Modern Chinese direct inspection dictionary

Author: Mei Xuechou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: This new dictionary is primarily designed for the existing Chinese dictionaries "Zhaxi Fan" and "Zhaxi Man" in China. The "Modern Chinese Direct Lookup Dictionary" allows direct character lookup in one step, eliminating the need for radical tables and index tables, thus saving time and effort from flipping through these vast directories. Character lookup is composed of stroke count + first stroke + last stroke. The stroke count is represented by Arabic numerals, and the stroke names are indicated by "H, S, P, N, D, Z," representing the initials of "horizontal, vertical, hook, dot, and fold." The arrangement order follows this pattern. For example, to look up the character "Fan," it would be 17 strokes + hook + dot, i.e., 17PD. By directly entering these four digits, one can quickly flip to the character in the dictionary, making the speed astonishingly fast. Whether the character has many or few strokes, or whether it is a simplified or traditional character, the lookup speed remains almost the same. To help readers find characters even faster, the author has also created a line index method. The edges of the dictionary are marked with several red and green colored lines and five rows of short colored strips, arranged in a systematic pattern. The former indicates the range of stroke count, while the latter indicates the range of stroke names. Following this pattern for lookup results in even faster speeds, with a single character taking only four or five seconds to find. Mei Xuechou states that making character lookup easier and quicker will increase the interest of primary and secondary school students in using dictionaries. And with increased interest, children's cultural knowledge level naturally improves more rapidly.