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The Art of War

Page 30

by David Wingrove

sixth son of Li Chao Ch’in

  Li Chao Ch’in

  one of the original Seven, advisor to Tsao Ch’un

  Li Fu Jen

  third son of Li Chao Ch’in

  Li Han Ch’in

  first son of Li Shai Tung and heir to City Europe

  Li Kuang

  fifth son of Li Chao Ch’in

  Li Peng

  eldest son of Li Chao Ch’in

  Li Po

  T’ang dynasty poet

  Li Shen

  second son of Li Chao Ch’in

  Li Weng

  fourth son of Li Chao Ch’in

  Lin Yua

  first wife of Li Shai Tung

  Ling

  steward at the Black Tower

  Ludd, Drew

  biggest grossing actor in Hollywood and star of Ubik

  Lung Ti

  secretary to Edmund Wyatt

  Lwo Kang

  son of Lwo Chun-yi and Li Shai Tung’s Minster of the Edit of Technological Control

  Ma Shao Tu

  senior servant to Li Chao Ch’in

  Maitland (Fu Jen)

  Stefan Lehmann’s mother

  Mao Tse T’ung

  first Ko Ming emperor of China (ruled 1948–1976 AD)

  Melfi, Charles

  father of Alexandra Shepherd

  Ming Hsin-far

  senior advocate for GenSyn

  Nai Liu

  ‘Enduring Willow’; pen name of Jiang Lei and the most popular Han poet of his time

  P’eng Chuan

  Sixth Dragon at the Ministry (‘The Thousand Eyes’)

  P’eng K’ai-chi

  Nephew of P’eng Chuan

  Palmer, Joshua

  ‘Old Josh’, record collector

  Pan Chao

  the great hero of Chung Kuo, who conquered Asia in the 1st century AD

  Pan Tsung-yen

  friend of Jiang Lei

  Pavel

  Young worker on the Plantations

  Pei Ko

  one of the original Seven, advisor to Tsao Ch’un

  Pei Lin-Yi

  eldest son of Pei Ko

  Ragnar

  a mercenary

  Raikkonen

  Marshal in Security

  Reed, Anne

  first wife of Jake Reed; mother of Peter Reed and sister of Mary Hubbard (Jake’s second wife)

  Reed, Jake

  ‘Login’ or ‘Webdancer’ for Hinton Industries. Father of Peter and Tom Reed

  Reed, Mary

  sister of Jake Reed

  Reed, Peter

  son of Jake and Anne Reed. GenSyn Executive

  Reed, Tom

  son of Jane and Mary Reed

  Rheinhardt

  Media Liaison Officer for GenSyn

  Schwartz

  Aide to Marshal Aaltonen

  Shao Shu

  First Steward at Chun Hua’s mansion

  Shao Yen

  major in Security, friend of Meng Hsin-far

  Shen Chen

  son of Shen Fu

  Shen Fu

  The First Dragon, Head of the Ministry (‘The Thousand Eyes’)

  Shepherd, Alexandra

  wife of Amos Shepherd and daughter of Charles Melfi

  Shepherd, Amos

  Great-great grandfather of Hal Shepherd. Chief advisor to Tsao Ch’un and architect of City Earth

  Shepherd, Augustus

  Son of Amos Shepherd

  Shepherd, Augustus Raedwald

  Great-great uncle to Ben Shepherd

  Shepherd, Beth

  daughter of Amos Shepherd

  Shu Liang

  Senior Legal Advocate

  Shu San

  Junior Minister to Lwo Kang

  Si Wu Ya

  ‘Silk Raven’; wife Supervisor Sung

  Ssu Lu Shan

  official of the Ministry, the ‘Thousand Eyes’

  Su Ting-an

  Master of wei chi from the 18th century

  Su Tung-p’o

  Han official and poet of the 11th century

  Svensson

  Marshal in Security

  Tai Yu

  Moonflower’, maid to Gustav Ebert; a GenSyn clone

  Teng

  common citizen of Chung Kuo

  Teng Fu

  Guard on the Plantation

  Teng Liang

  Minor Family princess betrothed to Prince Ch’eng I

  Trish

  Artificial Intelligence ‘filter avatar’ for Jake Reed’s penthouse apartment

  Ts’ao Pi

  Number Three’ steward at Tsao Ch’un’s court in Pei Ch’ing

  Tsao Ch’l Yuan

  youngest son of Tsao Ch’un

  Tsao Ch’un

  ex-member of the Chinese politburo and architect of ‘the Collapse’. Mass murderer and tyrant; ‘creator’ of Chung Kuo

  Tsao Heng

  second son of Tsao Ch’un

  Tsao Hsiao

  Tsao Ch’un’s elder brother

  Tsao Wang-po

  eldest son of Tsao Ch’un

  Tsu Chen

  one of the original Seven, advisor to Tsao Ch’un

  Tsu Lin

  eldest son of Tsu Chen

  Tsu Shi

  steward to Gustav Ebert, a GenSyn clone

  Tsu Tiao

  T’ang of West Asia

  Tu Mu

  assistant to Alison Winter at GenSyn

  Wang An-Shih

  Han official and poet of the 11th century

  Wang Chang Ye

  eldest son of Wang Hsien

  Wang Hui So

  one of the original Seven, advisor to Tsao Ch’un

  Wang Lieh Tsu

  second son of Wang Hsien

  Wang Lung

  eldest son of Wang Hui So

  Wang Yu-lai

  ‘Cadre’, servant of the Ministry, ‘The Thousand Eyes’, instructed to report back on Jiang Lei

  Wei

  a judge

  Weis, Anton

  banker and Dispersionist

  Wen P’ing

  Tsao Ch’un’s man. A bully

  Weo Shao

  chancellor to Tsao Ch’un

  Winter, Alison

  Jake Reed’s girlfriend at New College and evaluation executive at GenSyn

  Winter, Jake

  son of Alison Winter

  Wolfe

  elite guard in the Domain

  Wu Chi

  AI (Artificial Intelligence) to Tobias Lahm

  Wu Hsien

  one of the original Seven, advisor to Tsao Ch’un

  Wyatt, Edmund

  company head, Dispersionist, and (unknown to him) father of Kim Ward

  Wyatt, Edmund

  businessman and (unknown to him) father of Kim Ward

  Yang Hong Yu

  legal advocate

  Yang Lai

  Minister under Li Shai Tung

  Yo Jou Hsi

  a judge

  Yu Ch’o

  family retainer to Wang Hui So

  GLOSSARY OF MANDARIN TERMS

  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 context. However, as a number of Mandarin terms are used naturally in the text, I’ve thought it best to provide a brief explanation of those 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 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

  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 recognize 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 Book Four, ‘The Feast Of The Dead’.

  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.

 

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