Tech reads JTTW, chapter nine notes:
IMPORTANT: putting a suicide attempt and intense gore warning on this one (both happen multiple times). The most important thing to know here is that Sanzang is born and becomes the monk destined to take the Journey To The West. This chapter is mostly family drama and can reasonably be skipped. Take care of yourselves, let’s get to the notes
-Reference for the year (logically I’ll NEVER have the time to do text accurate costume for JTTW, especially not all of it…but still you never know if I’ll do one or two)
-“Civilizing mission” the lack of a concerned side eye emoji is getting on my nerves… ‘,:| …that’ll work. Still, this is sounding real suspicious
-‘Okay’ I had thought, ‘this Chen E/Guangri must eventually become the great monk Sanzang, right?’ I was very very wrong, it was the wife bit that clued me in
-Anyway, this man passed a bunch of tests in scholarship for a place in the “civilizing mission”, won the best score in the big important final, and was paraded around town.
-The minister’s daughter is putting together an embroidered ball to see who she will marry. I thought this was some kind of event until she literally dropped it on him because she finds him very handsome. (Her name is Wenqiao, she’s called Miss Yin going forward. I’m still going to use her first name for a bit)
-They are married right away. Like stop the procession, he’s getting married right now. I knew this was more common historically, but it still never ceases to take me off guard.
-I honestly kinda love how no emperor seems to have a planed spot for someone they are placing in office, it’s always just what is open and seemingly suitable enough. Mood (I once got roped into being a theatre’s whole consistent costumes department because it was open and I could sew. I’m still salty about it)
-Chen Guangrui goes on a Journey In Some Direction with his wife Wenqiao to go to his new post. He picks up his mother along the way. His mother falls sick while they’re at an inn and they stop for a few day
-He buys a golden carp to fry for his mother, but releases it when he sees it blink.
-I’m separately noting down the “string of copper coins”. A lot of cultures with strung coins will wear them somewhere on their body (leaned this at the new textiles exhibit at the Art Institute in Chicago. It’s on embroidery and craftsmanship throughout the Middle East and it’s really cool. If you’re in the area go check it out. I met the curator and conservator through fashion design student nonsense (my professor knew them), and they are also really nice. Side tangent over)
-Chen Guangrui has to leave with his wife Wenqiao to get to his post on time. He sets her up in the inn for a while
-Me: Oh nice, two boatmen to help them
The text: “This was the disaster”
-Essentially one of the boatmen think his wife is hot and FUCKING MURDERS HIM?!?!? Also beauty standards reference, not the point, what the fuck.
-The murderer also kidnaps Wenqiao and impersonates her husband whose dead body is now at the bottom of the river. Wtf I hope she kills him (she does not 😢)
-That golden carp from earlier? Yeah, that was the local dragon king. The body was found and he gets Chen Guangrui’s soul from the local/city gods. He makes Guangrui a commander for the time being. He still gets a position I guess??? Also the most bureaucratic case of necromancy I’ve ever seen. Fucking based.
-Also his corpse is just propped up against a wall with a special pearl in his mouth to keep the body from decomposing
-“Miss Yin’s hatred for the villainous Liu Hong was such that she wished she could eat his flesh and spread his flayed hide on her bed”. Girl, PLEASE DO (she can’t, she’s pregnant with her actual husband’s child 😭)(Welcome to my consistent habit of wanting women who are severely wronged in texts to do murder!)
-She gives birth while Liu Hong (the guy impersonating her husband) is away and hears the voice of the Lord of the Southern Pole Star to make sure that her not-husband doesn’t kill her newly born son. Honestly I doubt she would need to be told to do so. Also this son is destined to be the great monk Sanzang who Journey(s) To The West
-Her not-husband does return, planning to drown the baby. Miss Yin essentially tells him to go to bed, they’ll do it tomorrow. They in fact do not drown the child tomorrow.
-Miss Yin continues to be metal as fuck, writing a letter explaining the situation in her own blood and biting off her son’s little toe to serve as a marker later.
-She sends him off into the river Prince of Egypt style wrapped up in her shift (more good things to know about) and on a board tied with her own sash. The baby is found by a monk down stream who puts the letter, shift, and sash in a safe place. The monk Faming names him Jiangiu (River current. Nice.), but at 17 he receives the name Xuanzang when he dedicates himself to being a monk.
-I was looking forward to adoptive monk dad, but the boy gets fostered out.
-Some random monk: parentless behavior
Xuanzang: cries (poor baby, please wrap him in a blanket at once)
-Xuanzang actually cries quite a bit. Respect, I love a fellow crier
-Xuanzang asks Faming about his parents, and vows to avenge his parents. He goes to Jiangzhou to meet his mother, proves it’s him with the letter, the whole shebang. She sends him back to the temple with a plot to go see him in the next few days via lying and saying she promised to donate 100 pairs of monks’ shoes.
-Every household has to make one within five days (The shoes are probably very simple with this context, and this implies that someone from every household has the skills to make them)
-Xuanzang is given another task to go get his grandmother and to tell Miss Yin’s minister father (loving the ‘I know a guy’ energy here) to gather an army and come get her non-husband.
-Grandma ran out of money years ago and is now a blind beggar. She gets filled in on the situation and is honestly just glad that her son didn’t forget her in his new position.
-Xuanzang proceeds to cure her blindness by praying and licking her eyes with the tip of his tongue. Sure, okay, do what you gotta do.
-The whole purpose of this little quest gets fulfilled, no need to get into the details. They get Liu Hang and all those who helped him in this clusterfuck be tied up and executed.
-Miss Yin feels guilty for technically having more than one husband. I honestly wouldn’t count the second one, but this is still an insight to cultural values so I’ll take it. She is assured that ‘she had no choice, it’s fine’ before she gets the chance to kill herself.
-Also Tang dynasty China does not mess around with symbolic execution. The other boatman is paraded around in pieces with his head hung up publicly. The not-husband has his heart and liver cut out of him ALIVE where he murdered Chen Guangrui to serve as offerings. Only the minister, Miss Yin, and Xuanzang are there. I choose to believe that she’s the one that did the removing because #MetalMissYinGetYourRevenge
-Chen Guangrui’s soul is put back into his body and given lots of gifts from the dragon king, and sent up to the surface right as Miss Yin is trying to kill herself again. He floats up like a corpse and gets up like nothing happened. Info is shared again
