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kolachess · 3 years

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Behind the Entity ‘Zhang Qiling’

Since @black-rabbit-99 requested it, here’s a post on Zhang Qiling’s name! But it also derailed a little into Zhang Qiling the role, and subsequently, Xiaoge and the Zhang family... brevity is not my forte lol.

Some of you might already know this, but Zhang Qiling is not actually a name, but rather, a title. I’ll talk both about the context around this name / title, a little of the history of the role and Xiaoge’s involvement, as well as the translation mishap of ‘Kylin’, which I also touched upon in this post.

NOTE: this does contain spoilers, as it delves more into the Xiaoge’s past and Zhang family history. I will keep this scoped to history directly pertaining to the role of Zhang Qiling though, as the Zhang family history is like... a whole essay itself.

The source for this information is actually rather easy to lookup (for once). Daomu Biji Vol 8. Ch 52 is even entitled, The Meaning of the Name Zhang Qiling. (Although that’s the translation title. The original does not appear to have a title.)

What does Zhang Qiling mean?

Zhang, of course, is still the family name. It’s Qiling that represents the role, and thus together with Zhang, becomes the full title. This is the patriarch of the Zhang family.

Qiling is written 起灵, which are the words 起 (raise) and 灵 (spirit).

In Wu Xie’s words, from merebear’s translation linked above.

Qiling, if seen by itself, is indeed a word with other meanings. It means to remove the dead and transport the coffin to be interred. The Zhang family was a family of tomb robbers, so this Zhang Qiling may just be another name for a very important position.

How does one become Zhang Qiling?

Based on an epitaph in the room, the person selected to become Zhang Qiling will have his name replaced by the title. How does the selection process work? I think there was some speculation or net results indicating the amount of qilin blood, but I have not confirmed with source.

The following info is sourced from Tibetan Sea Flower, Ch. 53: Once someone is selected though, they’re supposed to have a transition, so to speak. So first if you’ll remember, Zhang family has a thing with bronze bells which will cause hallucinations. It’s a common thing that shows up in all the tombs. And then, there is a special hexagonal bronze bell that has the ability to offset all other bronze bells (one ring to rule them all, hmm?). This is something the patriarch carries with him all the time. When the patriarch is nearing his death, he and the new successor are supposed to enter this mysterious room that can only be entered using the special hexagonal bell. Only after the old guy dies, can the new successor bring his body out. So yes, if they timed it wrong, they could be stuck in there for years (don’t understand the logic behind this, but it’s what we are told.)

How did Xiaoge become Zhang Qiling?

Continuing from the source above, when it came to Xiaoge’s generation, the succession had broken. The previous successor died elsewhere, and Xiaoge had to dig the special bell out of the place where that Zhang family had died. He then could take this to access the special room, which contained Zhang family secrets, including that of the ‘ultimate’.

How Zhang family got the destitute state it did, and how Xiaoge got re-involved in the Zhang family when the line of succession was broken, is yet another post unto itself. :D But all of this is addressed in Tibetan Sea Flower and Tomb of the Sea.

How did they come to learn about Zhang Qiling being a title?

Alright. Backtrack now to the actual title again. For those of you who have watched Ultimate Note, you know that Wu Xie and co. were trying to get into the Zhang Ancestral Family Manor. Wu Xie was in a totally different location from Xiaoge and Pangzi when something went drastically awry, and we were left hanging. I won’t go into details of what happened next (it’s in the contents of Daomu Biji Volume 8 though), but eventually Wu Xie does make it into the Manor, first meeting up with Pangzi, and then onwards in search of Xiaoge.

In one of the rooms, they stumble upon a burial room that had a coffin labeled ‘Zhang Qiling’. However, there was an explanation that this person became ‘Zhang Qiling’ at the age of nineteen, and so Wu Xie deduced that this was a title rather than a name. They also noted here, that some items had been taken away, judging by the imprint left behind. One of these was Xiaoge’s black-gold ancient sword.

What else did they learn there about the Zhang family and ‘Zhang Qiling’?

Several interesting things they learned, a lot which can be found here:

There was a genealogical tree carved on the inside of a coffin lid, and there, they found another ‘Zhang Qiling’ by the original name of Zhang Ruitong, who went on to grandfather… Zhang Qishan!

There was another Zhang Qiling who died from ‘loss of soul’, or ‘amnesia’, which had Wu Xie starting for a second.

Longevity was a feature of this family, with one person’s epitaph listing him to have lived 170 years

Zhang family had relations with the royal family and had connections in each dynasty, with strong roots / activity in Northern China, mainly near North Korea and Changbai Mountains (sound familiar?)

There were many branches of the family, Qipan Zhang being an important branch because they ‘carried’ or ‘possessed’ the qilin. The exact word phrasing is “身怀麒麟”. Now, Wu Xie here does not understand the metaphor, but we can, from knowledge elsewhere, assume this might be referring to the qilin blood.

Zhang family practices intermarriage i.e. they did not marry those of the outside world

Why ‘Kylin’?

In case you haven’t seen me rant about this enough lol...

Again, here’s Zhang Qiling’s name: 张起灵.

And here’s the character for Qilin (Chinese romanization), Kirin (Japanese romanization), or Kylin (modification based on Qilin): 麒麟.

起灵 =/= 麒麟 obviously. Two entirely different characters. And different pronunciation too.

My guess is that some translator decided Kylin was a cooler translation to attract an English-speaking audience, and went with it. Because he does also bear the Qilin / Kylin tattoo.

Hopefully that helps explain some things about our favorite Mr. Tall, Dark, and Mysterious!

#dmbj #daomubiji #zhang qiling #wu xie #ultimate note #the lost tomb #spoilers #connecting the dmbj dots

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