Japanese-Chinese Dictionary

Author: Shang Yongqing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-08-01
Features: The cultural exchange between China and Japan has a long history. In the field of reference books, as early as the 9th century, Japanese monk Kukai compiled the Zuanli Mianwang Mingyi (Japan's Tenpyo-nanoka era, completed after 803 AD) based on the Yupian written by Gu Yewang of the Southern Qi Dynasty in China. In the 10th century, the Wamei Liejuchao (abbreviated as Wamei Chao, completed between 931 and 938 AD) by Japanese scholar Genson was published. These two books are the earliest reference books in Japan on Chinese characters and vocabulary. However, the Zuanli Mianwang Mingyi used Chinese characters to annotate Chinese characters, essentially a simplified version of the Yupian in Japanese, and does not qualify as a Sino-Japanese dictionary. The Wamei Liejuchao, on the other hand, arranged names by categories such as heaven, earth, and human relations, explaining their pronunciations, meanings, and sources, which is closer to an encyclopedia. However, it marked names with Man'yōgana, making it a pioneer in bilingual Sino-Japanese dictionaries.
In Japan, compiling bilingual Sino-Japanese dictionaries remained a modern endeavor. By the modern era, numerous small and large bilingual Sino-Japanese dictionaries had been published. On the Chinese side, records of Japanese vocabulary, as currently observed, include twenty Japanese word meanings mentioned in Luo Daqing's He Lin Yu Lu from the Southern Song Dynasty, the earliest of its kind. Li Yanggong's Japan Examination during the Ming Dynasty also contains extensive records on language and characters. However, these were merely scattered introductions, and He Lin Yu Lu still carried a touch of curiosity, while Japan Examination only listed word lists, hardly qualifying as a reference book, let alone a bilingual dictionary. The compilation of large-scale bilingual Sino-Japanese dictionaries in China only began after the liberation. In the early 1960s, the Commercial Press compiled China's first Sino-Japanese Dictionary based on the Modern Chinese Dictionary, containing over 40,000 entries. The State Publishing Administration and the Commercial Press, through the China-Japan Friendship Association and the Japan-China Friendship Association, signed a contract with Japan's Daidan Bookstore to publish and distribute it in both China and Japan, with proofs already printed. However, due to the start of the Cultural Revolution, the project was abandoned.
After the 1975 National Dictionary Planning Conference, the Sino-Japanese Dictionary was taken over by Jilin University for compilation. The Commercial Press, cherishing the draft, lent it to the Jilin University Sino-Japanese Dictionary Editorial Office as a reference for their own Sino-Japanese Dictionary, which was generously adopted.
After the signing of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty in 1978, the Commercial Press again proposed compiling a bilingual Sino-Japanese dictionary. Realizing that the earlier Commercial Press Sino-Japanese Dictionary had insufficient entries and definitions, and that research findings on Chinese vocabulary over the years needed to be incorporated, the decision was made to plan and rewrite a new edition. The new draft still used the Modern Chinese Dictionary compiled by the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as a blueprint, supplemented by the Xinhua Dictionary by the Commercial Press, Li Jinxi's National Language Dictionary, and Lu Shuxiang's 800 Words of Modern Chinese. It included modern standard Chinese characters, words, phrases, idioms, and some scientific terms and common dialects, totaling over 80,000 entries and over 60,000 example sentences, named the New Sino-Japanese Dictionary.
Starting a new venture is difficult, and updating is no easier. After eight years of hard work, this dictionary was completed. To facilitate use by readers in both China and Japan and to allow for review by experts from both countries, the Commercial Press and Japan's Shogakukan signed a cooperation agreement in 1981 to publish the dictionary simultaneously in both countries.
This dictionary builds upon the principles of the earlier Commercial Press Sino-Japanese Dictionary, striving to accurately and faithfully express the basic meanings of modern Chinese in modern Japanese to better serve readers in China and Japan in the new era. However, accurately grasping and expressing word meanings is a challenging task. Despite the best efforts of the compilers, who approached the work with great care, errors and shortcomings may still exist. We sincerely hope that readers and experts in both China and Japan will kindly point out any mistakes or omissions.
Additionally, to meet the needs of Japanese readers, the Commercial Press, at the request of Shogakukan, invited scholars in Japan to revise and expand the Japanese version of the dictionary, so the Chinese and Japanese editions differ in some aspects. We hope readers in both countries will take this into account.