Difference between Modern Chinese Dictionary and Xinhua Dictionary

Edited by the Dictionary Editorial Office of the Institute of Languages of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and published by the Commercial Press, the first edition was published in 1978, with two revisions in 1983 and 1996, and an addendum in 2002 (based on which a bilingual Chinese/English version was published by the Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Publishing House, which is very cost-effective and popular, and is expected to be a competing product to the Chinese-English dictionary). It is very popular and is expected to become a competitive product of Chinese-English dictionary), and the latest version is the 2005 edition (the fifth edition).

Edition Launch date Words included

1st edition 1978 56,000 entries

2nd edition 1983 56,000 entries

3rd edition 1996 60,000 entries

4th edition 2002 61,000 entries

5th edition July 26th 2005 65,000 entries

What was included in the original edition? The 5th edition*** contains more than 65,000 characters, words, phrases, idioms, and other familiar expressions, basically reflecting the current modern Chinese vocabulary and meeting the needs of readers. The revision focuses on four aspects:

I. Adding new words. On the basis of the 1996 revision, more than 6,000 new words have been added, covering language, politics, social life, science and technology. The addition of new words adheres to the principle of being both prudent and positive, and new words that have been widely used in society or have influence and vitality are included in the dictionary in a timely manner. For example, "realization", "vision", "harmonious society", "Dink family", etc. have all been included. In particular, we can see the positive attitude of the editors from the inclusion of "realization" and "vision". These two words, which appeared in the press release on the talks between General Secretary Hu Jintao and Mr. Lien Chan in April this year, appeared in the media on April 30th, while the fifth edition of Present Han started printing on May 2nd. Nevertheless, the editors were able to include these two "overnight popularity" words in the dictionary before the opening of the printing. In addition, it also includes some phonetic translation of words, such as "headhunter" and so on. Of course, Beacon Hire believes that the original meaning of headhunting with "senior talent search" is more in line with reality.

Two, delete the old words. *** deletion of old words about 2000. The principle is to delete those too ancient, old, partial and "square" words. Including purely literary words, the use of a narrow area of the dialect, outdated translation of words, reflecting the outdated things, now no longer in use, and other aspects of the word. For example, the dialect "撒丫子(放脚步跑)".

Third, revise the interpretation and example sentences. Interpretation, example of sentence-by-sentence review, some of the entries to make the necessary changes. Mainly includes three cases, the meaning of the word has changed, the meaning of the word reflects the objective things have changed, the original interpretation is not accurate or perfect. For example, "elimination", the original note for "to go bad and leave good; remove the unsuitable, leaving the suitable", this interpretation of the "leave good, leaving the suitable" are the envy of the remainder of the ingredients, now The amendment to "in the choice to remove (bad or unsuitable)", more accurate.

Fourth, the comprehensive labeling of word class. When Mr. Lu Shuxiang was editing Present Han, he wanted to differentiate between single words and non-words, and to label the word categories for this purpose, but it was never done. In this revision, the successor has accomplished his wish. It distinguishes between words and non-words in a more detailed way, and makes a more elaborate and systematic labeling of word classes.

The Dictionary of Modern Chinese is a tool for the promotion of Putonghua and the standardization of modern Chinese written by the Institute of Languages of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a national academic institution under the State Council, and is China's first standardized dictionary of modern Chinese, which is still unmatched in terms of its authority and scientificity. It is the first standardized modern Chinese dictionary in China. Its two editors-in-chief, Lu Shuxiang and Ding Shengshu, are both renowned linguists in China and abroad, and its revisers are all first-class experts and scholars in China. The Dictionary of Modern Chinese was established by the state in 1956, formally started to be compiled in June 1958, the "trial version" was printed in 1960 for comments, the "trial version" was printed in 1965 for review and approval, and was issued internally in 1973, the first edition in 1978, the second edition in 1983, and the second edition in 1983, and the first edition in 1972, the second edition in 1973, and the second edition in 1983. The first edition was published in 1978, the second edition in 1983, the third edition in 1996, the fourth edition in 2002 and the fifth edition in 2005. Over the past fifty years, the text has been refined according to the changes in language development and the new linguistic norms promulgated by the state, and has kept abreast of the times, with more than 40 million copies printed so far, and has been well received by readers at home and abroad. It has been honored with the First National Book Award, the Second National Dictionary Award, and the First Prize of Wu Yuzhang Humanities and Social Sciences Award, the highest award for national works in the social sciences.

The Dictionary of Modern Chinese summarizes the achievements of the vernacular language movement in China since the 20th century, and for the first time puts an end to the long-standing separation of written and spoken Chinese in the form of a dictionary, and for the first time comprehensively standardizes the modern Chinese language. The Dictionary of Modern Chinese has reached a new height in the theory of dictionaries, the level of compilation, and the quality of editing and proofreading, and is an exemplary work in the compilation and publication of dictionaries. Its large circulation and wide application are rare in the history of dictionaries in the world; it has an important influence on the unification and standardization of modern Chinese, on the study, learning and correct application of modern Chinese, and on the expansion of China's interaction with the peoples of the world.

The authority of the Dictionary of Modern Chinese mainly stems from the fact that it has two editors-in-chief who are extremely outstanding in academic achievements, and the top-level reviewers in China.

The two editors-in-chief of the Dictionary, Mr. Lu Shuxiang and Mr. Ding Shengshu, are both renowned linguists and members of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They have made great achievements in many fields, including general linguistics, Chinese grammar, script reform, phonetics, exegesis, syntax, dialects, lexicography, and the compilation of ancient books. Mr. Lu presided over the compilation of the Modern Chinese Dictionary for more than four years, determined the rules for its preparation, and completed the "Trial Printing", laying a solid foundation for the Modern Chinese Dictionary. Mr. Ding presided over the editing and finalizing work of the Modern Chinese Dictionary for more than ten years, and on the basis of the "trial printing book", he revised and improved the dictionary word by word and sentence with painstaking devotion, dedicating his whole body and mind to this dictionary.

The reviewers of the dictionary are all top-level language experts in China. For example, Wang Li, a professor at Peking University, whose "Draft of the History of the Chinese Language" and "Modern Chinese Grammar" have long been classics of linguistics, and whose brilliant masterpiece "Wang Li's Collected Writings" in 20 volumes has established his position as a great master of linguistics; Lai Jinxi, a professor at Beijing Normal University, who served as the chief director of the compilation office of the Chinese Dictionary of the Chinese Dictionary of the Chinese Language, and edited the highly influential "Dictionary of the Mandarin Chinese Language" of the Republican period, whose masterpiece "New Mandarin Linguistic Method" has influenced several generations of He is a language scholar; Wei Jiangong, a professor at Peking University, was also the president of the Xinhua Dictionary Society, and edited China's first new type of standardized dictionary, the Xinhua Dictionary, which made outstanding contributions to phonetics, writing, and the organization of ancient books. Others, such as Lu Zhiwei, Li Rong, Lu Zongda, Ye Lai Shi, Ye Shengtao, Zhou Dingyi, Zhou Zumu, Shi Mingyuan, Zhou Haoran, Zhu Wenshu, etc., and the reviewers of the 5th edition of 2005, such as Cao Xianmew, Chao Jizhou, Chen Yuan, Dong Kun, Han Jingti, Hu Mingyang, Jiang Lansheng, Liu Qinglong, Lu Jianming, Lu Zunwu, Shen Jiaxuan, Su Peicheng, Wang Ning, Xu Shushu, and Zhou Mingjian, etc. are all authoritative experts of linguistics and dictionaries with great attainments. The first is the first time in the history of the world that the Chinese people have been in a position to understand the language.

It is because of the successive presidency of Mr. Lu Shuxiang and Mr. Ding Shengshu, and the contribution of a group of top-notch linguistic experts, that the overall level of the Dictionary of Modern Chinese has reached an unprecedented height, and has made outstanding and pioneering achievements in the collection of words, pronunciation, interpretation, and use of examples.

Xinhua Dictionary

Open Categories: Learning, Tools, Chinese, Dictionary, Dictionary Editorial Office, Institute of Languages, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

In 1971, Premier Zhou Enlai instructed that a dictionary be compiled, and the compilation group was established in October of the same year, with the first draft appearing in 1973. The first draft was published in 1973. Due to the double impact of the "Criticism of Forests and Confucius" that began in 1974 and the re-examination of the dictionary after the crushing of the "Gang of Four", the dictionary was not officially launched until 1980, when it was titled "Xinhua Dictionary".

The Xinhua Dictionary is a language-based encyclopedic dictionary, which has been occupying an important position in the application of Chinese dictionaries due to its many features such as being oriented to the general readers, practical and contemporary, etc. The first edition was published in 1980, and it has been printed for more than thirty times, with nearly seven million copies.

The proportion of encyclopedic entries in the new edition of the dictionary has increased steeply to 50%, and more than 2,000 outdated entries have been deleted, while tens of thousands of new words have been added. In the new edition of the Xinhua Dictionary, the number of encyclopedic entries has increased to more than 25,000, and the number of words has reached 1.5 million, accounting for 50 percent of the entire dictionary for the first time, a proportion that has never been seen before.

The revision of the encyclopedia entries operates on two levels: first, the basic disciplines, including language, politics, history, geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, physical education, music, fine arts and other disciplines, which require systematic interpretation. The second is applied disciplines, including social and natural sciences, which do not seek to be overly specialized but rather highlight practicality.

In the new edition of the Xinhua Dictionary, the word count of small entries is limited to 50 words or less, 100 to 150 words for medium entries, and no more than 200 words for large entries, which ensures that the whole dictionary is rich in content and sufficient in information.

The new edition of the Xinhua Dictionary is characterized by the characteristics of the times, and new words and phrases can be found everywhere. For example, in the information category, there are new words and phrases such as Internet, laptop computer, telephone magnetic card, videophone, electronic publishing, cyber cafe, distance learning, etc. In the medical category, there are new words and phrases such as euthanasia, pasteurization, over-the-counter medication, genetic engineering, sperm bank, in vitro fertilization, etc. In the financial category, there are new words and phrases such as supermarket, hedge fund, second-board market, venture capital investment, red-chip stock, shell listing, and so on, and there are also new words and phrases such as unfair competition, unit crime, state compensation, etc. in the legal category. There are also legal terms such as unfair competition, unit crime, state compensation, crime of unknown origin of huge assets, presumption of innocence, etc., and military terms such as missile defense system, strategic missiles on the ground, high-technology warfare, information warfare, and digital battlefield. The large number of new words added to the dictionary makes people feel that the dictionary is very close to the pulse of the times.

The new edition of the Xinhua Dictionary also includes two pages of words that begin with Western alphabets, such as TMD (missile defense system), E-mail, and WAP cell phone (wireless application protocol cell phone), which is a new record for the number of words that begin with Western alphabets in a dictionary.

The newly published chronology of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties is included in the appendix of the Xinhua Dictionary, making it the first dictionary to include this latest scientific research.

The innovations in the appendices of the new edition of the Xinhua Dictionary are worth mentioning.

-- Four items, namely, the Hanyu Pinyin scheme, a brief list of common punctuation usage, a brief list of geological ages, and the area and volume of basic geometric figures, have been deleted.

--Retained the table of solar terms, the short list of chemical elements, the short list of units of measurement, and the short list of countries and regions of the world, in which the units of measurement are synthesized into a single short list, focusing on the comparison and conversion of commonly used legal and non-statutory units of measurement, which is easy to understand at a glance.

--Integration of rare words from the appendices into the body of the dictionary with corresponding symbols to make the language entries more functional for checking.

--A new chronology of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties, a chronology of Chinese and foreign historical events, a short list of China's major relatives, a short list of China's administrative divisions, a short list of China's ethnic minorities, China's major scenic spots, China's major nature reserves, China's endemic and rare animals, the world's major public hazards, a short list of the norms of commonly used scientific and technological terms. The major discoveries and inventions in science and technology, and the major events in the history of science and technology.

In addition, a V-shaped ladder label has been added to the side of the pages for easy reference. A new colorful map of China has been added to the front ring liner of the dictionary, and a new colorful map of the world has been added to the back ring liner, thus creating a visual impact.

The word count of the new Xinhua Dictionary has been increased from 2.3 million words to 2.6 million words, and the number of pages has been increased from more than 1,300 in the old edition to more than 1,500.