Ice and Fire: Chung Kuo Series

by David Wingrove

  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

  hsueh pai

  ‘snow white’; a derogatory term here for Hung Mao women

  Hu pu

  the T’ang’s Finance Ministry

  hu hsin chung

  see ching, re Buddhist magic mirrors, for which this was the name. The power of such mirrors was said to protect the owner from evil. It was also said that one might see the secrets of futurity in such a mirror. See the chapter ‘Mirrors’ in The White Mountain for further information

  hu t’ieh

  a butterfly. Anyone wishing to follow up on this tale of Chuang Tzu’s might look to the sage’s writings and specifically the chapter, ‘Discussion on Making All Things Equal’

  hua pen

  literally ‘ story roots’, these were précis guidebooks used by the street corner storytellers in China for the past two thousand years. The main events of the story were written down in the hua pen for the benefit of those storytellers who had not yet mastered their art. During the Yuan or Mongol dynasty (AD 1280–1368) these hua pen developed into plays, and, later on – during the Ming dynasty (AD368–1644) into the form of popular novels, of which the Shui Hu Chuan, or ‘Outlaws Of The Marsh’, remains one of the most popular. Any reader interested in following this up might purchase Pearl Buck’s translation, rendered as All Men Are Brothers and first published in 1933

  Huang-ti

  originally Huang-ti was the last of the ‘Three Sovereigns’ and the first of the ‘Five Emperors’ of ancient Chinese tradition. Huang-ti, the Yellow Emperor, was the earliest ruler recognized by the historian Ssu-ma Ch’ien (136–85 BC) in his great historical work, the Shih Chi. Traditionally, all subsequent rulers (and would-be rulers) of China have claimed descent from the Yellow Emperor, the ‘Son of Heaven’ himself, who first brought civilization to the black-haired people. His name is now synonymous with the term ‘emperor’

  hun

  the higher soul or ‘spirit soul’, which, the Chinese believe, ascends to Heaven at death, joins Shang Ti, the Supreme Ancestor, and lives in his court for ever more. The hun is believed to come into existence at the moment of conception (see also p’o)

  hun tun

  ‘the Chou believed that Heaven and Earth were once inextricably mixed together in a state of undifferentiated chaos, like a chicken’s egg. Hun Tun they called that state’ (The Broken Wheel, Chapter 37). It is also the name of a meal of tiny sack-like dumplings

  Hung Lou Meng

  The Dream of Red Mansions, also known as The Story Of The Stone, a lengthy novel written in the middle of the eighteenth century. Like the Chin Ping Mei, it deals with the affairs of a single Chinese family. According to experts the first eighty chapters are the work of Ts’ao Hsueh-ch’in, and the last forty belong to Kao Ou. It is, without doubt, the masterpiece of Chinese literature, and is available from Penguin in the UK in a five volume edition

  Hung Mao

  literally ‘redheads’, the name the Chinese gave to the Dutch (and later English) seafarers who attempted to trade with China in the seventeenth century. Because of the piratical nature of their endeavours (which often meant plundering Chinese shipping and ports) the name continues to retain connotations of piracy

  Hung Mun

  the Secret Societies or, more specifically, the Triads

  huo jen

  literally, ‘fire men’

  I Lung

  The ‘First Dragon’, Senior Minister and Great Lord of the ‘Ministry’, also known as ‘the Thousand Eyes’

  jou tung wu

  literally ‘meat animal’: ‘It was a huge mountain of flesh, a hundred ch’i to a side and almost twenty ch’i in height. Along one side of it, like the teats of a giant pig, three dozen heads jutted from the flesh, long, eyeless snouts with shovel jaws that snuffled and gobbled in the conveyor-belt trough…’

  kai t’ou

  a thin cloth of red and gold that veils a new bride’s face. Worn by the Ch’ing empresses for almost three centuries

  kan pei!

  ‘good health!’ or ‘cheers!’ – a drinking toast

  kang

  the Chinese hearth, serving also as oven and, in the cold of winter, as a sleeping platform

  K’ang hsi

  a Ch’ing (or Manchu) emperor whose long reign (AD 1662–1722) is considered a golden age for the art of porcelain-making

  kao liang

  a strong Chinese liquor

  Ko Ming

  ‘revolutionary’. The Tien Ming is the Mandate of Heaven, supposedly handed down from Shang Ti, the Supreme Ancestor, to his earthly counterpart, the Emperor (Huang-ti). This Mandate could be enjoyed only so long as the Emperor was worthy of it, and rebellion against a tyrant – who broke the Mandate through his lack of justice, benevolence and sincerity – was deemed not criminal but a rightful expression of Heaven’s anger

  k’o t’ou

  the fifth stage of respect, according to the ‘Book of Ceremonies’, involves kneeling and striking the head against the floor. This ritual has become more commonly known in the West as kowtow

  ku li

  ‘bitter strength’. These two words, used to describe the condition of farm labourers who, after severe droughts or
catastrophic floods, moved off their land and into the towns to look for work of any kind – however hard and onerous – spawned the word ‘coolie’ by which the West more commonly knows the Chinese labourer. Such men were described as ‘men of bitter strength’, or simply ‘ku li’

  Kuan Hua

  Mandarin, the language spoken in mainland China. Also known as kuo yu and pai hua

  Kuan Yin

  the Goddess of Mercy. Originally the Buddhist male bodhisattva, Avalokitsevara (translated into Han as ‘He who listens to the sounds of the world’, or ‘Kuan Yin’), the Han mistook the well-developed breasts of the saint for a woman’s and, since the ninth century, have worshipped Kuan Yin as such. Effigies of Kuan Yin will show her usually as the Eastern Madonna, cradling a child in her arms. She is also sometimes seen as the wife of Kuan Kung, the Chinese God of War

  Kuei Chuan

  ‘Running Dog’, here the name of a Triad

  kuo yu

  Mandarin, the language spoken in most of Mainland China. Also rendered here as kuan hua and pai hua

  kwai

  an abbreviation of kwai tao, a ‘sharp knife’ or ‘fast knife’. It can also mean to be sharp or fast (as a knife). An associated meaning is that of a ‘clod’ or ‘lump of earth’. Here it is used to denote a class of fighters from below the Net, whose ability and self-discipline separate them from the usual run of hired knives

  Lan Tian

  ‘Blue Sky’

  Lang

  a covered walkway

  lao chu

  sing-song girls, slightly more respectable than the common men hu

  lao jen

  ‘old man’ (also weng); used normally as a term of respect

  lao kuan

  a ‘Great Official’, often used ironically

  lao shih

  term that denotes a genuine and straightforward man – bluff and honest

  lao wai

  an outsider

  li

  a Chinese ‘mile’, approximating to half a kilometre or one third of a mile. Until 1949, when metric measures were adopted in China, the li could vary from place to place

  Li

  ‘Propriety’. See the Li Ching or ‘Book Of Rites’ for the fullest definition

  Li Ching

  ‘The Book Of Rites’, one of the five ancient classics

  liang

  a Chinese ounce of roughly 32g. 16 liang form a catty

  liu k’ou

  the seventh stage of respect, according to the ‘Book of Ceremonies’. Two stages above the more familiarly known ‘k’o t’ou’ (kowtow) it involves kneeling and striking the forehead three times against the floor, rising on to one’s feet again, then kneeling and repeating the prostration with three touches of the forehead to the ground. Only the san kuei chiu k’ou – involving three prostrations – was more elaborate and was reserved for Heaven and its son, the Emperor (see also san k’ou)

  liumang

  punks

  lu nan jen

  literally ‘oven man’; title of the official who is responsible for cremating all of the dead bodies

  lueh

  ‘that invaluable quality of producing a piece of art casually, almost uncaringly’

  lung t’ing

  ‘dragon pavilions’; small sedan chairs carried by servants and containing a pile of dowry gifts

  Luoshu

  the Chinese legend relates that in ancient times a turtle crawled from a river in Luoshu province, the patterns on its shell forming a three by three grid of numeric pictograms, the numbers of which – both down and across – equalled the same total of fifteen. Since the time of the Shang (three thousand-plus years ago) tortoise shells were used in divination, and the Luoshu diagram is considered magic and is often used as a charm for easing childbirth

  ma kua

  a waist-length ceremonial jacket

  mah jong

  Whilst, in its modern form, the ‘game of the four winds’ was introduced towards the end of the nineteenth century to Westerners trading in the thriving city of Shanghai, it was developed from a card game that existed as long ago as AD 960. Using 144 tiles, it is generally played by four players. The tiles have numbers and also suits – winds, dragons, bamboos and circles

  mao

  a unit of currency. See yuan

  mao tai

  a strong, sorghum-based liquor

  mei fa tzu

  common saying, ‘It is fate!’

  mei hua

  ‘plum blossom’

  mei mei

  sister

  mei yu jen wen

  ‘sub humans’. Used in Chung Kuo by those in the City’s uppermost levels to denote anyone living in the lower hundred

  men hu

  literally, ‘the one standing in the door’. The most common (and cheapest) of prostitutes

  min

  literally ‘the people’; used (as here) by the Minor Families in a pejorative sense, as an equivalent to ‘plebeian’

  Ming

  the Dynasty that ruled China from 1368 to 1644. Literally, the name means ‘Bright’ or ‘Clear’ or ‘Brilliant’. It carries connotations of cleansing

  mou

  A Chinese ‘acre’ of approximately 7,260 square feet. There are roughly six mou to a Western acre, and a 10,000-mou field would approximate to 1666 acres, or just over two and a half square miles

  Mu Ch’in

  ‘Mother’; a general term commonly addressed to any older woman

  mui tsai

  rendered in Cantonese as ‘mooi-jai’. Colloquially it means either ‘little sister’ or ‘slave girl’; though generally, as here, the latter. Other Mandarin terms used for the same status are pei-nu and yatou. Technically, guardianship of the girl involved is legally signed over in return for money

  nan jen

  common term for ‘Man’

  Ni Hao?

  ‘How are you?’

  niao

  literally ‘bird’, but here, as often, it is used euphemistically as a term for the penis, often as an expletive

  nu er

  daughter

  nu shi

  an unmarried woman; a term equating to ‘Miss’

  Pa shi yi

  literally ‘Eighty-One’; here referring specifically to the Central Council of the New Confucian officialdom

  pai nan jen

  literally ‘white man’

  pai pi

  ‘hundred pens’; term used for the artificial reality experiments renamed ‘shells’ by Ben Shepherd.

  pan chang

  supervisor

  pao yun

  a ‘jewelled cloud’ ch’a

  pau

  a simple long garment worn by men

  pau shuai ch’i

  the technical scientific term for ‘half-life’

  p’i p’a

  a four-stringed lute used in traditional Chinese music

  Pien Hua!

  Change!

  p’ing

  an apple, symbol of peace

  ping

  the east

  Ping Fa

  Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War, written over two thousand years ago. The best English translation is probably Samuel B. Griffith’s 1963 edition. It was a book Chairman Mao frequently referred to

  Ping Tiao

  levelling. To bring down or make flat. Here, in Chung Kuo, it is also a terrorist organization

  p’o

  the ‘animal soul’ which, at death, remains in the tomb with the corpse and takes its nourishment from the grave offerings. The p’o decays with the corpse, sinking down into the underworld (beneath the Yellow Springs) where – as a shadow – it continues an existence of a kind. The p’o is believed to come into existence at the moment of birth (see also hun)

  sam fu

  an upper garment (part shirt, part jacket) worn originally by both males and females, in imitation of Manchu styles; later on a wide-sleeved, calf-length version was worn by women alone

  s
an

  three

  San chang

  the three palaces

  san kuei chiu k’ou

  the eighth and final stage of respect, according to the ‘Book Of Ceremonies’, it involves kneeling three times, each time striking the forehead three times against the ground before rising from one’s knees (in k’ou t’ou one strikes the forehead but once). This most elaborate form of ritual was reserved for Heaven and its son, the Emperor. See also liu k’ou

  san k’ou

  abbreviated form of san kuei chiu k’ou San Kuo Yan Yi The Romance of The Three Kingdoms, also known as the San Kuo Chih Yen I. China’s great historical novel, running to 120 chapters, it covers the period from AD 168 to AD 265. Written by Lo Kuan-chung in the early Ming dynasty. Its heroes, Liu Pei, Kuan Chung and Chang Fei, together with its villain, Ts’ao Ts’ao, are all historical personages. It is still one of the most popular stories in modern China

  sao mu

  the ‘Feast of the Dead’

  shang

  the south

  shanshui

  the literal meaning is ‘mountains and water’, but the term is normally associated with a style of landscape painting that depicts rugged mountain scenery with river valleys in the foreground. It is a highly popular form, first established in the T’ang Dynasty, back in the seventh to ninth centuries AD

  shao lin

  specially trained assassins, named after the monks of the shao lin monastery

  shao nai nai

  literally, ‘little grandmother’. A young girl who has been given the responsibility of looking after her siblings

  she t’ou

  a ‘tongue’ or taster, whose task is to safeguard his master from poisoning

  shen chung

  ‘caution’

  shen nu

  ‘god girls’ – superior prostitutes

  shen t’se

  special elite force, named after the ‘palace armies’ of the late T’ang dynasty

  Shih

  ‘Master’. Here used as a term of respect somewhat equivalent to our use of ‘Mister’. The term was originally used for the lowest level of civil servants, to distinguish them socially from the run-of-the-mill ‘Misters’ (hsian sheng) below them and the gentlemen (ch’un tzu) above

  shou hsing

  a peach brandy

  Shui Hu Chuan

  Outlaws of the Marsh, a long historical novel, attributed to Lo Kuan-chung, but re-cast in the early siteenth century by ‘Shih Nai-an’, a scholar. Set in the eleventh century, it is a saga of bandits, warlords and heroes. Written in pure pai hua – colloquial Chinese – it is the tale of how its heroes became bandits. Its revolutionary nature made it deeply unpopular with both the Ming and Manchu dynasties, but it remains one of the most popular adventures among the Chinese populus