Hello! I made a glossary of ancient Chinese ranks and titles and thought I would share it on here. I hope that it's helpful for anyone reading novels in the ancient setting. https://nyanovels.com/2020/05/07/ancient-chinese-ranks-titles/
Thank you for making this! This is going to make it a lot easier for us translators too to keep all the various translations of ranks, etc. consistent. (I especially love how you refer to the 太上皇 as a "rare unicorn" lmao. Now that I think about it, I've never seen a 太上皇 in all the historical C-dramas I've watched...)
You think it's easy to see a unicorn? Nuh-uh. It is. I especially like your references section, that you note down what you've read. I'm not a translator, but I know people who could benefit from this.
Haha, I can only think of a handful that I've seen in dramas and there's always tension with the reigning Emperor, especially if they forced their way on the throne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taishang_Huang Wikipedia collected all the unicorns and made a list~ Awe, thank you. I thought it would be helpful for people who wanted to read more. Since I gathered info from many sites I should cite them properly~ (Maybe school drilled this into me?)
FYI I added a table of contents to my list of ancient ranks so it'll be easier to navigate. Also started a glossary of ancient setting terms
Great work putting this together! You might want to add the rank of 太皇太后. There aren't all that many of them, but I like Grand Dowager Shangguan and I wouldn't want her to miss out. Also here are some useful terms for military units. The older terms can differ a lot from dynasty to dynasty so I'm going to list just modern terms; they should give you an idea of what ranks in the past were like. 班 - squad. I've also seen 火 and 队 used as historical terms. 排 - platoon. 连 - company. 营 - battalion. 团 - regiment. 旅 - brigade. 师 - division. 军 - corps. 军团 - army. 方面军 - army front. 集团军群 - army group.
Ooh thank you!! Ah, I forgot the other unicorn. 太皇太后 is the wife of 太上皇 right? I've seen that title be used interchangeably with 太后 and skipped over it by accident. Thanks! Where is Grand Dowager Shangguan from ? I really appreciate the military terms!
The Grand Dowager is supposed to be the grandmother of the current emperor. This rarely happens because it's rare for women to live that long, so the title usually comes when there's some unusual sequence of succession. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Empress_Dowager_Shangguan She's the empress of Liu Fuling. She became Empress at 5, Dowager Empress at 15, and Grand Dowager about a month later. It was such a strange period that her aunt eventually became Empress while she was a Grand Dowager.
Oh wow! Yes, that is quite rare! Hmm, what's rarer than a unicorn? A fairy? I just read her story. So sad that she was left without family in the end. It must have been difficult to basically be confined to the palace for her whole life. Empress at 5!! Like - just ... how...
Whoops, I got it wrong - it should properly be "Grand Empress Dowager". A grand dowager would be the grandmother of the head of a household, and such figures would exist outside of the imperial family. She's a major character in "Song in the Clouds". In it she has to pretend to not care that her maternal grandfather slaughtered her father's entire side of the family, including her mother. It's a great book, and Empress Shangguan is my favorite character in it. Unfortunately it's a historical novel so you now know how it ends. (To be fair, the historical events are fairly well known so it wasn't entirely meant to be a surprise.)
I just realized I was at 95 or so % but with your info I’m at 100% with these ranks. Thanks Be In Touch samira01
I hope this doesn't count as necro-ing since it's in the resources section... I've updated my list of ancient ranks and titles and created a few charts: Chart 1 - Imperial Clan Titles by Relation (Dad x Mom = Title) Chart 2 - Imperial Clan Rank Equivalencies (Male) Chart 3 - Imperial Clan Rank Equivalencies (Female) You can see the differences in status between main bloodline vs concubine-born children. Hope you find it helpful!
I just read a novel translated by perpetualdaydream. They translated all the title/rank especially the women ranks in a household very clearly that it was so much clear to picture of how they speak and act in the household with their rank. When I read your @nyamachi post and went to the site to read. It's very complete and easy to understand after I read a novel that translated all the ranks/title.