If you can spell Nietzsche correctly, you can spell Mengzi. If you can pronounce Tchaikovsky, you can say Zhou Enlai. The reason English still uses century-old misspellings of Chinese names is not difficulty. It is inertia.
Here are seven of the most important Chinese thinkers, leaders, and strategists whose names English consistently gets wrong.
Mencius → Mengzi
The second most important Confucian philosopher. Mencius is a Latinised name given to him by Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century. His actual name is Mengzi — literally Master Meng. Mencius is what happens when a Chinese surname (Meng) is given a Latin suffix (-cius). It is not translation. It is cosplay.
Lao Tzu → Laozi
The founder of Daoism and author of the Daodejing. Lao Tzu is a Wade-Giles hangover that English speakers regularly mispronounce as Lau Tsoo. Laozi is two syllables and matches the actual Chinese pronunciation. Simpler. More accurate. Done.
Sun Tzu → Sunzi
The author of The Art of War, the most widely read strategy text in history. Sunzi means Master Sun. Sun Tzu is the old romanisation — same problem as Lao Tzu, same fix. Business books and military academies will adjust eventually. Or they will keep looking like they are reading eighteenth-century missionary notes.
Mao Tse-tung → Mao Zedong
The most famous Chinese person of the twentieth century and English still cannot settle on a single spelling. Mao Tse-tung, Mao Zedong, Mao Tse-tung — dictionaries have tried all three. The pinyin version, Mao Zedong, has been standard since 1958. Use it.
Chou En-lai → Zhou Enlai
China’s first premier and one of the most skilled diplomats of the twentieth century. Chou En-lai is the Wade-Giles spelling that makes English speakers pronounce it Chow. Zhou is one syllable and actually correct. The hyphen is also unnecessary — Zhou Enlai writes his name without one.
Teng Hsiao-ping → Deng Xiaoping
The architect of China’s economic reform. Teng is wrong (Deng is correct). Hsiao-ping is wrong (Xiaoping is correct). The entirety of his name in the old spelling is incorrect. Deng Xiaoping led four decades of transformation. His name deserves to be spelled right.
Fu Hsi → Fuxi
One of the three mythical sovereigns of ancient China, credited with inventing writing and the I Ching. Fu Hsi is a spelling from the age of steam engines. Fuxi is the name. Two syllables. No hyphen required.
Why this matters: Names are not decoration. When you misspell someone’s name for two hundred years, you are not honouring tradition — you are ignoring them. These are not difficult names. They are Chinese names routinely made to sound European because that was easier for the people who first wrote them down. It is no longer the sixteenth century. We can pronounce Zhou.