Siddhaṃ (Xītán 悉曇)

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.

Edit (7 May 2013): I have found an extremely interesting and lengthy article about Siddhaṃ on the Sino-Platonic Papers scholarly site: Siddham in China and Japan. Enjoy!

Garrote

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

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

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)

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.