Kangxi Dictionary

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Kangxi Dictionary

The Kangxi Dictionary: 2005 reprint

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Kanji
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The Kangxi Dictionary (Chinese: ; pinyin: Kngx Zdin) was the standard Chinese dictionary
during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Kangxi Emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty ordered its
compilation in 1710. The creator innovated greatly by reusing and confirming the new Zihui system of 214
radicals, since then known as 214 Kangxi radicals, and was eventually published in 1716. The dictionary is
named after the Emperor's era name.
The dictionary contains more than 47,000 characters, though some 40% of them are graphic variants. In
addition, there are rare or archaic characters, some which had been attested only once. Less than a quarter of
these characters are now in common use.[1]

Contents

1 Compilation

2 Structure of the Kangxi dictionary

3 See also

4 References

5 Notes

6 External links

Compilation
The Kangxi Dictionary editors, including Zhang Yushu () and Chen Tingjing (), based it
partly on two Ming Dynasty dictionaries: the 1615 Zihui ( "Character Collection") by Mei Yingzuo (
), and the 1627 Zhengzitong ( "Correct Character Mastery") by Zhang Zilie (). Since the
imperial edict required that the Kangxi Dictionary be compiled within five years, a number of errors were
inevitable. The Daoguang Emperor established a review board and their 1831 Zidian kaozheng (
"Character Dictionary Textual Research") corrected 2,588 mistakes, mostly in quotations and citations.
(Teng and Biggerstaff 1971:130)
The supplemented dictionary contains 47,035 character entries, plus 1,995 graphic variants, giving a total of
49,030 different characters. They are grouped under the 214 radicals and arranged by the number of
additional strokes in the character. Although these 214 radicals were first used in the Zihui, due to the
popularity of the Kangxi Dictionary they are known as Kangxi radicals and remain in modern usage as a
method to categorize traditional Chinese characters.
The character entries give variants (if any), pronunciations in traditional fanqie spelling and in modern
reading of a homophone, different meanings, and quotations from Chinese books and lexicons. The
dictionary also contains rime tables with characters ordered under syllable rime classes, tones, and initial
syllable onsets.
The Kangxi Dictionary is available in many forms, from old Qing Dynasty editions in block printing, to
reprints in traditional Chinese bookbinding, to modern revised editions with essays in Western-style
hardcover, to the digitized Internet version.
The Kangxi Dictionary is one of the Chinese dictionaries used by the Ideographic Rapporteur Group for the
Unicode standard.

Structure of the Kangxi dictionary

Kangxi Dictionary, 1827 reprint

Preface by Kangxi Emperor : pp. 16 ()

Notes on the use of the dictionary : pp. 712 ()

Indication of pronunciation of characters : pp. 1340 ()

Comprehensive table of contents by radicals : pp. 4149 ()

Facilitated consulting contents : pp. 5071 ()

The dictionary proper : pp. 751631

o Main text : pp. 751538
o Addendum contents : pp. 15391544 ()
o Addendum text : pp. 15451576
o Appendix contents (Nosourcecharacters) : pp. 15771583 ()
o Appendix text : pp. 15851631

Postscript : pp. 16331635()

Textual research : pp. 16371683 ()

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kangxi Dictionary.

Dai Kan-Wa jiten

Han-Han Dae Sajeon

Hanyu Da Zidian

List of Kangxi radicals

Peiwen Yunfu

Zhonghua Da Zidian

References

Teng, Ssu-y and Biggerstaff, Knight. 1971. An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese
Reference Works, 3rd ed. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-03851-7

Kangxi (Emperor of China) (1842). Chinese and English dictionary: containing all the words in the
Chinese imperial dictionary; arranged according to the radicals, Volume 1. Printed at Parapattan.
Retrieved 2011-05-15.

Notes
1.
1. Endymion Wilkinson. Chinese History: A New Manual. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia
Center, Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, 2012. ISBN 9780674067158), pp. 80-81.

External links

Kangxi Zidian (Tongwen Shuju edition), with dictionary lookup Chinese Text Project

Kangxi (Emperor of China) (1842). Chinese and English dictionary: containing all the words in the
Chinese imperial dictionary; arranged according to the radicals, Volume 1. Printed at Parapattan.
Retrieved 2011-05-15.

Kangxi Dictionary Net Version

Kangxi zidian , English translation of one definition, on Chinaknowledge.de

The Chinese Language Dictionary Homepage (in Chinese only)

Making Friends with the Kangxi zidian at the Wayback Machine (archived February 7,
2012), Occasional paper with translation of Kangxi Emperor's preface
[show]

Classical Chinese dictionaries

[show]

Dictionaries of Chinese

[show]

Qing dynasty topics

Categories:

Chinese dictionaries

Qing dynasty literature

1716 establishments

1716 books

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