长安就已经闹过一次疳霉疮
“already an outbreak of syphilis infection in Chang'an.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
去年的时候
“Last year, there was”
长安 就已经 闹过 一次疳霉疮
“already an outbreak of syphilis infection in Chang'an.”
“Miss Hua Mei of the Music Office also contracted the same disease,”
“This has happened before, so look into last year's records to find the connection.”
In traditional Chinese narratives, sudden epidemics in capital cities often serve as harbingers of political corruption, espionage, or institutional failure.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
suffered an outbreak once / had an episode once
The verb '闹' is colloquially paired with disasters, diseases, or conflicts (e.g., 闹病, 闹灾) to denote disruption or turmoil.
already as early as
Use this structure to emphasize that an event took place earlier than the listener might assume.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“that there's people with syphilis in Chang'an.”
“I heard Commandery Prince An is infected as well.”
“We came to investigate the syphilis infection,”
“he would die first, struck by syphilis infection.”
“you assumed he knew you had syphilis”
“I discovered I had a syphilis infection.”