(for chapters 6-10)
Facts:
-
大带 leather belt to hang stuff, silk sash to cover it up to show high status; poor/low-status or crude people don’t wear a sash; 带钩图解
-
女闾, 营妓, state-operated or state-sanctioned sex trade (using mostly widows, female prisoners, and women who were punished just because they belonged to the same clan as criminals; although some argue minister Guan Zhong’s state-operated version gave female slaves a place to learn other skills and buy their way out of slavery, not sure how true that was, but in today’s world many people pay debts and student loans with earnings from sex work), a form of tax to fund endless warfare, maintain morale, and manage civil unrest due to pent up sexual frustration
-
Both men and women can be drafted for war (this is still debated in society to this day, as I grew up thinking otherwise and have to contend with inconsistent research findings). Shang Yang’s policy reform in Qin state required women to be listed as potential draftees, and they are expected to fight when they needed the numbers. Even if modern popular belief insists they are mostly only good for logistics management. They were likely kept in a separate division than men, and marched on different sides. Similar to “strong men” units, “strong women” were assigned into a unit of their own, separate from the older and injured soldiers. Mocius text also mentioned that when defending city-fortresses against invaders, both men and women must take up arms.
-
Retainers as “House Guests”
-
饧, Maltose
-
Tomb-sweeping day and cold food (due to fire being forbidden for use) festival used to be separate occasions, and not originally to commemorate loyalist Jie Zitui (not sure if that story was even real or just a powerful propaganda). The law to forbid the use of fire makes more sense to be about fire control during the dry season (司炬 as an official position). However, the effect of forcing common people of that era to eat uncooked/unheated food was very damaging to people’s health, and thus the length of “no fire period” was eventually reduced down to just three days.
-
Zhen, a kind of “paperweight” (often bronze miniature sculptures) to keep corners of a reed mat from curling up
-
Invention of early form of umbrella was credited to Lu Ban and his wife around that time period.
-
Medicine related: Datura 曼陀罗花, Five-Minerals Powder 五石散
-
forced migration: may take some inspiration from Dian culture, history of Chu people, Yelang culture, etc.
-
事死如事生 Prior to Buddhism influence, there was a prevalent belief among the upper-class in China that an afterlife is just another phase of life. It spurred the tradition of burying the deceased in a tomb that mirrors their home, with offerings that either were or mirror what they used in real life, and in certain eras, also buried horses/slaves/servants/family-members/vassals alive to follow them to the afterlife.
-
I modified some wording of math problem(s) from “The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art”
Anachronism:
-
No definite depictions of Warring States period tomb-robbing tools, but these might be similar.
-
“lock-catch” technique; the fundamentals (from military training) must already exist back then, but probably not as defined as we know them now
-
戚继光（明朝）： “既得艺，必试敌” Qi Jiguang (Ming dynasty): “Once you have acquired the skills, you must test them on an opponent.”
-
Wrestling. I don’t think I will be able to depict it accurately to how it was around the Warring States era, so it might “seem” more like wrestling in later era (at least women wrestling “as bare-chested as men” was infamous one time during the Song dynasty). The key take-away is that it was initially a military training activity for soldiers (end goal being improving chance of survival), and can even involve punching and kicking.
Fiction (some plausible hand-waving):
-
(based on fact that both men and women can be drafted for war) Integration of women and men in the same army division (for at least some of Zong’s military). To lean toward this choice of depiction is partly considering the neighboring influences (like many minority cultures of the time that still maintained matriarchy, or at least where women are expected to hunt/fight as much as men do, and could openly command troops) and modern sensibilities (because we are readers in the 21st century, not 481 BC). The related hand-waving part are things like Reward’s Night (total fabrication, if it exists it’s a coincidence), Since state-controlled prostitution (minister Guan Zhong) and military-sanctioned “comfort women” situation (King Goujian of Yue) of those eras were documented (and of course rape is sadly a given), I want to imagine that some allowance for military-sanctioned sexual activities between soldiers exist, provided that the unpredictable consequences may be undesirable for the soldiers themselves so that they can police themselves to some degree. Many people were and still are sexually-driven, this is one of my fictional ways of reconciling some of the discomfort with the reality that not everyone can or wants to tame their sex drive. It’s all natural and beautiful until somebody gets hurt.
-
洛越 “lowat” people, inspired by legends of southern Yue tribes; I saw some wiki entry saying 雒越 is actually more farming-oriented, while West Yue (as a categorization) people engaged in more warfare (due to being attacked by Qin), but the possible older pronunciation Wut, Wat, or Wet is not good to use directly as an English name; Xiwat? West-Wat sounds awkward.
-
Imperial edicts, at least for Qin state/dynasty, were carved into stone tablets or bronze objects (like a measuring cup) at that time period; I need a faster/cheaper (Heng Emperor is poor) and more portable method by using silk (a material less common among the general population) banner as the canvas; who knows, maybe later the Emperor will commission a craftsman to carve it into a stone tablet. Important tidbit to learn: “奉天承运皇帝，诏曰” opening line was invented by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, and never used before his time.
-
“Wasting-thirst” 消渴病 is a real documented illness (likely diabetes), but how I depict it in the story might be inaccurate for the sake of effect. Do not consider the doctor’s advice (quite vague anyway) applicable to modern day version of the illness.
-
息肌丸, xiji pill (“breathing” pill?! or “muscle-ceasing” pill?), a kind of aphrodisiac that has adverse effect on the womb if used over the long-term, has some historical documentation, but the complete recipe of the concoction has been lost. Current views of its confirmed component 麝香 (Moschus) only agree that it should be used with caution for a pregnant patient, but otherwise it’s unclear how toxic it is by itself when used in moderation.
-
Military formations (battle arrays) might not be completely accurate to what they were originally, since not every formation mentioned in ancient military manuals had precise diagrams.
-
Use poison to treat/neutralize poison. This has some scientific basis, like chemotherapy against cancerous cells, or the way how many Traditional Chinese medicine ingredients are actually deadly at a certain dosage. It is also a common wuxia trope. In this story I’m not using scientifically proven neutralizing combination, only the spirit of this trope.
-
People/culture inspired by 粟特人 Sugda/Sogdiana people and ancient Kucha (although probably also anachronistic if directly using these cultures), I’m making up some northwestern region cultures that are supposed to be migrants from beyond the western border of the kingdom.
-
Administrator of Agriculture is not an officially documented title, but a plausible (local) government position.
-
What information I find on finger-press pressure point treatment (with or without acupuncture) is difficult to distinguish between what was available at that time period versus thousands of years of knowledge accumulation. And sometimes information online can be misleading or plain wrong, so obviously don’t imitate it in real life.
-
Earthquake; (historically there was a documented major earthquake around that era, ~780 BCE in Guanzhong region during Western Zhou dynasty 岐山地震)
-
Prior to (or aside from) Buddhism influence, Daoists and other traditional beliefs have their own interpretations of the “Three Souls and Seven Senses.” It is very confusing to me because I can’t find a definitive explanation, so I can only take what I think is mostly agreed on, and hand-wave the rest. (Since this idea has roots in cultural belief, I’m not categorizing it under “total BS”.)
-
The royal tombs and underground palace in the story are not strictly based on any existing blueprint of an Imperial mausoleum, because I need it to be much simplified for my own sanity. I’m mainly acknowledging that there would have been measures taken to defend the rich tombs from thieves, either by setting traps, creating distractions in the tombs (letting thieves think they have already stolen everything in that tomb, etc.), making the location look plain/humble from the outside, or having several fake tombs (like Cao Cao did during Three Kingdoms era).
Fiction (total BS):
-
Reward’s Night (see “plausible hand-waving” section)
-
Troop distribution is probably illogical, but it’s an approximation to simulate a crisis
-
Troop size. Some say during Warring States era the army size would have easily reached multiples of 100,000 instead of 10,000, especially since there are only three states in the story. But I can’t yet wrap my head around that size to write about. MC is already going to have a hard time dealing with multiples of 5,000, so I don’t want to stretch my own suspension of disbelief too much.
-
The illusions seen after being struck by the Lowat tribe’s hallucinogenic poison darts
-
Spirit Poison, Soul Possession
-
Associating Heavenward Spirit with zodiac animals (I just like the imagery)
(more to be added later…)