Hi, I have an ask, if that's okay.
What is with the titles of the various gods in tgcf? Some of them seem to have titles they had as humans, like Xie Lian being "your highness the crown prince" and Pei Ming being "general". But Yin Yu and Quan Yizhen both seem to get "your highness" despite not having any title before ascending, while Feng Xin and Mu Qing get "general". Is there a rationale here that makes more sense in Chinese or is MXTX really playing a bit fast and loose with titles?
Hi! :) Xie Lian and Pei Ming did retain their titles as humans, and I think “your highness” is the title automatically conferred on someone if they ascend to be a god, so it’s more of a universal title among heaven officials and technically all of them can be called “your highness.” I think Feng Xin and Mu Qing are called “general” probably because when they were humans, they served in the Xianle royal household and should’ve had army ranks because they fought in the war; or it could be because they were Xie Lian’s deputy generals during Xie Lian’s first ascension. Whereas Yin Yu and Quan Yizhen were commoners with no military title before ascension, so they don’t get called “general” even when they’re also martial gods like Feng Xin and Mu Qing. But this is honestly my guess…
What I find interesting is that “highness” in Chinese kind of means the opposite of “highness” in English. “Highness” in English literally indicates a lofty position high above, whereas “highness” in Chinese, 殿下 (dianxia), literally means “under/beneath the palace.” 殿下 (dianxia) originally refers to the attendants of a royal family member serving under their palace. People of lower ranks who go to visit those royal family members couldn’t speak to the royals directly out of respect and deference, so they had to give their message to the attendants serving under the palace (dianxia) instead, and the attendants would inform the royal family members of the visitors’ business. So “dianxia”, which originally refers to the servants under the palace, gradually became a substitute title for the royal family members they serve (from the origin of this term you could see that ancient Chinese society was extremely hierarchical).
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