by Mao Ni
[17] TN: 落落大方 is an idiom that is used to describe someone that is very natural and generous.
[18] TN: 厚积薄发 is a Chinese idiom that means 'to rise abruptly based on accumulation of strength.'
[19] TN: Wind, 风, can also mean news.
[20] TN: It is referred to as 烟罗, Net of Fog, here, but it is later referred to as the 天罗, the Heavenly Net, so I am translating it as such.
[21] TN: This paragraph is probably the main reason for this net's original name, 烟罗. 烟 and 阎 share similar pronunciations. 阎罗 was the name of the net before it was heavily damaged, but 罗 in this case does not mean net, but instead is used together with 阎 to form Yan-luo, the Chinese pronunciation of Yama, the king of the underworld. A similar pronunciation is the term 'arhat,' which is translated in Chinese as 阿罗汉, a-luo-han.
[22] TN: Note that ‘marrow-washing’ is the literal translation of ‘洗髓’, Purification.
[23] TN: An elixir field is a term in a Chinese traditional medicine that refers to an area around the chest and is important in Chinese alchemy.
[24] TN: Jin Mei, golden eyebrow, seems to be an expensive variety of black tea.
[25] TN: ‘Peering at a person through a crack in the door gives you a low opinion of a person’ is a type of Chinese saying called a xiehouyu "歇后语" where the two parts of the saying are broken by a pause. For example: Peering at a person through a crack in the door———get a low opinion of the person.
[26] TN: 虎虎生风 This is a Chinese idiom. It basically means that heroes will appear as they are needed, and when they do appear, they will have a massive effect on society.
[27] TN: 'Getting in through the back door' also means to get advantages through influence.
[28] TN: The Double Seventh, or Qixi, Festival is a Chinese holiday taking place on the seventh day of the seventh month according to the lunar calendar. It celebrates the romance of the weaver girl and the cowherd, who are forbidden from loving each other and separated by a river. On the day of the Double Seventh Festival, a flock of magpies form a bridge over the river so that the lovers can briefly reunite.
[29] TN: Weiyang Palace, literally translated as 'the Endless Palace,' was a palace complex located in Chang'an, capital of the Tang Dynasty.
[30] TN: 'The sound of wind, rain, and reading' is part of a line written by a major figure of the Donglin Academy. The full line is "The sound of wind, the sound of rain, the sound of studying, sound after sound enters one’s ear. The matters of home, the matters of state, the matters of the world, matter after matter is one’s concern.” Its meaning is that when studying, one should not forget about one's country.
[31] TN: An actual play written by Tang Xianzu during the Ming Dynasty about a man who dreams about entering an ant hole and living out a life in the kingdom of ants.
[32] TN: 桐 is a combination of 木, tree, and the word '同'. Similarly, the trees of the garden form the word '同'. 桐 is also a general term for the paulownia, tung tree, and phoenix tree.
[33] TN: 'Gate of life,' 生门, seems to be a term related to the 'Eight Gates,' which are mentioned in a divination manual called 奇门遁甲. The eight gates are the gate of opening, the gate of rest, the gate of life, the gate of wounding, the gate of restriction, the gate of scenery, the gate of death, and the gate of shock.