Warp And Weft is Book 5 of the novel The Years Of Rice And Salt.

Summary

Fromwest, an ex-ronin who came to Turtle Island after China conquered Nippon, becomes a leader among the Hodenosaunee. He warns them against the flood of Chinese and Muslim colonists, insisting that the Hodenosaunee’s political system of nations and inter-tribes marriages is the best way to hold together, and that they should have other nations join them too; together they will be stronger than guns. Fromwest has a connection with a dead friend, Peng, who taught the people how to survive smallpox, and who witnessed the birth of the Hodenosaunee.

World history

Chinese Gold Rush on West Coast; East coast settlements by Europe-based Muslims.

Characters

• B : Busho “Fromwest”, a Nippon ronin who joins the Iroquois people
• K : Keeper of the Wampum, a sachem
• I : Iagogeh, the One Who Hears, wife of Keeper of the Wampum
• S : Straight Arrow
• Z : Zigzag

Thesaurus & Encyclopaedia

Based on the Trivia and Study Guide compiled by Mark Rosa in 2004. Page numbers from the US paperback edition.

359 Floating Bridge : KSR is probably referring to the one at Owasco in the Finger Lakes in New York.

359 fifty sachems : An Algonquian word meaning a chief of a North American tribe or confederation. I don’t yet know how many the Iroquois confederacy actually had.

359 Doorkeepers : The Seneca tribe. See the Haudenosaunee entry below.

359 Hodenosaunee : Also spelled Haudenosaunee; it means “people of the long house” and refers to the Five Nations that formed the Iroquois league in upstate New York. These five nations are the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. In the real world, encroachments on the east coast of the North American continent by European settlers led the Tuscarora to join this league in 1720-22, becoming the sixth nation, but in KSR’s story, many other tribes have already joined the confederacy.

361 Longhouse : Type of long, narrow one-room building build by many peoples across the world. The Native American variant was built by fire-hardened poles covered by leaves and grass. More here.

368 the big bay at the mouth of the East River : While there is indeed an East River off Manhattan in New York City, it’s more likely that the Hodeonsaunee are using this word to refer to the larger Hudson River, which serves as a natural border for over a hundred miles.

372 born on the island Hokkaido : In the early 18th century, Hokkaido (still called Ezo then) was mainly populated by the Ainu, who are now almost completely assimilated into Japanese culture. From 1603 until the 1870s, Ezo was controlled by the Matsumae clan, who did indeed treat the natives cruelly.

373 ronin : 浪人. A samurai with no master; literally “a person [tossed by] the waves”.

373 kamikaze storm wind : Technically, the “divine wind” had protected Japan from previous invasions by the Mongols, not the Chinese, though the distinction may have been unimportant to Busho.

373 “Allah worshipers who had taken over [the] southernmost islands” : Perhaps KSR is paralleling the rise of Christianity in Kyushu in the 16th and 17th centuries of our world with a comparable flowering of Islam. Whether the “southernmost islands” refers to Kyushu and its satellites or to the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa; annexed by Japan in our world) is not clear.

373 a fort protecting a long peninsula : This is probably the Noto peninsula in present-day Ishikawa prefecture.

374 legendary fifty-three ronin : In reality, there is a legendary story of forty-seven ronin who, after their master had been insulted by another official and forced to commit suicide, avenged him by killing the official after lulling him into complacency by living lives of debauchery instead of honorable suicide. After their revenge, of course, they themselves were forced to commit seppuku, and their story has been acted and filmed dozens of times. The real incident occurred in 1702-1704, and the number may not be too divergent from reality, as there in fact may have been additional ronin who didn’t participate in the murder.

374 Turtle Island : The name for the North American continent in a Native American mythology. I’m not sure which tribe, though.

383 shaman tobacco : Could be peyote.

383 Sakura : 桜 A traditional Japanese song about cherry blossoms. It’s a bit too slow-paced to dance to.

384 Daganoweda : One of the original founders of the Iroquois League, along with Hiawatha (a man) and Jingosaseh (a woman). His name has many alternative spellings, including Daganaweda and Dakahnawida. It’s not clear at all when the league was founded, though it seems to have been after a solar eclipse, and various explanations give it as 1142, 1090, and 1451. In any case, it’s surely earlier than when KSR has it happening, which would be somewhat after Kheim’s fleet reaches North America in 1620.

Quotes

• (p.385: Fromwest’s view of history as ‘nameless actions of nameless people’)

Widow Kang is Book 6 of the novel The Years Of Rice And Salt.

Summary

Widow Kang Tongbi feels a deep connection with wandering Buddhist monk Bao Ssu; when her son Shih falls victim to soul theft, Bao is unjustly accused and tortured to death, and Kang is sleepwalking.

Ibrahim ibn Hasam, Muslim schloar, comes to investigate. A deep bond is created between Ibrahim and Kang. Together they go through hypnotism sessions that allow them to remember their past lives together.

Ibrahim and Kang marry and move to the western border of China. They influence each other’s writings: Ibrahim writes on history and a treatise that tries to reconcile Islam and Confucianism; Kang teaches him about Buddhism and writes poetry. Civil unrest leads Muslim sects fighting with each other. The Muslim threat coupled with the Han rebellion against the Manchu rulers becomes an endless insurrection and war.

Ibrahim and Kang grow old together, writing and writing. Ibrahim’s last work is a history pleading for equality and social change.

World history

c.1776-?

Characters

• B : Bao Ssu, Buddhist monk, accused of soul theft, tortured and killed
• K : Kang Tongbi, widow, then married Ibrahim; poet and thinker on Confucianism and Buddhism
• I : Ibrahim ibn Hasam al-Lanzhou, Muslim scholar, thinker on Islam and Confucianism
• S : Shih, Kang’s lazy son
• P : Pao, Kang’s head servant
• Z : Zunli, Kang’s servant

Thesaurus & Encyclopaedia

Based on the Trivia and Study Guide compiled by Mark Rosa in 2004. Page numbers from the US paperback edition.

397 Kang Tongbi : Kang is probably 康, which means “health”, and her name may have been inspired by Chinese feminist author Kang Tong-wei 康同薇, daughter of Kang Youwei. The third character would be pronounced “bi” in Japanese.

397 wei-wang-ren : 未亡人 Indeed “not-yet dead person”; refers to someone whose spouse has died. In Japanese, mibojin.

397 Qianlong emperor : 乾隆; (1711-1799, ruled 1735-1796) was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor.

398 Guanyin Bodhisattva : 観音 (菩薩) A bodhisattva of compassion and kindness; called Kannon or Kwannon in Japan. One version of his/her story (this bodhisattva contains both sexes) is as given on pages 399-400. Note that Guanyin appears in the Journey to the West mentioned in the introduction.

401 Bao Ssu, fourth son : “Ssu” 四 is the number four. It is unclear why B, having accomplished so much in his last life, is punished so harshly this time in comparison to K and I, who participated equally in the shenanigans in the bardo.

402 Ge Hong : Chinese philosopher (AD 283-343) who preached the importance of morality and rational thought while searching for ways for humans to attain immortality by nourishing their qi.

408 Zunli : 尊理 in Chinese; characters meaning “respect” and “reason”.

412 hui-hui (or hui) : word used for Chinese Muslims. See Book I, note p.33.

419 in challa… um mana pada hum : Kang, unfamiliar with Arabic and Tibetan, is mis-hearing “insh’allah” and “om mane padme hum”.

419 “the little goddess died despite all” : Here Kang is remembering her previous life as Kheim, where he and his expedition were unable to save Butterfly’s life on their return to China from Inka.

433 square fathom : 方丈 This is the meaning of the Chinese “Fangzhang”.

434 Lanzhou : 蘭州 A city of close to 2.5 million in Gansu province, in China. This character “zhou” means “state” and is different from the one in Yingzhou, etc., which has the connotation of “island”. The “lan” character means “orchid”.

445 Dogen (1200-1253) : A Japanese monk, often called Dogen Zenji (道元禅師, Zen master Dogen). He studied at Hiei-zan on the Kyoto-Shiga border for several years before going to China in 1524, and then establishing his own monastery, Eiheiji, in present-day Fukui. The full quote from his Gabyo is as follows : “If there is no painted rice-cake, there is no remedy to satisfy hunger. Without painted hunger you can never become a true person. There is no understanding other than painted satisfaction. Furthermore, satisfying hunger, satisfying no-hunger, not satisfying hunger, and not satisfying no-hunger can be neither attained nor expressed without painted hunger.”

446 Wang Daiyu : A Chinese scholar of Islam. He wrote the Zhengjiao Zhenquan (Righteous Commentary on True Religion) during the 13th century.

446 ren, yi, li : In Chinese these are 仁、義、禮. Confucius’ three major precepts.

446 Tiando, rendao : 天道、人道 There’s probably a typographical error here, as “tiando” should be “tiandao” in Chinese.

447 the prophet Nanak : (1469-1539) Founder of the Sikh faith. He traveled widely in India, Tibet, and the Middle East.

455 Dong Zhongshu : (c. 179-104 BC) His philosophical work Chunqiu fanlu 春秋豊露 is what is referred to in the novel.

455 Kang Yuwei : 康有薇; Also romanized as Kang Youwei (1858-1927). Does indeed speak of the Three Ages in his Commentary on the Evolution of Rites, and attempts to reconcile Western social history with Confucian descriptions of “the age of universal peace”, “the age of approaching peace” and “the age of disorder”. Kang Tongwei is his daughter. Note that in the real world, he lived and wrote far too late for Ibrahim, who writes around 1800, to have read him. (This is where KSR gnashes his teeth and mutters, “how did they find that!?”)

467 Guanyin, She Who Hears Cries : This is the literal meaning of the characters in “Guanyin” (観音).

470 “Wealth and the Four Great Inequalities” : Ibrahim’s entire body of work can be seen as a Sino-Muslim version of the works of historians, political economists and sociologists Georg Hegel and Karl Marx.

Quotes

• (p.455-456: Ibrahim’s extract on cyclic nature of history and linear progress of Islam)
• (p.456-457: Kang’s extract on religion in cultures)
• (p.463-464: Ibrahim’s extract on history as collision of civilizations)
• (p.470-475: Ibrahim’s “Wealth and the Four Great Inequalities” on the history of the world, pamphlet for social change)

The Age Of Great Progress is Book 7 of the novel The Years Of Rice And Salt.

Summary

Thanks to his contact Bhakta, a Buddhist abbess and doctor, Ismail, a muslim doctor, escapes the fall of Konstantiniyye to the hands of the emerging Travancori alliance. Ismail is brought to Travancore and he is impressed by the advanced technology there. Travancore encourages scientific knowledge; Buddhist temples become houses of science and Ismail is invited to contribute. The alliance is lead by the visionary Kerala, who successfully reunited the Indian states and now dreams of a world united in peace. Travancore is the place where ambassadors of countries from all over the world meet.

---

Years later, Ismail acts as an emissary for Travancore. He contacts the Japanese underground in Yingzhou; the Japanese, all uprooted from their homeland, plan to strike back against the Chinese, and Travancore supports this in various alliances against the two superpowers of China and Islam. A Japanese boy, Kiyoaki, ex-slave of the Chinese liberated by the Great Flood of Yingzhou with the pregnant Chinese girl Peng-ti, joins the resistance; Peng-ti joins the Japanese as well.

Inevitably, events between China and Islam culminate to a global war, the Long War.

World history

c.1829-1864

Characters

First incarnation

• B : Bhakta, buddhist abbess of the hospital of Travancore
• K : the Kerala of Travancore
• I : Ismail ibn Mani al-Dir, the Sultan’s doctor
• S : Selim the Third, Ottoman Sultan Caliph at Konstantiniyye

Second incarnation

• B : Hu Die (Butterfly), future child of Peng-ti
• K : Kiyoaki, Japanese boy
• I : Ismail ibn Mani al-Dir, Travancori ambassador
• P : Peng-ti: pregnant Chinese girl

Thesaurus & Encyclopaedia

Based on the Trivia and Study Guide compiled by Mark Rosa in 2004. Page numbers from the US paperback edition.

479 Selim III : There really was a sultan by this name (ruled 1789 to 1807), a reformist who defended the city from the British in 1807, but given the fact that a ruler’s name may be ceremonial, and given the extreme difference in personality, we might conclude that this Selim is not the one from our world.

479 Konstantiniyye : This is the Turkish pronunciation of the city called Constantinople in English; the city was once Byzantium and is now known as Istanbul.

481 Kerala : A state in western India, which contains Travancore. Trade has supposedly been conducted there for over three millennia.

489 Trebizond : An empire descended from a Greek colony, located on the southeast coast of the Black Sea. Constantinople was attacked during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and the Empire of Trebizond was an independent successor state before being incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1400s.

497 the Master of Henly : Walter of Henley wrote a treatise on husbandry and farming during the 1270s (“Le Dite de Hosebondrie”). Originally in French and translated into English by Elizabeth Lamond in 1890, the document is in the public domain and can be seen here.

499 Galen : (AD 131-201) A doctor in Greece and Rome, serving under Marcus Aurelius. One of the first modern experimental anatomists.

501 “about year 390 in Islam, [they] dissected forty-six rebels” : I’m unable to find evidence of this, but an important anatomical book 存真圖 was published in China around this time. This would be around the year AD 1000.

503 Peng Roshi : Roshi 老師 is a Japanese word for “elder”/”master”. Peng 彭 is not a Japanese name, so one can presume that this previous lama had a Chinese surname because of China’s conquest of Japan (see p. 496).

516 Wasco : His name could refer to the Floating Bridge at the Finger Lakes in New York; see the note for page 359.

517 Long Island : An island extending to the east from New York City; Brooklyn and Queens are at its western end.

523 Xianfeng Emperor : 咸豐 Reigned 1850-1861, making his twelfth year his last.

523 Gold Mountain : 金山 Chinese name given to California and British Columbia after the discovery of gold and the subsequent gold rush of the 19th century AD.

523 “it never stopped raining until…” : There was indeed a devastating flood in California (though in our world, it was further south) in the 1861-62 winter. More here.

523 Peng-lai Islands : The third mythical island, along with Yingzhou and Fangzhang. In 1061, a real Penglai Pavilion was built in Shandong Province, and it is said to be the home of the gods.

524 Yung Cheng dynasty : (Spelled “Yongzheng” in Pinyin) More properly the Yung Cheng emperor’s reign; emperor of China from 1722 to 1735.

524 nisei, sansei : 二世、三世 Second and third-generation immigrants from Japan.

525 Kiyoaki : 清明 Means “pure and bright” in Japanese

533 Gen : Probably 元, meaning “origin”.

535 Tagomi-san : This isn’t a normal Japanese surname (perhaps 田込 in Japanese kanji), though Gomi (“five flavors”) is, and many names contain “ta” (“rice field”), so it sounds plausible enough. It’s probably a homage to the character of the same name in Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle”.

546 Transoxiana : An archaic word for central Asia.

546 twenty-first year of the Kuang Hsu emperor : This would be 1891; the Guangxu (Pinyin romanization; Chinese 光緒) Emperor began his rule in 1871.

Quotes

• (p.480: weighting of a soul)
• (p.508-511: The Kerala’s history of India)
• “We will go out into the world and plant gardens and orchards to the horizons, we will build roads through the mountains and across the deserts, and terrace the mountains and irrigate the deserts until there will be garden everywhere, and plenty for all, and there will be no more empires or kingdoms, no more caliphs, sultans, emirs, khans, or zamindars, no more kings or queens or princes, no more quadis or mullahs or ulema, no more slavery and no more usury, no more property and no more taxes, no more rich and no more poor, no killing or maiming or torture or execution, no more jailers and no more prisoners, no more generals, soldiers, armies or navies, no more patriarchy, no more caste, no more hunger, no more suffering than what life brings us for being born and having to die, and then we will see for the first time what kind of creatures we really are.” (The Kerala, p.522)
• (p.544-547: world politics leading to the Long War)(p.455-456: Ibrahim’s extract on cyclic nature of history and linear progress of Islam)

War Of The Asuras is Book 8 of the novel The Years Of Rice And Salt.

Summary

Kuo, Bai and Iwa are officers in the Chinese army during the Long War. They are friends and discuss everything against the crazy backdrop of an endless war; campaigns pass by and life becomes a blur. A bomb kills Kuo; Bai and Iwa start doubting whether they are in the real world or a war-ravaged bardo, war having conquered all. They move through China, Tibet, down to India where they join forces with various Indians against the Muslims. At the site of a destroyed Bodhi Tree, Kuo appears to Bai, full of sorrow for how bad things have turned out despite (or because of) his actions in past lives.

World history

c.1955-1956

Characters

• B : Bai, officer in the Chinese Army
• K : Kuo, Major in the Chinese Army
• I : Iwa, officer in the Chinese Army

Thesaurus & Encyclopaedia

Based on the Trivia and Study Guide compiled by Mark Rosa in 2004. Page numbers from the US paperback edition.

552 Kuo, Bai, Iwa : Kuo 郭 is the most common; Bai 白 means “white” or 柏 “oak tree”, and Iwa 岩 is a Japanese reading of the character for “rock”. Iwa by itself is a rare name in Japan in our world, though it’s often combined with other things as in “Iwata” (rock field), “Iwase” (rock shallows), etc., perhaps we can imagine Japanese people taking Chinese-style surnames when China conquered Japan in KSR’s universe. The majority of Japanese lacked surnames until the 1800s in our world. (Keep in mind also that there are very few Chinese names that begin with I. Until now, KSR has been using given names when he needs a Chinese “I”.)

553 water zero degrees : Presumably the Chinese have developed a temperature scale in which water’s freezing point is zero, as it is in the Celsius scale.

553 qisphere : The novel uses qi (Chinese 気; pronounced “ki” in Japanese) to mean electricity. The qisphere is the medium which allows radio communication, the atmosphere or stratosphere.

559 Peng-zu : The same Peng-zu who supposedly lived eight hundred years, described by I-Chin to Butterfly in the Ocean Continents chapter.

565 Chomolungma : The Tibetan name for what we call Mount Everest, which at 8848 meters (29,030 feet) is the tallest mountain in the world.

565 second tallest, which is a peak in Afghanistan : This is K2, 8611 metres (28,251 ft) tall. It is currently on the border between China and Pakistan (Afghanistan lies further east).

566 Nangpa La : A pass through the Himalayas, near Cho Oyu (see below).

568 Cho Oyu : Another huge mountain in the Himalayas; 8201 meters (26,906 feet) tall. Also spelled Cho Oyo.

569 Dudh Kosi : A river in the Himalayas.

577 Bodhi Tree : The tree where the first Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was enlightened around 600 BC. It has been damaged and burned many times, but its descendants live on as saplings were taken to Sri Lanka in the third century BC (Anuradhapura), and later brought back to Bodh Gaya, where it stands today. Much earlier, Bold and Kyu visit Lanka and talk about this tree (p. 38).

Quotes

• (p.573-574: Bai wonders what do they fight for)
• (p.578-580: Kuo visits Bai again, guns as source of endless trouble)