The MDZS novel readalong - chapters 1 & 2

[solo]

And here we are, our discussion post for Novel chapters 1 & 2, or web serialization chapters 1-5. The format might be refined as we go ^_^ - let's get started!

What happened?

- We got the general gloating at Wei Wuxian's death
- first info on the siege and how Wei Wuxian died
- Wei Wuxian's resurrection 13 years later
- an evil left arm running rampant at Mo Manor
- the introduction of Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi
- a glimpse of Mo Xuanyu's sad life
- Lan Wangji making an epic entrance
- and finally Wei Wuxian departing with the donkey.

How are we feeling about it all?

Any character observations? What did you make of the character intros?

Anything that surprised you even on re-read, or coming from the adaptations?

Spot any difference to other MDZS media?


Discussion notes

Spoilers for all adaptations are permitted.

The questions above are meant as potentially helpful starters, not mandatory. :)

Commentary and comparison with other translations is welcome, as is commentary on the original Chinese. (The readalong mods don't speak or read Chinese so this won't come from us, but any dedicated thread or un-dedicated observations will be received with delight.)

Jumping into threads and replying to other people's comments is not just encouraged, but part of the point.

Disagreement is fine. Keeping it friendly is encouraged, keeping it civil is required.

We encourage tracking the post or coming back to it over the week - the fun part of doing this on Dreamwidth is that discussion can happen over time and doesn't have to be instantly!

If you have any questions or concerns you want to ask the discussion mods, feel free to email us at haikuesque@gmail.com.


The reading schedule

Saturday 22 January: Chapter 1 Reincarnation + Chapter 2 The Intractable (web serialization chapters 1-5)
Saturday 29 January: Chapter 3 The Prideful (web serialization chapters 6-10)
Saturday 5 February: Chapter 4 The Elegant Flirt part 1 (official translation pages 119-168, web serialization chapters 11-(halfway through) 16.6, ending as the group set out for Caiyi )
Saturday 12 February: Chapter 4 The Elegant Flirt part 2 (official transllation pages 168-204, web serialization chapters 16.6-18)
Saturday 19 February: Chapter 5 The Sunny Pair (web serialization chapters 19-22)
Saturday 25 February: Chapter 6 The Malevolent (web serialization chapters 23-27)
Saturday 4 March: Chapter 7 The Morning Dew (web serialization chapters 28-32)

Comments

[brownbetty]

A fun thing that happens is also! When Madam Mo is telling the Lan kids that Mo Xuanyu is their suspect, she's like "His dad was a cultivator, he probably learned demonic tricks from him!" which is. She is accusing Jing Guangshan of demonic cultivation! Although I guess he probably doesn't have that great a reputation in Mo Village, plus he's super dead at this point.

Dismemberment Count: Four people had an arm removed, and one arm is on the loose without an owner, so either 4 or 5, depending on how we count.

[sunshine304]

Hm could've been his mother's quarters! Just, out of the way somewhere, so that the family doesn't have to see him anymore. Well, there are some negative aspects of being honour bound to take care of family: The Mos have to take care of the hated bastard of the bastard daughter...

Yeah, WWX seems to be absolutely able to just sit and wait if need be. I think it says that he meditates? At least in the tl, something like, "Might as well medidate since nothing else was happening" I think.

WWX appears to be implying that MXY's reputation is governed by the same rules as would apply to an unmarried woman, which, I mean. I feel we will get plenty of evidence throughout the book that WWX's expertise on The Gays is very suspect.
Yes, I found this also quite... telling. XD Also, I'm wondering how good MXY's marriage prospects could've been with his ruined reputation of "homosexual lunatic that came back from a big cultivation sect in shame". XD But anything to get Mo Ziyuan riled all up, I guess!

... she's like "His dad was a cultivator, he probably learned demonic tricks from him!" which is. She is accusing Jing Guangshan of demonic cultivation!
I found this quite funny! Like, are they now of the persuasion that cultivators are all into demonic tricks because they got disappointed by the Jins back then, when they didn't want to take Mo Ziyuan with them? Is this them being all pouty and bitchy about it? XD It's not as if cultivators are generally known for demonic tricks - I mean, there was WWX as the famous one, but almost everyone else is so righteous and revered.
But the other layer is the foreshadowing, and as a reader you are super quick to dismiss this because see above, they are angry about it all and want to disparage him. I love this! XD

[barbiejedi]

She is accusing Jing Guangshan of demonic cultivation!

Was Xue Yang doing demonic cultivation for the Jin Sect around the time Mo Xuanyu was there? Maybe she got the right sect, wrong person to accuse XD

Though the chapter does seem to take a lot of pains to point out how little non-cultivation families know or understand about cultivators and their politics-- apparently they didn't realize that at the time he shacked up with Second Lady Mo, Jin Guangshan was not only married but also had a legitimate son who would've been what, 9ish at the time? (I'm basing this off the wiki Timeline as best as I can understand.)

[sunshine304]

I think he might've been? IIRC Mo Xuanyu gets that sacrificing spell from WWX's notes, which he stole at Jinlintai. Somewhere before that XY should have been imprisoned there... Even the really nice work many fans did for the timeline is still not... clear on so many things! XD

I'm not really sure if they really didn't know that JGS was married - he must've been a prominent name at the time already - or if they didn't care. If the father acknowledges the bastard child, then it wouldn't matter much that they weren't married, since the family could still reap the benefits from it (as they did for a while).
I haven't read any of the harem danmei etc., but it seems to be a thing that there was the main wife and then several mistresses/concubines/etc., to secure the bloodline or whatever. And the mistresses were in a delicate position - if they were in favour and bore a son, that was really good for them and their family, often even prestigious. So, the Mo family could operate on that believe. Though it seems that at least CQL didn't go that route, as in there was only one wife at a time, and only the bad guys seem to have mistresses (JGS, WC). IDK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[hhimring]

Not sure about the novel, but at least as far as the adaptations go, I think that old practice of polygamy is associated with feudalism and so it might be morally suspect, even if that doesn't entirely make sense in a setting that otherwise vaguely supports a form of feudalism.

I think it would make a difference whether the concubine is officially recognized and in residence (good) or unofficial and left at her own home (bad). Not that the Mos seem to be very well versed in such subtle distinctions!

[sunshine304]

Yeah, MDZS seems to be operating outside of the usual feudalism setting even though we do have huge class issues in the story. But I think there's no mention of an emperor? So it might not be very relevant as an explanation for the family Mo's behaviour.

You might be right! I haven't ever read one of these stories, only got vague summaries and comments about it, so I'm operating very much on hearsay. XD

[hhimring]

Also, maybe this is too obvious to mention, but whatever suspicions we are meant to develop about the Jins, the comment clearly also shows the Mos' rudeness and stupidity. Suggesting that cultivators can be expected to practice demonic cultivation is not a good idea, if you are talking to a Lan cultivator who you want help from! She's lucky that it's Lan Sizhui who she is talking to, not that it makes a difference to her own fate, in the end.
And it also doesn't seem factually very correct in another way, given that you can do demonic cultivation without a golden core.

[sunshine304]

Yes, perhaps it's really mainly meant to highlight that she doesn't have a good grasp about cultivators at all besides that they are quite prestigious and fight evil things, but that there are some who also practise darker stuff?
She should have tried making these insinuations to Jiang Cheng's face... XD
But I also think that she perhaps noticed that the Lan Juniors were a bit out of their depths as well, and as the narration says, she was looking to vent her anger. Teenagers are perfect for that, especially such well-behaved teenagers like the Lans who will not talk back! I don't think she would've made the same spectacle if Lan Wangji had stood there.

[brownbetty]

One of the many mysteries of MDZS, along with "what extinction level event took out the generation before?" is where are all the concubines/shu wives. It's possible that second Mme Mo's mother was a concubine, although "her mother was a servant" doesn't sound like that. And then there's NHS, who has a different mother than NMJ, but we don't know if NMJ's mother was alive at the time.

Anyway, it's not really feudal, the system changed over time, but persisted in China until 1949.

[sunshine304]

I'd read the "she was a servant" bit as either there was a mutual attraction so they went for it, betraying the wife, or he was horny and the servant girl wasn't in a position to argue, make of the situation what you will... The story doesn't clarify but it doesn't read as the typical concubine set up.
With NHS, I think I've read that NMJ's mother died rather early and then SL Nie remarried and that's NHS's mother. Though I'm not sure if this is fannon or if we will get some explanation in the novel.

It's definitely weird that there are so many young sect leaders. SL Nie was killed by WRH (why? how? What happened there?) so that NMJ had to become SL at a very young age. SL Jiang was there and of the same generation as JGS, but it seemed he didn't do all that much to prepare his son for leadership and then he died, oops. Well, and with the Lan, we know that the father was in seclusion / died early out of grief because his wife died (killed herself?) (depending on novel/CQL) and Lan Xichen had to take over duty also very early (I think in the novel he's 19 or 20, the poor kid!). Which would make LQR actually... rather young, at most early fourties! It's just so crazy. XD
You've got asshole JGS and powerhungry warlord WRH as well in that older generation, like, why are they all like this?! Every one of them is useless in a different way! XD

[brownbetty]

Yeah, my impression from uh, Jin Ping Mei (which I have not read all of, but did skim looking for period attitudes toward sex) which is a Ming dynasty source (and MDZS is period :shrug emoji:, but earlier than that) is that servants were seen as kinda... sexually available to their employer.

[brownbetty]

If cultivation makes you live longer, all these sects should have living grandparents! The only living grandparent we have is Wen Popo!

[sunshine304]

Well, we know that there are sect elders of unspecified age? XD But we never get to see them. I guess this might be due to it being an idol show - many pretty young people and eh, okay, some middle aged ones if we must... XD (Or because MXTX wasn't interested in writing them so there aren't any XD)
I'm watching Legend of Fei, and they are very good at having all ages around. It was an adjustment, though. XD

[solo]

She is accusing Jing Guangshan of demonic cultivation! Although I guess he probably doesn't have that great a reputation in Mo Village, plus he's super dead at this point.

Quite apart from the fact that she was in a sense surprisingly right, I think it's generally established that the common people don't really 'get' cultivation, so maybe to her it's all some sort of mysterious magic, can be demonic, can be something else?


I like the idea of a dismemberment count! Keep it going! :)