taotrooper | And now I have a better justification than "it sounds prettier"

I keep spamming over the same shit over and over... but if you guys read the article at

xing_empire on Opera masks I just plugged, you'll remember about the story about that prince who wore masks in battle, Lanling, because he was too pretty (even girly) to be taken seriously.

Oh, come on, LANLING! Lan + Ling! Arakawa HAD to use this for name-musing! ~~history is shipping them, too!~~

Which is sort of amusing, the legend. Because one of the several reasons I think Lan Fan is so obsessed about the mask is because people would be biased with her and her face when they have to fight her.

This is why I think Arakawa was inspired. And also, while the Lanling Wang dance/play is dead in China now, I read it crossed the ocean, and got to other Asian countries like Taiwan AND Japan.

In Japan, it was adapted, and now is an Imperial dance known as Ranryouou, with religious implications. Look! They dance it in Ise!

Yes, I googled all of this. Shamelss little me.

But the point is, if a dance based in that legend is actually known in Japan, not only in the Opera issue, it's very likely Arakawa knew about it. Then she just had to research a little.

And to close this post, I looked the kanji in Ranryouou (Lanling's name in Japanese) in a Chinese dictionary. Except for the "ou" part; thanks to CLAMP, I know that one TOO well.

蘭 is pronounced lán, and it means /orchid/.
Interestingly enough, Li Yelan, Syaoran's mother, shares this character.

陵 is pronounced líng, and it means /mound/tomb/hill/mountain/.

(using Pinyin romanization, I mean)

You know what this means, right? Yes, it means
a) I am NOT using the official spelling, ever. I don't care if it's not "correct". Xing is supposed to be pseudo-China, and this is how you pronounce it and romanize it in Chinese. So this is "right" for me. She's Lan. He's Ling. Now my denial is justified.
b) Lan Fan has such a pretty, exotic name~ <3
c) I have new plotbunnies, thank you very much.

And another tidbit: in reality, Lanling never became a king. His cousin poisoned him. Now why am I not surprised?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I love you and your research, I really do ♥

Now, let's just hope that Ling refers to the mountain/hill part and not "tomb"...

in reality, Lanling never became a king. His cousin poisoned him.

Oh noes!! D:

Seriously though, that's really interesting. o.o

You and your research are my hero :D

hiragizawa = WINARZ

XD

I don't really trust that much the so-called "official spellings" anyway. The source is the Perfect Guide Book 2 and it also says it's "Lin", while in chapter 35 you can see "Ling Yao" written crearly. So for me: Arakawa's own hand > Anything else. I trust the timeline though.

That said, this is so interesting, it hurts. Lanling? That's genius!

Lan Fan it is then.

I was using Ran Fan because I found it easier to pronounce. But if there is actual linguistic proof for Lan Fan, I'll use that.

Lan Fan IS a pretty name.

haha. The funny thing is that if you flip Fan and Lan and add Run in between them, you get my mother's name.
::cough::
Thanks for your reply to my message! And you were right, it was a cousin (I completely skipped over a word while reading O__o).
And as long as I'm spamming your LJ(sorry), Lan is also the same 'lan' in Mulan, so you've also got that in the mix.
For Fan, the Chinese character I like best is 璠[fan2](gem), but it might be 畈[fan4](field, farm), since it follows the rules of naming a little better.
For Fu(or Hu, since both would be the same in Katakana), the most generic would be 福[fu2](prosperity <--would be almost a throw-away name), or even 扈[hu4] (retinue). The one that would make me the happiest would be 鵩[fu2] (owl), just because, but there is a multitude of other geographic features/animals/traits he could be named after.

Oh, I didn't know about Mulan! That's so cool.

The thing about Fan and Fu, and the reason I'm doubting about giving them theorical characters, is because I'm still not sure if they're surnames or names. In FMA, they don't seem to follow the Chinese naming style with Ling (he just has a first name and the clan name as surname, and the same thing happens with Mei), and I'm not sure if it's because
a) Princes and princesses are exceptions, and have another style different to the plebe, or
b) Since it's not real China, Arakawa has some other rules on that.

That, and I don't speak Chinese ^^u I'm just a silly white girl with links to online dictionaries.

I completely forgot he had a surname. O__o. Don't worry about it! You're doing an awesome job. :P But you're right, so far only Ling and and Mei have surnames(assuming Ranfan isn't her complete name).
These two entries might be interesting to you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_clan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consort_clan

And now I have a better justification than "it sounds prettier"

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