dujiangyan都江堰, sichuan
Random Stuff #12: What is Simplified Chinese?
For people like me who grew up speaking and using Chinese in day to day life, the vast majority of us have at least a basic understanding of what Simplified Chinese is, but it wasn’t until some days ago when an English speaker asked me “what is Simplified Chinese?” that I realized not many people here understand what Simplified Chinese is. So, I’ve gathered some misconceptions I’ve encountered both in real life and online, and I will try to answer them in a concise but factual manner.
But first, let us talk basics. There are three things we must cover first before going into this topic. The first is the fact that both Simplified Chinese (简体中文) and Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) used today are modern standardized systems of written Chinese, as in both were compiled within the past 100 years or so (modern Simplified from 1935-1936, then again from 1956 and on; modern Traditional starting from 1973), and the two currently widely used versions of both systems were officially standardized in the past 50 years (modern Simplified current version standardized in 2013; modern Traditional current version standardized in 1982). However, since simplified characters already exist in history (called 简化字/簡化字 or 俗体字/俗體字/”informal characters”), and “Traditional Chinese” can be taken to mean “written Chinese used in history”, in this post I will use “modern Simplified/Traditional Chinese” or “modern Simplified/Traditional” when referring to the currently used modern standardized systems.
Second is the evolution of written Chinese. Usually when this is taught, instructors use examples of how certain characters evolved over time, for example one might encounter a linear diagram like this in Chinese class:
(Original picture from Mandarinpedia)
However, this diagram only gives a very general idea of how characters evolved from more picture-like logograms to the more abstract symbols we call characters today, and does not reflect the complexity of this evolution at all. To get into these details we will need to talk about Chinese calligraphy. In terms of the evolution of written Chinese, Chinese calligraphy–all those scripts like oracle bone script (甲骨文), bronze/Jinwen script (金文), Seal/Zhuan script (篆书/篆書), Clerical/Li script (隶书/隸書), Regular/Kai script (楷书/楷書), etc–they aren’t just calligraphy fonts, but actually change the way characters are written, and are representative of the commonly used forms of written Chinese at different points in Chinese history, as in the appearance of a certain script on a historical artifact can actually be used to estimate how old the artifact is. Below is a (very) rough timeline of when each script appeared and when they are most popular:
- Oracle bone script/Jiaguwen (甲骨文): Shang dynasty (~1600 BC-1046 BC)
- Bronze/Jinwen script (金文; includes Large Seal script/大篆): Western Zhou dynasty (~1046 BC-771 BC)
- Seal/Zhuan script (篆书/篆書; sometimes called Small Seal script/小篆 or Qin script/秦篆): compiled in Qin dynasty by chancellor Li Si/李斯 around 221 BC, was the official script in Qin dynasty (221 BC-207 AD); popularity went down after Qin dynasty but was still in use for ceremonial purposes like official seals (the archaic meaning of 篆 is “official seal”, hence the English name); still in use today in very specific areas like seal stamps, calligraphy, logos, and art.
- Clerical/Li script (隶书/隸書): appeared in Qin dynasty, became the main script used in Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD); popularity went down after Han dynasty but was still in use; still in use today in specific areas like calligraphy, inscriptions/signatures on traditional Chinese paintings, logos, and other art.
- Regular/Kai script (楷书/楷書): appeared in late Han dynasty, became the main script used in Tang dynasty and has been popular ever since (618 AD-present).
(Note: there are other calligraphy scripts like Semi-Cursive script/行书/行書 and Cursive script/草书/草書 that were never mainstream yet were also significant, especially in the case of modern Simplified Chinese, but I will mention them later so this won’t become too confusing)
So if we plug the information from the very rough timeline above into the linear diagram, it becomes this:
But wait! There’s even more! Because there is a thing called variant Chinese characters/异体字/異體字, which basically means that there have been multiple ways in which a character can be written (“one character, many forms”/一字多形), and these can come about as a result of homophones, personal preference of historically significant people, historical trends, mistakes in the past that stuck around, or the result of stylized scripts like Cursive script/草书/草書, which simplifies and connects strokes in a liberal manner. The reason Cursive script is important here is because of the logographic nature of written Chinese, meaning the simplifying or connecting of strokes actually changes how the character is written. Because of this, 马 and 馬 were forms that have already existed before modern Simplified and modern Traditional were compiled. A diagram that takes variations and evolution into account should look something like this:
And since the above diagram did not take Cursive script into account, here’s another picture of a myriad of scripts/fonts (not in chronological order) that includes 馬 in Cursive script (mostly on bottom left):
Now you may have an idea of where modern Simplified and Traditional Chinese came from: they are both compiled from existing variants. Since both modern Simplified and modern Traditional are supposed to be standardizations of written Chinese, they each set a single variant for each character as the “standard”. Modern Traditional Chinese kept the more historically mainstream 馬, and modern Simplified Chinese substituted it with the simpler variant 马. Taking all of this into account but still keeping it concise for our topic here, our linear diagram from the beginning should be modified to look like this:
And that’s just an example of a single character. This evolution diagram can differ depending on the character too, due to there being other rules for simplifying characters. This is why standardizing written Chinese is an immense amount of work, but once standardized, the written language will be streamlined and much easier to use in communication.
Finally, we are ready to clear some misconceptions.
—————————————————
About Common Misconceptions Regarding Modern Simplified Chinese:
“Simplified Chinese replaced all Traditional Chinese characters”. Untrue. Modern Simplified Chinese only standardized 2274 of the most used Chinese characters and 14 radicals with simpler variants. That’s really all there is to it. For reference there are a total of about 60,000 Chinese characters, and about 3,500 of these are deemed to be often-used characters; so only ~3.7% of all Chinese characters and ~65% of often-used Chinese characters are simplified in modern Simplified Chinese. Play around with any online tool that can switch between modern Simplified and modern Traditional, and you will find that many characters stayed the same.
“Simplified Chinese is the opposite of Traditional Chinese”. Untrue. Modern Simplified Chinese is just a simplified and standardized system of written Chinese. Modern Simplified Chinese and modern Traditional Chinese are not “opposites” of each other at all, just different standardized systems serving different purposes. Modern Simplified was compiled with ease of use in mind, since Traditional characters can be time-consuming to write, for example imagine writing 聲 (sound) when you can just write 声 instead. Also back when Simplified was being introduced to the public, a huge part of the population was illiterate, especially farmers, poor people, and women, so Simplified Chinese was a great way to quickly educate them on reading and writing, and to improve efficiency in all aspects of life. Knowing how to read and write is key to education, and education is a must if people’s lives were to be improved at all.
“Simplified Chinese is Mandarin”. Untrue. Mandarin is a spoken dialect that came from Beijing dialect, and both modern Simplified and modern Traditional Chinese are modern standardized systems of written Chinese. One concerns the written language and the other concerns a spoken dialect.
“Simplified Chinese was invented by the Communist Party”. Untrue. As mentioned before, most characters used in modern Simplified Chinese are already present in ancient texts, artifacts, and inscriptions as variants. Apparently the only character simplified by PRC was 簾 (blinds/curtain), which became 帘 in modern Simplified Chinese. History wise, Republic of China was the first to start compiling Simplified Chinese in 1935 and introducing it to the public, but this was called off after 4 months. PRC modified and built on the original plan, and introduced it to the public again starting from 1956.
“Simplified Chinese is to Traditional Chinese as Newspeak is to English in 1984”. Completely untrue. Modern Simplified Chinese is just a simplified way to write commonly used Chinese characters and does not alter the meaning of the characters. There are some Traditional characters that are combined as one simplified character in modern Simplified, but the meanings are not lost or altered. For example, 發 fā (development) and 髪 fà (hair) are combined as 发 in modern Simplified, resulting in 发 having 2 different pronunciations (both fā and fà), and each of these pronunciations carrying their original meaning. The meaning of neither 發 nor 髪 was lost, 发 will just have a longer dictionary entry.
“Simplified Chinese is a huge change from Traditional Chinese”. Only partly true in that it is a change, but it is a change justified by the evolution of written Chinese throughout history. The origin of most modern Simplified Chinese characters come straight from history itself, since many characters had alternative ways in which they were written (sometimes for convenience), for example these characters below. Each row contains different forms of a single character (smaller characters indicate what time period these variants are from; ex: 汉碑 means the variant is from a Han dynasty inscription).
In reality, written Chinese has always been standardizing itself. Less-used variants become forgotten over time, sometimes only rediscovered through archaeology. Besides, effective written communication does partly rely on standardization of the written language (imagine everyone writing in the various variants…how horrible would that be?). Modern Simplified just took this one step farther and made some characters easier to write.
“Traditional Chinese is no longer used in Mainland China”. Untrue. Modern Simplified is the commonly used form in Mainland China, but Traditional is still used in a variety of places, such as on store signs/brand logos, particularly for stores/brand that are old. For example the old Beijing brand 天福号 below (est. 1738). On their logo, 天福号 is written as 天福號 from right to left, which is the traditional way of writing horizontally.
Traditional Chinese is also used in the logos for many universities in China:
Another way in which Traditional Chinese is commonly used in mainland China are personal seal stamps. Often times when people carve seal stamps for personal use (for example showing ownership on artwork they created or collected), they would put their name/courtesy name/nickname on the seal stamps in Zhuan/篆 calligraphy font, and Zhuan font use Traditional Chinese. Of course, the ways in which Traditional Chinese is still used in mainland China isn’t restricted to these two examples here. There are other places where Traditional Chinese is still used, such as traditional paintings/国画, calligraphy/书法, and many many more.
“People who grew up reading Simplified Chinese cannot read Traditional Chinese”. Depends on who you are asking. I grew up learning only modern Simplified, and I can read Traditional/modern Traditional Chinese just fine without having to actually learn it from anyone. Most people who grew up with Simplified Chinese should be able to read at least some Traditional without help. There are some people who say they can’t read Traditional without taking the time to learn it, but I doubt they’ve really tried, to be very honest.
—————————————————
And that’s it for the misconceptions!
My personal philosophy regarding modern Simplified Chinese and modern Traditional Chinese can be summed up as 识繁写简, or basically “know how to read Traditional and know how to write Simplified”. In a way, knowing how to read Traditional is a bit like knowing how to read cursive: a lot of history could be lost if we completely stopped using/learning about Traditional Chinese, but to meet the fast pace that modern life demands, I think modern Simplified Chinese is the more convenient choice for writing for day-to-day purposes. Since quite a few posts on this blog concern history, you will find that I usually use both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese for historical things, since modern Traditional Chinese is closest to what people used in the past, and modern Simplified Chinese is more often used now. If it appears that I didn’t put modern Simplified and modern Traditional side by side, that usually means either the characters stayed the same and there’s no need for me to type the same thing out again, or the topic does not call for both to be shown.
Finally, the fun part. Here’s a Seal/Zhuan script calligraphy work by Mi Fu/米芾 (1051-1107):
Does something look familiar there?
Does that Beijing brand store roughly mean sky, good fortune, number? 天福号/天福號
You have to look at it separately, since there are two parts to that brand name, 天福 and 号/號. 天福 means “heavenly (good) fortune”. The name doesn’t really have a lot to do with their products (they sell braised meats and sauce preserved meats), but it does have a little to do with the brand’s origin story, and has an auspicious meaning. 号 here is short for 字号/字號, which roughly means “store” or “brand”. This is reflected in the title 中华老字号, which is a title that the Chinese government gave to stores/brands that have a long history behind them, whose products are culturally significant, and were made with traditional methods. The title officially translates to “China time-honored brands”, of which 天福号 is one (est. 1738).
Here’s the official logo for China time-honored brands. The design is basically an artistic combination of the characters 字 and 号 (Simplified version), and presented in a style similar to Seal script.
So altogether the name 天福号 should translate to “brand of heavenly fortune”.
Random Stuff #1: Red Isn’t Always Auspicious
One of the best known things about Chinese culture is that red is considered an auspicious color, symbolizing joy and luck and so on. But there is (at least) one place where red is considered NOT auspicious, even offensive, and that is…writing. Red writing is considered unlucky (”丹书不祥” in Chinese; here, “丹” means red), and writing names in red is considered highly offensive.
So why is that?
There are three main reasons for this:
#1: Writing in red means authority
Back in the imperial days, specifically the Ming and Qing dynasties, officials would send memorials to the emperor, who would then mark and comment on the memorials with red ink. Therefore, writing in red could be considered “attempt to impersonate the emperor” (basically treason) and punished by death. This is a possible origin for the belief.
(A Qing dynasty memorial; the emperor’s response is in red ink)
#2: Writing someone’s name in red means the person is dead
On a tombstone, the name of the deceased is usually written in red as per tradition. This is true even to this day. Hence, writing someone’s name in red would be akin to wishing them dead.
Apparently there is also a tradition, where families would write the name of a newly born family member into the family tree, but leave the name “incomplete”. Once the person dies, the relatives finish writing the name with red ink.
#3: Red marks were used to authorize executions
This one again goes back to the imperial days. In those days, when approving an execution, an official or even the emperor would mark the name of the person with red ink.
So yup. There are exceptions.
Random Stuff #10: Daoist Elements and More in The Untamed/MDZS Part 2 - Weapons and Magical Objects
(Part 1 Here) (Super-long post ahead!)
Talismans/Charms/符箓/符咒
The talismans in both the live-action and animated shows originate from Daoist talismans, which in turn developed from early shamanistic traditions. Like what Lan Wangji tells Jiang Cheng in the show, real life Daoist talismans are usually made for beneficial purposes, one of which being to ward off evil spirits. Other purposes of such talismans include everything from curing illnesses to controlling floods to communicating with the gods. In order to call forth gods to accomplish these goals, writing/drawing on the talismans usually include “incantations” that start with “勅令”, or “command”, on the very top. The word can be traced back to 敕令, which refers to orders from an emperor, but since 敕 is traditionally reserved for the emperor, Daoists use 勅 on their talismans. The meaning is also slightly changed, as 敕 has 攵 on the right, implying the order is written; meanwhile 勅 has 力/force on the right, implying the order is executed by “force”.
The body of the talisman sometimes include complex combinations of Chinese characters (合体字/複文) that are more like visual symbols and do not have their own pronunciations. On a talisman these “combination characters” are usually arranged in a specific pattern. These combination characters aren’t exclusive to Daoism, however. Below is a well-known combination character created from the word 招財進寶 (lit: “gaining wealth and attracting riches”), commonly seen pasted on doors and windows around Chinese New Year for luck.
Other elements of a talisman are mostly made up of symbols such as the yinyang symbol, eight trigrams, and special strokes that also hold symbolic meaning.
A fun detail from the animated show: in the scene where Jiang Cheng shows the inverted evil-warding talisman to Lan Wangji, we can see that WWX’s addition in blood near the top turns the 人 part into 夷, as in 夷陵老祖/”Yiling Founder”, giving the viewer a solid hint as to who changed the talismans.
Sword (Jian)/剑
Jian sword refers specifically to pointed double-edged one-handed straight swords. The sword is important to religious Daoism, but its origin as a culturally-significant symbol lies in history.
The sword was an actual weapon used on the battlefield before Han dynasty (before 202 BC), and it was that time, long long ago, that the sword was associated with certain human qualities, such as an unyielding sense of justice. From there, the jian sword eventually became an ornamental item symbolizing high social status. Evidences of this can be found in the Book of Rites (《禮記》), a book detailing etiquettes and rituals for nobles of Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BC). For example, a chapter mentioned “when looking upon a gentleman’s attire, sword, and carriage horse, do not gossip about their value” (“觀君子之衣服，服劍，乘馬，弗賈”). One such decorative jian sword artifact even survived to this day:
Sword of Goujian, King of Yue (越王勾践剑), part of the collection of Hubei Provincial Museum. Note: the engraved “bird-worm seal script” (鳥蟲篆; basically a highly decorative font) text says “Goujian, King of Yue, made this sword for his personal use” (戉王鸠浅，自乍用鐱).
By the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD), Daoism had established itself as a folk religion. Many of the customs and etiquettes passed down from pre-Qin dynasty times were mystified and given religious importance in the then newly-established Daoist belief system, including the aforementioned etiquettes involving the jian sword. People came to believe the jian sword as holding magical properties, a weapon gifted by heaven itself, allowing its wielder (usually a Daoist priest) to fight and triumph over demonic spirits. As the jian sword became more and more of a Daoist ceremonial item than an actual weapon, it also slowly changed to this familiar form today:
(Modern ceremonial Daoist jian swords. Fun fact: it is widely believed that jian swords made entirely of peach wood have better demon-banishing abilities than regular swords, since peach trees were said to have demon-warding effects.)
So, a sword that was worn to show respect, used to showcase social status AND have demon-warding powers? Does that sound familiar?
It was no accident that the day WWX refused to take his sword with him (since he gave his core to Jiang Cheng so Jiang Cheng could continue to use swords) was also the day the other sects/clans started to alienate him. The sword symbolized status, and WWX was only the son of a servant, a “lone genius” (一枝独秀/”a lone blooming branch”, in the words of Jiang Cheng) among all the young nobles, so it was fitting that WWX abandoned the “righteous” sword path to walk a new and unique path in order to reach his full potential.
“Fly whisk”/“duster”/fu chen/拂尘
Remember the funny-looking duster-like objects that Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen held in the live action series? Those are called fu chen, or “拂尘” in Chinese, and hold symbolic meaning in Daoism. To explore that meaning, let’s first explain the name “fu chen”. Fu chen literally means “brush dust”, so the Chinese meaning is really more like “duster” than the common English translation of “fly whisk”. But then what sort of “dust” is it really “brushing”?
The concept of “dust” (尘) in both Daoism and Chinese Buddhism refers to the normal secular human society, with all of its material objects and worldly wants and worries. Thus, the symbolic meaning of fu chen/“duster” is to clear these worries and wants–in other words, worldly attachments–from one’s mind, allowing one to exit the secular world. For this reason, in China, the process of abandoning one’s normal life in society for the life of a Daoist priest or Buddhist monk is called “出家” (lit. “exiting home”) or “出世” (lit. “exiting world”; world here meaning society).
Since both Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen are Daoist priests (they were both referred to as “道长”), and both wandered through the world banishing evil rather than settling down somewhere and integrating into society, it was a nice choice to have them each hold a fu chen.
“Stygian Tiger Seal” or “Yin Tiger Seal”/阴虎符
This one is a non-Daoist reference, but it’s still rooted in Chinese history, so here we go.
The fact that the Stygian Tiger seal is called a “tiger seal”/虎符 and has two halves that unleash powerful resentment energy when fitted together (this mechanism is present in both book and live-action but is absent in the animated show, where the two halves appear to be conjoined), points to the inspiration being the tiger amulet. In imperial China, tiger amulets/虎符 are metal tiger figurines that split into halves lengthwise, and serve the important purpose of approving military deployment. The imperial court would hold the right half, while the left half would be issued to military officials.
When army deployment is needed, the official would bring the left half of the figurine to the imperial court, and if it combines with the right half into a whole figurine, then the military deployment would be officially approved. Historically, tiger amulets are a security measure designed to give the imperial court control over the military.
Finally, some joke talismans I found on the web:
Translation: “No need to work overtime”; “hold the talisman and chant ‘PIKA PIKA’”, “will confuse your boss so you can get off work early”.
Translation: “passes exam without studying”, “bullshitting it”, “no need to study”. (I think I’ll need one of these lol…………………………..)
Random Stuff #9: Daoist Elements and More in The Untamed/MDZS Part 1 - Concepts
(Part 2 Here) (Super-long post ahead!)
Though The Untamed is a Xianxia/仙侠 drama (kind of like fantasy genre), there are some elements in it that had clear roots in Chinese culture, especially religious/philosophical Daoism. So here are some Daoist elements within the world of The Untamed/MDZS:
“Cultivation” (Dao)/道
In Chinese, the “cultivation method” is the “Dao”/“道”, which some of you may recognize as that character that sometimes stands for Daoism. Within Daoism however, that character has a deeper meaning than just a name; in fact it is one of the most important concepts of both philosophical and religious Daoism (it also has a few different meanings, but the world of The Untamed mostly focuses on one of them; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a very comprehensive article entry on Daoism that explains the concept of Dao in detail, for anyone who’s interested in more scholarly explanations). It actually translates best as “way” or “path” (note: when not referring to a specific “way”, it absolutely CANNOT be translated as “the way” or “the path”, and I will get to why that’s important), and basically means a “way” of doing something. For example, to make a salad you might rip the lettuce leaves or cut them with a knife. Both of these methods would be “ways”/道 of making a salad. And as you can see in this example, there are many different ways of arriving at a result or accomplishing a goal. Since Dao encompasses all of the different ways of doing all the different things, it cannot be translated as “the way”, since “the” would imply that “there is only one way”, or “only one right way”, of doing things.
(image credit: My Great Lakes)
This concept that there is more than one way to accomplish something is very important to the story of The Untamed/MDZS, especially in terms of Wei Wuxian. But we have to clarify the “goal” in The Untamed/MDZS first: what was it that these people were trying to accomplish with their different “ways”? Looking at the overall story, it appears that they were all generally trying to do good and uphold justice by warding off or neutralizing supernatural threats. Now that we’ve established the goal, let’s return to WWX. In the story, WWX was forced to give up the regular “cultivation”/ the “sword path”/剑道, instead founding the “demonic cultivation”/”dark path”/魔道 in order to survive the extreme environment of the Burial Mounds and acquire enough power to get revenge on the Wens. Since the Wens killed a lot of people, WWX would also be upholding justice by punishing them for their evil deeds. As the lyrics of the opening song of MDZS animated series puts it: “though his (WWX’s) ‘path’ was different, there was justice within his heart” (道不同义在心中). Conversely, this is also why the sects/clans were wrong to label different “cultivations”/“ways” as good or evil, as both WWX’s “demonic cultivation” and the regular “sword path” could be used as powerful forces for good and evil. Of course, the irony was that while the sects hailed their “sword path” as “the one right path”, they were using it to control each other, instead of using it to do good.
(The two “paths”/daos. How different are they?)
“Cultivation”/修道
Well now that we’ve cleared up what “cultivation”/道 or Dao actually is in the context of the show and what the characters were trying to accomplish with their different “ways”, this “cultivation” or 修道 becomes easier to understand. It means the development (修) of one’s skill in regard to the “path” (道) one has chosen. For example, most characters chose to develop their skills in the “sword path”. In actual religious Daoism, however, since the ultimate end purpose is to become an immortal/仙, 修道 would mean doing something to work towards that immortal status.
“Cultivator”/仙
In Daoism, the character “仙” can be translated as “immortal”, “sage”, or “celestial being”, and refers to the end goal of religious Daoists: to “metamorphose” into an immortal (羽化登仙) (also connotes transitioning into eternal afterlife through death). The characters “羽化” literally mean “to become feathery”, because at least in Western Han dynasty (202 BC-8 AD) figures and tomb murals, such immortals often appeared as humans with feathers or winged humans, and are capable of flight.
Over the next few hundred years, the appearance of immortals gradually morphed into humans that fly by floating, standing on platforms of clouds, or riding birds (often cranes)/mythical creatures.
In the drama and the animated series, 仙 is often used as a descriptor in different words (ex: 仙门, 仙家, 仙侣, 仙缘…etc), rather than a standalone noun. However, it is still a reference to this general idea of training/cultivating oneself to become something greater, and provides a strong connection to Daoism.
“Cultivators”/修士
In Daoism, this term is used less than 道士, but it still means “cultivators of Dao” (修道之人), or simply, “Daoists”. In The Untamed/MDZS, of course, it means practitioners of a “cultivation”/“path”.
“Golden core”/金丹
This one has roots in real life sects of religious Daoism. The translation “golden core” itself is quite literal. “Golden” from the descriptor 金, and “core” for 丹, presumably because it looks like a sort of core. In reality, 丹 is quite hard to translate. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy translates 丹 as “alchemy”, so I will use “alchemy” for 丹 from here on out. In religious Daoism, there are two types of this alchemy: external and internal, and both are supposed to help one towards immortality. People who practiced “external alchemy”/外丹 basically made “immortality elixirs” (in reality it wasn’t a drink like “elixir” implies, but a ball-shaped chewable) in the hopes that it would give immortality to whoever ate it. This is very much like alchemy in Europe, except instead of trying to turn things into gold, people were making things to eat for immortality. Some fun facts: these elixirs frequently contained heavy metals like mercury and lead, and ironically would shorten people’s lives instead of helping them live longer; also legend has it that an explosive attempt to make elixirs actually led to the invention of gunpowder.
(these appears to be actual products of external alchemy found in an Eastern Jin dynasty tomb, well-preserved due to its high mercury content)
This external alchemy obviously does not apply to “golden core” in The Untamed/MDZS, so let’s look at internal alchemy. “Internal alchemy”/內丹 is much more abstract than external alchemy, but in simple terms it is the practice of using meditation and similar strategies to return oneself to a state of emptiness (kind of like “one with nature”). This is probably what the show’s “golden core” was based on. Also another name for “internal alchemy”/內丹 is “golden alchemy”/金丹, literally the same characters as “golden core”/金丹 in the show.
There is one major difference though. While real practitioners of internal alchemy believe that everyone already possess a “golden alchemy” (“golden core”), in the show everyone has to “cultivate” themselves in order to have one in the first place.
Cultural Weapons: Fire Nation Swords Pt. 1
Along with covering weapons, I’m going to make another attempt at some light martial arts analysis. Like with my Kyoshi Warriors post, take it with a grain of salt as these are very superficial observations as I don’t have much IRL experience with martial arts.
Sokka & Piandao’s Swords
Both Piandao and Sokka fight using a type of Chinese sword called a jian (劍). The jian is a straight, double-edged blade as opposed to being a single-edged blade like a dao or katana. In Chinese folklore, it is known as “The Gentleman of Weapons”, which fits with warrior-scholar qualities that Piandao tries to cultivate in Sokka.
What’s most interesting about the jian is how closely-linked it is with tai chi; there are actually 32 tai chi forms that use the jian, with these forms being collectively known as taijijian (太極劍). Tai chi also happens to be the basis of waterbending.
In other words, the techniques that Piandao taught Sokka were actually taijijian forms aka sword-based waterbending moves. Secretly knowing his student was Water Tribe and might possibly be a bender, Piandao actually chose to teach Sokka techniques that would work well with waterbending as well as honoring his pupil’s culture. Which explains why Piandao’s lessons all involved learning to go with the flow and taking advantage of your surroundings, both important skills for a waterbender.
Pictured Above: Cat Stance Uppercut form. Note how Sokka’s left hand is blocking the thumb side of his sword-holding hand. According to the instructor of the video, the left arm acts as a guard to the right hand.
While typing up this post, I also realized that Katara and Sokka have mentor episodes that mirror each other. Both find the adult guidance and validation they’ve been seeking, both mentors train them in techniques that both empower them and help them to connect with their culture, and both mentors secretly want to overthrow the Fire Nation’s empire. Of course, Katara’s episode ends up a tragedy while Sokka’s is triumphant. From a thematic perspective, I suppose it’s to illustrate a healthy student-teacher relationship versus a predatory one; similar to how Iroh is set up as a loving father in contrast to Ozai’s abuse. Good lessons to teach in children’s show, actually.
Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^
Cultural Anatomy: Fire Nation Swords Pt. 2
Zuko’s Broadswords
The broadswords that Zuko uses are niuweidao (牛尾刀) or “oxtail sabers”. Niuweidao are characterized by their flat and wide blades, flared tips, rounded cutting sections, and noticeably bent hilt; all characteristics present in Zuko’s swords.
The niuweidao actually has a rather unique history compared to other Chinese weapons. Whereas most Chinese weapons were adapted to be used by the imperial troops, the niuweidao was created and used exclusively by civilians. The primary reason for this was that their design was optimized to efficiently cut through flesh rather than harder surfaces; making them impractical for slashing through armored soldiers on the battlefield but perfect for petty robbery and common street violence. Unsurprisingly, these 19th-century swords came to be associated with rebels and criminals.
That Zuko chooses to wield niuweidao as the Blue Spirit is yet another example of his intelligence. After all, no one would expect the Prince of the Fire Nation, with a ship full of military-grade tools at his disposal, to utilize a weapon wielded by the lowest levels of society.
The niuweidao being the weapon of thugs also explains why that one Earth Kingdom jerk had a pair on him as well. In fact, you’ll notice that Zuko only ever uses his broadswords when he’s behaving criminally or rebelliously. Even his dual-wielding breaks from typical sword-fighting convention. The swords are the embodiment of his innate brashness.
This also provides a unique foil to Sokka and his sword. Sokka is often dismissed as a “peasant” and many characters simply write him off as dimwitted goofball. Yet his sword, the jian, is an ancient weapon dating back to 500 BC and is considered to be the weapon of scholars and gentlemen. Sokka’s sword embodies all of his most overlooked qualities: His intelligence, creativity, and honorable nature.
Zuko, by contrast, was seen as the elitist prince obsessed with honor and maintaining the Fire Nation’s imperial legacy. Yet his swords of choice, the niuweidao, are a relatively new kind of weapon from the fringes of society. Their entire purpose is to undermine the established power structure. Zuko’s swords embodies all of his most overlooked qualities: His boldness, his cunning, and his willingness to break from tradition.
Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^
Credit goes to Tumblr user @picaresquerogue for pointing this out to me.
If you look at the concept art for Zuko’s dual swords or certain screenshots from the show, you’ll notice that his swords are specifically designed with guards and hilts that are half-moon shaped to fit together into one scabbard. This style of sword is known as shuangdao (雙刀) or “double sabers”. Niuweidao is perfect for this style of sword-wielding as the blades tend to be quite thin. Thus, the most accurate name for Zuko’s swords would be shuangniuweidao (雙牛尾刀) or “double oxtail sabers”. This ties back to Zuko’s quote regarding dual-wielding:
Keep in mind, these are dual swords. Two halves of a single weapon. Don’t think of them as separate, ‘cause they’re not. They’re just two different parts of the same whole.
Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^
"Alright, time to see what this animated poetry movie is like-
Oh jesus christ"
To elaborate outside of initial tags:
So this is from 30,000 Miles From Chang’an, which is a 2 hours 47 minutes(!!?) long Chinese animated film that is basically an actually legitimate historical epic and historical biopic (think Gladiator & Amadeus) made into animation, and also passionate tribute to classical art and culture, similar to something like Miss Hokusai or Millennium Actress.
I heard it was decent before, but was not expecting it to be This Ambitious. The Criminally Underrated Champ of 2023 Animation