#qian shan cha ke

[toomuchwist]

i love love love qian shan cha ke's marriage of the di daughter and its adaptation, the double, did it absolute justice, i'm still not over finishing it. i hope all her novels are done just as well.

[smittenskitten]

Male leads in Qian Shan Cha Ke's books

Male lead: *smug* behave yourself. Do not take advantage of me.

Female lead: 😒😒😒

A few chapters later

Male lead: *🥺👉👈* please take advantage of me

[pinkpolkadotflower]

I just reread Rebirth of a Star General in the hope that would help bridge the gap until the drama airs and I saw this part !!

And I’m like omg is that a reference to Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage because I also literally reread that before reading this novel 😍

[limecello]

TBR Challenge Discussion: (Bananapants!) The Double

Hi friends! So this isn’t a review since the series hasn’t finished airing yet – but like I said in my previous post – I live here now (thanks). Seriously even if you have no plans of watching this drama YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE TRAILER! IT’S SO GOOD! The prompt for June is “bananapants” and In a way, the drama is even more bananapants than the book. (Which is a transmigration revenge romance. I’ve…

[mxtxfanatic]

Book of the Week: Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage

Author: Qian Shan Cha Ke (千山茶客)

Genre: ancient setting, josei

Rating: M (very mature, dark themes but not too graphic of depictions)

My Synopsis: What happens when a girl gets tired of being nice and decides to go apeshit? You get Shen Miao, our adorable 30+ year-old protagonist recently stuffed back into her 14-year-old self and ready to eat the flesh and drink the blood of her enemies! Using this new lease on life, she’ll methodically and maliciously ruin every antagonist’s life using the tools in her versatile skillset, including: knowledge of the future, a psychological understanding of assholes, weaponized gender stereotypes, and men. And lest we forget our love interest, Xie Jing Xing: the boy/man (cause god forbid the author know how old anyone BUT Shen Miao is…) who thought he had it all figured out until he discovered that Shen Miao is a horny drunk. See just how far they’ll go to bathe in the blood of their enemies while keeping their loved ones safe in this very long but extremely satisfying novel.

My Actual Review: It’s so satisfying to see a previously downtrodden character scheme her way into a happy ending, and Shen Miao fucking deserves it. Some reviews that I’ve seen have claimed that the LI eventually takes over her revenge schemes, but I didn’t see it. They just partner up and she uses his manpower to do what she wants. There are also places where their separate goals intersect, so it just makes more sense for him to do the cleanup. The thing about Shen Miao is that she has no issues with letting others do the work for her, especially if it’s against people she wasn’t invested in putting work against to begin with. It’s the empress in her, I fear. As for the main pair as a couple, I loved their every interaction, and their descent into romance felt natural and gratifying. Greatest thing about this romance is the fact that it truly kicks off because Xie Jing Xing did not know to guard against horny drunk Shen Miao lmao!

The translation is pretty good outside of some clunky grammar, but once you train your eyes to glaze over the the five-millionth time the translator inserts directly into the story to complain about how often the LI is described as hot (unlike every other character, I guess???) as if this book is their early 2000s fanfic, it gets even better! Another thing that may or may not be here nor there is that this author is really weird with age consistency. Like, “MC is forever un-aging while everyone else ages 2 years every few months” weird. Shen Miao is forever 14 until the time skip in which she is forever 16, while Xie Jing Xing goes from “the same age as the students” to “17/18ish” to “vaguely in his 20s” during the same course of time where we literally never see Shen Miao acknowledge a birthday in any year. As for more serious content warnings, this story involves underage relationships (including non-explicit sex, marriage, and pregnancy), rape as a weapon, (assumed) incest between cousins, child abuse, and described but not explicitly shown torture. Though there are some humorous parts, this is not a lighthearted story. Read if you want something dark with an ultimate happy ending.

Translation: complete

[silviakundera]

The Double general ending comments, trying to stay minimal spoiler

The final episodes were fine enough with some fun moments. The drama never promised to be a refined & insightful period piece; I tend to calibrate media & my expectations of it against the sub-genre. My princess went out like a boss and the drama tried its best to pull all their characters together at the end and give everyone a couple good 'moments'. (Reminds me a bit of how AJTL created a final confrontation arc that attempted to touch all the moving pieces. Except this time we weren't going for a total party kill lol.)

Sure, the screenwriter/director, like the original author, struggle mightily with narrative pacing and editing. But in the end, I was surprised and elated to see one of Qian Shan Cha Ke's zany works adapted and ACTUALLY AIR. 😮 So I'm content.

C-ent, I promise to be good 😇😇 and soften my critical eye if you will actually complete production of Malicious Empress and release it. Pretty pretty please? 🙏

Was this drama as great as it could have been? Definitely not. Was it more enjoyable to me than some other dramas that aired in 2023/2024? Definitely yes. If you watched this instead of Fox Matchmaker, did you make a good life choice? Probably.

[blobofcolour]

Binged read 第一侯 The First Marquis by 希行 a few weeks back and since then I can’t find something new to scratch my reading itch. The synopsis of other Xi Xing’s novels don’t catch my eye, but pls let me know if there’s something by Xi Xing that I shouldn’t miss out on!

The trailers for cdrama The Double got me interested in its original novel 嫡嫁千金 Marriage of the Di Daughter, but I’m mid way through it and it’s doing nothing for me. I conclude that I simply don’t vibe with 千山茶客 Qian Shan Cha Ke’s writing cos I similarly didn’t care much for the characters in Rebirth of a Star General 女将星 (tho I did finish reading that one).

On a female general related note, I on the other hand absolutely loved 将嫁 Jiang Jia by 绕梁三日 where the description/experiences of our FL felt so raw and real, as what I would expect of an actual general. Star General was too idol drama-y that I can’t take the FL seriously as a general. But then again, Jiang Jia is really about the FL’s journey as a war-weary general suffering from PTSD trying to find a sliver of peace, and the story and writing style is probably not for everyone.

Anyways. I need another cnovel!

[eyenaku]

Ji ji fu ji ji

a o e i i er ai ei ao ou an en ang eng ong i ia iao ie iu ian in iang ing iong u ua uo uai ui uan un uang ueng ü üe üan ün a o e er ai ao ou an en ang eng yi ya yao ye you yan yin yang ying yong wu wa wo wai wei wan wen wang weng yu yue yuan yun b ba bo bai bei bao ban ben bang beng bi biao bie bian bin bing bu p pa po pai pei pao pou pan pen pang peng pi piao pie pian pin ping pu m ma mo me mai mei mao mou man men mang meng mi miao mie miu mian min ming mu f fa fo fei fou fan fen fang feng fu d da de dai dei dao dou dan den dang deng dong di diao die diu dian ding du duo dui duan dun t ta te tai tei tao tou tan tang teng tong ti tiao tie tian ting tu tuo tui tuan tun n na ne nai nei nao nou nan nen nang neng nong ni niao nie niu nian nin niang ning nu nuo nuan nü nüe l la le lai lei lao lou lan lang leng long li lia liao lie liu lian lin liang ling lu luo luan lun lü lüe g ga ge gai gei gao gou gan gen gang geng gong gu gua guo guai gui guan gun guang k ka ke kai kei kao kou kan ken kang keng kong ku kua kuo kuai kui kuan kun kuang h ha he hai hei hao hou han hen hang heng hong hu hua huo huai hui huan hun huang z za ze zi zai zei zao zou zan zen zang zeng zong zu zuo zui zuan zun c ca ce ci cai cao cou can cen cang ceng cong cu cuo cui cuan cun s sa se si sai sao sou san sen sang seng song su suo sui suan sun zh zha zhe zhi zhai zhei zhao zhou zhan zhen zhang zheng zhong zhu zhua zhuo zhuai zhui zhuan zhun zhuang ch cha che chi chai chao chou chan chen chang cheng chong chu chua chuo chuai chui chuan chun chuang sh sha she shi shai shei shao shou shan shen shang sheng shu shua shuo shuai shui shuan shun shuang r re ri rao rou ran ren rang reng rong ru rua ruo rui ruan run j ji jia jiao jie jiu jian jin jiang jing jiong ju jue juan jun q qi qia qiao qie qiu qian qin qiang qing qiong qu que quan qun x xi xia xiao xie xiu xian xin xiang xing xiong xu xue xuan xun

[toomuchwist]

lu tong's fiance ruse evolution:

1. lu tong using the 'i'm in the capital to reunite with my fiance' excuse to locals.

2. lu tong making a pretence of being close to 'xiao pei' to madam dong so she can use his name as leverage around these parts.

3. pei yunhuan confronting her for throwing around his name.

pyh: so why didn't you correct madam dong when she misunderstood our relationship?

lu tong: tongues belong to other ppl. it’s hard to explain the misunderstanding. idc abt it and neither shld you, commander.

pyh: but why did i hear that it was doctor lu who hinted at it? does your fiance know abt this?

lu tong: you don't have to worry abt him. he is very understanding.

4. pyh trying to observe propriety, only to be roasted.

pyh: dr lu, aren't you afraid that i will ruin you reputation if i apply medicine in your room? don't forget you have a fiance.

lu tong: in my eyes, you are no different from a piece of pork buried under a tree.

5.

pyh: ppl might think we have an affair atp.

lu tong: dw, even if i had an affair, i wouldn't look for someone like you.

6. lu tong blatantly asking to share the same perfume as pei yunhuan, which is something so intimate only couples do it.

lu tong: ths fragrance you use is cool and refreshing. i like it very much. i want to make one according to the recipe and wear it on my body.

pyh, very slowly: you want to make the same fragrance i have and wear it on your body?

7. pei yunhuan starting to manifest himself as lu tong's fiance.

pyh: after tonight, rumours will fly abt you and me. are you afraid of your fiance finding out?

lu tong: …

pyh, smiling: but ig he doesn’t mind much.

lu tong: wdym?

pyh, raising his brows and glancing at his silver ring:

lu tong: it's not you.

pyh: oh?

pyh: young and promising, from a noble family, working in the palace and very busy. they are made for each other. she travelled to fulfil their engagement.

pyh, showcasing his dimples: listening to shopkeeper du’s description, i thought it was me.

8. lu tong saying it’s a shame pei yunhuan cut off ties with his possible in laws, the qi family, and pyh going: you can't talk nonsense. after all, i'm already engaged.

lu tong: i told you my fiance isn't you.

pyh, nodding lazily: oh.

9. pei yunhuan becoming jealous bc duan xiaoyan cannot read the room and he had inadverntently repaired another man's token for lu tong.

dxy: didn't i hear that medical officer lu has a myseterious fiance? is there a possibility that the jade pendant is a token of love given to her by her fiance? she keeps it with her everyday. ah, i should have looked more carefully to see if there was a name engraved on it!

xiao zhufeng being a little shit: fiance? spending a lot of money to repair the love token of my crush's fiance...

dxy: wayment, we spent a lot of money for it to be medical officer ji's. anyway, medical officer ji is medical officer lu's fiance. can we ask him for the money back? also, medical officer lu has good taste! from appearance alone, they look like a golden couple from heaven!

pyh: she doesn't seem to recognise him as her fiance. also, were you paid by ji xun? with all your bragging, you seem like you're from the ji family. go and do some laps.

10.

xzf: isn't it just a matter of losing the reputation as lu tong's fiance? why're you being so mad at everyone else?

pyh: be quiet.

11.

ji xun, upon seeing pei yuhuan move something in lu tong’s room: she doesn't like other ppl touching her things.

pyh, provocatively: but i am not someone else to her.

12.

xzf: i'm worried abt you. after all, she does have her fiance, ji xun.

pyh: that’s your conjecture.

xzf: he is a gentleman with good conduct.

pyh: what abt a gentleman? in her eyes, he is nothing better than a dead pig buried under a tree.

xzf: you’re confident?

pyh: ofc. i'm different than you. you like silently pining, but for me, liking means possessing. dont say she has anything to do with ji xun. even if there is, if she really likes ji xun, i will…

xzf: what?

pyh: i will break them up.

13.

pyh, post-rejection: what should we do? we are master and disciples, and all of us had bad relationships and were abandoned. maybe it’s bc the feng shui here is not good so things always go against our wishes.

14.

pyh: i'm gonna die with you. anyway, you said before that you wanted to die with me. i will live in the same quilt, die in the same cave, and share the same grave after death. i will only do it with my wife. dr lu, if you can't find a way out, we can share a grave today after death.

lu tong: who wants to die with you?! this is not funny. don't make fun of your life.

15. pyh confronting lu tong about lying when she said she didn't like him after finding out she kept whittled wood from pyh's wooden tower and a knot she made to give to him in her medical box as a keepsake.

16. lu tong finally accepting that she's in love with pei yunhuan.

lu tong: ask me what i want.

pyh: what do you want?

[lu tong grabbing him for a kiss]

17. pyh seeing that he has indeed succeeded in manifesting his dream to become lu tong's fiance 😌

pyh: if you don't like a gentleman like ji xun who cares abt the world, then what kind of person do you like?

lt: i am a superficial person and i like good looking people.

pyh, pretending to be surprised: this sounds like a confession.

lt: after all, the selection of commander of the imperial guard has always been based on appearance.

pyh, laughing, but in the next breath: lu tong, let’s get married.

[smittenskitten]

Seems like when I start reading a novel I will look up the author's other books, and if their other works follow the same theme I would read those books too.

Qian Shan Cha Ke's books are very female lead oriented, drives towards revenge and it's so soooo satisfying but the ending kind of falls apart for me.

Mo Shu Bai has excellent writing, romance driven even though it's slow but executed very well.

September Flowing Fire books have a start and a finish, it's very chill. The only thing worth mentioning is probably they have some provocative novel titles but in the end they are just titles.

[dreamymagazine-blog]

If I could, I would cast them together for Deng Hua Xiao by Qian Shan Cha Ke. But with each doing a different novel by the author already, the chances are slim.

Zhou Ye and Wang Xinyue for Neufmode photoshoot to pre-heat for The Scent of Time drama airing on Youku

[limecello]

I Live Here Now, Thanks (Talking Up The Double)

Hi all! Since I’ve been convincing people left and right to watch The Double, a currently airing Cdrama, I was like “wait how could I ignore this whole ass site I own?” [I mean >.> answer is “pretty damn easily,” considering *gestures* – BUT ANYWAY.] I’ve mostly been talking about it on Bluesky which is where I hang out most on the socials now … but I know not everyone is there (JOIN US!) And…

[shuuenka]

I've been re-reading 'Marriage of the Di Daughter' (嫡嫁千金) by Qian Shan Cha Ke (author of ‘Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage’). Ji Heng ahh, he’s such a good male lead. Our biggest beauty! 

[dangermousie]

Fourth Wing has totally broken my reading slump - it is SUCH a delight in the most deliciously cliche way!

It has dragons, rebellion, weird military school, a lot of hot dudes in leather whose muscles "ripple" (which makes me imagine them constantly flexing), secrets, first love childhood BFF who will of course never rise past SML status, enemies to lovers, quips, DRAGONS. Did I mention dragons?

Basically, it's every fun YA dystopian novel of the last decade and a half meets a Qian Shan Cha Ke novel and it's as delightful as you'd imagine as our FL, tiny, physically fragile but incredibly determined Violet rides both a dragon and her 6'4, built like a tank, heavily tattooed son of rebel leader ML.

What's not to love?

I saw some reviewer complain that this is basically a romance only occasionally interrupted by fantasy. Sorry reviewer - you aren't wrong but that is precisely what makes it so fucking glorious!

[andoqin]

C-Novel Rec

So, I have a Deep Abiding Love for Chinese Webnovels, but not often do I get one that actually gets me deep in my heart in a way where I think about it after I’m done and so I wanted to talk about it a little here.

The novel I want to talk about is called Rebirth of a Star General (重生之女将星) , by Qian Shan Cha Ke (千山茶客). If you’ve read (hetero) c-novels, you might know her name, since she also wrote the novel Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage, which is almost a classic in this kind of rebirth genre. 

This Rec/Review/overlong essay is going to contain spoilers, so if you’re completely allergic to those I’ll just give you my TL;DR here: I preferred it a lot over RMEML.

Now to my endless wall of words:

Rebirth of the Star General is pretty much what it says on the tin, main character He Yan, is a famous general in her own right, but no one knows about it because she was only the stand-in for her sickly brother. When her brother grew up and was no longer sick, the family decided that he should receive the military honors she had earned and she would be married off. This was possible thanks to the fact she had always worn a mask, so as not to be discovered.<o:p></o:p>

He Yan was not entirely happy with this decision, but she thought she would make the best of it. Of course, it gets worse because not even a year into her marriage she is first poisoned and then blind as a result and later murdered by her cousin, a concubine of her husband.

She gets reborn as He Yan, beloved and spoiled daughter of a city guard and vows revenge, both on her former husband and on her family, but most of all she longs to become a general again, but this time under her own name and with acknowledgement of her being a female general. 

If you want your rebirth novels to include lots of face slapping or intricate revenge plotting, this is not the novel for you, since soon after she is reborn, she kills a guy out of self-defense and when his family and the city guard are after her she uses this chance to enlist in the army, disguised as a man. 

This is where she meets her arch-rival in her previous life, a man so gorgeous, once again entire paragraphs are filled trying to describe his magnificent beauty - a hallmark of this author if I ever saw one. She decides she will use this chance anyway, her knowledge of military tactics and her knowledge of her rival (and former classmate) possibly being beneficial in this case. 

The author makes it a point to emphasise that He Yan struggles initially to keep up with the military training, since she is now inhabiting the body of a woman who does not have experience with hard work and that she has to work twice as hard to be even mediocre, in the beginning. Obviously mediocrity does not lead to quick military advancement, so her getting incredibly fit very quickly anyway is not very realistic, but even before she had enlisted, He Yan had trained her new body and she has many years of experience as to how to get better and fighting experience, so I gave the novel a pass on that one. 

Up to this point the novel was entertaining, but it didn’t really grip me too hard, although I was impatient enough to MTL it, but as the story goes along He Yan really developed into one of my favourite c-novel heroines ever. So often in novels like this, the female character is treated as exceptional and all other women are dumb bitches, often just in the way of our main couple and dispatched accordingly. But He Yan does not treat other women like this and over the course of the novel builds lasting connections with all sorts of women.

And then there is the scene that made me go: okay yeah, this is going right up the favourite list.

He Yan meets up with the Second Male Lead (who never really is a serious threat to the OTP, He Yan only ever sees him as a friend and somewhat nice guy) and he tries the “oh you’re so unique and special, no other woman is like you” speech, but He Yan stops him and rips into him and the patriarchy in such a beautiful way, that even MTL doesn’t hamper:

   "A-He is very different from ordinary women."

     He Yan looked at her, "What's different?"

     Chu Zhao continued to walk forward, his voice still soft: "Most women, even though they are faced with such a predicament, are already numb and indifferent, and do not think as much as Ah He does. If A-He is thinking about them now, it is very likely that they wont enjoy it, and they will even complain that you are meddling in their affairs."

     He laughed: "This sounds a bit condescending."

     Chu Zhao smiled, "Why do you say that?"

     "The court is a man's court, the world's affairs are a man's world affairs, even when studying in the battlefield, it is men who are the only ones who have the grace. It is so unreasonable that men take advantage of the world, but in turn blame women for being numb-minded and unmotivated, what is this if not superiority?"

     "Brother Chu thinks that I am different from ordinary women because I have studied, I have left the house, and I even went to the military camp. But if you let those women be like me, who have seen the snow of Liangzhou Wei, the water of Jiyang City, the long moon of the desert, the rivers and mountains, do you think they would still be willing to be trapped in a jealous mansion, would they still be complacent and numb and foolish?"

     She smiled a little bit like Xiao Jue, "I think the men in the world are worried about this, so they have set up many ridiculous rules to bind women, breaking their wings with the three rules and five rules, and using those unwarranted 'virtuous wives and beautiful women' to judge them. The more foolish they are, the more reassured the men are, and the more they say, 'See, the women are shallow', when they are the ones who caused it!"

     "Because they also know that once women are given the chance to 'choose', they will never become a vase in the harem with their hands outstretched waiting to be fed by their husbands. Those good women would become generals, chivalrous men, scribes, staff, and compete with them for the grace of the world, and they, in turn, might not win."

     The girl's eyes were as clear as the water in the springtime of Ji Yang City, transparent and clear, seeing clearly and distinctly, as if they could reflect the most splendid daylight.

     He was always able to speak well and would not bring the atmosphere to an awkward point, but at this moment he did not know what to say. It was as if there was nothing he could say to refute the person in front of him. It was clearly a ridiculous, insouciant, naive and annoyingly righteous statement, but it shone out the shadow of a human being, with nothing to hide.

    He was also uneven in his heart.

     Although pretending to be "He Ru Fei" had brought her a lot of pain in her life, it had also taught her to see sights that many women would never see in their lifetime. If she hadn't pretended to be "He Ru Fei", she would not have known that men could do so much more than women. If you were talented in literature, you could be a bachelor with a full belly, if you were skilled, you could be a general with a good war record. Even if you were mediocre at everything, you could still be the most ordinary man on the street. To put it mildly, even at the Raketongzhuang, women were gambling prostitutes and men were gamblers.

    It was only because she later became "Madam Xu" and worked as both a man and a woman that she realised that the world treats men and women so differently, that it is not that men do not suffer, but their suffering can be the basis for judging themselves. The women, on the other hand, spend their lives waiting for the men's affirmation of their hardships.

    It is obvious that they are both born as human beings, but who is more noble than the other? It is ridiculous that some men still look down on girls from the bottom of their hearts, which makes people speechless.

and this is when the author pretty much states why He Yan would never be with SML 

   Chu Zhao and Xiao Jue were, after all, not the same. With women, they both considered them weak and unable to protect themselves. But the former's judgement had a hint of negativity and condescension in it, while the latter, as evidenced by the treatment of the female corpse in the Sun family's backyard in Liangzhou City, had more to do with pity.

And I loved that so much??? Yes, both the ML and SML have patriarchical attitudes towards women, but for He Yan there is a subtle and important difference. And this continues to be a theme throughout the book. One woman later keeps telling her son “Don’t underestimate women!” to later add, after He Yan has become a female general in her own right, under her own name, that He Yan might not be the only female general, there will be two, three or even more.

The romance is of the very, very slow variety and the main couple doesn’t even get together until the last quarter of the novel, officially, but before that we have all sorts of delicious fake relationship, cohabitation and other delightful tropey shenanigans.

The slow romance and relatively easy way the revenge is dealt out might mean this is not for everyone, but if you’re into a nice novel about a woman realising her goals, with a man who will always support her by her side, this might be for you.

And yes, she continues to lead armies after they are married :D

[silviakundera]

The Double ep 1 - 3

I always feel like....how do you adapt something as outrageously OTT as a Qian Shan Cha Ke novel?

You gotta bring it down to earth and go gritty realism OR lean into the dark fairytale and fever-dream logic of it all.

Duke Su and the Princess are appropriately extreme in their entrances. Absolutely ludicrous and theatrical. Instead of toning it down for live action, they went all in. That first scene with Duke Su had me screaming 😂😭.

There's really no way to naturally get around the rebirth component, so let's all just turn our brains off and pretend everyone wouldn't recognize that the dead Province's Most Talented is pretending to be Jiang Li. (Honestly, shoulda just gone with In Blossom face-swapping wuxia science).

Nice meet-ugly for the otp. He's vicious and dramatic af. She's conniving and audacious. They're getting entwined much faster than in the novel, which is for the best. Qian Shan Cha Ke seems to love manipulative bastard x manipulative bastard ships who are hot for each other's scheming abilities and so far the drama definitely captures that vibe.

Love a melodramatic man who punctuates via fan, see: Wen Kexing; SQQ

Opening Credits are very mid though.