Rewatch 29 & 30

[flemmings]

Which is all about the Wu Zi Xu hate.

Oh Wu Zi Xu
Oh Wu Zi Xu
Oh Wu Zi Xu how I don't like you
Wu Zi Xu.

I hate the way you talk
I hate the way you squawk
I hate the way you talk, I hate the way you plot,
Wu Zi Xu

I hate the way you sneer
I hate the way you fleer
Now let me make it clear, I hate the way you sneer,
Wu Zi Xu

Oh Wu Zi Xu
Go on back to Chu
Get out of Wu and go back to Chu
Wu Zi Xu.

(Now tell me it doesn't rhyme in Chinese.)

Chorus of viewers outside the palace: Head onna wall! Head onna wall! Head onna wall!!

Which will happen. I now see from the sequence of events that the Ya Yu plot was WZX's one hubris too many. It follows all his other plots- WZX does something dastardly to Gou Jian (the pillory, his son, his wife), WZX comes and rubs it in hard (inherent and oily sadism, I'm convinced: it didn't work before, why does he think it'll work now just because he ups the ante?), it doesn't work. (WZX = one trick pony. Brilliant tactician he is not.) But with Ya Yu he overreaches himself. Fu Chai the bastard, after one appalled moment, a convenient and temporary scapegoating of Wongsun, and a pro forma apology to Wen Zhong, covers for his minister- 'You did it for me. Just consult me next time 'k?') But clearly conscience digs at him because that's when he starts talking about sending Gou Jian home. Still a long way to go before it happens but that's the beginning of it.

Only tell me again why the scriptwriters want us to believe this guy was a Good Thing and a martyr to loyalty? Feh. This guy is a toad.

Why do we have half an ep of sitting on our butts outside the palace? What's the purpose of this scene? The real beginning of the split between Fu Chai and WZX, I suppose, but man it dragged. Also it boggles me that no one ever tried accusing WZX of flat-out cowardice. 'He's deranged and comatose and dying and you're still chicken shit scared of him, what a sad decline in the once keen-minded Chancellor of Wu.'

(Now wouldn't it have been interesting if they'd kept with the original idea, and given it 50 one-hour eps to develop, that after his return Gou Jian doesn't want anything to do with government and war, and it takes Wen Zhong and Fan Li to talk him back into it.)

Which raises a basic question: why does WZX have this image if Gou Jian as a tremendously dangerous man obsessed with Wu's destruction? By gall and good luck alone, Gou Jian won a battle against the **invading** army of Wu. He then pressed his advantage so that Wu wouldn't come invading again and lost badly. Nowhere do I see any intent to destroy Wu, merely a desire to get Wu off Yue's back. But even supposing it's a reasonable assumption in any ruler of the time- will bite if given a chance- where does WZX see brilliant tactician! or dogged determination! in Gou Jian before he comes to Wu? I say he's projecting all his own worst traits on Gou Jian. And blaming him for his lover's Helu's death.

But then again, WZX's view of reality is so subjective as to border on dementia. 'I'm ashamed to be a human being if people like you exist' he says to Gou Jian-- because he won't save his wife from WZX's own depredations. Boggle boggle boggle. OK, back to the chorus: Head onna wall! Head onna wall!

And will note Ya Yu's 不服. Go Ya Yu. If only she hadn't put a terminus on it. And naturally I have the westerner's impatience with the notion of 'I should have died, I was raped so I dishonoured you and the kingdom.' But honour goes deep if she wanted to kill herself when she heard Yue was defeated. Even for his wife, loyalty to the king as king, loyalty to the king as a person, seems to come a long way after everything else back here, as witness the generals' reaction to the feather recitation and Fan Li's reaction to that: 'You're thinking of your own honour, you're not thinking of the King.'

I repeat- the ambassador from Jin lacks basic smarts. When a not-terribly friendly country with a yen to oust your own from prominence offers you anything and says Don't ask questions, you... ask questions. And when they say That was the Queen of Yue, you say Prove it. And when they say We'll tell everybody and your country will lose face, you say Everybody will know pretty damned fast anyway, try another threat.

But mostly you do what I suspect Wen Zhong would do- look at your suspicious present who so very much isn't a sing-song girl and so very much is a lady and put two and two together. 'Not tonight, General, I have a headache.'

I see even Fu Chai's announcement that he would execute the prison superintendent who allowed the assassination to happen was a lie, because there he is alive when Gou Jian leaves. 'Fu Chai?! Trustworthy?!! indeed.

(Rewatch of the rewatch: it's after his son's death when he's sitting in the rain that Gou Jian decides the policy he's going to follow. You can see it happening in his face.)

Comments

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

... it half rhymes in Chinese? :p Pinyin being the idiot it is uses u to represent 2 different sounds, and the u in Xu is actually the ü sound, which kind of sounds like saying the letter e through pursed lips. (Chu sounds like Choo)

But hahaha yeah. Put like this I can't remember why I went along with the scriptwriters and thought the guy was a martyr to loyalty. Hmm.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I always thought everyone was swallowing the end of his name so yeah, figured it wouldn't rhyme with the English oo sound. But my ear is bad. I hear everyone calling the king Da wan. No g.

I suppose he /is/ a martyr to loyalty. His loyalty to Wu makes him do utterly unforgivable things and there's no one to protest against them or stop him, as Fan Li protested against Wen Zhong's plan with the rice and Gou Jian stopped it. And WZX is unacquainted with any kind of humanity, which Wen Zhong is not.

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

Possibly WZX realized that he couldn't beat Gou Jian by working on the man himself, so had to get to him through his nearest and dearest (also political expediency w.r.t. the successor). And the reason they picked the Jin ambassador is precisely because he's no Wen Zhong - he's a venal blustering little person who wouldn't have the intelligence to question dubious overtures or the integrity to refuse them.

no one ever tried accusing WZX of flat-out cowardice

they're probably too scared to do so.

a Good Thing and a martyr to loyalty

Sheer stubborn bloody-minded faith in your own notions of what is good for the country is a common feature of many "patriot-martyrs" q.v. Qu Yuan, Yue Fei - at least, these are the ones whom history eventually proved right. Those who persisted in their policies but were wrong in the final analysis end up being represented by fried dough-sticks and eaten with relish.

Perhaps WZX may have been impressed by the prisoners offing themselves, and by Gou Jian's behaviour after he got to Wu.

'I'm ashamed to be a human being if people like you exist'

That might have been a last-ditch jab at Gou Jian, or perhaps he's just that lacking in self-awareness.

half an ep of sitting on our butts outside the palace

as you say, the beginning of the end; to me it looked like an interminably long excuse for showing psychological warfare (or what the scriptwriters thought would pass for it) between Fu Chai-Bo Pi and WZX, plus the loyalties of Gongsun and Wangsun.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

so had to get to him through his nearest and dearest (also political expediency w.r.t. the successor).

It didn't work with his son, or didn't work the way he wanted it to. WZX has a very narrow range of acceptable responses: unless Gou Jian offs himself he's not satisfied. Gou Jian's spirit might actually have been as broken by his son's death as he made it seem, but WZX wouldn't have believed it. (I'd say So why try it with Ya Yu? except that there was another and even more compelling reason to use her.)

I do have to wonder at this odd lack of offspring in a country which practises polygamy and doesn't practise birth control. Maybe the scriptwriters just assumed the one child policy was in effect then?

I wonder why the Jin king then picked the Jin ambassador? Show of contempt for the barbarians? Still think it'd be a nice touch if the blustering condescending personage had turned out to be no fool. After all, Wen Zhong isn't terribly prepossessing at first glance either. (None of the ambassadors are. This is what comes of giving diplomatic posts to scholars.)

The trouble with WZX is that history did prove him right. But as before, I have to wonder, in this case at least, how far his tactics actually guaranteed that his forebodings would come to pass.

end up being represented by fried dough-sticks and eaten with relish.

Who's that?

I can't see that Gou Jian does anything after getting to Wu (and pre WZX breaking tactics) but behave like a king. One defeat and WZX expects him to kill himself? They didn't take that line with Qi.

an interminably long excuse for showing psychological warfare

Really shouldn't have fired the first script writer. If you need to show that Fu Chai's grown to the point of being able to engage in psychological warfare, better to do it in a quick pwning scene as in the first audience between Gou Jian and Wen Zhong.

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

why try it with Ya Yu

There might be an additional effect, and of course the fact that she was absolutely indispensable to Gou Jian regardless of where she could be (next to him or running Yue in his absence), WZX might have been gambling on him either making a last-ditch attempt to stop it (-> executed for insubordination)/feeling terribly guilty (-> offing himself)/ Ya Yu perhaps offing herself immediately after or hating him (-> isolates him completely). What WZX didn't realise, and which perhaps was beyond the realm of his experience or comprehension (not being very loving or lovable himself), was their complete and well-nigh indissoluble understanding of each other.

lack of offspring in a country which practises polygamy and doesn't practise birth control.

Artistic licence. Or perhaps Gou Jian was just ahead of his time. (I'd like to speculate also about the deleterious genetic effects of cousins marrying, as in your AU, but would be in the same realm of scholarship as the question of the number of Lady Macbeth's offspring.)

why the Jin king then picked the Jin ambassador

Artistic licence. As you say, he doesn't think it takes much more than bluster and bombast (q.v. Bo Pi 20 or so years later at the Huangchi summit to a very different Jin ambassador) to intimidate those in a presumed weaker position. But perhaps this Jin ambassador's unctuous obsequies at home, much like a certain counterpart in Wu, were of assistance in his diplomatic career.

represented by fried dough-sticks and eaten with relish.

Qin Hui (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Hui_%28Song_Dynasty%29) was long villified for being the instigator of Yue Fei's (famous Song dynasty general) execution during the Song Dynasty's decline. Popular legend holds that that he was a plant of the Jin Empire who in his capacity as the Song Prime Minister advocated peace with them and thus murdered the only man capable of preventing the Jin Empire's victory. OTOH Qin Hui may just have been trying to prevent further debilitating wars in the wake of the inevitable fall of Song.

Of course, if the Song dynasty had fallen despite Yue Fei's best efforts well into old age, we might not have such delicious snacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtiao) to accompany our breakfast porridge.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I'd guess WZX expected Ya Yu to kill herself, certainly, thus isolating Gou Jian completely. You're right that he doesn't understand the relationship between them. I wonder if he even understands her indispensibility to Gou Jian, or if he thinks Gou Jian's attachment is the conventional one of a man to his beautiful wife. Women like Ya Yu are rare, and she operates out of public sight.

Didn't the historucal Gou Jian have a score of kids? You notice our Fu Chai seemingly only has one child as well.

But perhaps this Jin ambassador's unctuous obsequies at home, much like a certain counterpart in Wu, were of assistance in his diplomatic career.

Ahh. *Right.*

Ohh, so *that's* what happened to Yue Fei. I knew he was a martyr of some kind but not how. Um- yeah. My instincts are with the peace makers, generally.

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

Historical!Gou Jian had at least a couple of sons, since IIRC read something on Yahoo China about him having to pick a successor/settle succession disputes.

Fu Chai probably also had other kids, since the Spring-Autumn Annals record that the rest of the former royal family of Wu, including several "princes of the blood" and their families, settled in more southerly regions and possibly decamped for parts further east across the water.

My instincts are with the peace makers

I tend towards the opinion that Qin Hui, having had first-hand experience of non-military commoner life, the Song in decline, and the strengths of the Jin empire, was a realist and a damn fine politician who managed to serve 3 successive emperors and escape from Tartars before his demise in bed at a ripe old age, not of course that this reflects completely well on his character.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Now I wonder what happened to Fu Chai's score of brotehrs. He couldn't have executed them all. Or maybe he could have. Off with his head! is a dominant gene in that family.

Oh yeah. The men of Wa were once men of Wu. Mh. Not all of them, obviously.

Well but, dying in bed at a ripe old age seems to be what sensible people generally do. The death or glory boys die in battle or are executed, as are the over-trusting like Wen Zhong. Fan Li OTOH...