Wingrove, David - Chung Kuo 02 (88 page)

DeVore studied
Lehmann a moment. "And nobody else saw you?"

"Only the
guards at the barriers."

"Good."
DeVore looked down, fingering the pouch, knowing that it contained
all the communication circuits they had replaced, then pushed it
aside. "Then we're all set, neh? Five days from now we can
strike. There was no problem with Mach, I assume?"

Lehmann shook
his head. "No. He seems as keen as we are to get at them."

DeVore smiled.
As
he ought to be.
"Okay. Get showered and changed. I'll
see you at supper for debriefing."

When Lehmann was
gone he got up and went across the room, looking at the detailed
diagram of Security Central that he'd pinned up on the wall. Bremen
was the very heart of City Europe's Security forces; their
"invulnerable" fortress. But it was that very assumption of
invulnerability that made them weak. In five days' time they would
find that out. Would taste the bitter fruit of their arrogance.

He laughed and
went back to his desk, then reached across, drawing the folder toward
him. He had been studying it all afternoon, ever since the messenger
had brought it. It was a complete file of all the boy's work; a copy
of the file Marshal Tolonen had taken with him to Tongjiang that very
morning; a copy made in Tolonen's own office by Tolonen's own
equerry, a young man DeVore had recruited to his cause five years
earlier, when the boy was still a cadet.

He smiled,
remembering how he had initiated the boy, how he had made him swear
the secret oath. It was so easy. They were all so keen; so young and
fresh and ripe for some new ideology—for some new thing they
could believe in. And he, DeVore, was that new thing. He was the man
whose time would come. That was what he told them, and they believed
him. He could see it in their eyes; that urgency to serve some new
and better cause—something finer and more abstract than this
tedious world of levels. He called them his brotherhood and they
responded with a fierceness born of hunger. The hunger to be free of
this world ruled by the Han. To be free men again, self-governing and
self-sustaining. And he fed that hunger in them, giving them a reason
for their existence—to see a better world. However long it
took.

He opened the
file, flicking through the papers, stopping here and there to admire
the beauty of a design, the simple elegance of a formula. He had
underestimated the boy. Had thought him simply clever. Super-clever,
perhaps, but nothing more. This file, however, proved him wrong. The
boy was unique. A genius of the first order. What he had accomplished
with these simple prototypes was astonishing. Why, there was enough
here to keep several Companies busy for years. He smiled. As it was
he would send them off to Mars, to his contacts there, and see what
they could make of them.

He leaned back
in his chair, stretching out his arms. It would be time, soon, to
take the boy and use him. For now, however, other schemes prevailed.
Bremen and the Plantations, they were his immediate targets—the
first shots in this new stage of the War. And afterward?

DeVore laughed,
then leaned forward, closing the file. The wise man chose his plays
carefully. As in
wei chi,
it did not do to plan too rigidly.
The master player kept a dozen subtle plays in his head at once,
prepared to use whichever best suited the circumstances. And he had
more than enough schemes to keep the Seven busy.

But first
Bremen. First he would hit them where it hurt the most. Where they
least expected him to strike.

Only then would
he consider his next move. Only then would he know where to place the
next stone on the board.

The
transcription of standard Mandarin into 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 West-em 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
Franchise de l'Extreme 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 January i, 1979,
pinyin has been used, as well as being taught now in schools along
with 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 accustomed 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'
for c 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 sorter, more poetic side of the
original Mandarin, ill-served, I feel, by modern pinyin.

The
translations of Meng Chiao's "Impromptu" and Li Shang-Yin's
"untitled poem" are by A. C, Graham from his excellent
Poems of the Late T'ang, published by Penguin Books, London, 1965.

The
translation of Po Chu-I's "To Li Chien" is by Arthur Waley,
from Chinese Poems, published by George Allen & Unwin, London,
1946.

The
translation of Wu Man-yuan's "Two White Geese" (Fei Yen's
song in Chapter Seven) is by Anne Birrell from New Songs from a Jade
Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry, published by
George Allen & Unwin, London, 1982.

The
quotations from Sun Tzu's The Art of War are from the Samuel B.
Griffith translation, published by Oxford University Press, 1963.

The
quotation from Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation is from the
Hutchinson & Co. edition, published in London, 1969, reprinted
with their permission and that of the agents acting for Mr.
Koestler's estate, Messrs. Peters, Fraser & Dunlop.

The
translations from Nietzsche's works are by R. J. Hollingdale and are
taken from the following volumes: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (A Book for
Everyone and No One), published by Penguin Books, London, 1961;
Beyond Good and Evil (Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future),
published by Penguin Books, London, 1973; Ecce Homo (How One Becomes
What One Is), published by Penguin Books, London, 1979.

D.
H. Lawrence's "Bavarian Gentians" can be found in Last
Poems (1932), but the version here is taken from an earlier draft of
the poem.

A
marvelous recipe for Yang Sen's "Spring Wine"—mentioned
in Chapter One—can be found on page 163 of Chinese Herbal
Medicine by Daniel P. Reid, published by Thorsons, London, 1987.

The
game of wei chi mentioned throughout this volume is, incidentally,
more commonly known by its Japanese name of Go, and is not merely the
world's oldest game but its most elegant.

DAVID
WINGROVE, April 1990

MOST
OF THE MANDARIN terms used in the text are explained in context.
However, as a few are used more naturally, I've considered it best to
provide a brief explanation.

ai
ya
!—common exclamation of surprise or dismay.

amah
—a
domestic maidservant. ch'a—tea.

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
poo
—a one-piece gown, usually sleeveless, worn by women.

Chou
—"state";
here the name for a card game based on the politics of the state of
Chung Kuo.

Chu
—the
west.

chung
—a
porcelain ch'a bowl, usually with a lid.

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 ti, or rites. Here the term is
roughly, and sometimes ironically, translated as "gentlemen."
The ch'un tzu is as much an ideal state of behavior—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.

fu
jen
—"Madam," used here as opposed to t'ai
t'ai—"Mrs."

hei
—literally
"black"; the Chinese pictogram for this represents a man
wearing warpaint and tattoos. Here it refers to the genetically
manufactured (GenSyn) half-men used as riot police to quell uprisings
in the lower levels.

ho
yeh
—Nelumbo nucifera, or lotus, the seeds of which are used
in Chinese herbal medicine to cure insomnia.

hsiao
chieh
—"Miss" or "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 "gentleman" (ch'un tzu) and "little
men" (hsiao jen), false even in Confucius' 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 thirty decks. Each deck is a hexagonal living unit
of ten levels, two li, or approximately one kilometer, in diameter. A
stack can be imagined as one honeycomb in the great hive of the City.

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 forever more. The hun is believed to come into
being at the moment of conception (see also p'o).

Hung
Mao
—literally "red heads," 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 endeavors (which often meant plundering Chinese
shipping and ports) the name has connotations of piracy.

kang
—the
Chinese hearth, serving also as oven and, in the cold of winter, as
sleeping platform.

Kan
Peil
—"good health" or "cheers"; a
drinking toast.

k'anghsi
—aCh'ing,
orManchu, Emperor whose long reign (1662-1722) is considered a golden
age for the art of porcelain-making. The lavender-glazed bowl in "The
Sound of Jade" is, however, not K'ang Hsi but Chun Chou ware
from the Sung period (960-1127) and considered among the most
beautiful (and rare) wares in Chinese pottery.

koo
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 Heavens anger. In
this sense Ko Ming means a breaking of the Mandate.

Kuan
Yin—
the Goddess of Mercy; originally the Buddhist male
bodhisattva, Avalokit-sevara (translated into Han as "He who
listens to the sounds of the world" or Kuan Yin). The Chinese
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.

Kuo-yu
—Mandarin,
the language spoken in most of Mainland China. Also known as Kuan hua
and Pai hua.

kwai
—an
abbreviation of ku>ai too, 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 below the
Net whose ability and self-discipline separate them from the usual
run of hired knives.

lao
jen
—"old man" (also weng); used normally as a
term of respect.

li
—a
Chinese "mile," approximating to half a kilometer or
one-third of a mile. Until 1949, when metric measures were adopted in
China, the li could vary from place to place.

Jiu
k'ou
— the seventh stage of respect, according to the "Book
of Ceremonies." Two stages above the more familiarly known k'ou
t'ou, it involves kneeling and striking the forehead three times
against the floor, rising onto 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).

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 ya-tou. Technically,
guardianship of the girl involved is legally signed over in return
for money.