[Mainland Chinese Web Drama 2020] Three Lives Three Worlds The Pillow Book 三生三世枕上书

[Megan]

17 minutes ago, UnluckyWhiteCat said:

Chapter 8: 

 

https://anunluckywhitecat.wordpress.com/2021/03/21/back-to-chaos-in-a-dream-chapter-08/

 

Only one more to go after this! I have a couple exams and assignments due this week so I probably won't have it up until around Wednesday evening. 

 

Bai Gungun is so cute in the ending scene. 

Thank you!!!

I don’t get it. Dong Hua actually retired to the holy blue sea...he even wrote the impeachment letter...what the?

[UnluckyWhiteCat]

22 minutes ago, Megan said:

I don’t get it. Dong Hua actually retired to the holy blue sea...he even wrote the impeachment letter...what the?

 

He's just biding his time, waiting to expose the corruption and dig it out. 

 

This line: 

 

Spoiler

Dijun was composed: “Don’t you feel that the current situation is very good? Everyone’s position can be clearly seen at a glance.”

 

So for example those seventeen elders who voted to impeach him? He'll be keeping a close eye on them in particular. It's a strategy of his. He's very meticulous in his planning. 

[Megan]

11 minutes ago, UnluckyWhiteCat said:

 

He's just biding his time, waiting to expose the corruption and dig it out. 

 

This line: 

 

  Hide contents

Dijun was composed: “Don’t you feel that the current situation is very good? Everyone’s position can be clearly seen at a glance.”

 

So for example those seventeen elders who voted to impeach him? He'll be keeping a close eye on them in particular. It's a strategy of his. He's very meticulous in his planning. 

But he already knows about them so why keep on the charade when he heard about the vote and knew who was his enemy?

[UnluckyWhiteCat]

17 minutes ago, Megan said:

But he already knows about them so why keep on the charade when he heard about the vote and knew who was his enemy?

 

Okie, so spoiler because this quote is from chapter 9 (also not final because I may or may not still have some editing to do): 

 

Spoiler

Fei Wei smiled faintly: “In these Eight Realms and Four Seas, only Dijun could be Master of all clans. The Council of Elders and High God Hou Zhen all don’t understand and even believe that they can plot against Dijun and be able to secure the position of God King. Since they don’t understand, then he can take advantage of this opportunity to make them thoroughly understand. This has also always been Dijun’s tidy style of handling things.”

 

By doing it this way, he's letting the world fall apart so that they realized that they f'd up. They removed him because they thought that they didn't need him anymore, but they can't handle ruling the world - they don't know it yet. So he's doing this to force them to understand and so that he can take over later. It's a part of that 'tidy' way of doing things. If he just kills them now, no one would ever understand why it's necessary for him to rule. Even if he killed them all now, corruption spreads quickly. 

 

There's something else that was quite clever (spoiler):

 

Spoiler

The Qianyuan formation is eventually broken by a demon lord. So while the God Clan is invincible for the time being, they won't be forever. Part of the reason why the elders felt so safe in deposing of DH was because he had trained the entire army using the Qianyuan formation, which at this time was basically unrivalled in the world (except for Shaowan's formation, but let's not talk about that now). So DH basically gave them an invincible army, so the elders all thought they were done with DH, but well, with DH's foresight, how could he have not known that the Qianyuan formation would eventually be broken, right?

 

And since he knew, he was happy to wait until the world fell into chaos again if that's what it took for them to understand. 

 

[Megan]

1 minute ago, UnluckyWhiteCat said:

 

Okie, so spoiler because this quote is from chapter 9 (also not final because I may or may not still have some editing to do): 

 

  Hide contents

Fei Wei smiled faintly: “In these Eight Realms and Four Seas, only Dijun could be Master of all clans. The Council of Elders and High God Hou Zhen all don’t understand and even believe that they can plot against Dijun and be able to secure the position of God King. Since they don’t understand, then he can take advantage of this opportunity to make them thoroughly understand. This has also always been Dijun’s tidy style of handling things.”

 

By doing it this way, he's letting the world fall apart so that they realized that they f'd up. They removed him because they thought that they didn't need him anymore, but they can't handle ruling the world - they don't know it yet. So he's doing this to force them to understand and so that he can take over later. It's a part of that 'tidy' way of doing things. If he just kills them now, no one would ever understand why it's necessary for him to rule. Even if he killed them all now, corruption spreads quickly. 

 

There's something else that was quite clever (spoiler):

 

  Hide contents

The Qianyuan formation is eventually broken by a demon lord. So while the God Clan is invincible for the time being, they won't be forever. Part of the reason why the elders felt so safe in deposing of DH was because he had trained the entire army using the Qianyuan formation, which at this time was basically unrivalled in the world (except for Shaowan's formation, but let's not talk about that now). So DH basically gave them an invincible army, so the elders all thought they were done with DH, but well, with DH's foresight, how could he have not known that the Qianyuan formation would eventually be broken, right?

 

And since he knew, he was happy to wait until the world fell into chaos again if that's what it took for them to understand. 

 

Thanks for clarifying.

poor Gun Gun. Oh well, you get to eat your father’s dinner instead. 

[MayanEcho]

2 hours ago, Megan said:

But he already knows about them so why keep on the charade when he heard about the vote and knew who was his enemy?

 

Much better, cos the enemy would truly show their actual colours and reveal more on their real thoughts and future plans. 

 

They didn't even wait long. In just a month? Agreed to impeach their HERO in just a month after chaos ceased? LOL!

 

In politics this is very much true. Step away, you see the whole picture more clearly. Dangle some carrot, and you can find out what you want to know.

 

There is more than one way to skin the cat. Dijun knows that very well, and these power-hungry elders, potential uprisers and revolters,  played into his hand.

[Pesca]

3 hours ago, UnluckyWhiteCat said:

Chapter 8: 

 

https://anunluckywhitecat.wordpress.com/2021/03/21/back-to-chaos-in-a-dream-chapter-08/

Thank you so much. Another fun to read. I like TQ humour, clever writing. The way you translate the impeachment bit is quite fun to read.  DHDJ is clever.

BGG is adorably reasonable boy. HG Zheyan is such a royal friend. He is probably one of the closest friends DHDJ has (apart from SW/MY)?

 

I am curious about the word 'God King' in Chinese, is it the same for MY and DH? So both of them effectively have the same position? But they are not only God King, they are actually the king of all immortals (god, ghost, monster and demon alike)?

Could you please provide a bit of background about the zhoudu tree? What is this tree? How it chooses guardian? If you know any?  

[UnluckyWhiteCat]

18 minutes ago, Pesca said:

Thank you so much. Another fun to read. I like TQ humour, clever writing. The way you translate the impeachment bit is quite fun to read.  DHDJ is clever.

BGG is adorably reasonable boy. HG Zheyan is such a royal friend. He is probably one of the closest friends DHDJ has (apart from SW/MY)?

 

I am curious about the word 'God King' in Chinese, is it the same for MY and DH? So both of them effectively have the same position? But they are not only God King, they are actually the king of all immortals (god, ghost, monster and demon alike)?

Could you please provide a bit of background about the zhoudu tree? What is this tree? How it chooses guardian? If you know any?  

 

Thanks! I really do work hard to make it more readable! 

 

So. The "God King" thing (incidentally, I kind of went back and forth on translating this as "King of the Gods" originally, but chose "God King" in the end because I felt that it should be more like a title and precisely because of this issue you're pointing out now), it's a position that both Moyan and DH take. Moyuan is the first, DH is the second, and 

 

Spoiler

Hou Zhen is the third.

 

If Moyuan was the first, I think we can assume that he took on that title after conquering the other clans, so he would have ruled over gods, ghosts, and monsters, but not demons (because of that treaty they signed). The characters used for that title are 神王 which literally do mean "God King." So because of that issue, he isn't just king of the gods anymore, he's the king of three different clans. 

 

Also, there was something I noticed that cropped up several times throughout the text, but there were a few times that DH is also referred to as 神主 meaning "God Master." I'm not 100% on this significance, but it could be a reference to his title in the future as Master of Heaven and Earth. -shrugs-

 

On to the zhoudu tree, I am unsure of what exactly this is, so I didn't leave it in a footnote, but from a previous post after was it @Romulan who asked? I did a little bit of Google-ing and found that this is a tree that appears in the Zhoudu Tree Sutra, and a source that equated it to the Erythrina variegata (wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrina_variegata). Now about this tree, I am really very unsure of whether or not what I've found is correct, so perhaps @Ninky will look into it too. However, I think that this is a possibility, because in chapter 7, Tangqi describes the flowers of the tree as "coral-like" and in the Wikipedia link I pasted, one of the names is "Indian Coral Tree."

 

It doesn't explain how the tree chooses the guardian, it just says that it does in Back to Chaos in a Dream, and I'm not sure if the sutra goes into it at all because Tangqi sometimes just pulls names of things and uses her artistic license, and I'm not well-versed enough in Buddhism to delve into the nitty gritty of it. 

[Pesca]

Hou Zhen is cunning, he wanted his daughter to marry MY/DH for political reason. How would his end (as well as 17 elders) be then given that they tried to impeach DH?  

[UnluckyWhiteCat]

8 minutes ago, Pesca said:

Hou Zhen is cunning, he wanted his daughter to marry MY/DH for political reason. How would his end (as well as 17 elders) be then given that they tried to impeach DH?  

 

We ultimately don't really know as it is

 

Spoiler

3,000 years in the future when the Qianyuan formation is broken and the Demon Clan is bold enough to attack the Gods again,

 

but I would assume that it wouldn't be pretty either, with the way he dealt with the rebels.  Their ending wouldn't be that way necessarily because of the impeachment though, because I honestly don't think DH gave a damn about it, considering he was the one who orchestrated the entire thing, but because they were corrupt and just wanted power. 

[MayanEcho]

9 minutes ago, Pesca said:

Hou Zhen is cunning, he wanted his daughter to marry MY/DH for political reason. How would his end (as well as 17 elders) be then given that they tried to impeach DH?  

 

Since 260,000 years later on DH will be still the much revered deity, and is still regarded as the Emperor even after retiring from his post, we can conclude that he trounced them all not only in the ensuing wars, but also in the art of political savviness. 

[Pesca]

34 minutes ago, UnluckyWhiteCat said:

On to the zhoudu tree, I am unsure of what exactly this is, so I didn't leave it in a footnote, but from a previous post after was it @Romulan who asked? I did a little bit of Google-ing and found that this is a tree that appears in the Zhoudu Tree Sutra, and a source that equated it to the Erythrina variegata (wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrina_variegata). Now about this tree, I am really very unsure of whether or not what I've found is correct, so perhaps @Ninky will look into it too. However, I think that this is a possibility, because in chapter 7, Tangqi describes the flowers of the tree as "coral-like" and in the Wikipedia link I pasted, one of the names is "Indian Coral Tree."

Yes, I remember now, it was @Romulan who asked this question on ch7, could this be Lotus Sutra? From that chapter it sounds like Sacred Bodhi Tree. But I am not sure either.  

[UnluckyWhiteCat]

2 minutes ago, Pesca said:

Yes, I remember now, it was @Romulan who asked this question on ch7, could this be Lotus Sutra? From that chapter it sounds like Sacred Bodhi Tree. But I am not sure either.  

 

No I don't think so, I just Googled Lotus Sutra and the name in Chinese according to Wikipedia is 妙法蓮華經 and the characters for zhoudu are 昼度. Unless there's a part of the Lotus Sutra that it's a part of or something? I'm not gonna go delving into the details. I don't think it's Bodhi either because that's something else (菩提). Anyway, Buddhism isn't my strong suit, so I can't really be sure, but just from the names and characters I'm seeing listed, it isn't those either. 

[Romulan]

1 hour ago, UnluckyWhiteCat said:

 

No I don't think so, I just Googled Lotus Sutra and the name in Chinese according to Wikipedia is 妙法蓮華經 and the characters for zhoudu are 昼度. Unless there's a part of the Lotus Sutra that it's a part of or something? I'm not gonna go delving into the details. I don't think it's Bodhi either because that's something else (菩提). Anyway, Buddhism isn't my strong suit, so I can't really be sure, but just from the names and characters I'm seeing listed, it isn't those either. 

Yep! it was me..   @Ninky said she was going to check some other dictionaries/reference guides for more details.

 

Thank you for the next chapter! Too bad its ending soon.  --but so much that i wish I could draw or make come real!  Need to re-watch ELOD again! 

(Im also rewatching Douluo Continent again as there is an outfit I need to get screen captures of!!)

[Romulan]

2 hours ago, MayanEcho said:

 

Since 260,000 years later on DH will be still the much revered deity, and is still regarded as the Emperor even after retiring from his post, we can conclude that he trounced them all not only in the ensuing wars, but also in the art of political savviness. 

He is a fool to think that it would be that easy to outwit DH!

 

Im wondering what happened to the 3 who voted against impeaching DH.  Were they loyal to DH or just not as stupid as the other 17? 

 

Poor BGG, at least soon he ll be back in his current time and can play with A'Li and the others.  

Spoiler

Im still wondering how it will be that no one will remember these things?  What about FJ being a witness for older crane sister?   i guess we ll find out in the next chapter.  

 

[MayanEcho]

7 minutes ago, Romulan said:

Im wondering what happened to the 3 who voted against impeaching DH.  Were they loyal to DH or just not as stupid as the other 17? 

 

Whether they are loyal or just not as stupid nor power hungry, they shouldn't face more difficulties or scrutinies than those ungrateful 17 fools.

 

They're so brainless. They saw what DH can do, how unforgiving he can be, yet they tried that impeachment stunt against him? Coz they wanted to stay significant and in power? LOL. 

 

Benevolent King...more like a King they could manipulate to their liking. And someone who would have debts of honours to them so he will do whatever they wish.

 

Lucky for them, DH was just amused. He left without them knowing, turning those who impeached him into laughing stocks.

 

19 minutes ago, Romulan said:

Poor BGG, at least soon he ll be back in his current time and can play with A'Li and the others.  

  Reveal hidden contents

Im still wondering how it will be that no one will remember these things?  What about FJ being a witness for older crane sister?   i guess we ll find out in the next chapter.  

 

 

It should be due in part to Zu Ti's power of going back in time. 

[Romulan]

2 hours ago, MayanEcho said:

 

Whether they are loyal or just not as stupid nor power hungry, they shouldn't face more difficulties or scrutinies than those ungrateful 17 fools.

 

They're so brainless. They saw what DH can do, how unforgiving he can be, yet they tried that impeachment stunt against him? Coz they wanted to stay significant and in power? LOL. 

 

Benevolent King...more like a King they could manipulate to their liking. And someone who would have debts of honours to them so he will do whatever they wish.

 

Lucky for them, DH was just amused. He left without them knowing, turning those who impeached him into laughing stocks.

 

 

It should be due in part to Zu Ti's power of going back in time. 

True that!  I mean Dong Hua just got them to do it early so he wasnt bothered with the working up to it over 10 or 20 years. He wanted to be back at the HBS with his wife and child.   (Too bad YH doesnt seem to get a few ideas on this -poor BQ). 

 

Im just wondering will it switch to some other name as a witness? Just a vague memory that there was one and leave it at that?  

 

Lol.   Also what about the grove and garden?

 

 

[Ninky]

Fixing the Timeline chart. And working to answer a few questions you guys have asked that require further research and working on Chapter 4!

 

And I will put up some family trees to blog soon since many here are interested!  
 

And SC2019 will put some time to Si Ming’s Weekly soon :).

[Romulan]

14 minutes ago, Ninky said:

Fixing the Timeline chart. And working to answer a few questions you guys have asked that require further research and working on Chapter 4!

 

And I will put up some family trees to blog soon since many here are interested!  
 

And SC2019 will put some time to Si Ming’s Weekly soon :).

Cool! Ty Ninky!  Camt wait for more stuff to read!  What is Si Ming's Weekly going to be? is it like the fun little fan story of possible future antics of future offspring?     Please relay our thanks to the others who work on the blog as well!

[Ninky]

16 minutes ago, Romulan said:

Cool! Ty Ninky!  Camt wait for more stuff to read!  What is Si Ming's Weekly going to be? is it like the fun little fan story of possible future antics of future offspring?     Please relay our thanks to the others who work on the blog as well!

 

Yes it's our musing of their future children, the next story will be a scream, it's really fun and humourous.

 

SC2019 has been a bit busy so bear with us a little. For me I work 7pm -2.30am Fri through to tuesday and sleep in the mornings which is why I am active around noon of my time in Melbourne.

 

And whatever you read from us has been cross edited with the other 2 translators. For example for Chapter 3 before we post we will gather on Google Drive and edit together on the spot. This ensures things go out to you all as accurate as we can make it. So bear with us if we don't post 5 to 6 times a week, at this time, I am aiming for a weekly update or twice a week update.

 

Also I thought the last chapter of the Outtake was Chapter 8 but turns out it's Chapter 9 hahahahahaha! recounted again after @UnluckyWhiteCat posted her link. Then realised it was Chapter 9 being the closing chapter. Chapter 8 closes with that smooth move by Dong Hua. HAHAAHAH! I think I will recount again just to be sure on the number of Chapters! 

 

I was waiting until she posted this chapter before discussing it. Like I mentioned before, to avoid influence, I have not read any other versions of the translation as yet. And I do have a preference for the Chinese one as it is the original prose.

 

Once I finish my translation work on Back to Chaos in a Dream, then I can start reading all the other versions. At the moment , I just want to focus on finishing the translation and doing justice to Tang Qi's writing.

 

After the outtake is done, then the focus will go on Lotus Step! We have several chapters in progress so after outtake, we can look forward to sharing Lotus Step with everyone.

 

 

---------

 

 

It's not you who wants it, it's me who wants it!

Tutoring indeed! Looks like Dong Hua always wants some!

 

Poor BGG, so that's what Zhong Lin has been telling him! Besides the boy let slip that this happens A LOT! 

 

Anyone notice he likes to hanky panky when injured? Cave scene anyone?