![]() The two most commonly used systems you are likely come across are the Modified Wade-Giles and Pinyin systems. The Wade-Giles romanization system was developed by British scholar Sir Thomas Wade and later revised by Herbert Allen Giles. The resulting effort became the de facto standard for the romanization of Mandarin Chinese for the majority of the twentieth century and was used by translators and sinologists. Although the system is linguistically sound, the Chinese government thought it ineffective for popular use and sponsored the development of a new simpler system – Pinyin – that has largely supplanted Wade-Giles in contemporary usage. [quote_right] Here in the ocean of poems we’re continuing to use the Wade-Giles names most likely to be familiar to you.[/quote_right] While the Pinyin system may be easier and is now the official system, names familiar in Wade-Giles continue to be used by translators. Here in the ocean of poems we’re continuing to use the Wade-Giles names most likely to be familiar to you.As the names using Wade-Giles can appear quite different in Pinyin, the following list of some of the names and terms you will find here might prove useful.
Not all names change with pinyin. Wang Wei is Wang Wei, Yuan Mei is Yuan Mei. . . Be aware, as well, that some names have several alternate spellings regardless of the system. Li Po, for example, goes as well by the name Li Pai in Wade Giles (or Li Bo and Li Bai in Pinyin), and Su Tung-p’o is also known as Su Shih. For a complete list of poets names in both Wade-Giles and Pinyin see the web companion to Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping’s Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry >>> There are many resources for converting between the two systems. |
Here's one from TEXPERA (Texas Program for Educational Resources on Asia)
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