Giving webnovels another go...

[cashew]

《将倾》

• Historical setting (fake dynasty but the departments and positions are all real and people in these departments are assigned the correct jobs) ✅

• Equal partnership between the BL couple (well, at the moment more like hissing at each other over jurisdiction, but whatever, they're gonna get together) ✅

• Minimal age gap ✅

• Avoids modern memes and slang, semi-classical grammar ✅

• Court politics (plus military conspiracy and murder mystery!) ✅

• Food descriptions (ok, one scene with wonton, but I'll take what I can get) ✅

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Tentatively hopeful this doesn't turn into something stupid... At least it's feeding my desire for a martial-civil officers couple. Personally love it when the martial-civil divide shows up in court politics dramas, so fun watching two different world views butting heads.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

Which era is it equivalent to with regards to culture, tech, offices, etc.? Song? Ming?

[cashew]

The general framework seems to be Tang era, since the capital is 长安, the central government organization is set up as 三省六部, which was established during the Tang dynasty. 六部 clearly holds significantly more political power than the other two branches (mostly appearing as departments in 六部 bullying 大理寺), which again reflect Tang era politics, since 大理寺 got more powerful in the later dynasties. The official's ranks (一品、二品 etc.) in the named positions also corresponds to Tang dynasty ranks. Further more, 金吾卫 and 京兆府 makes an appearance, and those are Tang dynasty specific departments.

However, chairs exist and the imperial exam is separated by subjects, which corresponds to the Song dynasty tech and bureaucracy. Firecrackers and fireworks also exist, which is technology that corresponds to the Song dynasty. The emperor ordered the best exam essays to get published for mass consumption, which implies the existence of the printing press, so that also corresponds to Song or later. 顺天府 gets a mention, and that department didn't get established until Ming dynasty. There's no mention yet of either 御史台 or 督察院, the former existed during Tang-Song while the latter replaced the former during Ming-Qing.

So I'd say overall, the political set up is mostly Tang with cameos of Song-Ming era departments. Technology seems pretty solidly Song. Economic development also suggests it's Song or at earliest late-Tang. Mentions of 和离书 are brought up and there seems to be no stigma associated with it, which suggests women have slightly more status, so that points more towards Tang-Song era social values. I'm leaning towards Tang era, mostly because of a lack of working women in the story; since in Song dynasty it's normal for women to start owning businesses with their own independent finances separated from men even after marriage, but the story seems to treat marrying for financial security as a norm, so that's definitely an attitude from Tang era.

Interestingly, porcelain does exist, but so far it's very much Song era porcelain descriptions (aka lacking colored patterns) and jade cups are pretty common, which again, points to pre-Ming era daily life.

So, broad strokes Tang dynasty, some Song stuff come up now and then, with the very occasional mention of a Ming-specific thing (so far 顺天府 is the only one that's obviously Ming).

[tanithryudo]

What about the military setup? Are they doing 府兵制 or 募兵制? Common soldiers are drawn from which social rank? How does the leadership work? Is it more like Tang where the generals / local commanders have a lot of power & autonomy, or more like Song where the central government put up with oodles of red tape to prevent generals from having real power?

BTW, how do you find fics in general? Are you getting recs from somewhere? Or are you using some kind of search service/app?

[cashew]

I haven't gotten to the later parts where military stuff comes up, so I have no idea what military system the story is using. Given the existence of 京兆府 division, that implies 府兵制, but then again, late Tang had 京兆府 while switching to 募兵制. So until I actually get to the part of the story that actively deals with military bureaucracy, I don't know. The summary suggests there's a military battle arc later on, but whether that'll actually address the military bureaucracy is unknown at the moment.

From what I have read so far, since the emperor is concerned about keeping the loyalties of the generals and generals seem to have total control over the army's movements (again, all hinted at through dialogue since main POV is through the civil officer character), this suggests military bureaucracy-wise it's closer to Tang's system. The generals have overall higher ranks in the central government, which could be inspired by Tang, but just as easily from Ming or Qing (all three dynasties gave the military officers significantly more political power compared to Song dynasty).

BTW, how do you find fics in general?

At the moment, for web novels I'm just manually going through summaries listed on 耽美小说网's 古代架空 section and looking for a description that piques my interest, then start reading and see if I like it. I've gone through so much crap, it's pretty disappointing...

For fanfic, I browse through Lofter's ship tags and sort by popularity. It's hit or miss. Worked well for 君子盟 fandom, not so well for 民国大侦探 fandom. For HSR, it's half on Lofter and half on wland, with like...2(?) fics on AO3. I sort by Chinese language on AO3 and most of the AO3 景枫 fics are mirrored on wland or Lofter. Stuff on Weibo tend to be...more miss than hits.

[tanithryudo]

Bookmarked, thanks. Though not usually my area of interest, who knows in the future.

[cashew]

LOL, which part isn't your usual area of interest? BL, 架空, or civil bureaucracy? 🤣

[tanithryudo]

Pure 古代 stories. Most of the stuff I read that takes place in imperial era involve some kind of transmigration or other connection to modern setting. Or is xianxia.

[cashew]

In that case 穿越重生 section might be more to your taste.

[tanithryudo]

Thanks!