Description
🌟 Phoenix Lady is extremely rare as it is a limited edition of 588, Acelion / King Star have a policy never to reprint. It was not sold separately, only available for sale on one opportunity:
– 13 Sep 2020 – King Star’s debut Cloud / Sea series sold a half brick of 6 decks
5 x Qiong Gou (Silver 9 Tailed Fox)
1 x Phoenix Lady (This was 100% guaranteed)
– My source is from a reliable reseller who was operating a physical shop but had to close down & liquidate due to pandemic repeated lockdowns. Business was bad, and he finds it hard to switch online. All decks have gone through extensive QC checks and are in perfect condition.
Unfortunately due to hoarders and speculators, the price of King Star / Acelion decks have now bloated up. Please note that this price was not set by me. Moving forward, I hope that we can all work to get King Star decks at a more reasonable price and prevent this practice. To me, King Star and Acelion decks are beautiful and exquisite works of art, they are not gold bars to be treated like a commodity!
❓I actually don’t encourage anyone to get this, unless you really want to. But, for those who were lucky to get this before, at a more reasonable price, I hope the backstory enhances your appteciation of your deck! Meanwhile let’s all enjoy the amazing artwork!
🌟Note: the following are all provided by King Star officially, that’s why it takes so long to translate their epic story. But it also gives a different dimension to appreciate what is already a beautiful deck of cards. When you remove the inner and outer tuck, you can truly feel the emotional turmoil of the lady. For brevity, I will refer to this deck as Phoenix Lady, but in reality it translates to Phoenix: Song of Courtship
🌟 [凤求凰] Fans who know KING STAR must know that your Deer Brother 鹿哥 has always given people a huge surprise in terms of hidden decks. In Cloud / Sea series, there are not one, but TWO secret decks – Cold Light and Phoenix Lady.
🌟 Both [Phoenic Lady] and [Cold Light] are limited to 588 decks each, with unique number stickers, and will never be printed… This is not even the least of it. During the printing process of [Phoenix Lady], your Deer Brother has destroyed some decks due to production issues… The exact amount of flawless decks that actually exist will be far lesser than 588, so… As long as you have any chance to get [Phoenix Lady], please don’t miss it!
🌟 The artistic concept of this deck can be said to be the pinnacle of what the Acelion design team has achieved so far. It is inspired by Chinese classical music and lyrics. It is also the ultimate “love song” from the talented scholar Sima Xiangru to the lady Zhuo Wenjun. In ancient times, a 才子 is a brilliant young man who excels in appreciation of the arts like poetry, music, whereas a 奇女子 is an exceptional lady who’s refined and versed in the arts as well.
🌟 According to legend, Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun – one was a gifted man who was regarded as an esteemed guest of honor by the county magistrate of Linqiong, and the other was a beautiful woman who was newly widowed.
🌟 Their story began with Sima Xiangru as a guest of the Zhuo family, playing and singing the famous “凤求凰 Feng Qiuhuang” in the lobby of the Zhuo family mansion:
“The phoenix returns to his hometown, traveling all over the world in search of his lady phoenix.” This is a song of bold courtship in a very conservative time, lamenting how a phoenix is searching for his other half even as they will burn in flames of passion.
🌟 A literal translation doesn’t portray the beauty of the elegant verses. Basically, he observes that there is a beautiful lady in the boudoir (which was really bold as a guest would not be permitted into the inner rooms of a lady), and I’m tormented inside, my guts are poisoned. How do we entwine like mandarin ducks?
🌟 This kind of blunt, bold, and passionate language, even from today’s perspective, naturally stunned Zhuo Wenjun, who was listening behind curtains for modesty. After meeting Sima Xiangru face to face in secret, they fell in love at first sight and agreed to elope.
🌟 That night, Zhuo Wenjun packed up and left her abode, rendezvous with Sima, who was already waiting outside, thus accomplishing the most glorious event in their lives.
🌟 Zhuo Wenjun is truly an exceptional woman. After she went with Sima Xiangru to Chengdu, they were outcast by his family. Undeterred, they went back to his old lodgings in Lin Qiong to open a tavern and sold the wine by their own abilities. This gained the respect and recognition of his previously scandalized father.
🌟 Life was difficult, but the relationship between the two deepened by the day. This is also the most romantic fleeing in the night love story that has been circulated to this day.
🌟 The lady depicted on the outer tuck shows the cheeky indefatigable spirit of Zhuo Wenjun as a plucky tavern boss who defied social norms in search of her own happiness. The inner tuck shows her solemn and gentle, lonely in the privacy of her boudoir.
🌟 But since ancient times, most men have always disappointed. Sima Xiangru was no exception. When he was more advanced in his career and was finally promoted as a government official, he lived in the capital for a long time, admiring all the transient beauties (elegant phrase for ladies of the night). In addition, he was proud of being a lord and actually considered dumping his faithful wife in order to welcome a concubine.
🌟 At this moment, he had long forgotten the days when they shared weal and woe, and were deeply in love. Naturally he didn’t even consider that there was a wife a thousand miles away who missed her husband day and night. Wenjun guards an empty room and leads a lonely life day after day, year after year.
🌟 A song “白头吟 Baitou Yin” (Lament of the Elderly) goes, “… Hearing that the gentleman has double intentions, and has the intention to end things. I wish to be one-hearted, and inseparable even when I have a white head….” This song expresses her persistence and yearning for love and the unique resolve and tenacity of a woman. It also adds an element of tragic beauty to their story.
🌟 Finally one day, Sima Xiangru sent a 13-character letter to his wife: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand. (一二三四五六七八九十百千万) The intelligent Zhuo Wenjun burst into tears after reading it. In the row of numbers, only 亿 hundred million was missing. It sounded exactly like “无意” implying that the husband has no more intentions. Her heart turned cold. With a very sad mood, she replied with a “怨郎诗 Poem of Resent towards a Gentleman”.
🌟 The poem said: After one farewell, two places hang next to each other. Although it is March and April, or even five or six years passed. The lyre (seven strings) is left aside unplayed, the eight-line scripture is unread, the nine series of rings are broken from the middle, and the ten-mile pavilion anxiously awaits. Hundreds of thoughts, thousands of missing someone, unable to blame the gentleman (万般无奈 literally ten thousand feeling resigned).
🌟 After reading his wife’s letter, Sima Xiangru couldn’t help but marvel at the immense talent of his wife. Thinking of the past love they had, he was so ashamed that he no longer mentioned the matter of divorcing his wife and taking concubines. This poem has also become the masterpiece of Zhuo Wenjun’s life as a poem in maths / numbers. When you read it carefully, love and hate are intertwined and come alive on paper.
🌟 Zhuo Wenjun used her own wisdom to save her husband from betraying her. She managed her love and marriage, and finally overcame her struggle. In the end, they did not abandon their initial love and persisted till the end. This also makes their story being passed on thousands of times and become an everlasting love song for the ages.
🌟 [Phoenix Lady] Adopting a no courts and no numbers design, the card surface is extremely stunning! (Because it is a hidden deck, no further preview images were released by King Star)
🌟 This deck features Vermillion Red Gilded Edges. The focus is again on cardistry, this is a Gilded deck you can fan easily.
🌟 For some really cool photos depicting this beautiful legend, please click on to see
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