Wikipedia:Manual of Style/China-related articles

To write and edit China-related articles, please follow these conventions. For the consistent titling of Chinese-related content, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese).

Chinese language

Hatnote

Sometimes, it is not obvious to readers which part of a Chinese personal name is the family name. You can add the {{Chinese name}} template to the top of an article to make this clear. For example, on the article for Sun Tzu you could add the markup {{Chinese name|[[Sun (surname)|Sun]]}} which would produce

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Sun.

Introductory sentences

Li Bai (example)
Chinese	李白
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Bái, Lǐ Bó - Wade–Giles Li3 Pai2, Li3 Po2 - IPA [lì pǎɪ], [lì pɔ̌] Min - Hokkien POJ Lí Peh, Lí Biak Wu - Shanghainese romanization Lij Baq Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Lei5 Baak6 Middle Chinese - Middle Chinese Ljɨ Bɐk

Any encyclopedia entry with a title that is a Chinese proper name should include both the Chinese characters and the Hanyu Pinyin representation for their names in the first sentence. The article title itself is normally the pinyin representation with the tone marks omitted: "Mao Zedong", not "Máo Zédōng", unless another spelling is common (see below).

The {{zh}} template may be used to add Chinese to articles' introductory sentences in a consistent manner. For example:

• '''Zeng Guofan''' ({{zh|s=曾国藩|t=曾國藩|first=t|p=Zēng Guófān|w=Tseng<sup>1</sup> Kuo<sup>2</sup>-fan<sup>1</sup>}}) outputs:
• Zeng Guofan (traditional Chinese: 曾國藩; simplified Chinese: 曾国藩; pinyin: Zēng Guófān; Wade–Giles: Tseng¹ Kuo²-fan¹)

If the topic is one in which simplified and traditional characters vary, then you should add the other version. 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. The {{zh}} template puts simplified characters first by default, use the first=t option to put traditional characters first, as in the example.

However, where there is more than one parameter in use in a given article, prefer using a {{Chinese}} box instead of {{zh}}. This removes the characters, romanization and pronunciations 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— see the top of this section for an example that uses the {{Infobox Chinese}} template (see {{Infobox Chinese/doc}} on how to use it). Special templated boxes have also been implemented for Chinese emperors, such as {{Qing namebox}} (e.g. Kangxi Emperor) and {{Chinese Emperor}}.

Characters

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. 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 acceptable provided that there is no existing article for Li Shimin.

"His name was 李世民 (Li Shimin)."

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.

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. To help you type pinyin, Wikipedia now has clickable characters with diacritics under the edit box; you can also use an IME such as Pinyinput or an online converter such as Google Translate's phonetic reading function to make it easier to type in pinyin. Italicise pinyin to differentiate it from the English text.

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

Tone diacritics are not used to transcribe names or terms that appear in the normal flow of an article (e.g. "...early Ming Dynasty scholar Gù Yánwǔ..." or "...a bronze dǐng excavated from a Zhou Dynasty tomb..."). They should only be used in templates and parentheticals (e.g. Chinese: 顧炎武; pinyin: Gù Yánwǔ) or in infoboxes.

Accessibility

Many browsers are not set up to correctly render Chinese text. If an article contains several instances of Chinese text, such as this page, consider using the template {{contains Chinese text}} near the top of the article, shown at the top of this section. This will alert users to the missing information. The uncertainty of the Chinese characters' display is another reason why you should always provide some type of romanization when referring to Chinese concepts in articles.

If you are not using the {{zh}} template or other template designed for Chinese characters, wrap your characters in {{text}} for accessibility and many other reasons. For example:

• Ink and wash painting ({{lang|zh-Hans-CN|水墨画}}) produces:
• Ink and wash painting (水墨画)

Linking to Wiktionary

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.

The {{Linktext}} template can be used to link directly to Wiktionary. For example {{zh|c={{linktext|中国}}}} produces Chinese: 中国. Separate characters with a pipe (|) symbol to link them individually. If you want to insert a link in a box to one side, use {{Wiktionarypar|字}} (see box on the right).

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.

Example:

Chinese characters (trad.) with pinyin transcription added using ruby annotations

北方(Běifāng) 有(yǒu) 佳人(jiārén) ，絕世(juéshì) 而(ér) 獨立(dúlì) 。

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) 。

佳人(Jiārén) 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) ".

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 — Supported.
• Chrome — Supported.

Lists of pages currently using this template: ruby, ruby-ja, ruby-zh-b, ruby-zh-p.

Naming

Modern Chinese polities

Following is the consensus guide on when to use which term in reference to subjects related to China. Consistency of language across all articles is not a requirement of Wikipedia. It is also not necessary that a single article use one term consistently over the other. Where "China," or "People's Republic of China" is used it should not be changed arbitrarily. In many contexts the terms can be used interchangeably. Which one is used in such contexts is largely a matter of editorial style. In cases where either "China" or the "People's Republic of China" both seem appropriate editors should use their own discretion.

China	People's Republic of China	mainland China
In many cases "China" can be used to refer to the modern state officially known as the "People's Republic of China". When discussing geography, those places within the territorial control of the People's Republic of China should generally be said to be in "China". For example, "Zhongguancun has become a major centre of electronics in China", "... a novelist from Chengdu, China".	When discussing politics or diplomatic relations, it may be necessary to use the full official name "People's Republic of China". This may be necessary to avoid confusion with the Republic of China if it may have been referred to as "China" at the time or place being discussed. For instance "the PRC replaced the Republic of China as China's representative in the United Nations in 1971." and "The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949..." and "The People's Republic of China objected to the Vatican inviting diplomats from the Republic of China to represent 'China' at the funeral of the pope." When mentioning official documents, institutions, or positions, it may be preferable to use the full official name "People's Republic of China". For example, "The Constitution of the People's Republic of China...". However, subsequent mentions in the same article may use the adjectival form "Chinese". For example, "Chinese premier Wen Jiabao". In cases where there is ambiguity, use the more specific "People's Republic of China"	The term "mainland China" refers to the People's Republic of China when contrasting with the islands of the Republic of China. The term also usually excludes Hong Kong and Macau. Because of the ambiguity of the term, it should only be used when a contrast is needed and when a simpler construction such as "China, except Hong Kong" is unworkable. For example, "Lo Wu is the most heavily trafficked border crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China," "Due to the relocation of many manufacturing and labor-intensive industries to mainland China, unemployment in Taiwan reached a level not seen since the 1973 oil crisis."

Language

The "Chinese language" usually refers to Modern Standard Chinese (MSC, "Mandarin") in its spoken form, and Standard Written Chinese, based on the former, in its written form. Therefore, it is not necessary and often confusing to call Chinese "Mandarin", except when you are contrasting MSC to some other variety ("lect") of Chinese, such as Shanghainese or Cantonese.

The question of whether the primary lects of Chinese are languages or dialects is disputed. In lists or categories such as "Number of speakers by language" or "Films by language", categorize these lects separately if you must list more than one Chinese lect, and if the sources make the distinction (don't do original research by splitting or merging statistics for Chinese lects). As above, avoid gratuitous references to "Mandarin" when you are contrasting only MSC with other standardized world languages, such as French, Spanish, and German.

When describing loanwords, terms, place names, or personal names, it can be appropriate to include the names, characters, and/or romanizations from the originating language or dialect. Including the Shanghainese term would be appropriate for a place name in Shanghai or a Shanghainese dish; including the Taiwanese names for the same would not. On the other hand, including the MSC term is almost always appropriate, because of its status as a lingua franca and as a standard for all governments whose official language is "Chinese".

Ethnicity

When identifying people by ethnic group in China-related articles, refer to the Han people or Han rather than "Chinese people", especially when contrasting that ethnic group to other ethnic groups in China, such as Zhuang or Tibetans. "Chinese" can also refer to nationality, so be careful to avoid implying that ethnic minorities are not or should not be citizens of China. Use parallel terms, such as Han Chinese and Zhuang Chinese, or Han people and Zhuang people, or Han and Zhuang, but never Han Chinese and Zhuang people, unless the nationalities of the distinguished groups clearly differ.

Some find a distinction between "Chinese" and "Taiwanese" to be objectionable and the terms "Mainland Chinese"/"Taiwanese" are more politically neutral and use will depend on the context. The term "Mainlander" poses some issues. It is sometimes ambiguous whether this is referring to a resident of Mainland China or a member of the group that fled with the KMT to Taiwan in 1949. In referring to the latter group, the name is mildly objectionable when used in English and strongly objectionable when translated literally in Chinese. Preferred unambiguous names for the two groups are "Mainland Chinese" and "Wàishěngrén".

Jiedushi

The office of jiedushi was originated in mid-Tang Dynasty, and gradually grew in usage. Originating out of the military command structure of Tang border forces, the use of the office spread to the rest of the realm and remained as an important office with both military and civil responsibilities until the early Song Dynasty. In general, when discussing the office of jiedushi, except in the article about the office itself:

• While using the term as an office held by a person, use "military governor (jiedushi) when referred to first time in the lead and first time in a section of the article, and then only "military governor" thereafter.
• When used in an article to refer to a specific jiedushi office rather than a specific person (e.g., Pinghai Jiedushi), use the term directly -- but --
• When used to refer to the region or area of responsibility governed by the specific jiedushi office rather than the office or the person, use "<name of office> Circuit" (e.g., in the case of Pinghai, mentioned above, "Pinghai Circuit") --
  • Unless the jiedushi in question is specific to a roving army (e.g., Shuofang Xingying Jiedushi (朔方行營節度使)) in which case use "Shuofang Expedition Army" or
  • Unless the jiedushi in question is specific to a military base or bases (e.g., Heyang Sanzhen Jiedushi (河陽三鎮節度使)) in which case use Three Garrisons of Heyang"