One Weird (Read: Useless) Trick for Naming Your C-Novel Inspired Characters

[douqi]

(This isn't strictly about baihe but I'm posting this here anyway since I'll be using a couple of examples from baihe media.)

Let's say you're writing something inspired by or based on a c-novel. And you've come to the exciting part, which is choosing names for your characters. And you find yourself stuck.

Well, not to worry! We have a several-millennia-long tradition of poetry to assist us. All you have to do is this.

Take a line from a Book of Odes poem, or a Tang poem, or really any poem. Then pick out the name-like elements and smoosh them together. Voilà, you've got yourself a name.

Thus, from the Book of Odes the line 蒹葭苍苍, 白露为霜 (pinyin: jianjia cangcang, bailu wei shuang) (Legge's translation: 'The reeds and rushes are deeply green / And the white dew is turned into hoarfrost) gives us Bai Jianjia, which is suitable for either a refined young lady or a courtesan of the high-class, scholarly sort. Also from the Book of Odes, the line 昔我往矣，杨柳依依 (pinyin: xi wo wang yi, yangliu yiyi) (Legge's translation: At first, when we set out / The willows were fresh and green) gives us Liu Yiyi, also a good courtesan or high-class maidservant name (IMO the Book of Odes link might just about make it learned enough to be a young gentlewoman's name, but I don't usually like repeated-syllable names for upper-class or scholarly women, unless it's a nickname).

This trick is pretty commonly used in popular media. The drama version of The Message has a character named (or rather, re-named) He Jianzhu (何剪烛). This is clearly taken from the line 何当共剪西窗烛 (pinyin: he dang gong jian xichuang zhu) from Li Shangyin's poem 'Sending a Letter North on a Rainy Night'(夜雨寄北). The love interest from The Beauty's Blade is called Yu Shengyan (玉生烟), and so is a secondary character from the danmei novel Thousand Autumns, courtesy of the line 蓝田日暖玉生烟 (pinyin: lantian ri nuan yu sheng yan) from another Li Shangyin poem, 'The Brocade Zither' (錦瑟).

'But, douqi,' I hear you cry, 'what if I don't know any Chinese poetry or enough Chinese to know what are appropriate name elements to pick out of verses?'

Ah. Then I'm afraid this post will be of no help at all. Sorry.

Comments

LOL

[skuzzybunny]

You are so funny 😂

Re: LOL

[douqi]

*doffs imaginary cap* thank you, I try.

[satsuma]

Alas, I am definitely in the "don't know enough Chinese to know what are appropriate name elements" club!

I did appreciate your examples of how this gets used in Baihe--the meanings of the names are a lot clearer when you know what poems they're referencing!

[douqi]

I might start a list of 'names that obviously come from poetry' (my poetry knowledge has a bunch of blind spots in it, but I bet it's not a million miles away from the blind spots of your average webnovelist). To go with a list of 'common surnames used in baihe' that I know another comm member is compiling.

[satsuma]

I’d definitely enjoy reading that list if you did put it together!

[larryhammer]

Lol!

You could stock an entire xianxia saga just from Li Shangyin, and sound themed.

[douqi]

New challenge: stock entire xiaxia saga just from Li Shangyin's 'Untitleds'.

[larryhammer]

Probably quite doable. Especially if you allow picking from 碧城 as well.

[halfcactus]

THIS POST IS OF NO HELP AT ALL hahahaha but thank you so much for sharing! A number of words/imagery are surprisingly familiar to me bc of pop culture and I forgot (or took for granted) that they originated from poems. The examples were very useful (and fun!) to look at even when the advice does not apply to me XD

[douqi]

Haha I'm glad it was fun anyway, despite the uselessness. And yes it's kind of surprising (especially if you compare it with Western lit) how much really really old stuff like the Book of Odes still haunts the cultural consciousness.

[geraineon]

Related to this post, but I once said to a friend that my Chinese name seems to be considered kinda old sounding, and she told me I can pretend it came from a poem, then linked me a poem.

So, this method has been applied to my name (backwards)! XDD

[douqi]

Ahah that is so cool actually!

[larryhammer]

As an aside, I do know an Yiyi, and it is a nickname, but it's also the only name she answers to. I was once told her full Chinese name, but I've long since forgotten the second character. She technically/legally has an English name, but she informed her adoptive parents, when they met her at 2 1/2, that no that's not her, she's Yiyi and nothing else. Her parents quickly gave up trying otherwise.

[superborb]

Okay, but does 柳依依 sound too much like 611 to be a nice name? The problem is homophones!!