itch.io

(for chapters 11-15)

Facts:

• Walking using a crutch when missing most of both arm and leg on one side of the body (in the story it’s just missing right forearm and lower leg, but the approximate difficulty might be similar)

• Paper existed prior to East Han dynasty’s Cai Lun. At least in Western Han dynasty. Though it’s unclear how far back it goes, and exactly how rare it really was.

• Silver or gold spoons existed during late Warring States period. Other kinds of material include bone, copper, bronze, wood (sometimes lacquered), jade, etc.

• Garlic was imported from western Asia during Han Dynasty (by Zhang Qian), but smaller-bulb wild onions already existed in eastern Asia around this time period.

• Examples of recorded pungent seasoning vegetables around that time period that were local: scallions 葱、ginger 姜、mustard 芥、chive 韭、Chinese onion 薤(xiè)

• Command tally.

• 石油 (stone lacquer)

• 面食通叫饼，放在汤里的面条以前叫“汤饼”，火烤叫“烧饼”，蒸的是“炊饼”（馒头）

• 濉/睢/水文 Sui script

• 双翼箭簇，三棱箭簇

• evidence of Moxibustion were found around that era or even earlier

• 九九乘法表

• documented legend of a 13-year-old leading others to break through a siege to call for aid; the era is later Western Jin, but there would likely be others like her in earlier war times

• 石灰

• Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments

• 疠迁所

• 鄂君启金节

• 西北边疆木牍用耐旱木料，松杉(pinales),白杨(poplars),水柳(water willow)，红柳(branchy tamarisk)

• icebox, or “ice container/cauldron”, 冰鉴

• konghou had a variant around this era that looked similar to a zither, but later got categorized along with horizontal and vertical harp

Anachronism:

• The earliest mention of “barbarian bed/couch” (folding stool) seems to be about a late Han dynasty emperor taking a liking to such a foreign object, and “stool/chair” only became better documented from Wei-Jin dynasty onward.

• Three Ministers “Minister of War,” “Minister of the Masses,” and “Minister of Works,” or the Nine Ministers were titles used during later Eastern Han dynasty. But according to 九卿, these titles were mentioned in pre-Qin documentation, just not used during the Qin dynasty (?). So I don’t know.

• 罪己诏; earliest documented Edict of Repentance happened in later Han dynasty, but phrasing related to taking on full responsibility may have been used earlier, such as by first king of the Shang dynasty.

• A kind of portable flame-stick/fire-starter (or a small bamboo container for tinder) was first recorded to have been invented by a palace attendant in Northern Qi dynasty (~577 AD), much later than Warring States period.

• The time period of the Civil War of Wa may be closer to Han dynasty than Warring States period in China.

• 皮手套

• 甜瓜 muskmelon (?) existed during Han dynasty

• Han dynasty funeral ware of cicada-barbecue meant both barbecue and insect-eating existed at the time

• 陶槅 pottery grid-tray currently only has (earliest) archaeological evidence from East Han dynasty.

• 浮箭铜漏 Water Clock currently dates back to Western Han dynasty period

• 铁鞭 iron/hard whip’s earliest record might be during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, much later.

Fiction (some plausible hand-waving):

• I don’t have definitive reference of how an actual “barbarian bed” would look like, and I need to tweak it enough to fit the narrative.

• I’m not sure what ancient “crutch” would look like (maybe not as symmetrical), but I’m hoping it would be similar enough to the underarm type to fulfill its purpose. I could consider a shape similar to the weapon “guai” (or known on wikipedia as tonfa), but having the middle hand-grip is not enough when the user might not have a hand on that side to grip it.

• Administrator of Land is not an officially documented title.

• Testing for blood type without today’s technology may or may not be possible at that era, but I didn’t want to make blood transfusion just coincidentally work with one try. (I would put the shaman’s trained leeches under total BS)

• I don’t have lived experience with feeling the flow of Qi during meditation. I recently began to practice the basic Baduanjin, but not very professionally, so the result might not be apparent for a long time. I have seen other people describing how the flow of Qi feels, so I’m going to borrow some inspiration from anecdotes (difficult to tell manipulative fabrication from genuine/sincere reports). Just know that it is merely fiction in this story.

• Cooking with heated cobblestones is feasible, but the situation in the story is not tested in real life, and might not yield much edible portion in the end.

Fiction (total BS):

• being in the spirit world (and then either remembering the experience or not); spirit-energy-powered rejuvenation
• The shaman’s rituals and his trained leeches. Even though they are based on bits and pieces of plausible ideas, because there are too many of them mashed together, I think it would be more responsible to designate the result as BS.
• Time between several events may feel short compared to how realistically they need to be in order for reinforcements to arrive from a certain distance, or for how fast wounds heal, etc. Unfortunately that’s due to poor planning on the writer’s part.
• The fight in the rain might not have been as favorable for MC and entourage. I remember pouring rain making it difficult to see while driving on highways, but that kind of low visibility might not extend to close-quarter combat. But then again, huge downpour in recent years may or may not make that fight more imaginable.

(more to be added later)