#the story of ming lan
was scrolling through my screenshots folder on my phone and came across the author’s ( 关心则乱 ) notes in chapter 40 of The Story Of Minglan novel regarding her choice of title and cover:
“作者有话要说：
关于本文的题目和封面，已经有很多人猜了。
题目是李清照的句子，当时李大词人应该是头天晚上喝醉了，估计没有婆婆要请早安，所以不用早起，早上酒还没醒，稀里糊涂的问丫鬟一句话，丫鬟也稀里糊涂的回答了一句。
短短几句词，描绘出一个古代贵族女子悠闲洒脱的生活场景，我很喜欢这种生活状态，很自在，很慵懒，希望明兰也是如此。
封面很多读者说了怪怪的，可是亲们真的看不出来吗？真的吗？真的？
——那个女孩子在睡懒觉呀！古代能主动睡懒觉的已婚女子，一般是很少的，这才是悠闲自在的生活呀！”– 第40回
A brief translation:
“Author’s Notes:
With regards to this novel’s title and cover, there’s already been a lot of speculation going on.
The title is a line by Li Qingzhao, back then, Poet Li had probably gotten drunk the night before, and most likely didn’t have a mother-in-law to pay morning greetings to, so she didn’t have to get up early. In the morning, she was still hungover, and asked her maidservant a muddleheaded question, the maidservant too gave a muddleheaded answer.
In just a few short lines, a scene of a leisurely and carefree life of a noblewoman from ancient times was depicted. I really like this sort of lifestyle, it’s very carefree, very languid, I hope that Minglan can be like this too.
A lot of readers commented that the cover is weird, but dearies, can you really not tell what it’s about? Really? Really?– That girl is sleeping in! In ancient times, there were very few married ladies who could sleep in of their own free will, this is truly a leisurely and carefree life!” – Chapter 40
- the Chinese title of the novel/drama is taken from 如梦令·昨夜雨疏风骤 by 李清照 Li Qingzhao, famed Tang dynasty female poet (speaking of which I really love @foxghost‘stranslation of said poem!)
- i found an image of the original cover too:
somehow it really got to me?? like the whole writing this story with the eventual endpoint being for Minglan to get to the stage where she can sleep in, signifying a languid carefree life. the simplicity and domesticity and laziness of it all, yet the weight of its significance in a society so restrictive for females. an energy i can really get behind :P
anyway shared this on the cdramanet kakao chatgroup yesterday (where the minglan discussion is currently really active hehe) and @thefantasticfangirlingfeminist pointed out that that’s what gu tingye promised for minglan too:
“We slept late last night, and got up early this morning. Let her sleep in.” … “As long as I’m around, even if your mistress sleeps in till the sun rides high in the sky, no one will dare to say anything.” - Gu Tingye towards Minglan’s maidservant
okay though honestly because of all the scheming and random nonsense his family gets up to i don’t think minglan really does get to sleep in till maybe the end haha. but i really did love how the drama inserted lots of random scenes of minglan lazing about in bed/sleeping/napping even as she goes about being her awesome proper authoritative smart self as the new madam of the household.
anyway this reminded me that i have yet to complete the novel… i really enjoyed what i’ve read of it but it’s very slice-of-life and slowly paced - not a bad thing at all and i do like that about it, however when one has read the novel for ages and then came to the realisation that they are still at chapter 120 out of 200+ chapters… well :P other distractions easily got the better of me :P
