New Chinese-Japanese Dictionary -- New Version

Author: Shang Yongqing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: April 19, 1991
Features: The cultural exchange between China and Japan has a long history. In reference books, as early as the 9th century, Japanese monk Kūkai compiled Zhuansu Miaoxiang Mingyi (Japan's Tenpyō Seven Year, completed after 803 AD) based on the Chinese dictionary Yupian by Gu Yewang of the Southern Qi Dynasty. In the 10th century, another Japanese scholar, Genshū, wrote Wamei Liejuchao (abbreviated as Wamei Chao, completed between 931 and 938 AD). These two books were among the earliest reference books on Chinese characters and vocabulary in Japan. However, Zhuansu Miaoxiang Mingyi used Chinese annotations for characters, essentially a simplified version of Yupian in Japanese, not truly a Sino-Japanese dictionary. On the other hand, Wamei Liejuchao arranged names by categories such as heaven, earth, and human relationships, explaining their pronunciations, meanings, and sources, which was closer to an encyclopedic or reference book. However, it marked names with Man'yōgana, setting a precedent for 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 known, include twenty Japanese word meanings cited in Lu Daojing'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 many linguistic and textual records. However, these were merely scattered introductions. He Lin Yu Lu still carried a touch of novelty, and Japan Examination only listed word tables, 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, entered into a contract with the Japanese Daitō Shuppan to publish and distribute it in both China and Japan, and had already printed trial copies. However, due to the start of the Cultural Revolution, it was forced to be abandoned.
After the 1975 National Dictionary Planning Conference, the Sino-Japanese Dictionary was assigned to Jilin University for compilation. The Commercial Press, cherishing the draft, lent it to the Sino-Japanese Dictionary Editorial Office of Jilin University as a reference for their own dictionary, which was gratefully adopted in many aspects. After the signing of the Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty in 1978, the Commercial Press again proposed compiling a bilingual Sino-Japanese dictionary. Realizing that the pre-Cultural Revolution Sino-Japanese Dictionary had insufficient entries and definitions, and that research findings on Chinese language and 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 from the Commercial Press, Li Jinxi's National Language Dictionary, and Lu Shuxiang's Eight Hundred Modern Chinese Words, among others. 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 New Sino-Japanese Dictionary.
Starting was difficult, and updating was no easier. After eight years of hard work, this dictionary was completed. Considering the convenience of readers in both China and Japan and the need for expert review from both sides, 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 faithfully and accurately express the basic meanings of modern Chinese in modern Japanese to better serve readers in both countries in the new era. However, accurately grasping and expressing word meanings is a challenging task. Despite the diligence of the compilers, who worked as if treading on thin ice, 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 note.