Chapter 49: Does a Name Determine One’s Fate, and Should It Be Changed?

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Chapter 49: Does a Name Determine One’s Fate, and Should It Be Changed?

Among all the cities in the world, Jincheng City ranks highly when it comes to atmosphere. And by “atmosphere,” what I mean is how excessively laid-back Jincheng City is. That unhurried, leisurely feeling is particularly characteristic of the city.

Even Yu Shenliu, who should have been busy all day, running around like a top with hardly any free time, would drag Chen Yuan around everywhere as soon as the weekend came.

So this weekend, Yu Shenliu took Chen Yuan to Wenshu Temple .

Strictly speaking, Wenshu Temple refers to the area around the temple dedicated to Manjushri Bodhisattva . It is usually one of the local tourist attractions, with plenty of food, drink, entertainment, and things to do. Many cities have a place like this. In Jincheng City, Wenshu Temple is naturally most famous not for the temple itself, but for the market streets behind it. There isn’t much to say about the various tourist souvenirs. The real draw is all the different snacks: dragon’s beard candy , Dragon Wontons , Zhong dumplings , Heartbreak Jelly Noodles , Three Big Cannons , bean curd rice, and so on, enough to make countless food lovers fall at their feet. Most of the other shops deal in collectibles, along with some particularly unique and interesting stores, such as Hanfu shops, I Ching research centers, Confucian studies centers, calligraphy and painting galleries, and so on.

The most interesting thing, perhaps, was seeing fellow practitioners. There were several old men by the roadside, with boxes or other things beside them bearing signs advertising physiognomy and fortune-telling.

Chen Yuan glanced at the I Ching research center a couple of times but couldn’t bring himself to step inside. No matter how he looked at it, the place seemed incredibly profound. As for the fortune-tellers by the roadside, whose abilities might or might not be genuine, he didn’t feel like interfering with them either. What did it matter whether they really had any ability? People who came to a place like Wenshu Temple to have their fortunes told might not genuinely want their fortunes told in the first place. They were probably just going along with the atmosphere and looking for a certain feeling. Just look at those few over there. They were old, and even if they didn’t have any real ability, what was wrong with them saying a few nice things and making a little money?

Sometimes, it’s better not to know too much. So Chen Yuan merely glanced over, smiled, and let it go.

Walking farther inside, Yu Shenliu finally brought Chen Yuan to their destination.

It was a teahouse that looked like it had been around for quite some time, with a somewhat dilapidated appearance. The paint had peeled from the walls, and brown-red painted tables were scattered around.

“I thought you would take me somewhere more luxurious?” Chen Yuan sat down on a bamboo chair beside a table under a tree, and the chair gave a creak. He looked around, but he was actually quite pleased. The leisurely atmosphere here made him feel very comfortable.

“A truly good place doesn’t necessarily have to be luxurious.” Yu Shenliu smiled and called a server over to order tea.

Two cups of lidded tea were brought out. Hot water was poured into the cups, turning the tea a pale yellow. With the shifting light and shadow of the leaves overhead reflected in the tea, it looked rather lovely.

Watching the tea swirl, Chen Yuan simply smiled. He agreed with what Yu Shenliu had said. “You know your way around here. Come here often?”

“It’s all right. I always feel more relaxed here.” Yu Shenliu, this hopelessly reserved man, certainly wasn’t going to admit that he had racked his brains to find an interesting place where he could be alone with Chen Yuan. “You saw those fortune-tellers over there just now, right? What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” He hadn’t looked closely at their physiognomy, nor did he want to test them, so how would he know whether they really had any ability?

All right, he should have known Chen Yuan would answer like that. Yu Shenliu helplessly shrugged. “Let’s drink our tea.”

When choosing a place for a date, one usually had to consider the other person’s preferences. Yu Shenliu thought choosing a teahouse had been a very wise decision. Chen Yuan’s relaxed expression and movements made that clear. Unfortunately, things weren’t going to go as perfectly as Yu Shenliu had imagined. Who could blame him? Chen Yuan was becoming more and more famous, and who knew how many people wanted to get to know him?

“Um, Master Chen?” A somewhat hesitant voice came from behind Chen Yuan. When he turned around, he saw a young man and woman standing there hand in hand. It was the girl who had spoken.

What a huge third wheel. Yu Shenliu was displeased. Judging by the way they looked, these two were a couple as well. If they were a couple themselves, they should understand and know better than to suddenly interrupt other people and ruin the mood. Yet these two really had no sense at all.

The young man had actually considered stopping his girlfriend from going over, but seeing how much she had been thinking about this matter lately, he couldn’t bring himself to stop her.

“Hm?” Chen Yuan looked at the two of them and instinctively felt that he didn’t know either of them. But he couldn’t be certain. After all, Chen Yuan’s face blindness was a problem. Using physiognomy to identify people wasn’t foolproof. Most of the time, Chen Yuan didn’t use physiognomy to distinguish the features of every person he had met. Remembering the color of their clothes and the accessories they commonly wore was about the limit of what he could manage.

“Um…” The girl looked a little embarrassed. “I live on Guixi Street, not far from Songxian Bridge, so I know about Master Chen. The last time you were at Luhan Mountain, I wanted to come talk to you about something, but I never found the chance.”

Only after she introduced herself did Chen Yuan finally understand. He had wondered how she had known his name as soon as she approached him. Strictly speaking, although everyone in Jincheng City knew there was someone like him, not many people could recognize his face. After all, Chen Yuan wasn’t like many of the masters in Hong Kong back then, appearing on television or writing books and the like. He kept a very low profile.

“May I sit down?” the girl politely asked Chen Yuan again. It was obvious that she had come specifically for Chen Yuan, without even sparing Yu Shenliu beside him a glance.

Chen Yuan first glanced at Yu Shenliu. Seeing that, despite his helplessness, he gave a slight nod, Chen Yuan nodded to the girl.

After all, Yu Shenliu had brought him out today to relax. He would feel somewhat bad if other matters ended up disturbing him. Yu Shenliu had clearly put some thought into finding such a pleasant teahouse and bringing him here. But whether someone would happen to come looking for him was not something either of them could control. Chen Yuan felt a little sorry for Yu Shenliu, but since it had already happened, there was nothing more to say.

Two bamboo chairs were pulled over, and after they asked the owner for two more cups of tea, the girl and the young man sat down. After a brief pause, the girl began speaking softly to Chen Yuan. “Actually, I heard about you some time ago, Master Chen. But your shop over at Songxian Bridge requires people to take a number, and you have to wait a long time, so I never went. It’s really lucky that I ran into you today.”

“Actually, my problem isn’t that serious. A few months ago, I heard that when choosing a name, you should make up for the elements that are lacking in your destiny and avoid those that are taboo. When my parents named me, they just flipped through the Book of Songs and settled on one. They didn’t think about whether they should make up for the Five Elements or make the name more auspicious. I’m really worried about it, so I want to change my name.”

“I also asked a few fortune-tellers about it before, but they all seemed fake. So after I learned about you, I’ve been wanting you to take a look and tell me what you think.”

After the girl finished speaking, Chen Yuan fell silent for a moment.

There were actually quite a few people like the girl who suddenly wanted to change a name they had used for many years. But from Chen Yuan’s perspective, although he practiced metaphysics, there were many things he would advise people not to do.

For example, someone suddenly grows a mole and thinks it’s in the wrong place, so they go and have it removed. All they are left with is a little indentation, and who knows, perhaps the destiny it indicated was actually better. Or someone is told that Fire is taboo in their destiny, so they stop wearing red, never enter the kitchen, stop using lighters, and don’t even light mosquito coils. Being that sensitive is rather incredible.

And someone like this, wanting to change her name over such a minor reason, likewise struck Chen Yuan as pointless.

“What is your name?” he asked the girl.

“Ge Tan,” the girl replied.

Ge Tan was also the title of a poem from the Book of Songs :

How the dolichos spread itself out, Extending to the middle of the valley! Its leaves were luxuriant; The yellow birds flew about, And collected on the thickly growing trees, Their pleasant notes resounding far.

It spoke of a girl returning to her parents’ home, carrying her parents’ longing for their daughter. Leaving aside questions of auspiciousness or misfortune, it was a good name.

Chen Yuan showed no expression, still looking as calm and unconcerned as ever. But Yu Shenliu, watching beside him, knew that Chen Yuan was not particularly comfortable at the moment.

“Have you discussed this with your parents before? After all, changing your name isn’t particularly convenient. You’ve already used this name for so many years.” Chen Yuan asked Ge Tan in an even tone. This was something he cared about deeply.

Chen Yuan himself had been an abandoned child raised by an old Daoist, so he had always been somewhat hung up on the matter of parents. Seemingly ordinary names, even somewhat clumsy ones like “So-and-so’s Bao (Treasure),” often reflected the deep love parents had for their children. Wanting to discard such a name always made him feel as though it was a kind of desecration of their parents’ love.

“I’m already this old. I can just change it myself. Besides, isn’t a name just a label?” Ge Tan muttered somewhat dismissively. She knew that changing her name without saying anything would make her parents unhappy. That was precisely why she hadn’t told them.

“If it’s just a label, then why worry about whether it’s auspicious or inauspicious?” Chen Yuan countered.

There was such a thing as auspiciousness or inauspiciousness in a name, and Chen Yuan himself could even calculate the fortune of a name. But generally speaking, he didn’t like the practice of casually changing one’s name.

Take the Ming dynasty, for example. Starting with Zhu Yuanzhang and continuing down the generations, each princely household had its own generational naming system, with the radicals for Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth required to alternate in use. This was completely different from the practice of simply making up for whatever element was supposedly lacking.

“Huh?” The girl was stunned by his answer. “B-but if I don’t change it, I just can’t stop worrying about it.”

The young man beside her had also figured out Chen Yuan’s thinking. The real issue was simply that the girl hadn’t told her parents, so Chen Yuan disapproved of her changing her name on her own. He couldn’t help speaking up. “Master Chen, actually, her parents already know about this. They just haven’t told her. They also think that if changing her name would be better for her, then she should go ahead and choose another name.”

Hearing this, Chen Yuan could only sigh inwardly. Her parents had spent who knew how much time coming up with her name. Would they really say so casually that she could change it? It was still somewhat regrettable. From the moment they learned they were expecting a child to the time the child was born and the name was entered on the official documents, that name had been carefully nurtured over such a long period, and it was filled with love.

Yet allowing their daughter to change her name was also an expression of love.

That was tolerance.

“Tell me your Bazi.” Chen Yuan relented.

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