Definition
- **The “Spring Canon” (春典, *chūn diǎn*)** is the professional jargon or code language used by traditional Chinese underworld groups, including bandits, thieves, and escort agents. Using it correctly signals that you are “one of the family” (*insider*), and by custom, it usually demands a coded response before violence begins. When the bandit leader ignores it and attacks anyway, it breaks the unspoken rule, marking him as an exceptionally brutal or desperate crew who play by their own law. - **Escort agencies (镖局, *biāojú*)** were a real and vital part of pre-modern Chinese commerce, transporting goods and valuables across dangerous, bandit-infested roads. Their masters were often martial artists, and they maintained complex networks of safe houses, alliances, and underworld codes. In the Dao-Twisted World, being an escort is a dangerous but practical way to travel without arousing too much suspicion. - **Later Shu (后蜀)** was one of the Ten Kingdoms during China’s Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The novel uses its name for one of the fractured states of the Dao-Twisted World. The details are fictionalized, but the political fragmentation echoes this chaotic historical era.