Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to study the history of the translation into Chinese characters of the noble gasesnamely氦(helium), 氖(neon), 氩(argon), 氪(krypton), 氙(xenon) , and 氡(radon). In the late nineteenth century, when the translation of noble gases into Chinese script first began, most were translated according to the meanings of the western terms given by western missionaries—for instance for argon; and 曦 for neon. Then, in 1907, helium, argon and krypton were translated as氩,氦 and 氪 , respectively, under the radicalphonetic principles laid down in Huaxue Yuhui (A Vocabulary of Chemistry). After that, Chinese terms for the noble gases were almost always translated using the radicalphonetic characters developed by Chinese scholars and Western missionaries. The character 氖 (neon), however, was determined by the Joint Committee on Medical Terminology in 1908. It was not until 1933, that the Chinese character 氙 (xenon) was decided upon in the Chemical Forum of the Education Ministry. As to氡 (radon), this character was not determined until the meeting of the Committee on Chemical Nomenclature convened in 1937.

Key words: noble gases, chemical nomenclature, history of chemistry