Herbert Allen Giles (8 December 1845 13 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist, educated at Charterhouse. He modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system earlier established by Thomas Wade, resulting in the widely known Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system. Among his prolific works were translations of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and the first widely published Chinese-English dictionary.
The Manchu conquest of China was a long period of war (1618-1644) between the Qing Dynasty, established by Manchu clan Aisin Gioro in Manchuria (contemporary Northeastern China), and the Ming Dynasty of China in the south.