Xiao's Name In Chinese (genshin Impact) - And The Wind Blows On

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archivessubmitthemeabouttranslationsmy (unwanted) input

and the wind blows on"Come now, aren't you the Ameno god's good friend?" EN+中文 OK ;; 日本語はギリギリ | nice to meet you!! i spend too much time thinking about .pngs and making unnecessary translations. please talk to me about genshin impact, it dragged my dead soul back. may all your pulls be blessed, traveler!!xiao’s name in chinese (genshin impact)

it took a while to realize due to playing in english but mihoyo is really meticulous and deliberate with liyue names and it made me… so incredibly happy… ;=; i really want to dissect everyone’s names but cranky adeptus child jumped straight at me…

xiao | 魈

魈 (xiao) is comprised of two separate characters - 鬼 (gui, ghost) and 肖 (xiao). 肖 is another homophone and in this case has connotations to ‘slight, small’ or anything from ‘disappear’ to ‘perish, exterminate’.

together, 魈 is a pretty… obscure word that means mountain demon. apparently the specific demon is of slight and pretty particular stature. xiao is known as the ‘guardian yaksha’ or 护法夜叉大将 (hufa yecha dajiang), lit. guardian yaksha general. i’m not quite clear on this subject but from what i know in simplified terms, in buddhism specifically, yakshas are spirits that commonly harm or eat people. yakshas that reside in the heavens are under the command of the ruler of the heavens and guards of the gates that lead to this realm.

as for xiao mentioning he eating dreams - 貘 (mo or baku in japanese) is a monster/spirit that devours dreams. (absolutely unrelated but it’s also the word for tapir in both chinese and japanese.)

so xiao, deceptively young ex-dream-devouring spirit turned protector of liyue as an adepti under rex lapis. what a good kid. i love him so much.

i read too much into things and i’m definitely not an expert in the subject. nor do i have xiao. so. i may be completely off base. i’d love to hear other people’s understanding of this. this was really long winded so thank you for reading until here!

11th October 2020, at 3.47pm308 notes#genshin impact#xiao#genshin impact xiao#liyue#thinking hard about zhongli and beidou's names rn...#pachi hush#unwarranted analysis#teyvat in other languages