The Middle Kingdom (98 page)

fen
—a
unit of currency; see
yuan. It
has another meaning, that of a
"minute" of clock time, but that usage is avoided here to
prevent any confusion.

fujen
—"Madam,"
used here as opposed to t'ai t'ai—-"Mrs."

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 "gentle' men" (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 30 decks. Each deck is a hexagonal living unit of
ten levels, two
U,
or approximately one kilometer in diameter.
A stack can be imagined as one honeycomb in the great hive that is
the City.

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.

Kuo-yu
—Mandarin,
the language spoken in mainland China. Also known as
Kuan hua.

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.

liang
—a
Chinese ounce of roughly 32 gm. 16 iiangform a catty.

moo
—a
unit of currency; see
yuan.

mei
mei
—younger sister, little sister.

mou
—a
Chinese "acre" of approximately 7,260 square feet. There
are roughly six mou to a Western acre, and a lo.ooomou field would
approximate to 1666 acres, or just over two-and-a-half square miles.

shan
shui
—the literal meaning is "mountains and water,"
but the term is normally associated with a style of landscape
painting which 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.

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.

B'un
—a
Chinese "inch" of approximately 1.4 Western inches. 10
ts'un form one
ch'i.

weng
—"Old
Man." Usually a term of respect.

wu'tong
—a
tree of the paulownia family. Its wood is used often in the
manufacture of lutes (ch'in).

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
moo
(or, formally,
jiao)
make
up one
yuan,
while loo/en (or "cents") comprise one
yuan.

thanks
MUST Go to all those who have read and criticized parts of the many
different drafts of CHUNG KUO over the five years of its creating: to
my good friends and "Writers' Bloc" companions—Chris
Evans, David Garnett, Rob Holdstock, Garry Kilworth, Bobbie Lamming,
Lisa Tuttle, and Geoff Ryman—for honing the cutting edge; to
John Murry—alias Richard Cowper—both for sharing what he
knew, and for long years of patient husbandry; to my brother Ian,
much loved, ever enthusiastic; to Ritchie Smith, friend, drinking
companion, and "Great Man"; to Andrew Motion—for
finding "A Perfect Art" not so perfect and giving good
reasons; and to my agents Hilary Rubinstein and Clarissa Rushdie,
Ellen Levine and Lucinda Vardey—long may they remain so. Their
comments have helped me avoid many pitfalls and—without
doubt—given shape to the final manuscript.

I
also offer thanks to Bruce Sterling for the inspiration given by his
excellent novel,
Schismacrix
—and for five of his words,
now embedded in my text.

I
reserve special thanks for two friends whose encouragement, advice,
and criticism throughout have been invaluable: Brian Griffin for
unerringly knowing (better than me sometimes) what I'm up to, and
Robert Carter not merely for the introduction to tvei
chi
and
his patient and astute reading of the emergent book, but for all the
long years of friendship. To you both, Kan Pet!

To
my editors, Nick Sayers at Hodder, Brian DeFiore at Delacorte, and
Alyssa Diamond at Doubleday (Canada), I can only say thanks for the
many kindnesses, and for making the whole business of editing so
enjoyable. Their patience, cheerfulness, and encouragement at the
final stages were much more than I could ever have hoped for. I'm
looking forward to the journey to come.

To
Christian Vander and Magma, for the music ...

Finally,
thanks to my partner-in-crime, Brian Aldiss. If anyone's shadow lies
behind this work, I guess it's yours. This is delivery on the
Planetarium speech that time!