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Zidian (Dictionary)

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“Zidian” (character dictionary) is an exclusive concept of China. It is a reference book that provides form, pronunciation, meanings, usage and sample sentences of a character (or a word). Zidian contains mostly characters and sometimes words; Cidian (word dictionary) mainly collects words, but also includes characters. The earliest zidian of China Erya appeared before the Han Dynasty. The Shuowen Jiezi compiled by Xu Shen of the Han Dynasty is the first Chinese character dictionary that explains pronunciation, form and meanings of characters, and the first to range Chinese characters by radicals. The Kangxi Dictionary was compiled in the Qing Dynasty. It is the first character dictionary under the name “Zidian”. In modern times, many dictionaries appeared, such as Zhonghua Da Zidian, Xinhua Zidian, Hanyu Da Zidian and Cihai.

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Erya

Erya is the oldest Chinese character dictionary. It was compiled by scholars of the Qin and Han...
Shuowen Jiezi

Shuowen Jiezi, or Shuowen for short, is the first character book that systematically analyzes...
Kangxi Dictionary

Kangxi Dictionary is a profoundly influential dictionary of Chinese characters edited by more...
Kangxi Dictionary

Kangxi Dictionary is a profoundly influential dictionary of Chinese characters edited by more...
Zhonghua Da Zidian

Zhonghua Da Zidian (literally Grand Zhonghua Dictionary) is an unabridged dictionary of Chinese...
Hanyu Da Zidian

Hanyu Da Zidian, (literally Grand Chinese Dictionary) is one of the best available reference...
Xinhua Zidian

Xinhua Zidian (literally Xinhua Character Dictionary) is the first modern Chinese character...