《天官赐福》 by 墨香铜臭 – I wished I never read the English translation

After I finished watching “The Untamed” on Netflix in early 2020, I went down a rabbit hole of reading the fan translations of 墨香铜臭’s books, including 《天官赐福》. This led me to fall in love with 《天官赐福》 and embark on a journey to learn Mandarin Chinese to read this amazing webnovel in its original form.

Four years later, I achieved this goal and finished the 2024 edition of 《天官赐福》at the end of July 2024. This edition was heavily revised from the original. While the overarching plots and side character backstories remained the same, many individual subplots were heavily altered.

Having read the new edition in Chinese, I slightly regret reading the English translation and wish it had been a different series that got me into learning Mandarin Chinese.

如果不知道你活下去有什么意义，那么就姑且把我当做你活下去的意义，把我当做支撑你活下去的支柱吧。

墨香铜臭 《天官赐福》

New Edition vs Old Edition

To avoid spoilers, I won’t discuss the changes in much detail. I will just briefly describe the major changes and how I feel about each of them.

Xie Lian & Hua Cheng’s interaction

One of the biggest and most important changes (in my opinion) is the increase in romantic interactions between Xie Lian and Hua Chang. Their interaction was lacking in the original, so this change was very welcomed. The extra scenes were really amazing and so much fun to read.

Reduction in length

Another major change is the reduced length—the new edition is 20% shorter. Lots of padding and unnecessary scenes were removed or shortened.

The first subplot was reduced by almost 40%. Again, this is another welcomed change as it meant the appearance of Hua Cheng came much sooner than before.

Sadly, a caveat of this reduced length is the massive reduction of The Green Ghost’s appearance in the story. He still plays a significant role in another character’s story, but besides that, he doesn’t appear much in the new edition. I’m not a fan of his character, so I very much loved this change. However, for those who are fans, the same can’t be said.

While I agree with some of the sections that were removed, I don’t agree with all of them. One in particular is related to the main plot. Although it doesn’t affect the plot’s outcome, it does affect parts of the journey to that final reveal.

Mystery reveals

The mysteries surrounding some of the side characters remained the same, but they have been expanded and revealed in a new way. This change also included an additional power for Hua Cheng, which is his ability to enter a past memory—this new ability doesn’t change anything, just for a bit of fun. I really loved this change! These were some of the funest chapters to read!

对我来说，风光无限的是你，跌落尘埃的也是你。重点是‘你’，而不是‘怎样’的你。

墨香铜臭 《天官赐福》

The Re-Reading Experience

Journeying through a magical world full of mysteries to discover and suspenseful moments to experience while following the development of many beloved characters is what makes reading a plot-heavy book so brilliant and breathtaking.

Following the journey of the main character, Xie Lian, as he experiences sorrow, pain, friendship, and love while discovering the mysteries of those around him was so captivating that I picked up learning Mandarin Chinese so that I could re-experience all this in the original language!

From this, I’m sure you can tell how much I fell in love with 《天官赐福》 when I read the fan translation in 2020.

After many years of hard work, I finally picked up 《天官赐福》 in the summer of 2023. To my surprise, I lost motivation and became distracted by other new and wonderful danmei webnovels, and stopped around 30%.

I have always known re-reading, especially only after a few short years, is not for me, but I thought it’d be different this time. I’m reading it in a different language so the experience would be different.

Yes, it’s true that the experience is different, but the story is the same. I wasn’t drawn to it as it simply wasn’t as exciting as experiencing it for the first time.

When the new edition made its appearance in 晋江文学城 in March 2024, I knew this was my chance at a second attempt.

There were definitely moments when I was a little bored because I knew what was going to happen. But luckily, the changes were significant enough. In fact, I absolutely loved most of the changes, and they were the reason that kept me from giving up or being distracted by another webnovel.

After finishing, I felt a sense of great accomplishment because I finally completed the goal I started in May 2020; it’s been a long and hard four years. Besides a sense of achievement, which is related to language learning, I didn’t feel much else. I remember when I finished the fan translation of 《天官赐福》, I was so amazed by it. Sadly, the same can’t be said for this read-through.

为你战死是我至高无上的荣耀。

墨香铜臭 《天官赐福》

Chinese vs English

I remember the writing style of fan translation was very casual, so I was presently surprised to find the Chinese version had a stronger historical and more elegant feel than I had anticipated; it was also quite poetic and flowery at times.

Titles such as 血雨探花 and 花冠武神 sound jarring in English, and many terms and puns can’t be translated properly. However, all these felt natural and made sense when read in Chinese.

This is undoubtedly due to translating from a language so different from English. In addition, the final writing style is up to the translator and their interpretation. As expected from a translation, much of the feel of the writing style was lost in translation.

Fans have informed me that this is still the case with the official English translation, which used the first fan translation as the manuscript.

The Chinese version is undoubtedly a million times better than the first English fan translation. These differences make learning Chinese to read original content so much more worthwhile.

Why do I wish I hadn’t read 《天官赐福》 in English?

While I enjoyed this Chinese read-through of the new version of 《天官赐福》and felt the new edition is significantly better, the second read is just not as heartwrenching as the first experience.

As mentioned previously, I don’t like rereading books. Re-experiencing the story, even in its original language, wasn’t as magical as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong; I still absolutely love 《天官赐福》, especially this new edition!

This read-through felt a little lacking. In fact, part of me felt that I only read this because it was the original reason that led me to set out on this Chinese journey. I felt that I needed to close this chapter of my journey so that I could finally say to myself that I’ve achieved the goal that I started four years ago.

I also feel this could be a result of 《天官赐福》being quite a difficult read. It was relatively tacting to get through each chapter, and I often felt tired after a couple of chapters. Perhaps my experience would have been much different if I had been able to breeze through it as I would have been able to in English.

No matter what, I am glad I discovered 《天官赐福》 in 2020, which led to this amazing journey that has opened many doors into wonderful worlds. Perhaps if I had read a different series and had not been as captivated by it as I was with 《天官赐福》, then I may not have started this journey.

Nevertheless, part of me wished that I could experience 《天官赐福》 in Chinese from scratch, and it was a different series that got me into learning Chinese. Having prior knowledge of the plot really dampened the experience, which I’m quite sad about.

I am, however, very glad that as soon as I started learning Chinese, I stopped reading any translation. Now I have many, many webnovels to enjoy for the first time in their original language.

天官赐福，百无禁忌

墨香铜臭 《天官赐福》

Difficulty for a Chinese second language learner

Due to the epic-fantasy premise and the fabricated world of《天官赐福》, it’s a challenging novel for a Chinese second language learner. There’s a large amount of world-building with many detailed descriptions.

Prior experience with historical fantasy and cultivation novels (such as stories involving immortal beings) isn’t necessary but highly recommended.

The new edition is a little more difficult than the original, particularly the first volume. With the reduced length, a large amount of dialogues were removed, resulting in descriptions being tightly packed together.

Much of the writing is straightforward, with a medium level of historical prose. Descriptions are long and detailed, with some being quite poetic and abstract.

Final Thoughts

I can’t change my past, but I could change your future. If you’re reading this and are learning Chinese but haven’t read 《天官赐福》 in English, please don’t! The new edition of 《天官赐福》 is really good, and you’ll have a much better time if you experience the whole story for the very first time.

To be honest, this goes for any translation. If you’re already learning Chinese, hold off and wait. It’ll be all worth it in the end.

Overall, it feels great to have finally read 《天官赐福》 in Chinese, especially the new edition. In addition to feeling great about completing my goal, being able to read a version of a popular webnovel that has no English is an amazing feeling. It has made this journey so much more worthwhile.

A part of me also feels like a weight has been lifted. Throughout this Mandarin Chinese journey, I did not once forget that I need to read 《天官赐福》 in Chinese. It was always on the back of my mind, and now that I’ve achieved that goal, I feel lighter, like a closure to a chapter and the start of a new beginning.

Of course, this is now the end of my journey; it’s only the beginning. There are plenty of other books waiting for me, including 将进酒，帝王攻略，二哈和他的白猫师尊 and many other famous works. I’ve not read any of these, so I’m ecstatic to experience these for the very first time!