and Mexico area), southern Europe, and Far East Asia when they were on the Earth. However, we don't know how long their ruling was, so we cannot say if they took part in the Silk Road or even made contact with those who have migrated to South America (from the Bering Strait or form the Pacific) or even Australia. I have been looking into Lo Pei's apparel for a couple hours now and I cannot find anything matching his "Ling Dynasty" outfit, which is, in fact, not an actual Dynasty. Therefore, the Demon banishment date is still a mystery.

Anyway, seeing as how they are extremely racist and believe humans are here to serve them, I think they would be curious on their variety of skin color, but not in the way you probably want. For example, they probably noticed people with darker colored skin can work under the Sun more than those with lighter skin, therefore, depending on the Demons and their domain, they would probably prefer one skin tone over the other for labor. Although, as seen with Hsi Wu and Shendu, some Demons may keep humans for entertainment purposes that do not require practicality, meaning they may go with what looks the best for the job. Every human is a slave to them, no matter what they look like.

If you want my honest thoughts about the Demons' thoughts on albinism and vitiligo, it's not going to be nice. Don't get me wrong, I personally do not think there's anything wrong with either skin, but to the Demons it would most likely be laughed at. Being so drained of color even the light hurts you? That's pathetic. Being patchy like a filthy farm animal? That's funny.

Don't even get me started on Po Kong and her eating habits. She probably wants to taste every single human of all cultures/ethnicity and skin colors to see if they taste different, which tastes the best, and what they go good with. She could easily wipe out an entire group of people if not careful.

Anyway, how they would react to the modern day. Well, we already saw some of it during Season 2 when they were released one by one. They seem pretty chill about it, nothing too over-reactive like, "Wow! Humans did this?! That's unbelievable!" If anything, they would say, "Huh, impressive. Anyway, this is mine now and I want 20 more." This comes off to me as the Demons know humans are great at making and building things, even believing they can make extravagant buildings on their own, but they don't care. Demons just want them to use this power for their own wants. Heck, they probably expect humans to always make great things, so the stuff that we have today probably won't phase them that much, just, "Hey, why didn't you make this for us way back when?!"

If anything, the Demons might be so impressed/inspired by what humans have made that they want their entire kingdom to look like it and then claim it as their own idea. Like, 'yeah, humans have made these widely unique structures/details, but it was I who designed this kingdom! What they did was a waste of ability!'

Remember, EVERYTHING human-wise goes back to the Demons and how they are better and humans are just things to control and make serve. Humans are only tools/pets for the masters to use and none should not put a single human over demon-kind. They are, like I said, straight up racist towards humans, and a lot of people forget that crucial detail when making fan stuff about them.

I think the only Demon out of the Eight that could possibly make a genuine, "Great job!" comment to a human would be Xiao Fung. He seems to be the most down-to-earth one and is actually seen to get along with humans. However, like I said, I'm pretty sure he still views himself higher than them, but I think Xiao Fung is more low-key "appreciative" if you do the right thing for him.

[threetrenchcoatsinatrenchcoat]

It's that time again, guess the next D20 season with literally no information

Woodland creature revenge thriller

The haunting of human resources

Robots patiently reforesting the earth so their humans may return

Toy soldiers caught between the opposition and the stuffed teddy

Oops all character creation anthology season

That reverse indiana jones Brennan invented on Um Actually

Up-and-coming fashion designers during a minor zombie apocalypse

Biopic subjects forced to team up with their method actor portrayers when the aliens take hollywood

Pneumatictubepunk

Vaporwave western

First girl eliminated last year returns to Engagement Island to murder the new contestants

Forbidden romance between the hoodies and the dress shirts

Stranded archeologists crashed their starship and must restore the ancient windows 8 machine

Mad max but with public transportation

Deep sea soap opera

Fungal espionage intrigue spanning millenia

Superheroes' assistants unionize

The prophecy states that before they can banish the old gods for good they must win regionals

Lou dms and kills Brennan's pc

Ross dms musical improv (and Zach and Jess play exes)

More Alex Song-Xia

Birds

[inspofromancientworld]

Chinese Historical Periods: Bronze Age to the Development of Writing

By Guss - Own work, after Li Liu, Archaeology in China, p.214, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32701410

The Bronze Age Started around 3100 BCE in China and can be divided into three main periods: early, middle, and late. Some scholars prefer to divide the period between the Shang (about 1600-1046 BCE) and Zhou (11046-256 BCE) dynasties and the Warring States Period (476-221 BCE) into four parts, almost poetically called the heyday, the decadence, the mid-emergence, and the decline.

By Prof. Gary Lee Todd - [1], CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31469658

The earliest culture that created bronze artifacts that we've found is the Majiayao culture near Gansu, which is near the upper Yellow River. The object found was a knife. From Majiayao, bronze working spread along the Yellow River through contact between cultures. It is also thought that domesticated animals may have entered China through this area, also called the Hexi Corridor, or possibly through the Mongolian plateau around 3500 BCE, so it's quite possible that there was communication between Eastern and Western Asia through this passage.

By Unknown author, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9997728

The next major culture was the Erlitou culture, which was also focused around the Yellow River valley from about 1750-1530 BCE. They are considered to be the first true Bronze Age culture, being fully within it, and spread through hundreds of sites. Within this culture, the Xia dynasty ruled from about 2070 BCE through 1600 BCE, the first dynasty in Chinese history that we know about. Until 1959 CE, there weren't any sites discovered that were directly related to the Xia dynasty or a way of differentiating them from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. With improved technology, it became possible to separate out artifacts from the dynasties and establish the historicity of the Xia dynasty.

By rotated and cropped by Kanguole - This file was derived from: Shang Ox Scapula Oracle Bones 1.jpg by Gary Lee Todd, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146266981

The final part of prehistoric Bronze Age was under the Shang dynasty. The center of the late Shang dynasty was around Xiaotun Village in modern day Henan. During this time, oracle bones scripts, usually carved on shoulder blades of oxen, began to appear, the earliest form of written Chinese that began to appear around 1250 BCE. There are 150,000 known pieces of oracle bones with about 5,000 different characters, of which 1,700 are recognizable to modern readers of Chinese. There is also a rich array of pottery, bronze ceremonial objects, carved jade, and many stone and bone tools, letting us develop a fuller picture of how people lived and what they valued during this time.

By Kanguole - Own workdesign based on Chang, Kwang-chih (1986) The Archaeology of Ancient China, p. 319 ISBN: 0-300-03784-8.rivers from Natural Earth 1:10mErlitou sites from Xu, Hong (2013) "The Erlitou Culture" Underhill, Anne P. , ed. , John Wiley & Sons, pp. 300–322 ISBN: 978-1-118-32578-0. p. 302, Figure 15.1.Xia capitals from Tan, Qixiang , ed. (1982) The Historical Atlas of China, 1, China Cartographic Publishing House Map 9–10., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111573260

Much work has been done to reconcile the received or traditional history with the archaeological record by a group called the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project. With the large gap between the Xia dynasty and the beginning of the use of oracle bones, there are schools of thought that doubt its existence, considering it only legendary. Using the best tools available, they're working on narrowing the range of artifacts to identify when they were made. Certain sites are identified with each dynasty as well as certain types of artifacts. By being able to tighten the dates that items found at the various sites, the project has been able to date the currently known sites and identified gaps in the cultural record (cultural transitions between dynasties and predominant technologies).

[lunanoc]

PART II: KING MU OF ZHOU AND THE QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST

(to see previous disclaimers and context here’s part I of this madness)

blanket spoiler warning for the books once again

fair warning, some of the bold connect-the-dots crack theories are going to start creeping in here, but more meta here we gooo

continuing where we left off with the various versions of the story of king shang of lu dmbj gives us, the wang family powerpoint lesson, besides giving us the third account of those, also introduces new key players, both one we know but did not know of their potential connection to king shang of lu, and a new one that offers an entirely new perspective on this subplot of dmbj lore: king mu of zhou and the queen mother of the west

what the wang powerpoint and the subsequent discussions between li cu and members of the wang family tell us about king mu of zhou and the queen mother of the west is not only interesting in itself, but also ties closely into both king shang’s and iron mask’s story, as well as the overall dmbj lore. i try not to go too far in trying to see possible connections with later books, notably here queen mother’s ghost banquet, because i don’t have the full context for those, so i won’t go into too much detail on what’s essentially a tenuous crack theory. however, for the record, the queen mother of the west as she’s described in sand sea part III could potentially tie into what we learn about the zhang family’s origins at the tail end of queen mother’s ghost banquet, namely that the zhang family are descended from a group of people millennia old (think xia dynasty or older, which makes sense given they were likely also the ones who built the original heavenly palace and the bronze gate in the shang dynasty c. 1600 BC, but that’s a tangent for another time) who ventured beneath the kunlun mountains, ate from the qilin fruit tree (aka the equivalent of the queen mother of the west of chinese myth’s peach tree), and rather than immediately turning into monsters like many who tried did, were special enough for some reason that they gained longevity instead at the cost of eventually, after maybe initially millenia, then progressively centuries, turning into monsters. some of those people then eventually ventured out from beneath the mountains into the vast world, later to form what would be known as the zhang family. but that’s all i’ll say on that

but back to king mu and the queen of the west

to start off, i feel it’s important to be aware that king mu of zhou isn’t a fictional character created by npss, rather he’s a real historical figure who actually existed and was an emperor of the western zhou dynasty (1046-770 BC) while it was at its peak (he himself probably reigned somewhere between 976 and 918 BC). as it happens, his connection to the queen mother of the west also isn’t something created by npss. references to the queen mother of the west go very far back (think shang dynasty mentioned earlier) and she’s one of the more prominent mythological figures in chinese tradition, who among other descriptors, is said to possess the secret of immortality in her garden of magical peaches that grant longevity in the kunlun mountains. either the queen of the west herself or her peaches make several appearances in chinese literature, maybe more famously for a western audience in journey to the west where sun wukong eats some of them and is punished for it

even the story of king mu of zhou and the queen mother of the west meeting is a retelling of another piece of fiction called the tale of king mu, son of heaven, dating back to at earliest the warring states period (since the original copy of it was found in a tomb dating back to the tail end of it). like in sand sea’s rendition of his story, historically king mu of zhou did travel a lot because he enjoyed making territorial conquests, to the extent that king mu of zhou is the one who ultimately expanded china’s territory both east and west beyond the central plains. in the fictional story of the tale of king mu, son of heaven however, king mu of zhou specifically seeks out the queen mother of the west in the kunlun mountains to gain her secret of immortality, and while she ultimately invites him to her jade pool for a banquet where they exchange gifts, she doesn’t give him one of her peaches

in the wang family’s version of this story, it’s explained to li cu that king mu of zhou didn’t care much for politics and preferred running around china as he pleased, ultimately seeking out the queen mother of the west for her famed elixir of immortality. where this version of the story diverges from the myth is that they supposedly ended up falling in love (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 133, King Mu of Zhou)

king mu of zhou sought out the queen mother of the west because there had been legends even during king mu’s time of her having had this elixir of immortality for a very long time, which tells us at the very least that according to this story, the queen mother he met with was likely the queen mother of legend, or the one chinese mythology equates with a deity to some extent. she’s even further described as having dominion over all the kingdoms of the west, and that her great kingdom spanned from the kunlun mountains to even the qaidam basin, which is where tamutuo is located. i feel this tells us that the queen of the west of tamutuo and the queen mother of the west from king mu’s legend are one and the same. the fact she’s even referred to as “young” despite the breadth of her legacy reinforces the idea that there might be something unnatural about her

you could argue that maybe “queen mother of the west” was an inherited title, and that her kingdom of tamutuo was a matriarchal society that had had many queen mothers, but the fact is there’s no real supporting evidence of that any more than there is of the opposite despite the arguments put forward, so really, you could argue in favor of both. i like to think she was the queen mother of legend, if only because it creates, thanks to the inclusion of the kunlun mountains in her territory, a strong connection in some capacity with the first people cursed with intolerable longevity mentioned in queen mother’s banquet, but once again, take with a grain of salt

slight tangent, i will say however while i’m on this topic that i strongly feel that the zhang family are meant to be depicted as one more of many human corruption motifs that are rampant in dmbj. this is something for another meta, but i would argue that beneath the tomb raiding and the conspiracies, the core theme of dmbj is that “humans are more terrible than monsters”, and so the narrative provides ample examples of human corruption causing others far more misery than any tomb creature ever could. as per their origins talked about in queen mother’s ghost banquet, it’s possible that alongside their knowledge of whatever secrets of the universe they’re privy to, and their subsequent need for control over china’s destiny through the ages, the ancestors of the zhang family had initially ventured out from under the mountains to seek a cure for the side effects of their terrible curse, and gradually discovered that the bronze and jade of the meteorites could potentially provide that. maybe the queen mother of the west was one of their descendants, and perhaps one of the rare people who stand to succeed in that quest (that we know of at least considering she’s presumably still alive in some capacity down there along with chen wenjin and other members of the xisha expedition). just food for thought, but anyone who’s read that far feel free to give your thoughts on queen’s banquet related ideas!

the wang in charge of instructing li cu admits in the course of his tale that they had to make some assumptions (so this means you have to consider this bit to be a little handwavy admittedly) about what exactly the nature of the relationship between king mu of zhou and the queen mother of the west was, and settles on them having fallen in love despite king mu having “invaded” her kingdom and he did  invade it, because we conveniently have a single reference to this man outside of sand sea in book 5, when wu xie and xiaoge find murals in the ruins around wu sanxing’s abandoned camp that depict king mu’s invasion of tamutuo that was clearly hostile and was met with responding hostility (Book 5, Ch. 25-26, The Third Night: Relief / The Third Night: Déjà-vu)

it doesn’t mean that these narratives are mutually exclusive and can’t both be true, and that after having been defeated, either party asked for a truce that led to something else, but it does already suggest there might be more to this story than what we’re told of it. this idea somewhat confirms itself, again hinging on believing that the wang’s narrative is one close enough to the truth to be reliable, when li cu calls the romance spin on king mu’s and the queen mother’s story into question (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 145, The Truth of the World). li cu suggests that the poem she supposedly gifted king mu (which i’ll get into in a little bit), as well as maybe the queen mother of the west herself and her secret of immortality, are all concepts fashioned and embellished by king mu of zhou to facilitate his grand plan which i’ll touch on later, all because he saw “the truth of this world” in the queen mother of the west’s kingdom, and sought not to reveal it to the world, but to conceal it, and build an entire nebulous plan with it at its core

i don’t feel like the queen of the west herself is a fabrication considering both the multiple references to her interspersed throughout various dmbj books, as well as tangible proof of her existence re: tamutuo, but the idea that king mu of zhou might have been the author of the tale of king mu, son of heaven and the subsequent romance plot derived from it in dmbj universe is something i can believe so long as you assume he believed it was one more component in his masterplan. i’m hesitant to call dmbj magical realism because magical realism is very much a western genre of literature and people would do well to remember that western constructs aren’t universally applicable, but dmbj does use a number of structural and thematic elements that magical realism also uses, and this subplot is no exception. contrary to what some might think, npss actually does a significant amount of research when he writes these books, and a lot of the supernatural or fictional tomb elements aren’t so much explained through handwavy science as they are derived from well-documented real historical events or figures, much like magical realism is heavily grounded in reality despite slightly deviating from it in believable ways. dmbj is deeply informed by chinese culture and history, more so than just using it as the backdrop to a fantasy adventure story: they’re integral parts of the plot, which i think is part of what makes dmbj so difficult to navigate without extensive knowledge of that backdrop (which i by the way don’t pretend to have either, my own knowledge is very much surface level all things considered)

in light of this, as far as the queen mother of the west goes, considering the relatively reliable outside account of a hostile invasion we get from the ruins of tamutuo itself, and then li cu’s own take on king mu’s and the queen mother’s relationship, while the romance spin isn’t necessarily entirely false, it does leave a lot of question marks as to what exactly king mu saw in the queen of the west’s kingdom. that he was given the gift of longevity is highly likely given he’s still alive centuries later, along with other key elements of the wang family’s story i’ll get to in a bit. however, the uncertainty in the nature of their relationship does potentially make the queen of the west’s motivations for offering king mu longevity if not just as uncertain, then potentially a little more sinister, since while she might have offered out of love, if we assume all her experimentations weren’t geared at gaining immortality for herself, but rather curbing the side effects of it, then her gift was very much a poisoned one as she knew full well what would happen to him if he used it. for all we know, king mu might have, on defeating the queen mother’s kingdom, inflicted the “truth of the world” and the curse of longevity on himself, and none of it was never a gift at all, but the consequences of his own actions. but all of this is just speculation in the end as there’s no solid evidence pointing in any one direction. in any case, the only potential insight we get into the queen mother of the west’s thoughts come from maybe the vaguest source yet, a poem she supposedly composed for king mu that she gifted him when they parted, and that merebear translates as follows:

White clouds in the sky, the hills emerge. The road is far away, between mountains and rivers. The child who is not dead, can still come back.

knowing how many layers of meaning can be crammed into classical chinese poetry, i had to go find the original text and investigate further, so let me also provide that:

白云在天，山陵自出。 道里悠远，山川间之。 将子无死，尚能复来。

full disclaimer before i continue, poetry and its nuances are notoriously difficult to translate in any language, and i’m not at all claiming to be proficient enough at the chinese language without outside resources to help me to ever claim to be an expert, but while merebear’s translation isn’t technically incorrect, it has a few possible double meanings missing and some word choices i’m not quite sure i understand, but this is only my own humble contribution (with some creative license in the english rendition) that anyone with better knowledge than mine is welcome to correct or add on to as this isn’t so much an attempt at retranslating as it is pointing out a few possible added implications:

白云在天，山陵自出。

the white clouds are in the sky/the heavens, the lofty mountains/the great tombs emerge of their own accord. 山陵 can also be used, and has been in chinese literature, to refer to tombs of people of significant importance as usually big tombs tend to form burial mounds, hence why it can also refer to ‘hills’

道里悠远，山川间之。

the way forth is distant, it winds amid the mountains and rivers ‘mountains and rivers’, mountains especially, are commonly associated with the chinese concept of immortals called 仙 xian that even has the radical for mountain in it, in part due to their reclusive nature. i would link the interesting study i have on that but it’s unfortunately not in english, though feel free to ask for it anyway if anyone is interested

将子无死，尚能复来。

one who leads does not die, he may yet return 将子 in this context technically means ‘general’ and 将 can even refer to the chief piece in chinese chess which you know. keeping that in my book of crazy convenient zhang parallels re: the qipan zhang

make of this what you will, but if nothing else, it does suggest a bit more explicitly that the double meanings are indeed referring to immortality and potentially tombs, though what nature of tomb is the real question in that case

we then go on to learn from the wang powerpoint presentation that king mu never returned to visit the queen of the west once he returned home, but that contrary to how things may seem, despite having being recorded as having died at the age of 105, king mu in fact did not died, meaning at some point after he’d taken the queen of the west’s immortality elixir, he faked his own death and disappeared somewhere. both the wang instructor and wang xiaoyuan (the girl who peeks at li cu out the window) confirm that according to the third and  final account of king shang of lu’s story, king mu wasn’t dead at the time of those events, as he worked together with king shang and iron mask to find the jade burial armor (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 134, Deception)

this means he was spectacularly old by this point considering the warring states period starts at earliest in 476 BC. and king mu supposedly died around 918 BC. you do the math, but he was very very old. and to be honest this also somewhat feeds into the idea that the longevity curse (because it very much is a curse) used to last much longer before the side effects started to pop up, because if we’re to believe the wang family’s version of these events, then king mu was clearly still sane and not (or at least not entirely) a monster if he was still actively enacting the things he had planned

and so king mu, now long-lived because he took whatever immortality elixir the queen mother of the west gave him, had to face the consequences of that choice, yet rather than seek her out to find a way to quell the side effects of longevity (which he could have done and would have just ended up in the meteorite with her, although if he didn’t go to her, it gives a bit more weight to the idea that their story wasn’t necessarily a romance and/or that ulterior motives were involved), he went his own way to find something to save himself from turning into a monster, and eventually settled on finding a jade burial armor, which according to the wang family also came from the queen mother of the west’s kingdom. besides implying it’s likely that the jade armor is in fact made from the meteorite jade, it’s just one more thing to add to the long list of things tied to the heart of dmbj’s lore that end up having some form of association with the queen mother of the west. fun tidbit regarding this that’s not entirely relevant to anything (but it just adds more fuel to the crack theory), there’s an inscription on the belt of the green-eyed fox corpse where the qilin blood clot that wu xie accidentally swallows in book 1, and that merebear translates as “ruler of yinxi”, that reads as follows (Book 1, Ch. 21, Green-Eyed Fox Corpse):

阴西宝帝 or yinxi baodi

once again, take this with a grain of salt because this is an inscription that wu xie sees while he’s presumably under the influence of the green-eyed fox’s illusion, and instantly recognizes it as “a spell to ward off evil spirits”, so it might not mean anything, but if you had to find some kind of sense in it, while the characters together don’t really mean much of anything, separately they can mean:

阴 yin

opposite of 阳 yang, one of the two opposing energies in taoism and representative of many things, but namely of the feminine

西 xi

the west as cardinal direction

宝 bao

treasure, precious

帝 di

supreme being, often used in the titles and names of emperors such as huangdi (the yellow emperor) or qin shi huangdi (the first emperor of china). fun fact, wu xie during sand sea is often referred to as 邪帝 or emperor xie by the chinese fanbase in reference to how powerful he was during that time

i’m not saying this is meant to translate into a reference to the queen mother of the west because the association of characters is a bit strange, but again. food for thought (and a lot of creative license)

the wang powerpoint then goes on to explain that king mu’s objective, once he’d secured the jade armor, was to ensure both that he would be able to come back to the world fully rid of the side effects of immortality, and be able to do so safely, secure in the knowledge that the legacy of his findings would remain intact for him to find again. and so to do that, he essentially makes certain that chinese tradition incorporates the necessity of entombing people with a number of valuable things, and supposedly instigates this during the spring and autumn period (which is the period that precedes the warring states period and is generally considered to be one of extensive intellectual prosperity, confucius was a contemporary of that time for example) by, as the wang instructor implies, at least partially pushing to prominence things like the classic of rites (or lijing) that among other things promotes rich burials. while li cu calls into question the idea that king mu’s plan solely aimed at disseminating information for the sake of keeping his own acquired knowledge in circulation, since king mu’s further objective was also to use grave robbing to spread whatever information best served concealing “the truth of the world”, it’s clear that his plan was meticulously thought-out

the wang instructor himself admits this, though he quickly adds that king mu’s plan, crafty as it was if desperate, failed to take into account the possibility that he���d one day meet his match in the person of wang zanghai, who essentially hijacked his plan for his own purposes. i feel this seems to imply that things were going pretty smoothly for king mu of zhou until then, which would then call into question the first two versions of king shang of lu’s story if we assume king mu was the original wearer of the jade armor, albeit more recently than those stories presented it, but this is also where i start veering into big wild assumptions and crack theory territory. i won’t be get into the box with the baby or the particulars of the feud between the zhang family and wang zanghai/the wang family because while it’s tied to this, it also branches off into something else that’s probably a whole other meta and this is long enough as it is

it’s also worth noting that king mu of zhou, as well as instigating his masterplan, not only hid an elaborate map leading to the queen mother of the west’s kingdom only perceivable if you soak the stone slab it’s on “with a certain liquid” (which if you remember what happens in both book 8 in siguniang when wu xie and xiao hua gut a pig, and in tibetan sea flower where it’s wu xie who bleeds his special blood to reveal the secrets inside the bronze gate in tibet, gives you a hint at what the nature of that liquid might be), but wrote the details of his plan down on what’s called the yellow lu silkbook, not to be confused with the silkbook that wu xie pulls from “king shang of lu”’s coffin in book 1. merebear speculates it might be the silkbook that the photocopy jin wantang brings to him to kickstart the entire plot belongs to, and in my opinion that’s a good guess. it might also be one of the many silkbooks the lao jiumen pulled out of siguniang during the greatest joint tomb robbery in the 1960s. who knows really

all i can say about this particular part of the wang’s powerpoint lesson and the connection it shares with the multiple versions of the story of king shang of lu is that assuming the wang family’s version is both the most complete and the most accurate, then “king shang of lu” has a direct connection not only to king mu of zhou, but to the entirety of dmbj’s overarching plot. and while knowing who’s who at the end of the day doesn’t amount to much when much of dmbj’s story deals with the present day cast bearing the brunt of the consequences of their elders’ and older generations’ choices, i want to go further and say that this story potentially further cements connections and solidifies dmbj lore rather than complicate it

(wild conclusions tbc in part III of this madness)