"So, your name is Zhou Qing?" Qingzhu Zhu asked, "Quite cautious of you."
"And your name isn't Zhu Zhuqing, is it?" Zhou Qing countered. "A young lady like you surely uses a different name publicly. Like Xiaowu, I still don't know her surname."
Tang San paused, then asked Xiaowu, "What's your surname, anyway?"
"Rou, full name Rou Wu," Xiaowu proudly declared. "Isn't my surname beautiful?"
"I only see a lazy effort, just taking the first character from 'Soft Bone Rabbit,'" Zhou Qing retorted.
"Hmph, what's so special about your name then?" Xiaowu glared, challenging him back.
"My surname was given by my parents; I can't change that. As for 'Qing,' it's because I was born in summer when the mountains were covered in lush green. So, my name is Zhou Qing," Zhou Qing explained. He then added, "But people can always add more meaning to their names later. Take 'Zhou Qing,' for example: 'Zhou' means 'all-encompassing,' and 'Qing' represents the flourishing color of summer, robust growth. It means I'm a thriving sapling that will eventually grow into a lush, full tree in the height of summer."
"You're full of it!" Xiaowu scoffed.
Zhou Qing shrugged, unfazed, and turned to Qingzhu Zhu. "I'm familiar with the names of people and places on the Douluo Continent, whether they're royalty or common folk. They generally fall into two categories. One is like 'Romantina,' 'Barack,' or 'Fasinuo Xing'—names whose meaning you'd never guess without knowing their historical and cultural background. The other type is like 'Zhou Qing,' 'Tang San,' or 'Xiaowu,' where just hearing them gives you a rough idea of what our families might have been thinking when they named us."
"I've already explained the origin of my name. For Tang San, the 'San' (three) often suggests he's the third child or named in someone's honor. Xiaowu's 'Wu' (dance) fits her lively and active personality perfectly."
"As for your name, 'Qingzhu Zhu,' if we only take the first two characters, 'Qingzhu' (clear bamboo) implies uprightness. But is 'Qing' your surname? If 'Zhuzhu' is your given name, I don't understand why 'Zhu' is added at the end. Whether it means 'pearl,' 'pig head,' or 'cinnabar,' combining any of those with 'Qingzhu' feels like a stretch."
Zhou Qing was actually making this up, mainly to find a reason for him to know Qingzhu Zhu's real name.
"Only when reversed, 'Zhu Zhuqing' (Zhu as the surname, Zhuqing as the given name), does it make sense. It implies both prosperity and integrity. That's more like it. After all, prominent families are very particular about naming their children, unlike me. I even had a nickname once, 'Dog Egg,' remember?"
"Dog Egg" was a nickname given by Old Jack. But ever since Zhou Qing learned the local Douluo Continent language and found out his full name was the same as in his previous life, he firmly demanded Old Jack erase that humble nickname.
"Pfft!" Qingzhu Zhu burst out laughing, covering her mouth. "Dog Egg? That's so funny!"
Zhou Qing wanted to slap himself. He actually blurted that out! It just proved that copper truly couldn't be refined! Seeing Tang San also snickering, Zhou Qing retorted grumpily, "San'er, what are you laughing at? Grandpa Jack also gave you a nickname back then: 'San Egg'!"
"Gah?" Tang San made a strange sound, his laughter abruptly stopping. "I never knew that."
"You were too young then; of course you didn't know! Grandpa Jack himself told me!"
Bang, bang, bang! Tang San's face was dark as he continued to hammer the glowing red iron block.
"Speaking of which, I've looked through a lot of materials in the Nuoding Library. The naming conventions for people and cities across the entire continent can be categorized into the two types I mentioned: 'Zhou Qing' and 'Romantina' types."
Zhou Qing's gaze subtly swept over Qingzhu Zhu and her personal maid as he said, feigning deep thought, "Names like mine, Zhou Qing, are easy to infer meaning from. But names like Romantina, even though they use the same written language, contain symbolism that seems to require learning another set of language rules, mostly lost, only passed down orally."
"I have a theory: there were once two different empires, or perhaps two different civilizations, on the Douluo Continent. Their writing and languages weren't unified. But then, one civilization conquered the other—not by massacring its people, but by erasing their language and writing, thereby assimilating them into the victorious civilization. The language and writing we use today are those of the victorious civilization."
"However, the descendants of the vanished civilization, over long periods, forgot the writing and language their ancestors created. They've completely integrated into the current civilization. Names like Romantina, I feel, are more like a simple phonetic translation of a language from that lost civilization into our current one. It's like how a rooster crows 'cock-a-doodle-doo,' so we define that sound with the character '咯' (ge)."
Tang San stopped hammering, his mouth agape. Although he already knew of Zhou Qing's intelligence, hearing such a theory still made him feel that Zhou Qing was incredibly, even freakishly, brilliant. Just by categorizing names, he deduced ancient history! Even if it was just a guess, it was startling enough!
Moreover, this theory made Tang San's thoughts drift back to his previous life: in the Central Plains, dynasties were always at odds with "barbarians." But since the barbarians couldn't be completely wiped out, the imperial court adopted another measure: enlightenment. How similar was the situation on the Douluo Continent to his past life?
It seemed the "barbarians" in this world were successfully "enlightened," but it didn't seem to change the suffering of the common people. In fact, that powerful empire that might have once unified the continent had split again.
[The general trend of the world is that long unity leads to division, and long division leads to unity...]
Tang San secretly sighed, continuing to hammer the iron block. Xiaowu had completely lost track of what Zhou Qing was saying.
But Qingzhu Zhu and her maid were utterly amazed. Qingzhu Zhu, or rather, Zhu Zhuqing, had been learning various etiquette rules and the history of the Star Luo Empire and the entire Douluo Continent since she was old enough to understand. Among those lessons, the struggle between the two civilizations Zhou Qing theorized about might actually have been real.
However, it wasn't recorded in the official history of the Star Luo Empire but rather as a mythological tale found in miscellaneous writings: around twenty thousand years ago, the founder of the Spirit Hall, the owner of the Six-Winged Angel martial soul, gathered faith, condensed a divine position, and, leading people with peculiar surnames, reigned supreme over the world.
But the Angel possessed great love, loving all beings with utmost fairness and justice. She believed the language and writing of the defeated civilization were more refined and efficient, so she adopted them directly, abolishing her own language and writing. Leading by example, she even changed her surname to "Qian" (meaning "thousand"), signifying that the thousands of surnames across the continent were all subjects under the Angel's command.
From then on, writing became unified, and languages sounded the same...
PS: Read Advance Chapters at patreon.com/c/Xentronix