My Danmei 耽美 Literary Adventure

Seven Seas Chinese Danmei novels, Notes Masterlist

Some of my favorite books, especially, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Stars of Chaos, and Guardian, are now officially in English! Thank you, Seven Seas.

These notes are here to help friends who may not speak Chinese or have enough Chinese cultural background to understand the nuances presented in these works, or are just getting confused with all the different terms of address.

Please forgive me if I have missed anything, and dm or comment if you have anything to add!

魔道祖师 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

by MXTX

二哈和他的白猫师尊 The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun

by Meatbun 肉包不吃肉 (Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou)

Usage of the word "Master" vs "Teacher"

How to pronounce people's names (bc it does NOT follow the rules of English pronunciation)

Book Annotations

杀破狼 Stars of Chaos

by Priest

镇魂 Guardian

by Priest

Guardian 镇魂

By Priest

Book 1, Notes!

Yay! I love Guardian ♥️

For readers who didn't grow up steeped in Chinese mythology (not presented with the appropriate cartoons in their youth): Read the Appendix from page 388 onward! I especially appreciate the "Guardian-Specific Terminology" on page 407. I had the hardest time learning classical Chinese mythology and trying to figure out what of Guardian was actual Chinese mythology vs created just for the sake of the plot. My head still spins a little when I think of Guardian and all the research I had to do to understand What The Heck Is Going On.

Here is how many notes I have, about how some un-translatable original term was so cool or what my interpretation is of some ambiguous passage (Chinese doesn’t require a subject to be defined) or where a few paragraphs were added or subtracted vs what I originally read.

Here we go!

Guardian 镇魂

By Priest。

Yay! I love Guardian ♥️。 It was, like, the third novel I ever read in Chinese. I am shocked that I got through it, especially considering that I had zero knowledge of the mythology underlying the plot.

For readers who didn't grow up steeped in Chinese mythology (not presented with the appropriate cartoons in their youth): Read the Vol 1 Appendix from page 388 onward!

I especially appreciate the "Guardian-Specific Terminology" on Vol 1 page 407. I had the hardest time learning classical Chinese mythology and trying to figure out what of Guardian was actual Chinese mythology vs created just for the sake of the plot. My head still spins a little when I think of Guardian and all the research I had to do to understand What The Heck Is Going On.

Considering how difficult it is to translate Priest, I felt that this translation was pretty good. Priest is hard - she writes in idioms. And it looks like she made quite a few (admittedly minor) changes to the story since the version I read was published, which sometimes was great and sometimes, well, ... I really love the old online version I read.

Volume 1 Notes.

Volume 2 Notes. (coming...)

Volume 3 Notes. (eventually...)

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos, vol 5

Notes! (Not many)

Extras! SO MANY EXTRAS!!!!!! (Just read them yourself ♥️) Priest has written More Extras since I first read Stars of Chaos, and they are So Good in English that I’m wondering if I should once more attempt JJWXC so I can read them in Chinese, too!! (Chinese websites scare me. They are so so busy!)

So. It has been a long time since I read 杀破狼, so I couldn’t remember all the idioms and clever turns of phrase. I think this might be a good thing, as I flew through this reading much more quickly when I wasn’t second-guessing every other paragraph.

Here are my very few notes:

The idiom is 磨刀不误砍柴工, “Sharpening the axe doesn’t delay the work of chopping wood”. (I feel like the translation doesn’t convey the goodness of the phrase enough.)

More thoughts after this 镇魂 Gaurdian re-read:

Ya’ know, I think the quiet hero of the story is actually 郭长城 Guo ChangCheng.

Yah, the novel is about 赵云澜 Zhao YunLan and 沈巍 Shen Wei, and they are brave and clever and throw themselves into impossible situations to save their friends and each other and the world, but … Guo ChangCheng!

Guo ChangCheng is a reachable goal. A model for the common reader. My hero.

While everyone around him has inhuman strength and magical powers and skills developed over hundreds of years, (and ZYL and SW are irresistibly beautiful,) GCC puts his head down and shows up on time.

He may be scared, terrified, but he knows what he’s supposed to do and so he does it. He is fully aware that he is not smart or quick, so he puts in extra effort wherever he can. He sees that he has a relatively good life, so he does his best to lift up those with relatively less good lives.

And he never dwells on the shortfalls in his own life. He’s the perfect example of that terrible cliche “Practice Gratitude.”

He knows he’s an orphan, but he recognizes that all his aunties and uncles and grandma love him and take care of him. He was devastated when his grandma died, but he eventually pulled himself out of his misery and acted on his Grandma’s final wishes for him to live a good life.

I love Guo ChangCheng.

I love how Priest writes 🥰.

Gaurdian 镇魂， ch 70:

判官心知肚明赵云澜在装糊涂，他头一个不愿意和这个镇魂令主打交道，一来，判官是少数知道一些赵云澜来龙去脉的人，不愿也不敢得罪这尊大神。二来大神不要脸，奸诈油滑，平生就擅长三板斧——无赖，太极，避重就轻——哪个拎出来都够别人喝一壶的。

The hell-judge knew in his belly and his heart that ZYL was only pretending to be confused. He was the first one to not want to deal with this Guardian. First, the judge was one of very few who knew ZYL’s full history, and did not want to and did not dare to offend this great god. Second, this great god truly had no sense of shame; he was crafty and slippery, and he was usually only good at three things — being a rascal, Taiji (diverting work, maybe back to the person who assigned it?), and avoiding heavy work in favor of light work — any one of which was enough to be absolutely unbearable.

(My bad translation.)

And, as usual, it sound so much better in Chinese.

心知肚明 is a very visceral way to say “know”. Your “heart knows and stomach understands”.

来龙去脉 is the coolest ever way to say “full story”. It kinda means (Pleco) “rise and fall of the terrain,” but the words are “coming dragon going veins.” I think of dragons and mountains and rivers and veins of minerals.

这尊大神 is, literally, “this (measure word for gods) big god”.

三板斧 = “three trick pony”? But with Axe Techniques! So, there was this General named 程咬金 Cheng YaoJin, and he had this dream where his martial arts teacher taught him how to use this enormous axe-weapon, but he only learned three techniques before he was woken up. Thankfully, the three techniques he learned were all very effective.

太极。Taiji. This is the first time I’ve ever seen my favorite slow martial art, famous for redirecting energy against the attacker, used in this manner…

喝一壶 means “drink a pot.” I guess it means “drink a pot” of frustration? Colloquialisms are so much fun.

I love how Priest writes!

镇魂 Guardian reread notes!

Ch 57:

It’s amazing how quickly and how well Sang Zan is able to become Librarian of the Restricted Library. Considering that he can’t read Chinese. And he doesn’t speak Chinese (not until about a month ago, anyway). And his original language didn’t even have a developed writing system!

But he makes a pretty good librarian! Somehow.

镇魂 Guardian reread notes!

Ch 48: I appreciate how honest Zhao Yunlan is.

After ZYL stumbles back to the office and promptly throws up in the staff bathroom, it doesn’t take long for him to excuse his own sloppy drunkenness to his underlings:

赵云澜扶着墙往外走去：“刚失恋，还不让人借酒浇愁？”

“My heart was just broken, won’t you let a guy drown his sorrows in drink?”

And then he (naps on his desk and then) goes back to work.

That’s a leader confident in his position and honest with both his team and himself. Yeah.

I love rereading Priest! I’m on ch 23 of Guardian 镇魂now, which I think of as

Ch 23: How ZYL treats his pathetic life and miserable apartment as a lure for Shen Wei, or “Save me, Shen Wei! I can’t survive on my own!”

In ch 22, I love how Priest describes Zhao Yunlan’s personal life and home:

典型的单身汉生活——把自己收拾得人模狗样，回到家就过得猪狗不如。

Stereotypical single man’s life — he cleans himself up enough to look like a real human being, then comes home to a life worse than that of dogs and pigs.

And in Ch 23, poor Shen Wei trips over an unused umbrella and discovers that ZYL lives in a rat’s nest, but still loves him all the same:

沈巍心里一揪，简直恨不得替他疼了，可被心疼的那混账竟然还嬉皮笑脸地耍贫嘴。

Shen Wei’s heart seized up a little, he was so angry that he could not endure ZYL’s pain for him; and that little rascal who was being so cherished dared to smile mischievously and prattle on (about not daring to take off his jacket in case Shen Wei interpreted him stripping as indecent behavior).

(My translation is so bad. It’s gorgeous in Chinese.)

I am finally rereading 镇魂 Guardian! I wanna be Shen Wei when I grow up:

沈教授人斯文，动起手来可一点也不客气，稳准狠一样不缺，在别人还被恐惧笼罩着不知道怎么办才好时，他已经先下手为强地把那玩意砸成了七八瓣，这才脸不红气不喘地把铁椅子扔在了一边。

Professor Shen was gentle and refined, but when he started moving he was not the least bit polite. Stable, Accurate, and Ruthless — he did not lack a single one. When other people were seized up with fear and didn’t know what to do, he took the first-mover advantage and smashed that thing into 7 or 8 pieces. Then, his face not red and his breath not labored, he tossed the chair to the side.

(My bad translation.) (Man! That was hard to translate!)

Also! How in the world did I read Gaurdian as my 3rd-ever novel? This is way too complicated! Priest’s sentences are 80 words long! Every other phrase is an idiom or else requires deep prior knowledge of Chinese Mythology!

Gods this novel is beautiful ❤️