There was much debate and discussion about whether I should use the Wade-Giles Romanization of Chinese words in this book, which was more popular during the timer period the book is set, or modern Pinyin. I decided to use Pinyin for most names and words since it is the system modern readers are familiar with. Chinese place names, though, are accurate for time period. Peking and Chang’an, for example, were the names Westerners and Chinese would have used at that time; the names Beijing and Xi’an were not adopted until long after the end of the Qing Dynasty.