hi! I'm embarking on a qi ye reread and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the first chapter, specifically the three lifetimes referenced at the very beginning--I've always wondered if I'm missing something there
hmmmmm a good question anon! I did some searching on the internet and I don't think I've found a provenance for these lines:
一世岩石出，化作英雄冢，情意无可摧。
The first life: stone emerges; transforms into the grave of heroes; loyalty, unbreakable.
二世磐石破，摆渡姻缘桥，鸳鸯两双飞。
The second life: boulder fractures; ferried past the bridge of fate; the mandarin ducks take flight in pairs
三世玉石焚，誓守金玉盟，生死永相随。
The third life: jade burns; swearing to safeguard the alliance of gold and jade; following each other forever in life and death.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that I just haven't looked hard enough to find the source, but also given priest's poetic tendencies I wouldn't put it past her for this to be original to the text
thank you very much for explaining what 南宁王 and 异姓王 mean! now i understand much better why jing beiyuan grew up with the education he did, and why he's so devoted to making sure the realm runs smoothly.
happy to, anon! though I feel obliged to point out that Jing Beiyuan would have been well within his rights as an 异姓王 yixing wang to phone it in and be a figurehead of an aristocrat — he actually actively tries to do this in life 7.0, to come off as lazy and useless and critically, not a threat to the imperial family or overly interested in governance
the danger of holding power is that other people in power begin to perceive you as a threat that potentially needs to be removed, and Jing Beiyuan has already done that once, no thank you, he'll not have that again. that being said, because this isn't his first time around the block, he knows more than he should, and therefore can interfere strategically and effectively while still phoning it in and spending most of his time taking naps and bullying Wu Xi
ok so. i am very slowly reading through 七爷, and i don't understand what jing beiyuan is the prince of. like, i understand he's in charge of a territory in the south, but does he have additional responsibilities? is he very low but still on the list of people eligible to inherit? he clearly feels a great sense of civic responsibility, but i'm afraid i'm missing something.
hmmmmmmmm this is kind of complicated because there's some weirdness around translation of imperial dynastic titles, which then gets even more confusing when you slap the general ahistorical ambiguity of genre onto things
so I think the confusion occurs because of the conflation of "prince" as a title of rank, "prince" as "son of a monarch," and "prince" as "ruler of a territory." Jing Beiyuan's exact title is 南宁王 Nanning wang, which is usually translated as "the prince of Nanning," though I can't remember if 南宁 Nanning is simply his title as prince or an actual location (if it is a location, it seems not to be particularly plot relevant since I have uhhh no memory of it)
the thing about 王 wang as a title is that it got royally upstaged (ayyy) by Mr. 嬴政 Ying Zheng (aka 秦始皇 Qin Shi Huang / the Qin First Emperor) back in the 3rd century BCE. The reason why we call him "the Qin First Emperor" is because the man literally invented his own title, 皇帝 huangdi, which we now translate as emperor. Prior to that, monarchs were called 王 wang / kings, and during the Warring States period, you had location-specific kings: 楚王 Chu wang / "the king of [the state of] Chu," 吴王 Wu wang / "the king of [the state of] Wu," 齐王 Qi wang / "the king of [the state of] Qi," etc etc. And prior to that, you had the Zhou Dynasty, whose rulers all carried the title of 王 wang: 周文王 Zhou Wen Wang / “King Wen of Zhou” or “the Civil King of Zhou” and 周武王 Zhou Wu Wang / “King Wu of Zhou” or “the Martial King of Zhou” depending on how you translate them, etc. Qinshihuang, in order to declare his dominance in conquering the Central Plains, decided to one-up all of these petty kings by making up a new title for himself that was automatically higher than the rest of the 王 wang, rather than competing for an existing title
the ripple effect from Qinshihuang raising the ceiling on titles/positions in governance meant that everyone could effectively move up one tier. if, in the past, the ruler was called 王 wang and his son 王子 wangzi (literally "son of the king" but often translated as "prince"), then the creation of the new 皇帝 huangdi / "emperor" title meant that the emperor's sons were referred to as either 皇子 huangzi / "son of the emperor" or 王 wang (the distinction between the two is usually one of age). basically, 王 wang goes from meaning "king" to "position just below the emperor in rank." that being said, it looks like the general decision has been to translate 王 wang as “prince” in the imperial context rather than “king,” possibly because in English, we’re used to thinking of princes as inheritors in the same way imperial 王 wang are eligible for inheriting the dragon throne
notably, rulers of other states/countries/civilizations were all referred to as 王 wang, since imperial Chinese cosmology dictated that the emperor ruled all under heaven (ah, imperial hegemony...). there are also tiers of 王 wang, as in 亲王 qin wang and 郡王 jun wang, but let's not get into that now
so! back to Jing Beiyuan. this gets fun because he’s what’s called an 异姓王 yixing wang, lit. “a king/prince of a different surname.” that means that his family is not patrilineally connected to the imperial family (thus, having a different surname), but the title of 王 wang was at some point conferred upon his family. this usually occurs when, say, an emperor decides to reward a general with the title of 王 wang because he’s so pleased with his general’s accomplishments. during the conferral, the emperor will usually specify if this is a title that can be inherited forever or downgraded from generation to generation (i.e. from 王 wang to 侯 hou, and downwards until eventually the family returns to normal non-aristocratic status).
these 异姓王 yixing wang have a lot of power and influence, comparable to a son-of-emperor 王 wang, but not quite the same because they are not of the imperial family and therefore not in line for the throne. imperial princesses sometimes marry into these 异姓王 yixing wang families, but that can be a recipe for disaster because it begins to make that bloodline — well, not exactly eligible for the throne, but certainly more eligible than they were previously, and if there is one trait you can trust a dynastic emperor to have, it’s the paranoia about potential coups by powerful relatives (but is it paranoia if it really is true? anyway)
all that is to say — I don’t think Jing Beiyuan is the prince of anything in particular, though as a landed aristocrat I’m sure there are fiefdoms in his name. I can’t remember off the top of my head how his family earned the title of Nanning (or if it’s ever explained in the novel), but if I had to guess, I’d say that some ancestor of his was an accomplished general who had the title of 南宁 Nanning (which has the valence of “to bring peace to the south”) conferred upon him, which has subsequently been passed down through the family until it landed on his unfortunate head
something that I kinda wish 《七爷》 utilized to its full potential in its worldbuilding is the fact that Jing Beiyuan has literally lived six consecutive lives, and I don’t mean this for angst or character reasons, I mean this for worldbuilding reasons
because if we assume a generation is circa 30 years, then by the end of life 5 (not including life 6 where he decides to stare at a rock for 60 years instead) somewhere around 100-150 years have passed since his first life, and a lot can happen in 150 years. entire dynasties have risen and fallen in 150 years. agricultural revolutions and industrialization have happened in less time. 150 years ago from today, we didn’t have cars, telegraphs, or penicillin
idk I just think it would’ve been lit if Jing Beiyuan, in addition to Old Man Grumping (TM) around the plot for all of 《七爷》, also incorporated Old Man Grumping About Technology and the State of Things as well
Hey Hunxi! Which novels would you recommend for someone who can read Chinese newspapers but never tried Chinese language fiction?
anon!!! I am very impressed, you are more than ready for fiction/webnoveldom if you have newspapers under your belt (I say, personally daunted by newspapers still)
here is a (personal, subjective) rundown of authors on a sliding scale of writing style, since I think that might be helpful when considering a shift from newspaper-style 书面语 to fiction. unfortunately, I have an extremely limited repertoire at the moment, so I can only offer insights on a few authors:
墨香铜臭: terrifically colloquial, I found her writing more accessible than any other author. Generally speaking, the greatest vocabulary challenges are going to be technical worldbuilding aspects. I haven't actually read 《魔道祖师》, but 《天官赐福》 was my first danmei webnovel and I was pleasantly surprised at how very readable it was at my level. hilariously, 《人渣反派自救系统》 kind of goes off the other end due to its high concentration of internet slang — I had to baidu a lot of stuff I haven't seen before — but I personally found the journey absolutely batshit and delightful. 10/10 would recommend 《人渣》 as like, a crash course in Chinese internet culture alone
木苏里: I've only read 《判官》, but I think 木苏里 's style occupies a happy medium between colloquial and referential. once again, greatest vocabulary challenges are probably going to be technical worldbuilding terms. your experience will be improved by some knowledge of references, but they’re not necessary for comprehension. slips into classical construction a few times throughout the entire book, so not too bad
苍梧宾白: again, I've only read 《黄金台》, so I can't vouch for any other title. greatest difficulty I ran into was parsing the court-specific vocabulary (so many bureaucrats. So Many)
一十四洲: I'm only halfway through 《小蘑菇》 at the moment, and in a fun turn of events the vocabulary challenge here leans towards the technical and scientific rather than the fantastic. the opening paragraphs in particular feel very, uh, naturalistic, and were honestly the hardest for me to parse. once the human(oid) shenaniganery begins, the language is quite easy to follow. does benefit from slight familiarity with scientific vocabulary (if you know "magnetic field" and various common genetic terms — or you're ready and willing to Pleco on occasion — you are a-okay)
海晏: heavy, heavy asterisks on this author because I read 《琅琊榜》 approximately (checks notes) uhh six years ago at this point (??!?!?) and my memories of the journey are heavily colored by the fact that it was the first novel I tackled outside of a structured educational environment. I remember struggling with it quite a lot, but that was also 1) fairly early on in my Chinese reading journey and 2) encumbered by a somewhat foolish insistence on looking up every single word I didn't know. my impression, looking back on it now, is that I'd probably slide it between 木苏里 and priest in terms of style, though if the language is anything like the show then it enjoys leaning towards the pseudo-classical in sentence construction
priest/p大: priest isn't difficult to read so much as her writing style really rewards people who have at least some knowledge of poetry and classical texts, both within and without the Chinese tradition. her plots and worldbuilding also tend to be more intricate, though this of course depends on the particular novel. of the three I've read, I would say that 《天涯客》 is the easiest to get into. it's also the novel with the highest concentration of fart jokes, which is neither here nor there
梦溪石: this author has a vocabulary and isn't afraid to use it, which I feel confident saying even though I've only read 《千秋》. her fight scenes in particular tend to cross over into the abstract, and at some point you just kind of sit back and let the language wash over you without trying to parse it too clearly. deeply intricate plots combined with her own historical research can make 《千秋》 a bit daunting to get into, but once you do get into it you're compelled to keep going as fast as possible (I say, having suffered many a late night at the hands of 梦溪石)
as for specific titles! oh gosh this is getting long, um, here's an at-a-glance overview of the webnovels I've read:
《天官赐福》 by 墨香铜臭: xuanhuan/xianxia; 1.1 million words. vast, sprawling, non-linear (ish) narrative that investigates godhood and trauma, humanity and devotion, acceptance and (self-)forgiveness
《人渣反派自救系统》 by 墨香铜臭: xianxia/satire; 432k words. an absolute clown transmigrates into a Legitimately Terrible webnovel as one of the central villains, and in the course of trying to alter his own fate, accidentally makes everyone fall in love with him instead by virtue of being a decent person. also an exploration of genre, tropes, the author-reader relationship, trauma (as usual), and one's own unreliability as a narrator
《判官》 by 木苏里: horror/contemporary fantasy; 539k words. what begins like an episodic horror-mystery series spirals out into a centuries-spanning epic about memory, fate, love, and grief. some of the coolest worldbuilding I've seen so far
《黄金台》 by 苍梧宾白: (a)historical political intrigue; 290k words. a story of how an emperor thought he was making a political match from hell with the two main characters and accidentally created the dynasty's scariest power couple. these two needed to get a room even before they were officially pressured into marriage, honestly. a general and a court official fight for their shared survival in a collapsing dynasty
《小蘑菇》 by 一十四洲: hahaha oh god. um. science fiction + the collision of three simultaneous apocalypses; 313k words. the world is ending, not with a bang, not with a whimper, but a long, ragged groan of pain as humanity refuses to go gentle into that good night. in a world where genetic mutations threaten to destroy humankind and a man-made aurora dances across the sky each night, a sentient mushroom goes undercover in a human city to recover a part of himself that was stolen. an investigation of humanity and personhood, sentience and benevolence, the role of order in a lawless world, how to face despair and the end times with dignity and meaning. also, mushroom-based comedy
《琅琊榜》 by 海晏: (a)historical political intrigue; 740k words. how do I even begin to describe the novel that literally changed my life and led me to where I am today. forgive me but I'm going to pitch it as The Count of Monte Cristo meets Game of Thrones. I am regularly rendered incoherent by my love for 《琅琊榜》. read it and weep
《七爷》 by priest: (a)historical political intrigue/the lightest possible fantasy elements; 292k words. theoretically there's a reincarnation premise but this book is 98% complex political intrigue. in which Jing Beiyuan attempts to put Helian Yi on the throne without dying this time around (and with more naps). finally a political intrigue novel that commits to characters with gray-as-hell morality. a book that balances themes of destiny (and how one defies it) with morality (when you’ve decided that your ends will justify your means, just how far would your means go? what does it mean to smile, and smile, and be a villain?)
《天涯客》 by priest: wuxia; 292k words. sequel/companion novel to 《七爷》, best read in conjunction with it. a retired assassin wants to do nothing more than drink his wine and die in peace, but the rest of the jianghu and a budding found family refuse to leave him alone. a roundabout exploration of how one escapes from the shadow of one's past and how even the bloodiest of hands can build a joyous future with love and care
《烈火浇愁》 by priest: contemporary fantasy/modern mythology; 783k words. an ancient resurrected sorcerer-emperor reluctantly teams up with a credit card debt-ridden millennial (ish. it’s complicated) to unravel a shadowy conspiracy with literally volcanic stakes. bleak, gorgeous, hilarious, heart-rending. explores the nature of humanity and grief, purpose and desolation, pedestals and sacrifice. the ravages of memory. how one is meant to be human when one has been relentlessly dehumanized. alternatively, "the sentient weapon of a sentient weapon falls in love with the sentient weapon and both of them forget about each other for 3000 years"
《千秋》 by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi: historical (!!) political intrigue + wuxia; 637k words. an isolationist sect leader is unceremoniously yeeted off a cliff into the midst of changing political regimes and capricious jianghu turmoil. investigates the complexities of good and evil, reputation and hearsay, betrayal and understanding, pride and forgiveness. what it means to remain faithful and unchanging in a world that seeks to break you. what responsibility an individual bears to a world that has only betrayed them. the profoundly revolutionary act of trusting another person
oh goodness this post is getting out of hand, feel free to ask if you have any more questions! alternatively, I present this post as a clickbait-ish selection for your perusal
sldkfjsldkjf 七爷 anons, now there are two of you, I’m going to copy anon#2′s asks into this text post below the cut so we don’t clutter people’s dashes!
anonymous asked:
I just finished reading qiye and… good lord. There's a lot going on there. Coming from TYK/SHL, I have to say I had a lot of attention on ZZS and wow. I think I'll break my heart re-reading TYK now lol I keep thinking about Jiang Xue and the fact that ZZS really actually knew that girl (in SHL I thought she was just calling him 'uncle' randomly for some reason, I didn't realize she actually knew who was killing her and her family!) and presumably liked her, apparently going so far as to carry around sweets for her for the time LJX guards the Jiang family which means he didn't just play with her that one day! But multiple times! Over weeks, possibly! Also, the fact that he apparently is fine with, you know, all the killing, can do it no problem but as seen as he gets directly confronted with it (by LJX) he shuts down, has absolutely nothing to say for himself, like he can't suppress his conscience anymore. Which makes me wonder if he just simply can't bear being confronted with his actions so clearly or if it's just because it's Liang Jiuxiao, the shidi who's always looked up to him, who thinks he's a great and righteous person, who apparently wants to appear to be such a person in front of… (let's not even think of how LJX would've reacted if he'd gotten to know the way they dealt with Helian Qi. That, uh, yeah, wtf ZZS) And then, with LJX's death… god, I really get TYK more now, like you put it, he really was majorly Not Okay at the beginning of it
Also! I actually did not expect to like HLY (not much about him in TYK to really judge his character and SHL, well…) but I really do like him. It's just… really interesting to see how the circumstances of his family and his country have shaped him into the person he became but also, how it just seems impossible for him and JBY to be together in any way, like "wishing Helian Yi was not Helian Yi and Jing Beiyuan was not Jing Beiyuan"! It's just really interesting how they were obviously compatible in their first life (and some mistaken soul-reaping apparently brought them apart but probably not just that) and how JBY in his second life tries his Absolute Best to appear as unappealing as possible to anyone, but specifically HLY but it just Does Not Work and HLY falls in love with him again, anyway.
(Also, I may have spite-liked HLY at the beginning bc I read a few comments and there were so many trashing him, seemingly without understanding the position he's in or his circumstances that I couldn't help it. I think I shouldn't have read so many of them lol)
Sorry for all the rambling, I just have so many Thoughts (including Princess Jing'an spin-off when, for good measure give her LJX alive to her side, like I get now why they put them together in SHL but their dynamic in that one single fucking chapter in qiye is so Wildly Different and so much more appealing). I'm going to re-read the first few chapters of TYK now, to break my heart some more by reading how broken and dead inside ZZS is at the beginning of it (1/2)
Okay, apparently I wasn't done, I'm so sorry! asfhsha
Just… the hilarity of everyone finding some 'soulmate'-aspect in JBY while he's trying his best to keep everyone at arms length. ZZS thinks they're drinking soulmates. That He Yunxing guy thinks they're appreciating-the-nightlife soulmates. HLY thinks they're just plain soulmates. Wu Xi… interestingly enough, I don't think he ever described JBY as his 'zhiji'? Which makes sense though bc he doesn't actually understand the guy 😂 but he seems to be only one in the whole book who doesn't mind not understanding the others, while everyone always seems to try to understand everyone around them without having to talk about it. Everyone is constantly trying to think what everyone else is thinking, what they're scheming, what they want. Wu Xi, on the other hand, isn't interested in knowing at all, he just cares about what is of import to him. And yet - or maybe because of that - he seems to see the most clearly of them all
Though, his disillusionment when he realizes that his teacher and JBY both are just bullshitting their way through life is hilarious :'D
I… think that was really it now. I hope. I can't promise anything ahahaha (2/2)
in no particular order:
Jiang Xue was in fact the cause of these posts because wow I did not see that coming, I did not see any of that coming
WELCOME ABOARD THE UNEXPECTED HELIAN YI AGENDA, none of us had this in our 2021 bingo cards and yet here we are
one of the (many) fascinating things about 《七爷》 is that... for lack of a better phrasing, love is nowhere to be seen. I mean it’s been a hot few months since I read it, and it is at the end of the day a danmei novel with all of the attendant generic demands and concerns, but in many ways this novel smashes a lot of conventional definitions, understandings, and portrayals of love into pieces. The whole premise of the 七世情缘 “seven lifetimes of fate together” is like... there’s nothing in there that says it has to be a relationship of love, and overwhelmingly, what we see instead is obsession, whether it’s Jing Beiyuan 1.0′s obsession with Helian Yi, Helian Yi 1.0′s obsession with Su Qingluan (which is, in turn, heavily implied in 7.0 to be a displacement of his obsession with Jing Beiyuan), or Wu Xi’s obsession with Jing Beiyuan 7.0. Does Jing Beiyuan love Wu Xi by the end of the novel? I mean, you could argue that in a plethora of ways, but I think what it comes down to is a relationship of mutual need and mutual desire. I can’t tell you if Jing Beiyuan loves Wu Xi, but Jing Beiyuan certainly needs him (and I mean this beyond faking his death and escaping the capital; Wu Xi is that breath of fresh air, both novelty and appreciation and the escape Jing Beiyuan needs from the entanglements of the capital, political intrigue, and his six lives), and at the end of the day... who’s to say where need/desire ends and love begins?
yeah. this novel is fascinating and I think it is as much a reception/response/cunningly hidden satire buried in this book in a similar way to, hilariously, SVSSS
can’t believe Priest wrote this over ten years ago at this point. legend. yyds
god I love it when Beiyuan goes all Old Man (TM) on Wu Xi, no one does the Protagonist Thing quite like Jing Beiyuan and I really, truly adore him for it
anyway, aren’t all of us bullshitting our way through life on some level? Wu Xi will probably be a lot less stressed once he figures this out but to be fair to him he’s still a teenager so tbh lots of maturation to come for this kid
there is something both deeply ironic and deeply sad about Jing Beiyuan’s effort to be nothing and no one at all instead backfiring in his face to the point where, thanks to his chameleon blankness, he becomes something to everyone
诶？等等。这不就是欺负他脾气好吗
ah h h h Zhou Zishu, what a fascinatingly amoral piece of shit (affectionate)........ I think he’s a perfect fictional case study of “I’ve decided that this is the cause I will dedicate my life to, and I believe that the ends justify the means,” only to find a few years, war crimes, and traumatic life events down the line that maybe he was wrong about that, but he’s already paid too high of a price to give up now (shhh the sunk cost fallacy hasn’t been invented yet). like, I think it is both intriguing and telling that the most TYK ever delves into Zhou Zishu’s relationship with guilt is just that one line where he idly muses that if he really thought about all the horrible things he’d done, he’d drive himself mad
there’s an entire essay bouncing around in my brain about the difference between SHL + TYK being the particular angle each version of the narrative takes on one’s relationship with the past (TYK is all about leaving the past behind, whereas SHL is about how you can never truly escape your past) but like. we don’t have to get into that here sdlkfjsdlkfj
I am another person who started watching LYB because of your liveblog and meta! And I have never been gladder!! This ask is to ask you what do you think about Prince Yu? He seems villainous enough and most definitely corrupt but also, he also doesn’t seem as incompetent as Prince Xian—he might have not made a terrible emperor in the absence of someone as good as Prince Jing. In this way I keep thinking about parallels between Qi Ye and LYB, and how LYB is in some way, more optimistic??? Because there is someone like Prince Jing to take over the crown while in Qi Ye, Helian Yi is the best choice we get (btw this is not to say Helian Yi is incompetent! He is very very competent, but also definitely paranoid. I should have more coherent thoughts on this but it’s been some time since I read Qi Ye) and sorry, because this has devolved into a ramble.
Also, I have to tell you I am on page 16 of your SHJX guide and it’s the best damn thing I have read in a while. *Bows down and touches feet with forehead*
Hope you have a good day!
ahaha anon we must have been on the same wavelength, I crossed those wires for approximately 0.3 seconds in this post and then immediately yeeted any semblance of a brain cell out the window
but yes, I absolutely have a soft spot for 誉王 despite him being, well, Like That. I mean, sure, he's corrupt, power-hungry, and somewhat amoral on a good day, but there is something admirable still about his ability to see what he wants (that good-good dragon throne) and to stop at nothing to get to it
the thing about Prince Yu is that he is very competent—he's good at what he does, at balancing the tedium of administration with political savviness. throughout the course of the show, we see that he has a considerable command of both people and knowledge; he is intimately familiar with how all the cogs and levers of imperial governance work, how to manipulate them and streamline them, how to clog them and ensnare them. he is clever and able and competent and ambitious, and you're right, anon — he probably wouldn't have been a terrible emperor, had it come down to it — but he is missing one extremely crucial thing that Xiao Jingyan has
vision.
I mean, you could also say "a sense of moral responsibility" as well, but I think the main thing about Prince Yu is that, in his pursuit of ultimate power, he has forgotten (or perhaps, never even learned) the purpose of attaining said power. Xiao Jingyan (as our deuteragonist, as our moral compass), doesn't want the throne for the throne's sake — he wants the throne because the alternatives to him will bring only decline, potentially disaster. couched in the moral language of the show, Xiao Jingyan wants what's best for his constituents — a kind, moral ruler, sympathetic to the plight of the common folk, keenly aware of the social issues that afflict more than just the rich and aristocratic, and capable of slicing through bureaucratic nonsense when the moment calls for it
meanwhile, what does Xiao Jinghuan want? control? power? riches? fame? the heady rush of watching thousands of people bow at your feet, knowing that you could raise up or ruin any of them with a single command?
Xiao Jinghuan is not an antagonist because he's evil (he’s not) or because he's ambitious — ambition is not portrayed negatively in this show, is quite critical to Xiao Jingyan's own journey to the throne. without initiative, without drive, you cannot attain the great power needed to effect change. in a strange way, Xiao Jinghuan seems to strive for the throne not out of any personal desire of his own, but because that is what is expected of him. he is able, he is capable, he is clever, he is cunning; he has the favor of the Empress, and assembles his own faction of similarly scrappy, ambitious politicians who don’t mind stepping over a few bodies to get their way. it's mentioned, somewhere in the dialogue of the show, that Xiao Jinghuan was elevated and encouraged by the emperor himself, in order to establish a system of checks and balances between two imperial princes duking it out in the vacuum left by the execution of Xiao Jingyu. so Xiao Jinghuan hurls himself into the cutthroat competition for the throne not because he wants the throne, but because that is how the metric of his success, his worth as an imperial son, is measured
both QY and LYB asks its protagonists: what would you sacrifice for power? and though Helian Yi and Xiao Jingyan make very different decisions in their respective narratives, they arrive at the same destination. LYB is inherently optimistic; the system is salvageable, LYB says, so long as the right people are in the right positions (very Ruist of them). as Xiao Jingrui declares in one scene, the moral conduct of the imperial court takes its lead from the moral conduct of the ruler, so with Xiao Jingyan in charge, the rest of the government will follow
QY is somewhat more cynical, or perhaps, more elastic in its views on morality in politics: according to QY, the inherent moral uprightness of the individuals in power aren't as important as the actions they take in office. in other words, it doesn't matter what Helian Yi did to get the throne, so long as when he has the throne, he does well by it. in LYB, personal conduct and political conduct are one and the same, reflective of one's inner moral virtue. in QY, the two are dramatically divorced, and morality is nowhere to be seen
you mentioned paranoia, anon, and that is definitely a running theme in both of these narratives and perhaps the 权谋 political intrigue genre as a whole — in particular, the dynamics of loyalty and trust vs. paranoia and cunning. the delicate dance of identifying who you can rely on, who you can turn your back on. the tension between public personas and private personalities, the way a court-smile freezes and melts away in trusted company. how to ensure someone’s fealty, and what to do when a rival must be removed. how power shapes a person, whether ultimate power ultimately corrupts. especially in a game that is as high-stakes and intense as gunning for the imperial throne, paranoia is more often necessary than it is excessive, because, well—the only person who can stab you in the back is someone you trusted to have it
Chinese emperors often have a habit of executing their supporters after their rise to power (Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Bang, I’m looking at you), which is echoed in the massacre of the Lin family despite their loyalty. they were too powerful, and Xia Jiang’s whispers too insidious — even if the Liang emperor can trust his friendship with Lin Xie to secure the loyalty of the Chiyan army, can he trust Lin Shu to do the same? likewise, even if Helian Pei trusted Jing Beiyuan’s father, honored him with titles, can Helian Pei trust Jing Beiyuan the same? can Helian Yi trust Jing Beiyuan, when the man clearly knows too much?
the human heart can be difficult to perceive, and even more so when layered beneath court finery and bland smiles, evasive words and sugar-coated lies, which is precisely what makes this entire genre so exquisitely tantalizing
