foolip Posted February 6, 2006 at 11:16 PM Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 at 11:16 PM I'm wondering about the meaning of ”上八洞神仙，中八洞神仙，下八洞神仙“. This appears in the movie "Uproar in Heaven" when the goddesses are listing gods which are invited to the peach banquet. With my very limited skills in decrypting chinese I gather this refers to the eight immortals, specifically the first, middle and last of the eight immortals. But what does this mean? Does the expression refer to three specific immortals out of the eight, or is it a way of saying "all of the eight immortals"? What would be a good english translation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie Posted February 7, 2006 at 04:17 AM Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 at 04:17 AM according to taoism legend, there are tens of thousands of "ba dong shenxian". they are divided into roughly three levels: shang, zhong, xia, based on their ability. in "uproar in the heaven", the monkey was angry at not being invited to the banquet even when the least competent immortals has been given the honor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolip Posted February 7, 2006 at 08:55 AM Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 at 08:55 AM So what does "ba dong shenxian" mean? Specifically, what's the "dong"? It doesn't make any sense for there to be thousands of eight immortals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie Posted February 8, 2006 at 03:26 AM Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 at 03:26 AM according to my knowledge, there are different versions of the legend of eight immortals in different dynasties. so i say there are thousands of immortals in group of eight. "dong" refers to where the immortals live. "shang ba dong shenxian" are superior to "zhong ba dong shenxian" and "xia ba dong shenxian". "shang b d sx" are also called heaven immortals(tian xian), "zhong b d sx" immortals(shenxian), "xia b d sx" earth immortals(di xian). "ba xian" is the short form of"ba dong shenxian" , so logically, there are totally 24 immortals by this term. and the most famous are lv dongbing, tie guai li, han zhong li and so on. open to discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolip Posted February 8, 2006 at 09:06 AM Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 at 09:06 AM Thank you very much for you help, with this I will be able to write a translation that captures the essence of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Hampton Posted February 10, 2006 at 10:34 PM Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 at 10:34 PM dear foolip, can you keep us updated, if the 2 dvd version arrives? and if it does - how you got it? and if you have it, what the main difference i to the 1 dvd version? i bought that at yesasia.com, and i am quite satisfied (great quality, chinese subtitles - as everybody knows). however, i remember, that when i saw the film on german tv as a kid, there was a scene where the monkey king has his stick growing into the heaven and climbs it up - does that scene exist? or am i wrong and have false memories? did anybody else see that scene? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolip Posted February 11, 2006 at 08:35 AM Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 at 08:35 AM I ordered my 2DVD edition from joyo.com and it was shipped on the 8th of February (hasn't arrived yet). I'll be sure to give you more details when it arrives. http://www.joyo.com/movie/detail.asp?prodid=bkys407120&uid=qqsmavf7ns599m79asgs7sqmw&ref=%2FProdSearch%2Fprodsearch%2Easp About the stickclimbing, don't you mean this: http://www.foolip.org/uih/stickclimbing.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Hampton Posted February 11, 2006 at 04:48 PM Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 at 04:48 PM thanks for the fast message! i'll follow the process. The scene you posted, is also in the 1 dvd version - however i remember a scene that looked more like this: http://static.flickr.com/19/98286948_487bdb7122_b.jpg - with a thin stick. hm. maybe you are lucky and it's going to be on the 2dvd version... looking forward to hearing from you! Fred PS: your endeavor is heroic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolip Posted February 12, 2006 at 01:02 AM Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 at 01:02 AM I think it's quite possible that some scenes are missing from the edition I have as there are discontinuities at times where something small seems to be missing. I don't remember sun wukong ever going to heaven without it being shown how he got there though. I don't expect the 2DVD edition to be any different in this respect, the main difference is the supposed inclusion of the older animation "princess iron fan" which is, according to some sources, the 3rd feature-length animation ever produced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolip Posted February 20, 2006 at 11:28 PM Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 at 11:28 PM I consider the translation complete now. For anyone interested, the results are at http://www.foolip.org/wiki/Uproar_in_Heaven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolip Posted February 21, 2006 at 04:44 PM Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 at 04:44 PM The 2-disc edition arrived today. The packaging was damaged in the mail, but the data was intact. Disc 1 seems to be identical to the DVD in the 1-disc edition, so no luck in finding the staff-climbing scene. It's too bad, but it does seem that there are parts of the movie missing, probably at the beginning and end of each film roll which were too damaged to restore. The story doesn't suffer from this, but the pacing gets thrown off sometimes. Anyway, disc 2 included some interviews, documentaries and nothing less than Princess Iron Fan -- is that awsome or what? Unfortunately there are no chinese subtitles on disc 2, so I don't know how or if I'm going to understand it, but perhaps I can find help on this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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