TheZhonghua Zihai consists of two parts; the first section consists of characters covered in earlier dictionaries, such as theShuowen Jiezi,Yupian,Guangyun,Jiyun,Kangxi Dictionary andZhonghua Da Zidian, which covers just under 50,000 individual characters.[5] The second portion of theZhonghua Zihai contains characters missed by previous dictionaries, as a result of manual error or due to lack of knowledge of such characters. Among these are included complex characters hidden in old Buddhist texts, rare characters found within theDunhuang manuscripts, characters used during theSong,Yuan,Ming andQing Dynasties that fell from use, dialectal characters, newly created characters as a result of advancement in science and technology (such as the Chinese character for the elementDarmstadtium, 鐽, which is not present in prior dictionaries[6]), as well as rare characters used today in personal and location names.[5] Additionally, regional characters and variant characters fromTaiwan,Hong Kong,Macau andSingapore, as well as non-native characters from JapaneseKanji and KoreanHanja, are also listed in theZhonghua Zihai. All characters listed are in theKaishu script.
One of the authors, Hu Mingyang, wrote in the preface of theZhonghua Zihai stating that the problem regarding Chinese characters is that there is an exceedingly large number of them,[1] which makes compilation very difficult, and a complete dictionary practically impossible due to the large number of variant characters and those that are unknown.
The analysis ofOracle bone script andBronze script texts, as well as historic silk writings, for comparative purposes in the decision process for accepting characters.
The comparison ofVariant Chinese characters from past dynasties found in stone engravings (where characters with minimal variation are generally not accepted in the final listing).
The analysis of local documents and that ofregional dialects, such as dialectal dictionaries.
The inclusion of newly created characters associated with modern concepts, such as those arising from new scientific and technological developments.
The analysis of characters used inproper nouns, such as the names of locations and characters used inpersonal names.
The analysis of modern publications which may include unofficial or informal character simplifications, in which they may not be present in the PRC government "Complete List of Simplified Characters" (a similar example of this would beRyakuji).
The inclusion of characters from the failed simplified character reform in 1977 to introduce theSecond-round simplified Chinese characters, taken from the draft of the proposed bill.
The inclusion of rare variants and popular regional characters from areas such asHong Kong,Macau andTaiwan, plus the unique characters in use inJapan andKorea but not within China.
The previous character dictionary published in China was theHanyu Da Zidian, introduced in 1989, which contained 54,678 characters. InJapan, the 2003 edition of theDai Kan-Wa jiten has some 51,109 characters, while theHan-Han Dae Sajeon completed inSouth Korea in 2008 contains 53,667 Chinese characters (the project having lasted 30 years, at a cost of 31,000,000,000KRW or US$25 million[4][8][9]).
^ab《中华字海》-甲骨文---泽泽百科Archived February 22, 2012, at theWayback Machine "'Zhonghua Zihai' consists of two parts: part of land from the existing Chinese dictionaries, such as the "Shuo Wen Jie Zi", "Part-yu", "Guangyun", "Chinese Melodies", "Kangxi", "Chinese dictionary "All the book characters, etc.; the other part is the calendar tool failure who should be included in the word, including Tibetan Buddhist difficult difficult word word Road, Dunhuang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, dialect words, science and technology, new characters, as well as the names of today's still and names with the word."
^Note: TheTraditional Chinese character used inTaiwan is "鐽", while theSimplified Chinese character used inMainland China is 𫟼 (, a simplified 金 radical (钅) next to a 达 (According toXinhua Zidian, 10th Edition)). Both characters are pronounced "dá". Darmstadtium was first synthesized on November 9, 1994.
, a simplified 金 radical (钅) next to a 达 (According toXinhua Zidian, 10th Edition)). Both characters are pronounced "dá". Darmstadtium was first synthesized on November 9, 1994.