*laugh* Pity I'm not more Sinophilic, because I'm hopelessly stuck in navigation now, thinking about things like:
Imagine a clockface with twelve cardinal directions instead of sixteen, and then you talk about 'the third dragon' instead of 'nine o'clock.' Or, 'the dragon's third wind,' which sounds perfectly reasoable in Chinese, and never mind that your heroes will snicker and think of farting.
And, having just reminded myself about radians, they're way too large to navigate by -- but the Twelve Dragons of the Winds -- OOOH! OOH! -- name them for the twelve Chinese astrological beasties! (assuming that's proper & period)
"Captain! Ainu ship approaching on the Tiger's Wind!"
Just tossing things into the air. And the thing is, you can have your twelve directions and still believe in a Babylonian circle underneath: the direction of each of them would be a 30° arc.
Re: Well, lessee.
Imagine a clockface with twelve cardinal directions instead of sixteen, and then you talk about 'the third dragon' instead of 'nine o'clock.' Or, 'the dragon's third wind,' which sounds perfectly reasoable in Chinese, and never mind that your heroes will snicker and think of farting.
And, having just reminded myself about radians, they're way too large to navigate by -- but the Twelve Dragons of the Winds -- OOOH! OOH! -- name them for the twelve Chinese astrological beasties! (assuming that's proper & period)
"Captain! Ainu ship approaching on the Tiger's Wind!"
Just tossing things into the air. And the thing is, you can have your twelve directions and still believe in a Babylonian circle underneath: the direction of each of them would be a 30° arc.
-- Lorrie