Archival Sources
Where book objects do not originally have pagination, I have assigned folio numbers beginning with the first folio inside the existing cover, with r standing for the recto and v for the verso (the right and left sides of a sheet of paper folded in half to form the pages of a traditional threadbound book, which is read from right to left). I provide the length and width of the books in centimeters; for woodblock imprints, I also provide the dimensions of the woodblock (the full printed area on a folio before it is folded). In passages of text cited from archival sources, I replicate their punctuation and line breaks unless otherwise noted.
Language and Orthography
While the topic of historical topolects and their expressions in written form is central to this book, I employ the pinyin system throughout to romanize Chinese names, places, and other terms for ease of reference to the reader. In discussions in chapter 4, I have provided topolectal pronunciations using International Phonetic Alphabet notation whenever possible for words that have corresponding terms in modern Zichuan topolect, following Meng and Luo’s Zichuan fangyan zhi. They are indicated in parentheses following each word and the abbreviation “ZT.” Numbers in superscript indicate the tones identified by these field linguists, employing Y.R. Chao’s system of describing tone contours using a five point scale (see Chao, “A System of Tone Letters”; Norman, Chinese, 145–148). ᣟ at the end of a word indicates a weakly stressed final syllable. Cases of tone sandhi are not represented.
In sections of chapters 3, 4, and 6 that deal with the topic of orthography, I have replicated the nonstandard graphs cited in the manuscripts and imprints or provided figures. Elsewhere, I have tried to replicate the original graphs as much as possible using available graphs in existing font packs.
Official Titles
The translation of official titles into English follows Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China.
Place-Names
I use historical toponyms as they appear in the sources, with their current names (where they differ) in parentheses in the first instance they appear.
Qing Dynasty Reign Eras
Shunzhi, 1644–1661
Kangxi, 1662–1722
Yongzheng, 1723–1735
Qianlong, 1736–1795
Jiaqing, 1796–1820
Daoguang, 1821–1850
Xianfeng, 1851–1861
Tongzhi, 1862–1874
Guangxu, 1875–1908
Xuantong, 1909–1911