I recall that when I first entered the abyss of Chinese novel (and in case you wonder, yes, I’m still stuck here), memorising everyone’s names, nicknames, titles and whatnot was painful. Seriously, no one ever has just one single name ( ̄▽ ̄). And to make things even more complicated, character names usually carry a specific meaning, such as foretelling that character’s destiny, describing appearance or expressing personality. Surely, character naming isn’t simple business here.
And of course, Daomu Biji doesn’t fall out of that pattern. I was having a convo with @aknightus and she wondered why everyone’s name is translated in the English sub except for Wu Xie. So here I am, writing a very quick and dirty guide to do some justice (hopefully) to the various names of the 5 main guys of Daomu Biji. Here we go!
Name meaning: A wordplay of the term 无邪, also pronounced as “wu xie”, meaning “no evil”. Okay he is the main character, so his name obviously has deep meanings. For one thing, it describes his naive, slightly gullible nature. More importantly, the name is given by his grandfather (Wu Lao Gou) to express the hope that he will live a ‘no evil’ life even though he is a descendant of The Nine Families. Needless to say, Wu Xie’s name is a foreshadow of his character development throughout the entire Daomu Biji novel.
Will he remain ‘no evil’ forever? That is left for us readers to find out.
- To Pan Zi and other underlings: Xiao San Ye (小三爷), lit. translated as “Little Third Master”, because he is Third Uncle’s nephew (Third Uncle is addressed as “Third Master” by people in the tomb-robbing community).
- To Pangzi: Tian Zhen, which is short for Tian Zhen Wu Xie (天真无邪), lit. translated as “Innocent and No Evil”, again a wordplay on his real name due to the same pronunciation.
Name meaning: Lit. translated as “Tightly Closed Oil Bottle”, the name could be contextually understood as “the guy who doesn’t like to talk”. Important note: Contrary to what is portrayed in the drama adaptation, the only person to know this name is Wu Xie. Wu Xie specifically uses this name only in his head and his diary writing. No one else is aware of this, including Men You Ping himself.
Real name: Zhang Qiling (张起灵), which actually isn’t a name but a title given to only the head of the Zhang family. This also means that there were other generations of Zhang Qilings that lived before him. “Qiling” refers to the act of bringing the dead to their final resting place. From this name, it can be guessed that all Zhang Qilings have the role of bringing the corpses of Zhang family members back to the Zhang Family Mansion under the lake in Banai, their so-called burial ground.
Name origin/Fun fact: The author once mentioned that Zhang Qiling’s image is built on his high-school best friend and also roommate. The roommate slept on the bed numbered 370, which is pronounced as “san qi ling”, a very similar sound to “Zhang Qiling”.
- To Wu Xie, Pangzi and other tomb-robbing comrades: Xiao Ge (小哥), lit. translated as “Little Big Brother”, an endearing/respectful term used to call a man who is likely to be younger than you.
- To Hei Xiazi: Ya Ba Zhang (哑巴张), lit. translated as “Mute Zhang”, because we all know how much Men You Ping dislikes speaking lol.
Real name: Wang Yueban (王月半)
Name meaning: Little Flower
Real name: Xie Yuchen (解雨臣 )
- Stage name: Jie Yuhua (解语花), roughly translated as “talking flower”, a metaphor usually used to describe a beautiful woman. This is because since young, Xiao Hua takes on a female role in his stage acting, and in canon, he is also described by Wu Xie as ‘very pretty, almost like a lady that steps out from a painting’. Important note: The character 解 is pronounced differently in his real name (Xie) and his stage name (Jie).
Name meaning: Blind Person In Black. This is because he almost went blind due to a mummy’s curse, as mentioned in the sequel Sea of Sands.
Real name: Unknown, save for the fact that his surname is Qi (齐).
- To Wu Xie, Pangzi and other tomb-robbing comrades: Hei Yanjing (黑眼镜), lit. translated as “Black Glasses”.
All images are credited to artist ERIK烤地瓜 @ Weibo