Ice and Fire: Chung Kuo Series (46 page)

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

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

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

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

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

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

a crab

flower
ch’a

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

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

‘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

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

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

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

the T’ang’s Finance Ministry

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

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’

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 (
AD
368–1644) 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

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’

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
)

‘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

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’i
n, 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

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

the Secret Societies or, more specifically, the Triads

literally, ‘fire men’

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

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…’

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

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

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

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

a strong Chinese liquor

‘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

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

‘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
’

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

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

‘Running Dog’, here the name of a Triad

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

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

‘Blue Sky’

a covered walkway

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

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

a ‘Great Official’, often used ironically

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

an outsider

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

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

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

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

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
)

punks

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

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

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