The names of contributors are indicated in the table of contents alongside the sections or selections that they are responsible for. At the end of each selection the sources of translations are rendered as concisely as possible; full bibliographical data can be obtained from the list of sources at the end of the book. Unless otherwise indicated, the author of the text is the writer whose name precedes the selection; the initials following each selection are those of the translator, as indicated in the table of contents. Where excerpts have been taken from existing translations, they have sometimes been adapted or edited in the interests of uniformity with the book as a whole.
In translating Chinese terms there is often no single equivalent in English for pivotal words that have multiple meanings in the original. Simply to transliterate the original term would be an easy way to avoid having to choose among alternatives, but it would not be a solution for the great majority of readers who are unfamiliar with Chinese. Consequently, we have adopted a standard rendering and used it wherever possible but have allowed for variants (followed by the romanized term) to be substituted when necessary. At the end of volume 1 of Sources is a glossary of key terms listed in romanized Chinese (pinyin and Wade-Giles) with alternate renderings in English; from this the reader can approximate the range of meanings that cluster around such pivotal terms.
Chinese words and names are rendered according to the pinyin system of romanization. For readers unfamiliar with pinyin, it is useful to know that the consonants q and x are to be read as ch and hs, respectively. The Wade-Giles romanization is also given for names and terms already well known in that form, as are the renderings preferred by important modern figures and in common use (such as Sun Yat-sen). A comparative table of pinyin and Wade-Giles romanizations may be found at the end of the book. Indic words appearing in the chapters on Buddhism as technical terms or titles in italics follow the standard system of transliteration found in Louis Renou’s Grammaire Sanskrite (Paris, 1930), pp. xi–xiii, with the exception that here ś is regularly used for ç. To facilitate pronunciation, other Sanskrit terms and proper names appearing in roman letters are rendered according to the usage of Webster’s New International Dictionary, second edition unabridged, except that here the macron is used to indicate long vowels and the Sanskrit symbols for ś (ç) and ṣ are uniformly transcribed as sh. Similarly, the standard Sanskrit transcription of c is given as ch.
Chinese names are rendered in their Chinese order, with the family name first and the personal name last. Dates given after personal names are those of birth and death; in the case of rulers, reign dates are preceded by “r.” Generally the name by which a person was most commonly known in Chinese tradition is the one used in the text. Since this book is intended for the general reader rather than the specialist, we have not burdened the text with a list of the alternate names or titles that usually accompany biographical reference to a scholar in Chinese or Japanese historical works.
In the preparation of this volume for publication the editors have been especially indebted to the following for their expert assistance: Martin Amster, Renee Kashuba, Glenn Perkins, and Marianna Stiles.