Glossary Of Chinese Terms

Nielsen (2003), and Yang (1996) and (2002) are excellent principle sources for Chinese terminology. Note that I generally use traditional Chinese characters, but sometimes lapse into their modern simplified forms. This is particularly the case where the traditional character is very complex (I'm lazy) and/or the simplified character has an obvious semantic connection. For example with ti (body) the characters are 體 and 体–“body” here from the idea of the root of man in the simplified character provides an easy mnemonic. However, in some cases the simplification is hardly worthwhile, as in shu (number) where the traditional and simplified characters are 數 and 数 respectively. In that case, I generally stick with the traditional character. I'm nothing if not inconsistent.