Season 1 – Ep 8
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[Cathy]
Fan Xian uh…stole Du Fu’s most famous poem at the poetry meeting which immediately established him as a literary genius. The second prince is having a conversation with him in order to coerce Fan Xian to his side while the Crown Prince is also already aware of Fan Xian’s poem and this little meeting. Both princes are quite impressed with this newcomer and want him on their side.
But what does Fan Xian care about? His chicken leg girl. He asks the 2nd prince if he believes in love at first sight etc etc which catches the 2nd prince by surprise but that is Fan Xian’s focus. On Fan Xian’s part, he wants to marry this woman, not Lin Wan’Er who he’s betrothed to and is planning on making a show in the capital to get his betrothal dropped. The second prince is amused with this plan and leaves as Fan Xian heads back to the main hall. But as he heads back, he crosses paths with a young woman in white, holding a chicken leg.
It’s none other than his chicken leg girl.
[Karen]
It is a cute moment as he grabs her to hide from the staff of the residence and they awkwardly chat. Both of them lie about their identity as she says that she’s a maid in Li Hong Cheng’s household. To match her identity, Fan Xian pretends that he’s a page boy of 郭保坤 and insults him for being an idiot. THis confuses Wan’Er a bit before she asks Fan Xian to take her to see Fan XIan. She’s curious as to who he is. Without a second thought, he grabs her hand and takes her to the main hall to sneak a peek at…Teng Zi Jing. Hahaha. Fan Xian pretends that Teng Zi Jing is Fan Xian and immediately bashes Teng Zi Jing when Wan’Er says oh, he looks cold but the connotation isn’t super negative. But, she becomes rather shy and blushes heavily after he asks her whether or not she’s married and runs off, leaving Fan Xian to reminisce at this meeting since once again, he forgot to ask her name. The two just add to their respective mismatch through their lies but I guess that makes the reveal all the more sweet.
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[Cathy]
With this poetry meeting behind them, let’s head back to the Fan Manor. Wang Qi Nian drops off the scroll with information about Teng Zi Jing’s family to Fan Xian, only for Fan Xian to see that his entire family was killed.
Teng Zi Jing grabs the report and is in furious disbelief. He shouts at Fan Xian before running off. Ruo Ruo and Fan Xian deduce that he most likely wants to seek revenge for his family by attacking Guo Bao Kun and purposefully yelled at Fan Xian in order to remove any connection between the two.
Fan Xian takes this opportunity to figure out how he can find Guo Bao Kun on his own. Ruo Ruo says that the man likes to be at brothels along the river and so Fan Xian decides to hit up Li Hong Cheng to take him out to see the sights.
[Karen]
That night, Fan Xian and Li Hong Cheng head to Zui Xian Ju where they await a new head courtesan, Si Li Li. It is an extravagant affair for when her flower boat does move. There are fireworks and a whole crowd of people waving at her to see this new beauty. The crowd, largely of women, cry out their amazement at Si Li Li when she arrives. The expectation is that Fan Xian is here to have a good time with Si Li Li, who apparently is still a virgin.
However, this is just a ruse. When Si Li Li and Fan XIan grab a drink together, Fan Xian drugs her and places her on the bed. Takes off her outer robes and removes her earrings and hair accessories before running off but not before leaving a small gap in the door. Yet, the moment he leaves, Li HOng Cheng follows him out of Zui Xian Ju and Si Li Li also wakes up. Both parties are wondering what exactly Fan Xian has up his sleeve.
Now, the fact that Li Hong Cheng brought Fan Xian to see Si Li Li is rather interesting because Li Hong Cheng gets advice from the 2nd prince as to where he should take Fan Xian. The 2nd prince gives him a glance and Li Hong Cheng immediately knows what the 2nd prince is talking about. We know there’s more to Si Li Li’s identity and the fact that the 2nd prince directed Fan Xian to Si Li Li makes me wonder if he knew about her identity to begin with.
[Cathy]
Meanwhile, Fan Xian has a busy night. First, he stops Teng Zi Jing from killing Guo Bao Kun because he thinks the report saying Teng Zi JIng’s family is dead doesn’t seem right. After stopping Teng Zi Jing, he himself beats up Guo Bao Kun quite badly to get information out of him as to whether or not he did kill Teng Zi JIng’s family. Guo Bao Kun has absolutely no knowledge of this and suffers quite a few blows from Fan Xian. With this new intel, Fan Xian and Teng ZI JIng are off to find Wang Qi Nian because they think that the report is probably fake.
Wang Qi Nian, as it turns out, was stalking the two of them for quite a while. He doesn’t deny that he changed the report in order to prevent further harm to come to Teng Zi Jing’s family. Teng Zi Jing lets out a huge sigh of relief when he hears that his family is alive and healthy and follows Wang Qi Nian to see them. It is a heartfelt reunion as he sees his wife and son again after both sides thought the other was dead.
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[Karen]
That was the episode recap. Before we move onto history, let me share some fun I guess behind the scenes commentary.
When Wan’Er heads to the Fan Manor and tries to talk to Teng Zi Jing whom she thinks is Fan Xian but is rudely ignored by Teng Zi Jing, this is literally the only interaction the 2 have in the drama. It’s for a brief moment, they don’t even talk since Teng Zi Jing just walks away. But, the two actors, Wang Yang for Teng Zi Jing and Li Qin for Wan’Er act as brother and sister in this year’s War of Faith. They did say in interviews that they were in the same production cast for Joy of Life so they were more familiar with each other in War of Faith which helped build chemistry when they were filming War of Faith. I found that to be interesting since they didn’t really have scenes together in Season 1 and I didn’t really know if they were around each other much while filming. They did say the 2 had more familiarity with each other than say with Wang Yi Bo, the male lead of War of Faith.
Additionally, the chicken leg that Wan’Er wolfs down after leaving Fan Xian took several takes and there are behind the scenes clips where there are full boxes of extra chicken legs for her to eat so that she can do it multiple times. In these scenes with her chicken leg, she also did put grease over her lips to show that she’s really eating the meat.
[Cathy]
Alright, now let’s move onto history! There’s not much pop culture in this episode so let’s focus on the 3 skills shown at the brothel by 3 different ladies.
The first is the woman who was playing what was called 编钟 or the set of bronze bells or chimes. These are very traditional chinese instruments that were developed during the Zhou Dynasty. They were popular through the end of the Han Dynasty or the 3rd century CE. There are archeological discoveries of these bells that are over 3000 years old. China was the first to develop the use of bells or chimes and these instruments were made of bronze. The bells were typically suspended or hung from a wooden frame and hit by a mallet. Each bell would have a different pitch. These bells were typically used for ceremonial purposes and rituals but were also used recreationally. With the different centuries, the shapes of the bells changed and so did the number of bells. They could range from 9-13 to even more bells per set. There are bells still in place in many Chinese museums and temples but those are more for display. Only a few are actually used to play any tune of pitch. What’s interesting is that in the drama – for the woman who plays these bells, the drama added to her name as 梵音 which is Sanskrit, which is buddhist origin. I don’t believe buddhists played these types of bells but there are bells associated with Buddhism. In the world of Qing Yu Nian, we just need to disregard those historical references that don’t QUITE make sense. For example – does sanskrit exist? Or buddhism exist? There are monks but are these monks the same as buddhist monks? Eh – we’ll just go with the flow
[Karen]
Next – let’s discuss 蒸酒 or Steaming Wine. Please note, that in the drama, Li Hong Cheng says 蒸酒, which directly translates to Steam Wine. However, in China, there’s a difference between 蒸酒, 煮酒, and 烧酒 – which translate literally Steam Wine, Boil Wine, and Heat Wine. I believe the drama is actually trying to show 烧酒 or Heat wine rather than Steam Wine. Now to add to the confusion – 烧酒 also can mean Korean Soju or Japanese Shochu, but what I’m describing is the process of heating wine which is 烧酒.
During ancient times, Chinese alcohol was different from the Chinese Bai Jiu that we know today. The wine wasn’t distilled and the alcohol concentration was pretty low. The ancient chinese would then heat up the alcohol within the clay vessels. By doing so, this process would filter out the impurities of the wine and increase the effects of alcohol in the body, thus also warming the body. Even today, people in east asia drink warm wine such as shochu in the winter. The wine is heated up so to speak. Since the Yuan Dynasty, so think 12th and 13th century, distillation was gradually introduced into the brewing process. This process enabled the development of modern day Chinese baiju, Koren Soju, and Japanese Shochu.
蒸酒 – is a local Yunan type of alcohol in which steaming the alcohol is a main part of the brewing process. That’s very different from just heating pre-made wine in a brothel. Last piece – I don’t think it was a coincidence that the woman specializing in alcohol is called 杜二娘. According to Chinese legend, the king 杜康 with the last name 杜 invented chinese wine and alcohol. The two have the same last name – leading to that connection.
[Cathy]
Lastly – let’s discuss 投壶 or Pitch Pot. We’ve seen this previously in The Story of Ming Lan. In Joy of Life, it’s only a quick showcase but here’s a refresher for you all.
Tou hu or pitch pot or arrow toss is an old game dating back to the Warring States period. During the Warring States period, it was customary for the host of a ceremony or party to invite guests into archery competitions. It was rude for guests to refuse and seen as an insult to the host. During this time, all male guests were expected to know archery and it was embarrassing if one did not. Over the years though, guests indeed did not know archery and tossing arrows into pots replaced the traditional archery games. Before the Eastern Han Dynasty, 投壶 was primarily played as a ceremonial rite. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, 投壶 was played more and more for entertainment and a drinking game. Historical paintings of the 投壶 are exactly like what is shown in the show for this time period. The two ears on the side of the pot were added during the Jin Dynasty. What’s notable is this was popular with men AND women. There are several paintings depicting women partaking in the activity so it’s no surprise that in Joy of Life, women are playing this too, albeit in a brothel rather than as a “gentlemanly” pursuit.
Now let’s move onto book differences!
The drama cleverly dispenses with several characters, especially at Li Hong Cheng’s residence. Fan Ruo Ruo is battling it out with Li Hong Cheng’s sisters while Fan Xian encounters Li Hong Cheng’s father, the brother to the Emperor. In the book, Fan Xian does not meet the Second Prince nor Lin Wan Er and we go straight from the Poetry gathering to the brothel later that evening. Fan Xian doesn’t meet Lin Wan Er until their next encounter as we see in the drama. The whole sidebar of Fan Xian, Teng Zi Jing, and Fan Ruo Ruo stealing information does not occur and so we don’t meet Teng Zi Jing’s family. Si Li Li as a person of interest doesn’t get revealed until later so their conversation doesn’t occur as of yet. The whole assault on Guo Bao Kun though – is just as funny in both mediums. Poor guy – he didn’t know what was coming for him