Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 ZYHLJ:

Heroes think alike! If Tonghua quoted this poem in the chapter title, it means that she must at least know the poem, so it is more likely that she used the last three words of the poem as the title of the book on purpose, right? ? :-) 

There are many classic poem about yearning and containing the phrase "endless yearning" [chang xiang si] in its lyrics. For example, several poems about endless lovesickness were used on the book covers edition 2013 https://mydramalist.com/discussions/lost-you-forever/121043-about-long-lovesickness-yaoliu?pid=2927947&page=4#p2927947

 ZYHLJ:

Do you know that there is an academic discipline in China called "Red Studies(红学)"? This is the description I excerpted from Baidu: 

Yes I have heart about academic discipline specialized in studying of "A Dream of Red Mansions" which is also one of my favorite. I watched the 1987-drama of "a dream of red mansions" several times in 1990s. I have never read the novel but the drama itself consists of many foreshadow, metaphors etc. 

TH used many similar techniques from that novel and applied to LYF. 

 AH :

especially in this circumstance where TSJ was probably also afraid of hurting XY + how XY would react, I still found myself frustrated with TSJ for not taking that opportunity to tell XY what happened.

I was also annoyed when he later told XY that he never had the chance to tell her about it. 

 AH :

Jing said, “I wanted to find the chance to tell you this but you rushed to make medicine for Grandmother and I never got the chance. After you were done, before I could tell you, Yi Yang fainted….Xiao Yao, I’m sorry!”

Was he afraid of hurting XY or losing her? 

He had 3 months while she was in Gao xin. Taking the reason of respecting her private space/time or thinking of that anyway she would be back in 3 months is just poor excuse.  And then XY went to Qing Qiu for making and teaching his physician to make the medicine. She had been staying there and working on it for 7 days. He did not interfere the whole time. XY for sure had to rest, to eat and sleep during these time. He wanted the medicine to be made and the knowledge transfer to go throught smoothly. Because it was beneficial for his Grandmother. He was greedy and selfish. There might be a scenerio that Jing wanted to hide this incident or deal with FFYY at the backstage. 

It's quite surprising that such a smart person as Jing could not figure out FFYY's intention. Why did not FFYY go straight to tell his grandmom about that they consumated and forced Jing to take responsibility right away. Then FFYY might be waiting for bigger surprise. 

You had said that when Jing asked for the promise he didn't anticipate some issues such as the tie between his grandmom and FFYY, his brother etc... But he knew in advance FFYY was kind of unofficial wife and had been living in his house for 10 year. How could an educated and noble girl accept money or kind of price to exchange for her virtue and reputation? And ok, even if we overlook that popped-up moment in the dragon bone prison, later he still kept reminding XY the 15 year promise and asked her over and over again to keep her heart for him: in chapter 14 and  chapter 16 and sending plum wine (again) every 15 days when she resided in Sheng Nong mountain (chapter 18). By that time, he had the reaction from his grandmom and FFYY about the idea of calling-off the engagement. In chapter 14, he persuaded XY that FFYY did not like him and disputed him, he even hid the fact that his grandmother would not allow Jing disappear (to be YSQ) again. And in chapter 16 he told XY that he might get what he wanted because his grandmother loved him. XY was sad and distressed in her heart when she asked him to help CX if it was not harmful to Tushan clan. She felt like she and Jing participated in exploiting and being exploited. She was worried that she exploited/took advantage of Jing to help CX. But she probably did not realize that Jing exploited her softheart to YSQ. And I was surprised that he just simply accept her committment to the 15 year waiting for granted althought he said he could not call off the engagement. He could have told her that he cherished her intention and tried his best but if she found someone better, she could go for that.  Ok, he could postpone the wedding but he was not a free man either. Honestly, I found XY so hopeless to say that she still sticked with the promise as long as he was not married. 

Moreover, both Jing and XY lacked trust to each other. XY later admitted her mistake about standing by and watching Jing dealing with FFYY and his difficulty. Maybe Jing knew that XY did not love him enough and he was afraid of losing her so that he did not dare to tell XY such big incident with FFYY for them to solve together.   

 Kokuto:

Wow.  Just wow.  You guys weren't kidding about Grandpa Emperor getting a whitewash in LYF.  And XY knew all of this?

The parallels between their relationship and YaoJing are stunning.  I was joking about blindness running her XY and CX's family, but it appears to be true.  How did XY not have alarm bells going off with Jing?  It's mind boggling.

that summary  doesn’t include the fact that Yellow Emperor and Yi Pang indirectly killed Qing Yang. CX’s mother aimed to kill Yi Pang in the funeral but Concubine Tong used her body to shield Yi Pang (and she died). Ah Heng killed him for revenge of CX’s parents. Empress Lei did not want to be buried next to het husband.

And Grand emperor was whitewashed in LYF too

@ZYHLJ 

Guys, look what I found!

This is a farewell poem written by Su Wu, a famous diplomat from the Han Dynasty in China (he is a national hero and a household name in China), to his wife before he went on a mission to the Huns. The last three characters of this poem are exactly the Chinese name of LYF (novel and drama).

留别妻

结发为夫妻，恩爱两不疑。
欢娱在今夕，嬿婉及良时。
征夫怀往路，起视夜何其。
参辰皆已没，去去从此辞。
行役在战场，相见未有期。
握手一长叹，泪为生别滋。
努力爱春华，莫忘欢乐时。
生当复来归，死当长相思

And interestingly, the title of the last chapter in the novel Once Promise also uses the same poem as LYF

 plor20:

After reading this, YaoJing is anything but romantic. lmao. XY was like her grandmother, stealing another woman's livilhood and like her mother, falling in love with her enemy, the love story she crafted forhelf is a infidelity like Jing parents.

Seriously!  How could she demand to be the only woman in a relationship, because she didn't want to end up like her grandmother, and totally ignore she was doing exactly what her grandmother did, set her sights on a man who already was in a relationship???  It's insane.

How could she agree to wait for Jing to straighten out his spousal situation, when clearly, her grandfather asked his Tong Yu to wait for him to straighten out his spousal situation, despite betraying her?  While she was hiding her relationship with Jing and enjoying a secret affair, did she not see herself as Tong Yu?

And knowing how her grandmother and Concubine Tong Yu and their children went after each other, HOW could she not understand FFYY, who was far more deadly then Concubine Tong Yu, would do the same to her?  Especially once she had a child, who Jing acknowledged as his own.   Even had Jing gotten out of that engagement with FFYY, how did XY think FFYY would just let it go, and not try to kill both of them?  And when her kid entered the picture, it was just her Grandmother and Concubine Tong Yu part 2.

I just don't understand how XY thought following in her grandmother's footsteps was a good idea.  Does. Not. Compute.

@ZYHJL

"Farewell poem to my wife

We cut our hair and tied it together (a ritual at a Chinese wedding), and we became husband and wife, loving each other and never doubting each other.
The joy is only at tonight, our last beautiful moment.
People who are about to travel far keep the departure time in mind and get up to check the sky.
All the stars in the sky are gone, now I have to leave.
I was ordered to go to the battlefield far away. I can't know when I will see you again.
Holding hands and sighing for a long time, we shed tears for parting.
Cherish the beauty of spring and remember the fun times we spent together.
If I live, I must come back to you. If I die, we must miss each other forever."

TH used this poem în chapter 50, after XL broke the bugs between them and left to the war. It is obvious that this poem was not randomly picked and has a lot of meaning, it speaks about the loyal and undoubtful love between XY and XL who shared the legendary love bugs as a testimony throughtout the whole story. 

"People who are about to travel far keep the departure time in mind and get up to check the sky.
All the stars in the sky are gone, now I have to leave." 

One of first things that XY did after she found out about XL's death was checking the moon, who at that time was described as a lonely crescent one, if I remember correctly. She asked herself if XL remembered the full moon they saw togheter in QS Town and cried her heart out that even though she was always aware that XL will eventually departude from her, the blow is still huge. 

Cherish the beauty of spring and remember the fun times we spent together.
If I live, I must come back to you. If I die, we must miss each other forever."

Basically XL telling her to keep cherish life and get the most out of it, regardless of missing eachother forever. 

 blabla100:

"People who are about to travel far keep the departure time in mind and get up to check the sky.
All the stars in the sky are gone, now I have to leave."

One of first things that XY did after she found out about XL's death was checking the moon, who at that time was described as a lonely crescent one, if I remember correctly. She asked herself if XL remembered the full moon they saw togheter in QS Town and cried her heart out that even though she was always aware that XL will eventually departude from her, the blow is still huge. 

according to Windiaaa041293's post on YaoJing's wedding, she got married on 28th day of lunar month. A few days later, she heard XL's death. Thus, XL died on the last day or very beginning day of lunar month which means there was no moon when he died. 

Beside asking herself if XL remembered the full moon they saw together, she also wondered if the moon shone on him when he died. Unfortunately, it did not as explained above. XY was just so clueless or her mind was empty at that time to realize that.

@ZYHLJ , @Blabla

 windiaaa041293:

And interestingly, the title of the last chapter in the novel Once Promise also uses the same poem as LYF

With regard to the chapter title used in LYF and Once Promised, I just did a quick scanning through the chapter titles in Once promised. I found that some poems were used for both novels and even TH used the exact same lines.