Chinese Idioms Dictionary

Author: Chen Guanglei
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Idioms are an important part of Chinese set phrases, and their meaning is not simply the sum of individual word meanings. They often carry rhetorical colors. The author of this book is a professional linguist and language worker. The book contains a rich collection of words, with examples from ancient and modern usage, many of which are newly discovered by the author.
I. This dictionary includes approximately 6,000 common Chinese idioms from ancient and modern times, including some common variations.
II. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order according to the Pinyin system of Chinese phonetics. Characters with the same syllable are ordered according to the GB2312-80 encoding order, with characters outside the standard listed first.
III. Entries are divided into main entries and subentries. The main entry represents the basic form of a certain idiom, while the subentry represents its common variations. Main entries include the headword, Pinyin pronunciation, definitions, and examples.
IV. The Pinyin pronunciation of headwords is phoneme-by-phoneme, without concatenation, and without marking continuous tone changes. Syllables read as neutral tones are not marked with tones. The erhhua () sound is represented by "r."
V. For idioms with clear origins, the phrase "Source" is used to indicate their origin.
VI. For idioms with multiple meanings, "Meaning ①②" is used to list them separately, with definitions provided for each meaning.
VII. Each meaning or variation generally includes one example. If examples exist both in ancient and modern contexts, one example from each period is provided. Examples are drawn from formally published works, newspapers, magazines, classic literature, and other sources.
VIII. When citing published works, the author's name is indicated, except for popular ancient novels. For works by multiple authors, "" is used for brevity. If the author is unknown or undetermined, "Anonymous" is used. For authors before the Qing Dynasty, the dynasty name is prefixed to their names.
IX. When the context of an example is incomplete and requires the addition of words, the added words are marked in parentheses.
X. Variants of ancient and modern examples are retained in their original form, and traditional characters are converted to simplified characters.
XI. An "Index by Stroke Order" is compiled at the end of the book.