Wikipedia:Manual of Style (use of Chinese language)

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 It has been suggested that History standards for China-related articles be merged into this page or section. (Discuss)
✔ This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Editors should follow it, except where common sense and the occasional exception will improve an article. Before editing this page, please make sure that your revision reflects consensus.
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These guidelines are under development. Discuss it and improve it.

To write and edit articles that include the Chinese language, please follow the conventions below. Note

Contents

[edit] Insertion of Chinese characters

This edition of Wikipedia is in English, so do not use characters or romanized forms excessively, such as for common words, making this a kind of English–Chinese bilingual edition. However, if the term does not have an established translation (that is, has multiple translations or none), feel free to provide the Chinese characters, which will be useful to the content of the article. Proper nouns' Chinese characters should also be supplied, unless it is Wikified and the target article in the English Wikipedia contains the characters. Note that cross links to Chinese Wikipedia will not help researchers who need more information in English.

It is usually helpful to add Chinese text to disambiguate Chinese terms that have been transliterated into English. Chinese words are often spelled inconsistently. The addition of native text especially for the article title term is valuable to researchers who need to consult other Chinese scholars on the same subject.

If there is a term you have trouble translating, please bring it up in the Talk page, then, if you wish, drop a short note at Talk:List of China-related topics for other Wikipedians' attention.

Also, to help establish a simple and clean appearance, if a term is Wikified and has an article, do not provide characters or romanization again. For example, the following is redundant.

Li Shimin (李世民), along with King...

It could easily be rendered as:

Li Shimin, along with King...

which simplifies the article. If the reader wishes to find out about the native text, he or she can simply click on the link (where the writer should direct the Chinese characters if not already present).

If, however, there is no article, then it is essential to insert traditional or simplified Chinese characters and full Hanyu Pinyin with tone-marks, as a minimum. Those characters can later be removed once a stub/article has been created. Non-English insertions should minimize interruption to the flow of reading. They should always be put within parentheses, as if they were call-outs not part of the sentence. Try reading the sentence aloud by skipping everything within the parentheses. If an English reader can read the sentence in a grammatically correct way without any unpronouncible interruption, then the sentence is in acceptable form. For example:

"His name was Li Shimin (李世民)."

is okay but

"His name was 李世民."

is not a readable English sentence. Chinese insertions to list and table entries can be done without parentheses because these items are seldom read like sentences.

All encyclopedia entries whose title includes a Chinese name or term should include the relevant Chinese characters and hanyu pinyin representation.

There are two preferred alternative ways to introduce this information: within the introductory sentence, or in a box to the right in the introduction. Contributors to the individual article concerned should decide together the most appropriate alternative for that particular page.

This article contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Many browsers are not set up to correctly render Chinese text. If an article contains several instances of Chinese text, consider using the template contains Chinese text, shown adjacent to this paragraph. This will alert users to the missing or inaccurate information. You can do this by inserting the code {{contains Chinese text}} near the top of the article (the capitalization is significant).

[edit] Introductory sentence

  • Topic (characters; pinyin: pinyin, Wade-Giles: Wade Giles; also other-romanization, other-romanization...) ...
    for example, Zeng Guofan (曾國藩; pinyin: Zēng Guófán; Wade-Giles: Tseng Kuo-fan)...

If the topic itself is romanized according to a particular system (and, in the case of pinyin, has tone marks present in the first sentence's bold highlight), then you should avoid re-listing the romanized form in the brackets following it. However, in the case of pinyin, it is acceptable to first list the title without tones, and to re-list the title with tones indicated.

  • Tǒpīc (characters) OK
  • Topic (characters; pinyin tǒpīc) OK
  • Tǒpīc (characters; pinyin tǒpīc) Discouraged (note the repetition of Tǒpīc)

If the topic is one in which simplified and traditional characters vary, then you should add the other version. Order is potentially politically charged, and there is no solution to this problem. Either order is acceptable. The simplified version should be presented first for modern mainland China/Singapore subjects and the opposite should be done for modern Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau subjects. A suggested format is as follows:

[edit] Templates

Most China-related articles currently show great inconsistency in how romanization information is presented. To help promote better consistency, the following templates are offered, to closely reflect the styles recommended above:

[edit] Uniform Templates (When traditional and simplified are the same)


Template zh-c (Chinese)
Looks like Chinese: 你好
Code {{zh-c |c=你好}}


Template zh-cp (Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin)
Looks like Chinese: 你好; pinyin: nǐ hǎo
Code {{zh-cp |c=你好 |p=nǐ hǎo}}


Template zh-cpw (Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles)
Looks like Chinese: 你好; pinyin: nǐ hǎo; Wade-Giles: wade-giles
Code {{zh-cpw |c=你好 |p=nǐ hǎo |w=wade-giles}}


[edit] Simplified Templates


Template zh-s (Simplified)
Looks like simplified Chinese: 中国
Code {{zh-s |s=中国}}


Template zh-sp (Simplified, Hanyu Pinyin)
Looks like simplified Chinese: 中国; pinyin: zhōng guó
Code {{zh-sp |s=中国 |p=zhōng guó}}


Template zh-spw (Simplified, Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles)
Looks like simplified Chinese: 中国; pinyin: zhōng guó; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo
Code {{zh-spw |s=中国 |p=zhōng guó |w=Chung-kuo}}



[edit] Traditional Templates


Template zh-t (Traditional)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國
Code {{zh-t |t=中國}}


Template zh-tp (Traditional, Hanyu Pinyin)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; pinyin: Zhōng guó
Code {{zh-tp |t=中國 |p=Zhōng guó}}


Template zh-tpw (Traditional, Hanyu Pinyin)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; pinyin: Zhōng guó; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo
Code {{zh-tpw |t=中國 |p=Zhōng guó |w=Chung-kuo}}



[edit] Combination Templates


Template zh-stpw (Simplified, Traditional, Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles)
Looks like simplified Chinese: 中国; traditional Chinese: 中國; pinyin: zhōng guó; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo
Code {{zh-stpw |s=中国 |t=中國 |p=zhōng guó |w=Chung-kuo}}


Template zh-tspw (Traditional, Simplified, Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; simplified Chinese: 中国; pinyin: zhōng guó; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo
Code {{zh-tspw |t=中國 |s=中国 |p=zhōng guó |w=Chung-kuo}}


Template zh-tsht (Traditional, Simplified, Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Tongyong Pinyin)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; simplified Chinese: 中国; Hanyu Pinyin: zhōng guó; Tongyong Pinyin: tongyong
Code {{zh-tsht |t=中國 |s=中国 |hp=zhōng guó |w=Chung-kuo |tp=tongyong}}


Template zh-tshtw (Traditional, Simplified, Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, Wade-Giles)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; simplified Chinese: 中国; Hanyu Pinyin: zhōng guó; Tongyong Pinyin: tongyong; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo
Code {{zh-tshtw |t=中國 |s=中国 |hp=zhōng guó |tp=tongyong |w=Chung-kuo}}


Template zh-stp (Simplified, Traditional, Hanyu Pinyin)
Looks like simplified Chinese: 中国; traditional Chinese: 中國; pinyin: zhōng guó
Code {{zh-stp |s=中国 |t=中國 |p=zhōng guó}}


Template zh-st (Simplified, Traditional)
Looks like simplified Chinese: 中国; traditional Chinese: 中國
Code {{zh-st |s=中国 |t=中國}}



[edit] Cantonese Templates


Template zh-tcy (Traditional, Cantonese Yale)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; Cantonese Yale: Jùng gwok
Code {{zh-tcy |t=中國 |cy=Jùng gwok}}


Template zh-tspcy (Traditional, Simplified, Pinyin, Cantonese Yale)
Looks like traditional Chinese: 中國; simplified Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōng gúo; Cantonese Yale: Jùng gwok
Code {{zh-tspcy |t=中國 |s=中国 |p=Zhōng gúo| cy=Jùng gwok}}



Template zh-cpcy (Chinese - Traditional and Simplified same, Pinyin, Cantonese Yale)
Looks like Chinese: 你好; pinyin: nǐ hǎo; Cantonese Yale: néih hóu
Code {{zh-cpcy |c=你好 |p=nǐ hǎo| cy=néih hóu}}


Full list at template:zh-all

[edit] Examples on how to use the templates

Template Example Result
{{zh-stp}} {{zh-stp |s=周恩来 |t=周恩來 |p=Zhōu Ēnlái}} simplified Chinese: 周恩来; traditional Chinese: 周恩來; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái
{{zh-tsp}} {{zh-tsp |t=馬英九 |s=马英九 |p=Mǎ Yīngjiǔ}} traditional Chinese: 馬英九; simplified Chinese: 马英九; pinyin: Mǎ Yīngjiǔ

Note that the "t" and "s" parameters can be specified in any order.

{{zh-ts |t=東 |s=东}} and
{{zh-ts |s=东 |t=東}} produce the exact same result.

Rather, it is the choice of {{zh-st}} or {{zh-ts}} that determines the order of display.

[edit] Box format

Sun Yat-sen
Names (details)
Known in English as: Sun Yat-sen
Chinese: 孫逸仙
Hanyu Pinyin: Sūn Yìxiān
Wade-Giles: Sun I-hsien
Known to Chinese as: 孫中山
Hanyu Pinyin: Sūn Zhōngshān
Wade-Giles: Sun Chung-shan
Family name: Sun
Traditional Chinese: 孫
Simplified Chinese: 孙
Given names
Register name : Deming (德明)
Milk name : Dixiang (帝象)
School name : Wen (文)
Courtesy name : Zaizhi (載之)
Pseudonym : Rixin (日新), later
Yixian (逸仙),
pronounced similarly
in Cantonese (Yat
San, Yat Sin, resp.)
Alias : Zhongshan (中山)
Styled: Guofu (國父), i.e.
"Father of the Nation"

Using a box removes the characters and romanization from the opening sentence, thus making it more readable, while retaining the information off to the side so that the reader can still see it—look right for an example. It is up to the contributors to each individual article to determine together what information should or should not be included in such a box, or whether they want a box at all. This a standardised template that can be used to format this information:

For biographical articles, additional names or a portrait might be appropriate to include—see Chiang Kai-shek, Li Po, or Sun Yat-sen for examples. This is especially helpful for biographies of prominent individuals born before the 20th century who went by multiple names. Special templated boxes have also been implemented for Chinese emperors:

[edit] Characters

With the update to 1.5 in late 2005 the English wikipedia was converted to UTF-8. This means we can now use any Unicode character (including everything supported by the common existing Chinese encodings) directly in the wikitext. It seems to be generally accepted that the advantages of editors being able to see what they are doing at a glance outweigh the potential issues with having such characters in the wikitext.

The use of italics and bold text is to be avoided with Chinese characters, as it tends to make them less legible: 国 国 国 国.

[edit] Simplified and Traditional

Main discussion (archived): Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_(Chinese)/archive2

In order to accommodate all viewers, both sets should be used in all cases where a difference exists. The traditional form should go first in contexts involving territories where traditional characters are used; otherwise, simplified characters should go first. If you do not know or cannot input the other character version, then leave it out and someone will put it in for you.

[edit] Romanization and tones

We usually use Hanyu Pinyin. (See this discussion on meta) When listing multiple romanizations, try to use the following order:

  1. Pinyin (necessary)
  2. Wade Giles (Please include for subjects which were notable before the introduction of pinyin, and especially for those which existed before 1910; English references to them will exist using Wade-Giles only, and these are very difficult to look up unless the WG transcriptions are included.). The traditional Chinese names whose romanisation is based on a a method other than Hanyu Pinyin (Wade-Giles, Tonyong Pinyin, Post Office Chinese, etc.), should also provide alternative English names based on Hanyu Pinyin in brackets, e.g. Changhua (also: Zhanghua), Hsinchu (also: Xinzhu). It's especially important for names, which are not based on standard Mandarin, like Keelung (in standard Mandarin pronounced Jilong) with the exception of Chinese areas where spoken standard Mandarin is not the offcial language.
  3. others (only necessary if the context makes it appropriate to include a specific extra reading (e.g. Cantonese, or Post Office Chinese for names well known in the nineteenth century.))

[edit] Use of Hanyu Pinyin

Generally speaking there are two main ways to show pinyin tones;

  1. Letters and numbers, ie: ni3 hao3
  2. Using Unicode to add diacritics, ie: nǐ hǎo

Always use the second method, and convert any instances of the first method to the second. Also add diacritics where they have been forgotten. Wikipedia now has clickable characters with diacritics under the edit box.

Italicise the pinyin to differentiate it from the English text.

Pinyin words are written similar to English in regards to capitalization, spacing and punctuation. (See Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Chinese)/Transcription of Chinese#Library of Congress Guidelines)

Pinyin officially uses the handwritten style of the lower-case letter a, with no curl over the top (ɑ̄, ɑ́, ɑ̌, ɑ̀, ɑ). On Wikipedia, however, normal a's are used.

[edit] Tones

The tone mark is added to the vowel in the syllable that comes first in this sequence: a o e i u ü. For example, ai takes the tone mark on a, and ia also takes the tone mark on a. The only exception is iu which takes the tone mark on u.

The diacritics used are:

  1. The first tone is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel:

    ā ē ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū Ǖ
  2. The second tone is denoted by an acute accent (ˊ):

    á é í ó ú ǘ Á É Í Ó Ú Ǘ
  3. The third tone is symbolized by a caron (inverted circumflex) (ˇ):

    ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ
    1. Please do not use the breve (a curved downward circumflex) for the third tone.
  4. The fourth tone is represented by a grave accent (ˋ):

    à è ì ò ù ǜ À È Ì Ò Ù Ǜ
  5. The fifth or neutral tone is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:
    (There is no need to indicate neutral tones with numbers or with dots before the syllable: "·ma")

    a e i o u ü A E I O U Ü

See also Standard Mandarin#Tones.

[edit] Apostrophes

See: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese)#Apostrophes

[edit] Hyphens

See: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese)#Hyphens

[edit] Cantonese

After a (very very) long offtopic discussion on Talk:Political divisions of China, Ran tentatively proposes that we include Cantonese pronunciation, given in IPA, on pages related to Hong Kong, Macau, and possibly the Cantonese-speaking regions of Guangdong. The IPA will follow the system set out in Standard Cantonese, with tones given in terms of numbers (1–6) and put in superscript. There's an example at Hong Kong.

It remains undecided whether Jyutping or other Romanization systems should still be included if IPA is shown.

This is still tentative. All comments are welcome on the talk page.

[edit] Tibetan

For the spelling of Tibetan names and terms, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Tibetan). This is also still tentative and comments are most welcome on the talk page.

[edit] Ruby characters

Ruby annotation is a way of putting pinyin in small letters over the top of a Han character. It cannot be used for normal inline text on Wikipedia because the small size at which characters are displayed means that the even smaller text on top is illegible. However, it is appropriate for Han characters that have a line or paragraph to themselves. It has the advantage of keeping the transcription very close to the character, and is thus didactically helpful. In browsers that do not support it, it degrades gracefully into a transcription in parentheses after the character.

So, instead of or in addition to representing a text like this:

Chinese characters (trad.)
北方有佳人，絕世而獨立。
一顧傾人城，再顧傾人國。
寧不知傾城與傾國。
佳人難再得。
Pinyin transcription
Běifāng yǒu jiārén, juéshì ér dúlì.
Yí gù qīng rén chéng, zài gù qīng rén guó.
Nìng bù zhī qīng chéng yǔ qīng guó.
Jiārén nán zài dé.
English translation
In the North there is a lady, stunning and singular.
One look confounds a city; a touch dooms an empire.
Rather not wishing to know, the ruination that may follow,
rare beauty is here and now.

We can represent it like this if we choose:

Chinese characters (trad.) with pinyin transcription added using ruby annotations.
北(běi) 方(fāng) 有(yǒu) 佳(jiā) 人(rén)， 絕(jué) 世(shì) 而(ér) 獨(dú) 立(lì)。
一(yí) 顧(gù) 傾(qīng) 人(rén) 城(chéng)， 再(zài) 顧(gù) 傾(qīng) 人(rén) 國(guó)。
寧(nìng) 不(bù) 知(zhī) 傾(qīng) 城(chéng) 與(yǔ) 傾(qīng) 國(guó)。
佳(jiā) 人(rén) 難(nán) 再(zài) 得(dé)。
English translation
In the North there is a lady, stunning and singular.
One look confounds a city; a touch dooms an empire.
Rather not wishing to know, the ruination that may follow,
rare beauty is here and now.

The markup to display text like this is as follows:

" {{ruby-zh-p|梦|mèng}} " displays " 梦(mèng) ".

Note that this template also adds a helpful link to the Wiktionary definition of each character.

Browser support:

  • IE — perfect... except if you put it inside a table, in which case it crashes the browser.
  • Mozilla / Firefox with support installed — problems with wrapping long lines, but otherwise fine.
  • Mozilla / Firefox without support installed — displays in parentheses.
  • Opera — displays in parentheses.
  • Safari — displays in parentheses.

List of pages currently using this template.

[edit] Linking to Wiktionary

Look up 字 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Our sister-project, Wiktionary, contains the full Unihan database, and is consequently an invaluable Chinese reference tool. All Ruby characters are automatically linked to Wiktionary. In some exceptional cases, you may need to manually insert a link to the Wiktionary entry for a character.

To put such a link in the body text of the article, you can use the following markup: [[Wikt:字|]]. The result is 字.

If you want to insert a link in a box to one side, use {{Wiktionarypar|字}} (see box on the right).

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