It has indeed been far too long

[flemmings]

rasetsunyo draws a classical Chinese beauty of the dragon persuasion. Who is this? Is it Pipang?

My first thought was 'Oh! That's the young man Kaiei starts getting interested in at the Southern Ocean' (that no one here has met.) However, on second thought I'm not sure said young man (son of Goushou's chief steward IIRC) is quite so peerless a beauty as that. But then I'd never thought Pipang was a peerless beauty either. joasakura drew me a picture of him long ago, which has to be here on one of these HDs somewhere, and she made him, mhh, I think 'lovesome' is the word I'd use. It's a gestalt, not just a physical attractiveness. I'd vaguely conceived Pipang as being good-looking enough, but of course no one looks at his *features* ever. It's that rare colour of his that focusses attention and inspires passion.

Only... only... what if Pipang in fact *was* an empire-shaking beauty and didn't know it? What if he'd assumed all along that people's excessive reaction to him was down to his rare colouring only, rare being equated with desirable by definition; and no one had ever realized his misunderstanding? It'd be a nice twist; it would also explain Kaiei's coup de foudre as well, in terms that make Kaiei look not quite such a dweeb as before. Though of course one could debate which was the greater mark of superficiality-- desire because someone has a rare physical trait, or desire because he has exquisite features.

And here I also fancy I'm being western again: a person's outward physical form is just accident, not essence; it's an unimportant detail compared to their inner being. 'Adolescent Kaiei doesn't appreciate the true beauty of Pipang's **soul**!' Which is rational up to a point-- one's face is not oneself. But I can see a mindset that holds that yes it is, just as much as one's soul is oneself. What I wish to avoid is the mindset that says beauty doesn't matter for certain people-- the ones with power-- but defines the ones without

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Part of attractiveness is how one carries oneself and moves? It could be that Pipang just has a natural elegance of movement? It doesn't have to be a pretty face?

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Yes I agree with this too, also maybe an air of mystery. and of hidden depths. That 'soul' nature.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I think of Pipang as being halfway to Taoist with admixtures of the Dalai Lama-- WYSIWYG; simple, straightforward; clear water that you can see straight through to the bottom. Though what comes out while writing is that Pipang may have hidden depths that he doesn't know of himself; and it's perfectly possible that Pipang's simplicity looks complicated to someone (like Goushou) who's used to the presence of ambivalence and ambiguity everywhere.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Pipang just has a natural elegance of movemen

I like that one too, if only because it's an utter rarity over here, you may have noticed. In dragon circles, natch, carriage is a matter of training, but still-- a natural elegance is still different. But I look at the elegance of rasetsunyo's dragon, which seems a court-defined elegance, and half-wish Pipang could do that by instinct. Everyone says 'How refined he is' and of course he's just being him.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

LOL! You remind me of your comment about natural sex appeal and the French and Italians.

Chinese opera may give you ideas of moving. The whole nodding the head while talking and hand circles and stuff. I like to wish it's in opera because it once upon a time reflected something in real life, though I know opera is always exaggeration and stylization.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I think it was the French and the Chinese, and I'm a little squirmy that you remember that after all these years.

[incandescens]

Maybe he has that 'Sabrina fair' look - "listen where thou art sitting under the glassy cool translucent wave."

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he does. That not fully apprehended (by me) Daoist side to him might give him an internal stillness and distance from the daily that would stand out like a lighthouse among the court nobles.

But what if the demeanour and gestalt of a happy recluse was wedded to the face of Yang Kuei-fei, or even Zhou Yu ('the Handsome', when not played by Tony Leung.) That would give people pause.