Speak of Cao Cao

Classical Chinese literature sideblog

[secondcenturywarlord]

Nezha's origin story makes it pretty rich for him to scold Sun Wukong, considering his own body count.

[secondcenturywarlord]

Nezha's self-dismemberment and disembowelment might be a rare example of the 'mutilate yourself and I will leave you alone' style of xianxia surrender condition actually being carried out.

[secondcenturywarlord]

Listening to the podcast version of Investiture of the Gods, the repeated spoilers about how the novel will end that the host kindly skips over feels like it's maybe expressing the same sentiment or theme as how everyone in the court knows that the Song dynasty is inevitably going to fall

[secondcenturywarlord]

The red light that emanates from people of significance in Three Kingdoms or Investiture of the Gods reminds me of nothing so much as an MMO quest marker, I hope there are some wuxia MMOs that use that imagery.

[yorickless]

ancient chinese nate silver reporting that schoolchildren have been heard singing a nursery rhyme about the democrats winning the midterms

[secondcenturywarlord]

Finished Outlaws of the Marsh! The tail end was a slog, and the steady attrition of characters lacked the interest of their recruitment, without much in the way of theme or emotion to how their arcs concluded. That brings to mind how much better the start of the book was, hopping around different viewpoints, each very grounded in everyday life, each showing how someone could end up on the run from the law.

Of the characters, Song Jiang felt the most interesting and open to interpretation. It's not really clear why he's so beloved for his charity, and I favor the idea that he romanticized the jianghu for a long time and showed his admiration to those he encountered from it. When he does end up in the jianghu himself, it feels like the actual experience was disillusioning for him, and beyond humility I imagine his repeated refusals of the leadership of Liangshan as also being motivated by a longing to return to his normal life. It's hard not to read all his declarations of the patriotism and honor of the bandits despite all the times when they do harm the civilians as being attempts to appeal to their better natures and build towards the eventual amnesty that he is so desperate for. But over the many battles in the marsh, his romanticized idealization of the lifestyle and then disillusioned reluctant participation in it gives way to a genuine loyalty to the other bandits, leading him to stay as their leader through the military campaigns, only for the last to bring about their deaths. His valorization of honor also contrasts with some of his clearest crimes: Murdering his mistress, false-flag atrocities, and poisoning Li Kui. In those cases he seems to care more for his own reputation.

I also enjoyed both the depictions of mundane life and travel, with all the interesting details like the prevalence of bribes, and at the same time the supernatural elements of flying swords and magical illusions.

[secondcenturywarlord]

Zhang Qing makes me think of those AD&D builds where you'd play a fighter with great strength but exclusively specialized in throwing darts because those tiny weapons gave the best damage output from all the static bonuses.

[secondcenturywarlord]

"no poetry tonight"

why?

"you start composing seditious verses every time, it's a liability"

ok

[after one bowl of wine]

our chivalry? heaven-shaking! our loyalty? earth-shaking!

[secondcenturywarlord]

Reading Twenty Years After by Dumas, I'm finding myself very amused by the similarities with Water Margin. The cast are men of honor, nominally serving a state they all know is riddled with corruption, using connections to secure positions for their proteges, engaging in daring prison-breaks, and when they are set at odds they hold back because their true loyalties are always to each other. All men are brothers! One for all and all for one!

I look forward to one of Aramis' fellow priests revealing that he can miraculously speedwalk two hundred miles in a day by strapping an icon of the Virgin Mary to each leg.

[secondcenturywarlord]

I had thought the bandit's claims that the emperor is muddle-headed were self-serving excuses but I'm starting to come around to their position on that.

[secondcenturywarlord]

My emperor told me he keeps losing his armies and their generals to the bandits of Liangshan marsh. I asked what he does about that and he said he just asks the court to recommend some new men of valor to order to suppress the rebels. I said it sounds like he's doing the bandits' recruitment for them and his prime minister sentenced me to the nine familial exterminations.

[secondcenturywarlord]

Having it confirmed that the protagonists are in fact spirits sent by heaven to punish the sins of the people does explain a lot about their actions

[secondcenturywarlord]

It's funny to see that restaurants have been PVP-enabled zones in wuxia as far back as this novel

[secondcenturywarlord]

The journey of Dai Zong and Li Kui makes it seem like abstaining from meat and wine isn't actually a necessity for receiving taoist magic, just an imposition that the taoists demand? I was expecting it to interfere with the spell, a strict taboo like Samson's hair, not for Dai Zong to just prank Li Kui until he agreed to the diet

[secondcenturywarlord]

Also the story of the drawing of a steamed bun sounds like a very sassy passive-aggressive brother and sister-in-law relationship

[secondcenturywarlord]

Now on the slaughter of the Zhu family in the Water Margin podcast, this very much feels like a murderhobo campaign with the Black Whirlwind the worst of the party for that

[secondcenturywarlord]

Episode 55 where Song Jiang goes out drinking and dining with Li Kui and Dai Zong is a charming farce, a much lower-stakes series of mishaps that makes a nice breather. Song Jiang really does feel like the one character with all the points in wealth and etiquette, unlike everyone else who loaded up on drawbacks and fighting skills.