If you’d like to support me directly, I have a Patreon page where previews of all my new books can be found!
For updates on the series and my other books (and special one-shot stories), please visit my website: http://www.mylifemytao.com
Or sign up for my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/c35JS1
Or my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/taowongauthor/
[1] Ink rubbings started in ancient China around 220BC. Actual woodblock printing began around the 8th century CE. Moveable woodblock printing started around 10th century CE. Books were significantly more prevalent in China than the West for a long period.
[2] Similar to ancient China’s Imperial Examinations that were the gateway to imperial bureaucracy. The large imperial bureaucracy in China often held power that rivaled that of the emperor himself.
[3] Also known as the Compendium of Materia Medica. This is a real book written in Li Shizhen in the 16th century. The work here is obviously altered to fit a cultivation world.
[4] Ganjiang is in fact a sword in Chinese lore and has a tragic story attached to it.
[5] It comes from a Chinese saying that states that it’s best to have three for drinking tea and four for wine. Three for tea to have proper conversation. Four for wine, so that if one party gets too drunk to continue, the other two can continue while the drunk party is escorted home.
[6] Called the mu ren zhuang. Most likely, you’ve seen a version in Ip Man, but the “wooden man post” has numerous styles to suit the training requirements of the martial art. Can involve one or two hands, springs, weights, and swings.
[7] Literally means Black Cat
[8] This lí is different from the lǐ used in the title. A lí here is a millimeter. The difference is in the intonation and makes more sense when you realize that Chinese is a pictographic language. So these two look very different when written in traditional Chinese characters and sound different due to the different intonations.
[9] Reminder – Wu Ying’s Long is the character for dragon. Thus her reference.
[10] Reminder. Dao literally translates as “the way.” I use the capitalized and non-capitalized versions in the text to show when people are speaking of the Dao (the true way) and the dao (the smaller ways which are part of the greater Dao).
[11] Some of these are real books. Others, not so much.
[12] Chinese coins were strung together on a string through the central hole. A string was basically a tael, so half a string is half a tael.
[13] Listening-in students are students who are not directly taught by the teacher. They “listen in” to lectures
[14] This is a paired joke about the famous “vinegar taster” painting that depicts Confucius (sour), Buddha (bitter), and Laozi (sweet) around a vat of vinegar, tasting it. It is an allegory of their views on life and humanity and their precepts.
[15] The Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival on the fifteenth night of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The entirety of the seventh month is considered the Ghost Month and is when ghosts and spirits come out from the lower realm. Proper observances are required to avoid lost, wandering ghosts.
[16] The jiangshi are a traditional Chinese boogeyman. More details will be in the story, but they’re highly amusing monsters.
[17] As a side note, while I am using traditional Chinese surnames, I am ignoring clan boundaries and geographic locations since this is a fantasy world. Also, it’d be even more confusing for everyone if everyone started having the same few surnames.
[18] Not actual paper money. Figurative paper money is made to be burnt for ghosts for them to spend in their afterlife. It always makes me wonder about inflation though, considering how much is burnt. Also, modern day funerals add credit cards. But no one ever burns a card reader…
[19] Chinese saying. It sounds better in Chinese, but it’s the Chinese equivalent of caveat emptor.
[20] In traditional Chinese cooking, recipes used to be passed down based off a handful, a pinch, and so on. These sizes were regulated and young women would be trained by their mothers in exacting degree what a pinch, a handful and the like was until the motions were instinctive.
[21] Horse stance is a basic strength, endurance, and stability building stance in many martial arts. Northern and southern styles vary, but generally the stance has feet apart, pointing forward, and the body lengthened upward.
[22] Dragon lines are the Chinese term for the idea of leylines. Natural rivers of chi energy.
[23] Yes, it’s a real flower.
[24] Exploding cucumbers are real too. And edible.
[25] Did you know China had repeating crossbows as early as the Warring States (475 – 220 BC)?
[26] Better known as the Monkey King
[27] Reminder. Long equals dragon