Editorial and Translation Policy

This is the editorial policy of PoemWell. It is also the short statement of terms for using the English we publish. It is not a substitute for legal advice.

Chinese texts

The poems are premodern. We follow a named edition and say which one on the poem page. Punctuation is editorial unless the note says otherwise. Our source text uses traditional characters, including forms such as 牀. The poem reader can show simplified forms of that same text. This display choice does not select another edition or change the translation. Notes and source quotations keep their cited forms.

Where editions disagree, the notes quote the other reading. We do not merge two versions into a third text without saying so.

English

Translations, glosses, and notes are written for PoemWell. They are original wording. They are not copied from other modern translations or from other websites, and they are not labeled as ours if they are not. A gloss is marked as a gloss. A translation is marked as a translation. A paraphrase used only to illustrate a form, as on the jueju page, is marked as a paraphrase.

You may link to a page and quote a short passage with attribution to PoemWell and a link. For reuse of a full annotation or a collection of translations, contact the editors. These editorial terms do not restrict rights the law gives readers in public-domain material.

Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a help for reading aloud. It is not a reconstruction of Tang or Song pronunciation. Tone tables, where a form needs them, use level and oblique classes from the rhyme-book tradition. The two systems are labeled so they are not mistaken for each other.

History and uncertainty

Dates, offices, and occasions are given when the record supports them. A legend, including stories of a poet’s death, is called a legend. If a character has two plausible meanings, the notes say so and the translation picks one. We would rather show the gap than hide it inside a smooth line.

The subject of the site is premodern poetry and the literary history around it. Pages stay with the poem, the form, and the occasion.

Changes

This edition uses AI-assisted drafting and editing. Checks compare the source text, pinyin, word glosses, and translations across pages; they also check links and page structure. These checks do not amount to independent scholarly review, and an interpretation can still need correction. We do not claim a named expert review that has not taken place.

The policy and the poem pages are dated when they change. See the contact page for corrections and source questions.

Updated November 11, 2026