Concise Idiom Dictionary

Author: Li Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-04
Features:
1. This book is a concise and practical reference book on Chinese idioms compiled for readers with a medium level of education (including upper elementary school students).
2. The book includes over 6,400 commonly used modern Chinese idioms, with 5,750 listed as head entries and the rest listed under synonyms, antonyms, or near-synonyms (marked with · in the "Head Entry Stroke Index" for distinction). In terms of selection, it focuses on including some currently more common idioms that were not previouslyed in other idiom dictionaries, such as "" and "."
3. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order of Hanyu Pinyin. For entries with the same first character, they are ordered by the second and third characters.
4. In addition to providing Pinyin annotations for individual characters of the idioms, the book also marks the tone changes for "," "," "," "," and the combined tones of falling-rising tones (e.g., ). This is done to indicate the correct pronunciation of the idioms and to help readers, especially those from dialect-speaking regions, master the phonetic patterns of Mandarin.
5. The definitions of the entries are accurate and concise. The meaning of the entire idiom is explained first, followed by annotations for individual characters and words, which are closely tied to their meanings in the idiom. For idioms with multiple meanings, the definitions are divided into separate sections.
6. The illustrative examples for the idioms are concise and relevant. To help readers grasp the different meanings of the idioms more accurately, most examples are divided into sections. For brevity, when citing books, only the titles are provided without authors (or dynasties), and a "Bibliography of Cited Works" is included for reference. Some examples, due to their original length, have been simplified or modified, and no sources are noted.
7. When citing textual evidence, the book distinguishes between "," "," and "" in early works by modern writers to avoid confusion and misuse.
8. The book includes an "Alphabetical Index of Head Entry Characters" and a "Stroke Index of Head Entry Characters" (with the first character arranged by stroke order and subsequent characters by Pinyin), for easy reference.