I got curious about this question from a series of novels, but since it’s a factual-historical question I thought it would fit better in GQ than Cafe Society.
British author David Wingrove has written a series of eight science-fiction novels (I’ve read the first seven) called “Chung Kuo,” set in a future in which traditional, Confucian Chinese civilization has re-emerged and conquered the entire world. The world is divided into seven regions called “cities” (and each is a city, a 100-storey arcology covering the bulk of a continent). Each city is ruled by a hereditary “t’ang,” who is surrounded with what appear to be the ancient, traditional trappings of Chinese monarchy.
So, my question is, what is a “t’ang”? Wingrove defined a lot of Mandarin terms in back-of-the-book glossaries, but not this one. I would assume it means emperor. But I’m pretty sure that in Mandarin, “huang ti” means emperor, and “wang” means king or duke. So what is a “t’ang”?
Also, does anyone happen to know: I’ve read that the title “huang ti” (which can be translated loosely as “august sovereign” or “divine autocrat”) was invented by the First Emperor, King Cheng of Ch’in. Is that true? Was it never in use before his time? What titles were used earlier, by the legendary Yellow Emperor, Yao and Shun, and the Hsia, Shang and Zhou rulers?
Chung-Kuo, just in case you didn’t know, originally meant ‘principalities of the centre’ and was a feature of early Chou ( Zhou ) territorial organization, referring to their core provinces. Later it came to be applied to China generally.
I’ll bump this and invoke China Guy for this, since he actually speaks Mandarin.
The only think I can tell you is that it was the name of a particularly prominent and actively expansionist dynasty in the 7th-10th centuries C.E… However it also appears as a name or title separate from this, I believe.
Dunno if he invented it, but posterity does indeed seem to have labeled him as Shih Huang Ti ( ‘First Emperor’ ), so I assume no one claimed such a mandate ( or it at least wasn’t acknowledged ) earlier.
Can’t say for most, but for the Chou( Zhou ) it was T’ien-tzu, meaning ‘Son of Heaven’.
Haven’t read the “novel” in question, but lump it into that group of authors that probably doesn’t know much about China or Chinese history. i could be wrong but that’s the impression I got perusing it a few times in airport bookstores.
I prefer to use pinyin, which is the romanization system used in China and I’ve heard even now in Taiwan. It’s tough enough trying to match a romanized character without multiple romanization systems.
“Huangdi” means emperor. I believe Tamerlane is correct in that “qinshi huangdi” was the first emperor of the Qin dynasty. That’s the dude buried in with the terra cotta army.
As for “t’ang” aka “tang” if I remember by Wade-Giles correctly where the apostrophe stands as an aspiration mark, I haven’t the foggiest. Looked it up in my trusty pocket dictionary and there is no “tang” entry even close.
Now, if I screwed up or the auther screwed up “t’ang” may mean “dang” at which point the likely candidate would be “gang, group, faction, clique, political party.” Like the “Si ren bang” or gang of four or the “gongchangdang” or communist party.
Chinese tradition calls 8 legendary rulers san1 huang2 wu3 di, ie the three huangs and 5 dis (both titles are used for sovereigns; huang2 has connotations of greatness, di4 is a term for kings, even deities). Anyway, the san1 huang2 are: Fuxi, Suiren, Shen Nong, among which Fuxi apparently started using knots to record events, Suiren invented the use of fire and Shen Nong started farming. The wu3 di4 are: Huang Di, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao of Tang, Shun of Yu.
When King Zheng of Qin unified China he wanted to give himself a title grander than “Di”, “Huang” or “Wang2” (king, used by the kings of Zhou and probably Xia and Shang). The egoist in him decided to combine the titles “di” and “huang” into “huangdi”.
A cursory browse of my dictionary gives no character bearing similarity to the “t’ang” mentioned in the book. I have this feeling that the author just made it up.
But as China guy said without being given the tome of the word, there’s no way to know that it means…
Im very familar with Pin Yin but…
without the tone Tang can mean any thing
Heres a list of words that the sound Tang could mean…
** Tāng **
To wade, soup
** Táng **
Tang Dynasty, candy, sugar
** Tăng **
To lay down
** Tàng **
To scald, to burn, hot
I could be Dăng which means any sort of political party…