Source tiers
Every factual claim on China Heritage draws from at least one of the following tiers, in order of preference:
Tier 1 — Museum primary sources
Official online catalogs of the museum that holds the piece: The Palace Museum, National Museum of China, Sanxingdui Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Hubei Provincial Museum, The Met, British Museum, Smithsonian, Cleveland Museum of Art. Object IDs and inventory numbers (where public) are linked.
Tier 2 — Wikidata + Wikipedia
Wikidata Q-IDs anchor each artifact for stable cross-language identity. Wikipedia summaries are used for general historical context where they cite published academic sources. Wikipedia text used directly is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and credited accordingly.
Tier 3 — Reputable publications
Smithsonian Magazine, Archaeology Magazine, peer-reviewed journals indexed by JSTOR, museum exhibition catalogs, and university press monographs.
We do not use unsourced blogs, AI-generated content as a primary reference, or social media posts as standalone evidence. Every artifact page lists its sources at the bottom.
Pop culture connections
When we say a game or film draws on a real artifact, we're making a claim about visual or thematic resemblance, not a legal claim about IP origins. Inspirations sections are written with care:
- Strong evidence (developer interviews, art book references, side-by-side stills) is preferred and cited where possible.
- Visual parallels are described as such — we say “clearly inspired by” or “closely resembles,” never invented quotes from creators.
- We don't fabricate connections to drive clicks. If a game uses a generic Tang-dynasty aesthetic without referencing a specific artifact, we say so.
Images and licensing
Every artifact image carries a credit caption with: photographer (where attributable), license, and link to the original source. We use, in order of preference:
- CC0 / Public Domain images from The Met Open Access, Smithsonian Open Access, Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access, and similar institutions.
- Wikimedia Commons images released under public domain or Creative Commons licenses, with author and license attributed in the caption.
- Decorative photography (e.g., for hero banners that don't depict a specific catalogued artifact) sourced from royalty-free providers like Unsplash with appropriate attribution.
We do not use copyrighted museum-owned photography without explicit license. If you see an image you believe is misused, email [email protected] and we'll review immediately.
Translations and naming
English artifact names follow the most common usage in English-language museum catalogs (e.g., “Simuwu Ding” rather than “Houmuwu Ding,” while noting the scholarly revision). Chinese names are given alongside in traditional or simplified script as cited by the holding museum. Romanization uses Hanyu Pinyin without tone marks for headings and with tone marks where pronunciation matters.
How updates work
Behind the scenes, we run periodic syncs against Wikidata to keep cross-collection links and identifiers current. The pipeline is open-source and visible in our repository under scripts/sync/.
Sync output is treated as reference data — it never overwrites our curated narratives automatically. A human editor reviews and chooses what to incorporate.
Found an error?
We take corrections seriously. Email us with the URL, the error, and (if possible) a citation. We update fast and we credit contributors who flag substantive issues.