#Xian Emperor

[exactlyfuturisticbeliever]

[dramashii]

Look at what you're saying. My surname was Fan from the start.

JOY OF LIFE 2 (2024) | Ep 33

[halorvic]

庆余年 / Joy of Life, S02E07

[movielosophy]

Joy of Life 2 | What a killjoy.

[highlynerdy]

my tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break. -shakespeare

[mira-likes]

I've previously joked about Fan Xian's daddy issues wrt the emperor, but on a rewatch, they surprisingly seem to surface for the first time in s2 episode 6. Or at least, that's the best way I can explain Fan Xian's approach to accusing the Second Prince of treason at family brunch.

I mean, it goes without saying that he wanted to reveal the Second Prince's crimes and bring him to justice. That's a given. But frankly, there were better ways to do that if that was the only thing on his mind. No, imo his other goal here was to test the emperor—the emperor's feelings about justice, and also about Fan Xian himself. He wanted to get a read on his importance to the emperor after finding out that he was secretly one of the emperor's kids.

The emperor has blown hot and cold to Fan Xian over time! He's given him a lot of leeway and indulgence, but on the other hand also sent him to Northern Qi and put him in danger, and also got properly furious at the whole fake death act. It's hard to figure him out. Fan Xian has reason to believe the emperor might value him; even right before the confrontation, the emperor summons him to family brunch with the princes (point 1 in the 'favour' column) and fakes his punishment for deceiving the ruler (point 2 in the 'favour' column). But ultimately Fan Xian doesn't know whom to trust at the moment, and he wants to see where the emperor stands on everything. And how Fan Xian measures up against the real princes in his estimation.

So he takes a gamble. And loses.

"Who do you think you are?" the emperor thunders at him, after he accuses the Second Prince.

And Fan Xian's mouth twists, like: also your kid, actually. But apparently my words don't weigh anything with you when an actual prince is here.

And he says as much to Chen Pingping later, while angrily cleaning the monument with his mother's words: "The emperor protected his own son. It's only natural." With the heavy implication of—he's chosen the son he wants to protect, and that's not me. And he's mad about everything that's happening—that the emperor chooses to shield the Second Prince even when he's committing crimes—but also a little about the fact that the emperor sided with the Second Prince over him.

(And then Chen Pingping says that the emperor didn't actually take Fan Xian's bureau position away, and does want him to investigate the Second Prince after all. And in so doing, he gets Fan Xian to calm down. Much of Fan Xian's new equilibrium is, of course, down to how he now sees a way to fight against the Second Prince! But he does stand up a little straighter once he realises the emperor wasn't actually against him that whole time. And imo that means something.)

[yinwaryuri]

Just gonna continue to love queer short films as long as they are made. Especially student films.

Love Ever After - Directed by Yunhe Zhang

[zhoudadudugongjin]

Liu Xie my poor beloved cinnamon roll

[faraige]

I love how the Emperor is in a romcom while everyone else is in a political intrigue murder mystery. Let him live happily in a 5+1 fic where he and Lyu Xian bond over how much they ship Xie Wei and Jiang Xuening and try to get them together.

[feng-huli]

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

[kchasm]

Ryu Number: Emperor Xian of Han

Emperor Xian was the final emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty in China—if you can call that empering. He was shoved onto the throne in 189 CE (at the age of eight) when the warlord Dong Zhuo seized control of the government and figured he needed a new style of figurehead, and spent the rest of his quote-unquote reign in a game of Keep-the-MacGuffin that kept him political puppet, hostage, and why-not-both. At the end of the kerfuffle three kingdoms came out on top—the territories headed by Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei—and in 220 CE the Cao Pi, Cao Cao's heir, finally cut the middleman and made Emperor Xian abdicate in his favor (establishing the new state of Cao Wei).

As for Ex-Emperor Xian, he was named a Duke and apparently spent the rest of his life in relative comfort. Prolly wouldn't have complained too loudly, anyway.

Welcome to Romance of the Three Kingdoms video games! We've got:

Multiple people have this name

Multiple people have this name, even when you factor hanzi into it

This Japanese game uses different kanji/hanzi for the name because of Japanese-specific simplification of kanji

This Japanese game uses different kanji/hanzi for the name because the kanji is just straight up written different between Chinese and Japanese

This Japanese game uses different kanji/hanzi for the name because Eiji Yoshikawa mistranslated the name in his seminal adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the mistranslation has percolated

The English translation is wrong

Emperor Xian of Han has a Ryu Number of at most 3.

[movielosophy]

Joy of Life 2 | Go have a drink with him.

[highlynerdy]

Take a look in the mirror, And what do you see? Do you see it clearer, Or are you deceived, In what you believe?

I'm only human, I make mistakes. I'm only human that's all it takes, To put the blame on me. x

[mira-likes]

When I first watched s2, I mentioned how I expected the emperor to have Thoughts about Fan Xian entering the Fan ancestral hall. I just didn’t see the emperor loving the idea of Fan Xian declaring himself as part of the Fan family after the emperor had very deliberately revealed his real parentage. I'd forgotten that the emperor actually brings up the subject in episode 10!

Right after Fan Xian stages that excellent show in the Imperial Court and gets the Censorate to investigate the Second Prince, the main dad council convenes. The emperor muses on how Fan Xian's scheming is deep for his young age, and segues from that to saying, offhand: “Is Fan Xian registered in the Fan ancestral hall? It’s better that he isn’t. His personality will bring a lot of trouble to the Fan family in the future.”

And because the emperor is very hard to read, there could be different options here!

Maybe the emperor means to emphasize the trouble part. In the discussion that follows soon after, he indicates he's miffed that the Second Prince is being so publicly investigated, and intends to protect him as his son. So he could be straight up saying: it may be better for the Fan family if you're not inextricably linked to Fan Xian and all of his future fuckery.

Or then the emperor is issuing Fan Jian a warning of a very different kind. Given that the emperor brings up the ancestral hall topic right on the heels of talking about Fan Xian's plotting acumen in an impressed tone, he could also be saying: hm, that kid just got more interesting… so let’s all remember that he is my kid, fellas, and not get ideas about registering him officially as yours.

To Fan Jian’s credit, he immediately and pointedly chortles that Fan Xian’s last name is Fan, ancestral hall or no, and Fan Jian is ready to take responsibility for all of his chaos. Like, in any case that man wants to stand his ground as the Main Dad. It’s no surprise that later in the season he’s touched by Fan Xian’s decision to enter the Fan ancestral hall and is fully onboard with the idea. But I do wonder if this little moment foreshadows an eventual conflict there...

[paddington-two]

well. I finished the first book that I've actively disliked so far this year

[malk-molk-milkshake]

For Pride Month, the story of the cut off sleeve

So, there is a story about Han Dynasty China, a time and place where bisexuality was the norm. Emperor Ai was having a nap in a traditional long-sleeve robe with his male companion, Dong Xian.

Eventually, the Emperor awoke from his nap, but his lover had not. To avoid waking him up, he instead chose to cut off the sleeve Dong Xian was sleeping on.

This spread through the court, and in tribute the Emperor's courtiers cut off one of their own sleeves. The tale eventually gave way to the saying “the passion of the cut sleeve", a euphemism for intimacy between two men.