rivers and lakes / all corners of the country / remote areas to which hermits retreat / section of society operating independently of mainstream society, out of reach of the law / the milieu in which wuxia tales play out (cf. 武俠|武侠[wu3xia2]) / (in late imperial times) world of traveling merchants, itinerant doctors, fortune tellers etc / demimonde / (in modern times) triads / secret gangster societies / underworld
lit. to mend the pen after sheep are lost (idiom) / fig. to act belatedly / better late than never / to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted
to instruct the young / to initiate / to awake sb from ignorance / to free sb from prejudice or superstition / primer / enlightened / the Enlightenment / Western learning from the late Qing dynasty
Buddha (term of respect for Sakyamuni 釋迦牟尼|释迦牟尼[Shi4 jia1 mou2 ni2]) / His Holiness (refers to a Buddhist grandee) / Buddha / God / emperor / in late Qing court, refers exclusively to Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧太后[Ci2 xi3 tai4 hou4]
lit. looking for a fine horse using only a picture (idiom) / fig. to do things along rigid, conventional lines / to try and find sth with the help of a clue
good action, deed, thing or work (also sarcastic, "a fine thing indeed") / charity / happy occasion / Daoist or Buddhist ceremony for the souls of the dead
special administrative region (SAR), of which there are two in the PRC: Hong Kong 香港 and Macau 澳門|澳门 / refers to many different areas during late Qing, foreign occupation, warlord period and Nationalist government / refers to special zones in North Korea and Indonesia
The four tones
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