Jiang Li's family tree and familial terms of address in The Double

by coquelicoq

Summary:

This is a guide to Jiang Li's family, including how each person is related to her, with special attention given to the hanzi and pinyin of both their names and the terms of address other people use for them. A translation and/or the equivalent given in the English subtitles is provided for family terms (e.g., biaoge, jiejie) and other terms of address (e.g., furen, langjun). Thirty-one characters (paternal and maternal relatives and their servants) are included.

If you're writing a fic and can't remember what Jiang Jingrui calls Jiang Li, or what Ye Shijie's peers call him, or what the name of Ji Shuran's maidservant is, or if you're confused about how many sisters Jiang Li has and whether she's the oldest child, you've come to the right place!

Notes:

I originally posted this to tumblr at https://coquelicoq.tumblr.com/post/754112272045113344/jiang-lis-family-tree-and-familial-terms-of. This version differs in two ways: 1) the tumblr version includes character title cards (a still of the person's first appearance, when the hanzi for their name is given), and 2) the ao3 version includes spoilers. I would include the title cards here, but I don't know how to embed images lol. I have included the text from the title card as a consolation prize, but if you want to see pictures you'll have to hit up the tumblr post.

I made this guide for my own reference because there were several family relationships in The Double that I misinterpreted at first based on how they were translated in the English subs, so I went back and compared to the Chinese subs.

The most important disclaimer is that I am not a Chinese speaker (or reader). I've watched/participated in the fandoms of several C-dramas and have always been interested in and paid special attention to family terms, but these are obviously very weak as credentials go! I have access to the Chinese subs, as well as multiple sets of English subs, and a Chinese-English dictionary, and I'm indebted to the family term guides I've read over the years, many of which are linked to as relevant. I'm sure there was a lot that I missed, and there might be some errors in the hanzi because I relied a lot on copying and pasting from one part of the guide to another, since I don't know how to type hanzi with my own keyboard. Please feel free, but not at all obligated, to point out any typos or places where I've misinterpreted something!

Apologies in advance for any inconsistencies in the pinyin punctuation (hyphen vs. apostrophe vs. space vs. smooshed together); it varies widely across sources and I don't think I have a clear enough understanding of the nuances to be confident I'm being consistent in applying the conventions, but I'm including the hanzi as well as an English translation (if the translation is in quotation marks (and not following the word "literally") it’s from the subs, usually Viki but not always).

I'm referring to Jiang Li in the present tense here for convenience, but since she's dead for the majority of the show, when I say "Jiang Li calls so-and-so xyz," of course it's almost always actually Xue Fangfei acting as Jiang Li who's doing that.

Chapter 1: Jiang Li (姜梨)

Notes:

I decided at the last minute to add accent marks to the pinyin. They aren't included in English-language fic/meta/what have you, but it seemed more comprehensive to have them just for reference. I've only given them for the character's name (not for more general terms like jiejie), and only once for each person. I wasn't able to determine the tone for the final character of Jiang Yuanxing's name; according to both dictionaries I checked, 兴 can be either xìng or xīng, and unfortunately I can't distinguish tones myself so idk how people are pronouncing it in the show when they say his name.

Jiāng Lí (姜梨), aka Jiāng Ruòyǔ (姜若雨), is the second child and second daughter of Jiang Yuanbai. She’s his only child with his first wife, Ye Zhenzhen.

[Title card caption: 姜若雨 字阿梨 [Jiang Ruoyu, Jiang Li].]

According to this title card, her courtesy name is A'Li (阿梨). This means that in this universe, people are given courtesy names in childhood rather than upon maturity. No one ever calls her or refers to her as Ruoyu that I noticed.

The name on her tombstone is Jiang Li.

She is 18 or thereabouts (she was sent away from the family 10 years ago at age 8) when she dies at the beginning of the series.

She was accused of fratricide and attempted matricide at age 8 when she was blamed for her stepmother's miscarriage.

Her maternal grandmother came to get her 13 years ago, so she was probably around 5 at the time.

Sometimes in the subs she’s referred to as the eldest daughter or the firstborn. For instance, when Ji Shuran says in episode 7 梨儿终究是我家嫡女, the Viki subs give "Li'er is the firstborn." Another example is in episode 5; someone in the crowd at Jiang Ruoyao's coming-of-age ceremony refers to Jiang Li as Jiang Yuanbai's 嫡长之女, which Viki translates as "eldest daughter". I think this is probably a mistranslation. The character 嫡, di, means "legal wife" or "child of legal wife" and also is one of the characters in the title of the novel The Double was based on, 嫡嫁千金 (Marriage of the Di Daughter). (The other relevant character in the above examples is 女, nü, meaning daughter.) She's not the eldest daughter, but she is the eldest legitimate daughter (born to a legal wife rather than a concubine). In episode 6, Jiang Li refers to herself as 嫡女, and that time it's translated as "legitimate daughter" (Jiang Ruoyao also refers to herself as the same thing in episode 26, and it's "legitimate daughter" there as well). In episodes 26 and 32, Jiang Li is referred to as 姜家的嫡娘子, translated as "legitimate daughter of the Jiang family".

As the second daughter of a noble family, she is referred to outside the family as Jiang-er'niangzi (姜二娘子, “Second Lady Jiang”). Family servants simply call her niangzi or er’niangzi (“My Lady” or “Miss Jiang”). (Note that Tong'er calls Jiang Li niangzi but tends to call Xue Fangfei jiejie (姐姐, older sister) when they're alone.)

Her younger sister Jiang Ruoyao and younger cousin Jiang Yu’e call her er'jie (二姐, older sister, second in the birth order; subs translate this as “Second Sister” or, more often, “Li” even though they’re not actually using her name at all). Her younger brother Jiang Bingji calls her jiejie; Jiang Ruoyao also sometimes calls her jiejie.

People in her family who are older than her call her A'Li (阿梨]) or Li'er (梨儿). A'Li, according to her title card, is her courtesy name, but "A" and "er" are also affectionate/familiar prefixes often used in families. Most people who call her one of these things (including Xue Fangfei, her paternal family, her mother, her mom’s friend Liu-furen) call her Li’er, while her maternal family (other than her mother) tends to call her A’Li.

Jiang Li’s paternal grandmother calls her Li’er, haizi (孩子, child), and er’yatou (二丫头, literally second girl). The latter two are generally given in the subs as Li or Li’er.

Her aunt (her father’s younger brother’s wife) calls her wo de hai zhinü (我的好侄女, “my dear niece”) at one point when she’s feeling particularly appreciative (episode 12).

Her older maternal cousin Ye Shijie calls her/refers to her as Jiang Li initially, then as they become closer starts calling her both Li’er and A’Li, though I noticed him using Li’er more often. He also calls her biaomei (表妹, younger female maternal cousin, maternal meaning you're related through your mother and/or her mother; in this case, Jiang Li’s mother is his father’s sister), as does her other maternal cousin, Ye Jia’er.

Her older paternal cousin Jiang Jingrui calls her Jiang Li. As they become closer, he starts calling her A’Li or Li’er.

Zhou Yanbang, her former fiancé, calls her Li’er in episode 13 when he thinks she came to meet him in secret (it’s actually Jiang Yu'e).

Her school friend Liu Xu calls her Jiang Li in the earlier episodes and A’Li as they become closer.

She refers to herself (that is, Xue Fangfei refers to Jiang Li and/or herself-as-Jiang-Li) as Li’er or A’Li.

Note that while some people in Jiang Li's family call her A'Li (阿梨), when Su-guogong calls (Xue Fangfei as) Jiang Li A'Li, the Chinese subs use 阿狸 (different li character). They are pronounced identically, but the latter is the way that Xue Fangfei’s given name, Xue Li, is written (薛狸).

Notes:

A note about maternal cousins and the biao prefix. There are four basic situations for first cousins: 1) your fathers are brothers, 2) your mothers are sisters, 3) your father is their mother's brother, or 4) your mother is their father's sister.

In English, your paternal cousins are those related to you through your father (situations 1 and 3), and your maternal cousins are those related through your mother (situations 2 and 4). Just because somebody is your maternal cousin doesn't mean you are their maternal cousin - that's only the case in situation 2, where you're both related through your mothers. So in English, it's not reciprocal; someone can be my maternal cousin without me also being their maternal cousin (i.e., situation 4; they are my maternal cousin but I am their paternal cousin).

The tang 堂 and biao 表 cousin prefixes work differently. Tang ("paternal") cousins are only those in situation 1, where you're both related through your fathers. All other cousins are biao ("maternal"), because at least one of the two siblings (your parent and your cousin's parent) is a mother, it doesn't matter which. This means that in Chinese the cousin prefixes do match, unlike in English; if I'm someone's biao cousin, they are also my biao cousin, and vice versa.

Ye Shijie and Ye Jia'er are Jiang Li's maternal cousins (her biaoge and biaojie respectively); their fathers are the brothers of Jiang Li's mother (situation 4 from Jiang Li's perspective). Jiang Li is the biaomei of Ye Shijie and Ye Jia'er, which is generally translated into English as "younger female maternal cousin", though since she is related to them through their fathers, in English we would call her their paternal cousin.