Quick Answer: How Do You Read a Chinese Classical Book Title?
Start with the Chinese characters and find the work they name. Then check whether the record adds a commentary, a count of textual divisions or a date for a particular printing.[1][2][3]
- Title. Save the original characters before comparing English titles.
- Variants. More than one English translation or spelling can refer to the same work.[2]
- Edition. Keep commentary details and the date of the copy when they affect the passage you are citing.[1][3]
A work can be centuries older than the copy you have in front of you. When citing a passage, distinguish the work from the edition you read.[3]
An English subtitle or translator’s spelling can send you to the right work, but it might leave you looking at the wrong text. The Chinese title and the edition line give you two separate ways to check.
Find the Work Before You Identify the Edition
The Analects (論語, Lúnyǔ) is the core title. A record headed 論語注疏 (Lúnyǔ Zhùshū) includes the Analects with commentary and subcommentary (注疏, zhùshū). Both records concern the same base text. The longer title matters if the words you want to quote belong to a commentator or an explanation layered around the base text.[1]
The marks 《 》 often enclose a work title in modern Chinese publishing. They help locate a title in running text. The words inside still need to be checked against the catalog, especially when an edition title includes both the work and a commentary. See the guide to Chinese book title marks for their punctuation role.
Four Steps for Reading a Classical Title
- Copy the Chinese title. Preserve the characters in the record or image. Search those characters as a phrase before relying on a translated title alone.
- Check equivalent titles. Compare the Chinese title with the English title and romanized form in a reliable catalog. Write down the variant you need to recognize in another bibliography.
- Separate edition information. Look for commentary labels, a printing date and any count of textual divisions. Check whether the record separately lists the number of physical books or volumes.
- Identify the passage you used. Record the relevant chapter or textual division and name the edition or translation. If you used a note rather than the base text, cite the note as such.
A juan (卷, juǎn) is a division of the text. A physical book can contain more than one juan. Use the catalog’s physical description to work out how many items make up the particular copy.[3]
Three Title Records and What to Keep
The Book of Changes (易經, Yìjīng) is also referred to in English as the I Ching. The form I Ching and the modern pinyin Yijing point to the same classic. If two catalog records translate their titles differently, compare the Chinese text and the contents rather than treating the English forms as separate works.[2]
A digitized entry for the Records of the Grand Historian (史記, Shǐjì) shows 史記 : 一百三十卷. The first part names the work, and the second gives 130 textual divisions. The catalog dates the printed item to 1171 and attributes the much earlier work to the Western Han historian Sima Qian. The structure of the Shiji explains what those divisions contain.[3]
| Title or record | What to keep in a reading note |
|---|---|
| The Analects | The core title and any named commentary. |
| Book of Changes | The original title and the English or romanized variant used in your source. |
| Records of the Grand Historian | The title before the division count and the edition date on its own. |
FAQs About Chinese Classical Book Titles
Is I Ching a different work from Yijing?
These are established romanized forms used for the same classic. A particular translation or commentary can still differ, so record which edition you used.[2]
Does juan mean a separate printed volume?
Juan is a textual division. Use the record’s physical description to determine how the divisions are bound in the copy being described.[3]
Why can the book’s date be centuries later than the author?
A catalog date may refer to the surviving printing or manuscript. That date belongs to that copy or edition, while the author and period fields identify the earlier work.[3]
Fuentes
[1] Chinese Text Project. The Analects and its library resources
[2] Chinese Text Project. Indexing rationale and aliases for the classics
[3] Library of Congress. Shi ji: yi bai san shi juan, first digitized volume