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Chinese Art: Context & Tools

Background & historical context

Fact checking: Dates, Names Places

Transliteration issues

There are three systems for transliterating Chinese characters to the Roman alphabet and one of them, Pinyin, does not use standardized spelling. For example, Zhang Daqian (pinyin), could also be written as Chang Ta-ch’ien (Wade-Giles), or Chang Taichien (artist’s own spelling of his name).

The following charts help convert between Pinyin and Wade-Giles: