Season 1 – Ep 7
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[Karen]
At the end of the last episode, Fan Xian is called to speak with his father, Fan Jian. Fan Si Zhe is ordered to kneel outside because Fan Jian thinks Fan Si Zhe is responsible for bringing Fan Xian into the crossfire between the Crown Prince and the 2nd prince. But, Fan Xian explains that Fan Si Zhe does not have the brains for all of that politiking because in reality, Fan Si Zhe is focused only on making money to help their dad.
These words soften Fan Jian’s stance and rather than apologize, agrees to do something for Fan Si Zhe. Fan Si Zhe’s request? For the family to play Pai Gow. It’s a rather fun scene where Fan Si Zhi, Fan Ruo Ruo, Fan Jian and Liu Yi Niang are sitting at the table playing the game. Fan Si Zhe is having a blast winning basically every round which means he wins all the money from his family. The group actually has a lovely time which is probably rare for them and in one fell swoop, Fan Xian is able to create a more comforting atmosphere at home. Liu Yi Niang decides to not fight any more with Fan Xian and Fan Si Zhe thinks his brother is pretty cool now that they’re going to open a book shop together. Fan Jian also now sees that his son Fan Si Zhe is quite talented in math and making money, something he didn’t pay attention to in the past.
As for Fan Xian, seems like everyone knows that Teng Zi Jing faked his death and is back in the capital. The two discuss Fan Xian’s findings from the Overwatch Council and they are currently at a dead end as the person Xu Yun Zhang who faked the assassination edict is now dead. They need to find another place that has intel on this.
[Cathy]
Teng Zi Jing tailors his “subterfuge” clothes or basically a black camo outfit in order to get to this place that only sells information. Ruo Ruo also joins in the fun and I literally mean she’s having fun sneaking around with her brother and Teng Zi Jing at night. She says it’s a dream come true! Interestingly, Fan Xian immediately says that this spot that sells information seems to be fake. He still goes in and is rather quick to ask for details on Xu Yun Zhang. A pigeon is seen flying off into the night which we can assume means someone was passing along this message. The recipient it seems is the Emperor who gets this news immediately and also allows the info on Xu Yun Zhang to be given to Fan Xian. Fan Xian gets the scroll and leaves the establishment to review the information with Ruo RUo and Teng Zi Jing. There’s a lot of detail in it and it also explicitly states that the Xu Yun Zhang character was in league with the Crown Prince further hinting to the fact that the Crown Prince maybe is the one to order Fan Xian’s assassination.
Except, Fan Xian’s spidey senses go off. He immediately turns back to the establishment only to find that it is completely empty. Not a soul is in sight. He guesses that someone with more power than even the Overwatch Council is behind this place and his own encounters today because the information is given too easily. Sure enough, it is indeed the Emperor who is pulling the strings behind the scenes to make sure that Fan Xian is in the crosshairs of the Crown Prince and the 2nd prince.
[Karen]
The next day, we turn to the poetry meeting at Li Hong Cheng’s residence. He’s the son of the Prince of Jing which means he’s royalty. Fan Xian arrives and shoves a bunch of random things into his hands as gifts including persimmons which we’ll talk about later and then heads in.
For this poetry meeting, Fan Xian’s first and foremost goal is to see if he can meet his chicken leg girl. He even wore the outfit he wore the day he met her in order to make it easier for her to recognize him. In the main hall, men and women are split into to sides of the room as propriety dictates except Fan Xian doesn’t care. He blatantly walks over to the women’s side to try to see if the chicken leg girl is there and is disappointed when he doesn’t see her.
Now it’s time to focus on the poetry meeting. Guo Bao Kun and He Zong Wei are also in attendance and they immediately start their attack. Guo Bao Kun sets rules on making poems in order to see who has better poetry skills. Their goal is to defeat and embarrass Fan Xian so that he leaves the capital.
Fan Xian completely disregards their terms of the competition, stating that everyone can make as many poems as they want, He will only make one poem and he will win. Obviously, that is quite a bit of self confidence which everyone dismisses, even the 2nd prince who is hiding on the premises of the manor and hears everything that’s happening in the main hall.
[Cathy]
Guo Bao Kun and He Zong Wei both offer up a poem each which is quickly dismissed by Fan Xian for either not following proper poetry rules or else the subject matter not currently remaining true. Fan Xian doesn’t give another thought as he’s disappointed he didn’t find his chicken leg girl so he just goes up to write his poem. Before he does so, he turns to make a bet. If Guo Bao Kun and He Zong Wei can make a poem better than his, he will never write another poem in his life. If they can’t write a better poem, they can’t write another poem. Guo Bao Kun immediately agrees.
[Karen]
Fan Xian starts writing in the worst handwriting possible. Like so bad that iti s many times worse than my Chinese calligraphy. That doesn’t really matter as everyone reads the poem he writes and is stunned.
风急天高猿啸哀⑵， 渚清沙白鸟飞回⑶。
无边落木萧萧下⑷， 不尽长江滚滚来。
万里悲秋常作客⑸，百年多病独登台⑹。
艰难苦恨繁霜鬓⑺， 潦倒新停浊酒杯⑻。
The thing is, he didn’t actually write this from scratch. Fan Xian stole this from 杜甫, the Tang Dynasty poet and one of THE most famous Chinese poets in history. This poem called 登高 or as my translation – Top of the Mountain. As Fan Xian says in the drama, it is considered THE best seven character Lüshi poem of all time. Obviously, with this poem in hand, he does not expect any one present to be able to write a poem that is better.
[Cathy]
The audience is completely stunned at this masterpiece of a poem and continues to admire the written doc while Fan Xian saunters away to find the restroom.
In the back yard, Fan Xian is attacked by a man who wields a sword. It is here that Fan Xian meets the 2nd prince, Li Cheng Ze. Fan Xian is not afraid whatsoever in front of this prince who threatens to have his subordinate, Xie Bi An, kill Fan Xian. Fan Xian easily sees through the Second Prince’s bluff that there is no way he will be killed by the 2nd prince today and he just sits enjoying a bunch of grapes from the 2nd prince’s table.
Outside, the poem is quickly shared with the palace. The Emperor is mightily impressed with the product and immediately arranges for a copy of it to be sent over to the crown prince, stirring the pot that there is now a new formidable foe in the capital.
Next episode, we will see Fan Xian meet his chicken leg girl a second time. That’s the only thing he cares about.
[Karen]
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This was an action packed episode! Before we talk about about some pop culture and language first before we dive into the history, can I just say that I overall greatly admire Fan Xian and also the script writers ability to not treat us like fools. Fan Xian is not scared whatsoever in front of the bet at the poetry meeting to humiliate him and is able to pull out this one classic poem to win the competition easily. I don’t think I’d have that confidence. Same thing in front of the 2nd prince. He doesn’t bat an eye in knowing just what kind of political mind games are happening underneath the surface. That takes real guts and even if I transported back in time, I don’t think I would have that confidence.
Additionally, Fan Xian has real classical Chinese knowledge. First and foremost, yes he is able to memorize the entirety of Dream of the Red Chamber which is most likely not possible in order to write into a book, but still. Impressive. And in this episode, yes he was just reciting one of the most famous Chinese poems to date, but he is able to very sharply judge Guo Bao Kun and He Zong Wei’s poem. That means he is quite familiar with the structure of Chinese poetry. Perhaps a benefit from the original writer of the book even in the drama. THe modern day Zhang Qing seems to be a classics studies student.
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There’s two phrases that I want to talk about 土 and 作死.
土 literally means dirt but it is often used as a derogatory term to mean something is low or uncultured or out of fashion. It often is mentioned in relation to peasants or farmers as a slight to them to say that the topic, item, or person is uneducated or uncultured. Oftentimes, when someone wears outdated fashion, then an insult would be “oh, this is very 土”. Fan Xian in the drama asks his sister whether she thinks that he’s very 土, or out of fashion.
However, 土 has now transformed into its own subculture where folks embrace this 土味 or Dirt Taste. There’s also now the term, 土到极便是潮, or going SO Tu now means you’re the It culture. We talked about Phoenix Legend a few months ago. 10 years ago, they were considered Tu because their fashion wasn’t considered “hip” and that only moms and grandmas listened to their music. Now they’re back “in” again. So it’s just a cycle!
There’s also something called 土味情话 or making romantic comments that are SUPER awkward or cringe. One example – “你最近是不是又胖了？” “没有啊，为什么这么说？” “那为什么，在我心里的分量越来越重了？” Have you gained a little weight? No? Why? Well, your weight in my heart is getting heavier and heavier.
Or 你知道你和星星有什么区别吗？星星在天上，你在我心里。Do you know the difference between yourself and the stars? The stars are in the sky but you are in my heart.
AHH – so cringe! But those have also been all the rage.
Ok – next, let’s talk about 作死 or essentially finding your own death sentence. It essentially means someone who doesn’t care about risks and deserves what he or she got. You typically use it when someone’s looking for trouble and everyone else can see it a mile away. There’s a fun component to it and it is more light hearted. You don’t actually say to someone that you’re looking to die but more – why are you going ahead with this dumb headed venture.
I always thought that this was a modern day term but no! It’s been around for over 8 centuries and has been featured in famous texts such as the Dream of the Red Chamber.
A lot of local dialects have different uses and version of 作死 – if i’m reading it in proper mandarin it would be 作死(4th) but the beijing version has it as 作 or 嘬 and you remove the 死. The new mandarin dictionary officially posted the phrase as 作zuō死 which is what Fan Xian says.
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There’s some fun history that we saw in the drama starting right off the bat with Fan Si Zhe’s gambling game so let’s start the discussion there!
The game the Fan family plays is called Pai Gao or Chinese Dominos. Pai Gow is the cantonese way of saying 牌九. The translation for the game is to “make nine” or “card nine”. There’s a couple of reasons for the name – the max score of mixed tiles is 9, so make 9, but also that there’s a lot of pressure
The game itself originated during the Northern Song dynasty around the early 12th century and was derived from dice games. It’s a bit more complicated than playing dice, hence its popularity. This was also a predecessor to Mahjong.
Now the dominoes were made of either wood, bones, or ivory and there’s typically 32 tiles (some use 20 tiles) and can be arranged into 16 pairs. There will also be 3-4 dies which will be used to determine who the dealer is and where to grab the stacks of tiles.
There can be between 3-8 players and essentially you’re competing against the dealer, who is a player, on the values of the tiles. The game is quite complicated because there’s so many pair options but the essential gist is you’re betting that your tiles have a higher value that those of the dealer.
There’s Big Pai Jiu in which each player has 2 hands of 2 tiles so that’s 4 tiles total. The hand with the higher points is called the high hand and the lower one the low hand. If both of your hands beat the dealer’s groups, then that’s a win. If one hand wins and one hand loses, then that’s a draw. There’s a version called small pai jiu which you only play with one hand of 2 tiles. That goes much faster.
The different pairs have different names and there are different rules for those different pairs and pairings of tiles. I’ve actually never played Pai Jiu. Our family prefers to play Mahjong over this but Pai Jiu or Pai Gow is still pretty popular with the older generation. There’s a different version of Pai Gow poker that is available to play at casinos across the world.
Interestingly, we don’t see Pai Jiu OR Mahjong featured in many dramas. This is one of the few to feature Pai Jiu in several episodes. Pai Jiu, or 骨牌, as it was known during the Qing Dynasty, is mentioned several times in Dream of the Red Chamber.
Moving on – let’s get to the big bombshell of a poem that Fan Xian writes during the Poetry meeting. As we mentioned earlier this poem was written by the Poet Sage Du Fu. Let me first talk about the poem’s style before diving into the translation of the poem itself.
The poem – Deng Gao of Top of the Mountain is 七言律诗 or Seven-Character Eight-Line regulated verse. This type of poetry first appeared during the Southern Dynasty – around 480 CE and then continued to develop until it reached its peak popularity during the Tang Dynasty and especially in the hands of Du Fu in the mid 8th century CE.
As it appears in the English description, these poems strictly have 7 characters for each of the 8 lines, with a total of 56 characters.
The first 2 lines are called the 首联, the 3rd and 4th the 颔hàn联, the 5th and 6th 颈jǐng联, and the last two 尾联. The poem has to follow a rhyme scheme. Typically the last character of the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th lines all have to rhyme with a similar sound. The pattern of tonality or 平仄 of the poem needs to follow a standard pattern. And lastly the pairs of lines also need to be something called 对仗 or parallelism, meaning that the text needs to compare or contrast in terms of phonology, tonality, and the actual subject matter. In this type of poem, the 3rd and 4th lines need to match with the 5th and 6th lines. The first 2 lines though do not need to match the 7th and eighth lines.
What’s important to note is that the pronunciation of characters back in the Tang dynasty is not how we pronounce characters today in mandarin, so in our ears, they might not sound like a complete rhyme, but they do follow the traditional rules of Chinese tonality.
Ok – let’s now talk about the poem itself. Let me repeat it for us.
风急天高猿啸哀⑵， 渚zhǔ清沙白鸟飞回⑶。
无边落木萧萧下⑷， 不尽长江滚滚来。
万里悲秋常作客⑸，百年多病独登台⑹。
艰难苦恨繁霜鬓⑺， 潦倒新停浊酒杯⑻。
My translation is as such:
In the rush of autumn wind are the screeches of the monkeys
The birds are flying over the sands of the rivers and small islands in the water
The leaves drop to a boundless fall and whistling down
The yangtze river continues to endlessly roll
In the sorrow of autumn, I lament my long wandering
After years of illness, I climb the high platform alone
I am anguished with whitening hairs
In my penniless state, I now stop from drinking
Du Fu wrote the poem in 767 when the poet himself was over 50 years old. This was also 4 years after the end of the An Lu Shan Rebellion that brought havoc to the Tang Dynasty and nearly toppled the Empire itself. Du Fu had been living in the city of Cheng Du, but had fallen on hard times. He left the city and traveled to Kui州, basically destitute. One day, he climbed up the mountain to the city of 白帝城 located in modern day Chong Qing, overlooking the Yangtze river. While there at the top of the mountain, he was moved by his view and lamented his life, which caused him to write this poem. Reading this translation, it really doesn’t fit the vibe of a young man who most definitely could NOT have had these life experiences. This poem also becomes a key plot point later on in this drama because it’s written from the perspective of one who has lived a hard life.
Now let’s point to why this poem is considered one of THE best poems or at least Seven-Character Eight-Line regulated verse of all time.
Not only does it follow the tonality required of this type of poem and rhymes but more importantly, the parallelism of the text is expertly crafted to convey an image of an old man high on the mountain feeling deep regret. I’ll try to convey what that means.
In the first two lines 风急天高猿啸哀⑵, 渚zhǔ清沙白鸟飞回. Feng means wind and Tian means sky. 渚 and 沙 mean the little island and sand which match. Then the monkeys match with the birds. In 3rd and 4th lines -> 无边 means boundless. Then 不尽 means endless. That matches. 落木 means falling leaves and matches with Long River. 长江 literally means long river but also the Yangtze River. 萧萧下 or whistling down. 滚滚来 rolling along. So the 3rd and 4th lines completely parallel each other while painting the picture of leaves falling and the river flowing.
Hopefully that helped convey HOW and why this poem is such a masterpiece. I won’t discuss the 2nd half of the poem because that’s discussed at length in another episode so we’ll tackle that then.
Let me close out on book differences! Well – most of the action that happened in this episode didn’t happen in the book. At the poetry meeting, a lot of book time was given to Fan Ruo Ruo for sparring with Ye Ling Er. Fan Ruo Ruo also got a little annoyed at the attendees and wrote another poem that Fan Xian sent her years ago. Everyone was shocked at that poem and wanted Fan Xian to write another. Fan Xian basically got bored and wrote 登高 before leaving. The drama needed to condense a lot of the politicking and scheming into this event to move along.