#ma xuiying

[captainamsel]

Ma Xiuying from the Radiant Emperor duology!

Design/research notes under the cut

The characters read 馬秀英 (Pinyin: mǎ xiù yīng), her personal name, and 孝慈高皇后 (xiào cí gāo huáng hòu), her name as Empress.

There's certainly no dearth of material on Chinese clothing history out there. That is, if you can read Chinese, which I can't, so everything I have is from secondary and tertiary sources and/or relies on translation software. Fortunately, we're dealing with historical fantasy here, so some anachronisms are not only allowed but encouraged.

While Shelley Parker-Chan takes many liberties, the books are still set in a very specific time period, which is both a blessing and a curse. Most readily accessible resources will tell you about dynasties, which can span hundreds of years, and the duology takes place in a transitional period. So how to dress a Semu girl from the Yuan dynasty who lives with Nanren rebels wanting to revive the Song dynasty and who later becomes the first Ming empress?

Let's go through them one by one. The best resource was this book which is on the Internet Archive. I disregarded Mongol and Semu influences for the design since clothing is very much political and a way to either stand out or fit in with the surrounding society, see for example Wang Baoxiang wearing a topknot in Khanbaliq. Ma, I imagine, would want to fit in with the Nanren around her, so she's pretty much wearing the attire of Han women under Yuan rule. For the hair I went for something that looks youthful while being plausible, though I found very little on hair in this period, so who's to say.

The next one is from a specific scene in the book, so there is some description to go on: red, long sleeves with gold embroidery, high hair, red and gold ribbons. Since this is the scene where Ma declares herself queen and future empress in front of the Red Turban, it has to be a very deliberate dress. It therefore takes inspiration from Song aristocrats' broad-sleeved gowns as well as from 翟衣 (dí yī), the highest ceremonial gown of both Song and Ming empresses. (Some examples for 翟衣 are in this post, which also features the bird shaped crown I just had to include, and this post.) Her hair still has the loops, but it's much more sculpted.

Finally, Empress Ma! This is mainly based on the two actual portraits I could find of the historical figure that Ma is based on, with elements taken from other portraits and paintings. It includes 凤冠 (fèng guān), the phoenix crown, 霞帔 (xiá pèi), the sash, and 禁步 (jīn bù), the jade belt. This video shows how Ming dynasty layers are worn, but it refers to a much later period so it's not quite the same as Ma's.

(Some additional, historically irrelevant notes: I realized too late that a right-to-left timeline might be more appropriate. Oh well! Also, how the colours photograph frustrates me, I swear I did not make her this deathly pale. And finally, some of the characters look a bit smudged because my cat spilled water on them. I did what I could to save them.)

[nineveh-uk]

@thestoriesthatweweave I love the concept of Esen having picked up that Ouyang doesn't touch much (but of course not considered why), and thinking that's what he got wrong, rather than what he said! And so making the attempt at saying something again.

And @astrarche-x I am putting the tags in the post because they are so important:

#also sidenote I very much think esen is trying very hard to get ouyang to say that he's emotionally attached to him#all those times he says oooh you're so lucky you only care about your sword unlike me#<- prev oh OMG HE DOES. he totally does. i can't with them#Ouyang being like ''oh you certainly prefer company of other people (say you want me. choose me)'' and Esen going ''no you're the best <3''#vs Esen being like ''you don't care about anyone. i could never choose solitude like you (say you care. tell me you want me too)''#and Ouyang just totally missing that 😭😭😭#also totally agree with your point re: their emotional intelligence#sorry for replying to you both in one reblog. idk how to tumblr :(#and you're both so right i take back my tags abt fairy godmother

Yes I LOVE this! I always think that some of Esen's Esenisms come from the fact that he is, ironically, attempting to be close to Ouyang. Like, the bit about "you're so lucky, no women" is absolutely an attempt at connection and a kind of toxic male bonding of the "women are bitches, yeah" kind intended to connect them both as men. And of course Ouyang misses it, because (i) Esen is obliviously stabbing really hard on some sore points, but also (ii) Ouyang's aforementioned emotional intelligence, of course he can't notice Esen trying to connect, when he's kidding himself that he doesn't want it.

what do you people think. if Esen was alone when Ouyang returned from Bianliang. would they have kissed

[kiuslife-blog]

#Xuii#4

Á thì ra là phải viết bkd phải chép phạt T tưởng cô ghi sổ phạt ld thôi chứ ..... Chép phạt 30 lần 32 từ nhân lên là 900 từ r hảo ma Bản kiểm điểm? Không sao chị đây viết quen tay rồi tự viết tự kí lo gì (tất nhiên mình kí k giống nhưng thằng bạn kí giống hảo ma) M muốn tự kí? Đừng tưởng cô đây không biết. T nhắn tin về cho mẹ m đọc, xem m tự kí tự nộp đc k. Ai bảo t đang tiền mãn kinh chứ Rồi thế là bkd viết xong kí xong lại viết lại đưa mẹ kí. Cuộc đời