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azdak at 08:09pm on 22/10/2025 under nirvana in fire
azdak at 08:09pm on 22/10/2025 under nirvana in fireI enjoyed this episode but I don’t have anything new to say about it, except that when Mr Shisan was being sad because Mei Changsu looks nothing like Lin Shu, I suddenly remembered that part of the whole Confucian filial piety thing is that you’re not allowed to do any body modifications, because your body was given to you by your parents. You aren’t even allowed to cut your hair, which is why all the men have those amazing top knots. So Lin Shu’s changed appearance is not just weird and unsettling, it breaks a major cultural and religious taboo. When Consort Jing finally meets him and cries because “you used to look so like your parents”, she isn’t being massively tactless, as I used to think, she’s acknowledging the enormity of his sacrifice. And I think this is why MCS tells Mr Shisan, right after his outburst of sorrow, that his mother would be grateful for all Shisan has done for him. He’s trying to establish that the filial connection hasn’t been broken by his changed appearance.
MCS is certainly trying very hard to let EVERYONE know that he and Gong YU are NOT an item, no matter how many sachets of perfume she sends (is it just me or is Mr Shisan being a bit suggestive when he tells MCS the perfume will give him "sweet dreams?"). Earlier we had Consort Jing stitching pouches as a way of getting touch with Liyang, and now we have Gong Yu trying to communicate with MCS via embroidery - everything is just so much harder for the women.
The episode also contains one of my favourite lines, the one where Meng Zhi tells MCS to build a tunnel so he can have a secret rendezvous with Prince Jing and MCS says "Isn't there another way you could put that?" I have nothing new to say about it, but it deserves an honourable mention for being so funny.
Oh, one more thing. Li Gang says, after the assassins have attacked, that a snowy night is good for murder. Apparently in Chinese culture snow is a symbol of corruption because it covers everything up, so when Jingrui walks off through the falling snowflakes, it isn't just because that makes the scene look pretty. I find it really hard to overcome my Western association of snow with purity and beauty, which just goes to show how deeply ingrained these things are. I assume the snow imagery makes the scene hit a lot harder for Chinese viewers.
MCS is certainly trying very hard to let EVERYONE know that he and Gong YU are NOT an item, no matter how many sachets of perfume she sends (is it just me or is Mr Shisan being a bit suggestive when he tells MCS the perfume will give him "sweet dreams?"). Earlier we had Consort Jing stitching pouches as a way of getting touch with Liyang, and now we have Gong Yu trying to communicate with MCS via embroidery - everything is just so much harder for the women.
The episode also contains one of my favourite lines, the one where Meng Zhi tells MCS to build a tunnel so he can have a secret rendezvous with Prince Jing and MCS says "Isn't there another way you could put that?" I have nothing new to say about it, but it deserves an honourable mention for being so funny.
Oh, one more thing. Li Gang says, after the assassins have attacked, that a snowy night is good for murder. Apparently in Chinese culture snow is a symbol of corruption because it covers everything up, so when Jingrui walks off through the falling snowflakes, it isn't just because that makes the scene look pretty. I find it really hard to overcome my Western association of snow with purity and beauty, which just goes to show how deeply ingrained these things are. I assume the snow imagery makes the scene hit a lot harder for Chinese viewers.
(no subject)
The plot arc I noticed this time was the end of Jingrui's innocence. I have to agree with MCS that Jingrui is just going to have to deal with it. It's not that he should already know his father is an ally of the Crown Prince, but he surely knows that his father is a powerful man and that neutrality doesn't mean totally uninvolved always. He's never heard any rumours about his parents' marriage? Doesn't he - like Xia Dong! - have thoughts about fhe Chiyan incident at all? He was 12, not 2. What are his thoughts, if any, about Prince Jing? No wonder Marquis Xie let him live, he's so determinedly not a threat. But his comfort depends on everyone else's pain. He's useless with Xie Bi in ep 7 when the latter is justifiably upset at realising that he has been treated as a political tool and made a fool of. But hey, never mind, Dad still loves you, says Jingrui, completely failing to think further that his dad has been lying for a long time about his politics. He's not a bad person, his principles are good, but he's let himself live in too much of a fairytale about both his father and the lovely apolitical jianghu (in which he seems to think that it is possible for MCS to be both a powerful sect leader, and "carefree"), and one day that has to end even without MCS.
kindess)
I'll give him a pass on rumours about his parents' marriage, though. That information was presumably confined to the inner palace, and even there, it's only the people who are old enough to have been around at the time who know about it. In the novel, aren't the Nings supposed to be the dream couple?
Re: kindess)
I'll let him off Xie Bi and the Empress, though, since Xie Bi shouldn't have ratted MCS out to Prince Yu in the first place.