Glossary / The Mortal World
The Mortal World in Chinese: 159 Terms and Their English Renderings
The world below the sects: towns, officials, inns, merchants, ordinary people.
159 terms
| Chinese | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 凡人 | Mortal | Someone who cannot cultivate at all. Used as a class label more often than a description. |
| 凡间 | Mortal World | The ordinary world. The starting map, and the place cultivators look down on. |
| 世俗 | Secular World | The ordinary social world: family, money, reputation. What a cultivator is supposed to leave behind. |
| 江湖 | Jianghu | The world of wandering fighters and private grudges, outside official law. Untranslatable; keep the pinyin. |
| 武林 | Martial World | The community of ordinary martial artists, as opposed to cultivators. One tier below the real thing. |
| 朝廷 | Imperial Court | The government of a mortal kingdom. Powerful here, irrelevant two realms up. |
| 官府 | Officials | The state apparatus. Usually corrupt in these stories, and usually bribed. |
| 侠客 | Swordsman | A wandering fighter who lives by a personal code. Admired in the mortal world, ignored by cultivators. |
| 城池 | City | A walled town. The unit of mortal geography, and of sieges. |
| 客栈 | Inn | Where travellers stay and information changes hands. Every plot stops at one eventually. |
| 衙门 | Yamen | The magistrate's office in the mortal world. Irrelevant to cultivators, until the day it is not. |
| 捕快 | Constable | Mortal law enforcement. Brave, underpaid, and completely out of their depth. |
| 镖局 | Escort Agency | A mortal company that moves goods with armed guards. The usual cover for cultivators travelling quietly. |
| 店小二 | Waiter | The inn servant who sees everything and remembers who paid him. A cheap source of rumours. |
| 打尖 | Rest Stop | To stop and eat on the road, not to stay the night. What a driver calls a short halt. |
| 赶路 | On the Road | Travelling hard without pause. Said of anyone in a hurry and unwilling to explain why. |
| 盘缠 | Travel Funds | Money set aside for a journey. Running out of it is how mortals get stranded. |
| 路引 | Travel Permit | The pass a commoner needs to cross a checkpoint. Cultivators usually just fly over. |
| 关卡 | Checkpoint | A guarded barrier on the road. Where identity papers and bribes both get used. |
| 渡口 | Ferry Crossing | A river landing with boats for hire. Quiet places where people disappear. |
| 驿道 | Post Road | The main government road between cities. Wide, patrolled, and boring. |
| 官道 | Imperial Highway | The official road. Safe by day, watched at all hours. |
| 荒野 | Wilderness | Land outside the reach of any magistrate. Anything can happen and no one records it. |
| 穷乡僻壤 | Backwater | A poor, remote place with no news and no cultivators. Used to mean the end of the world. |
| 集市 | Market Square | The town market. Where rumours cost less than a copper coin. |
| 摊位 | Stall | A single vendor's table. Where fake talismans and real bargains are sold side by side. |
| 当铺 | Pawnshop | Where a desperate man trades his heirloom. The pawnbroker always knows what it is worth. |
| 钱庄 | Money House | The old bank. Holds deposits, issues notes, and asks no questions for a fee. |
| 银票 | Silver Note | Paper money backed by a money house. Easier to carry than silver and easier to steal. |
| 铜钱 | Copper Coin | The smallest unit of mortal money. Cupped in the palm, counted twice. |
| 锭 | Ingot | A cast block of silver or gold. The shape itself says how much it is worth. |
| 碎银 | Silver Bits | Silver cut into small pieces for daily purchases. Weighed, not counted. |
| 地契 | Deed | The document that proves land ownership. Burn it and the land changes hands. |
| 房契 | Title Deed | Proof of owning a house. What a family sells last. |
| 卖身契 | Bond of Sale | A contract selling a person into servitude. In this genre, always a plot device. |
| 欠条 | IOU | A written promise to pay. Useful leverage, and dangerous to lose. |
| 账房 | Bookkeeper | The man who keeps the ledger. Quietly the second most powerful person in any household. |
| 掌柜 | Shopkeeper | The proprietor. Polite to his face, ruthless behind the counter. |
| 伙计 | Shop Hand | A hired worker in a shop or inn. Sees customers come and go. |
| 镖师 | Escort Guard | The martial artist hired to protect a shipment. Usually a failed cultivator. |
| 走镖 | Run an Escort | To take a guarded shipment on the road. Long, dull, and occasionally lethal. |
| 劫镖 | Ambush the Escort | To attack a guarded shipment. The fastest way for a nobody to become a somebody. |
| 山贼 | Bandit | A highway robber. Weak individually, dangerous in numbers. |
| 匪首 | Bandit Chief | The leader of a gang. Usually has a grudge and a nickname. |
| 响马 | Raider | Mounted bandits who strike fast and vanish. Feared on the northern roads. |
| 黑店 | Den | An inn that robs or kills its guests. The lantern is always lit and the price always low. |
| 蒙汗药 | Sleeping Drug | Knockout powder slipped into wine. The oldest trick in the mortal world. |
| 人贩子 | Slaver | Someone who trades in people. Despised even by bandits. |
| 赌坊 | Gambling House | Where fortunes change hands nightly. Owned by someone you do not want to owe. |
| 青楼 | Brothel | The entertainment house of the old city. Also where secrets are sold. |
| 花魁 | Courtesan | The most sought-after performer in a brothel. Often sharper than her clients. |
| 梨园 | Theatre Troupe | Travelling performers. They go everywhere and are welcomed everywhere. |
| 说书人 | Storyteller | The man in the teahouse who narrates legends. Half of what the world believes starts here. |
| 茶馆 | Teahouse | Where news is traded before it is printed. Cheaper than an inn, louder than a market. |
| 酒肆 | Wineshop | A place to drink and talk too much. Every rumour has a table here. |
| 酒楼 | Tavern | A larger drinking house with private rooms upstairs. Where deals are struck. |
| 雅间 | Private Room | A curtained room upstairs. What people pay for is not the food. |
| 县衙 | County Office | The lowest seat of imperial authority. Corrupt, slow, and everywhere. |
| 知府 | Prefect | The official in charge of a prefecture. Pompous to inferiors, terrified of superiors. |
| 县令 | Magistrate | The county judge. Holds power of life and death over ordinary people. |
| 钦差 | Imperial Envoy | An official sent directly by the emperor. Everyone kneels and no one relaxes. |
| 告示 | Notice | A public proclamation pasted on a wall. The cheapest way to spread news. |
| 通缉 | Wanted | An official search for a criminal. The portrait never looks like anyone. |
| 海捕文书 | Wanted Notice | The formal document ordering an arrest anywhere in the empire. |
| 缉拿 | Apprehend | To hunt down and seize a wanted person. Official word, usually unofficial methods. |
| 流放 | Exile | Banishment to the frontier. A slow death sentence with paperwork. |
| 牢狱 | Prison | The county gaol. Dirty, crowded, and easy to leave if you have money. |
| 枷锁 | Cangue | The wooden collar locked around a prisoner's neck. Heavy, and public by design. |
| 刑场 | Execution Ground | Where sentences are carried out in front of a crowd. Always at noon. |
| 株连 | Kin Punishment | Punishing a criminal's whole family. The reason people hide their surnames. |
| 抄家 | Confiscation | Seizing a family's entire property. What happens after the guilty verdict. |
| 血案 | Blood Case | A murder case with bodies. The word itself implies more than one. |
| 悬案 | Unsolved Case | A case nobody could close. Files rot, but the families do not forget. |
| 冤案 | Miscarriage | A wrongful conviction. The wronged party always comes back. |
| 申冤 | Seek Redress | To demand justice for a wrong. Usually begins at the bottom and ends at the top. |
| 击鼓鸣冤 | Beat the Drum | Striking the drum outside the yamen to demand a hearing. Loud, public, and dangerous. |
| 状纸 | Petition | The written complaint filed with a magistrate. The format matters as much as the facts. |
| 判词 | Verdict | The magistrate's written ruling. One line can end a family. |
| 画押 | Fingerprint | The thumbprint that makes a confession or contract binding. |
| 口供 | Testimony | A statement taken from a suspect. Often written before it is given. |
| 招供 | Confess | To admit guilt under interrogation. What the magistrate wanted to hear. |
| 屈打成招 | Extracted Confession | A confession beaten out of an innocent person. The standard miscarriage of justice. |
| 大赦 | Amnesty | A general pardon issued by the throne. Erases sentences, not memories. |
| 乡绅 | Gentry | The local landowner who speaks for the village. Not an official, but treated like one. |
| 族长 | Clan Head | The eldest authority in a family clan. His word is law inside the walls. |
| 族谱 | Clan Register | The record of a family's lineage. Being struck from it is a kind of execution. |
| 祠堂 | Ancestral Hall | Where the clan's tablets are kept. Disputes are settled in front of the dead. |
| 牌位 | Memorial Tablet | The wooden tablet bearing a dead person's name. What a family bows to. |
| 祖坟 | Ancestral Grave | The family burial ground. Disturbing it is unforgivable. |
| 风水 | Geomancy | Reading the land for auspicious placement. Taken seriously by mortals and cultivators alike. |
| 算命 | Fortune Telling | Reading a person's fate. The honest ones say less than they know. |
| 卦象 | Hexagram | The pattern cast in divination. Read as a warning, not a schedule. |
| 八字 | Birth Characters | The hour and date of birth used to read a fate. Also used to bind a marriage. |
| 婚书 | Marriage Writ | The contract of a mortal wedding. Signed by both families, not the couple. |
| 聘礼 | Betrothal Gift | What the groom's family sends before a wedding. Its size is the whole conversation. |
| 嫁妆 | Dowry | What the bride's family brings. In this genre, sometimes a hidden treasure. |
| 媒人 | Matchmaker | The go-between for a marriage. Paid by both sides and trusted by neither. |
| 花轿 | Bridal Sedan | The decorated chair that carries a bride to her wedding. Never travels at night. |
| 拜堂 | Bow Ceremony | The three bows that complete a wedding. Heaven, parents, then each other. |
| 洞房 | Bridal Chamber | The wedding night room. The story usually cuts away here. |
| 灵堂 | Funeral Hall | The room where the dead lie in state. Voices drop and grudges surface. |
| 守灵 | Wake | Watching through the night beside the coffin. The last duty of the living. |
| 出殡 | Funeral Procession | Carrying the coffin to the grave. Public, and impossible to hide from. |
| 头七 | Seventh Night | The seventh night after a death, when the spirit is said to return. |
| 吊唁 | Condolence | Paying respects to the bereaved. What enemies do to watch a family's face. |
| 纸钱 | Ghost Money | Paper money burned for the dead. Some of it is real, in the wrong hands. |
| 香火 | Incense | Offerings burned at an altar. Also means a family line that continues. |
| 庙会 | Temple Fair | The market that gathers around a shrine on festival days. Crowded and convenient. |
| 上元节 | Lantern Festival | The lantern night. Crowds, masks, and the best night of the year for an ambush. |
| 乞巧节 | Weaver Festival | The seventh-night festival for young women. Wishes written and floated. |
| 年关 | Year End | The last days before the new year. Debts are collected now, not later. |
| 守岁 | Night Watch | Staying awake through the last night of the year. A family custom, not a vigil. |
| 年货 | New Year Goods | Supplies bought for the festival. Running out of money in this season is a disaster. |
| 爆竹 | Firecracker | Burned to drive off evil. Works on spirits, not on cultivators. |
| 春联 | Couplets | The red strips pasted on either side of a door. Words chosen for luck, not beauty. |
| 灯笼 | Lantern | Hangs outside every door at festival. Also the signal that a place is open after dark. |
| 孟婆 | Old Woman of Forgetting | The one who hands out the soup that erases memory before rebirth. |
| 勾魂 | Reap a Soul | To take a life on behalf of the underworld. Invoked as a threat. |
| 还阳 | Return to Life | Coming back from death. In this genre, rarely voluntary. |
| 乡野 | Countryside | Farms, dirt roads and no sect for a hundred li. Where protagonists come from when the book wants humility. |
| 山村 | Mountain Village | A village in the hills. Always has one old woman who knows what a cultivator is. |
| 村庄 | Village | The smallest unit of society. Gets threatened in the first chapter and remembered in the last. |
| 集镇 | Market Town | A town with a market. Where the first bit of information arrives. |
| 太监 | Eunuch | Court official. In this genre, either comic relief or the most dangerous person in the palace. |
| 宫女 | Palace Maid | Serves in the inner court. Sees everything, says nothing, is asked by the protagonist. |
| 诏书 | Imperial Edict | An order from the throne. Obeyed fast, and often forged. |
| 货郎 | Peddler | Sells small goods town to town. The genre's cheapest source of rumour. |
| 茶馆说书 | Tales in the Teahouse | The framing device where the novel's own plot is retold by a stranger. Old technique, still effective. |
| 画舫 | Painted Boat | A boat used for parties on the water. Where deals are made out of earshot of the city. |
| 乞儿 | Beggar Child | Street kid. Ignored by everyone, which makes them the best observers in the book. |
| 乞丐 | Beggar | Adult version. Sometimes an organisation with rules and a leader nobody suspects. |
| 流民 | Refugee | Displaced people. The visible consequence of whichever war the plot has been ignoring. |
| 灾荒 | Famine | Crop failure. The natural explanation for unrest that a villain is exploiting. |
| 瘟疫 | Plague | Disease spreading. In cultivation fiction, either demonic in origin or a cover for one. |
| 土匪 | Brigand | The same, less organised. Occasionally recruited into something worse. |
| 劫匪 | Robber | Anyone who takes things. The word is flexible. |
| 官兵 | Soldiers | State troops. Decent against bandits, helpless against cultivators. |
| 铁匠 | Blacksmith | Works metal. A real source of information about who bought weapons recently. |
| 木匠 | Carpenter | Builds and repairs. Also the person who notices a door that should not exist. |
| 郎中 | Physician | Mortal doctor. Compared to alchemists in every scene that has both. |
| 药铺 | Apothecary | Sells herbs to ordinary people. The place where a poison is traced back to. |
| 医馆 | Clinic | Where a wounded character gets stitched up before reaching a sect. |
| 棺材铺 | Coffin Shop | A shop that appears in every ghost arc, with a proprietor who does not blink. |
| 宗祠 | Clan Shrine | The larger version. Where the clan gathers for decisions and for funerals. |
| 家法 | House Law | Rules inside a family. Enforcement is physical and no one intervenes. |
| 里正 | Village Head | The local official nobody respects and everybody needs. |
| 保长 | Neighbourhood Head | One step above nothing. Collects taxes and reports troublemakers. |
| 驿馆 | Post House | Government lodging for couriers. Faster routes for messages than for people. |
| 驿站 | Relay Station | Where horses are changed. Its distance from a battle tells you how long the news will take. |
| 赶集 | Market Day | The weekly market. Everyone shows up, including whoever is hunting someone. |
| 灯会 | Lantern Fair | Night market with lanterns. Chases through lantern fairs are a genre staple. |
| 庙祝 | Shrine Keeper | Tends a small temple. Usually knows more about the local god than the priests do. |
| 地主 | Landowner | Rents land to tenants. The mortal version of a low-tier sect head. |
| 佃户 | Tenant Farmer | Works land he does not own. The first casualty of any regional conflict. |
| 商队 | Caravan | Goods moving between cities. A travelling cast in miniature. |
| 户籍 | Household Register | Official record of who lives where. A useful way to prove a character does not exist. |
| 城门守卫 | Gate Guard | Checks everyone entering. Bribable, and occasionally genuinely brave. |
| 刑部 | Ministry of Justice | Handles prosecutions. Its authority over cultivators is a recurring argument. |
| 大理寺 | Court of Judicial Review | The high court. Where a case becomes political. |
Mortal-world scenes are where a translated novel either feels like a place or like a list. Terms follow the free cultivation novels at cultivationnovel.com.
Where these words turn up
Stories on this site that use them the way the notes describe.
I Only Swept the Floor, So How Did I Become a Sword Saint?A floor sweeper who turns out to be the only person in the sect who understands a sword.通缉 Three Centuries of Cultivation, Yet the Sect Thought I Had PerishedThree hundred years of practice, and the sect filed the protagonist under dead.牌位Source: cultivationnovel.com · Cultivation Glossary