General Idioms Dictionary

Author: Wen Duanzheng, Shen Huiyun, Editors
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This dictionary includes nearly 3,000 commonly used idioms in modern Chinese. Common "variant" idioms are listed under the entry "also known as" as subentries, followed by their Pinyin phonetic transcription based on spelling rules. The explanation first clarifies words or characters that require annotation before explaining the overall meaning. Chinese not only has a rich vocabulary but also a rich grammatical structure. As an important part of the grammatical structure, idioms are widely used due to their unique expressive power, whether in spoken or written language. This book, as one of the "General Language and Characters Series Reference Books," is neither rushed nor required to be. The standard for selecting entries is simply "general," and the main approach is: 1. Exclude ancient idioms that are no longer used or rarely used. 2. Some ancient idioms, although still in use today, are obscure and not commonly used, and are generally not included. 3. For idioms in modern Chinese, completeness is not pursued. Additionally, some idioms with weak cohesion or whose meanings can be easily understood from their characters alone are also excluded. As a result, while the number of idioms included in this book may not be large, they represent the most widely used and practical part of modern Chinese. The idioms included in this book are all general types, and the difficulty of their definitions may seem small. In fact, it is not. To explain them accurately is even more challenging.