Ancient Texts Dictionary (Volume 7)

Author: Li Pu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-12-01
Features: The Guwen Guzulin (Dictionary of Ancient Characters) is the largest-scale ancient character glossary and reference toolbook in China to date. It "collects ten thousand volumes into one and compiles all opinions into one," compiling large-scale tools that gather the forms of ancient characters and research achievements to date. The glossed materials cover eight types of unearthed ancient characters (including oracle bone script, bronze script, Warring States and Qin-Han seal script, Warring States coin script, pottery script, Warring States and Qin-Han bamboo slips script, silk manuscript, stone inscriptions, and Spring and Autumn/Warring States stone alliance inscriptions) and transmitted ancient characters (including Small Seal Script from Shuowen Jiezi, variant forms, ancient script, Zou script, rare characters, ancient script from San Ti Shi Jing, ancient script from Han Jian, and ancient script from Guwen Si Sheng Yun). It nearly encompasses all categories of ancient characters. With approximately ten thousand character entries and a total of ten million words of glossed materials, it is a culmination of a century of research achievements in ancient character interpretation. Its publication will provide an indispensable toolbook with comprehensive and reliable materials for the study of Chinese characters, the compilation of large-scale dictionaries, the organization of ancient classics, and related social sciences.
In terms of our publishing work, the publication of Guwen Guzulin has presented a challenge to our publishing house and editorial staff. Because Guwen Guzulin has the characteristics of large-scale compilation and high technical difficulty, it has also raised higher and newer requirements for our publishing work.
### I. Large Scale
The entire book is divided into 14 volumes according to Shuowen Jiezi, plus two additional volumes that Shuowen Jiezi does not include, making a total of 16 volumes. We roughly organize it into 10 volumes, with a total of ten million words, making it the largest-scale, most comprehensive, and most complete ancient character glossary and reference toolbook to date, with wide applications. The scope of the materials includes research monographs, individual papers, and annotations on character compilation and interpretation, collecting all genuine and reliable interpretations of ancient characters with personal insights. It particularly emphasizes the inclusion of new materials and achievements obtained in the past half-century since the publication of Ding Fubao's Shuowen Jiezi Guzulin in the 1920s. Unlike specialized toolbooks that focus solely on a single category of characters, such as Zhou Fagao's Jinwen Guzulin in Hong Kong, Li Xiaojing's Jiawu Wenzi Jishu in Taiwan, and Yu Shengyou's Jiawu Wenzi Guzulin in Jilin, Guwen Guzulin is the largest ancient character book published after Shuowen Jiezi Guzulin.
Even for the published volumes alone, the original manuscripts alone fill more than a dozen large paper boxes, divided into thousands of material bags. Each time we send out manuscripts, we use small vans to transport them back and forth. Therefore, this is not only an extremely demanding mental effort for our editors but also a test of their professional knowledge and skills. It is also an extremely physically demanding task, which we jokingly call a physical endurance test.
From the perspective of work procedures, we broke the original process of sending manuscripts from the editorial office to the marketing department and then to the publishing department. We established a dedicated publishing coordination team to oversee the entire publishing process, ensuring the smooth flow and progress of the manuscripts.
### II. Significant Labor Input
As a large-scale cultural heritage project that will endure for generations, Guwen Guzulin requires publishing quality far higher than that of ordinary publications. From the layout design to the selection of fonts and sizes, even down to the rationalization of character spacing and line spacing, and from the paper selection to the repeated revisions of the cover and binding, we strictly adhere to the from municipal leaders to treat the publication of Guzulin as a landmark cultural project of Shanghai.
Because Guzulin involves highly specialized knowledge, ordinary editors and proofreaders cannot handle it. Therefore, we mobilized experienced and skilled editorial staff to organize dedicated proofreading personnel. They actively participated in the editorial committee's work in advance to familiarize themselves with the content and procedures, ensuring joint participation and completion.
### III. High Difficulty
The original manuscripts contain a large number of ancient characters and handwritten scripts. Some, due to multiple photocopies, do not yield good results, making computer processing very challenging. The encoding of ancient characters, the recognition of handwritten cursive scripts, and the conversion between traditional and simplified characters are also prone to errors, significantly increasing the difficulty of editing and proofreading.
What makes it even more complicated is that, as a large-scale reference book, it involves the uniformity of the entire book's style and format. Achieving this cannot be fully determined at the beginning. It requires continuous identification and resolution of problems during the editorial review and processing, leading to constant adjustments and improvements. Sometimes, a small change in the later content or style requires revising all related content from the beginning. All of this requires not only professional knowledge from our editors and proofreaders but also a strong sense of dedication and responsibility. Our editorial and publishing staff have remained patient and meticulous to ensure that Guzulin becomes a masterpiece.
On the other hand, in terms of production techniques, we have also overcome difficulties and strived for excellence. As a publishing house, we invested a significant amount of initial funds, and throughout the later publishing process, we insisted on using the best paper and the best craftsmanship. However, due to existing production technology limitations, after the first batch of volumes was published, the covers curled in the air-conditioned room due to excessive thickness. We immediately organized personnel to actively communicate with the factory, conduct detailed research, and redesign the production to ensure the quality of the book. The goal was to reflect Shanghai's academic standards in content and its publishing standards in form.
### IV. Complex Procedures
Due to the above characteristics of the book, its publishing procedures are different from ordinary books and are particularly complex. Each volume requires thousands of character entry bags of manuscripts and proofs, constantly circulating between the editorial committee, the publishing house, and the computer company. Given the large scale and tight deadlines, any minor error in a character entry bag would inevitably affect the entire book's publishing schedule. Editorial, proofreading, and publishing staff have devoted themselves fully to the work. For proofreading alone, there have been eight rounds, and reviewing one million words of Guzulin is undoubtedly far more labor-intensive than reviewing other manuscripts.
### V. New Technology
Traditional ancient character glossary and reference toolbooks were compiled using handwritten, cut-and-pasted, and photocopied methods, resulting in slow production cycles and long periods, making it difficult for readers to identify the content. This time, to reflect the high standards of the Shanghai cultural landmark project, the spirit of the times, and Shanghai's publishing standards, and to ensure printing quality, we abandoned the traditional handwritten method that had been followed for many years. We actively developed and utilized modern technological achievements with Jieshen Computer Company, adopting computer-generated character typesetting and establishing a batch of ancient character computer fonts. This is the first time in China that ancient characters have been computer-processed, filling the gap in this field.
This batch of ancient character fonts has not only played a significant role in the typesetting of Guzulin but also provided strong material and technical support for the future publication and distribution of other similar works.
This book is a large-scale professional toolbook for ancient character interpretation, encompassing eight categories of ancient character interpretation achievements over the past century. It gathers the wisdom of many into one and compiles ten thousand volumes into one, possessing strong professionalism and authority.