Mei Gongqing

by Lin Jia Cheng, 林家成, Hamster248 (Translator)

This is a ‘rebirth’ story where Chen Rong, the heroine, finds her second chance at life after burning herself to death. Set in the Eastern Jin era when bureaucrats and their lofty yet equally hypocritical and oppressive ideas once ruled the empire, Chen Rong is made to use her past life’s experience to survive and hopefully find happiness this time around.

Translated to English with permission of the author.

Genres: Asian Literature, China, Romance

Unknown Binding

About the author

Associated Names:
* Lin Jia Cheng (English)
* 林家成 (Chinese)
* หลินจยาเฉิง (Thai)

Reviews

[Valentina Linz · Rating 5 out of 5]

ESSE LIVRO JÁ ESTÁ SENDO TRADUZIDO POR MIM NO MEU BLOG!
Título: A encantadora cortesã (The Bewitching Courtier em inglês), (Mei Gongqing, 媚公卿 em mandarim)

Autor: Lin Jiacheng

Língua em que li: Inglês, pelo hamster428

Tem em português: no presente momento em que publico essa resenha não há tradução, mas…

Sinopse traduzida por mim:

Essa é uma história de “renascimento”, na qual Chen Rong, a heroína, encontra uma segunda chance para viver após ter incendiado a si mesma até a morte. Passada na era de Jin Oriental, quando os burocratas e suas idéias brilhantes, porém igualmente hipócritas e opressivas governavam o império, Chen Ronge faz uso da sua experiência de vida parrada para sobreviver e ter a esperança de que dessa vez encontre a felicidade.



Esse é um livro com uma prosa linda do estilo encontrado em Os oito tesouros do enxoval e em Para ser uma esposa virtuosa, o que já é o suficiente para que começa a ser classificado como uma boa leitura. Só que tenho uma regra: uma história legal com um péssimo escritor dá para aguentar, só que uma ideia ruim com um escritor brilhante não desce. E o motivo disso é porque você sabe que está lendo algo de boa qualidade, mas a sua falta de empolgação é tanta que te dá desânimo em continuar a ler, e pena de parar de ler.

Por que estou falando isso? Só para compartilhar dessa ideia, não tem nada haver com A corte enfeitiçante. A história é boa. Só que ao contrário das duas obras citadas, o cenário é feio.

Vamos ao momento histórico na qual se passa o livro, em Jin Ocidental. Olha só o que a Wikipédia diz sobre o período:

Existiram neste período, duas dinastias Jin, a Dinastia Jìn Ocidental(西晉, 265-316), que foi fundada pelo Imperador Wu de Jin, mais conhecido como Sima Yan. Embora tenha fornecido um breve período de unidade após ter conquistado o estado de Wu oriental em 280, Jìn não podia conter a invasão e a insurreição de povos nómades após a guerra devastadora dos oito príncipes. A capital da dinastia Jin Ocidental era Luoyang até 311, quando o imperador Huai foi capturado pelas forças de Han Zhao. A capital foi transferida para Chang’an, por quatro anos até sua conquista por Han Zhao em 316.

Então a corte de Jìn fugiu para o norte e o sul e restabeleceram a corte de Jìn em Jiankang, a sudeste de Luoyang e de Chang’an e a Nanjing, sob o príncipe de Longya.

E em qual período você acha que esse livro se passa? No “breve período de unidade após ter conquistado o estado de Wu oriental em 280”? É claro que foi depois, e lemos de camarote sobre todos esses eventos históricos. Em suma: essa era não era brincadeira. Era guerra. Esse é um livro de guerra que quase nunca foca nesse tema, já que a protagonista não é nenhuma guerreira, e sim uma mulher da corte.

Chen Rong é sim uma mulher bem nascida, mas na nobreza existem rankings. Tem o mais nobre e o menos nobre, a melhor família e a família piorzinha. Seu pai é um filho shu (de uma concubina, que é inferior na hierarquia de um filho di, que é aquele gerado pela esposa oficial) de um ramo cadente da família Chen, uma família com diversas honras. Ramo cadente significa que ele é sim da família Chen, mas é o parente do parente do parente, ele em questão de parentesco está longe da família principal, a com poder. Isso significa que o status de seu pai não é lá aquelas coisas. Para piorar, ele tem uma concubina, e uma filha com ela. Essa é a protagonista, a filha shu de um homem shu do ramo cadente da família Chen. Ela é quase um pouco melhor do que uma serva em questão de lugar na sociedade, vamos dizer assim.

E essa Chen Rong não é o que se espera de uma mulher bem nascida na época. Não é calma, plácida, não finge ser uma estátua obediente. É uma mulher apaixonada, uma mulher que age, que faz de tudo para conseguir o que quer. E pelo primeiro capítulo, dá para ver que ela conseguiu o que queria, ou ao menos se casou com o homem o qual ela amava loucamente. Só que isso não terminou bem, não terminou nada bem. Terminou com ele nunca nem tocando nela, dormindo com outra e com Chen Rong aceitando a sugestão de uma “amiga”, a de tacar fogo em si mesma. Sim, Chen Rong se suicida, e de uma das piores maneiras possíveis (não que eu vá querer que você se mate, eu não sugiro ninguém a fazer isso, mas se incendiar? Isso é muito… nem sei dizer). E pela narrativa, você sente a dor desse “amiga”, sente a dor de Chen Rong… Hardcore.

Porém só em histórias, segundas chances acontecem. Só para deixar claro, isso não acontece na vida real, e explico o porque de estar avisando isso na minha resenha de A princesa Wei Yang, por Qin Jian, e assim aproveito para fazer propaganda de outra resenha. Mas quem gostar de A corte enfeitiçante também vai gostar de A princesa Wei Yang. Voltando aos milagres, depois de sua morte, Chen Rong acorda quando era jovem e antes do primeiro desastre de sua vida acontecer. Com os conhecimentos prévios de sua vida, que manchará ainda mais a sua reputação no futuro, e ela impede que ele aconteça e ainda começa a se preparar para os problemas que virão.

Só que essa não é uma história convencional de reincarnação. Em geral, o mundo está pacífico em uma história desse gênero, e se tiver algum grande acontecimento, será só depois de muita história. Não. Essa é uma história de guerra. Ela acorda dias antes de fugir da sua cidade natal em uma caravana com outra família nobre, já que era a única da família Chen que estava por lá. Ela fez isso porque todos sabiam que logo a cidade seria tomada e aqueles que ficarem seriam assassinados, e essa era a melhor coisa que poderia acontecer.


(Leia o resto da recenha no meu blog, clicando na imagem acima!)

[Jena · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best “realistic” historical romance webnovels I’ve ever read, not a single a dull moment. English translations were excellent as well. Other people are calling it a masterpiece, and I strongly agree! Keep in mind, this is a SLOW burn, and Chinese names will be confusing at first, but slowly you'll sink into this story!

h is stunningly strong.
I’ve been loving these Chinese webnovels because they never seem to have doormats, unlike romance novels from American authors.
-Slow Burn Romance done PERFECTLY!

Book translated to English here:
- https://hamster428.wordpress.com/mi-g...
- https://hamster428.wordpress.com/2015....

Book in Chinese (you will need to manually translate this yourself using Chrome web browser) -
https://www.256wx.net/read/6311/


Self Note:
This is a novel of a heroine who has been reborn after committing suicide from watching the love of her life having sex with another woman- her cousin.
"In her first life, she was an unloved concubine. No matter what she did, she couldn’t earn the love of her lord husband (even concubines called their masters hub). And, after finally realizing this truth, she decided to end it right then and there. Preferring to die than to suffer any longer. When she finds herself reborn, back when it all began, her only goal is to find someone who will marry and love only her. Unfortunately, she belongs to a time where it’s common for men to take on multiple wives and concubines — also, the parents decide their children’s marriage. And, as someone from low birth (she’s the daughter of a concubine and her own father was the son of a concubine), there’s no hope for her to get married to anyone of a similar station as a wife.

PLOT: The rest of the story, then, is the FL struggling to find her happiness in times of war (290AD ancient China, I’m guessing). All while her family is constantly conspiring to marry her off as a concubine. This was actually my favorite aspect of the novel. It’s interesting to see this side of things. Usually, the FL of similar novels belong to the gentry are of higher birth statuses. So, seeing her perspective as a concubine’s daughter was interesting. Especially since it was relevant to her desire, to be a wife.



- the 2H/2ML is her love from her previous life (the reason why she commited suicide). In this new life, he DOES fall in love with her, but she gets over him.

- I loved the h so much, because she stuck by her standards and she never backs down. Here is a h without a love brain.
She demanded monogamy in her new life after how she suffered being one of the many concubines in her previous life.
Her love for the 2H was never reciprocated in her previous life, and he was a manwhore.
In this new life when she finally finds the H, he was somewhat similar. In that era, polygamous marriages were the norm, so men, especially those of high status had oncubines.
H’s life was going to be the same, but he fell in love with the h, and so did she. Because of her low status he couldn't marry her as his official wife, but Chen Rong/h decided she will never be a concubine, nor will she share her husband with other women, and this became their main conflict of the story.
Monogamy sounded ridiculous to Wang Hong/H, but he didn't realise that this is what she expected from him, because this wasn’t the norm.
They faced so many perilous journeys afterwards. In the end, Wang Hong slowly realises how much he loved her, he was ready to give up his status, reputation and life for her. And he couldn't imagine a life with anyone else.
But Chen Rong still felt uneasy. Wang Hong finally understands that the only thing she wanted from him was the promise of monogamy. And he fulfils it.





Triggers:

- Dog meat being eaten *gag*
- A 15 year old boy that they just rescued said,“my parents and the rest of the family were all made into army provisions by the Xianbei tribe.” What this means: the opposite army took them/killed them to eat them during war, they were made into food. *gag*
- lots if cannibalism due to famine


Safety
No cheating
- realistic historical, girls were married young. The h is 14/15 when the story starts, the H is 3-4yrs older.


😒 In ancient China, it was normal for a man to have 3 wives, 3/4 concubines, unlimited bed warmers (maids who also slept with the master), unlimited mistresses (women they kept/slept with outside of the house).
Wives and concubines were all called wives, all lived in the same house, and they called the man husband.
Concubines children’s had to call the main wife mother, and children’s weren’t allowed to call their own concubine moms, mom. A man could divorce them if they showed jealousy, and he could share his concubines with his buddies.

It’s a lot of bullshit to hear about as a modern day woman, I know, but that’s what makes Chinese ancient books fascinating, because shit like this actually happened! How far we’ve come!


SPOILERS:



It does have a HEA. ML - Wang Qilang (Wang Hong) - loves her and only her, and gives up everything for her, his status etc..and they marry and leave the clan together so she can finally be a wife. They return 17 yrs later, so the H can become the head of the clan. They have beautiful children, and the h is happy...the 2ML is still sad and lonely that he lost the h.

[Ani · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the masterpiece you'll ever read in Chinese web novel historical genre. If you want to read something investing your time and emotions on it, then I recommend you this one.

This is not the stereotypical reborn novel where the MC-FL is an omnipotent Mary Sue or the ML is the ultimate cold and indifferent powerful man pampering FL to the sky. Our ML (Wang Qilang) and FL (Chen Rong) is quite 3D, they have their own advantages and flaws.

Let's talk about our FL- Chen Rong, she is not OP despite being reborn. She doesn't have any cheat or golden finger to boot. There are very few FLs that earn my respect in web novels (I mean...you know...right...?). But I admire her so much! She earned my respect. She knows what she wants. She would rather marry a poor scholar or become a nun (I mean..literally!) than become a concubine of ML. She knows self-respect (which is unfortunately rare in various romance novels). She also has her fair share of inferiority complex and lack of sense of security issues, but that doesn't stop her from going against *societal* norms to achieve her inner peace. With or without a man. I just wish that she could've had her happiness without the various struggles that she had to go through. I pity her (though she doesn't need it). I have sympathy for her bad luck in men though.

Now, it's our ML's turn. Wang Qilang or Wang Hong (whatever you can call) is our actual ML. And YES, he IS the ML. I couldn't even figure out who the heck does the FL ends up with for half the novel. Once I thought it was Ran Min ( he's scum, though it might've been easier for FL then), then of course I thought it was Wang Qilang (I'll talk about him later) and Sun Yan was also a potential candidate ( I still think he's the best man in the whole novel). I even thought of Huan Jiulang one time ( now don't ask me why, I had an embarrassing reason there +_+). Anyway, it's not a reverse harem so let's discuss Wang Hong here. Honestly, he gives me scummy vibes. But the masochistic maniac that I am, there were moments where I thought he displayed that he had what it took to be the ML. I'm pretty sure, you'll also feel complicated towards him. Though the times when he claims FL  and shows the obsessive and paranoid side of his character, it's freaking HOT (don't judge me there, and no, it's not the *fifty shades fucked up shit*). Though I would've to say-

Do I like Wang Qilang? From third pov? Yes. I do.

Do I ship him with Chen Rong? Unfortunately, yes. Mainly because I don't want to suffer from second male lead syndrome.

If I have the chance, would I date him? Oh hell, NO! Not even in my dreams. I don't have that big of an appetite.

Of course, he has quite the flaw with all that godly looks and abilities. Despite all that judgement rant, his character is written beautifully.

There are plenty of character developments in the novel. You'll get that a lot. The side characters have enough space to maneuver and catch your attention. They are not there just for the sake of it. They have their own stories and difficulties (like the emperor, the ninth princess etc.).

And of course, there are bugs. But it is truly negligible in my opinion.

And heck, I almost thought, it was tragedy. But thank God, it's not!

P.S:

This novel content is quite heavy. The drama and emotions portrayed here are quite laborious. When you read this, you'll get the feeling you are reading some historical true story. If you're a fan of historical and drama genre, then you'll definitely love it! ^_^

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best historical Chinese romance that I have ever read. I super love it. A few chapters in and I knew that I would be re-reading this novel many times in the future. It's just that good.

The english translation can be found at hamster428's blog. Translation quality is excellent and one of the best I've ever encountered in the C-novel blogging world.

The story starts when the heroine, Chen Rong, gets a second chance at life. She has vague recollections of how her life turned out when she made a fool of herself for a man she fell in love with. Her past life ended up with her crying in the fire, while the man she loved turned his back on her. So this time around, Chen Rong gets to rewind to the point when it all began, and she decides to change the course of her life. She promised herself that she would live a good life this time around. And she refuses to repeat the mistakes of her past. Armed with the knowledge of how her life could turn out, Chen Rong uses her wits every step of the way to achieve her goal.

I love this heroine for having that kind of strength and resolve. She stays true to herself despite the circumstances she finds herself - ancient china with no power, and no family to protect her during wartime. This book's strength is in the character development.

There are so many good things in this novel. There are a lot of beautiful, memorable, witty, heart-wrenching dialogue. If you liked To be a Virtuous Wife, then you will love this one even more.

[Nurul Rasya · Rating 3 out of 5]

ML is trash but I guess there’s nothing Chen Rong can do during the ancient China without family backing and status. Wish she ended up with someone better.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

He estado muy perdida de esta interfaz así que he perdido la mayor parte del hilo de las cosas que tenía andando por estos lares, por lo que espero que me disculpen por ello. MG sigue (a Diciembre de 2020) aún en traducción. Ciertamente no creo que termine de leer en un futuro próximo el libro por dos razones: la primera, por el rumbo actual que lleva la historia, siento que el rol de mártir ha sido muy explotado y siendo sincera, desde que ocurrió ese abuso por parte del ML no he podido congeniar con la mayoría de los personajes masculinos así que no apoyo ninguno de los acontecimientos actuales de la trama; la segunda, que realmente entiendo que se escapa de las manos del maravilloso Hamster, es la lentitud de la traducción. Probablemente espere a que termine la traducción para leer nuevamente y desde el inicio la historia y capaz para ese entonces edite un poco esta reseña.

[Aui Visaka · Rating 4 out of 5]

อ่านได้ไม่เบื่อนะคะ เนื้อเรื่อง​วางไว้ใช้ได้ แต่ความที่หลายเล่ม มีบางช่วงก็อ่านเร็วๆไป ติดใจแค่คาแรกเตอร์​นางเอก อ่านแล้วนางสวยหรือไม่สวย กิริยา​มารยาท​สูงสง่าหรือกระดุมพี นางกล้าหรือขี้ขลาด ฉลาดหรือโง่ เพราะเขียนให้พวกพูชายเห็น​นางแล้วก็ตะลึง แต่ดันบรรยายว่านางงามดาษๆ บอกว่านางไม่ฉลาด แต่ดันอ่านแผนแม่ทัพ​เอกออก.... บอกว่านางไม้กล้าแต่ต่อปากต่อคำกับฮ่องเต้

นางไม่กลัวตาย แต่กลัว​เป็น​เมืยน้อยที่สุด และนี่ก็คือเหตุผล​ที่เรื่องทั้งหมดเกิดขึ้น

[Maria]

Mi sono spoilerata che molte erano insoddisfatte con il ml e quindi non sono riuscita ad andar avanti

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really well-written and the characters are well-rounded. That said, I absolutely despise the ML.

[Limecello · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's now 4/3/24 and TBH I can't rate this cuz how unintelligible it was [the MTL] and I actually didn't finish it - but not writing it as a DNF cuz I deserve to have this count as a full read considering how long the book was and how mad I was :P
~*~*~*~*~

Ironically adding this for the extras which aren’t available in this version <.<

Glad to see the peeks into RanMin & that ChenWei had the terrible outcome she deserved.

Paged through too c233 but it was so unintelligible I gave up.

Glad to see WH & FL are living well with 3 sons and a baby on the way at least.

[Cauldronknight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently re-read the last bits of it and have decided that I liked it a lot better than I did when I was younger. But I would need to do an actual re-read for a more thorough review.