''A Chinese–English Dictionary'' (1892), compiled by the British
consular officer and
sinologist Herbert Allen Giles
Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British dip ...
(1845–1935), is the first
Chinese–English encyclopedic dictionary. Giles started compilation after being rebuked for criticizing mistranslations in
Samuel Wells Williams
Samuel Wells Williams (22 September 1812 – 16 February 1884) was a linguist, official, missionary and Sinologist from the United States in the early 19th century.
Early life
Williams was born in Utica, New York, son of William Williams (178 ...
' (1874) ''
A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language
''A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language: Arranged According to the Wu-Fang Yuen Yin, with the Pronunciation of the Characters as Heard in Peking, Canton, Amoy, and Shanghai'' or the ''Hàn-Yīng yùnfǔ 漢英韻府'', compiled by the Amer ...
''. The 1,461-page first edition contains 13,848
Chinese character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...
head entries alphabetically
collated
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...
by
Beijing Mandarin pronunciation
romanized in the
Wade–Giles
Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' o ...
system, which Giles created as a modification of
Thomas Wade's (1867) system. Giles' dictionary furthermore gives pronunciations from nine regional
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of ma ...
, and three
Sino-Xenic
Sino-Xenic or Sinoxenic pronunciations are regular systems for reading Chinese characters in Japan, Korea and Vietnam, originating in medieval times and the source of large-scale borrowings of Chinese words into the Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese ...
languages
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
, and
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
. Giles revised his dictionary into the 1,813-page second edition (1912) with the addition of 67 entries and numerous usage examples.
History
![Gems of Chinese Literature pg 6](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Herbert_Allen_Giles_%28Gems_of_Chinese_Literature%2C_1922%29.png)
Herbert Giles served as a British consular officer in late
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
China until from 1867 to 1892. After his return to England, he was appointed the second
professor of Chinese at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
, in succession to Thomas Francis Wade. They are renowned for developing what was later called the
Wade-Giles romanization system of Chinese, which Giles' ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'' firmly established as the standard in the Western world until the 1958 official international
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
system.
In 1867, Giles passed the competitive
Foreign Office examination for a Student Interpretership in China, and began studying the Chinese language at Peking. He later criticized his first Chinese book, a Part II reprint of
Robert Morrison's (1815-1823) ''
A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts'', because it failed to mark
aspiration, "much as if an English-Chinese dictionary, for the use of the Chinese, were published without the letter ''h'', showing no difference between the conjunction ''and'' and the ''
nd'' of the body".
Herbert A. Giles wrote some 60 publications on
Chinese culture
Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...
and
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
(see
Wikisource list), which may be divided into four broad categories: reference works, language textbooks, translations, and miscellaneous writings. His pioneering reference books established new standards of accuracy. Of all his publications, Giles was most proud of (1892, 1912) ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'', and (1898) ''A Chinese Biographical Dictionary''. Giles' textbooks for Chinese language learners include (1873) ''A Dictionary of Colloquial Idioms in the Mandarin Dialect'' and two Chinese
phrasebook
A phrase book or phrasebook is a collection of ready-made phrases, usually for a foreign language along with a translation, indexed and often in the form of questions and answers.
Structure
While mostly thematically structured into several ...
s transliterated phonetically according to the English alphabet, "so that anyone could pick up the book and read off a simple sentence with a good chance of being understood": the (1872) ''Chinese without a Teacher'' and (1877) ''Handbook of the Swatow Dialect: With a Vocabulary'' for
Teochew dialect
Teochew or Chaozhou (, , , Teochew endonym: , Shantou dialect: ) is a dialect of Chaoshan Min, a Southern Min language, that is spoken by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. ...
. His wide-ranging translations cover many genres of
Chinese literature. Probably the best known are (1880, 1916) ''Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio'', (1884, 1922) ''Gems of Chinese Literature'', and (1889, 1926) ''Chuang Tzŭ, Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer''. Giles' other writings include some of the first general histories of China, the (1901) ''A History of Chinese Literature'', (1906) ''Religions of Ancient China'', and (1911) ''The Civilization of China''.
Herbert Giles says he decided to compile ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'' after his review of Williams' ''A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language'' "brought down on my head many objurgations from the author's friends". As Giles explains in his previously unpublished (c. 1918-1925) typescript memoirs,
hereview was of Dr Williams' ''Syllabic Dictionary'' (''Evening Gazette'', 16 Sept., 1874), for which I was freely bespattered with abuse from all American quarters. I showed up a multiplicity of absurd blunders and equally egregious omissions; and I wound up with these prophetic words: "We do not hesitate to pronounce Dr Williams the lexicographer, not for the future, but of the past." I at once began upon a dictionary of my own.
Provoked by the American missionary Williams, Giles devoted himself to publishing a new dictionary that "was meant to bring the glory of having compiled the best Chinese-English dictionary back from America to England".
Five years later, Giles published a 40-page brochure (1879) ''On some Translations and Mistranslations in Dr. Williams' Syllabic Dictionary'' that was reported extensively among English-language newspapers published in China. "I was badly mauled" in the ''
Daily Press (Hong Kong)'', "received unstinted praise" in the ''North China Daily News'', and was supported in the ''
Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal
''Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal'' was published in one or another form in Shanghai from 1867 to 1941, after which it was closed by Japanese authorities. The ''Journal'' was the leading outlet for the English language missionary community ...
'', which said "the Dictionary is in fault in most of the instances given." Giles sent a copy of his brochure to Williams, but received no reply. Since Williams reprinted his dictionary from
stereotype plates, he was unable to make corrections, and added, in 1883, an Errata and Corrections on a fly-sheet at the end—without acknowledgement of Giles' corrections.
Herbert Giles continued working on his Chinese-English dictionary for 15 years until 1889 when the
Foreign Office granted his request to be stationed as Consul at
Ningpo
Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sa ...
, where the workload was light and he could prepare the manuscript for press. The Shanghai publishers
Kelly & Walsh
Kelly & Walsh was a notable Shanghai-based publisher of English language books, founded in 1876, which currently exists as a small chain of shops in Hong Kong specializing in art books.
Kelly & Walsh Ltd. was formed in 1876 by combining two Shang ...
printed the dictionary in 4 fascicules from 1891 to 1892.
The first edition ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'' (1892), which
Bernard Quaritch
Bernard Alexander Christian Quaritch ( ; April 23, 1819 – December 17, 1899) was a German-born British bookseller and collector.
The company established by Bernard Quaritch in 1847 lives on in London as Bernard Quaritch Ltd, dealing in rare ...
also published in London, had 2
royal quarto (250 by 320 mm.) volumes comprising a 46-page
front matter
Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though ...
(9-page Preface and 32-page Philological Essay) and the 1415-page dictionary, printed in triple columns, beginning with 60 pages of tables. The price was $35.
For the subsequent two decades, Giles diligently worked "to correct mistakes, cut out duplicates and unnecessary matter, prepare revised Tables, and add a very large number of new phrases, taken from my reading in modern as well as in ancient literature". In 1903
Lord Lansdowne, then Foreign Secretary, asked
Sir Ernest Satow
Sir Ernest Mason Satow, (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist.
Satow is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served, where he was known as . He was a key figu ...
, then Minister in Peking, by letter whether a new edition should be purchased for the British Peking legation and consulates, and whether publication should be funded from the Civil List Fund. After consulting with Giles, Satow supported the new publication in a letter dated May 29, 1903, stating "I understand from the author that the new edition is not a mere reproduction of the first. Mistakes have been corrected, further meanings have been added to many characters, frequent cross-references have been introduced, and no fewer than ten thousand new phrases have been distributed over the entries as they now stand, chiefly drawn from sources in which the Dictionary has been found to be deficient".
The revised and enlarged second edition (1912) was likewise published by Kelly & Walsh and Bernard Quaritch in 7 fascicules printed from 1909 to 1912. It had 2 royal quarto volumes, with Part I comprising a 17-page preface (with extracts from the first edition) and 84 pages of tables; and Part II comprising the dictionary itself, printed in triple columns. Compared with the first edition of 1,461 total pages, the 1,813-page second edition is 398 pages longer. Giles produced the first edition entirely at his own risk, and it cost £2300, towards which the Foreign Office gave £300. The second edition cost £4800, towards which they gave £250.
Giles' Chinese-English dictionary remained in "constant use" for generations. A compact edition was reprinted by Paragon Books (Chicago) in 1964, Ch'eng Wen (Taipei) in 1978, and is still available online.
[Yang 1985: 288.]
Giles learned that
Edmund Backhouse, one of his first Chinese language students at Cambridge, had been trying for years to compile a Chinese-English dictionary. In 1925, he used it to metaphorically describe Chinese bilingual lexicography in terms of international
sports competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indiv ...
.
ackhouse's dictionaryis of course intended to supersede my own work. Well, dictionaries are like dogs, and have their day; and I should be the last person to whine over the appearance of the dictionary of the future, which it is to be hoped will come in good time, and will help to an easier acquisition of "the glorious language." Morrison and Medhurst, both Englishmen, between them held the blue ribbon of Chinese lexicography from 1816 to 1874; then it passed to Wells Williams, who held it for America until 1892, when I think I may claim to have recaptured it for my own country, and to have held it now for thirty-three years.
In the history of bilingual Chinese lexicography, Giles' Dictionary is the fourth major
Chinese-English dictionary after
Robert Morrison's (1815-1823) ''
A Dictionary of the Chinese Language
''A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts'' or ''Morrison's Chinese dictionary'' (1815-1823), compiled by the Anglo-Scottish missionary Robert Morrison was the first Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary. Part I is Chinese-Engli ...
'',
Walter Henry Medhurst
Walter Henry Medhurst (29 April 179624 January 1857), was an English Congregationalist missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School. He was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese-language editions.
Earl ...
's (1842) ''
Chinese and English Dictionary
The ''Chinese and English Dictionary: Containing All the Words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, Arranged According to the Radicals'' (1842), compiled by the English Congregational church, Congregationalist missionary Walter Henry Medhurst (1796- ...
'', and
Samuel Wells Williams
Samuel Wells Williams (22 September 1812 – 16 February 1884) was a linguist, official, missionary and Sinologist from the United States in the early 19th century.
Early life
Williams was born in Utica, New York, son of William Williams (178 ...
' (1874) ''
A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language
''A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language: Arranged According to the Wu-Fang Yuen Yin, with the Pronunciation of the Characters as Heard in Peking, Canton, Amoy, and Shanghai'' or the ''Hàn-Yīng yùnfǔ 漢英韻府'', compiled by the Amer ...
''. Giles' dictionary was superseded by
Robert Henry Mathews
Robert Henry Mathews (1877–1970) was an Australian missionary and Sinologist, best known for his 1931 '' A Chinese-English Dictionary: Compiled for the China Inland Mission by R. H. Mathews'', which was subsequently revised by Harvard University ...
' (1931) ''
A Chinese-English Dictionary Compiled for the China Inland Mission''. In contrast to Morrison, Medhurst, Williams, and Mathews, who were all
Christian missionaries in China, Giles was an agnostic
anti-clericalist.
The historian Huiling Yang found that although Giles strongly criticized Williams' dictionary, it turns out that Giles' own dictionary is more closely linked to Williams' than to Morrison's, which Giles praised highly.. Medhurst's, Williams', and Giles' Chinese-English dictionaries are all members of a tradition that originated with Morrison's work. Each of their dictionaries made contributions and improvements to the art of Chinese-English dictionary compilation.
Giles' preface to the second edition gives a "Comparative Table of Phrases under Various Characters, Taken as Specimens, to illustrate the Progress of Chinese–English Lexicography", for example:
Content
![Giles 1892 1066](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Giles_1892_1066.jpg)
Herbert Giles worked for 18 years to compile and publish the 1892 first edition ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'', which contains 10,859 character
head entries plus 2,989
variant characters for a total of 13,848 entries. He decided to number every head entry—an improvement lacking in the earlier dictionaries of Morrison, Medhurst, and Williams—in order to facilitate internal
cross-referencing
The term cross-reference (abbreviation: xref) can refer to either:
* An instance within a document which refers to related information elsewhere in the same document. In both printed and online dictionaries cross-references are important because ...
and make it easier for users to find characters. Giles subsequently worked for 20 years revising and adding "a vast number of compounds and phrases" to the 1912 second edition, which contains 10,926 head entries (67 more) plus 2,922 variants, also totaling 13,848.
Despite the addition of new head entries to the second edition, Giles kept the original 13,848 numerical arrangement owing to an
unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...
. People in China were using the dictionary numbers as a
Chinese telegraph code
The Chinese telegraph code, Chinese telegraphic code, or Chinese commercial code ( or ) is a four-digit decimal code (character encoding) for electrically telegraphing messages written with Chinese characters.
Encoding and decoding
A codebook ...
, that is, a
character encoding
Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to Graphics, graphical character (computing), characters, especially the written characters of Language, human language, allowing them to be Data storage, stored, Data communication, transmi ...
index for
telegraphs written in Chinese characters—analogous with modern
Chinese input methods for computers
Chinese input methods are methods that allow a computer user to input Chinese characters. Most, if not all, Chinese input methods fall into one of two categories: phonetic readings or root shapes. Methods under the phonetic category usually are e ...
. Another example of using Giles' 13,848 numbers to
index characters is Vernon Nash's (1936) ''Trindex: an Index to Three Dictionaries'' or ''San zidian yinde'' 三字典引得, for ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'', (1711) ''
Peiwen Yunfu''
rime dictionary, and (1716) ''
Kangxi Dictionary
The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...
''.
The dictionary is alphabetically
collated
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...
by
Beijing Mandarin pronunciation
romanized in the
Wade-Giles system, ''a'', ''ai'', ''an'', ''ang'', etc. Within each syllabic pronunciation section, characters sharing the same phonetic element and different graphic
radicals are arranged together, for instance, the phonetic ''ai
4'' 艾 (number 32) "mugwort; artemisia" is followed by ''ai
4'' 哎 (33, with the
mouth radical) "an interjection of surprise", ''ai
4'' 餀 (34,
food radical) "food which has been spoilt", and ''ai
4'' 鴱 (35,
bird radical) "the hen of the tailor-bird".
Pronunciations are glossed in late 19th-century standard
Beijing Mandarin. In addition, Giles glosses pronunciations in archaic
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
rime ("R." according to the ''
Peiwen Yunfu''
rime dictionary) and ''
fanqie
''Fanqie'' ( zh, t= 反切, p=fǎnqiè) is a method in traditional Chinese lexicography to indicate the pronunciation of a monosyllabic character by using two other characters, one with the same initial consonant as the desired syllable and one ...
'', nine regional varieties of Chinese (commonly mistaken for mutually-understandable "
dialects
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
"), and the Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean languages. Giles' dictionary went far beyond Williams', which glosses pronunciations in Middle Chinese and four regional varieties:
Shantou,
Amoy
Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong' ...
,
Fuzhou, and
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
Chinese. Giles' dictionary abbreviates the nine varieties ("dialects") by their initial letter: C.
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
, H.
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
, F.
Foochow
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
, W.
Wênchow, N.
Ningpo
Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sa ...
, P.
Pekingese
The Pekingese (also spelled Pekinese) is a breed of toy dog, originating in China. The breed was favored by royalty of the Chinese Imperial court as a companion dog, and its name refers to the city of Peking (Beijing) where the Forbidden City i ...
, M. "Mid-China", Y.
Yangchow
Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yanc ...
, and S.
Ssuch'uan, as well as in K.
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
, J.
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, and A.
Annamese languages.
Tones are annotated with a superscript number in the upper right of a character or romanized word; the
four tones
This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin).
Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies wid ...
of
Beijing Mandarin are indicated as 1 "high-level", 2 "rising", 3 "dipping", and 4 "falling". In the first edition, Giles uses 5 to denote alternate tonal pronunciations that he had heard, eruditely described as "''tra cotanto senno''" (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
for "amid such wisdom", from
Dante's ''Inferno''). The prior dictionaries of Morrison, Williams, and Medhurst annotate tones in terms of the traditional
four tones
This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin).
Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies wid ...
of
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
pronunciation used in
rime dictionaries such as the ''Kangxi''; namely ''píng'' 平 "level" tone, ''shàng'' 上 "rising", ''qù'' 去 "departing", and ''rù'' 入"entering" tone. Giles uses an asterisk to indicate archaic
entering tone, with
2* denoting second tone with a ''-p'', ''-t'', or ''-k''
stop consonant. Despite the historical fact that the "entering" tone had already ceased to exist in 19th-century Beijing pronunciation, Norman notes that early Chinese-English dictionaries were "much concerned with including it". Many early dictionaries of Mandarin Chinese in Western languages were explicitly concerned not with the Beijing pronunciation of their time, but instead with Southern Mandarin, a
koiné widely used up to the second half of the 19th century.
Dictionary pages are formatted in three columns, each split between the head entry character, number, and pronunciations on the left, and the translation equivalents ("definitions"), cross references, and subentries of terms on the right. Giles attempts to arrange the subentry example words and phrases according to the order of the translation equivalents. The dictionary's approximately "hundred thousand examples" diversely range from the "best and highest planes of Chinese thought" to everyday words and nursery rhymes.
The Chinese character
道 for ''dào'' "way; path; say; the
Dao
Dao, Dão or DAO may refer to:
* Tao (Chinese: "The Way" 道), a philosophical concept
* Dao (Chinese sword) (刀), a type of Chinese sword
* Dao (Naga sword), a weapon and a tool of Naga people
People and language
* Yao people, a minority ethni ...
" or ''dǎo'' "guide; lead; conduct; instruct; direct" (or
導 clarified with
Radical 41
Radical 41 or radical inch () meaning " thumb" or "inch" is one of the 31 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals total) composed of three strokes.
In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 40 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.
is ...
寸 "thumb; inch") is a good litmus test for a dictionary because it has two pronunciations and complex semantics. The sample entry from Giles' dictionary for ''tao
4'' 道
4 (10,780) gives the character and number over pronunciations from
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
''tou'' to
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
''dau'' on the left, and the translation equivalents and examples on the right. Note that brackets indicate translation equivalents added in the second edition.
A road; a path; a way. Hence; the road ''par excellence''; the right way; the true path; the truth; religion. Of or belonging to Taoism . A district; a region; a political division of the empire, varying under different dynasties; a circuit; a ''Tao-t'ai''. To speak; to tell. .
The 1912 second edition adds references to
Christian Greek scriptural λόγος
''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Arist ...
''
logos
''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Ari ...
'', Thomas William Kingsmill's (1899) ''
Daodejing
The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...
'' translation comparing ''dào'' with
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
''mārga'' "path;
(Buddhist) paths to liberation", the meaning "principles" under ''mou'' 謀
2 (8032) "to plot; to scheme", "
Tai chi
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...
" 太極 under 極
2* (859), ''dàotái'' 道臺 "(historical) the magistrate of a ''dào'' district/circuit", and the syntactic use of 道 as a
classifier or
measure word
In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun.
Description
Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with mass nouns ( ...
for rivers/topics/etc.
The first edition 道
4 entry gives 230 examples of words and phrases for ''tao
4'' "way; path" (e.g., "黃道 the
ecliptic
The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agains ...
; good luck; a lucky day; the conjunction of the sun and moon; in Taoist language, the state of unconscious innocence, as of an unborn babe"), and "Read ''tao
3''. To lead; ''see'' No. 10,781" with 6 examples. The second edition gives 255 examples (for instance, adding "一達謂之道 that which passes through is called ''tao''", quoting the ''
Shuowen Jiezi
''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...
'' dictionary definition of ''dào'') and "Read ''tao
3''. To lead; ''see'' 10,781" and 6 examples. The following ''tao
3'' 導
3 (10,781) "To lead; to guide" entry gives 7 examples in the first edition and 8 in the second, for instance "導師 the guiding Teacher—Buddha".
Herbert Giles created the first Chinese-English
encyclopedic dictionary in two ways, with comprehensive explanations under head entries and with informative tables. His example was followed by many later Chinese-English dictionaries up to the present time. First, some dictionary entries include in-depth information. Take ''pǔlu'' 氆氇 "a woolen fabric made in Tibet" as an example. Giles gives ''P'u
3'' 氆
3 (9514) "An open-woven, thick woolen cloth, either plain or flowered, with a nap on one side, known as 氆氇. It comes from Tibet, and is used for making the winter caps of Lamas. Known to the Mongols as ''cheng-mé'' and ''chalma''." Second, Giles's dictionary has six tables, in addition to the requisite table of the 214
Kangxi Radicals
The 214 Kangxi radicals (), also known as the Zihui radicals, form a system of radicals () of Chinese characters.
The radicals are numbered in stroke count order. They are the most popular system of radicals for dictionaries that order Traditio ...
(essential for using a
radical-and-stroke index) included by Morrison, Medhurst, and Williams. The tables are for
Insignia of Official Rank,
The Family Names,
The Chinese Dynasties,
Topographical
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...
,
The Calendar, and Miscellaneous (
Chinese numerals
Chinese numerals are words and characters used to denote numbers in Chinese.
Today, speakers of Chinese use three written numeral systems: the system of Arabic numerals used worldwide, and two indigenous systems. The more familiar indigenous s ...
). Another table is found in the dictionary front matter, called the Table of Sounds or Table of Sounds for Dialects.
Giles was the first Chinese-English lexicographer to systematically include
homographs
A homograph (from the el, ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also ...
"a character with two or more readings" (which he calls "duplicate characters"). For instance, the character
長 can be pronounced ''cháng'' "long; lasting", ''zhǎng'' "grow up; increase", or ''zhàng'' "plenty; surplus": Wade-Giles ''ch'ang
2'', ''chang
3'' and ''chang
4'', respectively. The main entry ''ch'ang
2'' 長
2 (450) first has "Long, of time or space, as opposed to 短 short. Excelling; advantageous; profitable." with 59 words and phrases (e.g., "長生 long life; immortality. Used as a euphemism for coffins, death, etc."); then "Read ''chang
3''. Old; senior. To excel; to increase; to grow." with 38 ("長妾 the senior concubine"); and then "Read ''chang
4''. with 4 terms (e.g., 無長物 there is nothing over."). The alternate entry ''chang'' 長
o tone(408) says "''See'' 450."
Reception
Giles' ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'' has received both acclaim and censure. An early critic, the
Chinese Malaysian
Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian p ...
scholar
Gu Hongming
Gu Hongming in his time known as Ku Hung-ming (; Wade-Giles: Ku Hung-ming; Pinyin: Gū Hóngmíng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ko͘ Hông-bêng; courtesy name: Hongming; ordinary name: 湯生 in Chinese or Tomson in English) (18 July 185730 April 1928) was a ...
(1857-1928) criticized Giles' lack of overall insight into
Chinese literature, and said
It is this want of philosophical insight in Dr. Giles which makes him so helpless in the arrangement of his materials in his books. Take for instance his great dictionary. It is in no sense a dictionary at all. It is merely a collection of Chinese phrases and sentences, translated by Dr. Giles without any attempt at selection, arrangement, order or method. As a dictionary for the purposes of the scholar, Dr. Giles' dictionary is decidedly of less value than even the old dictionary of Dr. Williams.
Arthur C. Moule, son of the Anglican missionary
George Moule, wrote a critical review of Giles' dictionary, for instance, the 否
3 entry (3596) gives ''fou
3'' "Not; on the contrary; negative" and ''p'i
3'' "Bad; wicked. One of the diagrams." "Diagram" refers to the ''
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
''
Hexagram 12 ''pǐ'' 否 "Obstruction". Moule says ''fou'', ''p'i'', or ''pei'' has three meanings" "not", "to obstruct; an obstacle", and "evil", but Giles accidentally omitted the second, which is the hexagram's meaning.
The English sinologist Charles Aylmer, who first published ''The Memoirs of H. A. Giles'' from a
Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...
manuscript, gives a balanced evaluation on the dictionary. Aylmer says the second edition "impresses by its sheer bulk" but falls short of the "highest standards of the best 19th-century lexicography". First, the dictionary does not cite sources for terms, but diversely includes both
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
literary
archaisms from sources like the ''Kangxi Dictionary'' and modern vernacular
colloquialisms that Giles "laboriously collected from books read and conversations held during a long stretch of years." Second, Giles failed to indicate stylistic level, which he justifies on the "(somewhat specious) grounds" that, "No division of phraseology into classical and colloquial has been made, for the simple reason that no real line of demarcation exists. Expressions are used in ordinary conversation which occur in the ''Book of Odes''. The book-language fades imperceptibly into the colloquial". A third lexicographical shortcoming is the random arrangement of subentries, "requiring the reader to con up and down the columns". As a general rule, Giles explains, "the meanings found in the Classics stand first, and more modern and colloquial meanings follow. But to this rule there are some striking exceptions, purposely introduced, so as not to impair any value this Dictionary may have as a practical book of reference." Despite these deficiencies, Aylers says Giles' dictionary "held the field for many decades and lives on in successors", such as
Robert Mathews' (1931) ''
A Chinese-English Dictionary Compiled for the China Inland Mission'', many of whose definitions "are taken, without acknowledgment, from Giles".
Today the dictionary is most often cited as the