A reader should be able to tell, for any line on this site, which edition it came from, who transcribed it, and why it reads the way it does. This page sets out the rules we follow to make that possible.

1. Base edition

Every work is transcribed from one named base edition, stated on the work’s page. We do not assemble a text by picking readings from several editions to taste. Where another edition has a reading we consider preferable, we keep the base reading in the text and record the alternative in a collation note.

Each work page carries a base-edition field. Until a base edition has been confirmed and its rights position cleared, that field reads pending confirmation and the text is not published. We would rather show an empty shelf than an unverified one.

2. Transcription

• Characters are reproduced as they appear in the base edition, including graphic variants (恬惔, not the more familiar 恬淡; 志閒, not 志闲). Normalising these silently destroys information.
• A simplified-character version is provided alongside, as a reading aid only. It is generated for reference and is not the text we cite.
• We do not use automatic traditional-to-simplified conversion at page-render time. Both scripts are prepared in advance so that a reader switching between them sees the same segmentation in both.
• Punctuation is editorial. Classical texts were transmitted without it; our pointing is an interpretation and is recorded as such.

3. Collation notes

Where editions differ, the difference is listed under the passage with the sigla of the editions involved and, where we can give it, the reason one reading is likelier. We do not adjudicate silently. A variant that affects the sense is flagged in the text itself, not only in the apparatus.

4. Pinyin

• Tone marks, not tone numbers.
• Written by word, not by character: yīn yáng, not yin1 yang2 and not yīnyáng run together.
• Where a character has a reading specific to the medical sense and it is established, we use that reading and note the ordinary one.
• Pinyin can be switched off. It is a scaffold; the point is to stop needing it.

5. English rendering

One Chinese term gets one English rendering, used throughout, even where a native speaker of English would vary the word for style. Consistency is what lets a reader follow a concept across chapters and across works; variety is a service to prose and a disservice to study.

We avoid renderings that import a framework the text does not contain. In particular we do not render 氣 as “energy”: it is not a claim about physics, and the word sends a modern reader toward a concept that has no counterpart in the source. Each term entry records the renderings used by earlier translators and explains our choice against them — see the entry for Qi.

The rendering is a gloss, not a literary translation. It is written to be mapped back onto the Chinese line by line. Where a smooth English sentence would require abandoning that mapping, we keep the mapping and note the awkwardness.

6. Review

Each passage passes through transcription, pinyin, rendering, and review before publication, and the review state is shown on the work’s chapter list. Passages that have not completed review are labelled as such rather than quietly published. Corrections after publication are recorded on the passage with their date, so that a reader relying on an older citation can reconcile it.

7. Citation

Every work page and chapter page offers a ready-made citation in APA, MLA, and Chinese scholarly form, naming the base edition. Citing a website page is not adequate for classical material; the edition is what makes a citation checkable.