A discussion on the Xinhua Zidian 新华字典 (as well as English translation version)

[Xi'Er Dun]

I want to start a discussion on the Xinhua Zidian 新华字典 Chinese Character Dictionary and the Xiandai Hanyu Cihai 现代汉语辞海 Chinese Character Dictionary, as well as the many editions and English translation versions.

I have a copy of the Xinhua Zidian 新华字典 (the English translation version) and am questioning whether what is says in the preface is true, it states that it has more than 10,000 Hanzi 汉字 entries and I have tried to lookup some less obscure ones, that aren't in most Chinese Character Dictionaries 字典 like for example [卌 xi4 -- forty] and [皕 bi4 -- two-hundred] and can't seem to find entries on these ones, which I find hard to realise given that there is supposed to be at at least 10,000 Hanzi 汉字 entries within the book and those Characters like the ones I just mentioned for "forty"and "two-hundred" are not that too obscure compared to some entries in the Kangxi Zidian 康熙字典 that I have seen.

Also, I have a copy of the Xiandai Hanyu Cihai 现代汉语辞海 and it appears to have many more Character Entries like more Dialect Characters 方言字， like [怹 tan1 -- polite (male) third person pronoun] -- Beijinghua 北京话 and, [乸 na3 -- a feminine suffix] -- from Gwonggdungwa 廣東話 /Cantonese.

If anyone has a copy of the Xiandai Hanyu Cihai 现代汉语辞海 or Xinhua Zidian 新华字典(any edition or English translation) I want to start a dicussion about these two Character Dictionaries 字典, or even compare the advantages and diasavantages between the two books in regards to usefullness, frequency/usage and number of Character entries (ie. Classical and Dialect Usage vs. Modern Standard PuTongHua 普通话 usage, depth of explanations and context, or whatever.]

谢谢您

Xi ' Er Dun 希尔顿 from 澳洲 Australia

[gato]

I find hard to realise given that there is supposed to be at at least 10,000 Hanzi 汉字 entries within the book

It's easy to check if you don't believe the preface. Multiply the number of pages in the dictionary by a rough average number of character entries per page, and you'll get a rough estimate of how many total entries it has.

[naturegirl]

They vary quite a lot, so I would rather multiply the characters on each page at the beginning of the dictionary (where you look up the words) with those pages.

[gato]

You are right, mathgirl.

[naturegirl]

hehe I will remember that for my next nickname

[Lu]

My co-worker had a copy of the Xinhua (only Chinese no English), and it seemed to be pretty good, especially for its size: whenever we really couldn't find a character anywhere else, we used it as the last resort, and I don't remember it ever failing us. Maybe it only lists the characters in modern usage? I don't think 卌 is ever really used anymore, maybe that's why the Xinhua doesn't include it. It does have the characters for all kinds of obscure plants, for example.

[Luobot]

I have no comment on the "Xinhua Zidian" but for:

卌 <<<=== the online price is right

[gato]

I have no comment on the "Xinhua Zidian"

Come on, please comment.

[Luobot]

Not to be outdone, the price is also right here.

(but you have to enter the character as I can't seem to pass it in the link)

Come on, please comment.

If I may, I'd rather comment on the simple beauty of the 卌 character itself: 4 vertical bars with one horizontal to cross it for the number 40. It's one of the few characters that makes intuitive sense to me without a dictionary. I don't even need a special instruction manual to help me make up a story about it to remember it. I guess the 新华字典 demands of characters a bigger challenge to inspire an entry into their 字典.

[889]

I've got the two-volume 汉英大辞典 Chinese-English Dictionary published by 上海交通大学出版社 Shanghai Jiatong University Press, and it includes both 卌 xi and 皕 bi.

And as to the obviousness of 卌 xi, I think a lot of Westerners would instinctively take it to mean five.

[mandel1luke]

They count in traditional characters and variants as well, and yes, it adds up to around 10,000.

btw Xinhua Zidian is a modern Mandarin dictionary, so it's really meant to be helpful to the contemporary user, and not for the Classical Chinese Reader. So it will not contain archaic characters no longer in use, there's no need to search for them.

Xinhua Zidian is really an excellent dictionary, if you use it according to its proper function.