Poetic allusions and cultural references in 雨霖铃 Zhan Zhao Adventures
A really fun aspect of developing lots of feelings for a piece of media is when one of those feelings is curiosity. With cdramas, there's always a language barrier, where I'm shaking the bars my own ignorance has placed between myself and so much knowledge.
I'm lucky to watch together with my husband, who grew up speaking Mandarin, and can at least point out the most egregious translation fail going on in the subtitles. (As for me, I've done random self-study over ten years, plus a single 100 hanzi university course. So I understand a bit? But I'm still functionally illiterate.)
But I was obviously not raised with any sort of connection to Chinese culture, and so lack all the context. This led me down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what various things in ZZA reference, starting with the title itself. These are some of the things I managed to dig up, mostly using DuckDuckGo (it can be helpful to set the custom date to before 2022 to avoid oodles of slop!), Pleco, and Google Translate. It's literally fangirl internet research, but I figured it might be interesting to others who've had a good time watching the show and might be curious about names and stuff.
雨霖鈴
yǔ lín líng
The Chinese title of the show
A Northern Song Dynasty poem by Liu Yong 柳永
Published translations: "Bells Ringing in the Rain" - Jiaosheng Wang
"Rain Hits a Bell" - Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping
"Bells in the Rains" - Wai-lim Yip
"Rain Bells" - Yunte Huang
[x]
"Rain-soaked Bell", full poem translation by Xiaoyao Xingzhe:
https://thefatmonk.net/2016/06/26/to-the-tune-rain-soaked-bell/
小楼一夜听花语
xiǎo lóu yīyè tīng huāyǔ
Viki subs: "Silent World Within Earshot" (Linglong Manor's listening skill)
Reference to a line in a Southern Song Dynasty poem by Lu You 陆游:
Translation by Wang, L., Cao , H., Cao, Q., Chu, J., & Shi, Z.: https://doi.org/10.54097/qmgm0216
惊鸿一瞥
jīng hóng yīpiē
Viki subs: A fleeting glimpse (Linglong Manor's lightness skill)
"a four-character Chinese idiom that likens a fleeting moment of beauty to a startled swan taking flight", it is a reference to the classic poem 洛神赋 (Tale of the Goddess of Luo River). [x][x]
延陵
yánlíng
Zhan Zhao's sword
From the 史記 Historical Records, it's a reference to a story about keeping promises after death. Ji Zha, lord of Yanling, made an unspoken promise to give his beautiful sword to the King of Xu, who died before he could do so. Instead of keeping it, Ji Zha hung it on a tree branch over the king's grave. [x], [x]
长相思
chang xiàng sī
Viki subs: Love Longing (a Hanshui Palace weapon)
The title of a Sui-Tang Dynasty poem by Li Bai 李白
Published translations:
"Eternally Thinking of Each Other" - Amy Lowell and Florence Ayscough
"Thoughts of You Unending" - David Hinton
"Yearning" - Stephen Owen
"Endless longing for you" - Peter Harris
"Endless Yearning" - Witter Bynner
[x]
一見如故
yījiànrúgù
Viki subs: Old Souls First Glance (a Xiuluo poison)
(simile) to be familiar at first sight; to hit it off [x]
get on like a house on fire (phrase, informal)
If two people get on like a house on fire, they like each other very much and become friends very quickly. [x]
鶴沖天
hè chōngtiān
Viki subs: Heavenward Crane Strike (Ding family martial arts move)
The title of a Northern Song Dynasty poem by Liu Yong 柳永
"Crane Soaring in the Sky" - Full poem translation by Qian Jia:
https://sourcebook.stanford.edu/text/liu_yong_golden_title_board/index.html (I highly recommend this entire page if you want to know more about the guy behind the title "雨霖铃". For example, the "Crane Soaring in the Sky" poem in question is how Liu Yong started beefing with the Emperor (!!!) after failing the Imperial exam. Truly a wild choice!)
修羅
xiūluó
Xiuluo Cult
A being in Buddhist cosmology: Asura. The asura are a class of beings who are power-seeking and jealous, and direct their hostility towards the more benevolent devas. [x][x]
夜摩天
yèmótiān
a poison
A concept in Buddhist cosmology: Yāma, the third of six heavenly worlds of the desire realm. This world is variously translated as "wonderful times", "virtuous", "excellent times", "of the hours" or "free from strife or combat" (because devas in Yāma live in the sky, safely away from the asuras who dwell on the slopes of Mount Meru). [x][x]
夜叉
yèchā
Yaksha
A creature in Buddhist & Hindu mythology: Yakṣa. A class of nature-spirits that are usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious. With their dual personality, there's a darker version of the yaksha which lives in the wilderness and hunts travelers. In Buddhist literature, the yakṣa are the attendants of a beneficent god who protects the righteous. They have often been reborn into ugly ogre forms for sins they committed in their past (human) lives. [x]
