Mare Scriptorum

Author: Wen Duanzheng et al. (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-01-01
Features:
1. This book collects 19,023 ancient and modern Chinese proverbs. Among them, 11,129 are main entries, and 7,894 are subentries.
2. Entries are arranged in the order of Pinyin. Entries with different first characters are sorted by the sound of the first syllable. Entries with the same first character are sorted by stroke count, with fewer strokes coming first. Entries with the same first character are sorted by the second syllable, and if both the first and second characters are the same, they are sorted by the third syllable, and so on.
3. Entries with similar or related meanings but slightly different expressions are appropriately grouped. Generally, the earlier or more commonly used one is the main entry, and the rest are subentries, marked with "" before them. Subentries are limited to those with the same first character; those with different first characters are listed separately.
4. Main entries are annotated with Pinyin (subentries are not), using single-character annotations without tone changes or marks for neutral tones.
5. Annotations are concise and accurate. They generally consist of two parts: specific annotations and general explanations. Specific annotations explain difficult words within the entry, if any; otherwise, they are omitted. General explanations clarify the overall meaning of the entry. Depending on the context, some explain the meaning literally, some focus on the meaning, and some combine both, further elaborating on the meaning based on the literal explanation. For some proverbs with particularly prominent negative elements, phrases like "" (old meaning), "" (old analogy), or "" (old belief) are added to indicate a degree of critique.
6. The proverbs collected in this book are limited to those with textual or written evidence. Both main and subentries provide book citations or usage examples. For examples cited from newspapers or journals, only "" (newspaper) or "" (journal) is noted to save space. Omissions in examples are indicated by ellipses "…", and additions for clarity are enclosed in parentheses "()".
7. This book includes a Pinyin index with "" (first character) headings.