Ice and Fire: Chung Kuo Series (45 page)
Read Ice and Fire: Chung Kuo Series Online
Authors: David Wingrove
Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #General, #Science fiction, #Dystopian
Wen P’ing | | Tsao Ch’un’s man. A bully |
Winter, Alison | | Jake Reed’s girlfriend at New College and evaluation executive at GenSyn |
Winter, Jake | | Son of AlisonWinter |
Wu Chi | | AI (Artificial Intelligence) to Tobias Lahm |
Wu Hsien | | one of the original Seven; advisor to Tsao Ch’un |
Wyatt, Edmund | | businessman and (unknown to him) father of Kim Ward |
Yang Hong Yu | | legal advocate |
Yo Jou His | | a judge |
Yu Ch’o | | family retainer toWang Hui So |
GLOSSARY OF MANDARIN TERMS
T
he transcription of standard Mandarin into a European alphabetical form was first
achieved in the seventeenth century by the Italian,
Matteo Ricci, who founded and ran the first Jesuit Mission in China from 1583 until
his death in 1610. Since then several dozen attempts have been made to reduce the
original Chinese sounds,
represented by some tens of thousands of separate pictograms, into readily understandable
phonetics for Western use. For a long time, however, three systems dominated-those
used by the three major
Western powers vying for influence in the corrupt and crumbling Chinese Empire of
the nineteenth century: Great Britain; France; and Germany. These systems were the
Wade-Giles (Great Britain and
America – sometimes known as the Wade System), the Ecole francaise d’Extrême-Orient
(France) and the Lessing (Germany).
Since 1958, however, the Chinese themselves have sought to create one single phonetic
form, based on the German system, which they termed the
hanyu pinyin fang’an
(Scheme for a
Chinese Phonetic Alphabet), known more commonly as pinyin, and in all foreign language
books published in China since 1 January 1979 pinyin has been used, as well as being
taught now in schools
alongside the standard Chinese characters. For this work, however, I have chosen to
use the older, and to my mind, far more elegant transcription system, the Wade-Giles
(in modified form). For
those now used to the harder forms of pinyin the following may serve as a basic conversion
guide, the Wade-Giles first, the pinyin after.
p for b | | ch’ for q |
ts’forc | | j for r |
ch’ for ch | | t’ for t |
t for d | | hs for x |
k for g | | ts for z |
ch for j | | ch for zh |
The effect is, I hope, to render the softer, more poetic side of the original Mandarin,
ill-served, I feel, by modern pinyin.
It is not intended to belabour the reader with a whole mass of arcane Han expressions
here. Some – usually the more specific – are explained in contect. However,
as a number of Mandarin terms are used naturally in the text, I’ve thought it best
to provide a brief explanation of these terms.
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 LandWithout 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
grams. 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. There 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 ‘principle 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 antlike employees of the Ministry
of Distribution
Chia Ch’eng
Honorary Assistant to the Royal Household
chi’an
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 recognise his own
face, it is a
sign that his own death is not far off. [See also
hu hsin chung
.]
ch’ing
ch’a
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. See ‘The Feast Of The Dead’ in Book Four
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
