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Chapter 4 notes


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#1
myobi

myobi

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Geeze. I keep swearing to myself that these are gonna get shorter. And then I realize that Chapter 4 is a double-sized chapter. I originally translated this in two sections, but this release is the whole thing.

 

Chapter title. The name of the chapter is the name of the star that Bao is referred to as being, namely the fourth star of the Big Dipper. The classic  name of Bunkyou (as read by Japanese) is actually a nickname for Bao, I’ve discovered. The more common name given is “Tenken” or “Heaven’s Power/Authority.” He is actually considered to be a judge for the Afterlife.

 

 

Bunjou = Wen Chang (Star of Literature) – this is not a character you see, but is mentioned

Kei Kaisei = Kui Xing – This is the Spirit Office guy.

 

Pg 2 - Seishu, remember that from Chapter 1? I told you it was a plot point. Say 'Hi' to the plot point. XD

pg 6 - Her family name is actually spelled "You” in Japanese. This is sounded more like the yo in “Yo! How ya doin’” than the English “you.”

pg 6 - The master of the house, "Danna-sama" really sort of does translate to Master, but it's just an indication of the ranking male in the household. It's a polite phrase, and Minmin almost always calls him "Danna-sama."

 

Pg 9 – Pang and his rank. Okay, for the sake of the Bao stories, Pang is often made into the bad guy who only has power because his daughter’s the Emperor’s favorite concubine. Since this is historical fiction, it is fine if that’s all you know.

In reality, Pang was as much as a stickler for the rules among the military as Bao supposedly was for Justice. He was a bit on the harsh side, though… often handing out punishments that would kill soldiers who had transgressed. He tried to retire after an incident with a nephew implicated his family in bribery. When the nephew ended up dead, Pang was accused of having him killed and Pang stepped down from his position. I just wanted to point out that in some readings, Pang wasn’t a bad guy. He’s just the guy that they often ended up assigning as the bad guy because he and Bao both ended up head to head a few times.


pg 10 - Eunuchs. I'm pretty sure I explain it well enough on the side note, but... Men who worked as servants in the Palace and actually lived there were eunuchs. To a man. This does not include guards, because the general ranks of guards did not sleep in the Palace, though some personal bodyguards were eunuchs. Male members of the Royal Family who were of a certain age had houses well outside the Inner Court area, and would have limited access to the grounds. This was to help ensure that any pregnancy that happened on Palace grounds among the concubines were the Emperor's. Eunuchs had a lot of power, and have been credited with some major behind-the-scenes political manipulations. They are also, it is thought, the reason behind some of the sudden decline of the monarchy, as eunuchs were accused of stealing from the Palace and making off with some pretty significant treasures.

Pg 12/13 - Song Dynasty was pretty strict on the separation of men and women, so it's not as unusual as you might think that the Master's first thought when he sees the two together at night is that they are having an affair.

Pg 17 - that round thing he grabs is a typical stone or jade ornament of the time. They hung off the belts and as they were handmade they were quite distinctive. It's the sort of thing that a person could give to prove that a messenger had been sent on your orders. I mostly just call this an ornament rather than the title that the text gives it.

Minmin's story - Basically, Minmin's saying that on her own, she didn't have anything that would make her want to stick around as a ghost, but by Chinese tradition, if a body doesn't have a proper burial service, the spirit -cannot- pass on. Theoretically, she could have passed on, even without the burial if she were willing to do so. Then, when the young mistress refuses to report that the killer might have been her father, Minmin gets angry, and that anger leads to her being stuck as a ghost.

pg 27 - Zhao actually says "I understand" again on this page, but it's the informal version, so I went with the more casual sounding "I got it." Also, Gongson gets the startled dashes because he's really surprised that Bao wants to talk about a "personal matter" with the ghost. Minmin's response of "even my 3 sizes" on the next page should hint to you what "personal matters" usually refer to. XD

Pg 30-33 - The Constellation Thing. Okay. *deep breath* This whole section SUCKED.

The Six star constellation to the north of the Big Dipper is Bunjou or the Chinese Wen Chang, God of Literature and Culture. The Big Dipper is split up into two halves – the ladle part and the cup part. The guy who shows up on the next couple of pages gives his name (in Japanese) as Kei Kaisei, which is read Kui Xing, and is depicted as being the tip of the cup part of the ladle (the star Dubhe). There’s an odd distinction between the two figures, and yet they are both regarded as gods of literature. The brief research I’ve done puts Kui Xing in a subordinate position – some mark him as basically the guy in charge of the paperwork – but Kui Xing is also called a god of human fate, while Wen Chang is not.

My understanding is that the entire cup of the Big Dipper shares the entire God of Fate thing. In this story, Bao is said to be the inner edge of the cup of the big dipper (I’d give you the star name, but it’s a symbol rather than a name), so he and Kui Xing are basically all part of the same ‘office.’ Even though Kui Xing is the one traditionally called the Star of Fate, Kui Xing clearly acts subservient to Bao, and Bao is in some fancy dress later in the chapter, so… I’m guessing that Bao is supposed to be the Star of Fate, and Kui Xing is supposed to be his records keeper. I think this is creative license on the writer’s part, even though Bao is said to help judge in the afterlife, I don’t think he’s the one normally associated as being the Star of Fate.

 

pg 33 – This page is significantly different from the first release because I invested in a few extra dictionaries. XD The original release I thought there was an indication that Bao had snuck off, but the opposite is true. Bao was ordered.  

 

Pg 38 – I spent a long  time trying to figure out if the guard was saying it’d be over in a second, but it really does use the counter symbol for scrolls or books of literature. I suppose the implication is that the series would end in one book, too, though they don’t necessarily say that.

 

Pg 41 – We have this little monologue where Hou Sen is thinking about how she can’t satisfy both her honor to her family and her honor to duty that she ought to report her father as a possible murderer. I hope that comes through in my translation, but the original didn’t really have space for that explanation because that tension is very clear to most Japanese.

 

Pg 48 – the dude doesn’t get special text this time. He’s got normal text in the original, I suppose because now they are both in the Spirit World and he sounds normal now.

 

Pg 49 – Book of Life and Death. If you’ve ever seen much anime or read many asian comics, you’ll be pretty familiar with this concept. In case you haven’t, it’s supposedly got the whole record of a person’s life, notable things they’ve done, that sort of thing. Theoretically, if you could read the book, you’d know when you are supposed to die and how.

 

PG 72 – 1000 (silver) Ryou … As pointed out on Wikipedia, in the movie Yojimbo, 50 Ryo is treated as a huge amount of money. Conversion from then to now pretty much sucks, but the term “ryou” is the Japanese reading of the Chinese Tael and is simply a weight term. In general, a tael was about 40 grams of silver. 40,000 grams of silver is about 1141 oz, and in today’s market, that’s anywhere between $30K to $32K USD or around 19,722 Euro (depending on silver purchase rates of the different countries – silver appears to be worth slightly more in Europe). Now, silver’s not worth anything like as much now as it was then, so you can put it to your imagination how much money this would be in Song Era. Lots.

Mind you, this is the amount he got just for finding an eligible pretty chick and moving the paperwork along to move her to the Palace. If she never caught the Emperor’s eye? She could petition to go home after a couple of years and could marry whomever she wanted. If she did catch the Emperor’s eye, she was going to be powerful and Have Lots of Money, and she would owe him for getting her there.

The other incentive of getting a position in the Palace, which would generally have much greater pay and would probably result in a higher Court Rank, would also be a pretty major one. Remember, he was pretty frustrated by Bao pointedly mentioning he was Lower Court rank.

 

PG 72 – Concubine ranks. As pointed out in the forum comments of the previous release, the rank word I’m having trouble translating “Chouhi” is probably the Japanese reading of the Chinese “Kihi” which is a rank of the Imperial Harem. Since I started translating this, I started watching more period dramas, and have discovered answers to several things that were making me bash my head against the wall.

Anyway, a woman enters the palace as a member of the harem, and can sit around twiddling her thumbs on the Imperial Dime and Be Pretty. Most, however, tried to get Imperial Favor, which means getting the Emperor to sleep with you. Upon having intercourse, she IMMEDIATELY gains a certain amount of rank. She might, after all be pregnant, and that child might be heir potential. The ranks of women who are thusly favored are decided partially by the Emperor, simply by how often he *ahem* visits, but also by the ranking Queen, who decides how much of the Imperial Harem Purse the ladies get (it doesn’t matter so much how much the Emperor likes you if the Queen doesn’t give you a stipend, after all). There’s another automatic rank bump if said lady does, indeed, get pregnant. These rank changes are generally life-long, but can be taken away as forms of punishment. These women don’t rank the Queen, and if they have a male child before the Queen, can sometimes end up losing the right to raise the boy, as the Queen takes charge of raising the first born son as heir until she has a boy child of her own. It’s sort of mind-bending, and there are several dramas out right now that deal specifically with Consort-driven politics in various periods of the various countries. Oh, and as an added fun, if you’re starting rank isn’t great, you can enter the Palace as a Palace Maid, and if the Emperor decides to chase your skirt you could be elevated to a consort, again because you got it on with the Emperor. In practice, it wasn’t really -that- easy, but that’s the general outline.

The incentive for those who had no reasonable expectation to catch the Emperor’s attention was that Palace pay was pretty good, and you got good benefits. Girls who served as servants would be there until they were of a certain age, then were rotated out with a severance pay sort of thing that was supposed to help them get married. Some stayed in the Palace, of course, but only if they managed to obtain a certain rank and opted to stay. Most of the time, the Emperor wouldn’t keep someone from retiring out. Even then, in several periods, it was actually somewhat up to the Queen, not the Emperor.

 

Pg 76 – Okay, that note doesn’t really need to be there. But it really amused me. When he died, he really did have three wives, and a baby by one of his maids. He was generally regarded as not good looking (severe expression and very dark skin were not beauty marks), but man if those ladies weren’t falling ALL over him. And now, there’s this spirit chick waiting. Presumably going, “I saw him first, so back off” when they all cross over.

 

I actually already have the first chapter of the second book translated. It’s another light-hearted story called “Searching King Cat.” Hopefully, it won’t take me too long to scan, clean, and typeset the chapter.You guys over here at Batoto are spoiled, 'cause I already had the chapters mostly done and now you gotta wait while I do the boring nitty gritty stuff. >.>;



#2
svines85

svines85

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Wow, chapter 4 was really awesome, thanks a lot!!


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#3
myobi

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:D Thank you.

 

Also, I'm reuploading the chapter right now to remove the double pages that snuck in on the 30's area. *headdesk*

 

Sometimes being a solo operation stinks. XD It's hard to be your own QC person, lol.



#4
svines85

svines85

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ah well, accidents happen, no big deal, especially given it being an 80 or so page chapter and to still only have two little tiny glitches. Very awesome. I really love the matter-of-fact way the supernatural aspects are handled by the characters, it's really a fun story  to read so far :) 


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