天朝大國

Yāshèng Coins

2012-02-16T13:55:00.000+01:00

Note: part of the text below has been adapted from the relevant Wikipedia article

Yāshèng (厭勝) coins are a kind of special coin mainly made for ritual purposes. These coins are usually privately funded or cast, such as by a rich clan for their own family ceremony or, mostly under the Míng and the Qīng, issued by the imperial government for big festivals or for ceremonies like the emperor's birthday.
Yāshèng coins are not real currency, hence not legal tender, and cannot be used as a means of exchange in any commercial transaction.

Yāshèng coins are heavily decorated, typically being engraved with complicated patterns and/or archaic characters. These inscriptions customarily hail the Immortals, the virtuous kings of the distant past, or Daoist masters. Wearing or carrying the coins is obviously supposed to somehow transfer virtue, luck or blessings onto the bearer.
Yāshèng coins have a long history, have been in use since well before the Táng, and are much sought after by antique collectors. They first appeared under the Western Hàn (3rd century BC), and under the influence of the School of Naturalists, as paraphernalia for necromancy, for propitious wishes, terrifying ghosts, lucky money, or even for bringing victory at war. Yāshèng coins have hence been dubbed "spiritual coins" by some Sinologists.

For Celestial Empire games, it is suggested that each set of Yāshèng coins should function like a unique magic item. The exact effects can be duplicated from the effects of the magic items described on p83-84 of TCE. Other sample effects are:

a +20% bonus to any skill rolls in relationship with government officials for the bearer of a Yāshèng coin cast for the coronation of the emperor
+2 protection points to a piece of cloth into which a Yāshèng coin that references a king in armour has been sewn

The gamemaster is encouraged to devise unique effects for any Yāshèng coins in his TCE campaign.

A successful Knowledge (Art History) roll will give basic information about a given Yāshèng coin, such as its period of time, the kind of usage it was destined to, etc. A critical success will give the exact scope and expected powers of the coin.

Hidden Gems

2012-02-15T09:51:00.002+01:00

I love the iPhone and the iPad as tech gadgets but I've always hated iTunes with a passion. Yet I have just discovered a trove of hidden gems in iTunes, viz. the iTunes U service.

This service is the academic version of iTunes: it allows the user to download podcast-like lectures of famous university professors. At the moment, it has more than 500,000 lectures available for free download!
In the French-language area of the service, for instance, one has free access to the Collège de France courses on Confucius by noted Sinologist Anne Cheng [whose seminal work Histoire de la pensée chinoise (Paris, 1997) was a major source when I wrote the background chapters of The Celestial Empire].

Chuchuna (Чучуна)

2012-02-13T15:18:00.004+01:00

I have found out that there is a bigfoot-like legendary creature called the Chuchuna in Eastern Siberia (that would be north of Outer Manchuria on the map on p28 of The Celestial Empire). Just like the Yěrén, about which I have already posted, the Chuchuna is not a mindless brute but a cunning hominid. The Chuchuna has been described as six to seven feet tall and covered with dark hair. The Chuchuna would hence have the exact same stats as the Yěrén (q.v.), except for the following:
SIZ 1D6+13 (16-17)
Hit Points: 15
Damage bonus: +1D4
Allegiance: Shamanism 10D6

For those who favour TCE-CoC crossovers... notice how 'Chuchuna' and 'Tcho-Tcho' sound similar! I know the sizes do not correspond, but then the Tcho-Tcho are said to have migrated from the Tibet to Southest Asia, so the change in size could reflect their having adapted to a region where competition for food is fiercer.

Trade Map of Asia

2012-02-09T17:40:00.003+01:00

I have found an on-line map of mediæval Asian commerce routes (both land routes and sea routes). The map is not particularly nice —it is a scan of an old historical atlas— but it is interesting to see how the trade routes in Imperial China follow the rivers and canals. And then of course there's the Silk Road(s).

Step-by-Step Character Generation

2012-02-05T20:30:00.003+01:00

I am creating a character for the play-by-post game mentioned yesterday. The game is set in the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, which is slightly earlier than the time period contemplated by The Celestial Empire. I will use the Táng dynasty list of allegiances, removing Judaism; that should do the trick.

STR 11
CON 10
SIZ 9
INT 12
POW 11
DEX 15
APP 11
EDU 13
Since I'm mostly OK with the results, I'll only redistribute one single point, from APP to SIZ:

STR 11
CON 10
SIZ10
INT 12
POW 11
DEX 15
APP 10
EDU 13

This yields a starting age of (EDU+5) 18. However, I'm adding a full 30 years of age to the character. That will give me an additional 60 skill points.
Character Age: 48.

Derived characteristics:
Damage bonus: None
Experience bonus: 6
Hit points: 10
Major wounds: 5
Qì points: 11
Movement 10

Fate points: 11. Note that these are managed separately from Qì points in TCE.

Home region: North China.
Name: Blind Bóxī. He's blind, meaning any vision-dependent skill is limited to POW%, unless he can make up with Listen or Sense.
Profession: Masseur (obviously I'm thinking of playing a Zatōichi-like character). Masseur is not amongst the professions in TCE, si I'll just create a "masseur" template:

Wealth: Poor
Status: 30%
Allegiance: None
Primary Skills: Fine Manipulation, Healing Lore, Insight, Knowledge (Streetwise), Science (Natural History)
Secondary Skills: Hide, Knowledge (Folklore), Knowledge (Region [North China]), Listen, Medicine, Mêlée Weapon (Quarterstaff), Persuade, Spot

Now on to using my EDU×20, INT×20, and 60 skill points; each skill has its base value plus the category bonus added before any further skill points are added:
(primary skills)
Fine Manipulation 5+6+30+30= 71%
Healing Lore 12+3+30+30= 75%
Insight 5+2+30= 37%
Knowledge (Streetwise) 10+3+30= 43%
Science (Natural History) 10+3+30= 43%

(secondary skills)
Hide 10+5+13= 28%
Knowledge (Folklore) 5+3+13= 21%
Knowledge (Region [North China]) 20+3+13= 36%
Listen 25+2+13+30= 70%
Medicine 0+3+13= 16%
Mêlée Weapon (Quarterstaff) 25+6+13+30= 74%
Persuade 15+2+13= 30%
Spot 25+2+13= 40%

(other skills)
Knowledge (Rivers and Lakes) 5+3+30= 38%
Sense 10+2+6+30= 48%
Status 30+2= 32%

(allegiance)
Buddhism 0
Confucianism 0
Daoism 1
Manichæism 0
Nestorianism 0

Equipment:

leather pouch with herbs
gloves
walking staff

All in all, and despite his low characteristics and his handicap, I think Blind Bóxī is going to be a fun character to play. His high Sense and Listen skill values will definitely make him a Zatōichi-like hero!

Play-by-Post

2012-02-04T20:49:00.002+01:00

A Celestial Empire play-by-post game has just started on rpg.net. I believe they're still recruiting players.

Chinese Number Gestures

2012-01-27T12:05:00.001+01:00

Because of the many dialectal differences in China, the Chinese have developed a method of using one's hands to signify the numbers 1 to 10.

Numbers 1 to 5 are, like in the West, simply signified through the number of fingers shown. Note, however, the slight differences with Western usage, most due to the Chinese not using the thumb, except for the number "5".

Numbers 6 to 10, contrary to Western usage, are signified by mimicking the relevant Chinese character using the position of the fingers as if they were character strokes (see picture).

In role-playing situations these number gestures can be used if the PCs have to communicate discreetly (e.g., during business negotiations), or if they are in a place where speaking is impossible (e.g., they are ambushing an adverse party and they need to communicate the number of people in the party), etc.

Obviously these number gestures could also be used to express larger numbers (seven could also mean seventy if the context is unambiguous; a "3" closely followed by an "8" could mean 38; etc.).

Design Your Character

2012-01-26T15:05:00.002+01:00

There's this nifty web-site for creating costumed dolls on-line... and one of the sub-categories is Korean Warrior! Obviously you can use it to design your Celestial Empire character.

The Korean apparel is supposedly from late Silla [Xīnluó 新羅], which almost exactly corresponds to Táng in China. But I believe this kind of clothing would fit TCE characters up until the Sòng.

I created the warrior above in two-three minutes of time. The scenery is fixed.

Asian Barbaric Tribe Generator

2012-01-24T22:35:00.000+01:00

This is another post inspired by Secret Santicore 2011! This time I am Sinicising Zak Sabbath's Barbaric Tribe Generator.

Roll 6D10 and 2D8, and pray Guānyīn for mercy!

㊀ TABLE I: The cruel and barbarous ways that they adorn themselves

With dogs. Each is chained to a dog (see p335 of BRP)
With a strange bluish paint that renders them fanatical (see p75 of TCE) for ten minutes
With the skins of their forebears. Each tribesman must grow all fat in his dotage so that his son may wear a suit made from his skin and hide inside it. Nobody knows what they look like
With barbarous tattooings. Actually they're pretty bright — each tribesman keeps all his important information tattooed somewhere. Notes on habits of local fauna, phases of the moon, maps, last time the neighbouring trading post was looted, and so on
With the garish and mismatching patterns of many animals. The effect is equivalent to Befuddling the onlookers (see p75 of TCE)
With elaborate tattoos made of Chinese characters. Any literate onlooker will try and read the tattoos instead of fighting the tribesman
With dung. They a-smear themselves and this attracts bugs that act as an insect swarm (see p336 of BRP) against enemies
With the bones and teeth of their fallen (human) foes. New and untested tribesmen have like no clothes upon them because they never killed anyone and the old warmaster crusties have like bonetooth armour (4AP)
With poison (POT 10+1D4). Overcome the poison's potency or take damage equal to it
With two cartridge belts

㊁ TABLE II: Their savage and ignorant beliefs

They don't believe in killing animals because they're innocent. Got no problem killing people though
They believe the soul is contained in the right foot and will evince an unhealthy obsession with severing a foe's right foot, to the exclusion of all other hit locations. Subtract 10 from all their mêlée hit location rolls
They hate food and the eating of food. Publicly. In secret they all eat food (of course) and like it but in company they pretend they don't
They don't believe in Confucianist virtue, Buddhist non-violence, Daoist wúwéi, etc.; they believe in quite the opposite, actually
They believe that emissaries of foreign religions are an abomination and will concentrate all their energy on destroying any priestly player characters
They believe it is blasphemous to use anything that is not stolen. Their equipment, homes, mounts and mates are all stolen
They believe that if they are seen by anyone older than them they'll be owned by them in the afterlife
They believe the first attack must always be a bite. They sharpen their teeth
They believe that collecting their foes' severed heads will advance them spiritually. Add 10 to all their mêlée hit location rolls
They believe that they are the only humans beings in the world and that all other people are demons in disguise

㊂ TABLE III: Details on the tribe's leader

He is hideous and clothed in shadow
He has worms in his head
He has a hump like a camel, filled with jewels
He owes a PC a single favour
His fingernails are nine cùn long (see p20 of TCE)
He is a Nāga (see p125 of TCE)
He is a Yaksha (see p126 of TCE)
He hopes to wage war against the moon and betroth Cháng'é
He's always intoxicated
He is, secretly, at the centre of all events in the campaign

㊃ TABLE IV: Their vicious bestial totems

Their totem is the locust. They gibber and swarm
Their totem is the maggot. They revel in ignorance
Their totem is the jackal. They belong to treachery
Their totem is the crocodile. They are patient, they are swift
Their totem is the hog. They wallow and they wail
Their totem is the scorpion. They live in solitude
Their totem is the centipede. They form a long lean line
Their totem is the snow leopard. They move in darkness
Their totem is the wolf. They harry and howl
Their totem is the suānní. They will burn you

㊄ TABLE V: The tribe's most sacred and vile object of reverence

A powder with unusual properties
Yak butter. A mound of it
Your tears and those of many foes. In a great urn
A baby wǎngliǎng (see p115 of TCE)
The clothes once worn by a corrupt xiān
A trident
The defaced stone ball of a shīzi (see p126 of TCE)
A Tarim mummy
A fat, four-footed weasel carved of lard, smothered in beets
Severed fingers, kept in the finest silk

㊅ TABLE VI: The twisted shamans that guide them

Atavistic, armed with acid, aided by asps
Belligerent, bony, bedecked with baubles. Breathes bats
A crazed and crooked crone. Covered in clusters of candles
A devious dervish. Dominates demons with a dazzling dance
An eight-eyed exotic. An eater of eldritch energies. Engages in echolocation
A fat faction of fleshy flagellants
A glossy guǐ-gadfly. Guarded by ghosts
A hebephrenic harlot. Housed in a hexagon
An idiot and an incunabulist
A jovial juvenile in a jewelled jerkin

㊆ TABLE VII: The tribe's name

Roll 2D8 (for first and second syllable of tribe's name):

Bái-
Běi-
Cháng-
Chì-
Dōng-
Luǒ-
Nán-
Xī-

-dí
-fán
-hú
-lǔ
-mán
-qiāng
-róng
-yí

The Miáo (苗)

2012-01-23T15:58:00.000+01:00

Amongst the various tribes of south-central China, the Miáo (or Hmong) have always been one of the most troublesome for central government. As such they are very present in Chinese myths and legends, much more so than other mountain peoples. There are countless accounts of Miáo rebellions, followed by harsh repression campaigns by the various Chinese dynasties, the worse being the devastating massacres organised by the Qīng in the second half of the 19th century. No wonder that, in time, the Miáo have slowly moved southwards from their ancestral home in south-central China to South-East Asia.

The following is a very evocative excerpt from the book Hmong and American: stories of transition to a strange land by Sue Murphy Mote (2004).

The Hmong were furious fighters. Since Shāng times their abilities had been sharpened by the need to defend what they desperately considered theirs. Guìzhōu Hmong, those against whom the Míng built the ten-foot high Hmong Wall, dressed themselves in armour made of buffalo hide, copper, and iron mail. They carried a shield in one hand, a spear in the other, and a knife in the teeth. Crossbows and poisoned arrows rounded out the arsenal. In the late 1600s, a Chinese factional general multiplied the power of the Hmong juggernaut immeasurably when he left behind in a Hmong village some flintlock rifles, gunpowder, and cannons. Another Chinese general, whom the Hmong had sheltered, showed the Hmong how to manufacture their own flintlocks, or blunderbusses, an item used in colonial America around the same time. Hmong made them by the thousands.
At the same time, Hmong began breeding mountain ponies for war. These animals, able to race up and down mountainsides, were regarded by the Chinese as the best horses in the empire.

The "Hmong Wall" mentioned above was like a miniature version of the Great Wall, one hundred-mile long, ten-foor high, and with watchtowers manned by armed guards that the Míng had built in the 16th century. This wall was to contain the Miáo within a given territory, where the Míng troops would foray to capture boys to be mass castrated and turned into eunuch slaves. This territory had the worse lands whereas the best arable lands were given to Hàn colonists. Some of the colonists (mostly Hàn soldiers who crushed the rebellion) would also be given Miáo wives.

春節快樂!

2012-01-22T21:12:00.002+01:00

Happy new year! The year of the Metal Rabbit is ending today, and the year of the Water Dragon starts tomorrow!

The Chinese New Year is the occasion for all Chinese to tidy up their homes, throw out old objects, buy new shoes and new clothes, and, most importantly, to remove the worn-out pictures of the Door Gods and to replace them with brand new shiny ones. See also p13 of The Celestial Empire.

The two pictures of the Door Gods (ménshén 門神) are placed on each side of the main entrance to the Chinese home and stand guard there for a full year to keep away evil spirits. The pictures face each other — it is considered bad luck to place them back-to-back.

Scenario Seed: Save the New Year!
The characters are resting in the city of [city name] before the Spring Festival. They are in the city magistrate's employ, or owe him a favour. They are summoned to the city yámén in the night before New Year's Day by a close retainer of the city magistrate. This is very unusual, since even civil servants are supposed to be off duty and celebrating with their family on New Year.
The magistrate receives them in casual dress... this is even more intriguing. He explains them that the situation is so urgent that he forgot about behaving properly. May Confucius forgive his misbehaviour. The whole stock of Door Gods prints that the city printer had prepared for distribution the next day has been stolen! The characters must absolutely find a solution or the whole city will go in panic mode once the disappearance of the good luck-bringing posters becomes public!

The characters may suggest...

that the printer re-print a batch of Door Gods pictures. This is impossible because there's not enough paper left.
that the magistrate buy a batch of pictures from another printer. This is impossible because the closest is in the next city, which is one day travel from their city.

Possible courses of action: the PCs could try and find paper somewhere (didn't that Buddhist abbot want to print out the Dàzàngjīng?), or they could try and a find a means to travel faster (isn't there a Daoist hermit in the mountains who can travel 500 lǐ in a day?). The best idea, however, would be retracing the thief. He's currently on the river bank, waiting for a boat that will take him to a city downstream where he's planning to sell the images.

Possible consequences should the PCs fail: Panic spreads through the city. Ne'er-do-wells and thieves take advantage of it to commit burglaries. The following days, having had word of the situation, brigands raid the city. In a campaign game with supernatural elements, the city could even fall prey to demons or yāoguài.

Weird Chinese Cults

2012-01-19T23:58:00.001+01:00

Secret Santicore 2011 is a massive, free role-playing supplement produced by the Old School Renaissance (OSR) movement finest. You may get it from here.

I really enjoy reading the contents of the book, and I often find myself thinking how I could adapt this or that to The Celestial Empire. Today I am presenting you my Chinese adaptation of Weird Cults by Brendan S.

Roll 10D10 and pray the Buddha that nothing too weird happens!

㊀ TABLE I: What do they worship?

A foreign religion (see p39 of TCE)
A demon lord (a mìngmó, see p117 of TCE)
A forgotten deity from the ancient past
Prince of animals (roll on the animal table)
Chī Yóu
Emperor Xīn of Shāng (aka Evil King Zhòu)
The Dào
The new prophet
The overlord of a rival state
An ancient machine

㊁ TABLE II: What is their identifier?

Animal tattoo on their back (roll on the animal table)
Fine silver ring, allowed to tarnish
Ritual cross-hatch scars on upper arms
Glass eye
Secret kowtow
Green blood
Eyelid fold
Sharp teeth (either sharpened or naturally sharp)
Hairless
Verbal prayers of thanks to the patron upon any success

㊂ TABLE III: What is their ultimate goal?

Extinction, but they want to take as many others with them as possible
Accumulate souls for their account in hell
To take back the underworld — men belong underground, demons above
Prepare the world for the ancient masters from the stars
The Pill of Immortality; each cell has part of the recipe, they seek each other out
Enlightenment through extreme experiences
Reforesting the great waste known as civilisation
Red is the sacred colour, as much of the world as possible must be in this hue
Yellow is the sacred colour, as much of the world as possible must be in this hue
The end of warfare (could be latter-day Mohists)

㊃ TABLE IV: Who is in charge?

Mad charismatic crackpot
Demon, corrupt Xiān, or Yāoguài in human guise
Alchemist who found the recipe for the Pill of Immortality
Swindler, bilking the credulous
Swindler, bilking the credulous, unaware that his teachings are true
A sentient yīn lóngmài (see p85 of TCE)
A sentient yáng lóngmài (see p85 of TCE)
Prince of animals (roll on the animal table)
One of the PCs in a past life
An animated icon (see p84 of TCE)

㊄ TABLE V: What is their taboo?

Must not eat cereals
Will not bow in front of authority
If you meet their eyes, you will learn one of their secrets
They must wash skin that sunlight touches
Dead cultists must be buried in the cemetery of the leader's home village
Must not start a fire
Sexual abstinence
Will eat nothing cooked
Must not lie
Must always have a clear mind; no intoxicants

㊅ TABLE VI: What is their secret power?

Start and control fires — use the Flames of the Sun spell (see p131 of BRP) at half cost
Corpses speak to cultists — use the Necromancy skill (see p63 of TCE)
Discipline of the body — a random wǔshù power (see p66 of TCE)
Preserve corpses indefinitely, à la Kim Jong-il
None, though they believe they can summon demons
Rust metal by touch
Detect Truth at will (see p77 of TCE)
Fertile — crops tended yield 2 to 3 times normal bounty
Access to uncommon Battle Magic spells (see p76 of TCE)
Wire fu! — use the Sorcerer's Leap spell (see p134 of BRP) at half cost

㊆ TABLE VII: What is their ritual garb?

Saffron robes
Bronze armour with ornate helm
Official magistrates — they actually run the place!
Crazy Daoist garb, à la Chinese Ghost Story (they believe they are puissant Daoist sorcerers)
Finely scented loin cloth
White tunic and sandals
Masquerade masks
Loose hair, no hat
Aboriginal clothing
Shape-shifters — vixen spirits or other, ritual 'garb' is their non-human form

㊇ TABLE VIII: What do their nameless rituals entail?

Eating live animals (roll on the animal table)
Recitation of apocryphal sūtra
Silent meditation
Ritual combat
Human sacrifice
Animal sacrifice (roll on the animal table)
Burning the sacred texts of rival cults
Riddles
Summoning
Believer suicides

㊈ TABLE IX: Where do they hold their nameless rituals?

Theatre
Sacred cave
Sacred mountain top
Ancient unearthed vessel
Yámén — they run the place!
Ancestral hall of a ritually slain clan
Ancestral hall of the leader's clan
A natural glade under an overcast sky
By a yáng lóngmài to protect from hostile spirits
A rival cult's holy place

㊉ TABLE X: How old is the sect?

Just founded last week
Since before the Shāng
Was loosed on the world by something let out of an adventure by the PCs
During the founding of the current dynasty
The previous dynasty (cult is all that remains)
Cult is a cyclical plague unleashed to punish decadent societies
Originally founded by a mythical ancestor in ancient times
Older than written history (all cult records are oral)
It was born with the leader and will die with the leader
Founded based on some past innocuous PC action

APPENDIX: Animal table

Mantis
Turtle
Goat
Wasp
Ox
Rat
Worm
Monkey
Snake
Centipede

Chinese Age Reckoning

2012-01-16T10:22:00.000+01:00

The traditional Chinese way of reckoning a person's age is completely different from the Western one. In the West, we are born at age '0', and we age 1 year at our birthday. In Imperial China, newborn start at 1 year-old, and they add 1 year on the first day of the Chinese New Year.

Hence a baby born on the 30th day of the 12th month is already 1-year old at birth. He or she ages 1 year on the first day of the Chinese New Year, i.e., the 2nd day of his or her life. So when the baby is two days old, his or her age is actually "2 years"!

As a consequence, there will always be a 1- or even 2-year difference between the Chinese age and the Western age of your characters, the former being the larger one. GMs may or may not want to take this into account for the rules about character generation etc.

Quick Tables to Generate Chinese Province Names

2012-01-06T16:20:00.001+01:00

I have received very positive feedback on my post about the creation of on-the-fly Chinese town and city names. Therefore I am now providing a post on how to create Chinese-sounding province names.

Chinese provinces haven't always had the same name (and area) as today. For GMs who like their games to be historically accurate, it is easy to look up the right names of the provinces for a given dynasty in a history atlas or on Wikipedia. For GMs who like to play in a generic fantasy China à la Dragon Lines, I believe this post should come in handy.

Much like Chinese towns and cities, Chinese provinces usually have a two-syllable name. The first syllable is either a proper noun (often the name of a river or of a salient place name from the province itself) or an epithet for the second syllable, which itself is more often than not a common noun.

The following tables will create realistically-sounding names for your Chinese provinces. First roll a D20 for the first syllable from Table 1, then roll a D12 for the second syllable from Table 2. Voilà, you have a fairly nicely sounding name for your Chinese province.

Table 1 (D20)

Ān (peaceful)
Fèng (respectful)
Fú (happy)
Guān (frontier pass)
Guǎng (expanse)
Hé (river)
Hú (lake)
Jiāng (river)
Jīng (bramble)
Lì (merit)
Lín (descend)
Lǐng (mountain ridge)
Níng (peaceful)
Shān (mountain range)
Shǎn (mountain pass)
Tóng (lofty)
Xián (united)
Xīn (new)
Yǒng (eternal)
Yún (misty [mountains])

Table 2 (D12)

běi (north)
chuān (circuit)
dōng (east)
jī (domain)
jiàn (establishment)
jiāng (疆, frontier)
jiāng (江, river)
nán (south)
nèi (inside)
xī (west)
yòu (west)
yuán (plain)

Quick Guidelines & Tables to Generate Chinese Town & City Names

2012-01-04T22:55:00.002+01:00

Chinese town and city names are usually made up of two syllables. The first syllable would usually be an adjective or a proper noun, and the second syllable a common noun, most frequently a proper noun such as "prefecture", "capital city", etc.

Some examples from actual Chinese place names:

Capital cities: ending in -jīng:
Běijīng = Northern (běi) + capital city (jīng)
Dōngjīng = Eastern (dōng) + capital city (jīng)
Nánjīng = Southern (nán) + capital city (jīng)
Shèngjīng = flourishing (shèng) + capital city (jīng)

Prefectural seats: ending in -zhōu:
Guǎngzhōu = Guǎng (name of the province) + prefecture (zhōu)
Hángzhōu = Háng (proper noun) + prefecture (zhōu)
Lánzhōu = orchid (lán) + prefecture (zhōu)
Quánzhōu = source (quán) + prefecture (zhōu)
Sūzhōu = Sū (proper noun) + prefecture (zhōu)
Zhèngzhōu = Zhèng (name of an ancient state) + prefecture (zhōu)

Medium-sized cities: ending in -chéng or in -dū
Áodū = Áo (proper noun) + city (dū)
Běidū = Northern (běi) + city (dū)
Chéngdū = Chéng (proper noun) + city (dū)
Dàdū = large (dà) + city (dū)
Guīchéng = turtle (guī) + city (chéng)
Jǐnchéng = brocade (jǐn) + city (chéng)
Róngchéng = hibiscus (róng) + city (chéng)

River-name-based city names:
Hànkǒu = Hàn (name of the river that flows through the city) + river mouth (kǒu)
Hànyáng = Hàn (name of the river that flows through the city) + river bank (yáng)
Luòyáng = Luò (name of the river that flows through the city) + river bank (yáng)
Shěnyáng = Shěn (name of the river that flows through the city) + river bank (yáng)

Miscellaneous names:
Bǎo'ān = precious (bǎo) + peace (ān)
Cháng'ān = long (cháng) + peace (ān)
Chóngqìng = double (chóng) + celebration (qìng)
Fóshān = Buddha (Fó) + mountain (shān)
Guìlín = olive tree (guì) + forest (lín)
Lín'ān = descending (lín) + peace (ān)
Níngbō = tranquil (níng) + waves (bō) [Níngbō is a port city]
Qīngdǎo = azure (qīng) + island (dǎo)
Qìngyáng = celebration (qìng) + river bank (yáng)
Rìzhào = sun (rì) + shine (zhào)
Shàoxīng = continue (shào) + thrive (xīng)
Tiānjīn = sky (tiān) + ferry (jīn) [Tiānjīn is a port city]
Xī'ān = Western (xī) + peace (ān)

The above examples should enable you to create on-the-fly city names when needed. Here are some more guidelines:

For a large city, the easiest is <a syllable>+zhōu. The first syllable being quite often a proper name, you may use the sample surnames from p8 of the rule book, or alternatively one of the following:

Bái: white
Běi: Northern
Dōng: Eastern
Hēi: black
Hóng: red
Huáng: yellow
Nán: Southern
Níng: tranquil
Qīng: azure
Xī: Western
Zhōng: central

For a medium-sized city, roll 2D10 and refer to the following table:
die roll – 1st syllable – 2nd syllable
1 – Běi – 'ān
2 – Xī – dǎo
3 – Hé – mén
4 – Jiāng – chéng
5 – Zhōng – chuān
6 – Hú – dū
7 – Qīng – lín
8 – Dōng – shān
9 – Nán – yáng
0 – <use a syllable from the table of surnames> – zhuāng

Smaller settlements can simply be named “<surname> family village”, <surname> being the most common surname in the area, or the surname of the foremost local clan, e.g., the notorious Zhù Family Village in the Water Margin.

The Money Tree (摇钱树)

2012-01-03T16:54:00.004+01:00

The Money Tree (摇钱树 yáoqiánshù) is a nature spirit embodied in an ancient tree. It is hard to tell whether it moves about and appears to its victims, or if it is incorporeal and only materialises before them. Whatever the actual truth, the yáoqiánshù usually only appears before lone travellers. The GM may use the Money Tree when the PCs are lost in a forest and have lost track of each other, when they are fleeing a group of bandits in the mountains and are scattered, etc. The important element is that the victim must be alone.

The yáoqiánshù will choose to appear in the vicinity of the PC whose total Daoism + Heterodoxy allegiance score is the lowest. A slight breeze will ensure that the victim will clearly hear the tintinnabulation of the golden cash-like fruits of the Money Tree. The latter will present itself as a large specimen of whatever tree is most common in the area, its branches heavy with large, cash-like fruits made of the purest gold. The victim will be able to collect enough gold to go up one Wealth level. The large coins will be in imitation of whatever currency was official 1d8×100 years before present (this time span is actually the age of the yáoqiánshù). If the coins happen to correspond to cash that was in circulation during an earlier dynasty, and if the PC figures out he should sell them to a collector, then the Wealth of the PC will go up two levels!

This wealth, however, is cursed. At some later time, the GM should devise an unfortunate event that will cause the PC to lose all the accumulated wealth and to suffer misfortune, e.g., some local nouveau riche challenges the PC to a display of wealth through building an exaggerated mansion, which will then collapse upon the PC. Or a local cash-broken magistrate will request the PC build a bridge, or a temple, or whatever, which will cost him all the accumulated wealth plus some more. Or a travelling member of the imperial court will have heard about the wealth of the PC and will ask the PC to offer him some costly present, which he won't even like; this incident will make a bitter enemy of said member of the court... You get the idea.

Using LotFP supplements with TCE - Tower of the Stargazer

2011-12-30T16:38:00.002+01:00

This module (blurb here) is a stand-alone adventure that can be easily ported to The Celestial Empire. It must be set under the Míng or under the Qīng. If set under the Míng, then it must be set at the beginning of the Míng so that the Stargazer was active under the Yuán. If set under the Qīng, then it must be set at the end of the 18th century so that the Stargazer was active at the end of the 17th century.

The rationale behind these time frames is the major astronomic advances that happened under the Yuán because of the presence of Arab and Persian astronomers. Likewise, there were major astronomic advances at the end of the 17th century thanks to the Jesuit missionaries present at the court of the Kāngxī Emperor.

The rest of this post is hidden because of major spoilers that it contains.

As suggested on p5 of the module, the tower should be placed away from any settlements, possibly in the mountains — which is by the way the most logical place to build an observatory.

Page 9: The dead thief is actually a dead bandit, famous in the Rivers and Lakes.
Page 10, Sitting Room: It's obviously rice wine, not grape wine.
Page 11, Sitting Room: It is the statue of a vixen lady embracing a mandarin.
Page 13, Head Servant's Quarters: His name was Tái Ānruì
Page 14, Wizard's Quarters: His name is Shěn Yùruì
Page 15: The reward is 10 gold taels. More generally, use the 10gp=1 gold tael equivalence throughout the module.
Page 17: Shěn Yùruì is a very powerful (POW 18) Daoist magician. Just make sure he has plenty of offensive spells.
Page 21, Library: The books in the library are written in Arabic if the adventure is set at the beginning of the Míng; they are written in Latin if it is set at the end of the 18th century.
Page 22, The Ghost: obviously it will be a game of go (wéiqí)
Page 23, Eldritch Library: The books in the library are written in Classical Chinese, with many unusual Daoist versions of the characters (-25% to read, unless the reader is himself a member of a Daoist sect). The scrolls will contain Daoist spells, possibly gǔ sorcery spells.
Pages 24-25, Workshop and Telescope: the book on the podium is written in Arabic/Latin (depending on the era).
Page 28, Trap Room: the POT of the spider poison is 13.

Chinese Yuletide

2011-12-29T15:55:00.002+01:00

All peoples in the world celebrate and have always celebrated the winter solstice. We Westerners have had various pagan midwinter traditions that were later 'transformed' by the Church into Christmas.

Well, the Chinese obviously still have their midwinter festival, which is called the Dōngzhì (冬至) Festival. On this day, all members of the clan must assemble at the Ancestral Hall and worship their ancestors. Failing to do so will cause penalties to one's Allegiance score in most Chinese religions (see the rule book). Specially consecrated tāngyuán (湯圓, glutinous rice flour balls) are eaten during the ceremony. These consecrated tāngyuán serve as protective talismans to keep evil spirits from coming close to whomever has eaten them. In gaming terms, no guǐ-monster can come closer than 10m to the person for 2D6 days.

This year, the Dōngzhì Festival fell on 22 December. Sorry for having been late with the relevant post!

Pseudohistory

2011-12-27T12:58:00.006+01:00

China and the Chinese pop up in pseudohistory. They may not pop up as often as the Egyptians or the Atlanteans, but what they lack in presence they make up in solidity. I certainly do not pay much heed to works of pseudohistory or cryptohistory, but some of them do contain disturbing evidence.

Land masses east of China are present in pre-1492 European maps rumoured to have been copied from Chinese originals. The 1475 Martellus map, for instance, shows a large land mass very similar to South America east of mainland China.

Gavin Menzies uses many more of these troubling facts to claim that Zhèng Hé's fleet reached the Americas. Although his book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World does not resist scientific scrutiny, it is great fun reading, and it surely makes for a great campaign setting for The Celestial Empire: imagine that the player characters participate in one of Zhèng Hé's voyages and embark on a long trip round the world!

Other disturbing references in ancient Chinese manuscripts would point to the mythical eastern island continent of Fúsāng being the same as America. But more on that in a separate post!

TCE Forum

2011-12-27T09:21:00.002+01:00

The Celestial Empire has its own forum, hosted by Alephtar Games, the fine publishers of TCE and of many other quality historical role-playing games.

Cubicle 7 Sale Starts Today

2011-12-26T15:19:00.004+01:00

That's your chance to grab a copy of The Celestial Empire with a 10% discount. Just go to Cubicle 7's web store and look for Basic Roleplaying System in the left hand-side menu.

To claim your 10% discount, use the following coupon codes during check-out:

If you are paying in GBP – KW7CWNXUFMT7MW8L1H8BHUSQ
If you are paying in USD – EDT87J5RNFGKD5CU6AEBFWAQ

Using LotFP supplements with TCE - The Tower

2011-12-20T16:45:00.002+01:00

The Tower is a short Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) adventure from issue No.4 of Green Devil Face, LotFP's in-house magazine. As with most LotFP adventures, it presents a lonely location to be used by the GM as he sees fit. In my particular case, that would be in Imperial China, and using The Celestial Empire!

The rest of this post is hidden because of major spoilers that it contains.

The Tower is a mansion, not necessarily a day's journey from civilisation, but maybe 2-3 hours from the centre of the closest town/village, or in its most ancient part. The architecture is clearly from the previous dynasty, or even older. The mansion is, however, absolutely shunned by the locals.

The thing guarding the door of the mansion needn't be a monster if the setting doesn't contemplate them. It could be a tall, foreign guard, who doesn't speak Chinese.

The door can be kept the same. After all, metamorphs abound in Chinese legends.

First Level: The statues are those of female immortals (xiān); their rhymes refer to a magical lofty kingdom in the abodes of the Immortals, or to a fiefdom within a Dragon kingdom in a nearby river/lake.

Fourth Level: The people who put the woman to sleep are not wizards but some kind of foreign-looking priests. The glyphs within the thaumaturgic circle are undecipherable ancient and/or foreign-looking characters, even for scholarly PCs.

How It Happens: Instead of meeting a knight, the characters meet the wealthy but low-status son of a merchant who dreams of marrying the Beloved Daughter of the Dragon Kind (or some other bombastic title), even if it means leaving this stupid material world behind. His retainers are obviously men from the Rivers and Lakes...

Using LotFP supplements with TCE

2011-12-18T16:29:00.006+01:00

Thanks to a recent sale on the PDF versions, I have recently bought quite a few LotFP supplements. For those of you who have spent the last two years on Mars, Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) is a weird fantasy role-playing game, which is part of the "Old School Renaissance" (OSR) movement. However, contrary to most OSR fantasy role-playing games, whose sole aim is to re-create that 'dungeon' feeling from our high school years, LotFP has a few innovations of its own, which I'll detail in this post. These are much more important in my eyes than what LotFP is usually only known for: a general taste for adult themes and illustrations.

1. To me, the most important innovation is that LotFP adventures, for all their 'dungeonness', are definitely different from those 1980s modules: they are usually designed for low-level characters, and there is only one major opponent within the 'dungeon' -- the rest of the dungeon is there to unnerve the PCs through its many traps or weird encounters.

2. Another peculiarity of LotFP is that its default setting, although never really described, is more of a 15th-17th century Europe than an imaginary Dark Ages quasi-European fantasy world. Again, this makes for grittier adventures where the enemy is not an exaggerated 'monster' but a cunning, evil enemy that has laid out a careful plan to trap unwanted trespassers.

3. Yet another peculiarity is that LotFP adventures tend to be light on stats and heavy on description. A creature's armour class, for instance, is never given as a numeric value but always as "as unarmored man", "armor as leather", etc. Movement is likewise always rendered as a multiplier of an unarmoured man's movement value.

As a consequence, LotFP adventures are surprisingly adaptable to The Celestial Empire. I have started penning conversion notes for No Dignity in Death, The Tower, and Tower of the Stargazer. Since I don't want to spoil these adventures, I won't write anything here. Just PM me or let me know in the comments if you are interested.

Renaissance

2011-12-06T14:53:00.003+01:00

Elegant British game designers Cakebread and Walton have released for free their 139-page d100 engine for Renaissance-themed frp gaming. The system is aptly titled Renaissance and may be downloaded from their web-site.

I haven't had time yet to fully scrutinise it, but I believe this rule set should be >95% compatible with The Celestial Empire and hence an interesting, free alternative to the purchase of Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying (BRP) System.

Renaissance features a lengthy section on Black Powder weapons and should hence be a welcome addition to any Qīng-dynasty games.

Renaissance also features a fully-fledged, spell-based alchemy system. Now, I am not in favour of magic-based alchemy systems (I'd rather manage alchemy as a set of mundane skills), but until I produce Chinese Alchemy rules for The Celestial Empire, it might be a good idea to try and use Renaissance's alchemy sytem -- with the obvious modifications for China, such as replacing the Philosopher's Stone with the Pill of Immortality. The Alchemists' Spells listed in Renaissance could be considered as a sub-set of The Celestial Empire Daoist spells.

The Míng Dynasty

2011-11-16T15:49:00.002+01:00

Today's featured article on Wikipedia is their outstanding piece on the Míng dynasty. The Míng dynasty was the time period during which most knight-errant novels were written, as well as the 'default setting' for many Chinese tales, legends, etc. Even stories set in other (earlier) time periods frequently make reference to Míng clothing, customs, armour, military tactics, martial arts, etc. Robert van Gulik certainly did so (on purpose) in his Judgee Dee stories.
Also, many instantly recognisable Chinese artefacts date from the Míng: the Great Wall of China, porcelain vases, much art...
Wikipedia's article on the Míng dynasty is hence recommended reading for all Celestial Empire game masters.

Foreign Devils - Part Four: the Portuguese (2)

2011-10-21T11:00:00.003+02:00

If the relations between the Portuguese and the Míng had been strained in the 16th century, they evolved much more positively in the 17th century.

Commercial wise, Macau remained the only European trade port in China until the wars of the 19th century, bringing much wealth to the Portuguese, and spawning a whole trading class of European-friendly Chinese in southern China: the compradores (itself a Portuguese word).

Military wise, the Portuguese were key in the reintroduction of cannon and firearms in China. Strangely enough, despite firearms having been invented in China, their use had much dwindled under the extremely conservative and extremely complacent Míng Dynasty. Here are a few key events:

1620: The Míng decide to use Portuguese cannon against the Tartars.
1621: Four guns and bombardiers are sent from Macau. Bombardiers turned back at Canton but guns let through.
1623: Board of War memorialises Emperor in favour of Portuguese gunners.
1624: Seven Portuguese gunners arrive in North China.

Although the turning point between the Míng Dynasty and the Qīng Dynasty is traditionally held to be the fall of Běijīng in 1644 (see p3 of The Celestial Empire), the fight between Chinese Míng loyalists on the one side, and the Manchu invaders and those Chinese troops who had rallied them on the other side, went on for decades; however, the death of Zhū Yóuláng, the last heir to the Míng throne, in 1662, and the defeat of Zhèng Chénggōng's forces by the Qīng in 1683 spelled the end for the anti-Qīng military movement, which would then turn into the anti-Qīng sentiment of many secret societies (see p102 of The Celestial Empire).

Zhū Yóuláng was based in South China, and he received much help from the Portuguese. One of the key battles of the Qīng campaigns in South China was the siege of Guìlín. Guìlín was held for the Míng loyalists by a detachment of Portuguese colonial troops, many of whom African slaves, who were surprisingly loyal, and often considered to be the best Portuguese troops. Even in the 17th century, they were still armed with halberds, or with sword and buckler.

The siege of Guìlín could make for an interesting historical Celestial Empire campaign, with the player characters on either side, and with many 'exotic' factions: Míng loyalists, Manchus, Chinese defectors from both sides, non-Hàn natives, and Portuguese colonial troops. The latter would be best described by the 'Foreign Devils' entry on p112 of Dragon Lines.

Foreign Devils - Part Three: the Portuguese (1)

2011-10-17T16:36:00.004+02:00

Much of the following has been excerpted from John M Jackson's web-site.

The establishment of the native, conservative Míng Dynasty in 1368 closed China to the West. With Muslims controlling the lands and seas dividing them, Europe and China would be isolated from one another for the next 150 years. During the Mongol hegemony, Europe had become increasingly dependent upon the spices of East Asia — spices that were useful in improving the taste of winter-stored meats. After the Míng's establishment, the European demand for spice proved a windfall for the traders of western Asia, who sated the European spice demand at an enormous profit for themselves. Just as it had with the ancient silk trade, Europe's isolation from China made it dependent upon middlemen for eastern goods. And just as the earlier silk monopoly had spurred Roman exploration, so too did the spice monopoly incite Europeans to seek alternative routes to Asia.

The search for new eastern routes was not a co-operative one; the late fifteenth century found the major European powers competing to capture Asia's lucrative spice trade. In this struggle to reach the East by ocean, perhaps no other nation was better prepared than Portugal. Bounded on the east by Spain, the Portuguese had early established a strong economic link to the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal's long coastline fostered the development of strong maritime trade and nautical superiority. Meticulous cartography and skilful shipbuilding lent the Portuguese added advantages in maritime exploration.

Not only were the Portuguese more prepared for exploration than most other powers, they were perhaps more motivated as well. Long-standing conflicts with Islam made the Portuguese drive to the East a religious crusade as much as an economic one.
As the Portuguese searched for a way to circumnavigate Africa and reach the East, they sought to spread the domain of Christendom. They were sanctioned in their efforts by a Papal Bull of 1455 which granted them carte blanche to "subdue and to convert pagans (even if untainted by Muslim influence) who may be encountered in the regions lying between Morocco and the Indies". With papal authority, the Portuguese conquered those peoples they encountered. As the "discoverers" of new lands, they felt no remorse for the atrocities they visited on natives. On the contrary, the Portuguese regarded these new lands as theirs to enjoy and exploit as they wished. Furthermore, considering themselves the vassals of God, they justified themselves in whatever they did to the 'heathens' of Asia.

The Portuguese juggernaut continued rapidly south along the African coast, then round the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean by 1495. The Portuguese raped, pillaged and plundered with a philosophy that equated trade with piracy and piety with conquest. Ever victorious against weaker powers, the Portuguese may have felt they were divinely blessed. It was only when the Westerners entered China that their invasion was countered by a power that —at that time— could match their own.

While the strength of Portugal was based largely upon the recent scientific advances of Europe's explosive Renaissance, China's own technological achievements had been acquired through centuries of steady technological development. Even as Europe was making monumental leaps forward, however, Chinese culture had become somewhat static. The empire's technological acumen was perhaps dulled by complacency and a conservative dynasty, apprehensive of threats to its rule. Still, China remained the East's dominant power.

Although the Chinese were perhaps no less ethnocentric than the Europeans, their arrogance manifested itself much differently. Since the earliest of times, the Chinese had regarded all other peoples as Yí (夷), or "barbarians". Though they were able to distinguish differences among other cultures, the Chinese placed these cultures together at the bottom of a social hierarchy that left room for only themselves at the top (see p25 of The Celestial Empire). China had been, in fact, the most developed Asian culture for centuries. Through long-standing tradition, the lesser nations of Asia acknowledged China's dominance by dispatching gifts via tribute missions to the Chinese court. These missions did little to inflate dynastic coffers; as a show of their largesse, the Chinese reciprocated with gifts to their tributaries that were even more valuable than those received. Rather, these tributes were important in reinforcing the image of China as a benevolent paternal figure to other nations.

The Chinese hierarchical ideal did not go unchallenged, however. The Japanese and Mongols, for example, were little inclined to concede Chinese superiority. Yet there were enough countries seeking trade and intercourse with China who paid their respects as tributaries to lend credence to the ideal. Though it recognised the military strength of other nations, China never relinquished its self-perception as the Central Kingdom — the home of true civilisation. Through years of contact with their militant neighbours, the Chinese had learned to appease them —to "manage the barbarians"— and still gratify their own conceit. The arrival of the unfamiliar, imposing Portuguese in Asia would eventually present a new challenge to China's position in the cultural hierarchy.

Chinese merchants first encountered the Portuguese at Malacca in 1511. In the 16 years since the Portuguese had first entered the Indian Ocean, they had effectively ousted the Arabs and replaced them as the intermediary between Europe and Central Asia. Not complacent with their prior successes, the Portuguese continued looking for opportunities to expand their new Asian empire. In 1509, the Portuguese sailed east to Malacca seeking spices and information about the Chinese, of whom they had heard reports since first landing in India in 1498. As the gateway between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Malacca was an important trading centre. Though Míng China had largely withdrawn from maritime trade, its merchants still sailed to Malacca. The Sultanate of Malacca had been, in fact, one of the many Chinese tributaries since the mid-15th century.

At Malacca, the Portuguese —under Lopes de Sequeira— found an entrenched Arab mercantile presence. Jealously clinging to their last stronghold in the Far East, the Arabs persuaded the Malaccan sultan to attack the newly arrived Portuguese. Sequeira escaped, but not before many of his men were captured or killed.

While the Portuguese returned to India and considered their defeat, the Sultan of Malacca became involved in a petty war with a rival kingdom. In 1511, the sultan apparently forgot his place in the Chinese empire. He requisitioned the junks and crews of visiting Chinese merchants to transport his troops in battle.

Meanwhile, Afonso de Albuquerque —the newly appointed governor of India— had arrived at Malacca with a new fleet of 18 Portuguese ships and began negotiations for trade concessions and the return of Portuguese prisoners. When these negotiations collapsed, Albuquerque prepared to lay siege to the city. As he did so, the Chinese merchants —indignant at Malaccan presumptuousness— offered their assistance to Albuquerque. The Chinese were much impressed when Albuquerque declined, expressing concern for the merchants' safety. Actually, the Portuguese were probably more interested in insuring that they would be the sole beneficiaries of victory's spoils.

So ended the first Sino-Portuguese contact. The Chinese merchants returned home and reported Portugal's military strength and apparent friendly intentions toward the empire. They also reported the insubordinate actions of the Malaccan sultan. The Portuguese, meanwhile, had conquered Malacca and immediately set about administering their new possession. Albuquerque left a protective force in Malacca and returned to India, dispatching reports to Portugal's King Manuel I and awaiting further instructions regarding the Chinese.

Perhaps impatient with official channels, Portuguese merchants were undertaking their own voyages to China by 1514. Though sanctioned by Jorge de Albuquerque, the new captain-major (governor) of Malacca, these initial missions had no official status. Rather, they were private efforts to assess the feasibility of developing trade relations with the Chinese.

The first of these "merchant embassies" was headed by Jorge Álvares, who landed at the Chinese island of Túnmén (屯門, now part of Hong Kong) in 1514. Here, Álvares erected a stone monument bearing the Portuguese coat-of-arms and engaged in trade. Álvares' stay on Túnmén was a commercial success. He not only witnessed the abundant riches of China, but also sold his own goods at great profit. Álvares soon observed that there was as great an economic potential in transporting south Asian spices to China as in sending them on to Europe.

In a letter written in 1515, the Italian explorer Andrea Corsali described Álvares' voyage. The Italian traveller granted high praise to the Chinese. "They are a people of great skill," he wrote, "and on a par with ourselves." Even here, though, the idea of European superiority is apparent. Though Corsali acknowledged that the wealth and skill of the Chinese matched Europeans', he described the Chinese as being "of an uglier aspect, with little bits of eyes." The Chinese were also, in Corsali's estimation, "pagans".

Even before first-hand descriptions of China's wealth reached Europe, the Portuguese were preparing for an official diplomatic mission. On 7 April 1515, Fernão Pires de Andrade sailed from Lisbon bound for India. There, he would assemble a flotilla and sail for China via Malacca. After several misadventures, de Andrade left Malacca in June 1517. Accompanying him was Tomé Pires, a royal apothecary who was fated to serve as the Portuguese ambassador to Běijīng.

Upon arriving in the Bay of Canton in August 1517, de Andrade applied to the commander of coast guards at Nántóu for permission to proceed to Canton. After a delay of some days, the commander granted his permission (overstepping his authority in doing so), and de Andrade sailed up the Pearl River to Canton.

At Canton, de Andrade committed the first of many Western blunders; he ordered his ships to hoist their flags and fire a cannon salute. The Chinese were outraged by what they considered an open display of aggression in a port of trade. Though they were ostensibly pacified when de Andrade explained that these actions were intended as displays of respect, the Chinese long remembered the breach of conduct.

Despite his early faux pas, de Andrade seems to have conducted himself well and regained Chinese good-will. Appeased by de Andrade's apologetic manner, the Chinese allowed him to engage in trade and to land his embassy. Illnesses among his crew and threats of piracy to the force he had left at Túnmén forced de Andrade to shorten his visit, however. The Portuguese commander returned with his squadron to Malacca, but not before offering remuneration to any Chinese who held claims against the foreigners.

The Portuguese embassy, under Pires, remained in Canton, where they were schooled in Chinese protocol. The local Bureau of Trading Junks superintendent, finding no precedent for relations with the Portuguese, prepared a report for the throne and awaited permission to send the embassy to Běijīng.

While Pires awaited word from Běijīng, another Portuguese flotilla arrived at Túnmén in August 1519. Led by Simão de Andrade, a brother of Fernão, this second mission rapidly destroyed any good-will that the earlier mission had established. Through arrogance and avarice, Simão de Andrade reinforced the Chinese perception of the Portuguese as merely another horde of barbarians. Under de Andrade, the Portuguese erected fortresses on Túnmén and assumed control of the island's commerce. Encountering no opposition, they settled in and practised the methods that had already earned the Portuguese so much wealth and hatred elsewhere in Asia. They refused to pay customs duties, beat a Chinese customs official, and generally ignored Chinese authority. Moreover, the Portuguese incited local brigands to attack villages on the mainland and took captives to export as slaves. Soon, rumours radiated out from Canton about these new barbarians, and the Portuguese reputation for savagery knew no bounds. Tales of the Portuguese being cannibals of kidnapped Chinese children —however unlikely— illustrated the view that the Chinese had of their new visitors. Considering the many real atrocities committed by the Portuguese, it is not surprising that the Chinese could believe them capable of this one as well.

Meanwhile, Pires and his companions lingered in Canton, awaiting permission to journey to Běijīng for an interview with the Wǔzōng Emperor. Finally, in 1520, permission was granted; the Canton officials had been bribed not to inform the court of Simão de Andrade's misdeeds. On 23 January, Pires left for Běijīng with his entourage, gifts for the emperor, and a letter from King Manuel I.

Peres' mission proved a total failure. When opened at Běijīng, the original letter from Manuel I to the Wǔzōng Emperor differed greatly from the translation prepared by Chinese interpreters. Though the interpreters claimed the translation had been altered to reflect Chinese customs of address, the court believed it an act of duplicity; they also found Manuel I's letter to be arrogant and presumptuous. After all, the court considered Pires a tribute-bearer, not the representative of an equal nation.

Unfortunately for Pires —and East-West relations— his arrival at Běijīng also closely coincided with belated news from Canton of de Andrade's activities. Accompanying this blow to Pires' credibility was an envoy from the Malaccan sultan, eager to remind the court that Portugal had seized Malacca —a Chinese tributary— just nine years earlier. Surprisingly, even after the many charges had been levelled against the Portuguese, Emperor Wǔzōng defended them. "These people do not know our customs," he said; "gradually, they will learn them".

Two high court officials, however, were less forgiving. They reiterated the aggressions of the Portuguese: the seizure of Malacca and the conduct of Simão de Andrade. Neither did they forget Fernão de Andrade's firing of cannon at Canton in 1515. In recounting the Portuguese offences, the officials assailed the presence of foreigners in China as a threat to the empire's well-being, and argued for the expulsion of all foreigners from China. Due in large part to the influence of these two court officials, Pires and the other Portuguese were declared spies and ordered to be escorted back to Canton. They arrived there in August 1521 and were to be detained while the Chinese considered their fate. As events unfolded on the coast, the embassy's fate was sealed; they would languish and die in Canton prisons.

First Battle of Túnmén
As Pires returned to Canton, orders came from Běijīng that all trade was to cease and all foreigners be expelled. A new Portuguese merchant fleet had just arrived at Canton, however, and refused to depart. It was perhaps inevitable that armed conflict would erupt; their patience taxed beyond endurance, the Chinese attacked. Though reinforced and possessing superior artillery, the small Portuguese fleet was greatly outnumbered. After a long stand-off and a final fierce battle, the remaining Portuguese force escaped and returned to Malacca.

Second Battle of Túnmén
Apparently unaware of the situation's gravity, the Portuguese sent another fleet, commanded by Martim Afonso de Mello, to Túnmén in July 1522. Not long after their arrival there, another naval battle ensued, and the Portuguese were again repelled. The Chinese likely congratulated themselves for their victory over the European barbarians. The empire had been purged of its threat from foreigners, and China could again bask in the glow of its own self-aggrandisement.

China's economy had become too dependent on trade to remain economically isolated for long, however. By 1530, Canton was again opened to trade — though not to the Portuguese. Instead, the Portuguese spent the next few decades trading covertly off the Chinese coast while currying the Míng Dynasty's favour. Eventually, they were permitted to return to trade in China. In 1557, the Chinese allowed them to establish a trading post on Macau [澳門 Àomén], south of Canton. Acting as trade intermediaries between a feuding Japan and China, the Portuguese developed a lucrative trade at Macau that would last many years. Though China still considered the Portuguese barbaric, the trade the foreigners brought the empire earned them a grudging toleration. China managed these new barbarians by officially ignoring them and maintaining a strictly commercial relationship.

Yěrén (野人)

2011-10-14T16:54:00.010+02:00

Several newspapers are currently running stories about the Yeti being for real — here's an example from the Guardian, a serious British newspaper.

The main difference with the usual Yeti stories is that in this case the creature does not inhabit the Himalayas but the Altai Mountains. In Celestial Empire gaming terms, this would place its home at the boundary between Western Siberia and Outer Mongolia.

Another difference is that apparently we're not talking about a brutish ape-like creature any longer, but about a cunning, more human-like creature, that has been able to keep its existence hidden from civilisation for centuries.

As a consequence, I would introduce the Yěrén (野人, this has traditionally been the name given to the Yeti in the Chinese language) to The Celestial Empire as a cunning, humanoid creature, possibly related to the Men of Leng of Lovecraft fame — if you favour this kind of cross-over. Yěrén could even be introduced as the waking world equivalents of the Men of Leng.

Characteristics:
STR 3D6 (10-11)
CON 3D6 (10-11)
SIZ 2D6+6 (13)
INT 3D6 (10-11)
POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 3D6 (10-11)
APP 2D6 (7)

Move : 8
Hit Points: 12
Qì: 10
Damage Bonus: None
Armour: Shaggy fur 1 point + may wear stolen armour
Allegiance: Roll 1D100: 1-60: Shamanism 10D6, 61-100: Heterodoxy 5D4
Morale: Average

Skills:
Craft (crude implements) 25%, Dodge 30%, Grapple 30%, Hide 25%, Knowledge (own region) 75%, Science (Natural History) 65%, Spot 40%, Stealth 60%, Throw 45%, Track 45%.

Spells:
Whatever spell a Yěrén knows will have been taught him by some "master" it serves/worships. This can be of particular interest in a cross-over Call of Cthulhu/Celestial Empire game, where said master can be a Moon-Beast, a priest of Nyarlathotep, or a cultist of the Black Lotus.

Attacks:
Heavy club 25%, damage: 1D8+db (crushing)

Hit Location Table: Use Humanoid.

Demographic History of China

2011-10-14T10:29:00.004+02:00

I have found a German web-site that is a real treasure-trove of historical fact. They have a section about the demographics of Imperial China; unfortunately it only tackles it from the Yuán Dynasty onward.

The site provides information for Imperial China that I have slightly re-adapted (original here):

Estimations for the population figures of Imperial China vary considerably. They are mainly based on censuses in which households were counted (please refer to my previous post about the Door-Tablet 門牌). The geographic area for which population figure estimates apply depends on the historic situation and the fluctuations of the size of the Flowery Empire; the difference in areas for which population figures are given has thus to be taken into account.

1368: End of Yuán Dynasty 元朝; China's population estimated at 60,000,000
1550: China's population estimated at 120,000,000
18th century: Agricultural Revolution in China : triple cropping of rice; introduction of new crops (maize, potato, sweet potato) lay foundation to sustained population growth
1700: China's population estimated at 100,000,000
1750: China's population estimated at 180,000,000
1795: China's population estimated at 300,000,000
1842: End of the First Opium War; Chinese emigration increases
1850-1864: Tàipíng Rebellion; China's population contracts from est. 408,359,000 in 1851 to 369,282,000 in 1864
1860's: The opening of ports to international trade and the attempts by the Zǒnglǐ Yámen 總理衙門 [the Imperial Chinese equivalent of a Ministry for Foreign Affairs] to establish a Chinese industry kickstart a trend toward urbanisation, especially in ports such as Shànghǎi 上海 (Lower Yángzi) and Tiānjīn 天津 (North China)
1861: Inner Manchuria open to immigration of Hàn Chinese
1900: China's population 400,000,000 (based on a census of counted households)
1911: Chinese Revolution; population given at 427,662,000

Tartars and Tartary

2011-09-26T10:27:00.003+02:00

These two terms are not used by Asian peoples; however, since they often appear in European writings about North Asia, today's post is devoted to them.

Under the Yuán 元 and the Míng 明, a group of Islamicised and Turkicised Mongols called the Tatars ruled much of Central Asia. The Tatars exerted their rule either under the suzerainty of the Mongol Empire, or through their own khanates called hordes. By analogy with Tartaros (the underworld of classical mythology), and because of the great massacres brought on Central and Eastern Europe by the Tatars, most European peoples changed the name "Tatar" into "Tartar". This name was later applied to all Muslim and Turkic-speaking nomads of Central and Inner Asia, and then, under the Qīng 清, even to the non-Muslim and non-Turkic peoples, e.g., the Mongols, and the Manchus in China.

The name then obviously spread from the peoples to the land they inhabited.

Little Tartary referred to the land inhabited by the (original) Tatars, in what is now southern Ukraine/southern Russia.
Great Tartary referred to the provinces indicates as 'Western Siberia', 'Central Siberia', 'Buryatia', 'Inner Manchuria', 'Outer Manchuria', 'Inner Mongolia', and 'Outer Mongolia' on the map on p28 of The Celestial Empire.
Within Great Tartary, East Tartary or Maritime Tartary referred to Outer Manchuria and the northern half of Inner Manchuria.

East Tartary was the focus of much Chinese-Japanese-Russian rivalry under the Qīng (see my earlier post about Russian 'foreign devils').

Creatures of the Cold Wastes (3)

2011-09-23T10:04:00.006+02:00

Today, Hobgoblins are under the cold spotlight of the 'Cold Wastes' series of posts, even though they are not featured in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales. Rather, they are a reminiscence of my early gaming days. As most gamers my age (I'm 43), I started with 1st ed AD&D. For some unfathomable reason, Hobgoblins in that game were invariably portrayed in Japanese armour and helmet. At the time, I was already fascinated with all things East Asian, hence the hobgoblin was a particularly beloved monster of mine.

Many years later, the Monstrous Compendium of 2nd ed AD&D had its 'hobgoblin' entry illustrated by the talented DiTerlizzi, who portrayed the hobgoblin with an Inner Asian rather than East Asian demeanour. Again, this illustration struck me as very evocative of an imaginary Inner Asian cold wilderness inhabited by dangerous humanoids.

I've borrowed the illustration for today's post. For a Celestial Empire game, and given its vaguely Mongolian outfit, I will consider this creature as an Inner Asian variant of the more civilised Chīmèi (魑魅 – see p113 of the rule book), and call it a Dímèi (狄魅 – 狄 means 'Northern barbarian', and 魅 is short for 魑魅).

Differences with the Chīmèi as described on p113 of the rule book:

Lamellar armour 6 AP, and round shield
spells: only INT/4 spells are known

The above modifications are to convey the idea that the Dímèi rely more on brute force and less on sorcery than their Southern brethren...

Creatures of the Cold Wastes (2)

2011-09-22T11:26:00.005+02:00

Despite Ice Gnomes being featured several times in the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser when they are in the Cold Wastes, detailed information about them is scant. For a Celestial Empire game, I would treat them as a peculiar subspecies of Tǔxíng (土行 – Earth Travellers, see p120 of the rule book) who are able to travel under snow and ice rather than underground. Their name should hence be changed to Xuěxíng (雪行 – Snow Travellers), to reflect their change in nature.

The Xuěxíng's appetite for beautiful girls is just as strong as the Tǔxíng's.

The Xuěxíng use ice pellets as missiles for their slings.

Characteristics:
STR 2D6+6 (13)
CON 2D6+9 (16)
SIZ 1D6+4 (7-8)
INT 2D6+6 (13)
POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 3D6 (10-11)
APP 2D6+1 (8)

Move : 6
Hit Points: 12
Qì: 10
Damage Bonus: None
Armour: Hair shirt 1 point
Allegiance: Roll 1D100: 1-30: Daoism 5D6+20, 31-100: Heterodoxy 5D6+20
Morale: Average.

Skills:
Dodge 40%, Knowledge (Region [own]) 35%, Knowledge (Religion: Daoism) 40%, Listen 45%, Literacy (Classical Chinese) 90%, Spot 45%, Swim 05%.

Spells:
(Battle Magic) – Travel under ice/snow (each Qì point spent allows the Xuěxíng to travel 2 lǐ under ice/snow) 90%.
(Daoist Magic) – As per the rules.

Attacks:
Axe 40%, damage:1D6+1+db (bleeding)
Sling 30%, damage: 1D6+½db (crushing)

Hit Location Table: Use Humanoid.

Creatures of the Cold Wastes (1)

2011-09-21T15:17:00.004+02:00

I am currently re-reading the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. I am particularly fond of the ones set in the Cold Wastes of Nehwon. Many creatures of the Cold Wastes would obviously be at home on the high plateaux of Tibet or in the cold mountains of Western Siberia.

The Snow Serpent is exactly such a creature. Despite its name, it is really a mammal that preys upon unwary travellers and their beasts of burden.

Particularly primitive or superstitious tribes consider the Snow Serpent as a divine animal and avoid killing it. Some others hunt it actively because of the quality and the beauty of its snow-white fur.

The following stats are partially inspired from the Lankhmar supplement for MRQ.

However, after having read the relevant novel, I cannot quite understand why the poison of the Snow Serpent was described as a cloud breathed by the animal or as spat poison. In the novel, Fafhrd is clearly victim to the poison because he's been bitten.

Characteristics:
STR 4D6+12 (26)
CON 4D6+6 (20)
SIZ 4D6+12 (26)
INT 7 (7)
POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 3D6 (10-11)

Damage bonus: +2D6
Hit Points 23
Move 8

Skills:
Climb 75%
Dodge 25%
Hide 80% on a white background, 40% otherwise
Sense 50%
Stealth 90% on a white background, 45% otherwise
Tracking 30%

Attacks:
Bite 50%, damage 1D8+½db (bleeding) + poison (see below).

Effects:
-Poison
The poison of the snow serpent has a numbing effect. Its POT is equal to the SIZ of the serpent. If it rolls successfully on the Resistance Table vs the CON of the victim, the affected hit location is useless for 1D6 hours.

Armour: Thick fur 2 points

Hit Location table: Use Snake

Bactria

2011-09-12T10:44:00.002+02:00

Because of the great distance and of the impossibly high Pamir Mountains, with passes at 4,900+ metres, Bactria (大夏 Dàxià) has had less of a history of contact with China than neighbouring Sogdiana. However, despite these difficulties, relationships have always existed, with a low under the isolationsit Míng dynasty.

Bactria has been mentioned for the first time in records dating from the 3rd century BC. According to these first documents, goods traded between Bactria and China were available all over China (probably through the Silk Road).
The land has been continuously inhabited by various Iranian peoples, including the rather mysterious Yuèzhī and the famous Tokharians, both extinct, followed by the Pashtuns and the Tajiks. Politically, these peoples have rarely governed themselves, being subject to outside invaders: in the 7th century AD, Bactria was conquered by the Arabs, then by the Mongols (the Ilkhanate), then it was controlled by various Muslim successor states (Persian, Mughal, Afghan) until it became the area where the Russian and British spheres of influence met, at the time of the Great Game in the 19th century.

See p28 of The Celestial Empire for the location of Bactria.

Foreign Devils - Part Two: Western Europeans

2011-08-26T18:07:00.008+02:00

The first Europeans in Imperial China were missionaries in the 13th century, followed by merchants. They were not exactly welcomed (Marco Polo under the Yuán being the obvious exception — but then the Yuán did favour foreigners over native Chinese). There are many tales of Portuguese travellers in China who were gaoled or kept in custody for quite a long time before being allowed to go on with their business; some of them were expelled when the officials they met deemed them too uncouth to remain.

Despite these problems, trade went on: Chinese silk, tea, and porcelain were too much in demand in Western Europe, and Western European merchants were determined to take any necessary risks to ply their trade.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Canton [廣州 Guǎngzhōu] by sea in 1514, establishing a monopoly on the external trade out of its harbour by 1517. They were later expelled from their settlements in Canton, but instead granted use of Macau [澳門 Àomén] as a trade base with the city in 1557. They would keep a near monopoly on foreign trade in the region until the arrival of the Dutch in the early 17th century.

In 1757, the Qīng government restricted Western European trade to the port of Canton only. The British were the ones who tried most forcefully to lift this limitation. In 1792-93, they sent an embassy to China to try and establish a permanent British presence in Běijīng and open up trade relations. However, Lord Amherst refused to kowtow to the Emperor of China and was thus expelled from Běijīng. The rebuff was justified as follows:

The Celestial Empire, ruling all within the four seas, simply concentrates on carrying out the affairs of Government properly... We have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country's manufactures, therefore O King, as regards to your request to send someone to remain at the capital, which it is not in harmony with the regulations of the Celestial Empire — we also feel very much that it is of no advantage to your country.

Another area of heavy Chinese-European interaction was the island of Formosa [臺灣 Táiwān]. In the 17th century, it was colonised by the Dutch in the south, and by the Spanish in the north. The Spaniards were driven out by the Dutch in 1642. In 1662, Koxinga (Zhèng Chénggōng), a loyalist of the Míng Dynasty, which had lost control of mainland China in 1644, defeated the Dutch, ending 38 years of European colonial rule on Táiwān. Zhèng Chénggōng established a base of operations on the island, but his forces were later defeated by the Qīng in 1683.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a new element put its weight into the complex balance of European-Chinese relationships: opium. The Dutch were probably the first to have traded it with China through Formosa in the 17th century. In 1729, its trade was forbidden by the Emperor of China. This restriction was ignored by and large. This trade became so important that it negatively tilted the Chinese trade balance with Western European countries and the US. In 1838, the Emperor of China demanded the trade be stopped. The British refused, and a small incident in 1839 brought upon Imperial China the Opium Wars, which themselves resulted in the Unequal Treaties. The Opium Wars and the Unequal Treaties deserve their own post, but it suffices to say that the former brought about great destruction and the downfall of the Qīng dynasty, and that the latter imprinted a sense of revenge upon the Westerners that can still be very strongly felt today...

Foreign Devils - Part One: Russians

2011-08-19T17:54:00.010+02:00

When one thinks about 'Foreign Devils' in the context of The Celestial Empire, those who readily come to mind are the Englishmen and Frenchmen of the 19th century who burnt down the Emperor's garden estates and who ransacked the Summer Palace.

But amongst the most active Foreign Devils that the Manchu dynasty had had to face, let us not forget the Russians.

By the mid-17th century, Western Siberia, Buryatia, and Central Siberia had become Russian provinces. This eastward Russian expansion was followed by many conflicts between Tsarist Russia and Qīng China to control the forested territories washed by the river Amur (Hēilóng Jiāng), over which the Manchu dynasty claimed suzerainty. These conflicts were mostly carried out, on the Russian side, by Cossack units, and their benefits were reaped by Russian trappers and fur traders.
The Treaty of Nerčinsk (1689) established the border between Russia and China along the rivers Argun and Gorbitsa and along the Stanovoy Range. This treaty remained valid until 1858.

In the 1850s, Russia took advantage of the Qīng's woes with the many Chinese rebellions and the many Western European invasions to wrest very interesting 'unequal treaties' from China:

in 1858 by the Treaty of Àihún, China lost the left bank of the Amur to Russia — over 600,000 square kilometres!
in 1860 by the Treaty of Běijīng, China ceded parts of Outer Manchuria to the Russian Empire (the territory extending from the confluence of the River Amur with the River Ussuri to Sakhalin Island).

Further west, Central Asia became the focus of Russian interest in the second half of the 19th century. Despite the harsh climate and difficult terrain of the region, Russian troops easily conquered the khanates of Kokand, of Bukhara, and of Khiva [this corresponds to Sogdiana and to Transoxiana on the map on p28 of The Celestial Empire]. This expansion was more like the colonial expansion of the other European powers: Russia would use Central Asian cotton for its manufactures, and local goods would resent from the competition of cheaper Russian imports.

The two empires' areas of control met in Turkestan. The 1851 Treaty of Kulja [伊寧 Yíníng] legalised trade between the two empires in this region.
The Russians took advantage of the chaos brought about by Yakub Beg's rebellion (see p40 of The Celestial Empire) to occupy the city of Kulja in Dzungaria. After General Zuǒ Zōngtáng and his Xiāng Army crushed the rebels, they demanded Russia return the occupied regions. Zuǒ massed Chinese troops toward Russian-occupied Kulja. After a few skirmishes and much diplomatic pressure, Russia retreated from the area in 1881 (Treaty of Saint Petersburg).

The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu

2011-08-05T11:41:00.004+02:00

I have just finished reading this novel, and it has given me a nice idea for a scenario, or even for a fully-fledged campaign set under the Qīng. The book is set circa 1910, but by moving the action a few years back into the past, it can remain within the time frame of The Celestial Empire.

The idea is to play the plot of The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu the other way round: the player characters are agents of Dr. Fu-Manchu who want to give the Foreign Devils a taste of their own medicine. They are smuggled to London, where they must murder evil Foreign Devils or abduct brilliant Western chemists or engineers and coerce them into working for Dr. Fu-Manchu, typically by kidnapping and threatening the relatives of the unwilling scientist.

Typical player characters would be: assassin-retainers, as the Doctor's personal retainers; former magistrates, who have witnessed the crimes of the Foreign Devils and who have not been allowed to try them because of extraterritoriality; martial artists opposing foreign imperialism and Christianity; defrauded comprador merchants seeking compensation through revenge; outlaws, such as members of xenophobic secret societies; scholars spurred by patriotism to helping Dr. Fu-Manchu; humiliated soldiers with an old score to settle.

Special challenges for Chinese characters in a Western land include: inferior armament, the language barrier, the impossibility of blending into the local populace, lack of access to supernatural aid...

Just like in the novel, the characters in the employ of Dr. Fu-Manchu would be well-advised to base their operations in the East End of London, which at the turn of the century was a poorly policed area with labyrinthine alleys and a large immigrant population.

The Cloudsoul (hún 魂)

2011-08-03T15:12:00.003+02:00

It is believed in Traditional Chinese Medicine that the cloudsoul (hún) has an influence on all nocturnal activities, and more peculiarly upon sleep and dreaming. According to the wǔxíng system of correspondences, each phase has a complex series of associations with different aspects of nature; in particular, the cloudsoul is associated with liver-yīn. As a consequence, if liver-yīn is deficient, the hún is deprived of its residence and wanders off at night, causing a restless sleep with many tiring dreams. If liver-yīn is severely depleted, the cloudsoul may even leave the body temporarily at night during or just before sleep.

This brings forth an opportunity for a Celestial Empire/Cthulhu Dreamlands crossover where the player characters are somehow depleted of their liver-yīn (through a yīn-sucking creature?) and find themselves in (possibly a Chinese version of) the Dreamlands. Then they might either stay there and have further adventures in the Dreamlands, or try and find a means to return to the Waking World.

Tea Bricks

2011-08-01T23:36:00.005+02:00

Tea bricks were the sole form of tea produced and used in Imperial China prior to the Míng dynasty. Each brick weighed about 100g~400g and was thus easily transported, sold or traded. Many such bricks were carried along the Silk Road, or across the Indian Ocean.

In isolated places within Imperial China, as well as in Inner Asia and in Siberia, tea bricks were used as currency.

The various steps in the preparation of tea bricks were all under the control of various guilds who had a monopoly.

Because of the toughness of the bricks, they have to be ground into fine powder before tea can be consumed. Also these bricks are often toasted over a fire to kill insects and moulds. As a result, the taste of tea before the Míng must have been completely different from what we know today.

Sufi orders

2011-07-29T15:10:00.003+02:00

Sufi orders are socially important religious orders from the Muslim lands of Central Asia. Sufi orders provide Islamic teaching, religious guidance, and even armed protection to travellers. Students who have remained long enough with an order are given the opportunity to become fully-fledged initiates, after which step they are taught the esoteric teachings of the order. These esoteric teaching will also encompass the use of Islamic Magic (see pages 86-87 of the rule book).

Each Sufi order is named after its founder. The most active Sufi order in the areas close to Imperial China, and hence the one expected to play a major role in any Muslim-themed Celestial Empire campaign, is the Naqshbandiya, named after its founder Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari (1318–1389).

Sufism is frowned upon by conservative Muslims because of its perceived influences of Buddhist and Hindu mysticism, and of Nestorian and Manichæan monasticism.

Sufis also have some rather unorthodox practices like meditation, and pilgrimages to the tombs of saints.

Chinese Muslims

2011-07-27T11:49:00.012+02:00

The history of Islam in China is briefly described in the rule book, pages 39-40. The following is an expansion to what is already written in The Celestial Empire.

The first Muslims arrived to China during the 7th century AD, travelling along the Silk Road. They were warmly received by the Chinese government, and they did gain a few converts in the north-western provinces. However, the main impact of early Islam in China was in the coastal cities that were major trade centres, such as Canton [Guǎngzhōu], Zayton [Quánzhōu], and Yángzhōu, which probably already had their first mosques built during the Tang Dynasty. The Huáishèng Mosque in Guǎngzhōu, for instance, is one of the oldest in the world. In these ports, Muslims were not Chinese converts but Arab and Persian traders. The Judge Dee novel Murder in Canton is precisely set against such a cosmopolitan background.

As mentioned in the rule book, ethnic Chinese Muslims (Huí 回) — as distinct from the Turkic-speaking ethnic groups of the Northwest — are descended primarily from Muslims who migrated to China during the Yuán dynasty, and who intermarried into the surrounding population while converting them to Islam, while they in turn assimilated in all aspects of Chinese culture, keeping only their distinctive religion.

Other Huí are descended from Nestorian Christians who converted to Islam after the 14th century, when Nestorianism was on the wane in China; other Huí yet are descended from Chinese Jews who converted to Islam, mainly in the 17th century.

As mentioned in the rule book, the main areas inhabited by the Huí are Gānsù and Yúnnán, thus splitting the Huí into Northern Huí and South-eastern Huí. The former are more restless, having been at the heart of many rebellions, most notably under the Qīng. The Northern Huí have also maintained strong links with Central Asian Islam, in particular with Central Asian Sufi schools and orders. Despite these links, the Northern Huí have also developed their own traditions, like synthesising Daoist teachings and martial arts practices with Sufi philosophy. The South-eastern Huí, on their side, have a much longer tradition of synthesising Confucian teachings with the Sharia and Koranic teachings, and of co-operating with the authorities. The South-eastern Huí have a history of contributing to the army and to the Confucian officialdom. The famous Chinese admiral Zhèng Hé, for instance, was a Huí from Yúnnán.

The Míng dynasty sees the rapid decline in the Muslim population in the sea ports because of the closing of all seaport trade with the outside world. However it also sees the rise of Muslim military generals, and the establishment of centres of Muslim learning in China. The Míng dynasty also gives rise to the already-mentioned admiral Zhèng Hé.

Muslims in China proper are given relative freedom by the authorities, with no restrictions placed on their religious practices or freedom of worship, and being normal subjects of the Emperor. Immigration slows down drastically, however, and the Muslims in China become increasingly isolated from the rest of the Muslim world, gradually becoming more Sinicised, adopting the Chinese language and Chinese dress. During this period, Muslims also begin to adopt Chinese surnames, e.g., Mǎ (馬) for Muhammad, as mentioned on p8 of the rule book.

As mentioned on p40 of the rule book, the Qīng dynasty is both a period of expansion (most notably of the Naqshabandi Sufi order) and of hardships (the 19th century rebellions and massacres) for the Huí. It is also a period of re-established links with Central Asia; many Huí migrate or flee to Sogdiana and Turkestan under the Qīng.

An interesting characteristic of the Huí is the ménhuàn (門宦), which is a Chinese-style Sufi order. Ménhuàn are thought of having originated from a synthesis of Confucianism and the clan system of China (see p101 of the rule book) with the Sufi orders. Ménhuàn are ruled by hereditary sheikhs.

Brilliant China-themed French comic books (cont'd)

2011-07-26T15:14:00.007+02:00

OK; this comic book series is Belgian but still written in French. Apparently it's been translated to German but never to English. The author, Vink, was born in Vietnam but has lived in Belgium for the past 50 years or so. Still his comic books are almost always set in East Asia or in Southeast Asia and drawn with an obvious passion for that region.

The comic book series is actually made up of two consecutive series: Le Moine fou, in 10 volumes, and Les voyages de He Pao, in 5 volumes.

The stories are set in the Sòng dynasty, a troubled time for China — but then a perfect time for an action-packed comic book. The main character of both series is the orphan girl He Pao [Hé Bǎo 河寶], a martial artist raised by Buddhist nuns and intent on discovering the origins of the incredibly efficient wǔshù that she has been taught, and who her true parents were.

The Triad Society (Sānhéhuì 三合會)

2011-07-25T15:35:00.003+02:00

Period of Time
Qīng

Description
excerpt from The Chinese by Sir John Francis Davies, 1836

The fraternities which are most dreaded by the government of China are those secret associations, under various mysterious names, which combine for for purposes either religious or political, or perhaps both together. The present weak state of the government renders it particularly jealous of all secret societies whatever, as well as cruel and unrelenting in punishing their leaders. But the chief object of its dread and persecution is the Sānhéhuì, or Triad Society, of which some description was given in 1823 by Dr. Milne. The name seems to imply that when Heaven, earth, and man combine to favour them, they shall succeed in subverting the present Tartar dynasty, and that, in the mean while, exertion is to be used to mature that event.

Dr. Milne's account of the Triad Society, whose nature and objects he took some pains to investigate, is so curious as to deserve particular notice. In the reign of Jiāqìng [reign years 1796–1820], the Triad Society, under another name, spread itself rapidly through the provinces, and had nearly succeeded in overturning the government. In 1803 its machinations were frustrated, and the principal leaders seized and put to death, the official reports stating to the emperor that "not a single members of that rebellious fraternity was left alive." But the fact was otherwise, for they still existed, and, with a view to secrecy, adopted the name which they at present bear.

The objects of the association appear at first to have been allied to something like freemasonry, and to have aimed simply at mutual aid and assistance; but as the numbers increased, their views degenerated from the laudable ends of reciprocal benefit to violence and robbery, the overthrow of government, and the acquisition of political power by the expulsion of the Tartar dynasty. In foreign colonies, as at Batavia, Singapore, and Malacca, the real or pretended branches of the association exist, and their objects are mutual defence, as well as plunder and other dishonesty. They engage to defend each other from the attacks of police officers, and to assist members of their society in escaping from justice. If any one feels himself injured, the others take part in his quarrel and help him to revenge himself.

The management of the combination is vested in three persons who are denominated gè, elder brethren. Of their internal discipline, Dr. Milne could obtain little information. The society's regulations are said to be written for greater secrecy on cloth, which on any emergency may be thrown into a well, or otherwise concealed for a time.

The ceremony of initiation is said to take place at night. The oath of secrecy is taken before an idol, and a sum of money given to support the general expense. There is likewise a ceremony called guò qiáo, "passing the bridge," which bridge is formed of swords, either laid between two tables, or else set up on the hilts and meeting at the points, in form of an arch. The persons who receive the oath take it under this bridge, and the chief brother reads the articles of the oath, to each of which an affirmative response is given by the new member, after which he cuts off the head of a cock, which is the usual form of a Chinese oath, intimating, "Thus perish all who divulge the secret." Some of the marks by which they make themselves known to each other consist of mystical numbers, of which the chief is the number three. Certain motions of the fingers constitute a class of signs. To discover if one of the fraternity is in company, a brother will take up his teacup, or its cover, in a particular way with three fingers, and this will be answered by a corresponding sign.

Members
The Triad Society originally attracted anti-Manchu patriots; it later evolved into a Mafia-style criminal brotherhood.

Requisites
- Must be sponsored by someone who is already a member of the secret society.
- The new member must be useful to the secret society, either through his wealth, or through his skills, or his influence...
- Knowledge (Streetwise) must be at least 60%

Benefits
- Financial benefits from the Triad Society's illegal activities
- Help from fellow members, incl. being smuggled abroad to lie low for a while
- New skill: Knowledge (Group: Triad Society) at a starting value of 10+3D6% - Can be used to find shelter, recognise fellow Triad members, etc. (see Description above)

Obligations
- Must help fellow members
- Must blindly obey orders from 'elder brethren' (gè)
- Risk of death penalty if caught by government agents

History of the Chinese language(s) - Yuán Period Chinese

2011-07-22T09:31:00.002+02:00

Under the Yuán, the Chinese language undergoes yet again several major transformations, the most notable of which is its transformation into a family of languages from a single fragmented language.

In what will become the lands where Mandarin is spoken today, late Middle Chinese evolves into Proto-Mandarin Chinese. In the southern provinces, each regional dialect becomes a language in its own right, Mǐn much more so than the other ones.

These changes are probably made more dramatic by the harsh rule of the Mongols, who divide the Chinese into two peoples, Northerners and Southerners, with different rights. Chinese culture appeals less to the (foreign) élite, and thus more popular literary forms appear, such as Chinese drama (known as "Chinese opera" in the West), which is performed in vernacular Chinese. Story-telling also becomes extremely important under the Yuán, as do novels written in báihuà 白話 ('written vernacular').

From the Yuán on, there are two concurrent ways of writing Chinese: Literary Chinese (wényán), and Written vernacular Chinese (báihuà).

The Door-Tablet (門牌)

2011-07-21T23:30:00.004+02:00

The following is an excerpt from A view of China for philological purposes, containing a sketch of Chinese chronology, geography, government, religion & customs (1817) written by the Scottish missionary Robert Morrison.

In the Chinese Government, there appears great regularity and system. Every district has its appropriate officer; every street its constable, and every ten houses a tything-man. They have all the requisite means of ascertaining the population with considerable accuracy.

Every family is required to have a board, always hanging up in the house, and ready for the inspection of authorised officers, on which the name of all persons, men, women, and children, in the house is inscribed. This board is called a 門牌 ménpái, 'door-tablet', because, where there are women and children within, the officers are expected to take the account from the board, at the door. Were all the inmates of a family faithfully inserted, the amount of the population would of course be ascertained with great accuracy. But it is said, this is not the case. Names are often omitted, and the officers pass it over, either from neglect, or from some consideration given them by the head of the family, who, according to his situation in the community, has various reasons to represent his family fewer than what it is. One reason said to operate sometimes is, that in urgent cases a conscription of every third male, able to bear arms, has been made by the government. That, however, was an ancient regulation, and is not applicable to the present Dynasty, which keeps up a constant standing army. Every Tartar is a soldier. Other say, that amongst the poor, who constitute the mass of the population in every country, the ménpái, or account of persons given in, is generally correct. To be the reverse, exposes them to information and to much trouble.

Guilds

2011-07-20T21:45:00.003+02:00

The following is the full text of 'Guilds', a chapter from the book Chinese Sketches (1875) by noted British sinologist Herbert A Giles. It complements the excerpt already available under the Chambers of Commerce section on pages 100-101 of the rule book.

In every large Chinese city are to be found several spacious buildings which are generally reckoned among the sights of the place, and are known by foreigners under the name of guilds. Globe-trotters visit them, and admire the maximum of gold-leaf crowded into the minimum of space, their huge idols, and curious carving; of course passing over those relics which the natives themselves prize most highly, namely, sketches and scrolls painted or written by the hand of some departed celebrity. Foreign merchants regard them with a certain amount of awe, for they are often made to feel keenly enough the influence which these institutions exert over every branch of trade. They come into being in the following manner. If traders from any given province muster in sufficient numbers at any of the great centres of commerce, they club together and form a guild. A general subscription is first levied, land is bought, and the necessary building is erected. Regulations are then drawn up, and the tariff on goods is fixed, from which the institution is to derive its future revenue. For all the staples of trade there are usually separate guilds, mixed establishments being comparatively rare. It is the business of the members as a body to see that each individual contributes according to the amount of merchandise which passes through his hands, and the books of suspected defaulters are often examined at a moment's notice and without previous warning. The guild protects its constituents from commercial frauds by threatening the accused with legal proceedings which an individual plaintiff would never have dared to suggest; and the threat is no vain one when a mandarin, however tyrannical and rapacious, finds himself opposed by a body of united and resolute men. On the other hand, these guilds deal fairly enough with their own members, and not only refuse to support a bad case, but insist on just and equitable dealings with the outside world. To them are frequently referred questions involving nice points of law or custom, and one of the chief functions of a guild is that of a court of arbitration. In addition to this they fix the market rates of all kinds of produce, and woe be to any one who dares to undersell or otherwise disobey the injunctions of the guild. If recalcitrant, he is expelled at once from the fraternity, and should his hour of need arrive he will find no helping hand stretched out to save him from the clutches of the law. But if he acknowledges, as he almost always does, his breach of faith, he is punished according to the printed rules of the corporation. On a large strip of red paper his name and address are written, the offence of which he has been convicted, and the fine which the guild has determined to impose. This latter generally takes the form of a dinner to all members, to be held on some appointed day and accompanied by a theatrical entertainment, after which the erring brother is admitted as before to the enjoyment of those rights and privileges he would otherwise infallibly have lost.

On certain occasions, such as the birthday of a patron saint, the guild spends large sums from the public purse in providing a banquet for its members and hiring a theatrical troupe, with their everlasting tom-toms, to perform on the permanent stage to be found in every one of these establishments. The Ānhuī men celebrate the birthday of Zhū Xī, the great commentator, whose scholarship has won eternal honours for his native province; Swatow [Shàntóu] men hold high festival in memory of Hán Wén Gōng, whose name is among the brightest on the page of Chinese history. All day long the fun goes on, and as soon as it begins to grow dusk innumerable paper lanterns are hung in festoons over the whole building. The crowd increases, farce succeeds farce without a moment's interval, and many a kettle of steaming wine warms up the spectators to the proper pitch of enthusiasm and delight. Before midnight the last song has been sung, a considerable number of people have quietly dispersed without accident of any kind, and the courtyard of the guild is once more deserted and still.

It is open to any trader to join the particular institution which represents his own province or trade without being either proposed, seconded, or balloted for. He is expected to make some present to the resources of the guild, in the shape of a new set of glass lanterns, a pair of valuable scrolls, some new tables, chairs, or in fact anything that may be needed for either use or ornament. Should he be in want of money, a loan will generally be issued to him even on doubtful security. Should he die in an impoverished condition, a coffin is always provided, the expenses of burial undertaken, and his wife and children sent to their distant home, with money voted for that purpose at a general meeting of the members. Were it not for the action of these guilds in regard to fire, life and property in Chinese cities would be more in danger than is now the case. Each one has its own fire-engine, which is brought out at the first alarm, no matter where or whose the building attacked. If belonging to one of themselves, men are posted round the scene of the conflagration to prevent looting on the part of the crowd, and the efforts of the brigade are stimulated by the reflection that their position and that of the present sufferers may at any moment be reversed. Picked men are appointed to perform the most important task of all, that of rescuing from the flames relics more precious to a respectable Chinaman than all the jade that Kūngāng has produced. For it often happens that an obstructive geomancer will reject site after site for the interment of some deceased relative, or perhaps that the day fixed upon as a lucky one for the ceremony of burial may be several months after death. Meanwhile a fire breaks out in the house where the body lies in its massive, air-tight coffin, and all is confusion and uproar. The first thought is for the corpse; but who is to lift such a heavy weight and carry it to a place of safety without the dreaded jolting, almost as painful to the survivors as would be cremation itself? Such harrowing thoughts are usually cut short by the entrance of six or eight sturdy men from the nearest guild, who, armed with the necessary ropes and poles, bear away the coffin through flame and smoke with the utmost gentleness and care.

Brilliant China-themed French comic books

2011-07-19T22:18:00.008+02:00

France has a long tradition of comic books with an historical background. In the late decade, there's been a surge in high quality China-themed bandes dessinées (as comic books are called in France).

For those of you who read French, I heartily recommend the following:

Le Sabre et l'Epée by Chauvel, Boivin, Araldi. High fantasy against a background of wǔshù rivalry.

Le Juge Bao by Marty, Nie. Classic Chinese drawing-style for classic Chinese detective stories. I love this series.

La Belle du temple hanté by Nie Chongrui. This graphic novel is based on the tale titled The Magic Sword from Pú Sōnglíng's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. The same tale has also been filmed as A Chinese Ghost Story.

The Hǎiruò (海若)

2011-07-18T23:26:00.009+02:00

This post is for those of you who are keen on a Celestial Empire-Call of Cthulhu crossover.

The Hǎiruò, or sea genie, is a little-known yāoguài from Daoist mythology. I suggest that it should be used as the Chinese equivalent to Lovecraft's Deep Ones.

The Hǎiruò live in the sea between China and the Ryūkyū Islands. The Míng policy of clearing coastal areas of all population (see my 28 June post) has enabled the Hǎiruò to settle in small, hidden hamlets on the south-eastern coast of China. Imagine the potential for not one, but a string of Innsmouth-like ports, complete with their hybrid inhabitants.

The Hǎiruò serve the Dragon King of the East Sea (Dōnghǎi Lóngwáng 東海龍王), a major Heterodox immortal being. They fear the Sea goddess Māzǔ (媽祖).

Characteristics:
STR 4D6 (14)
CON 3D6 (10-11)
SIZ 4D6 (14)
INT 3D6 (10-11)
POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 3D6 (10-11)
APP 2D6 (7)

Move : 8 (10 swimming)
Hit Points: 12
Qì: 10
Damage Bonus: +1D4
Armour: Skin 1 point + possibly some bespoke made armour adding up to 3 points
Allegiance: Heterodoxy 5D4+15
Morale: Leader

Skills:
Dodge 25%, Knowledge (Region: East China Sea) 75%, Knowledge (Region: South China Sea) 50%, Language (southern Chinese language or dialect) 80%, Language (other [possibly Formosan and/or Ryukyuan]) INT×5%, Sense 40%, Swim 90%.

Spells:
Demoralise 80% [but use of this spell doesn't increase the Heterodoxy Allegiance score of the Hǎiruò].

Attacks:
Claw 25%, damage:1D6+db (bleeding)
or
Pole arm 25%, damage: per weapon+db (per weapon)

Hit Location Table: Use Humanoid.

History of the Chinese language(s) - Middle Chinese

2011-07-17T00:45:00.001+02:00

Middle Chinese (jìndài Hànyǔ 近代漢語, also called zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ 中古漢語), refers to the form of Chinese spoken from the 3rd to the 13th century AD. It is further divided into Early Middle Chinese (for your Táng games), and Late Middle Chinese (for your Sòng games).

As written on p20 of the rule book, Middle Chinese can still be considered as a unique language throughout the Empire. But one's accent will always give their origin away as a Northerner or a Southerner.

Middle Chinese is probably when the Chinese languages got their tones, as the result of a reduction in the number of consonants and vowels. It is probably also when many compound words have appeared, to reduce homophony issues.

The Armament of the Míng Dynasty Soldier

2011-07-16T21:02:00.000+02:00

The following are, in BRP terms, the typical weapons and armour of Míng dynasty soldiers. Throughout its history, the Míng dynasty has been obsessed with the Mongol threat. As a result, and despite their southern origin, the Míng have extensively trained their troops to fight against cavalry.

CAVALRYMAN
Lance 1D12+db (impaling)
Bow 1D6+2+½db (impaling)
Knife 1D3+db (impaling)
Lamellar armour 6 AP
Light helmet 2 AP

INFANTRYMAN
Halberd 3D6+db (bleeding), or Sabre 1D8+1+db (bleeding)
Heavy clothing 1 AP
Light helmet 2 AP

SPEARMAN
Spear 1D8+1+db (impaling)
Heavy clothing 1 AP
Light helmet 2 AP
Long shield

CROSSBOWMAN
Crossbow 2D6 (impaling)
Spear 1D8+1+db (impaling)
Papier-mâché hauberk 2 AP (4 AP vs missiles)

Míng cavalrymen, and infantrymen from the 'anti-cavalry squads' are intensively drilled; as a result, their weapon skills should be in the 50~60% range.

Mountains and Seas (cont'd)

2011-07-13T18:16:00.002+02:00

I am currently reading The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade. This is an absolute must-read for anyone seriously interested in the history of religion. Although the book draws most of its examples from archaic, Indo-European, and Mediterranean religions, it does contain a few interesting thoughts about Chinese religions.

One such thought that has stricken me is about the art of Chinese miniature landscapes. Such miniature landscapes often portray a miniature mountain over a miniature lake — very similar to the concept of mountains and seas. And their being miniature and confined to a garden or a flowerpot renders them "controllable" and less threatening.

Just a thought I wanted to share...

The China Assassination Corps

2011-07-12T11:42:00.002+02:00

The China Assassination Corps (Zhīnà Ànshātuán 支那暗殺團) was a radical republican secret organisation active in South China in the 1910-12 period, i.e., at the turning point between Empire and Republic. The Corps was based in Hong Kong, and drew inspiration from similar violent organisations active at the time in Europe and Russia. Hong Kong was obviously at the forefront in terms of penetration of Western views into Chinese society. The Corps also advocated the use of Esperanto to replace Literary Chinese.

The Corps was successful in the assassination of a Manchu general, but failed in its attempts on two other high Qīng officials with the loss of two members. When Guǎngdōng (the southernmost province in South China, just to the north of Hong Kong) declared its independence from the Qīng Court on 9 November 1911, the Corps voluntarily disbanded.

I have found an impressively detailed and lively description of the organisation, complete with a list of its best-known members and a narrative of their actions in the 1910-12 period. The post also provides information on other assassination plots after 1912. The latter are outside of the time frame of a game like The Celestial Empire, but could provide inspiration to a game master willing to spend some time to alter names, locales, and dates.

Mongolian Death Worm

2011-07-10T22:27:00.004+02:00

Note: This is the second post in the series of 'blog swapping' posts with Scott.

The Mongolian death worm is a vicious predator that lives in the deserts between Mongolia and China proper. The Steppe nomads, whose economy is extremely dependent on animal husbandry, rightly fear this creature because of its fondness for the meat of oxen, goats, and horses.

Despite its name, the Mongolian death worm looks more like a dark red snake, 50- to 150-cm long. Its head and its tail are difficult to tell from each other because the Mongolian death worm has no visible eyes, nostrils or mouth.
The Mongolian death worm moves undetected under the sand of the desert and springs out to attack its victim, by either spraying a deadly poison or acid at the victim or by emitting electrical charges. The range and the effect of these attacks is as per below.

Characteristics:
STR 2D6+6 (13)
CON 2D6+6 (13)
SIZ 1D6+1 (4-5)
INT 3
POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 2D6+3 (10)
Damage bonus: N/A (only ranged attacks)
Hit Points 9
Move 8

Skills:
Stealth 75%

Attacks:
Poison spit - 75%
Acid spray - 75%
Electrical charge - 60%

Effects:
-Poison
Range: 4m
The POT of the poison is equal to the CON of the Mongolian death worm.
-Acid
Range: 6m
This is a very strong acid (see p211 of BRP) that corrodes anything it touches.
-Electricity
Range: 6m
This causes 3D6 of damage if the target is at less than 2m; 2D6 less
than 4m; 1D6 less than 6m.

Armour: Skin 2 points

Hit Location table
1D20 | Hit Location | Hit Point Value
1-8 | Tail | 1/3 total HP
9-16 | Body | 2/5 total HP
17-20 | Head | 1/3 total HP

Please go and check out Scott's T&T version of the Mongolian Death Worm now.

History of the Chinese language(s) - Hàn Period Chinese

2011-07-08T21:35:00.004+02:00

Under the Hàn, the Chinese language undergoes several transformations. This is why Hàn period Chinese is considered as a transitional language between Old Chinese (see previous posts) and Middle Chinese.

Under the Western Hàn (221-207 BC), Literary Chinese (wényán 文言) is consolidated, both in how it is written (characters), and in what is written (syntax, vocabulary). The great texts of the Warring States period are edited and annotated.
The work that epitomises this period of the Chinese language is the Records of the Grand Historian (Shǐjì 史記) by famous historian Sīmǎ Qiān (司馬遷).

Under the Eastern Hàn (9-23 AD), Literary Chinese is used to translate Buddhist scripture into Chinese. It is the first time that written Chinese is confronted to foreign written languages, and this process enriches the literary Chinese language.
It is also under the Eastern Hàn that spoken Chinese (vernacular Chinese) and written Chinese (wényán) start to diverge significantly. Texts written in Late Old Chinese are not readily understood any longer. They are annotated and partially translated into Hàn period Chinese. Wényán remains the written language used by the administration and by writers of "serious" texts. Its role is comparable to the one played by Latin in Europe. Although it is constantly influenced by vernacular Chinese and enriched by neologisms and loanwords, wényán becomes a dead language by the 3rd century AD.

The Boxer Uprising

2011-07-05T12:26:00.004+02:00

The term Yìhéquán (義和拳, literally Fists of Righteousness and Harmony), already in use at the beginning of the 19th century, designated a secret society from within the ranks of the White Lotus Society (see p94 of the rule book). Its members practised wǔshù for both physical and moral improvement purposes, hence the moniker "Boxers" given to them by the Westerners.

About 1898, the Yìhéquán starts agitation in North China, and manifests itself through attacks against Western missionaries who are trying to convert Chinese peasants to Christianity and to impose Western values to the extremely traditionalist Chinese rural society.

In 1900, a few thousand Boxers lay siege to the foreign legations' compounds in Běijīng for 55 days, thus triggering a foreign military intervention. The combined military forces of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (the Eight-Nation Alliance, bāgúo liánjūn 八國聯軍) quickly suppress the Boxers, for whom the use of firearms is taboo.

During the intervention of the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Anglo-French Seymour column, which enters Běijīng on 14 August 1900, ransacks the Summer Palace. Also, the Imperial Court has to flee to Xī'ān 西安. Both events foreshadow the demise of the Qīng Dynasty.

This is what a Western eye-witness wrote about the Boxer Uprising in 1904:

The now famous Boxers were members of two of the secret societies which have long flourished in China. To the Chinese they are known as League of United Patriots, Great Sword Society, Righteous Harmony Fists Association and kindred names. Originally, they were hostile to the foreign Manchu dynasty. When Germany made the murder of two Roman Catholic missionaries a pretext for pushing her political ambitions, the Boxers naturally arrayed them selves against them. As the champions of the national spirit against the foreigners, the membership rapidly increased. Supernatural power was claimed. Temples were converted into meeting-places, and soon excited men were drilling in every village.

The real ruler of China at this time, as all the world knows, was the Empress Dowager, who has been characterised as "the only man in China". At any rate, she is a woman of extraordinary force of character. She was astute enough to encourage the Boxers, and thus turn one of the most troublesome foes of the Manchu throne against the common enemy, the foreigner. Under her influence, the depredations of the Boxers, which were at first confined to the Shāndōng Province, spread with the swiftness of a prairie fire, until in the spring of 1900 the most important provinces of the Empire were ablaze and the legations in Běijīng were closely besieged. In the heat of the conflict and under the agonising strain of anxiety for imperilled loved ones, many hard things were said and written about the officials who allied themselves with the Boxers. But Sir Robert Hart, who personally knew them and who suffered as much as any one from their fury, candidly wrote after the siege : "These men were eminent in their own country for their learning and services, were animated by patriotism, were enraged by foreign dictation, and had the courage of their convictions. We must do them the justice of allowing that they were actuated by high motives and love of country," though he adds, "that does not always or necessarily mean political ability or highest wisdom."

History of the Chinese language(s) - Old Chinese / 2

2011-07-04T21:23:00.002+02:00

Old Chinese (shànggǔ Hànyǔ 上古漢語), also called Archaic Chinese, refers to the form of Chinese spoken from the beginning of written records (around 1300 BC) until the 3rd century BC.

This second post is about Late Old Chinese, from 6th to 3rd century BC, the language spoken under the Eastern Zhōu dynasty — which includes the famous Warring States Period (戰國時代, 475-221). This latter period is the cradle of classical Chinese civilisation, and in particular of its language, called Classical Chinese (gǔwén 古文) or Literary Chinese (wényán 文言).

The following political and social philosophers epitomise Classical Chinese through their writings:
- Confucius (Kǒng Zǐ 孔子)
- Mencius (Mèng Zǐ 孟子)
- Micius (Mòzǐ 墨子)
- Zhuāng Zǐ (莊子)
- Xún Zǐ (荀子)
- Hán Fēi (韓非)

Literary Chinese is considered as the one and only "serious" language under all Imperial Chinese dynasties, up to the Qīng. See also p21 and p58 of the rule book.

Bhaiṣajyaguru

2011-07-01T17:53:00.003+02:00

Bhaiṣajyaguru is is the Buddha of healing and medicine in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and as such he is one of the foremost Mahāyāna Buddhas. In China, he is often referred to as the master therapist, or as the physician Buddha.

Bhaiṣajyaguru possesses a paradise called Śudarṣana 東方淨瑠璃世界, located in the eastern part of the universe, in which he welcomes anyone to be cured of any malady. Bhaiṣajyaguru's veneration is very popular in China. His statue can often be seen in a trinity of Buddhas, the other two being the founder Śākyamuni and Amitābha. Bhaiṣajyaguru's worship was started by the Tiāntái 天臺 school of Buddhism (see p38 and p92 of the rule book). From China, Bhaiṣajyaguru's worship was brought to Korea and ultimately to Japan. In this latter country, Bhaiṣajyaguru has become extremely popular as the god of healers.

When not in a trinity with Śākyamuni and Amitabha, Bhaiṣajyaguru may be depicted at the centre of his own trinity, flanked by his two serving bodhisattvas, Candraprabha 月光菩薩 to his left, and Sūryaprabha 日光菩薩 to his right. This trinity may itself be accompanied by the Twelve Heavenly Generals 十二神將, who are twelve protective yaksha who have vowed to protect the faithful from illnesses.

Chinese name: 藥師如來 (Yàoshī rúlái)— or more rarely a Sinicised version of the Sanskrit name: 偝殺爾耶虞嚕 (Bèishā’ěryéyúlū)

Mountains and Seas (cont'd)

2011-06-28T14:55:00.004+02:00

This blog has already mentioned how the Chinese hated the mountains and the seas. Mountains being unfit for agriculture, and being inhabited by "wild" barbarians, it is easy to see how they could be considered as being the province of mystics and exiles only.

For the seas, it is less easily understandable. After all, the Chinese have maintained huge sea-faring fleets, and are credited with the invention of many tools that have improved navigation.

In spite of their achievements, the Chinese under the Míng practically sealed themselves off any sea-based communication and trade:

At the beginning of the Míng dynasty, the Chinese coasts were suffering heavily from the activities of the Wōkòu (Japanese pirates). The Míng court implemented a policy to forbid civil trade with Japan, believing that limiting trade would in turn remove the incentive for piracy. On the contrary, the ban forced many Chinese merchants to trade with Japan illegally to protect their own interests. This led to the second major phase of Wōkòu activity which occurred in the early to mid-16th century, where Japanese pirates colluded with their Chinese counterparts and expanded their forces. At their height in the 1550s, the Wōkòu operated throughout the seas of East Asia, even sailing up large river systems such as the Yángzi. As a result, the Míng court went on implementing yet a further, harsher step: the whole coastal areas were to be emptied of all human settlement, and it was forbidden to re-settle those areas.
Under the early Míng, admiral Zhèng Hé conducted incredible ocean voyages with his fleet made of giant sea-faring ships, much advanced compared with their Western counterparts. Yet after admiral Zhèng Hé's 7th ocean voyage (1430-33), his treasure ship fleet was disbanded, and the dockyards dismantled.

Two Great NPCs

2011-06-27T11:01:00.003+02:00

The brothers Queng are not mine but from the venomous pao's blog. I heartily recommend using these two NPCs, as they are fully in the spirit of The Celestial Empire, possibly in a "Rivers and Lakes" campaign game.

Link to the original post: BRP Characters: The Brothers Queng

History of the Chinese language(s) - Old Chinese / 1

2011-06-26T12:03:00.005+02:00

Old Chinese (shànggǔ Hànyǔ 上古漢語), also called Archaic Chinese, refers to the form of Chinese spoken from the beginning of written records (around 1300 BC) until the 3rd century BC.

This first post is about Early Old Chinese, from 14th until the 6th century BC, the language spoken from the Shāng dynasty to the beginning of the Eastern Zhōu.

In written form, the language of this period is represented by the oracle bone script (jiǎgǔwén 甲骨文), which is made up of the earliest form of Chinese characters. These characters were incised on "oracle bones", which were animal bones or turtle shells used in divination. In Imperial times, any records of oracle bone script had been lost and forgotten. Whenever animal bones or turtle shells were dug up -- which could happen quite often in North China -- the results were taken to be dragon bones. These fetched great prices by alchemists and collectors of antiquities. The game master is free to decide whether dragon bones do provide some special bonus in divination, or if they are simple relics from the ancient past.

Oracle bone script is followed by bronze inscriptions (jīnwén 金文). These were used on sacrificial vases, and on bronze artefacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons. Again, the game master is free to decide whether adding such script on items destined for enchantments can improve the enchantment or not. Jīnwén being a very ancient script, the person who inscribes the text must roll under a very difficult skill score, eg 1/20th of one's Literacy score, for the bonus to be effective.
Many Zhōu dynasty weapons have been found with such inscriptions on them. Again, the game master is free to decide what magic these weapons may contain.

The Armament of the Yuán Dynasty Soldier

2011-06-25T16:00:00.002+02:00

The following are, in BRP terms, the typical weapons and armour of Yuán dynasty soldiers. It must be noted that, on top of the types below, the Yuán could muster all kinds of allies (steppe nomads, Koreans) and auxiliaries (southern tribesmen).

The majority of regular soldiers are Chinese. Mongols provide the élite heavy cavalry. Some others are used as mounted light troops to quell rebellions in warmer or more mountainous areas.

HEAVY CAVALRYMAN
Lance 1D12+db (impaling)
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding)
Bow 1D6+2+½db (impaling)
Lamellar armour 6 AP
Heavy helmet 3 AP

MONGOL HORSE TROOPER
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding)
Bow, Composite 1D8+1+½db (impaling)

CHINESE CAVALRYMAN
Lance 1D12+db (impaling)
Brigandine 4 AP

INFANTRYMAN
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding), or Spear 1D8+1+db (impaling)
Crossbow 2D6 (impaling)
Heavy clothing 1 AP

The Armament of the Sòng Dynasty Soldier

2011-06-23T17:21:00.004+02:00

The following are, in BRP terms, the typical weapons and armour of Sòng dynasty soldiers. It must be noted that, on top of the types below, the Sòng made extensive use of mercenaries: Mongol defectors as irregular infantrymen, and northern and western nomads as tribal horse archers.

Cavalrymen were less numerous than under the Táng because of limited access to horse breeding countries as a result of territorial losses in the north-west.

CAVALRYMAN
Lance 1D12+db (impaling)
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding)
Scale armour 6 AP
Heavy helmet 3 AP

INFANTRYMAN
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding), or Spear 1D8+1+db (impaling)
Crossbow 2D6 (impaling)
Papier-mâché hauberk 2 AP (4 AP vs missiles)
Light helmet 2 AP

MILITIAMAN
Knife 1D3+db (impaling)
Bow 1D6+2+½db (impaling)
Heavy clothing 1 AP

Sòng regular soldiers (cavalrymen and infantrymen) were intensively drilled; as a result, their weapon skills should be in the 50~60% range.

Militiamen were given vacant fields close to enemy territory, tax free on whatever they could grow, and a free horse.

The practice of recruiting soldiers from among the lower orders of society (petty criminals, vagabonds, and amnestied bandits) was really started under the Sòng.

The Armament of the Táng Dynasty Soldier

2011-06-21T08:52:00.003+02:00

The following are, in BRP terms, the typical weapons and armour of Táng dynasty soldiers. It is to be noted that Táng armament is much heavier compared with later dynasties. The following are typical Imperial troops.

CAVALRYMAN
Lance 1D12+db (impaling)
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding)
Scale armour 6 AP
Heavy helmet 3 AP

HORSE ARCHER
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding)
Bow 1D6+2+½db (impaling)
Heavy clothes 1 AP

INFANTRYMAN
Sword 1D8+db (bleeding), or Spear 1D8+1+db (impaling)
Bow 1D6+2+½db (impaling)
Chain mail 7 AP
Heavy helmet 9 AP

Táng imperial armies were intensively drilled; as a result, their weapon skills should be in the 50~60% range.

Feudal armies were still existing under the Táng (they completely disappeared afterwards). As a result, some troops directly placed under the command of a noble may have different equipment.

Crossbowmen became more common under the Sòng, however the GM may introduce them in a late Táng game.

Special Offer

2011-06-19T15:48:00.001+02:00

Take advantage of this special offer: buy the Celestial Empire on Alephtar Games' web-site, and get the PDF for free!

Capital Cities of Imperial China

2011-06-18T16:33:00.003+02:00

Suppose you are GMing a Celestial Empire game. The players want to know what city is the capital city of the Empire. I believe most of you would automatically think "Běijīng". Well, depending on the dynasty in which your campaign is set, you may or may not be right. Here's a brief primer:

Under the Táng
Cháng'ān (長安) [present-day Xī'ān], from 618 to 904
Luòyáng (洛陽), from 904 to 907

Under the Sòng
Dōngjīng (東京) [present-day Kāifēng], from 960 to 1127
Lín'ān (臨安) [present-day Hángzhōu], from 1127 to 1279

Under the Yuán
Dàdū (大都) [present-day Běijīng]

Under the Míng
Nánjīng (南京), from 1368 to 1421
Běijīng (北京), from 1421 to 1644

Under the Qīng
Běijīng (北京)

Saṃsāra

2011-06-17T10:40:00.003+02:00

Saṃsāra, the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, is a fundamental Buddhist concept originating from the Vedic religion, which is an ancient Indian religion. Obviously, after having been adopted by the Chinese, Buddhism underwent some adaptations to the Chinese mindset.

The following is the orthodox Chinese Buddhist view of saṃsāra, as presented by Chán Master Shèngyán in his book Orthodox Chinese Buddhism:

According to Buddhism, except for those who are liberated from birth and death (such as arhats) and those noble ones who can control their own birth and death (such as bodhisattvas), every sentient being is subject to the cycle of birth and death, or saṃsāra.

The round of birth and death actually involves upward or downward rebirth in different destinies, not rebirth along a circular path as around a wheel. Sentient beings transmigrate through a total of six modes of existence, called the "six destinies" (liùqù 六趣) or "six paths" (liùdào 六道). From highest to lowest, these are destinies as deity, human, asura, animal, hungry ghost, or hell-dweller. Rebirth into any of these destinies is based on one's adherence or non-adherence to the five precepts and the ten good deeds, and on one's commission on non-commission of the ten evil deeds (the opposites of the ten good deeds) and the five heinous crimes (killing one's father, mother, or an arhat; destroying the harmonious unity of the Sangha; and shedding a Buddha's blood). Results from practising the five precepts and the ten good deeds are classed into three levels – upper, middle, and lower – leading to rebirth as a deity, human, or asura, respectively. The ten evil deeds and the five heinous crimes are similarly classified into three levels of offence, and lead to rebirth as an animal, hungry ghost, or hell-dweller, respectively. Good deeds lead to birth in the three higher destinies, while evil deeds result in birth in the three lower destinies. After one has exhausted the good and/or bad retributions in one particular life, that lifetime will end, and another cycle of birth and death will commence. This transmigration within the six destinies, being born then dying, dying then being born again, is called the cycle of birth and death, or saṃsāra.

In Chinese: lúnhuí 輪廻 or shēngsǐ 生死

Chinese Playing Cards

2011-06-15T15:40:00.003+02:00

Note: the following is mostly directly ripped off Wikipedia.

Playing cards are believed to have been invented in Ancient India. They were found in China as early as the 9th century during the Táng Dynasty (618–907), when relatives of a princess played a "leaf game". A Táng writer from the end of the 9th century AD stated that Princess Tòngchāng (?–870), daughter of Emperor Yìzōng of Táng (r. 860–874), played the leaf game with members of the Wéi 韋 clan to pass the time. In his Notes After Retirement, the Sòng Dynasty scholar Ōuyáng Xiū (1007–1072) asserted that card games existed since the mid Táng Dynasty and associated this invention with the simultaneous evolution of the common Chinese writing medium from paper rolls to sheets of paper that could be printed. During the Míng Dynasty (1368–1644), characters from popular novels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards.

Ancient Chinese "money cards" have four "suits": coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads (of coins or of strings), and tens of myriads. These were represented by Chinese characters, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three suits and numerals 1–9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, as in trading card games. The designs on modern mahjong tiles likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. However, it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino deck, in whose cards we can see all the 21 combinations of a pair of dice. In the Guītiánlù, a Chinese text written in the 11th century, we find that dominoes cards were printed during the Táng Dynasty, contemporary to the first printed books. The Chinese word pái (牌) is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles.

Bā 巴 and Tǔjiā 土家

2011-06-15T11:57:00.002+02:00

Bā 巴 was an ancient state in the eastern part of Sìchuān (四川). It reached the zenith of its power between 600 BC and 400 BC.
The Bā Kingdom was invaded and conquered by the Chinese in the Warring States period (戰國). After the conquest, its inhabitants stopped constituting a separate ethnic group, and became thoroughly Sinicised. However, it is claimed by some that the modern ethnic minority Tǔjiā 土家 people (who speak an isolated Tibeto-Burman language) trace their origins back to the Bā people.
Under the Míng and the Qīng, the Tǔjiā were given an autonomous status within the Chinese Empire, whereby they were ruled by their own chieftains in exchange for providing troops whenever they were needed, to quell local revolts or to fight against the Wōkòu.

Asura

2011-06-14T14:03:00.006+02:00

Asura are potent creatures from Vedic mythology: demonic and titanic spirits that are opposed to the Deva (the Indian gods), and in particular to Indra. There are four kinds of Asura, depending on their birth: born out of an egg, out of a womb, out of magic, out of water. Asura live deep in mountain caverns, in the underworld, and in the nether regions where the Asura architect-magician Maya has built them huge cities. Asura also live in the sea that surrounds Mount Sumeru.
In Buddhism, the Asura realm is the lowest of the six domains of rebirth. However the Asura are generally depicted as less evil than their Vedic counterparts; their behaviour stems from their karma: it is assumed that rebirth into an Asura is the consequence of having been a human being obsessed with force and violence, always looking for an excuse to get into a fight, angry with everyone and unable to maintain calm or solve problems peacefully.

Asura as creatures for a Celestial Empire game are described on p123 of the rule book. Depending on their birth, Asura may be further characterised as follows:

Egg-born Asura inhabit the flying fortresses that circle Mt Sumeru. They have huge bird-like wings which they use to glide down from their flying fortress when attacking the sky-realm of the Deva.
Womb-born Asura mostly live undergound. They are known for their armour and weapons, and in particular for their superior bows. They are mortal but their lifespan is still immeasurable by human standards. They are the most likely to strive for a better rebirth and hence lend an ear to Buddhist preaching.
Magic-born Asura shun the use of armour and weapons and prefer concentrate on the use of spells.
Water-born Asura are the most wicked ones. They have a craving for alcoholic drinks.

Chinese name: 阿修羅, Romanised as Āxiūluó

Hakka Fortified Villages

2011-06-09T10:24:00.008+02:00

As mentioned on p19 of the rule book, the Hakka (Kèjiā 客家) live in fortified villages in the hilly areas of South China.

These walled villages are built to be easily defensible. Each village is made up of about half a dozen round or square fortified houses, called tǔlóu 土楼 ("earthen structures"). Each tǔlóu houses several related families and is internally divided into many compartments for food storage, living quarters, ancestral temple, armoury, etc.

The individual family quarters are built within the walls of the tǔlóu, whereas the common buildings are in the centre of the structure. Each tǔlóu has but a single heavy gate to communicate with the outside world.

Niǎn Rebellion

2011-06-08T11:56:00.004+02:00

The Niǎn 捻 Rebellion is one of the many rebellions that brought economic devastation and loss of life at the end of the Qīng 清.

The uprising started with popular agitation brought about by a secret society, which may or may not have been linked to the White Lotus Society (see p94 of the rule book). The rebellion took place in northern China from 1853 to 1868; the most heavily affected areas were the provinces of Shāndōng 山東, Hénán 河南, Ānhuī 安徽, and Jiāngsū 江蘇 [roughly corresponding to the eastern part of "North China" and to the northern part of "Lower Yángzi" on the map on p28 of the rule book].

The Niǎn rebels sport long, loose hair, in open contrast to the Qīng-imposed Manchu hairstyle (the waist-long braided pigtail). The Niǎn are excellent horsemen who, after each attack against imperial troops, retreat into their fortified villages. The Niǎn — and this will be their undoing — do not have a precise political goal; they are mostly unmarried, dispossessed young peasants, ruined merchants, starving scholars: the aim of their attacks is looting.
The Niǎn seldom co-operate with the Tàipíng 太平. But after the defeat of the latter and the establishment of the Treaties of Tiānjīn with the western powers, the imperial government devotes its full military forces to quell the Niǎn Rebellion.

The Chinese Underworld

2011-06-07T15:25:00.004+02:00

In ancient Chinese religion the Underworld was called the Yellow Springs (Huángquán 黄泉) — possibly a reference to the ubiquitous Yellow River. The Yellow Springs were not a ‘hell’ where one suffers retribution but rather a place where the souls of the departed were supposed to reside, the destination of the whitesoul (pò 魄). Life could be made easier for the pò if it was provided with the necessary amenities: food, clothing, money, precious objects, and servants. These would be placed in the tomb by the surviving relatives. The servants (human and animal) were at first provided by immolating the actual servants of the deceased in the tomb, but with time (during the first half of the first millennium BC) this practice ended and inanimate representations of the attendants were placed in the tomb instead.

Anything more precise as to the exact ancient conception of the underworld is lost, as the surviving texts from Chinese Antiquity have been written by Confucianists who have generally ridiculed the ancient myths.

Under the Hàn, the God of the Eastern Mountain (Mount Tài: Tàishān 泰山), the abode of the xiān 仙, starts being held responsible for the register of the living and the dead; as a result, the idea that the dead reside under Mt Tài starts spreading. Concurrently with Mt Tài in Shāndōng (山東), a temple in Fēngdū 酆都 in Sìchuān (四川) also starts being considered as the entrance to the underground realm of the dead.

Under the influence of Buddhism, Chinese folk religion eventually includes a fully-fledged place of subterranean torment called Dìyù (地獄). In Dìyù, the souls of the dead undergo judgement through the Ten Courts of Hell, each of which is ruled by a judge; the ten judges are known as the ten Yāma Kings (Yánwáng 閻王). The judge of the first court weighs the good and bad actions of the dead spirit, and decides whether it must undergo the nine other judgements or not. Then each of the subsequent courts deals with a different aspect of atonement and different punishments. Particularly meritorious dead spirits get direct access to the Silver Bridge that yields access to a position in the Celestial Bureaucracy, or to the Golden Bridge that yields rebirth in one of the upper realms.

The Ten Courts of Hell are:

First Court (Qínguǎng 秦廣): Mirror of Retribution. Ruled by Lord Jiǎng, King of Qínguǎng (秦廣王蔣)
Second Court (Chǔjiāng 楚江): The Pool of Filth and the Hell of Ice. Ruled by Lord Lì, King of Chǔjiāng (楚江王歷)
Third Court (Sòngdì 宋帝): Black Rope Hell and the Upside-Down Prison. Ruled by Lord Yú, King of Sòngdì (宋帝王余)
Fourth Court (Wǔguān 五官): The Lake of Blood and the terrible Bee Torture. Ruled by Lord Lǚ, King of Wǔguān (五官王呂)
Fifth Court (Yánluó 閻羅): Sixteen Departments of Heart Gouging. Ruled by Lord Bāo, King of Yánluó (閻羅王包)
Sixth Court (Biànchéng 卞城): Screaming Torture and Administrative Errors. Ruled by Lord Bì, King of Biànchéng (卞城王畢)
Seventh Court (Tàishān 泰山): Torture by Mincing Machine. Ruled by Lord Dǒng, King of Tàishān (泰山王董)
Eighth Court (Dūshì 都市): Hot Suffocation Hell. Ruled by Lord Huáng, King of Dūshì (都市王黃)
Ninth Court (Píngděng 平等): Iron Web and Office of Fair Trading. Ruled by Lord Lù, King of Píngděng (平等王陸)
Tenth Court (Zhuànlún 轉輪): The Wheel of Rebirth. Ruled by Lord Xuē, King of Zhuànlún (轉輪王薛)

When one's torments in the City of Ghosts are over, the whitesoul is summoned to the Tenth Court, where Lord Xuē decides the manner of one's next existence. Then Mother Mèng (孟婆) administers the Tea of Oblivion, which erases one's memory and ensures that all the punishments are forgotten. The dead spirit is now ready to be reborn in a new earthly incarnation.

Geomancy (Fēngshuǐ 風水)

2011-06-06T15:43:00.005+02:00

As written on page 52 of the rule book, Geomancy (fēngshuǐ 風水) is the art of adjusting the position and the orientation of buildings, tombs, and even fields, in relation to the magnetic compass, to the physical features of a given site, and to the nearest lóngmài (龍脈, the places where the qì 氣 of the earth flows strongest).

However, on page 62 the skill of Geomancy is mostly rendered as the mere ability to detect lóngmài.

In keeping with the list of abilities subsumed under the profession of Geomancer, and in order to beef up the profession, this post proposes a few more options in the use of the Geomancy skill.

1. A careful (3D6 minutes) examination of a given locale may give away clues as to any piece of furniture that may have been moved, or any modification that a room may have undergone. This obviously only applies to Civilised (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese) locales, since the Barbarians do not follow the rules of fēngshuǐ when building their cities.

2. In the countryside, successful use of the Geomancy skill may indicate the presence of an underground stream of water, of a large cave beneath the surface, etc.

3. Successful roll under this skill with a Difficult modifier will tell the player character the cardinal directions. Of course, failure will give the player character a wrong direction (by ±90°); a fumble will give the player character a completely wrong direction (i.e., 180° of error).

The Headless Giant (Xíngtiān 刑天)

2011-06-04T10:54:00.008+02:00

Note: This post is the first in a series of 'blog swapping' posts I'll be doing with Scott, the author of the excellent Trollish Delver blog.

The Xíngtiān is a creature from the Chinese classic bestiary, the Shānhǎi Jīng. The latter is a very old book whose creatures do not feature prominently in Chinese fiction. This is why the Xíngtiān does not appear in The Celestial Empire. However, the Xíngtiān has recently undergone a surge in popularity in China because of its appearance in a number of on-line adventure games (see here and there). As a consequence, I have decided to make it available for Celestial Empire campaigns.

The Xíngtiān is a very ancient humanoid who predates even the most ancient Chinese chronicles. It is mentioned as an adversary in the battles fought by the Yellow Emperor in pre-dynastic times. It is told that the Xíngtiān challenged the Yellow Emperor for a duel; in the ensuing fight, the Yellow Emperor beheaded the giant humanoid. However, the blow did not kill the Xíngtiān; the monster fled without its head. From that time on, it used its nipples as eyes, and its navel as a mouth. According to the Shānhǎi Jīng, the Xíngtiān fights with an axe and a shield.

Characteristics:
STR 4D6+6 (20), CON 4D6 (14), SIZ 4D6+6 (20), INT 3D6 (10-11), POW 3D6 (10-11), DEX 3D6 (10-11), APP 1D6 (3-4).
Move: 10, Hit Points: 17, Damage Bonus: +1D6, Armour: 0.
Allegiance: Heterodoxy 5D4+5
Morale: Leader.
Skills: Climb 35%, Dodge 25%, Jump 30%, Knowledge (Region [Mountains]) 75%, Listen 25%, Science (Natural History) 20%, Spot 30%, Stealth 25%, Track 60%.
Spells: If the Xíngtiān has an INT greater than 12 it knows the following Battle Magic spells: Befuddle, Dispel, Heal, Mobility, Protection, with a skill value of 30%.
Attacks:
Giant axe 55%, damage: 2D8+2+db (bleeding)
Long Shield
Special defence:
Swallows weapon: whenever the Xíngtiān is hit in the Abdomen, it may swallow the weapon of its attacker on a successful STR vs STR roll on the Resistance table. Damage is still inflicted though.

Hit Location table
1D20 | Hit Location | Hit Point Value
1-5 | Right Leg | 1/3 total HP
6-10 | Left Leg | 1/3 total HP
11-13 | Abdomen | 2/5 total HP
14 | Chest | 1/2 total HP
15-17 | Right Arm | 1/4 total HP
18-20 | Left Arm | 1/4 total HP

Please go and check out Scott's T&T version of the Xíngtiān now. I'm amazed at how he's captured the monster's peculiarities using T&T's system.

Armour and Heat

2011-06-01T11:50:00.005+02:00

Looking at the map on page 28 of the rule book, all the provinces south of the North India-Lower Yángzi line have a humid subtropical climate. The omnipresent daytime heat and humidity affect the inhabitants' choice in armour: people in these areas avoid carrying any piece of armour whose Burden is Moderate (or heavier). Should a player character insist on carrying such a piece of armour, he must succeed at a Stamina roll every time he is doing any activity more tiring than walking. A failed roll results in the character losing 1 general hit point of damage because of fatigue. A fumble results in the character passing out with exertion (on top of the hp loss).

The Celestial Empire as a stand-alone role-playing game

2011-05-29T10:43:00.002+02:00

As written on page 3 of the rule book, The Celestial Empire is not a stand-alone role-playing game, since it was designed to be used with Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying (BRP) System.

However, if the gamemaster (GM) has decided to run a campaign game that does not use magic and wǔshù powers (like for instance a strictly historical game), then the GM can simply download the free BRP Quick-Start Edition. The latter includes all the basic rules needed to run a TCE game: character creation, skill use, resistance table, experience, combat, and spot rules.

High Level Magic

2011-05-26T10:04:00.008+02:00

As written on page 83 of the rule book, The Celestial Empire has been written with Chinese fantasy and wǔxiá fiction in mind, neither of which feature exaggerated magical feats, at least not by the hands of mere mortals.

As a result, a GM who would like to run a campaign featuring powerful spell casters might be disappointed with the overall level of the spells presented in The Celestial Empire. This post will give some ideas to game masters who want “high level” magic.

The GM should procure the Chaosium monograph Basic Magic; this supplement contains a chapter called Divine Magic (p22), which describes a magic tradition much more powerful than The Celestial Empire's Battle Magic.

To remain in phase with The Celestial Empire's approach to magic, the Divine Magic from Basic Magic should only be available for campaigns set in China's mythical past, when Immortals would dabble in human affairs, or for really high-power campaigns in Imperial China centred on Chinese mythology rather than Chinese history or literature.

Here are a few ideas of who may cast which spells in a high power Celestial Empire campaign, targeted towards very powerful characters such as Tibetan reincarnate lamas, Daoist Celestial Immortals, or vampire-creating demonic sorcerers.

PC or NPC >> Suggested Spells from Basic Magic
Lama of Avalokiteshvara >> Spells provided by the ‘Sun God’ (p31)
Lama of Bhaisajyaguru >> Spells provided by the ‘Earth Goddess’ (p30)
Lama of Mañjushrī >> Spells provided by the ‘Moon Goddess’ (p31)
Lama of Samantabhadra >> Spells provided by the ‘Ruling Deity’ (p31)
Lama of compassionate Tārā >> Spells provided by the ‘Agricultural Goddess’ (p30)
Lama of wrathful Tārā >> Spells provided by the ‘Night Goddess’ (p31)
Daoist Celestial Immortal >> Spells provided by the ‘Storm God’ (p31)
Demonic Sorcerer >> Spells provided by the ‘Underworld God’ (p31)

the Shānhǎi Jīng (山海經)

2011-05-25T14:18:00.003+02:00

This ancient (at least 2,200 years old) Chinese bestiary has been mentioned in yesterday's post as the epitome of the Chinese fear of the Mountains and the Seas. Literally translated, its title does indeed mean the Classic of the Mountains and Seas.

The book does not follow any plot. It simply describes various real and mythological locales along with their many fabled inhabitants, mostly monsters or people with strange customs. In this respect, it is very much similar to European mediaeval bestiaries. The Shānhǎi Jīng hasn't had much influence on Chinese fantasy or wǔxiá fiction; this is why I haven't used the creatures described in the Shānhǎi Jīng for The Celestial Empire. Some of them will appear in this blog over time, though.

A longer description of the book, containing some excerpts, may be found here.

The Shānhǎi Jīng is available in English in two editions:

Birrell, Anne. 2000. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Penguin
Strassberg, Richard. 2002. A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas, University of California Press

Mountains and Seas

2011-05-24T13:26:00.009+02:00

The Chinese have always hated the mountains and the seas. Chinese civilisation originated in the basin of the Yellow River (Huánghé 黃河), more exactly in the squarish area between the Yellow River and the river Wèi (渭河), which is located more than 1,000km from the nearest sea.

This squarish area is a natural plateau of fertile (if highly erodible) soil. Even if this plateau is high above sea level, there aren't any real mountains there. It is like a gigantic piece of upheaved plains.

Another early centre of Chinese civilisation was the upper basin of the river Huái (淮河), again a very flat area, and again far from any coastal area.

Over time, Chinese civilisation spread eastwards to Shāndōng (山東), and southwards to Sìchuān (四川) and to the river Yángzi (揚子江), as explained on page 19 of the rule book. However, the Hàn kept clear of the mountains and of the seas during this expansion phase. This explains why the vast majority of China's ethnic minorities are mountain dwellers.

Whereas Europe is dotted with old ports by the sea, and old cities situated on protective peaks, China's ancient cities are all plains cities, far from the sea. Shànghǎi, for instance, has really been created by the British and the French in the 19th century.

As befits a people who dislikes the mountains and the seas, the most famous Chinese bestiary is called the Shānhǎi Jīng (山海經), literally the Classic of the Mountains and Seas, because the mountains and the seas were expected to house a variety of monsters.

Chinese Jews

2011-05-23T16:23:00.005+02:00

1. Origins and first traces

Jewish settlers from Persia are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century AD. Relatively isolated communities developed through the Táng and Sòng dynasties, most notably in Kāifēng 開封.
As with Buddhism, Islam, and Nestorianism, yet again a "Western" religion had travelled to China on the Silk Road.

The earliest hard evidence for the presence of Jews in China is from the 8th century:

A business letter written in the Judaeo-Persian language by a Chinese Jew requesting the help of a fellow Jew to sell a lot of mediocre quality sheep. At the time, Jews resided in special enclaves that were set aside by the Chinese for foreigners in what was called the Western Regions (Xīyù 西域, roughly corresponding to Turkestan, Dzungaria, Sogdiana, and the Tarim Basin on the map on page 28 of The Celestial Empire)
A page of Jewish prayers for the Day of Atonement (from Gānsù)

In the 9th century, an Arab writer mentions the Radanites, Jewish merchants travelling between Western Europe and China.

In the 10th century, another Arab writer mentions in his chronicles the killing in Canton in 878 of 120,000 Western merchants, among others Jewish, by the Huáng 黃 rebels.

In 1286, Marco Polo notices the prominence of Jewish traders in Dàdū 大都 [present-day Běijīng].

The Portuguese soldier of fortune Galeote Pereira, incarcerated in China from 1549 to 1561, notices that the Chinese legal system provides for "Moors, Gentiles and Jews" to be tried on equal terms with the Chinese.

2. Evolution

A living community

The 1489 Kāifēng stone monument states that the congregation began to build the first Kāifēng synagogue in 1163. It is also reported that in 1163 Ustad Lièwéi 列爲 was given charge of the religion (Ustad means teacher in Persian). The synagogue was completed by a study hall, a ritual bath, a communal kitchen, a kosher butchering facility, and a sukkah. Further steles were added in 1512 and in 1663.

The Kāifēng Jews produced a great number of written materials and books, up until the 18th century.

The Kāifēng Jews had several rabbi lineages

The Kāifēng Jews' creed was similar to any other Jewish community in the world

The Kāifēng Jews practised polygamy and Levirate marriage (the practice whereby a man must marry his sister-in-law if his older brother, her husband, dies without fathering children).

The Kāifēng Jews did not proselytise, but any Chinese woman who married a Jew had to convert to Judaism

Children received both a Chinese and a Jewish name

The community was known by their Hàn Chinese neighbours as adherents of Tiāojīnjiào (挑筋教), meaning, loosely, the religion which removes the sinew (a reference to Jewish dietary laws)

The Golden Age of Chinese Judaism

Under the Yuán, Jewish holidays were publicly recognised, along Muslim ones.

The Jews had the privilege of carrying a Chinese surname (which was usually forbidden for foreigners). This privilege had been granted in 1420 after a Jew had successfully thwarted a plot against the Míng. It is debated whather these seven Chinese surnames have or don't have a relationship with Jewish surnames. The seven surnames are: Ài (艾), Shí (石), Gāo (高), Jīn (金), Lǐ (李), Zhāng (張), and Zhào (趙).

Outcome: Assimilation

Usually, whenever an individual succeeded in the imperial examinations, he would be appointed in a province different from his own province. A Jew having passed the imperial examination would hence find himself completely isolated from his community. The result of this isolation would be assimilation, if not for him, at least for his children. It is known that many Jews passed the imperial examinations.

The use of a Chinese surname, the obligation under the Qīng to wear the pigtail as a sign of submission to the ruling Manchus, the adoption of the Chinese custom of foot binding on young girls-- all these customs led to assimilation into the Hàn (or sometimes Huí) community.

In 1500, the Míng enforced a ban on free travel within and without the Celestial Empire. This cut off the Chinese Jews from Jews in Central Asia.

The end of trade along the Silk Road impoverished Chinese Jews to the point that the very same Kāifēng community who had fiercely refused to sell their original Hebrew Bible to the Jesuits in 1723, sold it to Canadian Christian missionaries in 1850-51. It was also observed by a Chinese Protestant who was sent from Shànghǎi to visit Kāifēng Jewry in 1850 that they did not keep Sabbath, nor the commandment of circumcision.

The many rebellions that shook China during the 19th century also led many Jews into assimilation. The Tàipíng rebellion of 1850-64 was particularly decisive.

The role of Confucianism

One of the forces of assimilation was Confucianism. Jews had adopted some Confucianist customs such as burning incense, which they did in their synagogues.

The process of studying for the imperial examinations was time-consuming and costly; this secular education had an adverse effect on Jewish studies.

The 1489 Kāifēng stele explains that the fundamentals of Judaism and of Confucianism are the same.

Water Margin (Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn 水滸傳)

2011-05-20T12:54:00.006+02:00

The Water Margin is a picaresque novel written under the Míng 明 but based on material from the Yuán 元. It tells the many adventures of the famous Shāndōng 山東-based “108 outlaws” of the Sòng 宋. The outline of the story and some of the characters have vague historical bases, but most of the stories-within-the-story present in the narrative of the novel are based on early popular tales.

The Water Margin is a much beloved novel, as are its characters, in all the Chinese sphere of influence in East Asia. It is also one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. The novel is remarkable for its many protagonists and for the way in which its early chapters appear as independent narrations centred on one given character, which slowly get intertwined as the main story unfolds. It is highly recommended that any GM of The Celestial Empire read the book to get a taste for the way the Chinese envision adventurous characters. Players are also advised to read the book to capture archetypes for Chinese heroes.

In the Chinese sphere of influence, the Water Margin has been rendered as film, TV series, comic books, children's books, video games, operas, radio shows... This is testimony to its immense popularity. Just as any Western kid recognises Robin Hood or Zorro, any East Asian kid recognises Shǐ Jìn 史進, Lǐ Kuí 李逵 or Wǔ Sōng 武松.

As mentioned above, the novel begins with what may appear as independent stories in their own right; however, all these stories end up with the protagonist being framed by a greedy official or an unscrupulous merchant and having to seek refuge in the shadow world of the Rivers and Lakes (Jiānghú 江湖, see page 9 of The Celestial Empire). Once the main characters have become outlaws, the main character of the Water Margin, Sòng Jiāng 宋江, a lowly magistrate's clerk, makes his appearance in Chapter 18. The interesting thing with Sòng Jiāng is that he is not strong (he's not a martial artist), he is not particularly bright (he's but a petty official), he is not heroic (he has fled because he has killed a woman); however he embodies yìqi 義氣 (see page 9 of The Celestial Empire) so well by his many actions that he attracts all the other outlaws until they form a sworn brotherhood of 108. This is the apex of the Shāndōng heroes. After several unsuccessful military assault against their stronghold, the Emperor must eventually grant them amnesty. The second part of the novel starts with the bandits now a fully-fledged military unit of the imperial army. Unfortunately, all their old foes conspire to have the Emperor send them quell revolts or fight nomad invaders, until only a handful of the original 108 outlaws are left alive.

The best English language version is probably Sidney Shapiro's Outlaws of the Marsh. For those who read French, I strongly recommend the superior French translation Au bord de l'eau by Jacques Dars.

Siddhaṃ (Xītán 悉曇)

2011-05-16T15:54:00.005+02:00

Siddhaṃ is a South Asian alphabet that was used to write Sanskrit texts in North India during the period 600-1200 AD. When Buddhism dwindled in India, the use of Siddhaṃ was passed on to China with Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhist texts along the Silk Road. As a result, Siddhaṃ script is the only South Asian alphabet that is only used in East Asia and not in South Asia.

Mahāyāna Buddhism considers that the meaning of a text is of paramount importance, hence the great deal of translation work conducted under the Táng in China. On the contrary, Esoteric Buddhism places a lot of emphasis on the sounds contained in a given text, considering that they carry a hidden meaning that would be ruined by the translation. As Chinese characters are not suitable for writing the sounds of Sanskrit, the Siddhaṃ script has been preserved in Tantric Buddhism to conserve the original pronunciation of mantra.

In gaming terms, a calligraphed Siddhaṃ syllable plays exactly the same role as a mandala: it can be used to replace a mudrā while casting a spell, and also as a focus to store power points, by members of the Mìjiào 密教 and Mìzǒng 密宗 sects.

Garrote

2011-05-16T11:42:00.003+02:00

Today's post has been inspired by a recent thread on the RuneQuest mailing list that has focused on the garrote, an assassination weapon infamously used by the Thugs.

I don't know if this has any historical bases (sorry), but in The Celestial Empire, the garrote would ideally be used by assassin retainers (cìkè 刺客, as described on p49 of the rule book) because it is a weapon that can easily be hidden on oneself.

Now there is a word for garrote, in Chinese: 絞死 (jiǎosǐ), so the idea of cìkè using it may not be as far-fetched as it seems.

The 'stats' (there isn't much) for garrote are on p253 of BRP. Basically, the table refers the reader to the effects of choking on the victim, which are described on p218 of BRP.

I would like to add the following, as inspired by the RuneQuest version of the weapon:

In melee, the hit location rolled must be the head or no damage is done, but if the victim is completely unaware of the attacker, the head will be hit automatically. Once hit, the garrote stays in place turn after turn, but successful attacks must be made to do additional damage. Give all successive attacks a +20% chance to succeed.
To dislodge the attacker, compare the STR+DEX of the victim against that of his or her opponent, and make a successful attack on the Resistance Table. If 20% of the score needed is rolled, the garroter is thrown to the ground. If the victim fumbles, the garroter may roll additional damage against the victim.
Once the garrote is in place, the attacker has the option to immobilise the victim rather than kill him or her, as per the entanglement rules on p196 of BRP.

Superstition

2011-05-16T11:23:00.003+02:00

I will take advantage of today being Friday the 13th to write a few words about Chinese superstitions. As mentioned several times across the rule book, Chinese people are extremely superstitious. Confucian characters less so, but the scholar who scorns superstitious commoners during the day may very well go in disguise to the home of a necromancer during the night...

Many Chinese superstitious are based on homophonous Chinese characters.
The main superstition revolves around the characters for 'death' 死 and for the number 'four' 四 being both pronounced [sɨ]. The number four is hence avoided at all costs in writing, conversation, etc. (much like the number 13 in the US).
Superstition is not always negative, however: the character for 'prosperity' 發 is pronounced [fa], which is similar to the pronunciation of the number 'eight' 八: [pa]. The number 8 is viewed as such an auspicious number that many Chinese go to great lengths to secure a "number eight" in whatever they are doing.
The characters for 'surplus' 余 and for 'fish' 魚 are both pronounced [y], so fish are considered to be lucky. That's why fish feature so highly in Chinese art, and lots of Chinese people have pictures of fish on their walls. In the same vein, lotus flowers and boxes are associated with weddings because they are both pronounced [xɤ] – the same as the character for 'harmony' 和. In some areas, it was traditional to empty seeds or fruit onto a newly wed couple's bed because fruits and nuts contain the character 子 which also means 'son'. Jujubes and chestnuts are particularly lucky because they are the homonyms of 'early son' and 'produce a son' respectively. Bats are auspicious because the word sounds the same as 'happiness' and deer are because they sound the same as 'wealth'.

Many other superstitions are based on colour.
Red and gold are both extremely auspicious. Red is extensively used at weddings, birthdays etc. However, writing in red can be seen as offensive because it is the colour used for the ink that scares away guǐ-monsters on Daoist amulets.
White is the colour of death and is thus avoided. Yellow is the colour of the emperor and is hence forbidden for anyone else.

Jade is highly valued, and not only for its beauty. According to Chinese superstition, jade can also bring good fortune and ward off evil spirits, hence the popularity of jade pendants and bracelets.

Wordle for the 'Religion' chapter

2011-05-12T17:27:00.001+02:00

I have processed the Religions section of The Celestial Empire (pages 35 to 40) through Wordle. Here is the result:

(click on the picture to enlarge it)

Bāo Gōng (包公)

2011-05-11T11:32:00.005+02:00

In Confucianism and in Chinese Folk religion, Bāo Gōng (Lord Bāo) is the God of Justice. As is often the case with Chinese Folk religion and its many apotheosised heroes, Bāo Gōng is the deification of an historical figure: Bāo Zhěng (包拯, 999–1062), a famously incorruptible judge from the Sòng dynasty.

Chinese Folk religion is a religion without an organised clergy. As a consequence, worship to Bāo Gōng is not performed by professional priests; his temples are built and maintained by wealthy residents of the neighbourhood, and obviously by the local judge and any other officials residing in the area.

Popular worship to Bāo Gōng is conducted through representations of Chinese opera with an actor disguised as Bāo Zhěng, and through the fictionalised accounts of his deeds as told by travelling story-tellers.

arhat

2011-05-10T11:45:00.003+02:00

As explained on p37 of The Celestial Empire, an arhat is, in Hīnayāna Buddhism, a person who has reached the state of nirvāna and who has thus managed to escape the cycle of suffering and rebirth: saṃsāra.

Since the main form of Buddhism practised throughout Imperial China is Mahāyāna rather than Hīnayāna Buddhism, arhat are much less important in Chinese religion than in early Buddhism. However, specific groups of arhat are often portrayed in Chinese arts, such as the Sixteen Arhat or the Eighteen Arhat.

The Five Hundred Arhat would adorn richer and larger temples, often under the shape of man-sized statues each having their own different features, to show that the temple had the means to hire such a large group of talented artists. There are also instances where the Five Hundred Arhat would be represented in sets of paintings, again to decorate rich and large temples.

In Chinese: 羅漢, Romanised as luóhàn

Spring and Autumn Annals (chūnqiū 春秋)

2011-05-09T12:56:00.002+02:00

Note: not to be confused with the Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Lǚ — see an earlier post.

The Spring and Autumn Annals cover the major historical events from 722 to 481 BC. This text holds high importance in Chinese literature because scholars in Imperial China held it to be written by Confucius himself.
Also, the importance of the book is such that the period of time chronicled therein (the first half of the Eastern Zhōu dynasty) has come to be known as the Spring and Autumn Period.

Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Lǚ (Lǚshì chūnqiū 呂氏春秋)

2011-05-03T14:31:00.004+02:00

This is a collective encyclopædia compiled in the 3rd century BC. It is a massive work, which comprises 26 juǎn (巻 "scrolls; books") in 160 piān (篇 "sections"), and which is divided into three major parts:
- 紀 Jì The Almanacs
- 覽 Lǎn The Examinations
- 論 Lùn The Discourses

It covers a vast range of topics, beginning with the seasons, the corresponding phenology and the integrative correlation of all appearances in the universe, and treating all different matters in state and society, economy, military, and behaviour. It thus serves as a handbook for a person in a high position to better understand the correlations of all things on earth. The language of the Lǚshì chūnqiū is very vivid, especially by the use of parables and allegories and the many semi-historical stories reported.
Because the book had been categorised as a "miscellaneous book" it lost attraction for long centuries. Only under the Qīng did scholars again become interested in this comprehensive manual.

As a consequence, the Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Lǚ can be considered as a very rare work in campaigns set before the Qīng, and the GM can use it as a "treasure item" for scholarly-oriented characters.
A player character who peruses the volume for one full day, and who then rolls successfully under Literacy (Classical Chinese) before the use of any Mental skill will receive a bonus of 2d3×10% to the character's score in the skill; for Communication skills, the bonus is 2d3×5%.

Amitābha

2011-05-03T09:34:00.004+02:00

The Buddha of Infinite Light, Amitābha is the most popular Mahāyāna Buddha after the historical Buddha himself, and possibly the most popular Buddha in folk religion. Amitābha possesses a paradise called the Pure Land, located in the western part of the universe, in which he welcomes anybody who was devoted to him during their life. Those reborn into the Pure Land (birth occurs painlessly through lotus flowers) will escape saṃsāra by receiving Amitābha's teachings.

Devotion to Amitābha starts spreading throughout China in the 4th century AD. In 402, the Chinese monk Huìyuǎn 慧遠 founds a Mahāyāna sect, which is the main precursor of both the White Lotus Society 白蓮 and Pure Land Buddhism 凈土.

Because of his popularity, Amitābha is very often depicted in Chinese art, and his statues and paintings are common throughout China in Buddhist temples. Amitābha is usually represented with thumbs touching and fingers together (see picture), either alone or flanked by two bodhisattvas.

Chinese name: 阿彌陀佛, Romanised as Ēmítuófó or Āmítuófó

Chinese house

2011-05-02T14:03:00.001+02:00

This fantastic site enables you to explore a wealthy Chinese home typical of the Qīng dynasty. Enjoy!

Chinese Names

2011-04-29T14:29:00.005+02:00

The Celestial Empire provides basic rules about creating Chinese-sounding names for your players characters.
However, once the players have chosen a surname for their PCs using the list on p8, they may become stuck during Step Ten of character generation if they want a real Chinese-sounding given name — the guidelines given on p46-47 are pretty brief and concentrate on the kind of names that one expects in Chinese fiction.

I suggest the use of this web-site for the creation of Chinese-sounding names. This tool was originally meant to provide a Chinese translation for Western names, but it works perfectly well for our intent.

Just enter any character string (even rubbish) in the first two fields, adjust the following two fields to your personal taste, and voilà! here's your instant Chinese name.

Example:
Given Name John
Family Name Doe
Desired Essence of the Name: Mind and Intelligence
Your Gender: Male
Your Birthdate: 1 January 1951 [Warning: early birthdates return an error message]
Result:
譚皎翰 Tan Jiaohan [actually Tán Jiǎohàn] -- you were born in the Year of the Tiger.

Chinese Calendar & Campaign Game

2011-04-28T11:49:00.007+02:00

Wikipedia gives a clear explanation of how the traditional lunisolar Xià calendar works. However, it is difficult for the layman GM to easily compute the date in the traditional Chinese reckoning using the information provided therein.

Let us assume that a GM wants to start his Celestial Empire campaign under the Qīng, on 4 July 1776. Obviously he can't use the date as such, he must convert it to the Xià calendar. This web-site will translate any Western date into its equivalent Chinese date.

Example:
I enter '4 July 1776 in Chinese calendar' in the Wolfram bar. The web-site returns the following:

19 wuyue, 4473
Year of the Monkey (Yang Fire)

Everything in the above answer may be used, except the year. 19 is the day. wuyue is the fifth month (as per the Wikipedia article). The Chinese didn't have any continuously numbered years until the Republic, so 4473 can't possibly be used in a Celestial Empire game. So if the GM wants to start his campaign game on 4 July 1776, the equivalent Chinese date is:
the 19th day of the 5th month of the Year of the Fire Monkey.
This is enough to start a campaign game, as per p13 of the rules.

However, the GM and/or the players may want more accurate a reckoning for the year of the campaign game. Unless he owns a book with the correspondence of all Western years and Chinese years [I do], the average Celestial Empire GM must look up in an encyclopaedia what emperor actually ruled in 1776, when he was crowned, and deduce what year of his reign 1776 was. In our case, the emperor who ruled China in 1776 was Qiánlóng, who ascended to the throne in 1735. The year is hence the 41st year of the reign of Qiánlóng.

The full Xià date for 4 July 1776 then reads as follows:
the 19th day of the 5th month of the Year of the Fire Monkey, 41st year of the reign of Qiánlóng.

The Plain Girl (Sùnǚ 素女)

2011-04-27T12:12:00.002+02:00

The Plain Girl knows the sexual techniques to heal, but she also knows the ones to steal qì from a victim. A character who is a member of the Xié Sect, and who successfully resists the Plain Girl’s attempt to seduce him, may in turn try to seduce her trough an opposed skill roll of his Heterodoxy allegiance against the Plain Girl’s Charisma. If the character has rolled successfully, the Plain Girl will teach him her secret technique to steal qì from a sexual partner. For every night spent in company of a partner of the opposite sex, the character can now definitively ‘transfer’ 1 CON characteristic point from the victim to himself. The victim will appear to age 5 years for each characteristic point lost in this way – which may eventually arouse suspicion in her relationship.