Wingrove, David - Chung Kuo 02 (89 page)

nu
shi
—an unmarried woman; a term equating to "Miss."

pai
pi
—"hundred pens"; term used for the artificial
reality experiments renamed "shells" by Ben Shepherd.

pau
—a
simple long garment worn by men.

Ping
—the
east.

Ping
Tioo
—leveling. To bring down or make flat.

p'i
p'a
—a four-stringed lute used in traditional Chinese music.

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)

san
k'ou
—the sixth stage of respect, according to the "Book
of Ceremonies." It involves 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) (see also liu k'ou).

Shang
—the
south.

shanshui
—literally
"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 A.D.

shift
—"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 (ctiun tzu) above.

Ta
Ts'in
—the Chinese name for the Roman Empire. They also knew
Rome as Li Chien and as "the Land West of the Sea." The
Romans themselves they termed the "Big Ts'in"—the
Ts'in being the name the Chinese gave themselves during the Ts'in
Dynasty (265-316 A.D.).

tian-lang
—literally
"to fill the place of the dead wife"; used to signify the
upgrading of a concubine to the more respectable position of wife.

ting
—a
freestanding, open-sided pavilion found in formal Chinese gardens.

tou
chi
—Glycine Max or the black soybean, used in Chinese
herbal medicine to cure insomnia.

Tsu
—the
north.

wei
chi
—"the surrounding game," known more commonly
in the West by its Japanese name of "Go." It is said that
the game was invented by the legendary Chinese Emperor Yao in the
year 2350 B.C. to train the mind of his son, Tan Chu, and teach him
to think like an Emperor.

yang
—the
"male principle" of Chinese cosmology, which with its
complementary opposite, the female yin, forms the tai-chi, derived
from the Primeval One.

yuan
—the
basic currency of Chung Kuo (and modern day China). Colloquially
(though not here) it can also be termed kwai—"piece"
or "lump." One hundred fen (or cents) make up one yuan.

Ywe
Lung
—literally, the "Moon Dragon," the wheel of
seven dragons that is the symbol of the ruling Seven throughout Chung
Kuo: "At its center the snouts of the regal beasts met, forming
a roselike hub, huge rubies burning fiercely in each eye. Their
lithe, powerful bodies curved outward like the spokes of a giant
wheel while at the edge their tails were intertwined to form the
rim." (from "The Moon Dragon," Chapter Four of The
Middle Kingdom).

THANKS
MUST GO, once again, to all those who have read and criticized parts
of The Broken Wheel
during its long gestation. To my
editors—Nick Sayers, Brian DeFiore, John Pearce, and Alyssa
Diamond—for their patience as well as their enthusiasm. To my
"Writers Bloc" companions, Chris Evans, David Garnett, Rob
Holdstock, Garry Kilworth, Bobbie Lamming, and Lisa Tuttle. To Andy
Sawyer, for an "outsider's view" when it was much needed.
And, as ever, to my stalwart helper and first-line critic, Brian
Griffin, for keeping me on the rails.

Thanks
are due also to Rob Carter, Ritchie Smith, Paul Bougie, Mike Cobley,
Linda Shaughnessy, Susan and the girls (Jessica, Amy, and baby
Georgia) and Is and the Lunatics (at Canterbury) for keeping my
spirits up during the long, lonely business of writing this. And to
"Nan and Granddad" Daisy and Percy Oudot, for helping out
when things were tight. . . and for making the tea!

Finally,
thanks to Magma, IQ and the Cardiacs for providing the aural
soundtrack to this.