Shuli Go Stories Vol. 4: A Week's Bliss

Notes 'n Stuff

Welcome once again to the corner of this story reserved for the super-interested and/or super bored. This time we're taking on some of the more temporal elements of the world. I'll also briefly go over the societal aspects of this particular story's main elements: sex and family.

So without further ado, here are the...

Notes from the Central Empire

The Calendar: The Earth on which the Central Empire is located has a four hundred day year. Well, actually it's 400.2 days per year. Just like us, there's a leap year system to keep the sun in check. Also like our own Earth, there's a lunar cycle that runs parallel to the solar movement, and which regulates the months within the solar year. However, unlike our Earth, these two cycles match up almost exactly.

The result is a set of ten months, each with forty days to the month. The months are named as follows:

1.    Zwei
2.    Tai
3.    Fa
4.    Kao
5.    Qui
6.    Lu Qui
7.    Chan
8.    Lei
9.    Aui
10.    Zai

And, since the Imperials were granted such a regular, consistent set of astronomical events by which to measure time, their calendar makes a lot more rational sense that any of the other calendars we've got here on our planet. The last day of Zai is the shortest day of year, while the last day of Qui is the longest. On leap years there is an extra day after Zai 40, called Zero Day, which is a national holiday (of which there are only a few in the course of a regular year), and during which the moon's cycle is set back one day (resulting in two hundred year cycles of moon phases matching up with solar phases). But for the most part this calendar is so logical and consistent it doesn't arbitrarily make up holidays or ascribe religious meaning to the calendar the way most of our religions do.

Each month is broken down into four weeks to match the lunar cycle, which breaks down as follows:

1.    Fading Moon
2.    New Moon
3.    Half Moon
4.    Full Moon

And each week has ten days. Hence this story's title "A Week's Bliss" is spread out over ten days, capturing a bit of the ebbs and flows of life for the vast majority of the Central Empire's people: nine days of work, with one day off a week to relax, recuperate, and perhaps - if they have the money - enjoy a bit of recreation.

The only odd thing about the calendar - and this was mostly decided on by me because I'm lazy - is that there are no days of the week. Instead people use the numbered day of the month to determine "when" in the course of a week they are. Since all weeks start with one and end with a zero, it's again a very logical, straightforward method of keeping track of the days. Other countries sometimes have names for their days - often, like English, named after Gods, rulers, and other historical elements - but the Central Empire uses the numbered days almost as a colonizing tool. When the local populace has given up on named days and adopted numbers, it's a clear marker that they've adapted to the Empire's cultural norms.

Sex (and love I guess): As with most human societies, sex is a bit of a complicated subject in the Central Empire.

On the surface, it resembles most cultures: men and women marry, have sex, and have children, continuing their family lines and providing a core nuclear family unit to protect the children, pass on culture, and establish a legacy. Where the Central Empire differs from most cultures, is that sex is not viewed as the most important central aspect of that family unit.

While filial piety as a concept is integral to the function of the society, who makes up a family is a bit more loose than simple blood or genetics. In a world where the average life expectancy isn't all that long, where wars and other forms of violence are fairly commonplace, and where disease is lurking around every corner, families are a bit more fluid than a rigid interpretation of say, classical Confucianism might indicate.

Adoption is considered a completely normal way of entering a family, and there's almost zero distinction between adopted and non-adopted members of the family. It's also surprisingly common, as a way to show wealth - I've adopted three kids this year, how many have you adopted? - or provide cheap labor for a family farm. While there are strong connections with one's birth parents, an orphan like Zhao Lian won't be ostracized for not knowing her parents: it's simply accepted as part of a larger tapestry of family-hood. For her, the Shuli Go are probably closer to real family than anyone she's genetically related to.

"Why all this talk about family? Isn't this about sex?" you ask. Well, when family origins don't matter as much, sex is a lot less regulated than in most of our societies. If no one cares too much about the biological origins of a child, then there's a lot less impetus to police a woman's sex life. The result is a culture where sex is far less connected to marriage than what we're (traditionally) used to. This is aided by the fact that among the many magics left over by the Empire's historical interactions with demi-gods, a number of tinctures and potions are available that serve as Plan B-esque mixtures. This is a culture a bit ahead of the curve in terms of birth control.

Consequently, sex is much more freely available and expected in comparison to our stereotypical notions of how historical cultures have treated and regulated sex. Lovers come and go - all through one's life - and marriage serves less to constrain someone to a single partner, and more to provide a willing partner with whom sex is a possibility but not always required. A marriage will still provide the basic bedrock of a family unit, and most people are encouraged to wait until marriage to have children - either adopted or through sex - but a marriage is not the only acceptable way to start a family, nor is it the only place one is expected to find sex and love.

Though I'll get into this more in the next story, in the Central Empire there are considered two different kinds of love: a short-term, and a long-term. The short-term one is basically what we'd call lust or infatuation. It's intense, powerful, and based in large part around sexual desire, like this story of Lian and Mei. The other is the kind of love reserved usually for family members: durable, reassuring, almost contemplative. The ideal marriage is a combination of the two loves, but that's up there with dancing unicorns and dragons in terms of myths that your average Imperial citizen are unlikely to ever find.

So that's how sex and family are connected, but attentive readers might wonder if I'm missing something. Specifically how in this story, homosexual relationships are looked at.

To put it simply: everyone in the Central Empire is expected to experience and exhibit at least a bit of bisexuality. Which is not to say that everyone is expected to be bisexual, but a large number of people, even a majority, openly are.

I won't go into quite the level of detail that I just did for marriage, but needless to say there are a lot of interlocking mechanisms that make this relative openness to gay and lesbian relationships work in the society. A brief summary would be: lots of important people in the history of the Empire were LGBQ, the drive towards bisexuality serves a lot of social purposes, children are encouraged to explore sexually, and the aforementioned openness to more casual sex generally, all combine to make the culture quite open.

There's also the matter of the Empire's history as a matriarchal society, which I won't get into in this post because it's already way too long. Oh and I didn't even get into how gender interacts with all this. That could be a whole other post. But let's just say that on the surface at least, the Empire is a bit more strict about gendered markers. Partly because of those strong historical ties to matriarchy. But we can get into that next time...