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[1] For those who don’t have the context of Lord Seventh, this river runs through the capital and is the centre of glamour and celebration of the city.

[2] The Chinese traditionally celebrate a baby’s 满月, which marks a full month after the birth of the child.

[3] Commonly referred to as “funny bone”.

[4] Gu Xiang, having learnt from Cao Weining, is bastardising idioms here.

[5] The term here is 名讳, which means something like “name taboo” – in ancient China, as a sign of respect, no other person can use the characters that are in his name; they would have to use another character, or leave out a few strokes. Much less speak it aloud directly, like what Lord Seventh is doing here.

[6] This upper half of the couplet by Wu Weiye can be interpreted as a lament about him selling his life to the empire as a government official, which is pretty much Zhou Zishu’s plight here.

[7] From Warring States poet Qu Yuan’s Li Sao (The Lament)

[8] As we all know, Lord Seventh is loaded, but the shabby and destitute scholar is a Chinese archetype. Either you make the Imperial Examinations and live in luxury as an official, or you remain a poor student.

[9] For those not familiar with Chinese medicinal beliefs about food, certain foods are thought to be tonics for certain parts of your body. Walnuts are beneficial to the brain presumably because they look like tiny brains.

[10] 娘啊: If literally translated, he’s crying for Mommy.

[11] Located at the sternum, in between your nip nops.

[12] Also called the Lo Shu formation, the Nine Palaces formation is closely associated with the Eight Trigrams as part of feng shui. It dictates the placement of objects to help with the flow of qi.

[13] 城门失火，殃及池鱼：Literally describes a situation where the fish in the moat die when the city gates catch on fire, because the citizens drain the moat for fire rescue purposes. Aka if they’re fighting a battle, you, a third party who should not be involved, die too.

[14] An acupoint 1.5 inches below your belly button

[15] 饭桶: Describes someone useless, but also used to describe someone who eats a lot

[16] Kind of different from the Western usage--here, he’s most probably doing it like “oops, I nearly screwed up”.

[18] The same tale that coined the term 知音 (soulmate/lit. one who knows your song): while playing his own composition High Mountains and Running River, Yu Boya met a woodcutter, who instinctively understood his music. After this woodcutter died, he played the same piece by his grave, and smashed his qin on the ground because there would never be another person who shared the same understanding of him and his music.

[19] The original quote is 不听老人言，吃亏在眼前: If you do not listen to the advice of your elders, the mishap is right before you.