Louis Cha - The Deer and the Cauldron

CHRYSANTHEMUM SCENT Feng Xifan’s fifth

concubine.

QLOSSARY OF PEOPLE AND PLACES

CLAN LODGE Triad Lodge of Guangxi Province.

XVII

COXINGA (1624’1662) This was the Western name (sometimes written Koxinga, based on the Fukienese pronunciation of a tide Guo’xing’ye given him by the Ming Court) for the naval warrior Zheng Chenggong, Marshal Zheng, first Prince of Yanping, leader until his death of the anti’Manchu resistance, cryptically referred to as Dragon Brother by the Triads. His father was a Fukienese pirate and adventurer, his mother Japanese; the remnants of his army are supposed to have formed the first Triad Lodges. He is the subject of a famous play by the Japanese dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653’1725). Though Coxinga has passed into myth as a great hero, history seems to indicate that especially towards the end of his life he was guilty of the sort of paranoid’maniacal excesses we have seen more recently in the dotage of Chairman Mao. In Deer we see an example of this in the fate of Shi Lang’s family. DARLI Manchu official, Senior Academician sent as an envoy to Satrap Wu. DOLONG Colonel and Chief Intendant of the Palace Guards, a member of the Plain White Banner. DONG, Lady Principal wife of Coxinga, and mother of Zheng Jing. She favoured Zheng Jing’s second son, Zheng Keshuang (the Insufferable), over Zheng Kezang. DOUBLET Pretty young orphaned maid given to Trinket by Widow Zhuang, as a reward for having killed Oboi. A superb fighter, she becomes Trinket’s devoted companion for the duration of the novel. Even when she may not have been mentioned for dozens of pages, she will never be far from the scene of the action, ever ready to save her Master from the jaws of certain death. DUIKENA Manchu Grand Chancellor. EMPRESS DOWAGER (Fake’) Wife of Shun Zhi, daughter of the Mongol Prince Korcin, of the Borjigit clan; referred to by Trinket as the Old Whore. It transpires during the course of the Second Book that the Old Whore is not in fact the real Empress, but an years.

EMPRESS DOWAGER Having emerged from her wardrobe’prison, she continues to lead a shadowy life in her apartments in the Forbidden City.

ENLIGHTENMENT, Shrine of Famous Zen Buddhist temple in the city of Yangzhou.

FANG YI Mu Family retainer; beautiful sister’in’arms of the Little Countess, much admired by Trinket. As it transpires in the Second Book, she is also a member of the Mystic Dragon Sect, and is entrusted with the job of luring Trinket to their island lair.

FAT DHUTA Once or twice referred to earlier in the novel as Bag’of’Bones. Originally a very fat disciple of the Mystic Dragon Sect; becomes excessively thin and tall after taking the Leopard Embryo Pill. Tries to ambush Trinket and take him to Snake Island. Brother’in’arms of Thin Dhuta (Meatball, or Lump’of’Flesh).

FENG, Brother Feng Jizhong, Triad with superb kungfu skills, but of dubious loyalty.

FENG, The Bloodless Sword Feng Xifan; general in the service of Zheng Jing; evil mentor (and father’in’law) of Zheng Keshuang; supreme master of Kunlun School of kungfu.

FUJIAN Rich south’eastern coastal province, origin of much Overseas Chinese emigration to places such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Strategically important because it is directly opposite the island of Taiwan.

GALDAN (‘ 1644’1697) Mongol prince, Bushktu Khan of the Dzungars (a tribe of the Eleuths or Western Mongols), with ambitions to rule over Chinese Turkestan. He has been described as ‘an extraordinary character, a sort of unsuccessful Genghis Khan, who dreamed of re’establishing the old Mongol empire under the domination of his own Western Mongols.’ (Grousset, History of the

e, p. 285) In his youth, he lived as a novice in Lhasa, and remained on cordial terms with the Tibetan Lamaists. He was finally defeated by Kang Xi’s armies in

1696.

GAO YANCHAO Young Triad, member of the Green Wood Lodge. Trinket’s contact man. GENG JINGZHONG (died 1682) Chinese Bannerman, son of Geng Jimao (died 1671), like his father the Satrap of Fujian Province, later involved in the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories against Manchu rule. Historically, he and ten other generals who had supported the Satrap’s rebellion were condemned by Kang Xi to the ultimate penalty of Lingering Death. GIYESU see Prince Kang GOLITSYN, General Governor of Fort Albazin, and lover of Princess Sophia. GOLOVIN, Fyodor Alexeyevich Duke of Lomonosoff, Russian Envoy sent to negotiate peace with China. GREEN GIRL Chen Ah Kor, beautiful sixteen’year’old disciple of the White Nun, much admired by Trinket, but infatuated with the ‘cad’, Zheng Keshuang. She accompanies Trinket to Yunnan, disguised as a waiting’woman of Princess Ning. It transpires in the course of the Third Book that she is in fact the daughter of Chen Yuanyuan, the Peerless Consort, and Li Zicheng, General Bash’em. But the White Nun (the Princess Royal) kidnapped her as a young girl, and trained her with a view to avenging the death of her (the White Nun’s) own father (the Ming Emperor Chong Zhen), for which she held the Satrap responsible. At certain moments, Green acts as though the Satrap were indeed her father (see Chapter 24). In the Third Book she becomes one of Trinket’s seven wives. GU YANWU (1613’1682) Renowned Loyalist scholar and philosopher. The senior member of the group known as the Four Gentlemen of the Resistance. In the Second Book he is elected nominal head of the Anti’Manchu Resistance United Front (at the Rat Trap Congress in Hejianfu-see Chapter 18). XX

GLOSSARY OF PEOPLE AND PLACES

XXI

GU ZHIZHONG Master of the Red Fire Lodge of Guizhou Province.

GUANGXI Wild mountainous province west of Guangdong. The Kang Xi Emperor once remarked’ ‘There are smells so vile that they must be worse than the foul vapours of Guangxi …’ (Spence, Emperor of China, p. 103).

GUI, Invalid Gui Zhong, consumptive man of middle years, with the mental age of a nine’year’old, but formidable Inner Force kungfu skills.

GUI, Old Lady Wife of Gui Xinshu, and mother of Invalid Gui. No mean fighter herself.

GUI, Prince (1623’1662) The Ming Pretender recognized by the Mu Family. Took the reign title Yong Li in Canton late in 1646, and from 1650 wandered with his refugee court in the South, finally escaping into Burma only to be handed over by the Burmese and put to death by Satrap Wu (on secret instructions received from the Manchu Regent Oboi). His wife and mother embraced the Christian faith, and took the names Helen and Mary.

GUI XINSHU Old Gui, father of Invalid Gui, a vigorous eighty’year’old with a long, flowing white beard. A famed exponent in his day of the Mount Hua School of kungfu, known as the Matchless Knight, and brother’in’arms of Lady Iron Hand.

GUIZHOU Mountainous province north of Guangxi and east of Yunnan.

HATTY see Hatiemo

HATIEMO Mongol envoy sent by Prince Galdan to Yunnan, to negotiate an alliance with Satrap Wu. He falls into the hands of Trinket, who escorts him to Peking.

HE SHENG Young disciple of Rootless the Taoist, the Red Dragon

Marshal of the Mystic Dragon Sect.

HE YOU Chinese general in campaign leading up to Treaty of Nerchinsk.

HELMSMAN CHEN (died 1680) Chen Jinnan, supreme leader of the Triad Society, in command of the Taiwan resistance forces.

HO GARDEN Magnificent landscape garden in Yangzhou, belonging to a wealthy salt’merchant. Trinket is lodged there during his official visit to Yangzhou.

HONG, Leader Hong Antong, elderly Leader of the Mystic Dragon Sect.

HONG, Madame Su Quan, beautiful young consort of Hong Antong, Leader of the Mystic Dragon Sect. In the Third Book she becomes one of Trinket’s seven wives.

HU YIZHI The ‘Peasant’. A former champion, known as Hu the Gallant, famous for his good looks and Martial Arts prowess, but now in retirement from River and Lake. A dogged admirer of the Peerless Consort for over twenty years.