Wherein there are husbands and wives.
First chapter of volume III, "Sewing Another's Wedding Dress". The volume titles for v.II and v.III are both from Dream of A Red Mansion.
Thank you to Emma P for proofreading (as well as just being cool :))!
Notes
1. The name of the city 洛阳 (Luoyang) means "setting sun". The author plays on this meaning in the poetic insert with the evocation of the cuckoo's song, which is why I've translated the city name literally in the introductory line.
2. From 《望海潮·洛阳怀古》(Memories of Luoyang) by 秦观.
3. From《四望楼》(From the Watchtower) by 曹邺. The "reed pipes" is a traditional instrument: the sheng (笙).
4. Luoyang is called 东都 or "Eastern Capital" starting from the Western Zhou, up until the Tang Dynasty (the "Western Capital" being nowadays Xi'an). This gives a potential period frame to the story that however conflicts with other elements throughout: the story's timeline is definitively fictional.
5. 官道 lit. "officials' road". Similarly to the Romans, Chinese people maintained vast networks of roads that could accommodate the transportation of supplies and troops. Those roads were not only state-maintained, but they were also public, which meant that anyone could use them (contrarily to what their name may suggest).
6. Respectively: "闻一知十", "触类旁通" and "举一反三", translated literally.
7. Hiding half the face behind one's sleeve is a coy gesture more commonly seen on female characters in opera to indicate humility/timidity/embarrassment.
8. 上不大了厅堂，但是好歹下得了厨房 Humorous collq. phrase. Lit. "can't go up the reception hall, but can go down the kitchen stall".
9. The "Five Poisons" (五毒) from folk traditions are variably listed as the centipede, the viper, the scorpion, the lizard, and the toad.
The "Four Pests" (四害) listed as the rat, the cockroach, the housefly, and the mosquito, is actually a more modern concept that originate in pamphlets aimed at promoting sanitation and agricultural output during The Great Leap Forward.
10. According to good ol' Confucius (yep you've guessed it, I don't particularly like that guy), a woman was to: obey her father before marriage, obey her husband after marriage, and obey her son in widowhood.
Her Four Virtues were: being moral in conduct, being reserved in speech, being pleasant in appearance, and being efficient in needlework.
* Forgot to annotate this: ZZS actually says that he want to 休妻 or "to repudiate one's wife". In ancient China, the husband could unilaterally formalize the dissolution of a union by writing a "repudiation note" for cause (the famous "seven causes" including the woman being unsuccessful at bearing a son, and her "being too talkative"). The wife/concubine had no such privilege.
A misc. note on "husband", "wife", "hubby" and "wifey".
They are many ways to address one's spouse in Chinese.
In his banter/flirting, Zhou Zishu uses the terms 媳妇 ("young wife" - which implies that he himself is young) and 夫人 ("Madame"/"Mrs.") while he calls himself 为夫 ("(the lady's) husband"). Those are somewhat formal, but common ways of address that could still be used today.
On the other hand, Wen Kexing favours the term 相公 ("young master (mine)") to which ZZS responds with 娘子 ("(my) lady"). Those are antiquated and theatrical ways of address (because operas have often retained those styles) which no one would use today besides in joking. They come off as (extra) incongruous/exaggerated/comedic in the text.
Although all of them mean husband/wife in context, I've translated the more common forms as "husband/wife", and used pet-names/diminutive in the other case to indicate the tone.
The flirting in this chapter KILLED ME. ZZS and WKX are both complete menaces in their own right—they're a match made in heaven. Thank you for the translation!
Thanks for the translation ❤️
I guess putting a walnut into ZZS's food is the equivalent of spitting in his food. Such a strong reaction 😂
Thanks for the translation and the notes. Its great learning the nuances of how they address one another. It really reflects their personalities and makes it even funnier.