Bab 189: Quagmire

PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA

Queeniecat

(1) Xianggong: a term used most commonly by a wife to refer to her husband (in old times). However, it’s origins came from the reign of Prime Minister Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms era, as a very respectful term of address, of which only the top minister was deserving. ‘Xiang’ refers to prime minister and ‘Gong’ refers to duke, two titles which Cao Cao simultaneously held. Those who greeted him felt like using one or the other was not enough, hence they combined the two together to form a new term of address. From that time all the way to the end of the Song Dynasty, ‘xianggong’ was used to address only the prime ministers, usually those with concurrent high noble rankings . It was only after, when lower ranked ministers, servants, and social classes realised that addressing court officials with xianggong could make them happy, that this term started to be used more widely to address lesser ranked ministers too, then rich common folk, etc, anyone you wanted to butter up basically. It got to the point where in the Qing Dynasty, it was even used to sweet talk male courtesans…in the Yuan Dynasty was where it was first recorded as being used by women to refer to their husbands, presumably because they hoped their husbands could procure bright futures in court.

(2) Hold one’s troops: idiom that meant to bide one’s time.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading and for the gifts, comments, golden tickets, and power stones!

Another Irresponsible Mini-Theatre:

YZY to the Left Prime Minister (politely): Xianggong.

LY to the court the next morning:

This sovereign hereby pronounces the official term of address for prime minister outdated and in desperate need for amendment. Please throw out some suggestions that aren’t synonymous with ‘husband’.