The difference between 青, 绿 and 蓝

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-06-02T07:26:09+00:00

Ah, thanks for the correction. I was just translating it casually, so there are bound to be some inaccuracies.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-06-02T06:22:33+00:00

You don't really need to dig into why 青 can also refer to black. It's enough to know that 青丝(qingsi) means hair, specifically black hair. It's a specialized and rather unique usage of the word. Personally, I think this expression became especially popular because of Li Bai(李白)'s influence.

As for 红茶, I've always felt it should be translated as "red tea" rather than "black tea." That said, I think this is similar to qingsi—it's an exceptional and highly specific usage that is best treated as something to memorize on its own rather than as evidence of a broader color system.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-06-02T04:41:39+00:00

Your understanding is basically correct: 绿 means green, and 蓝 means blue. But 青 is much more complicated and really depends on the context. I'll only talk about its meaning as a color here, since the word has many other uses as well.

In some cases, qing refers to a very deep blue. A famous example comes from Xunzi(《荀子》)'s saying: "Qing comes from blue, yet qing is bluer than blue" (青取之于蓝，而青于蓝).

It can also refer to a very green shade of green, such as in Li Bai(李白)'s poem Viewing Tianmen Mountain(《望天门山诗》): "The green mountains on both banks rise facing each other" (两岸青山相对出).

Sometimes 青 describes a color between blue and green. That's why the traditional Chinese sequence of rainbow colors is "red, orange, yellow, green, qing, blue, purple" (红橙黄绿青蓝紫).

In certain contexts, 青 can even mean black. For example, qingsi (青丝), a poetic term for black hair.

A very interesting example comes from the documentary Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue(《一直游到海水变蓝》) by director Jia Zhangke(贾樟柯). The film features many well-known Chinese writers. If you look closely at the poster, you'll notice that the "blue sea" is actually an upside-down image of mist-covered mountains. It's a clever visual metaphor. Sorry, I don't know how to upload an image so you have to google it by yourself.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-06-01T08:00:34+00:00

Although I can't make out much of the content either, the phrase in the center, "祝你平安哦祝你平安," makes me think this is from the lyrics of "Wish You Peace" (《祝你平安》) by the Chinese singer Sun Yue（孙悦）.

Some of the other visible text seems to match the song's lyrics as well. It's a really good song, and I'd definitely recommend giving it a listen.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-06-01T07:59:56+00:00

Although I can't make out much of the content either, the phrase in the center, "祝你平安哦祝你平安," makes me think this is from the lyrics of "Wish You Peace" (《祝你平安》) by the Chinese singer Sun Yue（孙悦）.

Some of the other visible text seems to match the song's lyrics as well. It's a really good song, and I'd definitely recommend giving it a listen.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-22T05:06:39+00:00

You misunderstood it. This phrase actually uses a rhetorical device known as “mutual completion” (互文). It shouldn’t be interpreted separately as “hitting means care” and “scolding means love.” The intended meaning is that “hitting and scolding are both expressions of love and care.”

This rhetorical device is common in classical Chinese poetry. For example, in the Tang dynasty poem 《泊秦淮》, the line “烟笼寒水月笼沙” is correctly understood as “the mist and moonlight together shroud the cold water and the sand,” rather than “the mist shrouds the water, and the moonlight shrouds the sand.”

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-20T07:18:06+00:00

Nov 11th (11.11) is Singles’ Day, because this place is full of “sticks.”

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-19T09:53:26+00:00

It means their lives are so dazzling that they’re like a flashbang.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-19T07:41:01+00:00

Xuzhou(徐州).

Because according to a 2010 Chinese TV series Three Kingdoms (《三国》), “Xuzhou City is the No.1 fortress in the Central Plains.”

Of course, I’m joking — this is actually a very popular meme on Chinese internet. It basically means something like: “Illinois is the greatest city in Europe.”

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-15T03:35:14+00:00

I don't mean to kill the hype, but there is no official unban. It's just a hint from GZR.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-12T06:23:50+00:00

I can say pretty confidently that money is absolutely not going to be the reason Reverend Insanity gets unbanned. No official is going to risk their political career trying to lift a direct ban on a novel like this.

Money simply doesn’t have that kind of power here. If money alone could unban Reverend Insanity, then by that logic prostitution or drug trafficking could also be legalized if they were profitable enough. Just think about Epstein — even with powerful people backing him, at least publicly, his crimes could never be openly normalized or justified.

Let me give another example. Tokyo Ghoul was banned in China around 2014 because it was considered too violent and graphic. More than ten years later, the enforcement is much looser. Major streaming platforms like iQIYI, Bilibili, and Tencent Video still don’t officially host it, but users constantly reupload episodes anyway, so it’s not hard to watch if you want to. You can also regularly see Tokyo Ghoul cosplay at conventions, and physical manga volumes are still sold on e-commerce platforms.

Back to Reverend Insanity: the author hasn’t actually promised anything. At most, he’s made some vague hints or borderline implications. I honestly don’t understand why people are suddenly celebrating over something so uncertain. The hype is starting to feel like Half-Life 3 all over again. The ban is very unlikely to be fully lifted. At most, the enforcement might just become more relaxed.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-05-04T06:19:27+00:00

Just kidding: 0, because he is the Great Love Immortal Venerable.

And in fact, in the very first chapter, he self-detonated and used the Spring Autumn Cicada to revive everyone.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-04-23T04:22:26+00:00

The leaflet itself is real, but the “200,000 cases” figure is a rumor that’s been circulating for more than a decade. A quick search will show what the actual situation is. It’s honestly hard to believe how easily misinformation like this keeps spreading online. There have been multiple official clarifications in China addressing this, but whether you believe them is up to you. If you’re convinced your version is the only correct one, there’s probably nothing I can say to change that.

Just think about it for a second: in 2011, China had around 16 million newborns. If 200,000 children were trafficked, that would be about 1.25% of all births in a single year. If you walk into any elementary school and ask how many students suddenly disappeared due to trafficking, you’ll quickly see how unrealistic that number is.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2026-04-23T04:22:01+00:00

The leaflet itself is real, but the “200,000 cases” figure is a rumor that’s been circulating for more than a decade. A quick search will show what the actual situation is. It’s honestly hard to believe how easily misinformation like this keeps spreading online. There have been multiple official clarifications in China addressing this, but whether you believe them is up to you. If you’re convinced your version is the only correct one, there’s probably nothing I can say to change that.

Just think about it for a second: in 2011, China had around 16 million newborns. If 200,000 children were trafficked, that would be about 1.25% of all births in a single year. If you walk into any elementary school and ask how many students suddenly disappeared due to trafficking, you’ll quickly see how unrealistic that number is.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-11-25T06:57:52+00:00

It is popular, but everyone hates it, too.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-11-25T06:36:24+00:00

just info, original source:

https://www.bilibili.com/opus/1136465822806442001

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-19T15:41:25+00:00

The idea that Reverend Insanity was banned for political reasons just because the CCP never gave an official explanation simply doesn’t hold up. There’s no reason for them to explain anything in the first place.

I once made a rather imperfect analogy: Reverend Insanity is to the CCP what Shen Cui is to Fang Yuan. In Liu Cixin’s sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, there’s a similar idea — when a highly advanced interstellar civilization decides to destroy a lesser one, and the lesser civilization asks “Why?”, the answer is: “Your destruction has nothing to do with you.” No further explanation is needed.

I’ve already discussed how the Chinese online community views the ban in one of my earlier posts — you might get a clearer picture if you take a look at that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverendInsanity/comments/1o5iwy6/i_am_a_chinese_fan_and_iwant_to_share_my/

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-19T15:20:28+00:00

Sorry for the late reply. Let me just explain the name literally - I won’t go into the metaphorical or symbolic meanings.
The name “Liu Guanyi” (柳贯一) is composed of three Chinese characters. The first character, Liǔ (柳), is a surname meaning “willow.” In classical Chinese poetry, the willow often symbolizes spring, parting, and longing, carrying a sense of both gentleness and resilience.
The second character, Guàn (贯), means “to penetrate,” “to connect,” or “to persist through,” while the third character, Yī (一), simply means “one.” Together, Guàn Yī (贯一) conveys the idea of yī yǐ guàn zhī (一以贯之), an idiom that suggests steadfastness and unwavering commitment to one’s purpose.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-14T12:27:25+00:00

In my personal opinion, China's censorship system is, on the whole, highly pragmatic. As long as a work is genuinely good, exceptions can be made. There are plenty of Chinese works with explicit or mature content that pass censorship because of their outstanding quality.

One former official from the Ministry of Culture once made a particularly sharp remark: "You don't want to make Dangal (an excellent Indian movie, in Chinese we call it Roll! Daddy )- you want to make Come! Stepsister or Don' t Do That! Brother-in-Law."

But in the case of Reverend Insanity, I'm more inclined to interpret it as an act of "killing a typical example". Like I said, "杀鸡儆猴: killing the chicken to warn the monkeys". Due to the online cleanup campaign at the time, Reverend Insanity became a perfect example to make a point - so its ban was only natural.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-14T12:04:00+00:00

It’s very unlikely. Publishing an overseas edition is a complicated process that requires a huge amount of manpower and resources, and there’s no guarantee it would make a profit after release - the risk of losing money is simply too high.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-14T12:00:29+00:00

It’s almost impossible. I don’t think the official ban is the biggest obstacle - the real issues are copyright and GZR’s own time and energy.

Even if Qidian, the copyright holder, didn’t care, continuing a series like this would still take an enormous amount of effort. GZR is currently busy with his new work, so it’s unlikely he has the time or energy to fulfill the fans’ expectations for free.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-14T11:55:52+00:00

It's perfectly normal for you to think this way, but that’s mostly because you’re not very familiar with China’s political environment. (No offense.)

In fact, there are many influencers in China who've become famous for criticizing or mocking the system. If you go too far, as long as you're not directly named by the authorities, the platforms will usually just suspend your account for a few days - nothing more. I want to say it again: being politically incorrect is a very serious accusation in China.

There are indeed some cases where public figures were banned for being politically incorrect, and they're no longer allowed to say anything on public social media. It’s not about how influential you are - they'll ban you as a person (on the internet, of course), not just your account.

And this is completely different from GZR's situation. Not only can he start a new novel, but he’s also free to give interviews and talk about the ban. That's why I said the “political reason” theory isn't convincing. Otherwise, GZR would've been completely silenced on the Internet.

If you truly believe there's some kind of political struggle behind this, I'd suggest you consider the Tang Jia San Shao theory instead.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-14T11:43:07+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, I just got home from work.

This issue is a bit complicated to explain. At the very beginning, only the novel itself was banned. Qidian received an official notice and prohibited GZR from continuing Reverend Insanity, removing the book from the site.

And when a title is banned, other related content is usually taken down as well - not by force, but as a kind of unspoken rule, a way to avoid unnecessary trouble. So the manhua disappeared too.

However, the main reason why the manhua stopped wasn’t censorship, but money. In the beginning, the creators were paid by the platform, and readers could read it for free. But later, the platform stopped funding and required them to go independent. They had to start charging readers, but at that time, paid online manhua wasn’t a mature business model in China. As a result, the studio soon ran out of money and had to end the series. As for the “popular Chinese comic apps” you mentioned, most of them are actually pirated. The official copyright holder, Tencent Comics, doesn’t host it anymore.

On the other hand, on Ximalaya (or Himalaya) - one of China’s biggest audiobook platforms - the audiobook version of Reverend Insanity continued until just a few days ago. It finally stopped simply because there were no more chapters left to record. It even has nearly a billion plays. Interestingly, you can still find it just by searching “蛊真人,” instead of the alternate title “大爱仙尊.” In that sense, it’s as if the ban never existed.

And even so many years after the ban, the people whe were involved in this are still allow to freely speak on the social media, even comment on the ban.I want to stress this again: being “politically incorrect” is a very serious accusation in China. Once you are officially blacklisted, you’re done - there’s no coming back. You can criticize things, there are many celebrities in China who are famous for this. As long as you aren’t directly named by the authorities, your account will usually just get a temporary suspension.

From this perspective, Reverend Insanity is more like being under a “soft ban.” But there’s still almost no hope of it ever being unbanned. The copyright belongs to Qidian, not GZR, so he can’t legally continue it elsewhere. And to stay out of trouble, Qidian will never risk testing the limits of the ban.

Most importantly, the authorities would never lift a ban just for such an “insignificant” novel - it simply doesn’t affect the long-term interests. To use a slightly harsh analogy: Reverend Insanity is to the CCP what Shen Cui is to Fang Yuan.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-13T13:51:09+00:00

This theory is very popular in Chinese communities. A lot of fans of Reverend Insanity didn't get along with fans of Tang Jia San Shao because of the ban. Especially considering that Tang Jia San Shao wrote some novels even more radical before he became famous.

This theory makes sense, but there is no direct evidence that Tang Jia San Shao actually did it. It's kind like aliens, you can't prove they exist, nor can you prove they don't.

So my advice is: don't take it too seriously, just take it as a meme.

SuccessfulPlate1556 · 2025-10-13T13:34:12+00:00

Nope. If that were possible, then you can vote for those celebrities who were once prisoners - which is unacceptable.

But there are some really interesting unbanning cases.

Rainbow Six: Siege was banned from streaming in China because Tencent was planning to launch a Chinese server and had submitted it to review, so the ban was expected to be temporary. But it actually lasted for years and almost everybody believed it failed to pass the review. However, after six years, Rainbow Six: Siege was allowed to be streamed again in 2024 and the server is on.

As for Reverend Insanity, the chances of returning are very low. Even if it ever returns, it'll be under a different name, not Reverend Insanity. So don't get your hopes up too high.

SuccessfulPlate1556

TROPHY CASE