T’o
‘camel-backed’, a Chinese term for ‘hunch-backed’
tong
a gang. In China and Europe these are usually smaller and thus subsidiary to the Triads, but in North America the term has generally taken the place of Triad
tou chi
Glycine Max, or the black soybean, used in Chinese herbal medicine to cure insomnia
Tsai Chien!
‘Until we meet again!’
Tsou Tsai Hei
‘the Walker in the Darkness’
tsu
the north
tsu kuo
the motherland
ts’un
a Chinese ‘inch’ of approximately 1.4 Western inches. Ten ts’un form one ch’i
Tu
Earth
tzu
‘Elder Sister’
wan wu
literally ‘the ten thousand things’; used generally to include everything in creation, or, as the Chinese say, ‘all things in Heaven and Earth’
Wei
Commandant of Security
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 BC to train the mind of his son, Tan Chu, and teach him to think like an emperor
wen ming
a term used to denote civilization, or written culture
wen ren
the scholar-artist; very much an ideal state, striven for by all creative Chinese
weng
‘Old man’. Usually a term of respect
Wu
a diviner; traditionally, these were ‘mediums’ who claimed to have special psychic powers. Wu could be either male or female
Wu
‘non-being’. As Lao Tzu says: ‘Once the block is carved, there are names.’ But the Tao is unnameable (wu-ming) and before Being (yu) is Non-Being (wu). Not to have existence, or form, or a name, that is wu
Wu ching
the ‘Five Classics’ studied by all Confucian scholars, comprising the Shu Ching (Book Of History), the Shih Ching (Book of Songs), the I Ching (Book of Changes), the Li Ching (Book of Rites, actually three books in all), and the Ch’un Chui (The Spring and Autumn Annals of the State of Lu)
wu fu
the five gods of good luck
wu tu
the ‘five noxious creatures’ – which are toad, scorpion, snake, centipede and gecko (wall lizard)
Wushu
the Chinese word for Martial Arts. It refers to any of several hundred schools. Kung fu is a school within this, meaning ‘skill that transcends mere surface beauty’
wuwei
non-action, an old Taoist concept. It means keeping harmony with the flow of things – doing nothing to break the flow
ya
homosexual. Sometimes the term ‘a yellow eel’ is used
yamen
the official building in a Chinese community
yang
the ‘male principle’ of Chinese cosmology, which, with its complementary opposite, the female yin, forms the t’ai ch’i, derived from the Primeval One. From the union of yin and yang arise the ‘five elements’ (water, fire, earth, metal, wood) from which the ‘ten thousand things’ (the wan wu) are generated. Yang signifies Heaven and the South, the Sun and Warmth, Light, Vigor, Maleness, Penetration, odd numbers and the Dragon. Mountains are yang
yang kuei tzu
Chinese name for foreigners, ‘Ocean Devils’. It is also synonymous with ‘Barbarians’
yang mei ping
‘willow plum sickness’, the Chinese term for syphilis, provides an apt description of the male sexual organ in the extreme of this sickness
yi
yin
the ‘female principle’ of Chinese cosmology (see yang). Yin signifies Earth and the North, the Moon and Cold, Darkness, Quiescence, Femaleness, Absorption, even numbers and the Tiger. The yin lies in the shadow of the mountain
yin mao
pubic hair
Ying kuo
English, the language
ying tao
‘baby peach’, a term of endearment here
ying tzu
‘shadows’ – trained specialists of various kinds, contracted out to gangland bosses
yu
literally ‘fish’, but, because of its phonetic equivalence to the word for ‘abundance’, the fish symbolizes wealth. Yet there is also a saying that when the fish swim upriver it is a portent of social unrest and rebellion
yu ko
a ‘Jade Barge’, here a type of luxury sedan
Yu Kung
‘Foolish Old Man!’
yu ya
deep elegance
yuan
the basic currency of Chung Kuo (and modern-day China). Colloquially (though not here) it can also be termed kuai – ‘piece’ or ‘lump’. Ten mao (or, formally, jiao) make up one yuan, while 100 fen (or ‘cents’) comprise one yuan
yueh ch’in
a Chinese dulcimer, one of the principal instruments of the Chinese orchestra
Ywe Lung
literally ‘The Moon Dragon’, the wheel of seven dragons that is the symbol of the ruling Seven throughout Chung Kuo: ‘At its centre the snouts of the regal beasts met, forming a rose-like 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.’ (Chapter 4 of The Middle Kingdom)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
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 Western 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 Francaise 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 1 January 1979 pinyin has been used, as well as being taught now in schools alongside 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 used 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 softer, more poetic side of the original Mandarin, ill-served, I feel, by modern pinyin.
David Wingrove
April 1990
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The translations of Li Ho’s ‘On and On Forever’ and ‘On The Frontier’ are by A. C. Graham from his excellent Poems of the Late T’ang, published by Penguin Books, London, 1965, and are used with their kind permission. The translation of Li Shangyin’s ‘Fallen Flowers’ is by Tao Jie and is taken from 300 T’ang Poems, A New Translation, Commercial Press, Hong Kong. The passage from On Protracted War is from Mao Tse-tung’s Selected Works, Volume II, Peking Press.
The passages quoted from Book One (XI) and (XXXVII) of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching are from the D. C. Lau translation, published by Penguin Books, London, 1963, and used with their kind permission. The quotation from Confucius, The Analects, Book XII, is once again from a D. C. Lau translation, published by Penguin Books, 1979, and used with their permission.
The passage from Sun Tzu’s classic The Art of War is from the Samuel B. Griffith translation, published by Oxford University Press, 1963.
Thanks must go to the following for their help. To my editors – Nick Sayers, Brian DiFiore, John Pearce and Alyssa Diamond – for their sheer niceness and (of course) for their continuing enthusiasm, and to Carolyn Caughey, fan-turned-editor, for seeing where to cut the cake.
To Mike Cobley, thanks not merely for encouragement but for Advanced Cheerfulness in the face of Adversity. May both your patience and your talent be rewarded. And to Andy Sawyer, for a thoughtful reading of the text. I hope I can reciprocate one of these days.
To my first-line critic and safety net, the stalwart Brian Griffin, may I say yet again how much all of this is appreciated. The notes you’ve done will make a wonderful book some day!
To family and friends, particularly my girls (Susan, Jessica, Amy and Georgia) go the usual thanks in the face of my at-times monomaniacal neglect. And especial thanks this time to everyone I met on my travels to the Universities of Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton, Brighton, Canterbury and Dublin. And, of course, to the Glasgow group. Slainte Mhath!