Ancient Texts Dictionary (Volume 10)

Author: Li Pu, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-10-01
Features: The Guwen Guzulin is the largest ancient character glossary and reference work in China to date. It "collects ten thousand volumes into one, gathers all opinions into one," compiling large-scale tools that encompass the forms and research achievements of ancient characters to date. The collected glossary 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 script, stone inscriptions, and Spring and Autumn/Warring States stone, etc.) and transmitted ancient characters (including Shuowen Jiezi small seal script, variant forms, ancient script, Zou script, rare characters, San Ti Shi Jing ancient script, Han Jian and Guwen Si Sheng Yun ancient script, etc.). It nearly includes all categories of ancient characters. There are about ten thousand character entries, with a total of approximately ten million words of glossary materials, representing the culmination of a century of research achievements in ancient character interpretation. Its publication will provide an indispensable tool book with comprehensive and reliable materials for the study of Chinese characters, the compilation of large-scale dictionaries, the collation of ancient classics, and related social sciences.
In terms of our publishing work, the publication of Guwen Guzulin has been a challenge for our publishing house and editorial staff. Because Guwen Guzulin has the characteristics of large-scale compilation and high technical difficulty, it has also raised new and higher requirements for our publishing work.
I. Large Scale. The book is divided into 14 volumes according to Shuowen Jiezi, plus two additional volumes not included in Shuowen Jiezi, totaling 16 volumes. We have roughly divided it into 10 volumes, with a total of approximately ten million words. It is currently the largest-scale, most comprehensive, and most complete ancient character glossary and reference work, with wide applications. The scope of the materials includes research monographs, individual papers, and annotations on character compilation and interpretation. All genuine and reliable interpretations of ancient characters with original insights are included. It particularly emphasizes the collection of new materials and achievements from the past half-century since the publication of Ding Fubao's Shuowen Jiezi Guzulin in the 1920s. Unlike specialized tools like Zhou Fagao's Jinwen Guzulin in Hong Kong, Li Xiaojing's Jiawen Wenzi Jieshi in Taiwan, and Yu Shengyou's Jiawen Wenzi Guzulin in Jilin, which focus on a single category of characters, 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, packaged into thousands of data bags. Each time we send out manuscripts, we use small vans to transport them back and forth. Therefore, this has not only been an extremely demanding intellectual labor for our editors but also a test of their professional knowledge and skills. It has also been an extremely physically demanding task, which we jokingly call a physical endurance test.
From the perspective of work procedures, we broke the original process requiring manuscripts to be sent 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 Human Resources Investment. As a large-scale cultural heritage project, Guwen Guzulin requires publishing quality far higher than that of general 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 have strictly followed the from municipal leaders to treat the publication of Guzulin as a landmark cultural project for Shanghai.
Because Guzulin involves highly specialized knowledge, ordinary editors cannot handle it, and ordinary proofreaders find it difficult to complete. Therefore, we mobilized experienced and specialized editorial staff, organized dedicated proofreading personnel, and involved them in the editorial committee's work in advance to familiarize themselves with the content and procedures, enabling joint participation and completion.
III. High Difficulty. The original manuscripts contain a large number of ancient characters and handwritten scripts, some of which are not ideal due to multiple photocopies, making computer processing very challenging. The process of ancient character encoding, handwritten cursive script recognition, and simplification-complexification conversion is 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 work, 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 editing and proofreading process, leading to constant adjustments and improvements. Sometimes, it truly involves pulling the whole chain—minor changes to the content or style in later sections may require revising all related content from the beginning. All of this requires not only professional knowledge from editors and proofreaders but also a strong sense of dedication and work responsibility. Our editorial and publishing staff have remained patient and meticulous, ensuring that Guzulin is published as 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 heavily in initial funds and continued to demand the use of the best paper and craftsmanship throughout the publishing process. 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 in-depth research, and redesign the production to ensure the quality of the book. The goal was to reflect Shanghai's academic standards in content and publishing standards in form.
IV. Complex Procedures. Due to the above characteristics of the book, its publishing process is different from the norm and 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 entirely to the work. For proofreading alone, there have been eight rounds, and reviewing a million words of content for Guzulin is undoubtedly far more demanding than reviewing other manuscripts.
V. New Technology. Traditional ancient character glossary and reference works 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 Shanghai's landmark cultural project, the spirit of the times, and Shanghai's publishing level, 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 support and guarantees for the future publication and printing of other similar works in terms of materials and technology.
This book is a large-scale professional reference work on ancient character interpretation, encompassing the achievements of the past century in eight categories of ancient character interpretation. It gathers insights from many experts into one volume, compiling ten thousand volumes into one, and possesses strong professionalism and authority.