In my previous writeup, I made much ado about LanXiang being the human orchid nestling between rocks.
In truth, however, JinQi is an orchid too, but his fragrance is something LanXiang doesn’t notice just like the orchids in the Chinese proverbs.
According to google, there are two classical sayings tied to the “fragrance of orchids.” (LanXiang literally means orchid fragrance.)
One, 入芝兰之室，久而不闻其香 (Rù zhī lán zhī shì, jiǔ ér bù wén qí xiāng)
Literal translation: Entering a room of orchids and irises; after a long time, you no longer notice the scent.
Usual interpretation: According to Confucius, an individual who stays in good surroundings (or bad space, for that matter) can grow accustomed to the goodness and cease to notice its good qualities.
In English, the darkest place is under a candlestick. Or familiarity breeds contempt. Lol. We always like to see context.
My re-interpretation: Well, I’m not Confucius, but I say that JinQi has been showing interest in LX, but each time, she FAILS TO SEE his goodness and feelings. She takes his metaphorical fragrance for granted.
Case in point, she didn’t even wonder how she got to her room on that night she was completely drunk. She just assumed she got there on her own, and her friends tucked her in. She missed his “fragrance” so to speak.
Two, 芝兰生于深林，不以无人而不芳 (Zhī lán shēng yú shēn lín, bù yǐ wú rén ér bù fāng)
Literal translation: Orchids grow in deep forests, but they do not stop being fragrant just because no one is around.
Usual interpretation: A noble person remains noble whether or not he has an audience to witness his deeds.
In English, this Confucian saying is posed as a riddle. “If a tree falls in a forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” The answer is “it depends.” 🙂 Scientifically speaking, sound (i.e., sound waves) is created when the tree hits the ground. But realistically speaking, no sound is heard because no listener is present to perceive it.
My re-interpretation: Well, according to moi, JinQi continues to love and care for LX, but all his intentions and actions are futile because LX doesn’t notice them.
That’s why these episodes have been frustrating on both JinQi and the viewers. Let me build up my case.
Episode 19
1. JinQi readily agrees to emancipate Lanxiang and her parents.
His mother is surprised, not only at his willingness, but also his promptness to free the Xu family. But she knows that no prospective wife of JQ would look askance at the presence of a smart and beautiful maid like LX by JQ’s side.
His purported reasons however, are that a) their emancipation will counteract the negative stories from the Du siblings’ fallout, and b) their emancipation will serve as an example. It will instill in any servant’s mind that loyalty and outstanding service will be rewarded. And it will also teach masters that they shouldn’t treat their servants unfairly.
Of course, both his mother doesn’t understand his real reason for doing this. And LanXiang doesn’t smell the metaphorical fragrance of this orchid. He’s setting her up to be his future wife. He can’t marry his servant (e.g., the appearance of abuse and impropriety), but a commoner is a more acceptable match.
2. JinQi nimbly avoids LX’s parents’ bowing to him.
In Confucian culture, children are the ones obligated to bow to their parents as a sign of their filial respect. Their parents and grandparents don’t bow to them. That would be considered a reversal or distortion of this notion of filial piety. And, according to superstition, it may bring them bad luck.
Thus, when LX’s parents are about to bow to JQ as a sign of their gratitude for their emancipation, he skips to the side. Even back then, he already sees LX’s parents as his parents, or his future parents-in-law. So he can’t accept their deference.
LX thinks he’s just acting oddly. She doesn’t see the orchid’s fragrance.
3. JQ is extraordinary pleased by LX’s farewell wishes.
LX’s mother knows that they can’t ever repay his great kindness (i.e., the nobility of an orchid), but LX promises that every day from then on, they’ll pray to their gods to bestow blessings upon JQ and his mother
LX: May First Madam be blessed with many descendants and an ever-flourishing family line. May Young Master be blessed with a destined match and a marriage in Heaven.
JQ tries to hide his laughter. She doesn’t know that, for him, those aren’t just wishes. That’s his ultimate goal and he intends to work on it. Sooner or later, he’ll marry her. They aren’t empty words for him.
JQ: You certainly have a way with words. What you said is exactly what First Madam and I wish for. (offering his own best wishes) May your auspicious words come true.
She looks at him with happy and unsuspecting eyes. Naturally, she doesn’t get his double meaning. She doesn’t smell his orchid fragrance.
4. He watches her skip out of the room, unhappily.
She bows to him in parting, then grabs her sack. She chases after her parents, without looking back at him. If she could have danced out of there, she would have.
JQ: She certainly looks happy. (sighing) Not the least bit reluctant to leave.
Sorry, JinQi/orchid! Whether it’s entering or leaving the room, she doesn’t notice your fragrance.
This reminds me of the iconic scene from “North and South.” Have you watched that miniseries yet?
JinQi is lowkey Mr. Thorton here. 🙂
Episode 20. To be continued…
@Packmule3, one of the things I’m appreciating about this show and the character of Lan Xiang is that she chooses to do the best she can within her circumstances, without being presumptuous. There are no yearning, secret gazes from her. She long ago, when her life took a drastic downturn, set aside the concept of herself as JQ’s future wife. As his maid under indenture, she knows her life is in others’ hands. She’s been on the other side of that dynamic, so has a good idea how masters think and can anticipate what might offend them. She must not overstep her bounds. It is clear to viewers that while she is indentured to the Liu household, her top priorities are to survive, not endanger her beloved foster parents, and perhaps improve her/their circumstances. Aspiring to rise via inappropriate marriage is not in her mind, nor is romance. I find her (and the screenwriter’s) mindset refreshingly practical, especially as it contrasts with other female characters – or family members that treat women as bargaining chips, not people with emotions and hopes of their own. When LX is in proximity to, or interacting with, JQ, she does not allow herself to forget she’s an indentured maid. She does the work required of her to the best of her abilities, and seeks to protect the Liu household because whatever negatively affects the Liu family will negatively impact the household servants. Behavior designed solely garner attention or curry favor could backfire on her. I think she consciously guards herself from taking liberties.
I totally agree, @Welmaris, that one of her more admirable character traits is her singular focus on surviving the best (and noble) way she can. She has no time to dilly-dally with romantic illusions. Even when she was drunk, she chose money over orchid fragrance, remember?
That said, her feelings for JQ is MORE complicated than just merely trying to focus on survival, keeping her head down, trying not to endanger her foster parents, and not being distracted by love and stuff.
She’s also consciously (or unconsciously) rejecting JQ because he’s her ex-fiancé. She’s repressing and sublimating her multi-layered feelings of rage, rejection, abandonment, blame, injustice, grievance, resentment, and vengeance towards him. She has never forgotten what he and his family did to her: they broke off their engagement. In her family’s greatest hour of need, the Lin family dumped them.
Being young, she probably had held onto hope and romantic dreams that he would somehow come looking for her, and rescue her from her plight. But he ended up marrying someone else shortly after her family’s demise. In her mind, that’s the final straw. He truly abandoned her. That’s why all hell broke lose then, and she wept inconsolably. While she was suffering, he was celebrating his marriage.
No doubt that moment left an indelible mark on her. It isn’t humanly possible to forget that.
Thus, when they met again, it must have been rubbing salt into old wounds.
Remember? At the morning table, when she and the other maids were introduced to the First Wife and JQ, she kept her eyes down, but she was still observing him. It’s just human nature for her to think, “Aaaah. So you were once my fiancé. It could have been sitting there, facing you….”
So yes, she’s “friend-zoned” LQ at that moment. To me, it’s her coping mechanism. She doesn’t want to think of their former connection; she’s deliberately blocking any remembrances of the past. Because if she lets go and allows memories to flood in, who knows what she’ll end up saying or doing.
Lol. THAT is the third meaning of orchid fragrance, by the way. At least that’s how I understand the story so far….
Orchid fragrance = her name
Orchid fragrance = JQ’s unrequited love
Orchid fragrance = Her memories of the past which she thought she successfully buried, but will forever carry.
@Packmule3, of the deep hurt and possible resentment in LX’s heart, I don’t know how much is specific to JQ, how much resulted from decisions made by Liu clan elders, or how much is caused by being a female trapped in a patriarchal society. I suspect being a middle child in a noble clan, she’d seen close up how marriages are arranged among powerful families. She must’ve known that couples getting hitched are told who and when to marry, with little or no power of choice themselves. Soon after she entered the Liu household, she detected that the marriage of JQ and his first wife wasn’t a love match or successful in the manner most important to the clan. She and four other maids were openly selected to appeal to JW as potential surrogate mothers: not wives, and perhaps not even concubines, but as baby incubators. Knowing that as an indentured servant she and any child she bears belong to another, I imagine she steeled her heart to avoid emotional vulnerability. She did, however, allow herself to become emotionally connected to her peers, which was a source of strength for all of them. And despite the circumstantial distance between her and her parents, LX’s heart continued to be deeply entwined with theirs. LX’s dire situation didn’t deaden all her emotions, but taught her to guard them well, as if her life depended on it… because it did. I suspect restraining and redirecting her emotions came easier at some moments than others, but she was wise enough to not completely let down her guard (even when drunk). Living such a life must’ve been exhausting, not just because of physical labor.
As I perceive it, LX’s greater anger is toward the Emperor by whose edict the Shen clan was killed, but giving voice to that anger would be treason.
I’m a bit fuzzy about the foster family’s exodus from the capital by boat, and when the foster father became an indentured servant of the Liu clan. I surmise it must’ve been shortly after they left the capital, because they move into housing owned by the Liu family. It must not have been through the duration of their residence in the capital, because the Liu family isn’t familiar with LX’s childhood history, and doesn’t appear to question LX’s claims of spending time at a temple recuperating from illness under the care of monks.
@Welmaris If I understood correctly, it was before and that’s why they were on the boat with the Lin family leaving the capital. In the first scene that the Xu family appears, they are on the street (or outside a medical shop?) begging for help for their sick daughter because the Lin family threw them out. (It’s mentioned again in these episodes when Yuchan is ill that the first madame doesn’t allow anyone with illness near Jinqi). So it should be that they were already slaves to the Lin family in the capital.
I was a little disappointed over this during the epidemic/poisoning, that Lanxiang didn’t show any strong reaction or have flashbacks over that. If Lanxiang is aware and remembers what happened to the real Lanxiang (who as @Packmule pointed out moved Jialan to tears and compassion and to action in ep 1!), I would have expected her here to have to fight against anger or resentment. “In the first Madame’s concern for her son, she would sacrifice the life of a servant/because of that, my parents (Xu’s) lost their daughter”. It felt like a missed opportunity to reveal a moment of her past trauma/present internal struggle, and to remind the viewers of why she wouldn’t view the Lin family as something she wants to be part of.
@packmule At the same time, these episodes were such a delight to me. Jinqi has the capacity and freedom to be thinking about romance, and his little tests were so cute. But Lanxiang does not, and her indifference felt realistic and right. His efforts were wasted 😂 I read somewhere else, ‘nevermind the same page, they’re living in two different stories that aren’t even the same genre. He’s in a romance and she’s in a grimdark survival story’.
As a viewer, I have been cheering for them both, so it will be an emotional rollercoaster when their interests become contrary to each other 😅 (I had to pause watching because in Norway it’s the end of sunshine and good weather, and I don’t want to miss it 🥹)