Zhonghua Zihai

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Zhonghua Zihai (

Chinese character dictionary available for print, compiled in 1994 and consisting of 85,568 different characters.[1][2][3][4]

Details

The Zhonghua Zihai consists of two parts; the first section consists of characters covered in earlier dictionaries, such as the

Qing Dynasties that fell from use, dialectal characters, newly created characters as a result of advancement in science and technology (such as the Chinese character for the element Darmstadtium, 鐽, which is not present in prior dictionaries[6]), as well as rare characters used today in personal and location names.[5] Additionally, regional characters and variant characters from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, as well as non-native characters from Japanese Kanji and Korean Hanja, are also listed in the Zhonghua Zihai. All characters listed are in the Kaishu
script.

One of the authors, Hu Mingyang, wrote in the preface of the Zhonghua Zihai stating that the problem regarding Chinese characters is that there is an exceedingly large number of them,[1] which makes compilation very difficult, and a complete dictionary practically impossible due to the large number of variant characters and those that are unknown.

Development

The foundation in which the compilation of characters was undertaken are as follows:[7]

  1. The copying of characters found in dictionaries from past dynasties, for the collection of those characters already listed in some published volume.
  2. The analysis of documents and literature from past dynasties for previously unlisted characters.
  3. The inclusion of all
    People's Republic of China, already listed in the "Complete List of Simplified Characters" (Chinese: 简化字总表; pinyin
    : jiǎn huà zì zǒng biǎo) announced in 1986.
  4. The analysis of
    Bronze script
    texts, as well as historic silk writings, for comparative purposes in the decision process for accepting characters.
  5. The comparison of
    Variant Chinese characters
    from past dynasties found in stone engravings (where characters with minimal variation are generally not accepted in the final listing).
  6. The analysis of local documents and that of
    regional dialects
    , such as dialectal dictionaries.
  7. The inclusion of newly created characters associated with modern concepts, such as those arising from new scientific and technological developments.
  8. The analysis of characters used in
    proper nouns, such as the names of locations and characters used in personal names
    .
  9. The analysis of modern publications which may include unofficial or informal character simplifications, in which they may not be present in the PRC government "Complete List of Simplified Characters" (a similar example of this would be Ryakuji).
  10. The inclusion of characters from the failed simplified character reform in 1977 to introduce the
    Second-round simplified Chinese characters
    , taken from the draft of the proposed bill.
  11. The inclusion of rare variants and popular regional characters from areas such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, plus the unique characters in use in Japan and Korea but not within China.

Other dictionaries

The previous character dictionary published in China was the

KRW or US$25 million[4][8][9]
).

The Dictionary of Chinese Variant Form (

variants
.

Publications
  • 1st impression (1994-09-01)

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Kuang-Hui Chiu, Chi-Ching Hsu, Chinese Dilemma: How Many Ideographs are needed Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, National Taipei University, 2006
  2. ^ Shouhui Zhao, Dongbo Zhang, The Totality of Chinese Characters – A Digital Perspective Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Daniel G. Peebles, SCML: A Structural Representation for Chinese Characters, May 29, 2007
  4. ^ a b Victor H. Mair, Who Has the Biggest Dictionary?, October 9, 2008
  5. ^ a b 《中华字海》-甲骨文---泽泽百科 Archived February 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine "'Zhonghua Zihai' consists of two parts: part of land from the existing Chinese dictionaries, such as the "Shuo Wen Jie Zi", "Part-yu", "Guangyun", "Chinese Melodies", "Kangxi", "Chinese dictionary "All the book characters, etc.; the other part is the calendar tool failure who should be included in the word, including Tibetan Buddhist difficult difficult word word Road, Dunhuang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, dialect words, science and technology, new characters, as well as the names of today's still and names with the word."
  6. Xinhua Zidian
    , 10th Edition)). Both characters are pronounced "dá". Darmstadtium was first synthesized on November 9, 1994.
  7. ^ Wangchao (Dynasty) Encyclopedia : Zhonghua Zihai[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ University World News – SOUTH KOREA: After 30 years: world’s largest Chinese dictionary
  9. ^ World’s Biggest Chinese Dictionary Completed – Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) Archived December 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ 《異體字字典》網路版說明 Archived March 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Official website for "The Dictionary of Chinese Variant Form", Introductory page

External links

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