Yu Menglong True Meaning + Why Not Fish
Yu Menglong says he has given a definition to his name "于朦朧" (Yú Méng Lóng): 余夢龍. "余" (Yú) is how Yu refers to himself; "夢" (Mèng) represents the idea that this dimension we inhabit is an illusory dreamscape — not truly real, and our eyes cannot perceive the true nature of the universe; "龍" (Lóng) means dragon, as Yu was once the leader among the dragon deity clan.
Yu En once asked Yu who gave him the poetic and romantic name "于朦朧." Yu said it was chosen by his entertainment company from a large selection of character combinations that scored well in the eight-character naming system (Ba Zi), selected as the combination that best matched Yu's appearance and personality — but it was not the name his parents originally gave him.
Because Yu's father passed away early, and his mother did not receive a higher education, she was unable to give him a refined and meaningful name. The "parents" referred to here are his adoptive father and adoptive mother. (Please refer to Cataloguing the True and False Information Yu Was Forced to Release.)
Yu En had previously studied the art of Chinese name analysis. In terms of stroke count and character meaning, the characters "朦朧" (méng lóng) carry a quality as delicate and yin as moonlight, rich with artistic sensitivity. People named Méng Lóng tend to be emotionally perceptive and considerate, with a gentle, empathetic, and introverted personality. They often bury their feelings deep inside, making it difficult to express their pain, and as a result are prone to psychological stress.
This does indeed sound very much like Yu's personality!
The character "于" (Yú) is a homophone of "魚" (yú), meaning fish. Yu En asked Yu (his Secondary Soul) whether this was the reason he does not eat fish.
Yu explained that in ancient times there was a type of fish called the "Ao Long" (鰲龍), which resembled a carp. It was a carp that had leaped over the Dragon Gate, shed its fish form, ascended to the ranks of immortals, and became a dragon — yet its image still retained the shape of a fish. Yu said that long, long ago, he was once that carp who leaped over the Dragon Gate. Of course, he was not the only one — many carp had made that leap as well, so he was not particularly exceptional among them.
In Zhuangzi · Free and Easy Wandering: "In the northern sea there is a fish, its name is Kun. The Kun is so vast, one does not know how many thousands of li it spans." This colossal fish-shaped divine creature, known as the "Kun Peng," enters the sea as a Kun and rises from the sea as a Peng. After acting in xianxia and historical costume dramas, Yu made a point of researching ancient texts, and he felt a particular admiration for this divine creature that could roam freely between sky and ocean floor. Out of respect for such fish-form divine beings — and because his own surname Yu (于) is a homophone of fish (魚) — he stopped eating fish altogether. Besides, fish has a strong odor and spoils easily; every time he finished filming and received a packed meal, the fish in the box had already turned off, and so he became even more resolute in his refusal to eat it.
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