Editing Policies
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English and Chinese
As this is a mostly English language site, please try to use English whether for discussions or translating terms. However, given the background audience, and since the source material and media are originally Chinese, there are times when Chinese or pinyin may be used for translation or cultural purposes.
Sometimes, supplementing the English text with the original Chinese name or phrase is enlightening as it could help provide deeper meaning and additional insights not captured fully by the English translation.
If there is important information regarding the story written in Chinese, and you are unsure how to best translate it, you are permitted to write the original Chinese. Then later editors can help translate the content into English.
Pinyin
Use modern pinyin, for example Daoist and Yiqidao League. Modern pinyin is how Chinese names are officially transcribed into the English alphabet nowadays.
Other than for character and place names, direct transliteration into pinyin is permissible if there is no agreed-on standard English term, the English term is awkward, or the pinyin is shorter and simpler to write.
If up to it, refer to the official standard 汉语拼音正词法基本规则 for a thorough sense of how Chinese pinyin orthography is used formally. This site may take some liberties for the sake of colloquialism, but otherwise maintains official spellings as much as possible.
Translation guidelines
The manhua and donghua subtitles sometimes have multiple translations, and even within a single translation may not be consistent. This site usually tries to pick a common translation and at least show other synonymous translations where helpful. Please leave your comments on the Terminology page if you have any suggestions and ideas about naming.
Please feel free to also add translations from the Chinese Donghua subtitles. But beware that even Donghua subtitles are not consistent with their translations.
The basic policies for translating terms are:
- Faithful (信): the English name should retain the same meaning as the Chinese one.
- Expressive (达): proper wording so that it can be understandable.
- Elegant (雅): just, elegant.
If there is a natural English translation, use it! However there are times when pinyin provides a more natural translation.
When to use pinyin
Transliterating into pinyin is an acceptable way if no other translation satisfies the above criterion. This can happen when the original Chinese term has multiple meanings not succinctly captured by any known English term. It can also happen when the English term is awkwardly long, while the pinyin provides a much shorter alternative. Even in daily life, one encounters instances when pinyin is used over calques and neologisms, as described below.
Using pinyin for placenames
For the following placenames, pinyin is used over literal translation.
- 北京 Beijing ≠ North Capital
- 上海 Shanghai ≠ Up Sea
- 沐天城 Mutian City ≠ Clean Sky City
- 傲来 Aolai ≠ Proud Arrive
Using the term 'North Capital' can sound too vague: 'North Capital' of where? The term Beijing is used to specifically refer to a Chinese place. Similarly, many other placenames in the donghua use the pinyin over the more vague-sounding literal translations.
But there are some exceptions. For the below names, either the pinyin or translation may be used.
- Beishan, Northridge
- Nanguo, Southland
But as a rule of thumb, if one wants to be more specific with the toponym, use the pinyin. The pinyin also requires less translation effort as it is simple transliteration.
Using pinyin for names
The names for Chinese people are translated using pinyin. They are almost never literally translated.
- 白月初 Bai Yuechu ≠ White Moon Start
- 红红 Honghong ≠ Red Red
- 王权富贵 Wangquan Fugui ≠ King Power Rich Noble
Most Chinese names are 3 syllables, with some being 2 or even 4.
There are times when literal translations may be used if there is an indication that they are more like a title rather than a person's name.
- 金面火神 Jinmian Huoshen, Gold Fire God
But to err on the safe side, if the translation is unclear or even contentious, use the original pinyin for people's names.
Using pinyin as placeholders
Sometimes, a term has multiple different English translations, so the question becomes which one to choose. In such cases, the pinyin can be used as a placeholder until consensus is reached on the standard English term.
For 虚空之泪 there seems to be a rough consensus on the translation Void Tear--which also best preserves the original meaning, is shorter to write, and 'sounds elegant'.
But one particular example is 绝缘之抓 which has many different names: Invincible Claws, Repelling Claws, Insulating Claws, Destiny Severing Claws. There appears to be no consensus. Even the donghua translation uses these different terms inconsistently. 绝缘 can have multiple meanings as well, including 'insulating', 'repelling', but also 'destiny severing'. Unless there is an English term that can encapsulate all these different meanings in a succinct way, the term Jueyuan Zhizhua is used to best preserve the original meaning. But there are redirects to this page, and people are free to use whichever of these given terms they wish on this site.
In general, if there are multiple usable and valid names for a term (such as yao and spirit), then any of the possible translations are allowed to be used as synonyms. If one encounters other translations, do not delete as different people may know the same concept by different names. Instead use redirects and learn to coexist with synonyms.
English uses synonyms all the time, for example 'water', 'aqua', 'hydro', 'marine' all roughly mean the same thing, even if they are used in different contexts.
Using pinyin for double-entendre
As shown above with the term Jueyuan Zhizhua, sometimes the original term has multiple layers of meaning not perfectly or succinctly captured by an English translation. There are many times when puns, double-entendre, and other literary devices that arise in the Chinese language do not translate into English. In such cases, if possible, use the original pinyin. Otherwise, another recommendation is to make the best shot at an English translation and place the original Chinese alongside for cross-referencing.
However versatile English may be, for any story, reading in the original language provides the greatest depth of experience and fullest immersion. It is hoped that the translations here help provide a bridge from English into the growing wondrous world of manhua, donghua, wuxia, and xianxia.
Style Guidelines
It is assumed that contributors understand English and are aware of basic stylistic guidelines of standard English, so standard English style will not be elucidated in depth here.
Instead the following style guidelines are for how to write pinyin and integrate it into standard English vernacular.
Spacing and merging words
For 2-character Chinese names, depending on situation the two hanzi form a single word (e.g. Zuoshi 左使 Tushan 涂山 Yaoguai 妖怪) or the hanzi are written separately (e.g. Xiao Wen 小文 or Lao Chen). Usually prefixes like Xiao 小 or Lao 老 are kept as separate words. Also, the family name is kept a separate word (Wang Xin 王昕). Sometimes multiple spellings are acceptable (阿宽 can be written as Akuan or A Kuan or A-Kuan). These are usually handled on a case-by-case basis.
For 3-character Chinese names, keep the original ordering with family name first. Depending on situation:
- The surname is placed first, and the last two hanzi characters form a single word (e.g. Bai Yuechu 白月初). This is the most common case for people's names and is usually the default spelling.
- For some Locations or organization names, sometimes three characters are merged into one (Yiqidao League 一气道盟).
- Sometimes each character is written separately for emphasis (Yi Qi Dao League is another accepted spelling).
- Sometimes the first two hanzi form a word. For example, 2-hanzi surnames (复姓) are written as one word (Cuiyu Ling, Wangquan Zui, Qingmu Yuan, Dongfang Yuechu).
For 4-character names, usually group in pairs of two (e.g. Tushan Susu, Huandu Luolan, Wangquan Fugui). But for some rare cases, they are spelled differently, like when two family names are used (Chen Zhang Taikang 陈张太康). Some 4-hanzi skills may be written differently like Xukong zhi Lei 虚空之泪 or Jueyuan zhi Zhua 绝缘之爪 since the 'zhi' 之 is a possessive particle (similar to 'of' in English). Otherwise this is usually handled case-by-case.
Place names, Locations, and names with more than 4 characters should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
If ever in doubt, write each hanzi as a separate word, and later editors can help merge the words.
Pinyin
As explained above, use modern pinyin. Modern pinyin is how the overwhelming majority of Chinese transliterate their language. Thus:
- Write Yiqidao. Do not write Yichitao.
- Write Pingqiu. Do not write Pingchiu.
Punctuation
- Hyphens - or apostrophes ' may be used for glottal stops. For example Bai Qiu'en or Ya-er.
- But otherwise, use spaces or merge the words instead.
Capitalization
Write Qingtong. QingTong may look awkward in English orthography as capitalizing letters without a space before is somewhat less common, so Qingtong or even Qing Tong is preferred. Syllables naturally spell themselves and do not need superfluous capitalization for emphasis.
Even though capitalization without space does occur in English, for example McDonald, these cases are not the most common for English names. Many Chinese names will already not be too common in English, so there is no need to make them even more exotic by permuting the capitalization or bringing back scriptio continua.
Spelling
Write Lü Jianwen. Do not write Lu Jianwen as Lu is a completely different phoneme in Chinese (with a completely different meaning). If you cannot type ü it is acceptable to write Lv, although Lü is preferred.
The q in Pingqiu Yuechu has already been chosen to fit English orthography. q is pronounced roughly like ch in Northern Chinese dialects, including the official putonghua. However in Southern Chinese dialects, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. the q in Sinitic words is pronounced more like k, as in English.
Moreover, ch is already used for a different phoneme in Chinese, in words such as Chan or Chang.
Thus, follow the modern pinyin and write q for Chinese names.
Page Titles
In most cases, the names from official translations are chosen as page titles.
However, there are times when this site may opt for other titles because of updated information from newer episodes / chapters, lack of consensus on official translations, and various other cultural reasons.
For completeness purposes, in such articles, any official translations are still to be included in the relevant infobox field or article section, and the appropriate page redirects are also to be created.