My thoughts on Tian Ya Ke, Qi Ye, and Word of Honor
The main character in Tian Ya Ke is Zhou Zi Shu (ZZS) and Wen Kexing (WKX), and the main character in Qi Ye is Prince Jing Beiyuan or Lord Seventh and Wu Xi. The event in Qi Ye happened long before Tian Ya Ke. So, the young ZZS is a friend of Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi in Qi Ye storyline. And when the adult ZZS needed help at Tian Ya Ke storyline, Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi came to provide assistance.
Tian Ya Ke tells about ZZS who retired from Tiān chuāng or Window of Heaven, an organization under the emperor. Because Tiān chuāng is an intelligence organization, the members know a lot of sensitive information, so members can enter but not leave the organization. But as its former leader, ZZS is looking for a way, even if for that he has to injure himself, making him lose a lot of inner strength and also his life span.
The reason ZZS left Tiān chuāng was that he was sick of working under the power-hungry emperor and had cost ZZS the entire sect he belonged to. Originally ZZS was a member of the Sìjì Manor or Four Seasons Manor, a sect that used to be very famous. But after its name started to fall, ZZS as the leader thought that working under the empire could restore his sect's reputation. So he brought all his brothers and fellow disciples. However, during the course of carrying out the Tiān chuāng's mission, many of his brothers and fellow disciples died until finally only ZZS was left alone from Sìjì Manor. The current members of Tiān chuāng were new recruits who had been recruited after the members of the Sìjì Manor had all gone.
Feeling that he has nothing left, ZZS chooses to leave everything behind and intends to wander around the world in the short remaining days of his life. It was in this wandering that he met WKX, the head of a demonic sect who became the enemy of the Jiānghú or martial world. And during this adventure, he accidentally becomes involved in a mystery decades ago that is directly or indirectly related to his Sìjì Manor, his teacher, and one of his martial brothers.
And it is also in this adventure, ZZS who has lost his will to live finds the will to live on, and WKX who is blinded by past resentments finds peace of mind. Those who just met for a while find soul mates in each other's company.
Meanwhile, Qi Ye talked about Prince Jing Beiyuan miraculously returning to the past with memories from his previous life, yes... indeed, this is a story about a future soul that travels back to his body in the past. In that previous life, he ended up being killed by the emperor who he thought was his soul mate. In this second life, Jing Beiyuan tries his best to avoid the emperor so he doesn't repeat the same mistakes. In this attempt to evade, Jing Beiyuan meets Wu Xi, the leader of a neighboring tribe. Wu Xi came to the kingdom as a political hostage.
As Jing Beiyuan recalled, he didn't have any relationship with this political hostage in his previous life. But in this second life, he and Wu Xi develop an unexpectedly special relationship. Knowing that Jing Beiyuan's fate was threatened if he continued to live in the kingdom, in the end, Wu Xi took Jing Beiyuan to his tribe. ZZS played a key role in this plot to take Jing Beiyuan off.
WoH is a drama adaptation of Tian Ya Ke that broadcasted in 2021, continuing the heat wave of BL adaptation after the success of The Untamed (a drama adaptation of the novel by MXTX's Mó dào zǔ shī or The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) which was released in 2019.
As mentioned before, Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi appeared in this WoH as well. Jing Beiyuan is played by Wei Zheming, and Wu Xi is played by Fan Jinwei. Meanwhile, the main character ZZS is played by Zhang Zhehan, and WKX is played by Gong Jun.
I have no complaints whatsoever against the cast of Jing Beiyuan, ZZS, and WKX. Because Wei Zheming displays an elegant physique and noble demeanor like a prince as he should. Zhang Zhehan managed to appear convincing as a former powerful leader who is now sickly. And Gong Jun with his twisted personality and flirtatiousness as master of Ghost Valley. What they show on the screen more or less fitted to what I imagined when I read the novel.
Only Wu Xi in WoH is different from the book picturing him in my opinion. I think, the actor that fits the novel-like image of Wu Xi more is Wu Lei in his role in the drama The Long Ballad. This is because according to my understanding from reading the book, the Wu Xi's tribe is more like a nomadic tribe, so maybe the body, hair, attires, and demeanor will be more like Wu Lei's role in The Long Ballad which is told as a descendant of Genghis Khan.
If Tian Ya Ke is more Jiānghú-centered, then Qi Ye is more court-centered. Anyway, these two novels are highly recommended to read in my opinion. The characters are strong, the plot is interesting, and the setting is also rich and very imaginative. Likewise with WoH, even though this is a low-budget drama, the characters still absorb the audience's attention, the chemistry of each actor in the story is very convincing, and the emotions in it are conveyed beautifully.
One of the interesting things that I felt when reading Chines novels, not only Tian Ya Ke and Qi Ye but also MXTX's or else, wherein all these novels there is the term Your Highness the Crown Prince or Tàizǐ diànxià (太子殿下). This term is used to address characters who have the title of crown prince. Somehow, I feel more comfortable with the term Tàizǐ diànxià than Your Highness the Crown Prince. It feels like it's more appropriate as a verbal greeting. In my opinion, Your Highness the Crown Prince is more suitable for a written title.
The point is, after all this time I have only read Indonesian and English literature, in the last two or three years I have started reading Chinese literature (yes, even though what I read is still the English translation because I can't speak Chinese), still the original language is Chinese. This brings new languages and cultures and is very interesting for me personally. Reading footnotes when reading Chinese novels is an exciting experience because I always feel that I am getting new knowledge and insight every time.
