Zitong (dictionary)

1204 Chinese orthographic dictionary

Zitong

Zitong title page in clerical script

Chinese name
Chinese| 字通
Literal meaning| character mastery
| Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin| Zìtōng
Wade–Giles| Tzu-t'ung
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping| Zi4 tung1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ| Jīthong
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese| Dzithuwng
Korean name
Hangul| 字通
Hanja| 자통
| Transcriptions

McCune–Reischauer| Chat'ong
Japanese name
Kanji| 字通
| Transcriptions

Revised Hepburn| Jitsū

The Zitong is a 1254 Chinese dictionary of that was compiled by the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) scholar Li Congzhou 李從周. It discussed orthographic differences between Chinese characters written in different historical styles, including seal script, clerical script, and the contemporary regular script.

## Title

[edit]

The title combines two common words: zì 字 "character; script; writing; graph; style" and tōng 通 "communicate/connect (with); join; understand thoroughly; master". While the title is usually transliterated as Zitong or Tzu-t'ung, English translations are Summary of Characters,[1] General Dictionary of Chinese Characters,[2] and (A Scholar) Versed in Characters.[3]

Li Congzhou's choice of title was the name of an earlier character dictionary that is now a lost work: the (c. 500) Zitong 字通 by Yang Chengqing 楊承慶 of the Northern Wei dynasty. It contained 13,734 character head entries, which was more than the (c. 350) Zilin with 12,824 entries.[1][4] Yang's Zitong has been partially reconstructed from fragments of early texts and quotations in classical texts.[5]

The similarly titled (1671) Zhengzitong 正字通 "Correct Character Mastery" (with zhèng 正 "right; straight; correct") was published by Qing dynasty scholar Liao Wenying 廖文英, who bought and renamed the (1627) Zihui bian 字彙辯 "Zihui Disputations", which was written by the Ming dynasty author Zhang Zilie 張自烈 as a supplement to the (1615) Zihui dictionary.

Furthermore, the Japanese lexicographer Shirakawa Shizuka 白川静 edited an identically titled (1996) Jitsū 字通 "Mastery of Characters" Japanese dictionary.

## History

[edit]

In an alphabetic language like English, orthography means "Correct or proper spelling; spelling according to accepted usage; the way in which words are conventionally written. (By extension) Any mode or system of spelling." (OED 2009, v. 4.0). When semantically extended into a logographic language like Chinese, it means "the way in which Chinese characters are conventionally written", which includes calligraphic aspects such as the script styles, stroke order, and character structure.

The first Chinese orthographic dictionaries, or "'character model' dictionaries", were compiled during the Tang dynasty (618–907) in an effort to rectify discrepancies among characters written in seal, clerical, and regular scripts, and to standardize variant characters.[6] Emperor Taizong of Tang put the scholar and calligrapher Yan Shigu (581–645) in charge of the Palace Library in order to "verify and authorize" the Five Classics.[7] The Archival Bureau's duties were to print authoritative editions of the classic works, to collate the styles of characters, to check and proofread government texts, and to produce a standard orthographic handbook. This became the first Chinese orthographic dictionary, Yan Shigu's book the Zìyàng 字樣 "Character Models" (aka Yanshi ziyang 顏氏字樣 "Mr. Yan's Character Models") gave model samples of writing characters in different scripts, which his grandson Yan Yuansun 顏元孫 (d. 732) used as the basis for his Ganlu Zishu orthographic dictionary.

In addition to the Zitong, various orthography dictionaries and character books were published during the Song dynasty (960–1279), for instance, the Fugubian 复古編 "Return to Old Chapters" by Zhang You 張有 and the Peixi 佩觿 "Ivory Bodkin" by the painter Guo Zhongshu.

## Text

[edit]

The Zitong was in one volume, and based upon the classic (121) Shuowen jiezi character dictionary. It included 601 character head entries, which were arranged into 89 sections according to the number of strokes in the regular script. The head character was in seal script and entries were in regular script, giving notation first, followed by the definition. All the exegetic interpretations quote the Shuowen jiezi without any other sources.

There were flaws in the Zitong, such as listing some characters twice and inconsistencies in the 89-radical system. It did have a useful appendix with 82 popular erroneous writings, such as yīchang 衣常 instead of yīshang 衣裳 "clothing; clothes".[3] Nevertheless, this dictionary was important for the study of lexicographical theories concerning dictionary compilation in the Song Dynasty.[2]

## References

[edit]

* Yong, Heming; Peng, Jing (2008). Chinese Lexicography: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911. Oxford University Press.

Footnotes

1. ^ a b Zhou Youguang 周有光 (2003), The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts, tr. by Zhang Liqing 張立青 National East Asian Languages Resource Center, Ohio State University. p. 72.
2. ^ a b Yong & Peng 2008, p. 198.
3. ^ a b Theobald, Ulrich (2013), Zitong 字通 "(A Scholar) Versed in Characters", Chinaknowledge.
4. ^ Lin Yuan (2008), "Zitong Gouchen"《字统》勾沉" [Recovering the Zitong], Gu Hanyu yanjiu 古汉语研究 3.80: 85-88. (in Chinese)
5. ^ Xu Shiyi 徐时仪 (2013) 北朝字书《字统》佚文钩沉 [Recovering the Lost Zitong], Zhongguo wenxue yanjiu 中国文字研究 17. (in Chinese)
6. ^ Yong & Peng 2008, pp. 197, 177.
7. ^ Tr. Yong & Peng 2008, p. 194.

## External links

[edit]

* 字通, copy of (c. 1660) edition Zitong
* 字通, digital edition Zitong

* v
* t
* e

Dictionaries for scripts using Chinese characters

Monolingual|

| Characters
(字; zì)|

* Shizhoupian 史籀篇 (first millennium BCE)
* Erya 爾雅 (c. 3rd century BC)
* Cangjiepian 倉頡篇 (c. 220 BC)
* Jijiupian 急就篇 (c. 40 BC)
* Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字 (2nd century)
* Shiming 釋名 (c. 200)
* Guangya 廣雅 (c. 230)
* Xiao Erya 小爾雅 (3rd century)
* Zilin 字林 (c. 350)
* Ziyuan 字苑 (c. 4th century)
* Yupian 玉篇 (c. 543)
* Ganlu Zishu 干祿字書 (c. 7th century)
* Leipian 類篇 (1066)
* Piya 埤雅 (c. 11th century)
* Zitong 字通 (1254)
* Zihui 字彙 (1615)
* Zhengzitong 正字通 (1627)
* Kangxi Dictionary 康熙字典 (1716)
* Shuowen Jiezi Zhu 說文解字注 (1815)
* Zhonghua Da Zidian 中華大字典 (1915)
* Xinhua Dictionary 新华字典 (1957)
* Hanyu Da Zidian 漢語大字典 (1989)
* Zhonghua Zihai 中华字海 (1994)

|

Words
(詞／词; cí)|

* Ciyuan 辭源 (1915)
* Ministry of Education Mandarin Chinese Dictionary 教育部國語辭典 (1926)
* Cihai 辭海 (1938)
* Zhongwen Da Cidian 中文大辭典 (1968)
* Xiandai Hanyu Cidian 现代汉语词典 (1978)
* Hanyu Da Cidian 漢語大詞典 (1994)
* Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian 现代汉语规范词典 (2004)

Rime|

* Shenglei 聲類 (c. 230)
* Qieyun 切韻 (601)
* Kanmiu Buque Qieyun 刊謬補缺切韻 (706)
* Tangyun 唐韻 (732)
* Yunhai jingyuan 韻海鏡源 (780)
* Guangyun 廣韻 (1008)
* Jiyun 集韻 (1037)
* Yunjing 韻鏡 (1161)
* Qiyin lüe 七音略 (before 1161)
* Pingshui Yun 平水韻 (c. 12th century)
* Menggu Ziyun 蒙古字韻 (14th century)
* Zhongyuan Yinyun 中原音韻 (1324)
* Qi Lin Bayin 戚林八音 (17th century)
* Peiwen Yunfu 佩文韻府 (1711)

Varieties|

* Fangyan 方言 (c. 1st century)
* Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects 現代漢語方言大詞典 (2002)

Exegetical|

* Jingdian Shiwen 經典釋文 (c. 583)
* Yiqiejing Yinyi (Xuanying) 一切經音義 (玄英) (c. 649)
* Yiqiejing Yinyi (Huilin) 一切經音義 (慧琳) (c. 807)
* Longkan Shoujian 龍龕手鑒 (997)

Biographical|

* Zhongguo Renming Dacidian 中國人名大辭典 (1921)

Bilingual|

| Chinese–English|

* A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1823)
* Medhurst's Chinese and English Dictionary (1842)
* A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1874)
* A Chinese–English Dictionary (1892)
* The Five Thousand Dictionary (1926)
* Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary (1931)
* Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese (1947)
* Grammata Serica Recensa (1957)
* Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (1972)
* ABC Chinese–English Dictionary (1996)

| Online|

* CEDICT (1997)

|

In other languages|

* Pearl in the Palm (Tangut; 12th century)
* Pentaglot Dictionary (Manchu; 1794)
* Dai Kan-Wa Jiten (Japanese; 1960)
* Le Grand Ricci (French; 2001)
* Han-Han Dae Sajeon (Korean)

List of Chinese dictionaries
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa