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For listening immersion purposes, I supplement the other elements of my Mandarin study with an episode of a C-drama each day. In the first moments of the first episode of the series "Begin Again", after describing the various positive traits of the female protagonist, a man says the following:

鹿鸣从上到下就没有人敢不听她的

Where "鹿鸣" has already been established to be the name of the corporation she heads, called "Deer Sing" in English signage at other points in the series. My general sense of this sentence's meaning is "Where Deer Sing (Lu Ming) is concerned, from top to bottom, nobody dares defy her." The English subtitles on iQiYi roughly align with this: "Nobody in Deer Sing (Lu Ming) dares go against her," though this passes over the 从上到下 phrase entirely, it seems.

My question is, what is the specific function of 就 in this sentence? I have read that it can have the sense of "regarding" or "as far as ____ is concerned"--not dissimilar to certain applications of Japanese は, which is where the opening of my translation attempt comes from, but the English subtitles on iQiYi made me wonder if it might be part of an idiomatic phrase e.g. "从上到下就", but also as 就 has so many possible functions, I just have low confidence in my guess generally.

Thank you in advance.

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鹿鸣从上到下就没有人敢不听她的

  • 鹿鸣 ("Deer Sing" is an organization)

  • 从上到下 (from top to bottom)

  • 没有人敢不听她的 (no one dares to not obey her)

  • 就没有人敢不听她的 (just no one dares to not obey her)

就 here means "just" used for emphasis (simply, unexceptionally)

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  • I’m curious if 鹿鳴就沒有人敢不聽她的 would sound natural or 從上到下 makes 就 natural.
    – tuo
    Commented Jun 4, 2023 at 6:03
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    從上到下 makes 就 natural. Adding 就 in "在鹿鳴內(就)沒有人敢不聽她的" would cause confusion, it can either mean "just" for emphasis or "is concerned" to stress it only happens in Deer Sing, not any other place
    – Tang Ho
    Commented Jun 4, 2023 at 6:14

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