RMCF's reference page

 

Reference page

Since our lovely RMCF novel is set in ancient times, there’s lots of phrases and systems that may not be familiar to a modern person’s world. 

I decided to put together all the notes and information scattered throughout the novel, and make this reference page for myself and the readers who’d like to refresh their memory.

 *I will be updating this page throughout 

Titles:

*fulang — husband, referring to a married ger

*Er — Second 

*Shi — a term following the surname, added while calling a married woman by her maiden surname for distinction

In Chinese culture, when women marry, they usually don’t take on their husbands name. Since they are marrying into the family, the whole household is referred to by the husband’s surname; so you can address them by Madam + her husband’s surname, or her maiden surname + Shi

*Xiucai (秀才) — scholar, a person who has passed county level exam; before he was called Tongsheng (童生) - scholar, but a candidate who hasn’t passed the county level exam yet

Since the title doesn’t necessarily play a big role in the context of the story, I’ll keep the address as Scholar Fei and whenever the title itself makes a difference: Xiucai (I might go back and change this if I find the distinction necessary later)

* Tanhua ( 探花 ) — candidate who came third in the Hanlin examination (which is the last of all examinations to become an official, also we finally know the county town’s name lol)

Timekeeping:

*shichen - two hours

*a time it takes for a stick of incense to burn - about half an hour

 

Units of measurement:

*jin 斤 — traditional unit of weight, 500g / 0.5kg, 1 jin equivalent 10 liang (teals) or 100 qian, for further reference;...

1 jin = half a kilogram

1 jin = 10 liang = 100 qian

*as for currency: most common unit is a copper coin or wen, round with a square hole (that’s how they can be stringed together), 1.000 coins equals 1 teal of silver, the same as the unit for weight — so ‘teal’ for silver and ‘liang’ when referring to weight

1 teal of silver = 1.000 wen

1 suan = 120 wen = 1 string