An Inch of Ashes (48 page)

aiya!

a common expression of surprise or dismay

amah

a domestic maidservant

Amo Li Jia

the Chinese gave this name to North America when they first arrived in the 1840s. Its literal meaning is ‘The Land Without Ghosts’

an

a saddle. This has the same sound as the word for peace, and thus is associated in the Chinese mind with peace

catty

the colloquial term for a unit of measure formally called a
jin
. One catty – as used here – equals roughly 1.1. pounds (avoirdupois), or (exactly) 500 gm. Before 1949 and the standardization of Chinese measures to a metric standard, this measure varied district by district, but was generally regarded as equalling about 1.33 pounds (avoirdupois)

ch’a

tea; it might be noted that
ch’a shu
, the Chinese art of tea, is an ancient forebear of the Japanese tea ceremony
chanoyu
.
Hsiang p’ien
are flower teas,
Ch’ing
ch’a are green, unfermented teas

ch’a hao t’ai

literally, a ‘directory’

ch’a shu

the art of tea, adopted later by the Japanese in their tea ceremony. The
ch’a
god is Lu Yu and his image can be seen on banners outside teahouses throughout Chung Kuo

chan shih

a ‘fighter’, here denoting a
tong
soldier

chang

ten
ch’i
, thus about 12 feet (Western)

Chang-e

the goddess of the Moon, and younger sister of the Spirit of the Waters. The moon represents the very essence of the female principal,
Yin
, in opposition to the Sun, which is
Yang.
Legend has it that Chang-e stole the elixir of immortality from her husband, the great archer Shen I, then fled to the Moon for safety, where she was transformed into a toad, which, so it is said, can still be seen against the whiteness of the moon’s surface

chang shan

literally ‘long dress’, which fastens to the right. Worn by both sexes. The woman’s version is a fitted, calf-length dress similar to the
chi pao
. A south China fashion, it is also known as a
cheung sam

chao tai hui

an ‘entertainment’, usually, within
Chung Kuo
, of an expensive and sophisticated kind

chen yen

true words; the Chinese equivalent of a mantra

ch’eng

The word means both ‘City’ and ‘Wall’

Ch’eng Ou Chou

City Europe

Ch’eng Hsiang

‘Chancellor’, a post first established in the Ch’in court more than two thousand years ago

ch’i

a Chinese ‘foot’; approximately 14.4 inches

ch’i

‘inner strength’; one of the two fundamental ‘entities’ from which everything is composed.
Li
is the ‘form’ or ‘law’, or (to cite Joseph Needham) the ‘principal of organization’ behind things, whereas ch’i is the ‘matter-energy’ or ‘spirit’ within material things, equating loosely to the
Pneuma
of the Greeks and the
prana
of the ancient Hindus. As the sage Chu Hsi (
AD
1130–1200) said, ‘The
li
is the
Tao
that pertains to “what is above shapes” and is the source from which all things are produced. The
ch’i
is the material [literally instrument] that pertains to “what is within shapes”, and is the means whereby things are produced... Throughout the universe there is no ch’i without
li
. Or
li
without
ch’i
.’

chi ch’i

common workers, but used here mainly to denote the ant-like employees of the Ministry of Distribution

Chia Ch’eng

Honorary Assistant to the Royal Household

ch’ian

a general term for money

chiao tzu

a traditional North Chinese meal of meat-filled dumplings eaten with a hot spicy sauce

Chieh Hsia

term meaning ‘Your Majesty’, derived from the expression ‘Below the Steps’. It was the formal way of addressing the Emperor, through his Ministers, who stood ‘below the steps’

chi pao

literally ‘banner gown’, a one-piece gown of Manchu origin, usually sleeveless, worn by women

chih chu

a spider

ch’in

a long (120 cm), narrow, lacquered zither with a smooth top surface and sound holes beneath, seven silk strings and thirteen studs marking the harmonic positions on the strings. Early examples have been unearthed from fifth century
BC
tombs, but it probably evolved in the fourteenth or thirteenth century
BC
. It is the most honoured of Chinese instruments and has a lovely mellow tone

Chin P’ing Mei

The Golden Lotus
, an erotic novel, written by an unknown scholar – possibly anonymously by the writer Wang Shih-chen – at the beginning of the seventeenth century as a continuation of the
Shui Hui Chuan
, or ‘Warriors of the Marsh’, expanding chapters 23 to 25 of the
Shan Hui
, which relate the story of how Wu Sung became a bandit. Extending the story beyond this point,
The Golden Lotus
has been accused of being China’s great licentious (even, perhaps, pornographic) novel. But as C.P. Fitzgerald says, ‘If this book is indecent in parts, it is only because, telling a story of domestic life, it leaves out nothing.’ It is available in a three-volume English-language translation

ch’ing

pure

ching

literally ‘mirror’, here used also to denote a perfect GenSyn copy of a man. Under the Edict of Technological Control, these are limited to copies of the ruling T’ang and their closest relatives. However, mirrors were also popularly believed to have certain strange properties, one of which was to make spirits visible. Buddhist priests used special ‘magic mirrors’ to show believers the form into which they would be reborn. Moreover, if a man looks into one of these mirrors and fails to recognize his own face, it is a sign that his own death is not far off. [See also
hu hsin chung
.]

ch’ing cha

green, unfermented teas

Ch’ing Ming

the Festival of Brightness and Purity, when the graves are swept and offerings made to the deceased. Also known as the Festival of Tombs, it occurs at the end of the second moon and is used for the purpose of celebrating the spring, a time for rekindling the cooking fires after a three-day period in which the fires were extinguished and only cold food eaten

Chou

literally, ‘State’, but here used as the name of a card game based on the politics of Chung Kuo

chow mein

this, like chop suey, is neither a Chinese nor a Western dish, but a special meal created by the Chinese in North America for the Western palate. A transliteration of
chao mian
(fried noodles), it is a distant relation of the
liang mian huang
served in Suchow

ch’u

the west

chun hua

literally, ‘Spring Pictures’. These are, in fact, pornographic ‘pillow books’, meant for the instruction of newly-weds

ch’un tzu

an ancient Chinese term from the Warring States period, describing a certain class of noblemen, controlled by a code of chivalry and morality known as the
li
, or rites. Here the term is roughly, and sometimes ironically, translated as ‘gentlemen’. The ch’un tzu is as much an ideal state of behaviour – as specified by Confucius in the
Analects
– as an actual class in Chung Kuo, though a degree of financial independence and a high standard of education are assumed a prerequisite

chung

a lidded ceramic serving bowl for
ch’a

chung hsin

loyalty

E hsing hsun huan

a saying: ‘Bad nature follows a cycle’

er

two

erh tzu

son

erhu

a traditional Chinese instrument

fa

punishment

fen

a unit of currency; see
yuan
. It has another meaning, that of a ‘minute’ of clock time, but that usage is avoided here to prevent any confusion

feng yu

a ‘phoenix chair’, canopied and decorated with silver birds. Coloured scarlet and gold, this is the traditional carriage for a bride as she is carried to her wedding ceremony

fu jen

‘Madam’, used here as opposed to
t’ai t’ai,
‘Mrs’

fu sang

the hollow mulberry tree; according to ancient Chinese cosmology this tree stands where the sun rises and is the dwelling place of rulers.
Sang
(mulberry) however has the same sound as
sang
(sorrow) in Chinese

Han

term used by the Chinese to describe their own race, the ‘black-haired people’, dating back to the Han dynasty (210
BC
–
AD
220). It is estimated that some ninety-four per cent of modern China’s population are Han racially

Hei

literally ‘black’. The Chinese pictogram for this represents a man wearing war paint and tattoos. Here it refers specifically to the genetically manufactured half-men, made by GenSyn and used as riot police to quell uprisings in the lower levels of the City

ho yeh

Nelumbo Nucifera
, or lotus, the seeds of which are used in Chinese medicine to cure insomnia

Hoi Po

the corrupt officials who dealt with the European traders in the nineteenth century, more commonly known as ‘hoppos’

Hsia

a crab

hsiang p’en

flower
ch’a

hsiao

filial piety. The character for
hsiao
is comprised of two parts, the upper part meaning ‘old’, the lower meaning ‘son’ or ‘child’. This dutiful submission of the young to the old is at the heart of Confucianism and Chinese culture generally

Hsiao chieh

‘Miss’, or an unmarried woman. An alternative to
nu shi

hsiao jen

‘little man/men’. In the
Analects
, Book XIV, Confucius writes, ‘The gentleman gets through to what is up above; the small man gets through to what is down below.’ This distinction between ‘gentlemen’ (
ch’un tzu
) and ‘little men’ (
hsiao jen
), false even in Confucius’s time, is no less a matter of social perspective in Chung Kuo

hsien

historically an administrative district of variable size. Here the term is used to denote a very specific administrative area, one of ten stacks – each stack composed of 30 decks. Each deck is a hexagonal living unit of ten levels, two
li
, or approximately one kilometre, in diameter. A stack can be imagined as one honeycomb in the great hive that is the City. Each
hsien
of the city elects one Representative to sit in the House at Weimar

Hsien Ling

Chief Magistrate, in charge of a
Hsien
. In Chung Kuo these officials are the T’ang’s representatives and law enforcers for the individual
hsien
. In times of peace each
hsien
would also elect one Representative to sit in the House at Weimar