u/oremfrien
This is more of a translator's choice than any historical question.
In English, the term "King" usually implies that there is no higher authority within the same political structure. However
u/SongOfThePast
thank you! i don't know about the 天王 before. can you explain this? who is 天王 and why they use this before 皇帝?
u/lordtiandao
I've covered a little bit about this in a previous answer - [Why does Chinese noble or administrative terminology seem to line up, or at least get translated, so directly into English?](https
u/radio_allah
You're right in that it is an imperfect translation, more concerned with communicating the de facto 'truth' of the institutions than being etymologically correct.
In english it's necessary
u/SongOfThePast
thank you! this answer my question very well. but this mean that some translator can translate the "wang" to king? is this not confusing for english reader when one book use prince and anothe
u/standardtrickyness1
Also Chinese emperors often refer to kings of other nations as 王. And during the Zhou dynasty the highest title was 王.
u/radio_allah
Another TL:DR in Chinese just in case that helps:
问题的重心在于两处，一是中文的爵位和名衔未必完全能跟英文对上，比如王爷(prince)和国王(king)皆是王，king在英文又有地方朝贡的小王和大国国王等分别，所以肯定会有翻译上需要意会的误差。
二是孙刘曹三人自称的帝号和他们实际属于的政治实况不符；虽然三人自称皇帝(empe
u/Expensive-Cat-
This is really more of a linguistic question. The English word “king” carries the connotation of the ruler of an independent monarchic state. The difference between a “king” and an “emperor”
u/justdidapoo
Prince can also mean something more like petty king rather than the son of the king
It gets used a lot in places like medievel eastern europe where there are a lot of fractured small princi
u/standardtrickyness1
I might be wrong but the ruler of China if there is one is refered to as the emperor. If there is an emperor then 王 in China refers to like a lord or something.
If there is no emperor then
u/SongOfThePast
嗯多谢！我英文太烂，读这些本来就比较复杂的学术解析有点吃力，但经过你这么解释下就清楚很多了，虽然之前说的大概也明白三四了。
u/SongOfThePast
ok this make me more confuse, because the book i read call the wei shu wu "kingdom" too...so should the ruler of the kingdom be "king" and not "prince"?
but in chinese i think this is very c
u/oremfrien
Any English-language reader who would be intrigued enough to notice that CaoCao (for instance) was labelled as a King in one publication and a Prince in another is the kind of reader who woul