#who have I become

[magicomens]

Hellooo I'm back sooner than expected! I had a drawing marathon bc I want to post part 7 in two weeks for cruel irony purposes (Merlin fans might have an idea)

First >> Prev >> Next

[twelve-forfend]

Well, I did say this was a multi-fandom blog... Alright, let's do this.

The Qing Jing Peak Lord's Bamboo House

(and the symbolism therein, as recorded in the donghua)

I was snooping through the establishing shots of the Qing Jing Peak Lord's Bamboo House, and had to laugh as I always do at all the gay symbolism that managed to sneak its way inside. But then I looked a little closer, and was floored by just how much passive storytelling was packed into background assets. I talked about it at length over discord, and at the urging of others decided to make a shareable post on social media as well.

First, the shots which first piqued my interest in this topic years ago:

Shen Yuan transmigrates into the stallion-genre webnovel entitled 狂傲仙魔途 (translated as Proud Immortal Demon Way). The author's and his own usernames are dick jokes.

Notice the chrysanthemum vase, the cock vase, and the stallion statuette.

The stallion and cock are obvious nods to these jokes on their own, but for the uninitiated, the chrysanthemum is a symbol of gay sex between men, as the asshole itself is often euphemistically referred to as a chrysanthemum. This should have been Shen Yuan's first clue that not all is as it seems here! These are the personal quarters of Shen Jiu — the original Shen Qingqiu!

But let's move to the main room you first walk into upon entering the bamboo house.

There it is: the writing on the wall.

As the Peak Lord of strategy and the scholarly arts, Shen Qingqiu would naturally have calligraphy and paintings hanging everywhere! So let's break it down.

On the top we have 道㳒自然 ("Dao Follows Nature"), which comes from a Dao teaching by Laozi (founder of Daoism) meaning that life, death, the entire universe, the heavens and earth and everything outside and inbetween, all follow a set of laws referred to as the nature of things. Although unrelated to the Buddhist couplet below, it's certainly relevant!

Originally hanging in right-to-left order, I've arranged them to read left to right here to make things easier to keep track of. The calligraphy reads 西方竹葉千年翠；南海蓮九品香 and is a couplet commonly found in Guanyin temples. My classical chinese is not as strong as I'd like, but this translates roughly to "The bamboo leaves in Paradise are green for a thousand years / The fragrance of lotus flowers in the South China Sea is as thick as 9 sticks of incense."

The character 西 for West is used to denote the destination of enlightenment/purity: the buddhist Paradise (think Journey to the West). The South China Sea is where Guanyin was born. Upon the Lotus flowers is where Guanyin is commonly depicted as sitting. The "9 sticks of incense" though literal can also refer to the 9 tiers/grades of reincarnation lotuses with the 9th tier being the lowest, meant for those who in life committed the most evil of crimes — the 4 parajikas — and who can only manage a sincere Amitabha recitation 10 times and no more than this.

To put this in context with Shen Jiu (the same jiu as in 9/九), the 4 parajikas committed by the 9th Tier Lotuses Reborn (officially entitled the Lowest of the Low) are:

Sexual Intercourse

Stealing

Murder

Claiming attainments of stages of pure mental concentration that have not been achieved (in other words, rushing or lying about your cultivation/enlightenment, or maybe even becoming a Peak Lord without having formed a golden core beforehand).

From what we know in the context of the novel, Shen Jiu is innocent of at least the first of this parajikas, but the overall view of Shen Jiu in the eyes of others in the story is that he is guilty of them all. This calligraphy can be seen as a condemnation or a reminder for the character Shen Jiu, who even as the Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu is widely thought of as a scum villain and the lowest of the low.

Phew! That's a lot to unpack.

But if you turn your gaze to the original screenshot, you'll see to the right that there's a vase painted with a blue bird. This vase appears in several rooms of the bamboo house, and seems to be the image of a qingniao (青鸟; lit: Qing bird, wherein 青 can mean blue/green/clear-but-brackish black).

These qing-coloured birds are messengers and foragers of the Goddess-Mother of Paradise (Xiwang-mu 西王母, the "west/paradise" character from before, lit West-King(unisex)-Mother). They're a highly intelligent species who are exceptional in song (a good representative for Qing Jing's scholarly arts and pursuit of qin!), and the older ones might learn to speak human tongue. As a subspecies of luanniao (鸾鸟 lit: luan bird), they're thought to be related to The Phoenix and indeed thought to be the lifetime/samsara just before being reborn as a Phoenix.

If given to a "master" they don't like, the qingniao may refuse to pass messages or sing until they're set free, but if they do get along with you then they're loyal to the end.

As a point of interest, the Qing generation of Peak Lords uses the character 清, which is 青 ("colour of nature; brackish black, blue, green; young) + the radical for "water," resulting in the meaning of clear (as in water or heart; see-through); distinct; quiet (as in still); just and honest; pure; to settle or clear up; to clean up, expunge, or purge.

And as a bit of trivia, Liu Qingge's sword Cheng Luan 乘鸾 means "to ride the luan, take flight on the back of a luan." (Relevant, because the qingniao is considered a subspecies of luanniao).

With the Lords of both Qing Jing and Bai Zhan referencing this bird, I really wonder about its significance! It's spawning plenty of theories and headcanons for me.

Heading back outside for a moment, you'll find that in the Quiet Pool (清静小池 qingjing xiaochi (yes, the same Qing Jing the peak is named for)), there are lotuses, and on land there are flower shrubs which are either wide-petaled chrysanthemums (gay bottom jokes ahoy), or a type of peony, the king of flowers demarcating wealth and prosperity. Either way, a blossom fitting of our Qing Jing Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu!

My one regret is that I cannot get a clear shot of the fan hanging on the wall to try and translate the calligraphy on it. If anyone can snag one, please tag me! I also couldn't translate the paintings with poems hanging in Shen Qingqiu's bedroom (it's just too small and blurry for my bad eyes to make out). If I make another post attempting these things, I'll append them to this initial post in an edit afterwards.

[idontgotopartiesanymore]

if there’s one thing that annoys me is misleading data representation:

7 out of the 7 red bull wins on the left are max’s, and that is 70% of the first half

2 out of the 4 mclaren ones on the right are lando’s, which is 20% of the second half

so if the image is meant to represent the top winner of each half, the right one would need to be a pic of norris piastri hamilton and leclerc, you know, for accuracy

[delusionsofanuntamedmind]

im afraid ive become a caricature of myself

[acourtofwhatthefuck]

The Finadaddy Brain Rot™️ continues. Playing a board game with my family. My brother says the words — in relation to said game — “I want to do the gardener”, meaning he wanted to move the tiny little gardener piece to another space on the board. I immediately, shamelessly, blurted “I want to do the gardener”, thus causing my poor family members to stare at me in mild horror. I don’t even have a gardener. This is what I have become. I am a shameless husk. Anyway, hope you all had an amazing Christmas if you celebrate 💅🏻🫶🏻

[stupid-lemon-eater]

can't believe i'm managing my anger about a motorsport race by looking at my favourite kpop boys

if you told even three years ago that this would be my life i would laugh in your face and call you a liar

[farmhandler]

I'm resisting reblogging many comics posts..

[nickmillerscaulk]

holding my breath every time i reload my dash waiting for a picture of tzp and ng to magically appear

[fathomlesscrazy]

The Invasion & twojamie & way too many semicolons

[captainpulisic]

Remember when you used to make fun of me for watching the Bachelor? And now you’re comparing real life events to the show?

me if the girls I like don’t get a rose 🙄 :

[nahoyasboyfriend]

I feel like I haven't been gross enough lately

[dollcherray]

why is he hot.

[i-love-tubbs-the-cat]

i haven't watched grey's anatomy in like a week

[capinejghafa]

there's something about a kidnapping plot in romance novels that doesn't sit right with me because im not here for the mains to be separate. ya maybe they don't belong together, but they sure as hell don't belong with other people because they're unhinged together and i love that for them.

gang, i think i've lost the plot.

[skateisawesome]

spent the whole night hanging out with my crush guys!

literally the most fun ive had in ages

[havyomo]

i embodied my grandmother today, I screamed at a car as it was passing by me too quickly in a parking lot.

I fear I soon will start buying toilet paper in bulk whilst on sale. Smoking a cheeky J and baking earth binding bread. My arthritis set in four years ago.