Chinese punctuation

Writing systems that use Chinese characters also include various punctuation marks, derived from both Chinese and Western sources. Historically, judou (句读; 句讀) annotations were often used to indicate the boundaries of sentences and clauses in text. The use of punctuation in written Chinese only became mandatory during the 20th century, due to Western influence. Unlike modern punctuation, judou marks were added by scholars for pedagogical purposes and were not viewed as integral to the text. Texts were therefore generally transmitted without judou. In most cases, this practice did not interfere with the interpretation of a text, although it occasionally resulted in ambiguity.

The first book to be printed with modern punctuation was Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy (中國哲學史大綱) by Hu Shih, published in 1919. Traditional poetry and calligraphy maintains the punctuation-free style. However, most editions of classical texts published since the 1930s are punctuated with fully modern punctuation (or at least using the modern equivalents of the traditional judou marks).

The usage of punctuation in China is regulated by the Chinese national standard GB/T 15834–2011 "General rules for punctuation" (標點符號用法; 标点符号用法; biāodiǎn fúhào yòngfǎ).