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A NOTE ON SPELLING

Chinese characters have been transliterated into the Roman alphabet using many different systems. Until recently the Wade-Giles system was most prominent, through which many English readers came to know Li Po, Tu Fu, Po Chü-i, and Su T’ung-p’o, for example. The latest writing system, called Pinyin, seems more closely to approximate modern Mandarin pronunciation, e.g., Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, and Su Dongpo, and is the spelling system I have generally employed. In China if I mentioned Li Po or Tu Fu I got no reaction, but if I said Li Bai or Du Fu faces brightened, like meeting old friends. Few brightened at the mention of Han-shan, little read in China and not taught in school. One spelling exception is the name of the mountain region Han-shan called home: “Tiantai” in Pinyin. I missed the sound of the soft e, the way I imagined the sound of “Tientai,” so I have maintained that spelling.