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The ''Zhongwen Da Cidian'', also known in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
as the ''Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Chinese Language'', is an
unabridged
An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone (literature), t ...
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 ...
, edited by
Zhang Qiyun and others. The first edition had 40 volumes including its
radical
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 ...
index in volume 39 and
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
index in volume 40. It was published from 1962 through 1968.
This encyclopedic dictionary includes 49,905
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' ...
arranged under the traditional 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 ...
. Each character entry shows the evolution of graphic forms (such as
small seal script
The small seal script (), or Qin script (, ''Qínzhuàn''), is an archaic form of Chinese calligraphy. It was standardized and promulgated as a national standard by the government of Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the Chinese Qin dynasty.
Name ...
), gives pronunciations, and chronological meanings with sources. Words, phrases, and
four-character idioms are given under the head character entry, arranged according to the number of
strokes
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...
in their components. "There are many phrases under some characters," for example, 3,417 under ''yi'' (一 "one") and 1,398 under ''huang'' (黄 "yellow").
Although the ''Zhongwen Da Cidian'' is based on the first edition 1960 ''
Dai Kan-Wa Jiten'' ("Comprehensive Chinese–Japanese Dictionary") by
Tetsuji Morohashi
was an important figure in the field of Japanese language studies and Sinology. He is best known as chief editor of the '' Dai Kan-Wa jiten'', a comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, or ''kanji''.
Biography
Morohashi's father was also ...
, this work is not listed under works consulted. The ''Zhongwen Da Cidian'' is one of the most extensive reference works of Chinese, rivaled only by the later 1993 completion of the ''
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 ...
'' ("Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese").
See also
* ''
Dai Kan-Wa Jiten'', of Japanese
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
* ''
Han-Han Dae Sajeon
Han-Han Dae Sajeon is the generic term for Korean hanja-to-hangul dictionaries. There are several such dictionaries from different publishers. The most comprehensive one, published by Dankook University Publishing, contains 53,667 Chinese charact ...
'', of Korean
hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
*''
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 ...
''
*''
Hanyu Da Zidian
The ''Hanyu dazidian'' () is a reference work on Chinese characters.
Overview
A group of more than 400 editors and lexicographers began compilation in 1974, and it was published in eight volumes from 1986 to 1989. A separate volume of essays do ...
''
References
External links
中文大辭典 ''Zhongwen Da Cidian'' online introduction
{{Dictionaries of Chinese
Chinese dictionaries