ai ya!—a common expression of surprise or dismay.

chen yen—true words; the Chinese equivalent of a mantra.

ch'i—a Chinese foot; approximately 14.4 inches.

chi chu—spider.

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

chou—the State; here also the name for a card game.

fusang—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.

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

hsioo chi—an unmarried lady.

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.

Hung Moo—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 endeavors (which often meant plundering Chinese shipping and ports) the name has connotations of piracy.

Hung Mun—the Secret Societies or, more specifically, the Triads.

jou tung wu—literally "meat animal."

Kan Pei!—"good health!" or "cheers!"—a drinking toast.

Ko Ming—"revolutionary." The T'ien 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.

k'ou t'ou—see liu k'ou.

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 kwai 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 from below the Net, whose ability and self-discipline separate them from the usual run of hired knives.

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

Ziu k'ou—the seventh stage of respect, according to the "Book of Ceremonies." Two stages above the more familiarly known k'ou t'ou (kowtow), 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.

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.

pan chang—supervisor.

f>au—a simple long garment worn by men.

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

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

sam fu—an upper garment (part shirt, part jacket) worn originally by both males and females, in imitation of Manchu styles; later a wide-sleeved, calf-length version was worn by women alone.

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 Ziu k'ou.

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.

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"—Ts'in being the name the Chinese gave themselves during the Ts'in Dynasty (265-316 A.D.).

tai ch'i—the Original, or One, from which the duality of all things (yin and yang) developed, according to Chinese cosmology. We generally associate the tai ch'i with the Taoist symbol, that swirling circle of dark and light.

t'ing—an open-sided pavilion in a Chinese garden. Designed as a focal point in a garden, it is said to symbolize man's essential place in the natural order of things.

u>ei 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 mei ping—literally "willow-plum sickness"; this Chinese term for syphilis provides an apt description of the male sexual organ in the extreme of this sickness.

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.

yuan—the basic currency of Chung Kuo (and modern-day China). Colloquially (though not here) it can also be termed kwai—"piece" or "lump." See also fen.

Ywe Lung—literally, the "Moon Dragon," the great 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 their edge their tails were intertwined to form the rim." [from "The Moon Dragon," Chapter Four of The Middle Kingdom]