by Cutter, Leah
She thanked the man again as she ushered him out the door. She breathed a quick prayer of thanks to Master Wei, for helping her with this appointment. She would make him proud.
After Wang Tie-Tie's death, Fu Be Be had at first assumed Xiao Yen would get married. Xiao Yen hadn't fought with her mother like she had while she'd still been at school. Xiao Yen had just insisted, quietly, continually, that she was going to continue her life as a mage. Eventually her mother had given way, and even helped her get this appointment. Xiao Yen still wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because Fu Be Be had grown resigned to Xiao Yen's avowal of following her magic. Maybe it was because of the siege and attack on Bao Fang, and she thought that sending her daughter south might keep her out of harm's way. Or maybe it was because this village was close to her mother's home village. Xiao Yen had assured her mother many times that she'd look after all the people in the whole area.
Xiao Yen might never have a child of her own, but she could adopt all the people here as her children, as Fat Fang had the people in Bao Fang.
Xiao Yen looked around the room trying to decide where to hang the copy of her family poem, the one Wang Tie-Tie had given her when she'd been in school. She needed to burn incense for Wang Tie-Tie, for Vakhtang, for the others she'd known who now walked beyond the Yellow River.
Xiao Yen took a deep breath, taking in the quiet. Her soul expanded to fill the empty places in the room. A deep joy bubbled inside her, sounding like a sparkling stream full of spring rain. Her choices might not be easy, but they were hers. She had her own life, her own duty to follow. There was much work to do. Now she had the time and place to do it.
It felt good to be home.
Character Name Pronunciations
Xiao Yen—X—generally pronounced shee, so it’s Sheeou Yen
Bei Xi, Master Wei. Mei-Mei—ei—generally pronounced with a long a sound, like in way, so it’s Bay Shee, Master Way
Fu Be Be—e—generally pronounced eh, so it’s Foo Beh Beh
Gan Ou—a as in ah, ou as in ow (ouch), so it’s Gahn Ow
Jrh Bei—jrh—generally pronounced like the ‘s’ in measure, so it’s Zhr Bay
Udo—long u, long o, Uudoo
Vakhtang—VAHK-tahng
Tuo Nu—t like the ts in cats, long u, long o, run together, so it’s Tsuuoo New
Zhang Gua Lao—z like the s in measure, ua is run together, like in guava, ao like in ow (ouch)
Bibliography
This isn't a complete bibliography of all the research sources I used for this novel. It is a good starting point for readers interested in the Tang dynasty and in all things Chinese.
Non-Fiction
Beckwith, Christopher I. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton University Press, 1987.
Capon, Edmund and Werner Forman. Tang China: Vision and Splendor of a Golden Age. Macdonald & Orbis, 1989.
Cave, Roderick. Chinese Paper Offerings. Oxford University Press, 1998.
De Mente, Boye Lafayette. NTC's Dictionary of China's Cultural Code Words. NTC Publishing Group, 1996.
Eberhard, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.
Engel, Peter. Folding Universe. Vintage Books, 1989. (This is actually a book on origami.)
James, Peter and Nick Thorpe. Ancient Inventions. Ballantine Books, 1994.
Lu, Henry C. Chinese Herbal Cures. Sterling Publishing Co., 1994.
Schafer, Edward H. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. University of California Press, 1963.
Smith, Authur H. Village Life in China. Little, Brown and Company, 1970.
Spring, Madeline. Animal Allegories in T'ang China. American Oriental Society, 1993.
The Red-Crowned Crane. China Pictorial Press.
Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Williams, CAS. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs. Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1974.
Yang, Jing-Ming. Ancient Chinese Weapons. Yama Martial Arts Association, 1999.
Myth
Bucher, J. Frank. The South River Pagoda. Fithian Press, 1988.
Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Chinese Grandmother. Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1980.
Palmer, Martin and Xiaomin, Zhao. Essential Chinese Mythology. Thorsons, 1997.
Walters, Derek. An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend. Diamond Books, 1995.
The World of Chinese Myths. Beijing Language and Culture Center Press, 1995.
Fiction and Poetry
Hughart, Barry. The Bridge of Birds. St. Martin's Press, 1984.
Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gia-Fu Feng, and Jand English. Vintage Books, 1989.
Lewis, Elizabeth Foreman. Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.
Liu, Wu-Chi and Irving Lo. Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry. Indiana University Press, 1975.
Spence, Jonathan D. The Question of Hu. Vintage Books, 1989.
Tu Fu. The Selected Poems of Tu Fu. Translated by David Hinton. New Directions Books, 1989.
Van Gulik, Robert. Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. Dover Publications, 1976.
Web Sources
Web sites come and go faster than spring flowers, but when last I checked (July 2013) all these sites were available.
Wonderful English-Chinese dictionary. Plus flash cards to help you learn Chinese, your name in Chinese, and many other fun topics:
http://www.mandarintools.com/
Virtual tours of China:
http://www.chinavista.com/discover.html
Deity worship through folk prints. Many articles on how Chinese use paper. Plus a shop:
http://www.chinavista.com/experience/joss/joss.html
Encyclopedia Mythica:
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/
Myths and legends:
http://www.myths.com/pub/myths/mythold.html
Folklore and mythology texts:
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
About the Author and the Novel
Paper Mage started as a short story, back in 1991, before I started traveling. I was inspired by a number of things, the description of a paper folder from “Folding Universe” by Peter Engle, and how something unpredictable and tiny can set an ordered system to chaos from “The Turbulent Mirror” by John Briggs & F. David Peat. It was unwieldy as a short story, involving going from China all the way across the Silk Road to the Byzantine Empire and back.
When I returned from my big travels, I tried rewriting the story, but it was still too long and awkward. I knew that it was good, that there was something in this story that needed telling. I used it as my submission story to Clarion West. Once at Clarion, the other students encouraged me to expand the story into a novel. I wrote a novel outline based on the story as an exercise. I only used some of this original outline in the final novel.
I had never considered myself a novelist. But through Clarion, I built the writing muscles to think about it. I finished Clarion in fall of 1997. In January of 1998 I started doing serious research for the novel. I did research for six months while I wrote and rewrote the outline. It took me about six months to write the first draft, then I took another four months to rewrite it. After some of my friends read the novel and gave me critiques, I rewrote the novel and sent it to an editor. That editor asked for another rewrite, which I turned around in about six months. That was the version of the novel that I sold.
Of course, my editor asked for more rewrites after that.
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