Herbert Allen Giles (Chinese: 翟理斯, romanized: Zhái Lǐsī; 8 December 1845 – 13 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who held the Professorship of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British diplomat in China. He modified a Mandarin Chinese romanization system established by Thomas Wade, resulting in the widely known Wade–Giles Chinese romanization system. Among his many works were translations of the Analects of Confucius, the Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), the Chuang Tzu, and, in 1892, the widely published A Chinese–English Dictionary.
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👉 Herbert Giles in the context of Wade–Giles
Wade–Giles (/weɪd ˈdʒaɪlz/ wayd JYLZ) is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from the system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's A Chinese–English Dictionary (1892).
The romanization systems in common use until the late 19th century were based on the Nanjing dialect, but Wade–Giles was based on the Beijing dialect and was the system of transcription familiar in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century. Both of these kinds of transcription were used in postal romanizations (romanized place-names standardized for postal uses). In mainland China, Wade–Giles has been mostly replaced by Hanyu Pinyin, which was officially adopted in 1958, with exceptions for the romanized forms of some of the most commonly used names of locations and persons, and other proper nouns. The romanized name for most locations, persons and other proper nouns in Taiwan is based on the Wade–Giles derived romanized form, for example Kaohsiung, the Matsu Islands and Chiang Ching-kuo.
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Herbert Giles in the context of Thomas Francis Wade
Sir Thomas Francis Wade, GCMG KCB (25 August 1818 – 31 July 1895) was a British diplomat and sinologist who produced an early Chinese textbook in English, in 1867, that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization system for Mandarin Chinese by Herbert Giles in 1892. He was the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge University.
Herbert Giles in the context of Postal romanization
Postal romanization was a system of transliterating place names in China developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language form of the city's name from the 1890s until the 1980s, when postal romanization was replaced by pinyin, but the system remained in place in Taiwan until 2002.
In 1892, Herbert Giles created a romanization system called the Nanking syllabary. The Imperial Maritime Customs Post Office would cancel postage with a stamp that gave the city of origin in Latin letters, often romanized using Giles's system. In 1896, the Customs Post was combined with other postal services and renamed the Chinese Imperial Post. As a national agency, the Imperial Post was an authority on Chinese place names.
Herbert Giles in the context of Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization
The Joseph Needham Professorship of Chinese History, Science and Civilisation (李約瑟漢學教授席位) is the senior professorship of Chinese at the University of Cambridge.
The chair is the successor to the Professorship of Chinese, founded in 1888 and the first of three successive Chinese professorships at Cambridge. The first chair was created for the single tenure of Sir Thomas Wade and did not entitle the holder to a stipend. Following Wade's retirement, this first establishment was renewed once for the tenure of Herbert Giles, but was then suppressed.