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Let's have some more Sun Tzu.


I want to think about this passage especially in regard to the Spiritual Warfare we've been discussing.

Three thoughts come to mind:

1. Have you ever tried to engage with angry people on the internet? If so, how did it go? Have you ever told yourself "I'm just going to check the news real quick," and then found yourself an hour later having ingested a dozen different articles on any number of random topics, most of which left you feeling at once angry and powerless?

This is an example of a small force succumbing to a larger force. The Internet is bigger than you are, it is infested with demons, and most of the people on it are possessed or obsessed to one degree or another. 

2. Of course, the Internet isn't the only vector of demonic attack. These days, the astral environment generally is very bad. From what I can tell, it is much worse in the cities than in the countryside. That isn't an absolute rule, though. I've been in rural environments that were positively Lovecraftian in their overall feel. There does seem to be a difference though. Unwholesome places and spirits in the countryside, at least in my experience, feel like dangerous nature spirits. They're like sharks or mountain lions-- when  you're in their territory, you respect them, and try to stay out of their way. The things that travel from mind to mind via the internet feel much worse to me. 

On the other hand, what is the internet but a sub-natural environment held together by the enslavement of natural forces? Perhaps we should expect that its native spirits are of the unsavory kind. 

The point, though, is this: When we are on the enemy's ground, we are weak and outnumbered. But the same is true in reverse. Our first object in the Spiritual War should be to reconquer our own minds and our immediate psychic environment. And here there is a great deal that we can do, as we've discussed before. 

3. Ultimately, what we want to do is to outnumber the enemy. We can do this in a few ways. If we learn to master our own mind, and if we spend our mental energy on devotion, charitable work, and self-development-- the gods, the other, the self, to say it another way-- then we will, in time, be able to overwhelm the Enemy Within. Our immediate environments can also be reconquered with a bit of effort. Pick up the clutter in your room, vacuum the floor, and place some purifying herbs in a simmer pot on the stove, and the astral environment in your home will improve markedly.

There is much, though, that we simply cannot do. Many of our fellow citizens are something close to insane. Confront them, and you won't win-- the madness will spread to you. The only thing to do is to avoid them. "If unequal in every way, we can flee." 

Ultimately, as I wrote yesterday, we need to go beyond our own minds and personal spaces and network with others. Only in this way will we come to outnumber the Enemy-- at least some of the time.

More on this as we go along.

A brief note from Epictetus, on facing hard times:

 I want to talk a little more about walled cities. Sun Tzu says,


I call this the "Don't attack Minas Tirith" rule.

On the off chance that anyone doesn't know what that refers to, let me explain.

In the Lord of the Rings, Minas Tirith is the capital city of the human kingdom of Gondor. It's a beautiful, ancient city, and it's the supreme symbol of resistance to the Dark Lord, Sauron. For that reason, Sauron wants to destroy it. The only trouble is that Minas Tirith is also a nearly impregnable fortress. It's carved out of a mountainside and defended by seven rings of walls. Nevertheless, Sauron decides, as his opening move in the War of the Ring, to launch an enormous frontal assault on Minas Tirith. Of course, the defenders are able to hold out just long enough for reinforcements to arrived, and in the end Sauron's armies are caught between a cavalry force arriving from the west and an army of defenders arriving from the south and destroyed.

Gandalf and Aragorn, the leaders of the good guys, have clearly read Sun Tzu; Sauron has not. In Catholic moral theology, sin and evil are said to make you stupid, and maybe that's what Tolkien was thinking. Either way, let's talk about what this means for us.

First, why does Sauron want Minas Tirith? His armies are made up of orcs and trolls, who live in caves; Nazgul, who are dead; and allies from the East and South, who have their own homelands. It's not clear that any of them would need or want to live in the city of Minas Tirith in the first place. The appeal of Minas Tirith is entirely symbolic. To its defenders, it symbolizes hope and resistance; to Sauron, his past failures. So what it comes down to is: Sauron wants it because everyone else wants it. 

Second, if he does want Minas Tirith, what does he gain from attacking it head on? His armies greatly outnumber those of his foes. He could have left a small force to keep the Gondormen bottled up in their city while the rest of his armies conquered the rest of the country. At that point all he would have to do is wait. Eventually the defenders would give up Minas Tirith voluntarily.

Now I'd like to suggest that this example can be applied to almost any situation.

Let's say you want a romantic partner. Well, who do you want?

"This girl, who looks like my favorite movie actress, is the only one who will do."

Are you sure? 

"Yes. Out of all four billion women in the world, she is the only one for me; without her, I will die. Therefore I mean to ply her with entreaties, gifts and favors, in the hope that she will maybe some day finally take an interest in me. Maybe when she breaks up with that jerk she's always dating. Or maybe if she's drunk."

A lot of young men take this approach to dating. Of course, this approach always fails. Most guys eventually figure out that this isn't the way. Apparently, though, some never do, and there is a whole internet subculture of young men who call themselves "incels," for "involuntarily celibate." A lot of them then spend their time lashing out at women, modern culture, and everything in between-- anything to avoid taking responsibility for their own failures. 

The problem, of course, is that they opened by attacking Minas Tirith. 

If you decide that one, and only one, girl (or guy) is the one for you, you are setting yourself up for failure. And this is doubly, triply, quintuply true if the Only One For You just happens to be the type that everyone else wants, too. 

If you really want a partner, then, there are two things to do.

First, be clear to yourself about what you actually want. Do you really want someone who looks like the women in the movies, or is that just what you've been told to want? I think for a lot of people it's the latter. Certainly that's true in my case. I've been with a lot of different types of women and I've found that the skinny, featureless ones simply do not appeal to me in any way. While I'm not a fan of the Rubenesque, I'll take Boticelli's Venus over Emaciated Hollywood Starlet any day of the week. 

So clarifying what you want is extremely important-- as we keep saying.

But what if it turns out you do like the conventionally attractive? What if your ideal of feminine beauty is Scarlet Johannsen, and you quite simply can't get turned on by anything else? Is all lost?

Of course not.

The thing is, at the end of the day, every country has its capital city, even if it's not as heavily defended as Minas Tirith. Whatever person you do want to be with, whatever they look like, is Minas Tirith for you. 

And the easiest way to take the capital city is still to get the defenders to surrender it voluntarily. Instead of pursuing the object of your affection, get her (or him) to pursue you.

How do you do that?

By working on yourself. If a young man came to me for dating advice, I'd recommend the following:

1. Take up some form of spiritual practice. I don't care what, but make sure it appeals to you and that it has a strong practical component. If you're going to become a Buddhist, meditate every day; if a Catholic, say your prayers; if a Hindu, do your puja (or whatever). 

2. Learn a craft or art. Again, it doesn't matter what. Become a painter, a brewer, or a mushroom forager, as long as it's something you care about. 

3. Take up some kind of physical exercise. This one will also be different for everyone, depending on body type. I love martial arts, like running, and hate weight lifting. You might be the opposite. 

To the extent that you can, get involved with others who share your interests, whether offline (preferable) or online (okay). That shouldn't be the focus, though; the focus is to build up yourself.

4. To the extent that it's necessary, learn basic grooming, social, and financial skills. We can't all be fashion models, but we can all comb our hair and wear a shirt that fits. We can't all be master wits or players, but we can all learn the basics of reading body language. We can't all be millionaires, but we can all manage our money well enough that we're not living paycheck to paycheck.

For a year, just do these things, without pursuing any romantic partner. I promise that at the end of that time, you will have your choice of women. The gates of the city will be opened to you.

(Would this advice work for a young woman? I don't know, having never been one. I suspect so, though, as if I were single, I'd happily date a woman that followed it!)

So that's just one area of life. But Sun Tzu's advice is applicable to many others as well.

The last time I submitted a piece of fiction to a professional market it came back with a polite rejection. Later I found out that, during the brief window in which the editors were accepting submissions, they received 8,000 stories.

It's hard to think of a better example of besieging a walled city than that. Even if you're better than 99% of the competition, you've still got 80 competing stories, and they've only got room for 4. At that point, it's luck of the draw. 

On the other hand, the most recent piece of fiction I wrote was greatly loved by its audience. Every year at Christmas, I write my stepson a little chapter book about his cats and their adventures. He loves them, I love writing them, and the annual reading of the Cat Book has become a family tradition. John Adams wrote that an aristocrat is anyone who can command two votes-- his own and one other. By the same token, an author is anyone whose stories are read by two people-- himself, and one other. 

Eventually I'll get around to publishing fiction in "professional" markets, but when I do, they're going to come to me. 

To pick a more brutal example, people who get into fistfights without much training or experience typically pick the wrong targets. Fighters on TV shows hit their opponents in the face with a big right hook, and their opponents dutifully respond by getting "knocked out" and falling to the ground.

In a real fight, this is the equivalent of the frontal assault on Minas Tirith. If you're much bigger, stronger, and faster than your opponent, it might work-- though that raises the question of what you're doing in a fight that unfair. A kick to the groin might be much less glamorous than a right hook to the jaw, but it works much better, I promise.

(Best of all, of course, is to be the kind of person who has sufficient training that would-be assailants leave you alone in the first place.)

Well, this post has gone on at some length, and I think I've made my point. See you tomorrow, everybody!

A new administration takes power in America today. The astrological conditions for the event are almost comically terrible; JMG posted his analysis a few weeks back and later today or tomorrow I'm going to post my own writeup over at Vox Caelorum. Astral conditions are as bad as they've ever been in my lifetime, and a clairvoyant friend who is old enough to remember 1968 says that they are worse than she's ever seen them.

Sounds like a good day to discuss the spiritual warfare, with the aid of our old friends Sun Tzu and Eliphas Levi.

Sun Tzu tells us:


The territory on which our war is being fought is the soul. We will understand what that means better if we remember that "soul" is the English translation of the Latin word "anima" and the Greek word "psyche." Anima is the root of "animate," meaning "that which moves." "Psyche," of course, is identical to "mind," and consists of all of the contents of our minds. And so we could define "soul" as "the total contents of our minds and our actions."

Let's turn to Levi for a moment:

And now the nature of the conflict clearly presents itself:

Part of our souls lie under the dominion of the Enemy.

Which parts?

For the specific purpose of this discussion, the Enemy is the demonic power which is driving people in the United States and around the world into a frenzy of rage over political issues. It first manifested itself in the deranged reaction to the election of Donald Trump and the successful Brexit referendum by members of the liberal classes in the United States and the United Kingdom. But it is active on the political Right as well, and has now exploded into full force among certain Trump supporters in their reaction to his electoral defeat.

Expect it to continue to evolve and mutate and to take many forms in the years ahead. It will change its story and its appearance, but you can always tell that it's there. Watch for the following signs: Excess emotion, especially rage; willing indulgence in fantasies of violence, which then become acts of violence; a complete lack of reflective thought. If you are sensitive to these things, you can feel its presence in a tightening in your various energy centers, as though someone were squeezing your throat or punching you in the solar plexus. You can see it in others in the glazed looks in their eyes and the incoherent justifications they give for violent actions.

Our goal, let us remember, is to live in peace. This doesn't necessarily mean an absence of physical violence. It means the subordination of all of our actions and all the contents of our minds to our spirits, our wills, and our gods. 

Let's turn back to Sun Tzu, then, with this in mind.

Our goal is to "take the enemy's country intact," not to "shatter and destroy it." What does that mean in the war for our souls?

Two things come to mind.

First, we want to be live in such a way that peace, as I've defined it, comes naturally. If we're spending time straining and struggling within ourselves, we're both suffering and wasting a ton of energy. The classic example of this, of course, is the devout and scrupulous Catholic who is trying to avoid "sexual sin" by a constant internal struggle. The result is a person who feels blocked up, constipated, and irritable, and is unable to get very much done because of all the energy they're spending trying not to think about masturbating. Even if they "win," they've done so at great cost, and have certainly "shattered and destroyed" much of the country of their own souls.

"What you resist you strengthen." Don't fight the demons and the passions by resisting them. Instead, as I've suggested before, simply do other things with your time. Things which matter and have meaning to you. Above all else, pray, meditate, and engage in spiritual practice. If you feel "tempted," don't fight against it-- use the energy to do something good with your time. 

Now let's turn to Levi, because I want to add another piece that we haven't discussed before:
Our souls are not isolated units, and don't exist in a vacuum. They are more like whirlpools of astral substance. You can define the boundary between the whirlpool and the river, but both are made of the same water. It's not enough to act in isolation and pursue personal fulfillment. We have to do some work to purify the waters around us.

And how do we do that?

Let me allow another one of the great ancient masters of magic to answer that.


Today, and every day, pray for your enemies. If, like me, you're not a fan of Joe Biden or his party, today is a good day to pray for them. Don't pray that Biden will become a Republican, a Populist, a Socialist or whatever you wish he was; just pray that he will be blessed by God and guided in the presidency. If you're Christian, a candle for the guardian angel of the United States, and the Virgin Mary as patron saint of America under her title of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception would be appropriate, and doubly so since Biden is at least nominally Catholic. If pagan, an offering to Jupiter would accomplish the same thing. 

And while you're out in the world, spend your time blessing people. This is especially easy to do when you're driving, for two reasons: 1. you will encounter a lot of people and 2. most of them will make you angry. Use the energy of the guy that just cut you off to send a blessing his way, and honestly mean it. A simple "May you be blessed," is enough, if you can say it and mean it.

Finally, in addition to prayers, this is a good time to make offerings. (Actually, there's never a bad time.) If you follow the planetary deities, you can synchronize your offerings with the days of the week; Chris Warnock has details here. But you can always pick a cause you care about, invoke your God, and make a donation in their name. In this way you will increase the amount of good in the world. It will return to you, but you must do it without expectation of reward. Do good and allow yourself to love the Good for its own sake.

In these ways, we can begin to reconquer our own souls, and the Soul of the World around us.

One last note from Chapter 2 of The Art of War.  Sun Tzu concludes:

This might sound simple and obvious, but it is a call back to a theme that I want to keep repeating through all of these posts. What is your goal? When you undertake any particular thing, why are you doing it, and what do you hope to achieve?

This is especially the case when we enter into any kind of conflict, whether it's a political debate, an argument with a salesperson or a dispute with our spouse. Very often, interpersonal conflict is not honest and arguments between two people are not actually about what they are supposedly about. They are, instead, social games. 

In Games People Play, Eric Berne described a social game as:


Berne then describes, as a typical example, a game called "If It Weren't For You." You've probably seen this game before. Maybe you've even played it yourself, without realizing it. (I have.) 

In "If It Weren't For You," one member of a partnership (whether a marital relationship or not) discovers that there are many things they could have done in their lives if only the other member of the partnership hadn't held them back. Of course, the person does not actually want to do these things, because they are too afraid to. By playing If It Weren't For You, they're able to both not do the things that scare them and, often enough, to guilt trip the other party into doing things for them. "If it weren't for you," she tells him, "I'd have left this crummy town years ago!" And he feels terrible about this, and so buys her the new dress that she wants. "If it weren't for this job, I'd have fulfilled my childhood dream of traveling around Canada!" he tells himself. But he'd never go to Canada; he's too afraid of moose. By Playing If IT Weren't For You, he gets what he wants and he gets sympathy from others when he complains about it over drinks at night.  

When we enter into any conflict, then, let us first make sure we're clear about what we want, and what it would be like if we were to get it. Let our object be victory, not lengthy campaigns; honest desires, not social games.

Let's look at The Art of War, Chapter 2.

Sun Tzu tells us:



Sun Tzu is certainly right that countries do not benefit from prolonged warfare. But it is worth noting that one side will invariably have the ability to prolong a war beyond that of their opponent, and that is the side that is going to win. This is why the North Vietnamese won the Vietnam War despite superior American firepower, and why the Taliban will ultimately win in Afghanistan.

How can we apply Sun Tzu's points both to (1) our personal goals and to (2) the spiritual warfare that we have been discussing?

I'd like to suggest the following for consideration.

(1) If you want to accomplish anything at all, persistence is critical. If you want to write a novel, the novel is your goal, and an unwritten novel is your enemy. (How many half-finished novels do you have stored on your computers, writers? I know I've got at least a half dozen.) The Enemy will use every device to outlast you, to damp your ardor and exhaust your strength. But every day that you outlast him, you weaken him and strengthen yourself.

On the other hand, when it comes time to publish your book, haste-- though not stupid haste-- is preferably to a long delay. A Christmas recipe book will not sell very well if its release is delayed until February.

Perhaps we should break our goals down into two types: Those that resemble training, and those that resemble combat. In those that resemble training, discipline, patience, and persistence are key. The head of the tai chi lineage that I've been training in for a number of years recently accepted me as an instructor. I was able to get to that point thanks to daily practice over the course of seven years. When I started, I was terrible, and I couldn't make it through a form without hurting myself. On the other hand, when I start teaching public classes, swiftness is preferably to delay. Hemming and hawing won't bring in any students! 

(2) Applying these thoughts to the spiritual war, how can we make use of them?

One way to think of the ongoing crisis is as a build up of energy in the Lower Astral Plane. This happens from time to time. It dissipates when the pressures in the Lower Astral are discharged into the Physical Plane. Unfortunately, that discharge is never pretty; it takes the form of war, death, natural disaster, conflict, plague and so on. We're clearly in the middle of that phase right now.

Outlast the enemy. Demons may be smart, but Patience is a virtue, not a passion. When you find yourself pulled into the conflict, give the enemy nothing. Pray. Do a banishing ritual. Go outside. Work on something truly important to you-- something that expresses the highest part of yourself, not the lowest. Do it every time. And do it quickly. Don't linger over your anger; do something else right now. If whatever triggered it is actually important, you can come back to it later, when you are calm; chances are it isn't, though.

Remember that your psyche is your territory; the Enemy is an invader. Outlast him, and give him nothing that will feed him, and he will be forced to retreat in dismay.

In the comments, we've been discussing Sun Tzu's ideas in light of political and astral conditions here in the US. Chapter 1 of the Art of War closes with some more advice on the use of deception in warfare. I want to share some of these, and suggest a way of applying them to our present situation.

All warfare is based on deception.

Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Let us assume that we are in a war-- a spiritual war. The enemy is a plague of demons. You can take this as a metaphor, if you prefer. In that case, the "demons" are metaphors for toxic memes, collective insanity, political cults and the madness of crowds. It works either way. What do they want? Demons are characterized by intense emotion, particularly wrath and hate, intense desire, and an absence of reflection.

When people abandon their reasoning faculties and lash out at one another like animals, they are possessed by demons. (Again, this can be a metaphor, if you like.) This is the demons' goal; it feeds them. Mob violence, dehumanization, fear and paranoia, terrorism and conflict all feed them. What they want is to feed; when you give in to them, they feed on you. That's what they want, and that's how they win.

What do we want? Many things, but they can be boiled down to: "To live in peace." To live in peace doesn't refer to Pacifism. I am a martial artist and not a Pacifist. It refers, rather, but rather to a state of consciousness in which our spirits, rather than our passions, are in control of our faculties, and the same can be said for the people that we spend our time around. We don't need to worry about flying into a frenzy of rage or terror, and we also don't need to worry about people being provoked into rage and terror by images they see in the glass screens that are gates to Hell. 

Let's assume all of these things, and then one thing more. Let's assume that even though they can't reason or reflect, the demons are smart. They are older than we are, and they got here ahead of us. They're smart enough to know strategic thinking, and to apply it against us. 

If so, they are already making use of all of the foregoing points of advice from Sun Tzu. 

If that is the case, how does that modify your response to the situation? 

"Hold out baits to entice the enemy." Has anyone-- or rather, anything-- ever done that to you, on the television news or social media? "If he is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him." This goes back to the discussion of Seneca's De Irae. Anger is a poor general, and will always lead you badly. "Give him no rest." Does your phone give you a chance to rest? Does the 24-hour news cycle?

Right now the enemy is superior in strength. We would do well to evade him. 

 Back to Sun Tzu.

The first chapter of The Art of War closes with several pieces of warfighting advice. One that I want to highlight is this:

How can we apply this advice to our lives at this time?

Most of the time, most of us aren't going into battle. The average, day-to-day goals that we are trying to accomplish don't require "deception," as such. What they do often call for, which is similar to deception, is silence.

Some goals can be achieved no matter how much you talk about them. This morning my wife and I planned what to have for dinner tonight; in an hour or two I'll get it started. Simple enough. 

But other types of goals benefit enormously from simply not talking about them while you're pursuing them.

I've talked about writing a few times in these posts. Writing is very much one of these kinds of goals. If you want to take all the energy out of a writing project, especially if it's a fiction project, talk about it before it's finished. 

Some people are exceptions to this. Mario Puzo's son recalled that while his father was writing The Godfather he used to shout at his kids "Be quiet, I'm writing a bestseller!" And he was right. But I'm not Mario Puzo and you probably aren't either.

Other types goals are like this. If you have a New Years resolution to hit the gym every day, just do it. Don't tell anyone about it. The more people you tell, the more likely you are to miss a day, and then to decide that since you missed yesterday, you might as well miss today, and tomorrow, too. 

How to know which goals to shut up about? Well, you could play it safe and just not talk about any of them if you don't need to. This is usually what I do. I talk about my plans with people they directly concern, and that's about it. . 

So that's how deception applies to everyday, non-warfighting types of goals.

On the other hand, related to what I posted yesterday, everyday life is feeling more and more like a battle. Political conditions and their reflection in the Astral Light are becoming increasingly toxic in the United States. If your goal is to join one or the other of the two sides lining up against one another right now, I'm sure you can figure out how to apply Sun Tzu's words on your own. On the other hand, if your goal is to weather the storm and to still be here once the demons of the Left and Right are done with one another, I want to talk about how we can apply Sun Tzu's advice.

All warfare is based on deception. Our war is the war of the spirit against the passions, God against the Devil, reason against emotion, peace against war. How do we deceive our enemy?

I suspect that silence is the key here, as well. In particular, there is no reason to engage in political arguments or discussions with those who are committed to one side of our political divide or the other. In certain situations, you may feel that you are forced to do so. Are you really, though? What is your motive? 

We do not know where things are going. Everything could calm down after the Inauguration or we could be in a civil war by the summer. Right now, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by standing out, making noise, or rushing to judgment. Above all, avoid committed partisans. You can't reason with them right now; all you can do is have them label you "Enemy." 

Beyond that, we just don't know yet. More will become clear with time.  

Sun Tzu continues:

Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:

He then gives us seven questions for comparison. I want to take a few at a time. The first is:


To which our translator appends the note:






All of these come back to what we talked about yesterday, method and discipline. 

It's worth taking time and thinking about how to apply Sun Tzu's questions to any particular goal. What does training mean when your goal is making dinner for your wife and kids? What sort of discipline is necessary if your goal is the completion of a novel or the cleaning of your basement? How can reward and punishment be used in a personal context, if your goal is to train for a marathon or a boxing match?

Sun Tzu's next category is the General. He writes,


 

In traditional cultures East and West, ethics consist of the practice of the virtues. The Catholic philosopher Alistair MacIntyre has discussed this issue at length, especially in his book "After Virtue," which is available for free online (legitimately, as far as I know). In short, the word "ethics" itself refers, not to a series of moral harangues, but to habits of behavior. Virtues, meanwhile are excellences in one area or another.

In Chinese culture, the traditional Confucian virtues are: Benevolence; Righteousness; Propriety; Wisdom; and Sincerity.* In a military context, Sun Tzu has exchanged Courage and Strictness for Propriety and Sincerity. The 4 cardinal virtues of the ancient Greeks were Wisdom, Justice, Temperance and Courage. Christianity kept these four, and added Faith, Hope, and Charity.

The point for us is that practicing any of these sets of virtues will lead to the production of a particular type of character. 

Refer back to the first of Sun Tzu's 5 factors, the Tao or "Moral Law". We defined this as both goal-setting and as alignment with one's higher values and spiritual beliefs. The practice of the virtues is directly tied to this. We need both a general set of virtues to practice from one day to the next, and a specific set for our particular goal. Who do you want to be, and what do you want to achieve?

Persistence, Honesty, and Industriousness are virtues which will help you to get any job; if you are looking for a job with a bank, the virtues of Accounting and Professionalism will also be necessary. Charm, Wit, Confidence and Basic Hygiene are virtues to practice if you want to get a date; you'll need to add Fidelity, Courage, Endurance, Maturity and Industriousness if you also want to get married.

The practice of a specific set of virtues-- the Christian, the Confucian, the Greek-- will produce, in you, a character that is inclined toward virtue in general, which will make other virtues easier to pick up. It will also help to align your soul with the spiritual tradition you're working in, which will open you more to the aid of the powers of that tradition, incarnate or otherwise. 



*The actual Chinese terms are not easily rendered into English. There is a useful discussion here.