China
China the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering 9,600,000 square kilometers, it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE. Since China has expanded, re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin established the first Chinese empire; the succeeding Han dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD, saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements.
The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty and Northern Song completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread in Asia, as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and Horn of Africa. Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution; the Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China, a unitary one-party sovereign state on Mainland China, while the Kuomintang-led government retreated to the island of Taiwan. The political status of Taiwan remains disputed. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China's economy has been one of the world's fastest-growing with annual growth rates above 6 percent. According to the World Bank, China's GDP grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $12.24 trillion by 2017. Since 2010, China has been the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and since 2014, the largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity.
China is the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget; the PRC is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as it replaced the ROC in 1971, as well as an active global partner of ASEAN Plus mechanism. China is a leading member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, WTO, APEC, BRICS, the BCIM, the G20. In recent times, scholars have argued that it will soon be a world superpower, rivaling the United States; the word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century. It is not a word used by the Chinese themselves, it has been traced through Portuguese and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Cīna, used in ancient India."China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn, in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna.
Cīna was first used including the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu. In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived from the name of the Qin dynasty. Although this derivation is still given in various sources, it is complicated by the fact that the Sanskrit word appears in pre-Qin literature; the word may have referred to a state such as Yelang. The meaning transferred to China as a whole; the origin of the Sanskrit word is still a matter of debate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China"; the shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó, a term which developed under the Western Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne. It was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing, it was used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians". The name Zhongguo is translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English.
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 2.24 million and 250,000 years ago. The hominid fossils of Peking Man, a Homo erectus who used fire, were discovered in a cave at Zhoukoudian near Beijing; the fossilized teeth of Homo sapiens have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Hunan. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BCE, Damaidi around 6000 BCE, Dadiwan from 5800–5400 BCE, Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BCE; some scholars have suggested. According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE; the dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period; the succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE.
Their oracle bone script
Shanghan Lun
The Shanghan Lun is a part of Shanghan Zabing Lun, known in English as the Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases, Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders or the Treatise on Cold Injury. It is a Traditional Chinese Medicine treatise, compiled by Zhang Zhongjing sometime before 220 AD, at the end of the Han dynasty, it is amongst the oldest complete clinical textbooks in the world, one of the four canonical works that students must study in Traditional Chinese Medicine education nowadays. Song dynasty edition. Collated by scholastic ministers Gao Baohen, Lin Yi, Sun Qi under the order of the emperor and published in 1065 AD. Reprinted in the Ming dynasty. Cheng Wuji's Annotated Treatise on Cold Damage. Extensively read in Japan and China, was circulated in Cheng's time. However, many transcriptions and re-transcriptions have stirred up disagreement as to whether it is true to the original. Classic of the Golden Chamber and Jade Sheath; this book has the same content as the Song edition with other minor variations in context.
Kang Ping edition. Kang Ping is the name of the period from 1058-1068 AD in the Kōhei era in Japan, it is indispensable for study because it retained the ancient style of typesetting dated back to the era at the end of the Han dynasty. The Song edition is organized into ten volumes including the first two chapters on pulse diagnosis; the Shanghan Lun has 398 sections with 113 herbal prescriptions, organised into the Six Divisions corresponding to the six stages of disease: Tai Yang: a milder stage with external symptoms of chills, fevers and headache. Therapy: sweating. Yang ming: a more severe internal excess yang condition with fever without chills, distended abdomen, constipation. Therapy: cooling and eliminating. Shao yang: half outside, half inside half excess and half deficiency with chest discomfort, alternating chills, fever. Therapy: harmonizing. Tai yin: chills, distended abdomen with occasional pain. Therapy: warming with supplementing. Shao yin: weak pulse, drowsiness, chills, cold extremities.
Therapy: warming with supplementing. Jue yin: thirst, difficult urination, physical collapse. Therapy: warming with supplementing. Chinese herbology Chinese patent medicine Traditional Chinese Medicine Jingui Yaolüe, another surviving part of Shanghan Zabing Lun
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a cultivated plant in the genus Rheum in the family Polygonaceae. It is a herbaceous perennial growing from thick rhizomes. Different plants have been called "rhubarb" in English and used for two distinct purposes; the roots of some species were first used in medicine. The fleshy, edible stalks of other species and hybrids were cooked and used for food; the large, triangular leaves contain high levels of oxalic acid. The small flowers are grouped in large compound leafy greenish-white to rose-red inflorescences; the precise origin of culinary rhubarb is unknown. The species Rheum rhabarbarum and R. rhaponticum were grown in Europe before the 18th century and used for medicinal purposes. By the early 18th century, these two species and a possible hybrid of unknown origin, R. × hybridum, were grown as vegetable crops in England and Scandinavia. They hybridize, culinary rhubarb was developed by selecting open-pollinated seed, so that its precise origin is impossible to determine. In appearance, culinary rhubarb varies continuously between R. rhabarbarum.
However, modern rhubarb cultivars are tetraploids with 2n = 44, in contrast to 2n=22 for the wild species. Although rhubarb is a vegetable, it is put to the same culinary uses as fruits; the leaf stalks can be used raw, when they have a crisp texture, but are most cooked with sugar and used in pies and other desserts. They have a tart taste. Many cultivars have been developed for human consumption, most of which are recognised as Rheum × hybridum by the Royal Horticultural Society. Rhubarb is grown and with greenhouse production it is available throughout much of the year. Rhubarb grown in hothouses is called "hothouse rhubarb", is made available at consumer markets in early spring, before outdoor cultivated rhubarb is available. Hothouse rhubarb is brighter red and sweeter-tasting than outdoor rhubarb. In temperate climates, rhubarb is one of the first food plants harvested in mid- to late spring, the season for field-grown plants lasts until the end of summer. In the northwestern US states of Oregon and Washington, there are two harvests, from late April to May and from late June into July.
Rhubarb is ready to consume as soon as harvested, freshly cut stalks are firm and glossy. In the United Kingdom, the first rhubarb of the year is harvested by candlelight in forcing sheds where all other light is excluded, a practice that produces a sweeter, more tender stalk; these sheds are dotted around the "Rhubarb Triangle" between Wakefield and Morley. Rhubarb damaged by severe cold should not be eaten, as it may be high in oxalic acid, which migrates from the leaves and can cause illness; the colour of rhubarb stalks can vary from the associated crimson red, through speckled light pink, to light green. Rhubarb stalks are poetically described as "crimson stalks"; the colour results from the presence of anthocyanins, varies according to both rhubarb variety and production technique. The colour is not related to its suitability for cooking: The Chinese call rhubarb "the great yellow", have used rhubarb root for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, it appears in The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic, thought to have been compiled about 1,800 years ago.
Though Dioscurides' description of ρηον or ρά indicates that a medicinal root brought to Greece from beyond the Bosphorus may have been rhubarb, commerce in the drug did not become securely established until Islamic times. During Islamic times, it was imported along the Silk Road, reaching Europe in the 14th century through the ports of Aleppo and Smyrna, where it became known as "Turkish rhubarb", it started arriving via the new maritime routes, or overland through Russia. The "Russian rhubarb" was the most valued because of the rhubarb-specific quality control system maintained by the Russian Empire; the cost of transportation across Asia made rhubarb expensive in medieval Europe. It was several times the price of other valuable herbs and spices such as cinnamon and saffron; the merchant explorer Marco Polo therefore searched for the place where the plant was grown and harvested, discovering that it was cultivated in the mountains of Tangut province. The value of rhubarb can be seen in Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo's report of his embassy in 1403–05 to Timur in Samarkand: "The best of all merchandise coming to Samarkand was from China: silks, musk, diamonds and rhubarb..."The high price as well as the increasing demand from apothecaries stimulated efforts to cultivate the different species of rhubarb on European soil.
Certain species came to be grown in England to produce the roots. The local availability of the plants grown for medicinal purposes, together with the increasing abundance and decreasing price of sugar in the 18th century, galvanised its culinary adoption. Grieve claims a date of 1820 in England. Though it is asserted that rhubarb first came to the United States in the 1820s, John Bartram was growing medicinal and culinary rhubarbs in Philadelphia from the 1730s, planting seeds sent him by Peter Collinson. From the first, the familiar garden rhubarb was not the only Rheum in American gardens: Thomas Jefferson planted R. undulatum at Monticello in 1809 and 1811, observing that it was "Esculent rhubarb, the leaves excellent as Spinach." The advocate of organic gardening Lawrence D. Hills listed his
Ginseng
Ginseng is the root of plants in the genus Panax, such as Korean ginseng, South China ginseng, American ginseng characterized by the presence of ginsenosides and gintonin. Although ginseng has been used in traditional medicine over centuries, modern clinical research is inconclusive about its medical effectiveness. There is no substantial evidence that ginseng is effective for treating any medical condition, its use has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a prescription drug. Although ginseng is sold as a dietary supplement, inconsistent manufacturing practices for supplements have led to analyses showing that ginseng products may be contaminated with toxic metals or unrelated filler compounds, its excessive use may have adverse effects or untoward interactions with prescription drugs; the English word "ginseng" comes from the Hokkien Chinese jîn-sim. The first character 人 means "person" and the second character 蔘 means "plant root"; the botanical genus name Panax, meaning "all-healing" in Greek, shares the same origin as "panacea" and was applied to this genus because Carl Linnaeus was aware of its wide use in Chinese medicine as a muscle relaxant.
One of the first written texts covering the use of ginseng as a medicinal herb was the Shen-Nung Pharmacopoeia, written in China in 196 AD. In his Compendium of Materia Medica herbal of 1596, Li Shizhen described ginseng as a "superior tonic". However, the herb was not used as a "cure-all" medicine, but more as a tonic for patients with chronic illnesses and those who were convalescing. Control over ginseng fields in China and Korea became an issue in the 16th century. Ginseng plants belong only to the genus Panax. Cultivated species include Korean ginseng, South China ginseng, American ginseng. Ginseng is found in cooler climates—Korean ginseng native to Korean Peninsula, Northeast China, Russian Far East, American ginseng native to Canada and the United States—although some species grow in warm regions—South China ginseng native to Southwest China and Vietnam. Vietnamese ginseng is the southernmost ginseng known. Wild ginseng grows in mountains and is hand-picked by wild ginseng gatherers known as simmani.
Wild ginseng grows and is harvested from wherever it is found. It is rare and increasingly endangered due to high demand for the product in recent years, leading to the harvest of wild plants faster than the growth which can take years to reach maturity. Wild ginseng can be processed to be white ginseng. Cultivated ginseng is less expensive compared to available wild ginseng. Wild cultivated ginseng is allowed to grow like wild ginseng. Ginseng seed does not germinate until the second spring following the harvest of berries in the fall, they must first be subjected to a long period of storage in a moist medium with a warm/cold treatment, a process known as stratification. Korean ginseng is available commercially as fresh and white ginsengs. Fresh ginseng called "green ginseng", is non-dried raw product, its use is limited by availability. White ginseng dried ginseng. White ginseng is fresh ginseng, dried without being heated, it dried to reduce the water content to 12 % or less. White ginseng air-dried in the sun may contain less of the therapeutic constituents.
Enzymes contained in the root may break down these constituents in the process of drying. Drying in the sun bleaches the root to a yellowish-white color. Red ginseng dried ginseng, which has reddish color. Red ginseng is less vulnerable to decay than white ginseng, it is ginseng, peeled, heated through steaming at standard boiling temperatures of 100 °C, dried or sun-dried. It is marinated in an herbal brew which results in the root becoming brittle. Commercial ginseng is sold with China as the largest consumer. In 2013, global sales of ginseng exceeded $2 billion. In the early 21st century, 99% of the world's 80,000 tons of ginseng was produced in just four countries: China, South Korea and the United States. All ginseng produced in South Korea is Korean ginseng, while ginseng produced in China includes P. ginseng and South China ginseng. Ginseng produced in Canada and the United States is American ginseng. Ginseng may be included in energy drinks or herbal teas in small amounts or sold as a dietary supplement.
The root is most available in dried form, either whole or sliced. Ginseng leaf, although not as prized, is sometimes used. In Korean cuisine, ginseng is used in various banchan and guk, as well as tea and alcoholic beverages. Ginseng-infused tea and liquor, known as insamcha and insamju ("ginseng liq
Ginger
Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems about a meter tall bearing narrow leaf blades; the inflorescences bear pale yellow with purple flowers and arise directly from the rhizome on separate shoots. Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, to which belong turmeric and galangal. Ginger originated in Island Southeast Asia and was domesticated first by the Austronesian peoples, it was transported with them throughout the Indo-Pacific during the Austronesian expansion, reaching as far as Hawaii. Ginger was one of the first spices exported from the Orient, ginger arrived in Europe during the spice trade, was used by ancient Greeks and Romans; the distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are called wild ginger because of their similar taste. The English origin of the word, "ginger", is from the mid-14th century, from Old English gingifer, from Medieval Latin gingiber, from Greek zingiberis, from Prakrit singabera, from Sanskrit srngaveram, from srngam "horn" and vera- "body", from the shape of its root.
The word was readopted in Middle English from Old French gingibre. Ginger originated from Island Southeast Asia, it does not exist in its wild state. The most ancient evidence of its domestication is among the Austronesian peoples where it was among several species of ginger cultivated and exploited since ancient times; the other notable gingers they cultivated included turmeric, white turmeric, bitter ginger, among others. The rhizomes and the leaves were eaten directly; the leaves were used to weave mats. Aside from these uses, ginger had religious significance among Austronesians, being used in rituals for healing and for asking protection from spirits, they were used in the blessing of Austronesian ships. Ginger was carried with them in their voyages as canoe plants during the Austronesian expansion, starting from around 5,000 BP, they introduced them to the Pacific Islands in prehistory, long before any contact with other civilizations. Reflexes of the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word *laqia is still found in Austronesian languages all the way to Hawaii.
They presumably introduced it to India along with other Southeast Asian food plants and Austronesian sailing technologies, during early contact by Austronesian sailors with the Dravidian-speaking peoples of Sri Lanka and South India at around 3,500 BP. It was carried by Austronesian voyagers into Madagascar and the Comoros in the 1st millennium CE. From India, it was carried by traders into the Middle East and the Mediterranean by around the 1st century CE, they were grown in southern India and the Greater Sunda Islands during the spice trade, along with peppers and numerous other spices. Ginger produces clusters of pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers; because of its aesthetic appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates, it is used as landscaping around subtropical homes. It is a perennial reed-like plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter tall. Traditionally, the rhizome is gathered; the fragrant perisperm of the Zingiberaceae is used as sweetmeats by Bantu, as a condiment and sialagogue.
In 2016, global production of ginger was 3.3 million tonnes, led by India with 34% of the world total. Nigeria and Indonesia had substantial production. Ginger produces a fragrant kitchen spice. Young ginger rhizomes are fleshy with a mild taste, they are pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or cooked as an ingredient in many dishes. They can be steeped in boiling water to make ginger herb tea. Ginger can be made into ginger wine. Mature ginger rhizomes are nearly dry; the juice from ginger roots is used as a seasoning in Indian recipes and is a common ingredient of Chinese, Japanese and many South Asian cuisines for flavoring dishes such as seafood and vegetarian dishes. Fresh ginger can be substituted for ground ginger at a ratio of six to one, although the flavors of fresh and dried ginger are somewhat different. Powdered dry ginger root is used as a flavoring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies and cakes, ginger ale, ginger beer. Candied ginger or crystallized ginger, known in the U. K. as "stem ginger", is the root cooked in sugar until soft, is a type of confectionery.
Fresh ginger may be peeled before eating. For longer-term storage, the ginger can be refrigerated or frozen. In Indian cuisine, ginger is a key ingredient in thicker gravies, as well as in many other dishes, both vegetarian and meat-based. Ginger has a role in traditional Ayurvedic medicine, it is an ingredient in traditional Indian drinks, both hot, including spiced masala chai. Fresh ginger is one of the main spices used for making pulse and lentil curries and other vegetable preparations. Fresh ginger together with peeled garlic cloves ground to form ginger garlic masala. Fresh, as well as dried, ginger is used to spice tea and coffee in winter. In south India, "sambharam" is a summer yogurt drink made with ginger as a key ingredient, along with green chillies and curry leaves. Ginger powder is used in food preparations intended for pregnant or nursing women, the most popular
Eucommia ulmoides
Eucommia ulmoides is a species of small tree native to China. It belongs to Eucommiaceae, it is near threatened in the wild, but is cultivated in China for its bark and is valued in herbology such as Traditional Chinese medicine. Eucommia ulmoides grows to about 15 m tall; the leaves are deciduous, arranged alternately, simple ovate with an acuminate tip, 8–16 cm long, with a serrated margin. If a leaf is torn across, strands of latex exuded from the leaf veins solidify into rubber and hold the two parts of the leaf together, it flowers from March to May. The flowers are inconspicuous and greenish. Eucommia ulmoides is the sole living species of the genus Eucommia. Eucommia is the only genus of the family Eucommiaceae, was considered to be a separate order, the Eucommiales, it is sometimes known as "Gutta-percha tree" or "Chinese rubber tree", but is not related to either the true Gutta-percha tree of southeastern Asia, nor to the South American rubber tree. Eucommia ulmoides is occasionally planted in botanical gardens and other gardens in Europe, North America and elsewhere, being of interest as the only cold-tolerant rubber-producing tree.
Fossils of other Eucommia species have been found in 10- to 35-million-year-old brown coal deposits in central Europe and in North America, indicating that the genus had a much wider range in the past. It is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in Chinese herbology; because of the low production and high demand for natural rubber in China, a unique process has been developed to manufacture elastic materials with Eucommia ulmoides gum as substitutes for natural rubber products. Unlike the latex used to produce natural rubber, the EUG is the polymer trans-1,4-polyisoprene, thus materials made from EUG may demonstrate characteristics other than those of natural rubber, such as higher elastics, lower thermoplastic temperature, etc. The iridoid glucoside geniposidic acid can be found in E. ulmoides. Chinese herbology 50 fundamental herbs World Conservation Monitoring Centre. "Eucommia ulmoides". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 1998: e. T31280A9614313. Doi:10.2305/IUCN. UK.1998. RLTS. T31280A9614313.en.
Retrieved 9 January 2018. Call, V. B. and Dilcher, D. L. 1997. The fossil record of Eucommia in North America. American Journal of Botany 84: 798-814. Available online HUEC Nutrition & Obesity online Data related to Eucommia ulmoides at Wikispecies
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, written using Chinese characters; the system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters; the pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang, based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese. It was published by revised several times; the International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as an international standard in 1982, was followed by the United Nations in 1986. The system was adopted as the official standard in Taiwan in 2009, where it is used for international events rather than for educational or computer-input purposes, but "some cities and organizations, notably in the south of Taiwan, did not accept this", so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use.
The word Hànyǔ means'the spoken language of the Han people', while Pīnyīn means'spelled sounds'. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing; this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, issued his Xi Ru Ermu Zi at Hangzhou. Neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing dynasty scholar-official, Fang Yizhi; the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the stunning effect of the kana syllabaries and Western learning there; this galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script.
While Song did not himself create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, further improved by Herbert Giles in the Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892, it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. In the early 1930s, Communist Party of China leaders trained in Moscow introduced a phonetic alphabet using Roman letters, developed in the Soviet Oriental Institute of Leningrad and was intended to improve literacy in the Russian Far East; this Sin Wenz or "New Writing" was much more linguistically sophisticated than earlier alphabets, but with the major exception that it did not indicate tones of Chinese. In 1940, several thousand members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Society's new journal.
Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Fo. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, some contemporary Chinese literature, a spectrum of textbooks. In 1940, the movement reached an apex when Mao's Border Region Government declared that the Sin Wenz had the same legal status as traditional characters in government and public documents. Many educators and political leaders looked forward to the day when they would be universally accepted and replace Chinese characters. Opposition arose, because the system was less well adapted to writing regional languages, therefore would require learning Mandarin. Sin Wenz fell into relative disuse during the following years. In 1943, the U. S. military engaged Yale University to develop a romanization of Mandarin Chinese for its pilots flying over China. The resulting system is close to pinyin, but does not use English letters in unfamiliar ways. Medial semivowels are written with y and w, apical vowels with r or z.
Accent marks are used to indicate tone. Pinyin was created by Chinese linguists, including Zhou Youguang, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou is called "the father of pinyin," Zhou worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he became an economics professor in Shanghai, in 1955, when China's Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned Zhou Youguang the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he was not a professional linguist. Hanyu Pinyin was based on several existing systems: Gwoyeu Romatzyh of 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz of 1931, the diacritic markings from zhuyin. "I'm not the father of pinyin," Zhou said years later. It's a lo
