#i don't tend to write out 'ai' honorifics in my fics but i DO write out 'khun' and 'phi'.

[kinnbig]

fighting for my life trying to navigate honorific use in kinnporsche bodyguard fics because so much of what is canon/word of god feels so weird djdjhdfj

the bodyguards are minor enough characters that for some of them you never specifically see what honorifics they use for one another on-screen. all of the (non-Chan) bodyguards we do see in canon use 'ai' for one another, so you'd expect that this would just be the case for all of them - BUT in their character story interview, Nodt says that he and Perth referred to each other as "ai'Ken" and "P'Big" while on set, and multiple BTS clips and interviews confirm that Perth/Ken does always seems to use 'Phi' for Big.

so... all of the bodyguards use 'ai' for one another, except for Ken, who is inexplicably polite to Big and Big alone.

afaik the only time we see a bodyguard need to use an honorific for Chan is in episode 6, where Arm refers to him as "P'Chan".

and sure! this makes sense. he's more polite to the senior bodyguard than he is to the others, but not as polite as he is to Kinn ("Khun Kinn") or Tankhun ("Khun-nu Tankhun"). but then in the behind the scenes video for this episode, Perth, while speaking as Ken, says "I'm here with P'Big, Arm, and Khun Chan". 'Phi' for Big, no honorific for Arm, 'Khun' for Chan.

so. aaaaa. what is the truth?! Perth. Perth bestie. you specifically are the problem here. EXPLAIN YOURSELF. please.

EITHER this is Perth (not Ken) overcorrecting and being more polite than he needs to be (which is not uncommon for people speaking second languages), and if Ken had spoken about Big or Chan in the show he'd have used 'ai' for Big and Arm and 'Phi' for Chan.

OR this is just. idk. canon. Ken is polite to Big exclusively, and then different bodyguards just are different levels of polite/formal towards Chan.

maybe this actually makes some sense? Chan canonically uses different honorifics for different bodyguards - some of them he refers to with 'ai' ("ai'Pete" in episode 6, when talking to Korn), and some of them he uses no honorifics for (just "Porsche" and "Big" in the first couple of episodes).

but also, it's weird. it feels wrong. using "P'Big" in a fic would feel jarring. but also I like it. it's cute. but what is the TRUTH.

[hunxi-guilai]

hey there!! hoping to get your input on this: ive seen plenty of fics where characters across the cql board will say just very openly "i love you." i don't know if this is a common way of expressing romantic love in ancient china? i could be wrong, but the FEELING i get is that it's more common to use gestures, or allude metaphorically to some poem/story instead of being so direct? i think theres an old-fashioned jpn phrase like "i'll make soup for u every day" to confess, anything similar here?

oof, so I’m going to go ahead and start by saying that I don’t know nearly enough to be make generalized statements about how romantic love is expressed in ancient/dynastic China or even in modern-day, because I’m just not widely-read/steeped in the culture enough. And even if I were, I still don’t know if I could make definitive statements on what can be considered a “common way of expressing love” because there are as many ways to express love as there are people and permutations of relationships on this planet. 

The renditions of love that tend to linger in our minds, however, tend to be defined by action: 梁山伯与祝英台 Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the butterfly lovers inseparable by death; 牛郎织女 Niu Lang and Zhi Nv, a mortal man and celestial maiden, crossing to each other over a bridge over the Milky Way made of magpies; 孟姜女 Meng Qiangnv breaking open the Great Wall with the force of her tears. Just gonna... put that out there.

I did include a brief discussion of the character 爱 ai in this post, which is the character that’s pretty much translates to ‘love’ (and many of its complicated English valences) in modern Mandarin. Given an earlier reading of 爱 not as ‘love,’ but as ‘begrudging, cherishing’ makes the possibility of saying 我爱你 woaini rather...unlikely in ancient China (especially when you consider that 我 wo and 你 ni were different pronouns back then, too... what I’m trying to say is that a simple ctext search hasn’t been helping me here).

I am, however, willing to bet that writing/reciting poetry for your lover was a Thing, and it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t seize every possible opportunity to add gratuitous poetry to a post:

《上邪》/ Shangye

上邪！/ High Heaven!

我欲与君相知，/ I want for us both to know each other

长命无绝衰。/ as long as life, with no decline or end

山无陵，江水为竭，/ When mountains lose their peaks, when river waters dry up,

冬雷震震，夏雨雪 ，/ when thunder rumbles in winter; when rain and snow fall in summer

天地合，乃敢与君绝！/ when sky and earth seal back together, only then will I dare end things with you!

One of the shortest pieces in the Hanyuefu, which I mentioned briefly in this post, 《上邪》 is an incredibly powerful declaration of love, loyalty, and devotion without using any of the above words (it does, however, use 知 zhi / knowing). 

Oh! Both 《上邪》and《卜算子》use 君 jun, which you might recognize from ‘Hanguang-jun’ or ‘Zewu-jun.’ In addition to being an honorific, 君 also appears often in poetry as a respectful second-person pronoun. Again, it’s technically gender-neutral, though most of the time it’s assumed to refer to a man.

《卜算子》李之仪， Busuanzi by Li Zhiyi (Northern Song Dynasty)

我住长江头，君住长江尾。/ I live at the head of the Yangtze; you live at the tail of the Yangtze,

日日思君不见君，共饮长江水。/ Day after day, I think of you but do not see you; we drink from the same river’s waters

此水几时休，此恨何时已。/ When will these waters rest? When will these feelings stop?

只愿君心似我心，定不负相思意。/ I only hope that your heart is similar to mine; I would not let down the intent of our mutual love.*

*note: this entire last line is rough, but I spent more time than I’d like banging my head against 相思, which I translated as ‘mutual love.’ It’s glossed in Pleco as ‘pining, lovesickness’ but literally means ‘mutual thought.’ 

The language of thought, of mutual thought, of the sentiment behind the phrase thinking of you, is something that goes way, way back. It’s in 《饮马长城窟行》, from the poetry post I linked earlier; it’s also referenced in the last line of 《楚辞·山鬼》Mountain Ghost from the Songs of the South: 思公子兮徒离忧 / only in thinking of you can I depart from sorrows.

Oh! Here’s a classic declaration of love -- literally, from the 《诗经》 Shijing / Classic of Poetry: 

[...]

执子之手，与子偕老 / I’ll hold your hand, and with you grow old...

[...]

It’s the most famous line from 《国风·邶风·击鼓》which I think is actually a... war poem? So a poem that’s primarily all about that Mutual Loyalty and Manly Camaraderie, but one that has had its most iconic line co-opted for the sheer romance of it all.

I’m not going to translate《击鼓》 fully because trying to read the 《诗经》is one of my personal nightmares, but you can find it here on ctext with the James Legge translation, which, admittedly, takes some liberties with the text.

One last poem, because the last line is peak pining:

《越人歌》 Yuerenge

今夕何夕兮 搴洲中流，/ What evening is this evening? Drifting in the river current.*

今日何日兮 得与王子同舟。/ What day is today? That I can travel in the same boat as you, prince

蒙羞被好兮 不訾诟耻，/ I hide my shyness, cover my fondness; there will be no slander or gossip or shame*

心几烦而不绝兮 得知王子。/ My heart is troubled, unending -- to come to know you, prince

山有木兮木有枝，心说君兮君不知。/ On mountains, there are trees; on trees, there are branches -- my heart delights in you, and you do not know.

*leaning heavily on the baidu-baike glosses

The story I’ve always been told about 《越人歌》 is that a prince of Chu, fleeing political strife in his state, crosses a river in a boat poled by a young woman of the state of Yue. She recognizes the fleeing prince and sings this song to him as she poles across the river. The catch is that she sings it in the language of the state of Yue, so he has absolutely no idea that she’s confessing her admiration and love for him.

This story, according to my Google searches, is inaccurate, but OH WELL, the last line is still peak pining regardless.