ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2342
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2342
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From: "Sara L Friedemann"
19 Sep 2001
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for a Chinese name that might be given to a white woman living in
China during the Yuan Dynasty (c1270-1368), possibly as a concubine after
her merchant father met an untimely demise. Failing that, you asked for a
Chinese feminine name with <Lotus> as an element. We researched both
options, assuming that you refer to ethnic Chinese (Han) rather than Mongols
who ruled and lived in China during the Yuan Dynasty.
We would like to apologize for the length of time it has taken us to
finish this report. Chinese naming is a new area for us, so it took
longer than usual to get the necessary information and organize it.
We need to begin with some background on the Chinese writing system. It is
very different from alphabetic systems most Westerners use. Even today each
written Chinese character represents one syllable and each possible syllable
is meaningful. These characters are traditionally written in columns from
top to bottom, one character per line, with columns written from right to
left. There was no punctuation to identify sentences, phrases, or
polysyllabic words. Even today literate Chinese think of characters, rather
than words, as their basic language unit.
To complicate matters, each syllable is a pronunciation for many different
written characters, each with its own definition. Chinese has many more
homophones (words that sound the same but have different definitions, such
as <sea> and <see>) than English. Therefore, sound often is not enough to
identify which written character is intended. Han often need to see written
characters to understand a spoken word. However, a written character does
not completely indicate pronunciation because the same writing system is
used for many different dialects, and as a basis for other written Asian
languages.
Unfortunately, we cannot use Chinese characters here. We are limited to
romanization (representing Chinese characters with Roman letters) for
various reasons. You will also need to use such a representation if you
decide to register a Chinese name with the College of Arms. [1]
Romanization makes it difficult to distinguish between homophones, which
makes it difficult to identify which syllables and written Chinese
characters go with which name. We try to reduce this difficulty by
translating each syllable to help you identify exactly which Chinese
character is intended. (If you need more help identifying written Chinese
characters after you select your name, ask us to provide an image of the
appropriate characters.) Syllable translations listed here do not
necessarily give the real meaning of a polysyllabic word. For example,
<ch'ing-p'i> literally translates as "green skin," but it actually means
"rogue." We cannot translate many polysyllabic names because none of our
current members reads Chinese. However, we can usually translate
monosyllabic names because we only need a Chinese-English dictionary (many
syllable meanings have not changed significantly since ancient times).
Similarly, we also can translate some disyllabic names because their
syllables often do not form a non-name phrase.
Another difficulty is that there are several incompatible systems of
romanization. The two most common modern transliteration conventions are
Wade-Giles and Pinyin. Both conventions are based on modern Mandarin
dialect. They are not interchangeable because, in many cases, they use
different letters to represent the same sound, as you'll see in names we
list later in this letter. We list Wade-Giles romanizations first, followed
by Pinyin romanizations in brackets ([]). However, we modified these
romanization conventions slightly to be more consistent with Chinese written
characters. We write each syllable as a separate word. (Wade Giles
romanization typically hyphenates polysyllabic names and Pinyin
romanizations typically joins polysyllabic names into a single word.)
Moreover, common Chinese sounds are quite different from common sounds
in English and other major European languages. Therefore, all standard
romanizations use letters and letter combinations that are pronounced very
differently than you probably expect. We are not able to provide a medieval
pronunciation guide at this time, but we listed pronunciations based on
modern Mandarin. [21] Our pronunciation information includes numbers (1, 2,
3, or 4) at the end of most Chinese syllables listed here. These numbers,
usually superscripted in word-processed documents, indicate a syllable's
spoken tone. At their simplest,
Tone 1 is high level
Tone 2 is high rising
Tone 3 is low dipping
Tone 4 is high falling
Tone combinations in polysyllabic words can be much more complicated.
However, such tone combinations can be _roughly_ approximated by
treating each syllable as a separate entity. You can learn more about tones
and pronunciation, through the web addresses below. (There are no blank
spaces in these addresses. If your font underlines web addresses, a space
that looks blank is actually a single underscore character.)
http://www.wellgot.ca/phonetic/preface-e.htm
http://icg.harvard.edu/~pinyin/
http://www.wannalearn.com/Academic_Subjects/World_Languages/Chinese
We also want to provide some background in Han naming conventions. Our
information indicates the general conventions changed very slowly in period,
and most of them were still in effect in the early 20th Century. [2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
A Han with any social, civic, or military status would consistently use an
inherited family name, a <hsing4> [xing4], even in early SCA period. Since
ancient times, family names come first in a Han name, even before a title or
form of respectful address. [11] Family names are used more consistently
than any other name or title when referring to a person.
An authentic Han name begins with a family name. There are about 600
Han hsing we can confirm as being used before 1600. [3] The five most
common hsing at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were: [4]
<Chang1> [Zhang1], which translates as, "to draw a bow"
Pronounced \djahng\
<Chao4> [Zhao4], which translates as, "to hasten to, a
surname"
Pronounced \djow\, to rhyme with <how>
<Li3> [Li3], which translates as, "plum, plum tree"
Pronounced \lee\
<Liu2> [Liu2], which translates as, "an axe, to kill, a family
name"
Pronounced \lyoh\
<Wang2> [Wang2], which translates as, "prince, king"
Pronounced \wahng\
Although hsing originally had meaning, by early SCA period a hsing's
meaning was much less important than relationships it indicated. [12] In
addition, hsing were inherited in period. Therefore, a woman who inherited
a hsing that translates as archer was most probably not an archer.
On the other hand, the meaning of a Han given name was very important.
Meaning was much more important than sound. Most given names were
auspicious, a few were descriptive, and some were conferred to honor an
ancestor or patron. Feminine names typically indicated the bearer had
traits desirable in a wife or concubine. Alternatively, feminine names
referred to a beautiful or precious object.
There are several primary types of Han given names that a woman used in
her lifetime. A Han of any social status had both a <ming2> [ming2] and
<tzu4> [zi4]. [13] A ming is a formal or official name, the first of which
was typically given by her parents in infancy or early childhood. A tzu is
a style, informal, or familiar name by which she was typically known outside
the home. An uncle, elder brother, or close family friend typically
conferred her first tzu as she neared adulthood. A tzu is not a nickname or
epithet. A woman's tzu might be a variant of her ming, or it might be
completely unrelated. People often changed their ming, tzu, or both if the
names became inappropriate or outdated. However, it appears that a person
did not have more than one ming and tzu at a time.
Ming and tzu [13] consisted of one or two syllables. Our examples indicate
disyllabic names are at least slightly more common than monosyllabic names.
Disyllabic names can form a phrase, for example, to indicate a woman is
beautiful and loyal. Sometimes the syllables of a disyllabic name were
repetitive, either using the same syllable twice (for example, <Hung2
Hung2>, meaning "red, red") or using two synonymous syllables (for example,
<Shu4 Che^ng1> in which both syllables mean "virtuous, pure").
Many Han also had one or more <hao4> [hao4], which they would also
change whenever appropriate. A hao is a fancy name, literary name, or
short title used as a name. It is typically short, but often included more
than two syllables. Many hao appear to be epithets or descriptive phrases.
A few hao appear to be nicknames or sobriquets, but they apparently were not
diminutives of ming or tzu. Hao were typically conferred by friends,
colleagues, or relatives. A few hao were truly titles conferred by a
civilian or military authority. In some cases a person was better known to
the general public by her hao, than by her tzu or ming.
Which given name was used, if any, depended on many factors. For example,
a Han would not use a person's ming when addressing her directly or,
usually, when she held higher social status. However, a hao could be more
appropriate in some cases than a tzu. In addition, Han apparently did not
chain together given names. Instead, each given name was used singly, with
the family name and, possibly, with a title such as "lady." For example,
an eighth century woman was and is mostly known as <Yang2 Kuei4 Fei1>, but
she was also called <Yang2 Yu:4 Huau2> and could have been called <Yang2
Fu1 Je^n2> or <Yang2 Yu:4 Huau2 Fu1 Je^n2>. (The colon indicates an
umlaut, or two dots, over the preceding character and the ^ indicates a
hachek over the preceding character.) <Yang2> is the family name this
woman inherited from her father. <Kuei4 Fei1> is a hao, meaning "precious
imperial consort," that was a title used as a name. <Yu:4 Huau2> was the
woman's ming or tzu, meaning "white jade ring or bracelet." <Fu1 Je^n2> is
a title and form of address meaning "lady."
Now for specific information about your name requests. This letter
addresses your second option first to limit redundancy and to provide a
sense of suitable meanings for feminine Han names.
Our current examples include several feminine names with a flower element.
Two medieval fictional names include "Lotus," transliterated as <Lien2>
[Lian2] and pronounced \lyen\. We believe "Lotus" was also used by real
women before 1600, but our historical examples were used after 1600. None
of our feminine flower name examples is from the Yuan Dynasty, but that
might be due to our limited number of examples. In addition, our examples
suggest "Orchid" is more common in feminine names than "Lotus." You might
use "Lotus" (or "Orchid") alone, or combine it with a syllable meaning
"fragrant," "beautiful," "graceful," "virtuous," or a suitable color.
Examples of historical, feminine, flower ming and tzu include: [4,5,13,22]
<Ching3 Lan2> [Jing3 Lan2] (1605-1676) meaning "beautiful
or admirable orchid."
Pronounced \dyeeng lahn\
<Ching3> translates as "bright, beautiful; scenery, a
view; prospects; circumstances; admire, respect."
<Lan2> translates as "orchideous plant."
<Chiung2 Ying1> [Jiong2 Ying1] (15th C) meaning "precious flower."
Pronounced \dyung yeeng\, with \u\ as in <put>.
<Chiung2> translates as "brilliant, precious."
<Ying1> translates as "flower, brave, superior."
<Hsiu4 Ying1> [Xiu4 Ying1] (ca. 5th C) meaning "beautiful flower."
Pronounced \hyoh yeeng\, with both \y\s as consonants
and with lots of friction on the \hy\.
<Hsiu4> translates as "ripening; luxuriant; beautiful,
elegant."
<Ying1> [Ying1] translates as "flower, brave, superior."
<Hua1 Jui3> [Hua1 Rui3] (10th C) meaning "flower heart."
Pronounced \hwah Rway\ [14]
<Hua1> translates as "flower."
<Jui3> translates as "flower center, organs at a
flower's center."
<Hui4> [Hui4] (4th C) meaning "orchid."
Pronounced \hway\
<Hui4> translates as the name of a marsh orchid.
<Jo4 Lan2> [Ruo4 Lan2] (4th C) meaning "like an orchid."
Pronounced \Rwaw lahn\, where \Rwaw\
rhymes with <law>
<Jo4> translates as "to be as; if; as to;
to follow; to be in sympathy; with; much."
<Lan2> translates as "orchideous plant."
<Lan2> [Lan2] (5th C) meaning "orchid."
Pronounced \lahn\
<Lan2> translates as "orchideous plant."
<Li4 Hua2> [Li4 Hua2] (6th C) meaning "elegant/graceful
flower."
Pronounced \lee hwah\
<Li4> translates as "antelopes; elegant; graceful;
beautiful."
<Hua2> translates as "flower; flowery; variegated;
China."
<Te2 Hui4> [De2 Hui4] (very late 16th C or early 17th C)
meaning "virtuous orchid."
Pronounced \d@ hway\ where \@\ represents
the sound of 'a' in <sofa> and <about>
<Te2> translates as "moral excellence, goodness,
power, quality, virtue."
<Hui4> translates as the name of a marsh orchid.
<Yu:n2 Ying1> [Yun2 Ying1] (9th C), apparently meaning
"flowery cloud."
Pronounced \yu:n yeeng\ where \u:\ is pronounced
as the \ue\ in Dueseldorf
<Yu:n2> translates as "clouds."
<Ying1> translates as "flower, brave, superior."
Our fictional flower name examples come from a translation of a period
Chinese novel. Scholars indicate this novel accurately reflects domestic
life among wealthy families in large, late 16th C Chinese cities. We do not
currently have historical examples of these names, so we can't recommend
them without reservation. However, these fictional names appear consistent
with trends we deduce from our historical name examples. Translated,
feminine, flower names from this novel include: [6]
Gold Lotus,
<Chin1 Lien2> [Jin1 Lian2] in romanized Chinese
Pronounced \dyeen lyen\ where \y\ is a consonant
As You Like It (the Chinese name of a specific flower)
Sunflower
Apricot Blossom
Autumn Aster
Cinnamon Bud
Fragrant Orchid
Lotus Petal
Orchid Bud
Pear Blossom
Summer Blossom
Waterlily
We have romanized syllables one of these fictional names. We cannot
currently provide romanizations or Chinese characters for some of these
names because we can not yet identify which synonymous syllables were used.
However, if you choose a name element from this novel, we will provide what
little information we have to identify the appropriate written Chinese
character.
As we noted earlier, you might want to combine "Lotus" with a color element.
Examples of similarly constructed, historical, feminine ming and tzu
include: [4,5,13,22]
<Chin1 Luan2> [Jin1 Luan2] (8th-9th C) meaning
"golden bells."
Pronounced \dyeen lwahn\
<Chin1> translates as "gold."
<Luan2> translates as "little bells; imperial ears;
a term of respect."
<Hung2 Hung2> [Hong2 Hong2] (9th C) meaning "red, red"
Pronounced \hung hung\, with \u\ as in <put>
<Hung2> translates as "red."
<Hung2 Fu4> [Hong2 Fu4] (7th C) meaning "red flicker,"
apparently based on a dyed yak tail the name-bearer always
carried.
Pronounced as \hung foo\, with \u\ as in <put> and
\oo\ as in <moon>
<Hung2> translates as "red."
<Fu4> translates as "to shake off; to brush;
to oppose."
<Ts'ai3 Luan2> [Cai3 Luan2] (4th-5th C) meaning
"colorful\ornamental pheasant."
Pronounced \tsy lwahn\, with \y\ as in <my>
<Ts'ai3> translates as "gay-colored, ornamental,
elegant, lucky, clouds."
<Luan2> translates as "argus pheasant, bells,
imperial."
<Ts'ui4 P'ing2> [Cui4 Ping2] (9th C) meaning
"blue screen."
Pronounced \tsway peeng\.
<Ts'ui4> translates as the "king-fisher; blue."
<P'ing2> translates as "a screen; to cover;
protection."
Some period, fictional, Chinese, feminine names also included a color
element. As we indicated earlier, these names seem consistent with our
historical name examples, but we do not currently have examples of real
women who used these names. In addition to the name Gold Lotus above,
our fictional examples include: [6]
Golden Jewel
Golden Willow
Little Gold
Little Silver
Silver Bird
Silver Bud
As we previously indicated, we do not have transliterations or Chinese
characters for some of these names.
We also researched a name Han might give a white woman. That research
led to some observations that might affect your persona development and to a
few name suggestions.
Very few people traveled the entire distance between Europe and China
before 1600. Most of those travelers were masculine, 16th Century
missionaries and merchants. Academy members currently have no
information to indicate that women traveled the full distance except,
possibly, as servants or slaves. This lack of information might be
because our research in this area is new or because women of status
did not undertake such a trip. [15,16,17,18]
Further, the Yuan Dynasty was one of foreign occupation, when Mongols
ruled Han. Han were notably xenophobic during such times. With very few
exceptions, Han men very carefully protected their home life from foreign
influences at such times. It seems very unlikely that a Yuan Dynasty Han
household would include a non-Han woman, except possibly as a slave or
low-status servant. Han were much more interested in foreign people,
cultures, and goods when their government was truly domestic and fairly
stable. (The 7th and early 8th Century, specifically the Golden Age of the
T'ang Dynasty, appears to be the era when period Han were least xenophobic.)
[7,9,10,16,17]
All our examples of names that Han gave to Europeans, and most examples
for other foreigners, are masculine. Those examples indicate Han typically
gave a foreigner a hao that sounded similar to the foreigner's native name.
Otherwise, Han usually gave a foreigner a hao that was a descriptive title.
In a few cases Han gave, or the foreigner adopted, a name that looked and
sounded like a native Han name. Feminine examples identified to date seem
similar, but we do not have most of the their native names: [4,5,22]
<A1 Shih4 Hui1> [A1 Shi4 Hui1] (1608-1692) apparently
meaning "key household member."
Pronounced \ah shR hway\
<A1> is a prefix used as a sound before a pet name,
surname or a title indicating family or close relationship.
<Shih4> translates as "house, home, household."
<Hui1> translates as "to move, to shake, to rouse, to
brush away."
<A1 Shih4 Ko1> [A1 Shi4 Ge1] (early 17th C)
meaning "a senior woman in the household."
Pronounced \ah shR g@\
<A1> is a prefix used as a sound before a pet name,
surname or a title indicating family or close relationship.
<Shih4> translates as "house, home, household."
<Ko1> translates as "an elder brother."
<Lu4 Fan2> [Lu4 Fan2] (16th-17th C).
Pronounced \loo fahn\ with \oo\ as in <moon>
<Lu4> translates as "happiness, salary," and is
identical to an inherited, Han family name.
<Fan2> is a name for a species of Artemisia (sage brush).
<Mai4 Lai2 Ti2> [Mai4 Lai2 Di2] (14th C) apparently meaning
"one who prepares others for the future."
Pronounced \my ly dee\ with \y\ as in <my>
<Mai4> translates as "to step, to go."
<Lai2> translates "as, to come, the future."
<Ti2> translates as "to follow, docile, to lead,
to teach, to intimate to."
<Nai3 Ma3 Che^n1> [Nai3 Ma3 Zhen1] (13th C)
apparently meaning "true and valuable person," if one
considers how highly Mongol's valued horses.
Pronounced \ny mah dj@n\, with \y\ as in <my>
<Nai3> translates as "this, here, precisely, but, then,
thereupon, you, your."
<Ma3> translates as "horse, mare, stallion, pony."
<Che^n1> translates as "true, truly, genuine."
<Pai2 Yen2 Hu1 Tu1> [Bo2 Yan2 Hu1 Du1] (m1337), a hao
for Mongol name <Bayan Quduq>.
Pronounced \by yahn khoo doo\, with \y\ as in <my>
and \oo\ as in <moon>
<Pai2> translates as "a father's elder brother, a senior,
an earl, a leader." [23]
<Yen2> translates as "color, the countenance."
<Hu1> translates as "to disregard, confusion, suddenly."
<Tu1> translates as "the capital, all, full."
<San1 Niang2 Tzu3> [San1 Niang2 Zi3] (d1612) meaning
"third wife."
Pronounced \sahn nyahng dzz\; the \y\ here is a
consonant
<San1> translates as "three, third."
<Niang2> translates as "a mother, a lady."
<Tzu3> is a suffix. It also translates as "son, boy, sir,
seed."
<Ta2 Na4 Shih1 Li3> [Da2 Na4 Shi1 Li3] (14th C), a hao for
Mongol name <Danashiri>.
Pronounced \dah nah shR lee\
<Ta2> translates as "vetch, entangled, to answer."
<Na4> translates as "to hand up, to keep, to pay."
<Shih1> translates as "to lose, to omit, to fail."
<Li3> translates as "a hamlet, one third of a mile."
<Wan2 Che3 Hu1 Tu1> [Wan2 Zhe3 Hu1 Du1] (14th C), a
hao for Mongol name <O:ldjei Quduq>.
Pronounced \wahn dj@ hoo doo\, with \oo\ as in
<moon>
<Wan2> translates as "to finish, to complete, to settle."
<Che3> is a suffix.
<Hu1> translates as "to disregard, confusion, suddenly."
<Tu1> translates as "the capital, all, full."
We based some hao suggestions on these and other examples, and on
<Rebekah>, the European name you've been using in the Society. However,
Chinese dialects apparently do not include a sound very similar to the 'r'
in <Rebekah>. Consistent with modern Chinese practice, these suggestions
therefore drop that sound or substitute it with a somewhat similar sound.
<Je^n2 Pei3 Ts'ai2> [Ren2 Bei3 Cai2] meaning "talented
Northern person."
Pronounced \Ren bay tsy\, with \y\ as in <my>
<Je^n2> translates as "a person, a man."
<Pei3> translates as "North."
<Ts'ai2> translates as "talent, ability, strength,
endowments."
<Lai4 P'ei4 Chai2> [Lai4 Pei4 Zhai2] meaning "give/make a
strong home."
Pronounced \ly pei djy\, with \y\ as in <my>
<Lai4> translates as "to give, to bestow."
<P'ei4> translates as "to bank up with earth, to
strengthen."
<Chai2> translates as "family dwelling."
<Lai4 P'ei1 Chai2> [Lai4 Pei Zhai2] meaning "always very
kind."
Pronounced \ly pei djy\, with \y\ as in <my>
<Lai4> translates as "to rely upon, to trust to, to accuse,
to repudiate."
<P'ei1> translates as "great, vast, largely."
<Chai2> translates as "a marsh, to soak, kindness,
favour."
<Wa2 P'ei4 K'ai4> [Wa2 Pei4 Kai4] meaning "very loyal
woman."
Pronounced \wah pay ky\, where \ky\ rhymes with <my>
<Wa2> translates as "beautiful woman, a baby."
<P'ei4> translates as "great, vast, largely."
<K'ai4> translates as "generous, loyal, noble-minded,
worried."
We hope this letter is useful. Please write us again if you have any
questions or need Chinese written characters for one of our examples
or suggestions. Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and
Blaise de Cormeilles assisted in researching and writing
this letter.
For the Academy,
Yin Mei Li and Aryanhwy merch Catmael
19 September 2001
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Endnotes and References
[1] Romanizing Chinese homophones also results in a Society registration
byproduct possibly unique to names that are natively written with Chinese
characters. Such a name is registered in its romanized form, and the intent
was to register one unique name. However, the same string of sounds can
often represent two or more very different Asian names. Hence, the
registered name effectively includes and protects all same-sounding names,
at least under one Romanization convention.
[2] Hucker, Charles O. China's Imperial Past. Stanford: Stanford
University Press: Stanford (1976), pp438-439.
[3] Chao, Sheau-yueh J. In Search of Your Asian Roots, Genealogical
Research on Chinese Surnames. Clearfield Co./Geneological Publishing Co.:
Baltimore, Maryland (2000). Uses modified Wade-Giles, but cross-references
Pinyin.
[4] Giles, Herbert A. A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, in two volumes.
Literature House: Taipei, Taiwan (1962). Republication of original edition,
Bernard Quaritch; Kelly Walsh Ltd: London; Shanghai (1898). Uses Wade-Giles
[5] Goodrich, L. Carrington & Chaoying Fang (editors). Dictionary of Ming
Biography 1368-1644, The Ming Biographical Project of the Association for
Asian Studies, in two volumes. Columbia University Press: New York and
London (1976). Uses modified Wade-Giles
[6] Miall, Bernard, translator. Chin P'ing Mei, The Adventurous History of
Hsi Min and His Six Wives. Perigree Books: New York (1982). Authorship
attributed to Hsiao Hsiao-sheng. Story was apparently first mentioned in
Yu:en Hung-tao's list, composed 1595-1600, and its first known printing was
a little after 1609. Although the tale is set in 12th C, scholars indicate
it accurately reflects Ming dynasty (16th C China) domestic life.
[7] van Gulik, R[obert] H[ans]. Sexual Life in Ancient China. E.J. Brill:
Leiden, Netherlands/Barnes and Noble (1961/1996).
[8] Lin Yutang. My Country and My People. John Day Company: New York
(1935).
[9] Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilization in China, about 15 volumes.
New York: Cambridge University Press (1954-). Especially, but not
exclusively, The Social Background. Part 1: Language and Logic in
Traditional China, Vol 7, by Christoph Harbsmeier.
[10] Watson, Rubie S. and Patricia Buckley Ebrey. Marriage and Inequality
in Chinese Society. Uinversity of California Press: Berkeley (1991).
[11] Modern Chinese often conform with Western convention by writing their
family name last, when they live among or frequently deal with Westerners.
However, within China and Taiwan, they usually conform to ancient Chinese
conventions and write their family name first, like their ancestors who
lived in our period. [e.g. 2,8]
[12] Han changed and added names throughout their lives for specific
reasons. Apparently Han were least likely to change a family name because
the family was much more important than an individual. Entering a man's
household as wife, concubine, or maid was not a reason, in and of itself, to
change a family name. [4,5,6,7,8,10]
[13] In Wade-Giles transliteration, the 'u' in <tzu> (and in <ssu> and
<tz'u>) should be written with a breve above it. A <breve> is a
rounded, inverted hachek (or a crescent-like shape).
[14] This Chinese \R\ is similar to one of two common American \r\
pronunciations. Many Americans pronounce it with the tip of the tongue
curled up and back, almost touching the roof of the mouth. This
pronunciation is similar to the Chinese sound that we've represented by \R\.
To make a good approximation to \R\, just curl your tongue back a bit
further than normal and increase the friction; the result should sound
almost like \zh\.
[15] Traveling any part of the Silk or Spice Routes was arduous, dangerous,
and time consuming. Missionaries, merchants, and adventurers typically went
only part of the distance, and left their family members in a home base.
This strategy better ensured that heirs would reach adulthood to continue
family names, support aged parents, and care for infirm family members. In
merchant cases, this strategy also protected important parts of a business
and preserved key contacts in the home base. However, goods traveled the
entire distance because they were traded many times along a route between
merchants. [16,17,18]
[16] Frank, Irene B. and David M. Brownstone. The Silk Road, A History.
Facts on File: New York (1986).
[17] Smith, Bradley and Wan-go Weng. China, A History in Art. Doubleday:
(1972), pp113-151, 193-207
[18] Guy, John S. Oriental Trade Ceramics in South-East Asian, Ninth to
Sixteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press: Oxford (1990), pp1-44.
[19] Cowie, A. P., and A. Evison. Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English
Dictionary. Oxford University Press: Oxford (1986). Uses Pinyin and very
small font. Available in most bookstores with translation dictionaries.
[20] Weiger, L. Chinese Characters: their origin, etymology, history,
classification, and signification. A thorough study from Chinese documents,
translated into English by L. Davrout, 2nd ed. Paragon Book Reprint and
Dover Publications: New York (1965). ISBN 0-486-21321-8. Reprint of
original 2nd ed. published by Catholic Mission Press, 1927. Uses modified
Wade-Giles and includes a dictionary by transliterated syllable and by
Chinese written character. Available in many libraries.
[21] McCawley, James D. The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters.
University of Chicago Press: Chicago (1984). Includes a pronunciation guide
geared to Pinyin.
[22] Dates listed in parentheses usually indicate the lifetime of the
name's bearer. The names were, in most cases, given or adopted in
adulthood.
[23] Subject Chinese character is romanized as <Pai2> in older dictionaries
that use Wade-Giles romanizations. Based on this and similar names, and on
some period poetry, the pronunciation \by\ associated with <Pai2> is correct
for this name example. However, this same Chinese character is usually now
romanized as <Po2> [Bo2]. Such a change can be explained in several ways,
but we do not yet have enough expertise to identify applicable explanations.
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Correction, Arval, 10 Nov 2001: Fixed two typos.