CHINESE NAMES and terms are transliterated according to the pinyin system. Exceptions are made for names that have become familiar in another style.
Chinese characters are given in their traditional (full) form.
The Buddhist meditative practice known in China as chan 禪 is sometimes styled Zen since the Japanese term has become familiar to readers of English.
Following the practice of the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, “Buddha” is capitalized only when the reference is to a specific buddha, bodhisattva, or divinity; when the reference is nonspecific, “buddha” is used.
Where applicable, classical Chinese works are cited by chapter and verse. Thus Analects 15.20 refers to chapter 15, section 20 of that work; Mencius 3B12 refers to verse 12 of the second half of chapter 3 of that work; Zuozhuan (Xiang, year 24), refers to the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Duke Xiang as recounted in the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals; Classic of Poetry, Mao no. 260, “Sheng Min,” refers to poem 260 of the Shijing, with its title given according to the Mao edition.
Sima Qian’s Shi ji (Records of the grand historian), frequently cited in Li Zhi’s writings, exists in multiple English-language versions, all incomplete. Where the reference is to a chapter thus far untranslated into English, we cite the Zhonghua shuju edition (1962) of the Shi ji; where translations by Burton Watson are available, we cite Records of the Grand Historian by its individual volume titles, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty I, and Han Dynasty II (thus, for example, Watson, Records: Qin Dynasty, 236), occasionally resorting to Watson’s translation Records of the Historian of 1969; in other cases we cite the translation by William H. Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records.
| ch.: |
chapter |
| CS: |
Cangshu [A book to keep (hidden)] |
| DMB: |
Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644, ed. L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976) |
| FS: |
Fenshu [A book to burn] |
| j.: |
juan, fascicle; chapterlike subunit of a traditional Chinese book |
| LZQJZ: |
Li Zhi quanji zhu [The annotated complete works of Li Zhi], ed. Zhang Jianye and Zhang Dai, 26 vols. (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2010) |
| MRXA: |
Mingru xue an [The records of Ming scholars], by Huang Zongxi, Wanyou wenku huiyao ed. (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan, 1965) |
| T: |
Tripiṭaka |
| XCS: |
Xu cangshu [Another book to keep (hidden)] |
| XFS: |
Xu fenshu [Another book to burn] |