Chapter 25 Section 6 "Comprehensive English-Chinese Dictionary" - Expansion of new fields of dictionary compilation

Foreign language and Chinese bilingual dictionaries are a new breed in the garden of Chinese dictionaries.The emergence of this type of dictionary is the inevitable result of the introduction of Western learning, and it is also the need for people to learn and understand foreign political ideas and scientific and cultural knowledge. In 1840, colonialists blasted open the gates of ancient China with gunboats.Facing the economic plunder of imperialism, and the unprecedented serious challenge to Chinese traditional culture from capitalist civilization and science and technology, a wave of thoughts of reform, self-help and self-improvement was aroused among the enlightened scholar-bureaucrats and patriotic intellectuals of the Qing Dynasty.They realized that in order to effectively fight against Western aggression, they must learn from the advanced science and technology of the West.For this reason, it is proposed to set up a translation center to translate Western books, so as to learn all kinds of useful knowledge from the West.In 1862, with the establishment of Beijing Jingshi Tongwen Museum, a new upsurge of Western learning was set off again. Some foreign language teaching and translation institutions appeared in various places to translate Western works, and began to compile various foreign and Chinese bilingual dictionaries, and introduced Western dictionary compilation methods. .For example, the Translation Office of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau translated and published English-Chinese dictionaries: "Chinese and Western Name List of Western Medicine Dacheng Drugs" (1887), "Chinese and Western Name List of Steam Engine" (1890), "Chinese and Western Name List of Chemical Materials" (1890); Tianjin The Bureau of Manufacturing published the lithographed Table of Chinese and Western Weights and Measures (1891). In 1903, the articles of association of the Institute of Translation and Translation of Jingshi University included a chapter on "Wen Dian", which stipulated that "Wen Dian" is "the purpose of collecting Chinese and foreign phonetic names, understanding the meaning of Chinese and foreign words, brainstorming, and compiling official books."This chapter also introduces the compilation method of the dictionary and so on.By the beginning of the Republic of China, new progress had been made in the compilation of foreign language and Chinese bilingual dictionaries.Only the English-Chinese bilingual dictionaries published by Shanghai Commercial Press from 1907 to 1918 include: "New English-Chinese Dictionary" (1907), "English-Chinese Dictionary" (1908), "Pocket English-Chinese Idiom Dictionary" (1911) , "New Chinese-English Dictionary" (1918), and so on.

After the May Fourth Movement, various bilingual dictionaries in Chinese and foreign languages ​​were compiled and published one after another.Such as English and Chinese: "Chinese-English Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Lingnan Middle School in 1920), "English-Chinese Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Commercial Press in 1922), "Comprehensive English-Chinese Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Commercial Press in 1928) .French and Chinese: "Model Fahua Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Commercial Press in 1923), "New Chinese-French Dictionary" (published by Beiping Dingzhai in 1934).German-Chinese works include: "Dehua Dictionary" (Shanghai Zhonghua Book Company's first edition in 1920), "Dehua Idiom Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Commercial Press in 1937), "Dehua Commonly Used Small Words" (Chinese and German Society in 1945) publishing).Spanish (Spanish) Chinese: "Huaban Dictionary" (Shanghai Xujiahui Union Commercial 1933 nyinxin).Russian and Chinese: "New Chinese-Russian Dictionary" (published by Harbin Commercial Press in 1930), "New Dictionary of Soviet Abbreviations" (published by Harbin Guangji Press in 1933).Japanese-Chinese works include: "Chinese Translation Japanese Dictionary" (published by Shanghai World Book Company in 1934), "Comprehensive Japanese-Chinese Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Kaihua Book Company in 1936), "Japanese-Chinese Idiom Dictionary" (Shanghai Qiuyi Book Company, 1936) published in the year).And "Chinese Esperanto Dictionary" (published by Chongqing Esperanto Correspondence School in 1944), "Modern Chinese Esperanto Dictionary" (published by Shanghai Shuguang Publishing House in 1935), and so on.

"Comprehensive English-Chinese Dictionary" Among the various bilingual dictionaries compiled during this period, the "Comprehensive English-Chinese Dictionary" published by Shanghai Commercial Press has the greatest influence.The book was edited by Huang Shifu and Jiang Tie, with participation from Wang Yunwu, He Songling, and Chen Chengze, and 12 editors including Wen Yuanmo, Li Xixian, and Wu Hengzhi.The book contains no less than 130,000 items of single language, compound language, abbreviations, place names, personal names, and Christian names, about 74,000 idioms, and no less than 60,000 examples.The vocabulary of this book is richer than any bilingual dictionary at that time.The interpretation is detailed and clear; there are illustrations and explanations at the end of the explanation; at the end of the book, there are transliterations of place names and personal names, English translations of Christian names, English and counterparts, abbreviations, a list of Chinese place names, and a list of irregular verbs. The first edition in 1928 was originally divided into two volumes, each volume was divided into a main body and a supplement. In 1937, it was bound into one volume and published. By 1948, a total of eight editions had been printed.

In the history of the development of Chinese dictionaries and dictionaries, modern times are a very important period. In this short hundred years, changes in dictionaries, dictionary content, varieties, quantities, and styles have played an important role in linking the past and the future for the compilation of Chinese dictionaries. , and made a major contribution to the scientific, knowledgeable and modernization of Chinese dictionary compilation.