The ''Xinhua Zidian'' (), or ''Xinhua Dictionary'', is a
Chinese language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
dictionary published by the
Commercial Press
The Commercial Press () is the first modern publishing organisation in China.
History
In 1897, 26-year-old Xia Ruifang and three of his friends (including the Bao brothers Bao Xian'en and Bao Xianchang) founded The Commercial Press in Shang ...
. It is the best-selling
Chinese dictionary
Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...
and the world's most popular
reference work
A reference work is a work, such as a paper, book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually ''referred'' to f ...
.
In 2016,
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
officially confirmed that the dictionary, published by The Commercial Press, is the "Most popular dictionary" and the "Best-selling book (regularly updated)". It is considered a symbol of Chinese culture.
This pocket-sized dictionary of
Chinese characters
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 ''kanji' ...
uses
simplified Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the ''Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one o ...
and
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
romanization. The most recent ''Xinhua Zidian'' edition (the 12th) contains 3,300
compounds and includes over 13,000
logograms
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
, including
traditional Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took at ...
and
variant Chinese characters
Variant Chinese characters (; Kanji: ; Hepburn: ''itaiji''; ; Revised Romanization: ''icheja'') are Chinese characters that are homophones and synonyms. Most variants are allographs in most circumstances, such as casual handwriting. Some contexts ...
.
Bopomofo
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
is used as a supplement alongside Pinyin. ''Xinhua Zidian'' is divided into 189 "
radicals
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
" or "section headers". More recent editions have followed a
GB13000.1 national standard in using a
201-radical system.
Besides their popular concise version ''Xinhua Zidian'', Commercial Press also publishes a large-print edition and a ''Xinhua Dictionary with English Translation''. In addition, the Shanxi Education Press publishes a pinyin-edition ''Xinhua Zidian'' with both characters and orthographically precise transcriptions.
History
Under the aegis of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...
, the People's Education Press published the original ''Xinhua Zidian'' in 1953. The linguist and lexicographer Wei Jiangong (魏建功, 1901–1980) was chief editor. In 1957, Commercial Press published the ''Xinhua Zidian'' (1st edition), which was 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 ...
in pinyin order. They have subsequently revised this dictionary ten times, with over 200 printing runs, and it is a longtime
bestseller
A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...
among students in China. In early 2004, the total number of published copies exceeded 400 million.
[
When ]San Marino
San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...
, a tiny country surrounded by Italy, was building a relationship with China in the 1970s, the Sammarinese gave a three-volume encyclopedia they had published, as a present to Chinese officials. However, due to the chaos caused by the Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
in the area of publishing, China only could give a copy of the little ''Xinhua Zidian'' in return. As a result, the Chinese government decided to publish a series of new dictionaries in 1975, including Hanyu Da Cidian
The ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' () is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', it has diachronic coverage of the Chinese language, and traces usage over three millennia from Chi ...
and some Chinese-foreign languages dictionaries.
The dictionary was strongly affected by the political environment under Mao
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ...
. In its 1971 edition, the dictionary contained 46 Quotations of Chairman Mao, and slogans such as "Long live Chairman Mao!"
Mobile app
The Commercial Press presented its official app on Apple Store
The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple ...
in June 2017. It supports identifying hànzì
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 ''kanji' ...
characters by handwriting, voice, or camera. It also provides a pronunciation of the characters read by Li Ruiying
Li Ruiying (; born 16 July 1961) is a Chinese media personality and politician, best known for being the long-time anchor of the China Central Television (CCTV) program ''Xinwen Lianbo''.
Ruiying is the Vice-President of China Association of Ra ...
, the former news presenter of ''Xinwen Lianbo
''Xinwen Lianbo'' (, literally News Simulcast) is a daily news programme produced by China Central Television (CCTV), a state broadcaster. It is shown simultaneously by all local TV stations in mainland China, making it one of the world's most ...
''.
Lawsuits
The use of the term ''Xinhua Zidian'' has been disputed in China since the publishing of the dictionary is no longer arranged by the government. The Commercial Press insisted that the name is a specific term while other publishing houses believed that it is a generic term, as many of them published their own Chinese dictionary under the name.
In 2016, The Commercial Press (Beijing) filed a lawsuit at Beijing intellectual property court, claiming Sinolingua Co., Ltd. had violated The Commercial Press's trademark for Xinhua Zidian by publishing ''Xinhua Zidian'' without permission from The Commercial Press, even though the trademark name was not registered. The original case started when 3.2 million copies of student edition of Xinhua Zidian (学生新华字典) published by a company in Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
were recalled for poor quality.
See also
*List of best-selling books
This page provides lists of best-selling individual books and book series to date and in any language. ''"Best-selling"'' refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Com ...
References
*''Xinhua Zidian'' (新华字典), 10th revised edition. Beijing: Commercial Press. 2004. , (large-print)
External links
*The Commercial Press (Beijing) page
Chinese
{{Dictionaries of Chinese
Commercial Press
Chinese dictionaries