Terms/Lingo/Translations

[Kwokinator]

This thread is for terms that need translation, as I think of it, and it will be edited as the RPG goes.  Drop a line here if anything needs adding or you're curious.

Jian - the traditional sword that you see in wuxia, it's long and narrow.  It's primarily used for poking and slashing with either of its sides.  Generally, jian users are more of speed, finesse and skill.

Dao - another kind of sword, its blade is curved, kind of like a new moon, except less curve.  It doesn't poke, and only the curved side is sharp, so it only slashes.  The users of this weapon edge more towards strength/brute force, emphasis on power.

Jing Gen - the name of the Shaolin monk in Ed's thread.  In wuxia (not sure if this is the same in the real Shaolin Temple), Shaolink monks are basically classified by seniority.  The first character of their monk names stand for the seniority in the temple and basically how high up they are.  So in this case, he's a Jing class monk, which can tell anyone that he's been in the temple for this many years and has this many students/is this high up, etc.  In this case, Jing stands for "clean" or "cleanse" and Gen means "roots".  Roots can be anything from roots of wisdom to roots of the material world.

-daishi - somewhat similar to Japanese's -sama, except different.  They're both very respectful honorifics, except daishi is reserved for someone highly skilled (could be skilled in a certain craft, art, martial arts, or Zen, in a monk's case).

Shichen - the Chinese unit for time.  The people of ancient China (and into the not-so-ancient) measured time by dividing one day into twelve shichen.  One shichen is approximately two hours in modern terms.

Ke - a quarter of a shichen.  So, half an hour in modern terms.

And that concludes our obscure Chinese lesson for the day ^_^