Read The Secrets of Jin-Shei Online
Authors: Alma Alexander
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Asian American, #Literary
“Aww!” Orien said, disgusted with himself. “I scared it off!”
“There are many of them out here now,” Tai said. “We’ll see more of them.”
“There’s another,” Amai said, pointing to something that left the tall grass swaying gently in the wake of its passing.
“That was no rabbit,” Orien said, with the utter certainty that only small boys can bear with dignity and seriousness.
“You’re right, I think,” Tai said. “That didn’t hop, it crept and slunk. It looked rather like a cat, in fact.”
“A cat? Out here?” Amai asked skeptically.
“There were many Palace cats when this place was still whole,” Tai said. “Some of them might still be here, and have raised families here. They’d be wild now, but that’s where they came from, the royal cats who were kept as pets and the working cats who kept the mouse population down in the stables.”
Amai raised shining eyes to Tai’s face. “Do you remember all this,
baya-
Tai?”
“Oh yes,” Tai said.
“Do you remember all the cats?” Orien asked.
“Not
all
of them.”
Not here, anyway. I remember one of the cats, but that one was never up here in the mountains. I wonder what became of you in the end, Ink? When Qiaan died, and Xaforn died, both your protectors … but by that time you had lived a long comfortable life already.
Ah, those two, light and dark, two sides to the same coin. I wonder if you are still sparring in Cahan? You both walked in honor all of your lives, except for that brief blight that was Lihui at the end of it all, Lihui, whose touch shattered so many of us.
Oh, Xaforn of bright, bright memory! Motherless child who became Guard because you knew no other life, and then truest
jin-shei-bao
of them all. You gave yourself for your sister.
You, and Nhia, my Nhia, the crippled child who rose to be a teacher in the Temple, and Chancellor of Syai, and an Empress’s right hand—and then took her death upon her.
The warrior and the wise woman.
Oh, how rich my life was with all of you beside me.
“The sun’s going down,
baya
-Tai,” Amai said gently.
“So it is,” Tai said. “Time we got to the balcony. It’s over there, just past the arch in the old wall.”
The children came forward to help her again, despite her grumbles, and they finally reached the edge of the garden—even the remnants of the balcony on which the young Tai had used to watch her sunsets, on which Antian had died, had crumbled away over the years and all they could do was perch perilously against the wall, peering through the archway to where the sun was already turning the river golden, in the way that Tai remembered.
“See? What did I tell you? A river of gold into the west,” Tai said.
“Oh, yes,” Amai breathed. “It is so beautiful! It’s like magic.”
It’s like magic—the magic that Liudan tried to rip from Khailin, seeking immortality. She is immortal now, Liudan, although perhaps not in the way she wanted to be. They remember her—the people—sometimes with fury or chagrin, it is true, but often with an odd sort of proud affection. She was such a little girl, and she set her hand to the helm of an Empire, and she was the Empress, the only Empress, the Dragon Empress who flew alone into the sun. Gone, now, but not forgotten, never forgotten. If things had been even slightly different, perhaps she could have been more than she was.
But there was Lihui, and then there were the risings that fed her insecurities, and oh, Liudan, you were mad in those days, you were mad to ask what you asked … and Khailin broke all the laws of Cahan to give you what you wanted.
I should have been there for Khailin, at the end—all I knew of her, after, came in those sparse notes she thought were letters—a few sentences here and there, giving me a glimpse into a life that was lived far from me. I know you had a child, Khailin. I do not even know her name.
Did I take care of them, Antian, Little Empress who made me promise that I would look out for your sisters when you were gone? I remember my Kito of blessed memory saying once, we are all so young. And we were, Antian, we were. And some of us … some of us never grew old.
They were all your sisters, after all—not just the one whom you once called your angry sister, but also the soldier, the healer, the alchemist, the sage, the gypsy, the rebel leader. Did I keep my promise to you, made so long ago, here on these tumbled stones?
“We should go,
baya
-Tai, it’ll be dark soon,” Amai said practically.
“I know,” Tai said. “But wait. Wait. Look up at the sky and watch.”
“What are we watching for?” Orien asked curiously, squinting at the heavens which were turning the transparent colors of sapphire and amethyst where they weren’t flaming with the remnants of the fiery sunset.
Tai said nothing, but simply pointed to where the first bright evening star had kindled in the twilight.
And then they sat and watched in wonder, the old woman and the two children, as the stars shimmered into life, one by one, in the summer sky.
O
ne might say that there is no such language as “Chinese”—what we think of as the language spoken in China is actually a complex web of more than five hundred dialects, the best known and most commonly spoken being Mandarin. Possibly the least well known is a secret written language passed from mother to daughter for more than five hundred years, a language called
nushu.
The last woman who learned it at her mother’s knee is now in her late nineties, and dying. When she is gone, the language passes into history, and into the language laboratory.
But while it lived in the hearts and minds of China’s women,
nushu
was a remarkable thing. It enabled women with otherwise little or no education to be literate, and to record events and emotions that no male eye would ever desecrate.
The Secrets of Jin-shei
started out as ten characters searching for a plot. The first ideas for the novel consists of no more than character sketches for ten little girls, situated in a broadly Oriental and very specifically Chinese context. But I had no real idea of the story that would bind these characters together until I found out about
nushu
and the things that it meant to those to whom it belonged. One study on the
nushu
language spoke of its origins in a region of China blessed with fertile soils and plentiful harvests. Agriculture was the province of men, leaving the women of the area free to concentrate on gentler arts—spinning, weaving, embroidery, and poetry. Women would gather at each other’s homes and work at these tasks together. Through the shared tie of the secret language, it was a popular custom among the young women to observe something they called
Jiebai Zhimei
—a sworn sisterhood, pledging commitment of heart and spirit to female friends who were not blood kin.
Jiebai Zhimei
sisters would write to one another of their joys and sorrows when marriage separated them from
one another. My own characters gained an identity, a language, a sisterhood I reinvented and named ‘jin-shei’ in a mythical, not-quite-China, land I called Syai.
I threw myself into Chinese research. I found a centuries-old primer on proper behavior for well-bred young women (and promptly made my characters break all the rules); I devoured books such as
Court Life in China
by Isaac Taylor Headland, which provided me with details of the daily lives of aristocratic Chinese women, with descriptions of period Peking and its streets and bazaars, with childbirth and funeral and marriage customs.
As I researched my story and my world more and more deeply, a key plot point in the book turned out to be a search for immortality and I found a wealth of information on that in the precepts of Chinese alchemy, which was closely tied into those of Tao. So I researched Tao, and built a world with science and religion with strong roots in that philosophy.
Somewhere along the line I acquired a book called
Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook
edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey This was a treasure trove of ideas: the precepts of Confucianism, how a concubine was bought and treated and how her children fitted into hierarchies, the structure of city life, and even the Beggar Guild, which apparently was a real entity. I took the concept and ran with it, transforming it into something rather different in the process, but it was there, waiting for me.
Ancient China is a lush tapestry, ornate as only things Oriental can be. I used many of its rich threads to weave the story of
The Secrets of Jin-shei.
ALMA ALEXANDER
March 2003
Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation mostly follows the Pinyin system, the most commonly used system for transcribing Chinese words into English, with some exceptions. The less familiar pronunciations appear below, with examples; other letters approximate their English sounds.
| C : | TS as in “its,” except when before H, in which case it retains the traditional English “ch” pronunciation as in “church”—in other words, Cahan is pronounced Tsahan |
| Q : | CH as in “chair”—Qiaan is pronounced Chiaan |
| X : | SH as in “she”—Xaforn is pronounced Shaforn |
| Z : | DS as in “buds”—Zibo is pronounced Dzibo |
| ZH : | J as in “jump”—Zhan is pronounced Jan |
| A : | as in “father” |
| AI : | or AY: as in “aisle” |
| E : | OO as in “hook,” except before n or ng, when it is pronounced as U in “sun” |
| I : | usually pronounced as the I in “machine” |
| | Exceptions: when it comes after c, s, or z, when it is pronounced like the I in divide; when it comes after ch, r, sh, or zh, when it becomes pronounced like IR in “sir” |
| IA : | YA as in “yard” |
| IAN : | YEN—Antian is pronounced Antyen |
| IU : | EO as in “leo,” with the emphasis on the o—Liudan is pronounced LeOdan |
| O : | AW as in “law”—Zibo is pronounced Dzibaw |
| OU : | O as in “joke” |
| U : | usually pronounced as in “prune” |
| | Exceptions: pronounced as the u in “pudding” when syllable ends with n (as in Kunan, for instance); pronounced like the u in the French “tu” when it comes after j, q, x, or y—Yuet would be pronounced with this softer u sound |
| UI : | WAY 496 |
Glossary
Ama-bai the Great Teacher
: in life, a wise woman who had achieved first immortality and then the status of a lower deity in Cahan, to whom many prayers for wisdom and enlightenment are made
Antian
: First Princess, daughter to the Ivory Emperor by his Empress, heir to Syai, Tai’s first
jin-shei-bao;
dies in the Summer Palace earthquake
Aric
: captain in the Imperial Guard, father of Qiaan
Atu
: the Age In-Between—afterdeath/beforebirth, spirit existence
Autumn Court
: the most formal occasion of the Imperial Year, from which reigns are reckoned—whenever an Emperor of Syai is crowned, his reign officially begins on the first day of the first Autumn Court following his coronation. It consists of a week of audiences (private and public), public judgments by the Emperor on selected judicial cases which may be brought before the throne at this time, and grand entertainments. New Court garb is practically mandatory for this occasion.
Baio: Tai’s son
baixin
: fast-acting poison tasting of ginger
-ban
: endearment suffix, applied to a child by a mother, for example (e.g., Tai-
ban
)
-baya
: “grandmother,” equivalent to calling someone “granny”
Beggars’ Guild
: a highly structured and hierarchical organization to which professional beggars belong. There is one in every city, and members tithe their earnings to the organization in return for mediation of disputes, codification of begging (including mandatory largesse which delegations of beggars are sent to collect from households holding special celebrations) and other services. Beggars arriving in the city from other places in order to pursue this profession must register with the Guild’s leader before they are given permission to beg in the city and granted territory.
Beggar King
: see
Maxao
Boar
: sign of the Syai zodiac for those born in the month of Tannuan, minor sign, Male Earth
Brother Number One
: title by which the leader of the Beggars’ Guild is known
Buffalo
: sign of the Syai zodiac for those born in the month of Taian, cardinal sign, Female Earth
Cai
: Imperial concubine, mother to Liudan (by the Ivory Emperor) and to Qiaan (by Captain Aric of the Imperial Guard)
Cahan
: Heaven
cha’ia
energy
: the feminine form of the energy of Cha, or the Way, which is the source of all things
Chanain
: first month of summer
chao
energy
: the male from of the energy of Cha, or the Way, which is the source of all things
chayan
: the Traveler name for the folk of Syai
Cheleh
: Court Chronicler, Khailin’s father
Chuntan
: second month of autumn
Dragon
: sign of the Syai zodiac for those born in the month of Kunan, cardinal sign, Female Fire
Dragon Empress
: title taken by Liudan when she ascended the throne of Syai
Eagle
: sign of the Syai zodiac for those born in the month of Sinan, cardinal sign, Male Air
Early Heaven Cahan, the Spirit Paradise
: the home of the lower deities of the great pantheon, not the high rulers and the greater powers, but deities who originated in Cahan and were never mortal
Eleo
: Tammary’s kidnapper
Empress-Heir
: title of oldest daughter of the Emperor, usually reserved for a period between the death of the prior Emperor and ascension to the throne of his heir (i.e., prior to coronation)
Female Earth
: one of the cardinal points of Syai astrology
Festival of All Souls
: celebrated on the last day of Chuntan (the last day of autumn)—a celebration dedicated to death and renewal during which the Emperor makes sacrifices in the Tower of the Lord of Heaven in the innermost sanctum of the Great Temple
First Circle
: the commercial circle of the Great Temple, where offerings may be bought,
ganshu
readings obtained, yearwood beads are carved and sold
First Princess
: title given to the oldest female child of the Emperor, the heiress to the throne
Fourth Circle
: the inner part of the Great Temple where the Three Pure Ones, the rulers of the Three High Heavens of Cahan, reside—Shan-sei, the ruler of Shan (the Heaven of Pure Spirit), I’Chi-sei, the ruler of I’Chi (the Heaven of Pure Energy), and Taiku-sei, the ruler of Taikua (the Heaven of Pure Vitality)
ganshu
: method of fortune-telling using precepts associated with the Way and with Syai astrology
ghost road
: a road beyond the physical world, across space and time, which leads everywhere and anywhere—dangerous to noninitiates but used by adepts to travel quickly from place to place
Great Temple
: the chief temple in the Imperial capital of Syai
hacha-ashu
: the “male” alphabet, the common tool of writing the spoken language of Syai (women are mostly illiterate in it, with few exceptions)
Han-fei
: the Holy Fool, a character used in the Teaching Tales as an example and as a way to explain the complexities of the Gods and their Way to the people
Holy Sages
: wise and learned men who have become greatly venerated in their lifetimes and have achieved immortality by being placed in the Second Circle in the Great Temple as guiding spirits
Hsih-to, the Messenger of the Gods
: a deity of Later Heaven, a nonmortal lesser spirit often portrayed as winged or wearing winged attire; frequently appealed to by the faithful to carry prayers and entreaties to higher Gods and spirits, but also, in
the lore of the Way, the spirit used within Cahan as the Gods’ own messenger spirit to one another and to their faithful on Earth
Hummingbird
: sign of the Syai zodiac for those born in the month of Siantain, cardinal sign, Female Air
Imperial Council
: two-tiered governmental advisory body to the Emperors of Syai, consisting of a Chancellor and a number of Ministers with specific duties and portfolios (in the secular tier) and the Nine Sages of Syai, forming the religious and spiritual advisory tier, consisting of nine philosophers and scholars of the Way
Imperial Guard
: elite, highly trained fighting force, the Emperor’s first-call personal army and guard
Ivory Emperor
: the Emperor who dies in the earthquake, father of Liudan, Antian and Tammary
Jessenia
: Traveler woman, Jokhara’s sister, Tammary’s aunt
JeuJeu
: an Imperial Guard, once in charge of Guard trainees
jin-ashu
: the “female” alphabet, or the “women’s tongue”—a secret language passed from mother to daughter for generations, an arcane knowledge confined to women and forbidden to males. It is a written language which has no spoken counterpart—it is the common tongue, as spoken in Syai, but simply rendered in a unique and secret written form. It has a whole rich literature written in it which no man can ever read.
jin-shei
: a pledged sisterhood of female friends who are not related by blood. The sworn sisters are much closer to one another than to their own blood kin,
and jin-shei
was a lifetime commitment, binding and holy. If a sister asked anything of another in the name of the sisterhood, the request had to be honored at all cost.
jin-shei-bao
: one
of the jin-shei
sisterhood
Jokhara
: Tammary’s mother, a Traveler woman
kala
: age, as in “the age of …” (e.g.,
Liu-kala,
the age of Liu
Kannaian
: second month of summer
Khailin
: one of the
jin-shei
sisters, daughter to Cheleh, Chancellor of the Court, briefly married to Lihui, the alchemist
Kito
: Tai’s husband, son of bead-carver So-Xan
Kunan
: first month of autumn
-lama
: a term of respectful address, as in “master,” used to a superior or higher-ranked person or from apprentice to master craftsman
Lan
: the Second Age, losing of milk teeth
Later Heaven deities and spirits
: according to the teachings of the Way, the part of Cahan where the lesser deities, the spirits of those who were once mortal but achieved immortality in Cahan through their actions or attributes while alive, make their home (e.g., the Holy Sages, the past Emperors, lesser deities like Ama-bai and Yu
Lesser Gods, the spirits of Rain and Thunder and Wind and Fire
: the elementals often prayed to by country people regarding the vagaries of weather or natural catastrophes; their shrines are housed in the Second Circle of the Great Temple
Li
: Nhia’s mother
Lihui
: the Ninth Sage of Syai, the highest-ranking and also the youngest of the Nine Sages of the Imperial Council; emerges as an immortal mage of great evil power
Linh-an
: capital city of Syai
Lion
: sign of the Syai zodiac for those born in the month of Kannaian, cardinal sign, Male Fire
Liu
: the First Age, birth/toddler
liu-kala
: the First Age (often applied to an era, not to persons)
Liudan
: youngest legitimate daughter of the Ivory Emperor, by the concubine Cai; subsequently inherits the Syai throne and rules as the Dragon Empress