ooc 蓮 (some) resources on wuxia and Chinese culture and history

[bladeofthelotus]

This is a potpourri of information I've collected mostly by the power of Google. Mostly for my own reference, but hey, information should be free and shared.

Note: I try to use pinyin romanisation (with diacriticals when possible) for whatever Chinese terms I might employ. If I've messed anything up, kindly let me know!


CHINESE HONORIFICS

I've been under terrible influence here, but having a Chinese-speaking character quite concerned with proper manners, I will make an attempt to have her use Chinese honorifics. These were mostly scrounged from the Internet.

• Wuxia salutations
• Chinese honorifics on Wikipedia


I'm trying to keep track of which honorifics I've applied to which characters, so here's a list:

-fūrén: lady, Mrs.; polite address for married women. Rukia got this because Xiulian somehow got the impression she was married to Renji.
-gūniang: young lady, Miss; also a female friend. Neirenn, Utena.
-huīxià: general; literally 'beneath your flag'. Zhang Liao got this until he told her not to.
-jūn: male friend or respected person. Usopp, so far.
-xiānshēng: Mister, Mr.; a polite address for men. Ginko, Zhang Liao, probably Renji, too.

CHINESE CULTURE AND HISTORY

• Topics in Pre-Modern Chinese History (a textbook compilation full of useful information on pre-modern Chinese history, society, culture, gender roles, etc.)
  
• The Qing Dynasty on Wikipedia
  
• The Qing (Manchu) Dynasty: Facts and Details (some general information on the era, rulers, cultural influences, etc.)
  
• Map of Qing Dynasty China, with notes
  
• Provinces and Protectorates under the Qing Dynasties on Wikipedia (with another map)
  
  
• Chinese dress in the Qing Dynasty
  
• The Epoch Times: The Manchu Woman From Head To Toe (an article on Manchu women's dress, useful for comparison)
  
  
• Chinese martial arts on Wikipedia (a basic overview)
  
• Qigong on Wikipedia (somewhat comprehensive article)
  
  
• Traditions of Exemplary Women (a Chinese text of the Biographies of Exemplary Women, with background information, source texts, essays etc. The site is meant to be bilingual, so I'm keeping the link here in the hopes the English text will be updated some day...)
  
• Women's literature in the High Qing Era (overview of the education of (mostly upper-class) women during the High Qing. A little early for my purposes, but good to know.)
  
• Women in Chinese history (an article on women's multiple roles in Chinese history via short biographies)
  
• Women In Late Imperial China (a blog post with some useful tidbits; I haven't checked the sources, so read at your peril)
  
• Women Who Found a Way: Creating a Women's Language (an article on nushu, an ideogram script crated by women in Jiangyong)
  
• World of Nushu (an information site on nushu by Orie Endo)
  
  
• Analects of Confucius (complete text, bilingual display with Chinese text)
  
• Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu (complete text, translated by S. Mitchell)

WUXIA LINKS

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a wuxia film by Ang Lee set in Qing Dynasty China. It's loosely based on the fourth book in the Crane-Iron Pentalogy book series by Chinese novelist Wang Dulu. Lacking Chinese, I can't read the books, but I've picked a few headcanon substantiations from available summaries.

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on Wikipedia
  
• Looking into "CTHD" from the perspective of chi, Tao, Chan and compassion by Michael Chung (an article relating the movie story/themes to schools of Chinese philosophy)
  
  
• The Green Destiny sword (a replica, but it serves for demonstrative purposes)
  
  
• Notes on Wang Dulu's Crane-Iron Pentalogy on Zhang Ziyi's homepage
  
• Summaries of the Crane-Iron Pentalogy on Michelle Yeoh's homepage
  
  
• An Introduction to the Wuxia Genre (probably the clearest and most comprehensive English source I've found)
  
• An introduction to the wuxia genre on Zhang Ziyi's homepage
  
• Wuxia on Wikipedia
  
• Uncovering wuxia jargon (a glossary)
  
• Wuxiapedia (an incomplete but useful wiki)