Student's Dictionary of Ancient Chinese

Author: Xu Sihai (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: This dictionary is primarily aimed at middle school students and primary and secondary school teachers, as well as readers with a medium level of education and first- and second-year liberal arts students in universities. The dictionary strives to highlight the following characteristics:
1. Concise and Practical. It includes: phonetic notation, character analysis (including analysis of structural composition, original form, and creation methods), definitions, and textual evidence. Phonetic notation only includes common pronunciations. Character analysis directly examines simplified characters or commonly used characters. For characters with significant structural changes, the analysis transitions from traditional forms or ancient scripts to simplified or commonly used forms. Definitions generally focus on common and primary meanings, with entries arranged in order of semantic derivation. Each definition is followed by 1-2 textual examples. The writing is concise, emphasizing practicality.
2. Analyzing character structure to popularize knowledge of Chinese characters. Based on the "Six Methods" theory, it analyzes the structural composition and creation methods of character radicals, explaining the evolution of character forms and the ways in which characters have been simplified. It explains the relationships between pictographic radicals and their components, and most phonetic radicals are classified to help deduce the original meanings of characters, revealing the rich historical and cultural knowledge embedded in Chinese characters. For compound radicals, their structural composition is also analyzed. Characters with inconsistent structural compositions or significant changes in ancient and modern forms are explained. Through character analysis, the dictionary introduces readers to essential knowledge of Chinese characters.