Author Archives: huaxue23

Transcription and Chinese Script

• Original Chinese script (hanzi 漢字) should never be used as primary (or only) information, but always secondary to the Hanyu Pinyin transcription, except for quotations of sentence length or longer.
• Hanyu Pinyin is required for all Chinese terms and expressions that are shorter than an entire sentence.
• Hanzi are added, without brackets, right after the Pinyin transcription.
• Pinyin transcription, as a rule, is placed before the hanzi.
• In observing Pinyin orthography, write words, not individual syllables (e.g., chubanshe, not chuban she). In case of doubt about what is considered a word, check Xiandai hanyu cidian as anauthority of reference.
• Pinyin transcription is primary, optionally followed by an English translation in brackets. Optionally, the translated term or title can be used primarily, but always with the Pinyintranscription and hanzi added in brackets at the first occurrence.
• In writing Pinyin, observe rules of capitalization. Customarily, capital letters are used only forbeginnings and names (also including place names, such as Zhongguo, or the names of dynasties,eras and reign periods).
• In writing Pinyin transcription, use apostrophes only at the appropriate places (i.e., almost never).
• In papers on premodern topics, for the Chinese script, traditional style (fantizi 繁體字) is generally preferable to simplified style (jiantizi 简体字). However, for bibliographical citations and Chinese source quotations, it is advisable to use the style of the source itself.