Glossary / Dao Companions and Romance
Dao Companions and Romance in Chinese: 76 Terms and Their English Renderings
Romance in a genre about self-improvement: partners, ties, and the tribulation love causes.
76 terms
| Chinese | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 道侣 | Dao Companion | A partner in cultivation and in life. More formal than a lover, more intimate than an ally. |
| 双修 | Dual Cultivation | Two cultivators advancing together through intimacy. Can be mutual, or one-sided and predatory. |
| 情劫 | Fated Romance Tribulation | A romantic attachment that becomes an obstacle to the Dao. Killing the person is a common solution. |
| 红尘 | Mortal Dust | The ordinary world and its attachments. Leaving it is presented as strength, and always costs something. |
| 姻缘 | Marriage Destiny | A match fated rather than chosen. Used in both blessing and curse. |
| 红颜 | Confidante | A beautiful woman close to the protagonist, usually with complications attached. |
| 情根深种 | Love Rooted Deep | Attachment that has already grown in too far to remove. Said with sympathy, or as a diagnosis. |
| 棒打鸳鸯 | Beat Apart the Mandarins | Outside force breaking up a couple. Delivered as a complaint, not a description. |
| 结契 | Bond | The formal joining of two cultivators. Heavier than a wedding: it ties their cultivation together as well. |
| 情丝 | Threads of Affection | Attachment that has already taken hold. A warning in this genre, not a compliment. |
| 相思 | Yearning | Missing someone who is not coming back. In cultivation fiction, usually a weakness with a name. |
| 情伤 | Love Wound | The injury left by a relationship. It slows the cultivation and never quite closes. |
| 情种 | Lovesick Fool | Someone who keeps falling in love. Said with pity, or with contempt. |
| 殉情 | Die for Love | Choosing death over the loss. Romantic in mortal tales, stupid in this one. |
| 私奔 | Elope | Leaving the sect, the clan and the marriage contract in one night. |
| 婚约 | Betrothal | A contract between families. Signed by people who were not consulted. |
| 退婚 | Break the Betrothal | Calling off an arranged match. In this genre, the single most reliable opening chapter. |
| 联姻 | Political Marriage | Two families joined for advantage. Nobody involved is expected to be happy. |
| 双修功法 | Dual Cultivation Art | A technique practised by two people. Effective, and the source of every misunderstanding. |
| 欢好 | Intimacy | The polite word. Roughly what the chapter fades to black on. |
| 心上人 | Beloved | The person someone is thinking about instead of cultivating. |
| 旧情 | Old Love | Something that ended and did not finish. |
| 痴情 | Devoted | Loving someone past all reason. Admirable in stories, fatal in practice. |
| 负心 | Betrayer of Love | The one who left. Used as a noun, which tells you how the story feels about it. |
| 薄情 | Cold-Hearted | Capable of ending a relationship without regret. Usually said about someone still missed. |
| 情义 | Bond of Feeling | The obligation that comes from shared feeling. Weaker than duty, harder to refuse. |
| 义气 | Loyalty Between Men | Loyalty to friends rather than to rules. The virtue that makes bad decisions look noble. |
| 结拜 | Sworn Brotherhood | Becoming brothers by oath rather than blood. Cannot be undone. |
| 义兄 | Sworn Brother | The one you bound yourself to. Expected to die for you, and often does. |
| 义妹 | Sworn Sister | The same bond, female. In this genre, usually the one who survives to avenge. |
| 金兰 | Sworn Bond | The formal name for that brotherhood. Old-fashioned, and taken seriously. |
| 八拜之交 | Eight Bows | The weightiest form of sworn friendship. Eight bows, one lifetime of obligation. |
| 忘年交 | Friend Across Generations | Two people of very different ages who get along anyway. Rare, and useful. |
| 生死之交 | Friend unto Death | A friendship tested past the point where most break. |
| 酒肉朋友 | Fair-Weather Friend | Present for the feast, absent for the fight. The genre's most common relationship. |
| 情投意合 | Of One Mind and Heart | Two people who agree without negotiating. Dangerous to everyone else. |
| 相敬如宾 | Respectful as Guests | A marriage built on courtesy. Either the healthiest thing here or the coldest. |
| 举案齐眉 | Equal Partners | The classical image of a marriage of mutual respect. |
| 破镜重圆 | Broken Mirror Rejoined | Two people who separated and came back. The mirror keeps the crack. |
| 青梅竹马 | Childhood Sweethearts | Grew up together and never quite got over it. |
| 两小无猜 | Innocent Together | The same thing before anything complicated happened. |
| 一见钟情 | Love at First Sight | Instant and permanent. In this genre, usually a plot device with a sword. |
| 一往情深 | Deep Devotion | Love that does not negotiate. It ends well or it ends badly, never in between. |
| 至死不渝 | Unchanging unto Death | The vow that outlasts the person making it. Frequently tested literally. |
| 海誓山盟 | Vows of Sea and Mountain | Enormous promises made in private. In this genre, always quoted back later. |
| 天涯海角 | Ends of the Earth | As far apart as it is possible to be. The distance a character will cross anyway. |
| 生死相随 | Together in Life and Death | Following someone into anything. Admirable, and a tactical liability. |
| 阴阳相隔 | Separated by Death | One alive, one not. The distance nothing in the story can close. |
| 孤身一人 | Alone | No sect, no companion, no backup. The state that makes a protagonist interesting. |
| 独守空房 | Alone in an Empty Room | Waiting for someone who may not return. The image of a love plot in stasis. |
| 相思成疾 | Lovesick | Missing someone until the body fails. A real illness in this genre, with real consequences. |
| 合籍 | Joint Register | The formal pairing recorded by a sect. Administrative, and treated as marriage. |
| 道侣大典 | Companion Ceremony | The wedding equivalent. Public, political, and attended by rivals. |
| 情根 | Root of Feeling | The first attachment. The genre treats it as a vulnerability that can be cut out. |
| 情毒 | Love Poison | Love written as an ailment with symptoms. Treatable, and the treatment is the arc. |
| 情劫未了 | Romantic Tribulation Unfinished | An old attachment left unresolved. Returns at the worst moment. |
| 忘情 | Forgetting Love | Deliberate erasure of attachment to advance. Written as a choice, not a cure. |
| 斩情丝 | Sever the Threads | Performing the erasure. Bloodless, and permanent. |
| 红颜知己 | Kindred Friend, Female | Close without romance, in theory. The genre treats the distinction as a technicality. |
| 师兄妹情 | Senior and Junior Affection | The sect's most common romantic setup. Structural, and predictable. |
| 一家三口 | A Family of Three | Domestic unit. When it appears in the middle of a war book, someone is about to die. |
| 大婚之日 | On the Wedding Day | The phrase that precedes an interruption. A genre institution. |
| 求婚 | Proposal | In sect settings this is closer to a treaty than a question. |
| 三媒六聘 | Formal Betrothal Rites | The full traditional procedure. Used to show that a family takes the match seriously. |
| 吃醋 | Jealousy | The domestic version. Used for comedy and, occasionally, for a poisoning plot. |
| 冷战 | Cold War | A standoff between partners. In this genre, usually resolved by a fight with a common enemy. |
| 和离 | Amicable Separation | Dissolving a marriage formally. Rare, and used to make a character free. |
| 情敌 | Rival in Love | Usually a more senior cultivator with better resources. The genre's favourite method of humbling a protagonist. |
| 醋坛子 | The Vinegar Jar | Slang for someone easily jealous. Common description for a companion beast, oddly. |
| 一诺 | One Promise | A promise that outlasts a war. The genre's most durable plot device. |
| 不离不弃 | Never Leave, Never Abandon | The vow in ordinary words. Used ironically by characters about to be abandoned. |
| 同心结 | Knot of Shared Heart | A token given at betrothal. Also a minor artifact in some books. |
| 师兄妹之争 | Rivalry Within a Line | Siblings with swords. Escalates until one leaves the sect. |
| 意难平 | Unsettled Feeling | A lingering regret about a relationship. Used at the end of an arc, quietly. |
| 求而不得 | Wanted, Never Had | The classic unrequited structure. Written as a character's habit, not a confession. |
| 生死相依 | Depending on Each Other in Life and Death | The phrase used after both characters survive something impossible. |
Tone ranges from chaste to explicit depending on the book, so check before reusing a rendering. Terms follow the free cultivation novels at cultivationnovel.com.
Where these words turn up
Stories on this site that use them the way the notes describe.
My Rival Climbed Into My Bed to Ruin My CultivationA rival tries sabotage by seduction and picks the wrong target.道侣, 双修, 情劫 My Brother Wants My Dao Companion. Off to Martial Uncle He Goes.A family dispute over a dao companion, settled by the most senior relative available.道侣, 双修 Lord Emperor, Your Little Phoenix Has Run Off Again!A phoenix bride, a heavenly emperor, and a window she keeps climbing out of.婚约Source: cultivationnovel.com · Cultivation Glossary