Shishosei - Vol. 1 Ch. 3 - The Emperor of Zhuan

[MangaDex]

 

[BluWacky]

Apologies for any errors in Chinese naming or transcriptions; absolutely not my area of expertise at all (this is hard work better left to professionals I fear, and why it's taken me a long time to get around to chapter 3!). I think I've tied myself in knots over whether the character I am calling the Emperor IS an Emperor, or "just" a King, amongst other things.

The Librarian's infodumping does contain more information (enough to overflow the speech bubbles) but for the sake of sanity and font size I have not included it all - mostly just details of military campaigns and fortresses conquered.

 

[coyote_vdb]

Thanks for the translation, it's a pretty good job.
I'm liking this manga more by each chapter, it's pretty intriguing.

 

[loresx]

OMG NOOOOO, I have so many questions to ask...the mystery of this manga is too intriguing! Thank you for translating, please don't abandon this manga.

 

[sssr]

Apologies for any errors in Chinese naming or transcriptions; absolutely not my area of expertise at all (this is hard work better left to professionals I fear, and why it's taken me a long time to get around to chapter 3!). I think I've tied myself in knots over whether the character I am calling the Emperor IS an Emperor, or "just" a King, amongst other things.

The Librarian's infodumping does contain more information (enough to overflow the speech bubbles) but for the sake of sanity and font size I have not included it all - mostly just details of military campaigns and fortresses conquered.

From the history recited and the fact that the country has a name, then "king" should be correct. In the Chinese traditional understanding of statecraft, the Empire was nameless. It was simply "the nation", "the middle kingdom", or "tian xia (all under heaven)". Dynasties would come and give it their names, but it would be understood as "Great [Dynasty name]", for example "Da Ming" instead of "the country of [name of region]", for example "Qin Guo". So, based on the naming of the state, it should be a kingdom ruled by a king.

 

[BluWacky]

From the history recited and the fact that the country has a name, then "king" should be correct. In the Chinese traditional understanding of statecraft, the Empire was nameless. It was simply "the nation", "the middle kingdom", or "tian xia (all under heaven)". Dynasties would come and give it their names, but it would be understood as "Great [Dynasty name]", for example "Da Ming" instead of "the country of [name of region]", for example "Qin Guo". So, based on the naming of the state, it should be a kingdom ruled by a king.

So going forward I should refer to "The King of Zhuan" rather than the Emperor? Okay, will do. Thank you!

 

[PeachyBee]

Apologies for any errors in Chinese naming or transcriptions; absolutely not my area of expertise at all (this is hard work better left to professionals I fear, and why it's taken me a long time to get around to chapter 3!). I think I've tied myself in knots over whether the character I am calling the Emperor IS an Emperor, or "just" a King, amongst other things.

The Librarian's infodumping does contain more information (enough to overflow the speech bubbles) but for the sake of sanity and font size I have not included it all - mostly just details of military campaigns and fortresses conquered.

Thank you for your hard work. I really like this story. Kibi is so cute. My daughter 😭

 

[BluWacky]

Just a brief update - I have hit a brick wall in chapter 4 on two incomprehensible panels of dialogue that reference feng shui crystals, Chinese constellations, and possibly era names from the Han dynasty. Despite crowd-sourcing help from Reddit I am no clearer as to what is actually being said, despite knowing exactly what the intent of the panels is. I know exactly what's going on so I could just make some shit up, but that's neither translation nor localisation. As such I will be putting Shishosei aside for now...

 

[loresx]

Apenas uma breve atualização: cheguei a um ponto crítico no capítulo 4 sobre dois painéis de diálogo incompreensíveis que fazem referência a cristais de feng shui, constelações chinesas e possivelmente nomes de épocas da dinastia Han. Apesar da ajuda de crowdsourcing do Reddit, não estou mais claro sobre o que realmente está sendo dito, apesar de saber exatamente o que intenção dos painéis é. Eu sei exatamente o que está acontecendo em então eu poderia inventar alguma coisa, mas isso não é tradução nem localização. Por isso, vou deixar Shishosei de lado por enquanto...

Ohhhh nooooo. I understand. I hope that someday you will return this translation.

 

[jouyato]

Just a brief update - I have hit a brick wall in chapter 4 on two incomprehensible panels of dialogue that reference feng shui crystals, Chinese constellations, and possibly era names from the Han dynasty. Despite crowd-sourcing help from Reddit I am no clearer as to what is actually being said, despite knowing exactly what the intent of the panels is. I know exactly what's going on so I could just make some shit up, but that's neither translation nor localisation. As such I will be putting Shishosei aside for now...

( sad to hear that. If possible, do you have the transcript of what's being said? I'd like to help, this is such a lovely series!

 

[BluWacky]

( sad to hear that. If possible, do you have the transcript of what's being said? I'd like to help, this is such a lovely series!

I do indeed. The lines I find incomprehensible are these:

天詹地梁の極樞たる北辰石に北落師門の水生石が御挨拶申し上げます

and
『玉衡』の落星帰山だな

To put them into context, chapter 4 begins with a flashback to Xin's childhood. Xin was an academic prodigy, and in this scene is being introduced to the King as a young boy. Xin introduces himself to the King with the first line, and the King seems to recognise that this is some form of quotation in the second line.

The first line means something like "The Aquatic Stone of Pisces most humbly greets the Polaris Stone, the fulcrum of the universe." The two stones are apparently significant in feng shui, and clearly are being used as epithets/honourifics here to refer to Xin greeting the King.

It's the second line that makes absolutely no sense to me (in between, the King says "oh, are you trying to test me"). Is it referring to a piece of literature that one would recognise from the given title of 玉衡 if you knew anything about Chinese? And why the reference to a mountain? There's a real mountain in China with a similar, but not identical name.

Like I say, I'm way out of my depth here.

(on an incidental note, Kaoru Maruyama (the mangaka)'s one shot from about a year ago, Miss Kihara in the Library, has just ranked in Kono Manga Ga Sugoi 2026. It's a lovely little book that is best read in its physical edition due to its layout and nature, but congratulations to her!)