ABSTRACT
TRANSCRIPTION Because of its official status in China, its relative accuracy in transcribing actual pronunciation in Chinese common speech, and consequent worldwide use, we employ the pinyin romanization system in this volume for transliterating Chinese names or terms. However, we have left transliterations of Chinese names and terms as originally published (typically in the Wade-Giles system) in the following cases: (i) the titles of cited publications; (ii) the names whose Latinizations have become conventional (‘Confucius’ and ‘Mencius’); and (iii) the names of the writers who have had their authored English publications under their regular non-pinyin romanized names (such as ‘Fung Yu-lan’). The titles of cited Chinese books and essays are given in their pinyin transcriptions with their paraphrases given in parentheses. The following rule of thumb has been used in dealing with the order of the surname (family) name and given name in romanized Chinese names: (i) for the name of a historical figure in Chinese history, the surname appears first, and the given name second (such as ‘Zhu Xi’); and (ii) for contemporary figures, we follow their own practice when writing in English (typically, those whose works have been published in English tend to have their given name appear first with the surname second). In the pinyin versions of Chinese publication titles and those proper phrases that contain two or more than two Chinese characters, hyphens may be used to indicate separate characters.
