Chapter 1: The lady who handed in a blank sheet
The moment Xu Ran got her exam paper, she knew that she was going to be dead last again.
Including this time, this would be her eighth time getting the last place.
Xu Ran couldn’t even find any tears to cry as she persevered through the entire exam.
Her household servant Ning Fu and her maid Fei Cui was waiting outside the examination hall, and went up to her the moment they saw her come out. Fei Cui took out a hot water bottle to warm her hands, and pointed to the guardian lion statue on the other side of the administrative office: “Eldest Young Miss and Third Young Miss are waiting in the sedan.”
It was in the middle of winter; snow blanketed the entire area, and there was a chill to the air. At the front, Ning Fu shouted a command for the sedans to be raised, and then the three sedans began moving.
Xu Ran. despite hiding in the sedan, still felt the chill in her arms and legs. Because of the belief that one’s character was refined through poverty and suffering, the academy’s examination hall did not allow for the use of a warming stove. Entering the hall was like entering an icehouse.
Her younger sister Xu Jiao was in the sedan next to her, and as both sedans drifted closer, Xu Jiao remarked through the curtains of the sedan: “The morals of today’s world have been skewed by some perverse wind – a simple joke by Imperial Scribe Liu(1), and all the academies start competing to set an example to others. What trying to learn the way of the poor, my hands have been frozen to the point of developing ulcers!”
She was referring to the incident a few days ago, when Imperial Scribe Liu gathered all of the officials to discuss about the candidates taking the exam this year. Somehow, they had got onto the topic of the newly promoted top scholar Feng Jian. Feng Jian was born in poverty, and had once covered his body in snow during winter to keep clear-headed. He memorised the entire book of “Laws of Zhou Dynasty” and became known for his diligence. Using Feng Jian as an example, Imperial Scribe Liu expressed his worry about the current state of today’s students, with their greed for the pleasures of life.
(translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)
Imperial Scribe Liu’s passing remark brought suffering to all students everywhere. Since the coming of winter, in order to emulate his policy of “Before one can take on large responsibility, one must first endure great suffering”, even the stoves in the Academy was taken away.
Despite Xu Ran’s Primary School being full of children from influential families, they were unable to escape the pressure from the policy.
“Rather than discussing these useless things, you should instead spend more time thinking about today’s exam question. There were a few questions on filling-in-the-blanks and comprehension of the text, did you answer all of them?”
The sedan on the left sat the eldest daughter of the Xu Family, Xu Ran’s older sister Xu Jia. Xu Jia was now in High School, and was an honour student holding one of the top ranks.
The High School also had an exam today on text comprehension and fill-in-the-blanks, in a different hall within the same venue. It was rare for Xu Jia to travel together with her two younger sisters who were both in Primary School, and hence the moment she spoke, Xu Jiao immediately went quiet. Xu Ran was even more afraid of engaging her in conversation to the point that even her breathing slowed by a beat. She was deadly afraid that Xu Jia would ask her about her exam today.
With the both of them remaining silent, Xu Jia lost interest and opened the book “Zhou Bi Athrimancy” on her lap, and began to seriously revise for tomorrow’s exam on the Pythagorean Theorem.
Xu Ran hugged her hot water bottle and leaned back against the seat. The thought of this tragic transmigration existence was so bitter it almost made her shed tears.
The dynasty she was in was the Zhou Dynasty, where knowledge was the main currency. Here, everyone had to take exams, everyone had to study – from the three-year-old toddler to the old man, as long as they’re alive, the core of their existence was to take exams, take exams, take exams.
The Zhou Dynasty has remained so for 271 years, and has since developed a complete governing system. The ruler believed in governance through a well-educated workforce, and therefore created an environment that would promote such.
The citizens of the Zhou Dynasty received lessons from the time they were foetuses in their mother’s stomach. The Imperial Court established pregnancy classes specialising in teaching through music. The babies would be born listening to elegant and formal ceremonial music, then immediately move on to receiving lessons on speaking and recognising words, and when they turned five, they would enter Primary School. In Primary School they would learn to recognise and write words, phonetics, the Six Arts, then learn the Analects of Confucius, and the Five Classics of Confucianism. It was similar to the compulsory national education now, except instead of starting at 9 years old, you started at 5.
Primary School usually comprised of 7 years; the first 5 years would be spent learning, and the last 2 years spent preparing for the High School exams. There were some people who passed the exams to get into High School immediately after the first 5 years, but such people were the minority.
(translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)
Xu Ran’s original body was 12 years old, and had just finished her Primary School learning, and about to enter the High School exams. Only students who passed the exams were eligible to take part in the Imperial Examinations.
In Xu Ran’s opinion, High School was like today’s universities, and could be divided into three types. The first type was the most popularly subscribed Literature and Philosophy High School, then there was the career-oriented High Schools that was popular amongst the commoners, and the Martial Arts High School for practitioners.
Those with the ambition to become an official would usually choose the Literature and Philosophy High School, and upon graduating, they would enter the Imperial College of Supreme Learning.
This was the highest educational institute, and the goal of most people. Those who graduated from the Imperial College of Supreme Learning could, without taking the Imperial Civil Service Examination, be recognised as a successful candidate.
The women of the Zhou Dynasty could become officials in the Imperial Court. Even if they had no ambition to enter the civil service, the noble ladies aimed to gain entry into the Imperial College of Supreme Learning, and even if, the number of people who managed to graduate after gaining entry were few and far between.
Xu Ran felt that she must have been cursed with eight lifetimes worth of extremely bad luck, to have transmigrated into such a fraudulent dynasty. The original host was a daughter of an official, the second child, called “Ran Ran” by her family, and had a disagreeable character – just because she was not selected as one of the candidates for the silkworm ceremonial rites(2) the following year, and was mocked for it, she fell ill from anger.
When she woke up, she had become a different person inside.
The sedan stopped and Fei Cui helped her off it. Just as she entered the inner courtyard, a servant was sent to request her presence in the study, stating that Xu laoye wanted to ask the ladies about their homework.
Xu laoye had just returned from the meeting hall. A while ago, he was sent out to Dong Shan, as part of his official duties, to inspect the iron and salt mining industries. He had just reported back when he overheard the examiners discussing about the Primary School exams.
Concerned about the studies of his two beloved daughters, he inquired a little. Coincidentally, Xu Ran’s Head Teacher Ping fuzi was there, and he mentioned Xu Ran’s submissions of a blank paper in seven consecutive exams.
When Xu laoye heard this, he immediately erupted in anger, and rushed back to the residence.
When he got back, he remembered Xu Ran’s recent bout of illness, and his anger subsided a little. His daughter was prideful, and tended to stifle all her emotions in her heart – she had probably not fully recovered from the blow of not being chosen for the silkworm ceremonial rites. When Xu laoye thought of his, his heart softened.
Xu Ran stood in the middle, with Xu Jiao on her left, and Xu Jia on her right. When she raised her head, Xu laoye and Lady Xiao stood in front of them. She lowered her head back down.
Xu laoye first picked Xu Jia, and asked about her Astronomy and Zhou Dynasty Laws. Xu Jia answered perfectly, and Xu laoye nodded in satisfaction. His gaze shifted to the middle, hesitated, then moved on to the left, where he picked Xu Jiao.
He tested Xu Jiao on her foundational skills in text interpretation, and though Xu Jiao stuttered her way through it, she was able to answer.
It was finally Xu Ran’s turn. Xu laoye pursed his lips and turned to Lady Xiao, with the intention of asking her to set the test.
Lady Xiao immediately understood his intentions. He was worried that if the question asked was too difficult, Xu Ran would receive a blow if she could not answer; if the question was too easy, it would prick her pride and trigger another temper tantrum.
Every single person in the residence was aware of Second Young Miss Xu Ran Ran’s extremely prideful nature. When she threw a tantrum, even her own parents had to give in to her.
Lady Xiao glared at Xu laoye, her mind working furiously, before she decided to test Xu Ran on Athrimancy.
“1 old chicken costs 5 dollars, 1 mother chicken costs 3 dollars, 3 chicks costs 1 dollar. With 100 dollars, 100 chickens were brought. How many old chickens and chicks were brought?”
This question was neither too difficult nor too easy, and was at an appropriate level. Lady Xiao ordered the servants to prepare paper and ink, and purposely lowered her voice to tell her gently: “Ran Ran, take your time to think over it. Mother and your Father will return inside for some tea; when you’re done, just write it down and bring it over.”
She waved her hand, gesturing for Xu Jia and Xu Jiao to return. Then she went inside with Xu laoye, and started to prepare some tea.
(translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)
Xu Ran stood at the desk for half an hour, and once again couldn’t even find any tears to cry as she submitted a blank paper. When she first saw the question, her mind went completely blank. After she finally managed to translate the Classical Chinese into colloquial Mandarin, she faced yet another difficulty.
Maths was her Achilles heel ah; be it in her past life, or in this life, asking her to do a Math question was practically asking for her life. Not to mention, she had absolutely no memories from the original host – she only had an empty shell, and she didn’t actually know anything, let alone use Classical Chinese to solve this question.
In other words, compared to others, Xu Ran lacked 12 years of Zhou Dynasty’s meticulous teachings. Now, even the butcher by the roadside was more cultured than she was.
She took her blank paper into the house, and only whispered four words “I do not know”. Xu Ran was afraid to even look at her parents’ faces
Xu laoye could no longer hold it in; thinking that Xu Ran was still throwing a tantrum over the silkworm ceremonial rites, he slammed his hand down on the table and rose.
Xu Ran startled, and took a step back.
Seeing her daughter’s white face, Lady Xiao immediately stopped Xu laoye, and told Xu Ran to return to her room.
Xu Ran’s footsteps were weak and listless as she left. When she thought of the life of examinations she was going to have, her entire body almost collapsed.
As she stepped out, a few servants came forward; Xu Ran was in a bad mood, and waved them away, wandering the courtyard on her own. By some curious coincidence, her feet took her to the window on the South side of Xu laoye‘s study.
Xu laoye‘s furious shouts rang out; Xu Ran pressed her ears against the wall below the window.
“A blank paper for seven exams ah, it is the shame of the Xu family! We still don’t know if she submitted another blank paper for the eighth exam today; such wilfulness, it is truly our family’s misfortune.”
Hearing this, Xu Ran’s heart shivered with a slight inexplicable tearfulness, feeling quite wronged.
Zhou Dynasty’s kids entered the academy from 5 years old. The children of noble families started from 3 years old, and therefore had a casual grasp of poetry and musical talent, but she didn’t even know how to make an antithetical couplet ah, to catch up to people her age, she had to learn everything from scratch.
Now, even if she skipped past the foundational teaching, even though she had led another life before, but in her past life, she had never received any form of ancient Chinese teachings, and so it was difficult to try to learn. For example, her Analects of Confucius exam a few days ago, out of 10 questions, she only recognised a single question, because it finally had two names she actually knew. She was very moved.
“Zhuge Liang lacks the heart to be ruthless yet uses the principles of law, Wang An Shi uses the ruthless principles of law yet doesn’t call it such.”(3)
When she saw the question she was dumbfounded again.
What was it saying?
Later Xu Ran realised, she had never even heard of this Dynasty, and so it was completely impractical ah. What if this Zhuge Liang was not Zhuge Liang, and this Wang An Shi was not Wang An Shi? She totally didn’t dare to write anything down!
There was a rule in the academy – those who write nonsense would be punished with ten strikes of the rod and their parents notified. And what was defined as writing nonsense? That is, if you say a cause but cannot say its consequence, it’s illogical and cannot make the mark. This rule aimed to teach the students logical reasoning, as long as it is a theory that comes out of your mouth, even if you have to do it through tears, you have to make it logical and sensible.
Unable to understand the question, and too afraid to answer haphazardly, Xu Ran expressed: her stress was really great ah!
(End of Chapter 1)
Terms I’m unsure of – if anyone knows this, drop me a comment to let me know!
(1): 阁老 : From what I surmise, a rather high ranking title. Head of a department responsible for recording and announcing the emperor’s edicts and other matters of governance etc. Translated as Imperial Scribe because that’s the general gist I got out of it.
(2) 亲蚕礼上的礼乐人选: the gist I got was that this is a ceremony/rite usually hosted by the Empress, who will lead the rest of the Imperial Harem in offering prayers to the gods, and to pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. It’s meant to help encourage the people to be diligent in weaving. It is in contrast to the farming ceremony/rite hosted by the Emperor, and together they encourage the fields of farming and weaving, and also delineate the typical gender work roles of men farming and women weaving.
(3) 诸葛亮无申商之心而用其术，王安石用申商之实而讳其名论: the gist i got was that Zhuge Liang wanted to use law (concept of 法家) to govern the country yet did not have the necessarily ruthlessness required to successfully do it, so the country perished. Wang An Shi was ruthless enough to set down the law, but because he didn’t want to be known as a ruthless evil person, he denied that he used the principles of 法家. So he doesn’t use the name but still used the ideas of this concept.
Thoughts:
This was a lot more difficult and tedious than translating OZY. The amount of terms and titles specific to Chinese historical novels that I had to research… I don’t MTL when I translate so I had to stop every few sentences to look things up. I can completely understand where Xu Ran is coming from – the ancient way of speaking Mandarin is completely different to the way we speak today (for me, at least). I was not born and raised in China so I was not taught Classical Chinese/poetry etc. Someone from China would probably be more knowledgeable!
I haven’t actually read past this chapter. I’m not really planning to pick this up, but if I fall in love with this like I did OZY then perhaps? I really want to see OZY completely translated though so that’ll always be my priority if it gets dropped again (though I think with the recent surge in popularity it seems unlikely)
If you have any recommendations for novels, let me know! I’m happy to jump around and do a few here and there even if the story doesn’t particularly interest me – hopefully it can interest someone else to pick it up officially.
Chapter 1: The lady who handed in a blank sheet
The moment Xu Ran got her exam paper, she knew that she was going to be dead last again.
Including this time, this would be her eighth time getting the last place.
Xu Ran couldn’t even find any tears to cry as she persevered through the entire exam.
Her household servant Ning Fu and her maid Fei Cui was waiting outside the examination hall, and went up to her the moment they saw her come out. Fei Cui took out a hot water bottle to warm her hands, and pointed to the guardian lion statue on the other side of the administrative office: “Eldest Young Miss and Third Young Miss are waiting in the sedan.”
It was in the middle of winter; snow blanketed the entire area, and there was a chill to the air. At the front, Ning Fu shouted a command for the sedans to be raised, and then the three sedans began moving.
Xu Ran. despite hiding in the sedan, still felt the chill in her arms and legs. Because of the belief that one’s character was refined through poverty and suffering, the academy’s examination hall did not allow for the use of a warming stove. Entering the hall was like entering an icehouse.
Her younger sister Xu Jiao was in the sedan next to her, and as both sedans drifted closer, Xu Jiao remarked through the curtains of the sedan: “The morals of today’s world have been skewed by some perverse wind – a simple joke by Imperial Scribe Liu(1), and all the academies start competing to set an example to others. What trying to learn the way of the poor, my hands have been frozen to the point of developing ulcers!”
She was referring to the incident a few days ago, when Imperial Scribe Liu gathered all of the officials to discuss about the candidates taking the exam this year. Somehow, they had got onto the topic of the newly promoted top scholar Feng Jian. Feng Jian was born in poverty, and had once covered his body in snow during winter to keep clear-headed. He memorised the entire book of “Laws of Zhou Dynasty” and became known for his diligence. Using Feng Jian as an example, Imperial Scribe Liu expressed his worry about the current state of today’s students, with their greed for the pleasures of life.
(translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)
Imperial Scribe Liu’s passing remark brought suffering to all students everywhere. Since the coming of winter, in order to emulate his policy of “Before one can take on large responsibility, one must first endure great suffering”, even the stoves in the Academy was taken away.
Despite Xu Ran’s Primary School being full of children from influential families, they were unable to escape the pressure from the policy.
“Rather than discussing these useless things, you should instead spend more time thinking about today’s exam question. There were a few questions on filling-in-the-blanks and comprehension of the text, did you answer all of them?”
The sedan on the left sat the eldest daughter of the Xu Family, Xu Ran’s older sister Xu Jia. Xu Jia was now in High School, and was an honour student holding one of the top ranks.
The High School also had an exam today on text comprehension and fill-in-the-blanks, in a different hall within the same venue. It was rare for Xu Jia to travel together with her two younger sisters who were both in Primary School, and hence the moment she spoke, Xu Jiao immediately went quiet. Xu Ran was even more afraid of engaging her in conversation to the point that even her breathing slowed by a beat. She was deadly afraid that Xu Jia would ask her about her exam today.
With the both of them remaining silent, Xu Jia lost interest and opened the book “Zhou Bi Athrimancy” on her lap, and began to seriously revise for tomorrow’s exam on the Pythagorean Theorem.
Xu Ran hugged her hot water bottle and leaned back against the seat. The thought of this tragic transmigration existence was so bitter it almost made her shed tears.
The dynasty she was in was the Zhou Dynasty, where knowledge was the main currency. Here, everyone had to take exams, everyone had to study – from the three-year-old toddler to the old man, as long as they’re alive, the core of their existence was to take exams, take exams, take exams.
The Zhou Dynasty has remained so for 271 years, and has since developed a complete governing system. The ruler believed in governance through a well-educated workforce, and therefore created an environment that would promote such.
The citizens of the Zhou Dynasty received lessons from the time they were foetuses in their mother’s stomach. The Imperial Court established pregnancy classes specialising in teaching through music. The babies would be born listening to elegant and formal ceremonial music, then immediately move on to receiving lessons on speaking and recognising words, and when they turned five, they would enter Primary School. In Primary School they would learn to recognise and write words, phonetics, the Six Arts, then learn the Analects of Confucius, and the Five Classics of Confucianism. It was similar to the compulsory national education now, except instead of starting at 9 years old, you started at 5.
Primary School usually comprised of 7 years; the first 5 years would be spent learning, and the last 2 years spent preparing for the High School exams. There were some people who passed the exams to get into High School immediately after the first 5 years, but such people were the minority.
(translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)
Xu Ran’s original body was 12 years old, and had just finished her Primary School learning, and about to enter the High School exams. Only students who passed the exams were eligible to take part in the Imperial Examinations.
In Xu Ran’s opinion, High School was like today’s universities, and could be divided into three types. The first type was the most popularly subscribed Literature and Philosophy High School, then there was the career-oriented High Schools that was popular amongst the commoners, and the Martial Arts High School for practitioners.
Those with the ambition to become an official would usually choose the Literature and Philosophy High School, and upon graduating, they would enter the Imperial College of Supreme Learning.
This was the highest educational institute, and the goal of most people. Those who graduated from the Imperial College of Supreme Learning could, without taking the Imperial Civil Service Examination, be recognised as a successful candidate.
The women of the Zhou Dynasty could become officials in the Imperial Court. Even if they had no ambition to enter the civil service, the noble ladies aimed to gain entry into the Imperial College of Supreme Learning, and even if, the number of people who managed to graduate after gaining entry were few and far between.
Xu Ran felt that she must have been cursed with eight lifetimes worth of extremely bad luck, to have transmigrated into such a fraudulent dynasty. The original host was a daughter of an official, the second child, called “Ran Ran” by her family, and had a disagreeable character – just because she was not selected as one of the candidates for the silkworm ceremonial rites(2) the following year, and was mocked for it, she fell ill from anger.
When she woke up, she had become a different person inside.
The sedan stopped and Fei Cui helped her off it. Just as she entered the inner courtyard, a servant was sent to request her presence in the study, stating that Xu laoye wanted to ask the ladies about their homework.
Xu laoye had just returned from the meeting hall. A while ago, he was sent out to Dong Shan, as part of his official duties, to inspect the iron and salt mining industries. He had just reported back when he overheard the examiners discussing about the Primary School exams.
Concerned about the studies of his two beloved daughters, he inquired a little. Coincidentally, Xu Ran’s Head Teacher Ping fuzi was there, and he mentioned Xu Ran’s submissions of a blank paper in seven consecutive exams.
When Xu laoye heard this, he immediately erupted in anger, and rushed back to the residence.
When he got back, he remembered Xu Ran’s recent bout of illness, and his anger subsided a little. His daughter was prideful, and tended to stifle all her emotions in her heart – she had probably not fully recovered from the blow of not being chosen for the silkworm ceremonial rites. When Xu laoye thought of his, his heart softened.
Xu Ran stood in the middle, with Xu Jiao on her left, and Xu Jia on her right. When she raised her head, Xu laoye and Lady Xiao stood in front of them. She lowered her head back down.
Xu laoye first picked Xu Jia, and asked about her Astronomy and Zhou Dynasty Laws. Xu Jia answered perfectly, and Xu laoye nodded in satisfaction. His gaze shifted to the middle, hesitated, then moved on to the left, where he picked Xu Jiao.
He tested Xu Jiao on her foundational skills in text interpretation, and though Xu Jiao stuttered her way through it, she was able to answer.
It was finally Xu Ran’s turn. Xu laoye pursed his lips and turned to Lady Xiao, with the intention of asking her to set the test.
Lady Xiao immediately understood his intentions. He was worried that if the question asked was too difficult, Xu Ran would receive a blow if she could not answer; if the question was too easy, it would prick her pride and trigger another temper tantrum.
Every single person in the residence was aware of Second Young Miss Xu Ran Ran’s extremely prideful nature. When she threw a tantrum, even her own parents had to give in to her.
Lady Xiao glared at Xu laoye, her mind working furiously, before she decided to test Xu Ran on Athrimancy.
“1 old chicken costs 5 dollars, 1 mother chicken costs 3 dollars, 3 chicks costs 1 dollar. With 100 dollars, 100 chickens were brought. How many old chickens and chicks were brought?”
This question was neither too difficult nor too easy, and was at an appropriate level. Lady Xiao ordered the servants to prepare paper and ink, and purposely lowered her voice to tell her gently: “Ran Ran, take your time to think over it. Mother and your Father will return inside for some tea; when you’re done, just write it down and bring it over.”
She waved her hand, gesturing for Xu Jia and Xu Jiao to return. Then she went inside with Xu laoye, and started to prepare some tea.
(translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)
Xu Ran stood at the desk for half an hour, and once again couldn’t even find any tears to cry as she submitted a blank paper. When she first saw the question, her mind went completely blank. After she finally managed to translate the Classical Chinese into colloquial Mandarin, she faced yet another difficulty.
Maths was her Achilles heel ah; be it in her past life, or in this life, asking her to do a Math question was practically asking for her life. Not to mention, she had absolutely no memories from the original host – she only had an empty shell, and she didn’t actually know anything, let alone use Classical Chinese to solve this question.
In other words, compared to others, Xu Ran lacked 12 years of Zhou Dynasty’s meticulous teachings. Now, even the butcher by the roadside was more cultured than she was.
She took her blank paper into the house, and only whispered four words “I do not know”. Xu Ran was afraid to even look at her parents’ faces
Xu laoye could no longer hold it in; thinking that Xu Ran was still throwing a tantrum over the silkworm ceremonial rites, he slammed his hand down on the table and rose.
Xu Ran startled, and took a step back.
Seeing her daughter’s white face, Lady Xiao immediately stopped Xu laoye, and told Xu Ran to return to her room.
Xu Ran’s footsteps were weak and listless as she left. When she thought of the life of examinations she was going to have, her entire body almost collapsed.
As she stepped out, a few servants came forward; Xu Ran was in a bad mood, and waved them away, wandering the courtyard on her own. By some curious coincidence, her feet took her to the window on the South side of Xu laoye‘s study.
Xu laoye‘s furious shouts rang out; Xu Ran pressed her ears against the wall below the window.
“A blank paper for seven exams ah, it is the shame of the Xu family! We still don’t know if she submitted another blank paper for the eighth exam today; such wilfulness, it is truly our family’s misfortune.”
Hearing this, Xu Ran’s heart shivered with a slight inexplicable tearfulness, feeling quite wronged.
Zhou Dynasty’s kids entered the academy from 5 years old. The children of noble families started from 3 years old, and therefore had a casual grasp of poetry and musical talent, but she didn’t even know how to make an antithetical couplet ah, to catch up to people her age, she had to learn everything from scratch.
Now, even if she skipped past the foundational teaching, even though she had led another life before, but in her past life, she had never received any form of ancient Chinese teachings, and so it was difficult to try to learn. For example, her Analects of Confucius exam a few days ago, out of 10 questions, she only recognised a single question, because it finally had two names she actually knew. She was very moved.
“Zhuge Liang lacks the heart to be ruthless yet uses the principles of law, Wang An Shi uses the ruthless principles of law yet doesn’t call it such.”(3)
When she saw the question she was dumbfounded again.
What was it saying?
Later Xu Ran realised, she had never even heard of this Dynasty, and so it was completely impractical ah. What if this Zhuge Liang was not Zhuge Liang, and this Wang An Shi was not Wang An Shi? She totally didn’t dare to write anything down!
There was a rule in the academy – those who write nonsense would be punished with ten strikes of the rod and their parents notified. And what was defined as writing nonsense? That is, if you say a cause but cannot say its consequence, it’s illogical and cannot make the mark. This rule aimed to teach the students logical reasoning, as long as it is a theory that comes out of your mouth, even if you have to do it through tears, you have to make it logical and sensible.
Unable to understand the question, and too afraid to answer haphazardly, Xu Ran expressed: her stress was really great ah!
(End of Chapter 1)
Terms I’m unsure of – if anyone knows this, drop me a comment to let me know!
(1): 阁老 : From what I surmise, a rather high ranking title. Head of a department responsible for recording and announcing the emperor’s edicts and other matters of governance etc. Translated as Imperial Scribe because that’s the general gist I got out of it.
(2) 亲蚕礼上的礼乐人选: the gist I got was that this is a ceremony/rite usually hosted by the Empress, who will lead the rest of the Imperial Harem in offering prayers to the gods, and to pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. It’s meant to help encourage the people to be diligent in weaving. It is in contrast to the farming ceremony/rite hosted by the Emperor, and together they encourage the fields of farming and weaving, and also delineate the typical gender work roles of men farming and women weaving.
(3) 诸葛亮无申商之心而用其术，王安石用申商之实而讳其名论: the gist i got was that Zhuge Liang wanted to use law (concept of 法家) to govern the country yet did not have the necessarily ruthlessness required to successfully do it, so the country perished. Wang An Shi was ruthless enough to set down the law, but because he didn’t want to be known as a ruthless evil person, he denied that he used the principles of 法家. So he doesn’t use the name but still used the ideas of this concept.
Thoughts:
This was a lot more difficult and tedious than translating OZY. The amount of terms and titles specific to Chinese historical novels that I had to research… I don’t MTL when I translate so I had to stop every few sentences to look things up. I can completely understand where Xu Ran is coming from – the ancient way of speaking Mandarin is completely different to the way we speak today (for me, at least). I was not born and raised in China so I was not taught Classical Chinese/poetry etc. Someone from China would probably be more knowledgeable!
I haven’t actually read past this chapter. I’m not really planning to pick this up, but if I fall in love with this like I did OZY then perhaps? I really want to see OZY completely translated though so that’ll always be my priority if it gets dropped again (though I think with the recent surge in popularity it seems unlikely)
If you have any recommendations for novels, let me know! I’m happy to jump around and do a few here and there even if the story doesn’t particularly interest me – hopefully it can interest someone else to pick it up officially.
