Ancient Texts Dictionary (Volume 2)

Author: Li Lingpu, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-12-01
Features: The Shuowen Jiezi Gulin (Comprehensive Dictionary of Ancient Characters) is the largest-scale specialized reference book on ancient character compilation and interpretation in China to date. It "collects ten thousand volumes into one, gathers all opinions into one," compiling a large-scale reference book that encompasses the forms and research achievements of ancient characters to date. The interpreted 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), as well as transmitted ancient characters (including Small Seal Script from Shuowen Jiezi, variant forms, ancient script, Zuo script, rare characters, ancient script from the Three-Body Stone Classics, ancient script from the Hanjian, and ancient script from the Ancient Characters in Four Tones and Rhymes). It nearly includes all branches of ancient characters. There are approximately ten thousand character entries, with a total of about ten million words of interpreted materials, making it a culmination of a century of research achievements in ancient character interpretation. Its publication will provide an indispensable reference book with substantial 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 Gulin has been a challenge for our publishing house and editorial staff. Because Gulin has the characteristics of large-scale compilation and high technical difficulty, it has also placed higher and newer demands on 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 ten million words, making it the largest-scale, most comprehensive, and most complete ancient character compilation and interpretation dictionary with wide applications. The scope of the materials includes research monographs, individual papers, and annotations on character compilation and interpretation. All authentic 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 Gulin in the 1920s. Unlike specialized reference books that focus on a single type of character, such as Zhou Fagao's Bronze Script Gulin in Hong Kong, Li Xiaojing's Oracle Bone Script Collection and Interpretation in Taiwan, and Yu Shengwu's Oracle Bone Script Gulin in Jilin, Gulin is the largest ancient character book published after Shuowen Jiezi Gulin.
Even for the published volumes alone, the original manuscripts alone fill more than a dozen large cardboard 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 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 a physically demanding task, and we jokingly say it's also a physical endurance test.
From the perspective of work procedures, we broke the original process of original manuscripts having to go from the editorial office to the marketing department to the publishing department and set up a dedicated publishing coordination team to oversee the entire publishing process, ensuring the smooth flow and progress of the manuscripts.
II. Large Human Resource Input. As a large-scale cultural heritage project, Gulin has significantly higher requirements for publishing quality than general publications. From the layout design to the selection of fonts and sizes, even down to the rationalization of character spacing and line spacing, from the selection of paper to the repeated revisions of the cover and binding, every step, we have strictly followed the of municipal leaders to treat the publication of Gulin as a landmark cultural project of Shanghai.
Because Gulin involves a highly specialized field of knowledge, ordinary editors cannot handle it, and ordinary proofreaders find it difficult to complete. For this reason, we have mobilized experienced and specialized editorial staff to organize dedicated proofreading personnel, who have been involved in the editorial committee's work in advance to quickly familiarize themselves with the content and procedures, working together to complete the task.
III. High Difficulty. The original manuscripts contain a large number of ancient characters and handwritten scripts, some of which, due to multiple photocopies, do not produce ideal results, making computer processing very challenging. The process of ancient character encoding, handwritten cursive script recognition, and simplification-complexification conversion is also prone to errors, greatly increasing the difficulty of editing and proofreading.
What makes it even more troublesome is that, as a large-scale reference book, it involves the uniformity of the entire book's format and style. Achieving this cannot be fully determined at the beginning; it requires continuous adjustments and improvements during the editing and proofreading process. Sometimes, it truly requires a domino effect—if even a minor change is made to the content or format of the later sections, all related content in the earlier sections must be revised. All of this, in addition to requiring editors and proofreaders to have professional knowledge, also demands a strong sense of dedication and work responsibility. Our editorial and publishing staff have remained patient and meticulous to ensure that Gulin is published as a high-quality work.
On the other hand, in terms of craftsmanship, 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 have insisted on using the best paper and the best craftsmanship. However, due to existing production technology limitations, after the first volume was published, the cover curled in the air-conditioned room due to excessive thickness of the material. We immediately organized personnel to actively communicate with the factory, conduct detailed research, and redesign the production, all with the goal of publishing a high-quality book that reflects Shanghai's academic standards in content and publishing standards in form.
IV. Complex Procedures. Due to the above characteristics of this book, its publishing process is different from ordinary publications and is particularly complex. Each volume contains thousands of character entry bags of original manuscripts and proofs, which are constantly circulated between the editorial committee, the publishing house, and the computer company. Adding to the scale and tight deadlines, the heavy workload leaves no room for even the slightest error. If one character entry bag is incorrect, it will 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 it is certain that proofreading Gulin is far more demanding than proofreading other manuscripts, even when dealing with the same one million words.
V. New Technology. Traditional reference books on ancient character interpretation were compiled using manual copying, pasting, and photocopying methods, resulting in slow production cycles and long periods, making it difficult for readers to identify the characters. 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 manual methods that had been followed for many years. We actively developed and applied 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 Gulin but also provided strong material and technical support for the future publication of other similar works.
This book is the second volume of Gulin, a comprehensive reference book on ancient characters. It includes annotations on ancient Chinese characters from historical Chinese character monographs, arranged in multiple fonts for easy reference and review. The book is rich in content and has high academic and reference value, making it an indispensable tool for ancient character researchers, literary workers, and enthusiasts.