The Flower Banquet (Part 4)

The Flower Banquet (Part 4) (花都刺客 (其四)), lit. 'Flower Capital Assassin (Part 4)') is the fourth chapter of the manhua Assassin's Creed: Dynasty written by Xu Xianzhe.

Behind the scenes

Translation errors

In the English edition of Assassin's Creed: Dynasty, published by Tokyopop, there are translation errors throughout the chapter. The following are the most significant.

• When the boss of Yang Guozhong's flower delegates responds to Li E's threat with "In all the 109 wards of the city of Chang'an, there is not a single resident who would dare say these words to my face," this is mistranslated as "In all of the 109 households in Chang'an, there is not a single citizen who would dare to say that to me."
  • Chang'an during the Tang dynasty was divided into a grid of 109 wards, which were walled neighbourhoods separated from another by broad streets. With a population of at least a million people in the 8th century, ^{[citation needed]} it had far more than a mere 109 households.
• When Li E claims to the thugs "Out of fairness, I'll only draw one blade", this is translated to "To make it fair, I'll only use one dagger".
  • This is inaccurate because the Chinese expression used here 「只出一刀」(lit. 'only take out one blade') does not just mean that only one weapon will be used; it means that there will only be one strike involving a bladed weapon (i.e. "I'll only use my blade once"). Li E is boasting that he can more or less eliminate them all unarmed, and he proceeds to do just this until targeting the boss himself whom he had saved for last. The "one bladed strike" is that of the Hidden Blade.
  • The translation of 刀 (Mandarin: dāo, Cantonese: dou¹) as 'dagger' is also erroneous. In Chinese, 刀 most commonly refers to a knife (not a dagger) or a single-edged sword, but in this context it refers to any bladed weapon in general. Translating it as 'dagger' makes even less sense considering that Li E uses the Hidden Blade, which is not a dagger.