Xiandai_Hanyu_Cidian

<i>Xiandai Hanyu Cidian</i>

Xiandai Hanyu Cidian

Authoritative one-volume Chinese-language dictionary

Xiandai Hanyu Cidian (simplified Chinese: 现代汉语词典; traditional Chinese: 現代漢語詞典; pinyin: Xiàndài Hànyǔ Cídiǎn; lit. 'Modern Han Language Word Dictionary'), also known as A Dictionary of Current Chinese[2] or Contemporary Chinese Dictionary[1] is an important[note 1] one-volume dictionary of Standard Mandarin Chinese published by the Commercial Press, now into its 7th (2016) edition. It was originally edited by Lü Shuxiang and Ding Shengshu as a reference work on modern Standard Mandarin Chinese. Compilation started in 1958 and trial editions were issued in 1960 and 1965, with a number of copies printed in 1973 for internal circulation and comments, but due to the Cultural Revolution the final draft was not completed until the end of 1977, and the first formal edition was not published until December 1978. It was the first People's Republic of China dictionary to be arranged according to Hanyu Pinyin, the phonetic standard for Standard Mandarin Chinese, with explanatory notes in simplified Chinese. The subsequent second through seventh editions were respectively published in 1983 (Reorganized Edition- now seen as the '2nd edition'), 1996 (Revised Edition- now seen as the '3rd edition'), 2002 (2002 Supplemental Edition- now seen as the '4th edition'), 2005 (5th edition), 2012 (6th edition) and 2016 (7th edition).

Quick Facts Editors, Country ...

In 1994, A Dictionary of Current Chinese won China's First National Book Award.[4] The seventh edition contains about 70,000 entries including characters, words and expressions, idiomatic phrases and idioms. The dictionary is also available in digital format on CD-ROMs and Traditional Chinese digital versions.

Xiandai Hanyu Cidian was consulted in the writing of The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms.[5]: 3 

Editions

More information Edition, Release date ...

New entries in the 6th edition

[8]

More information Type of entries, Examples in Chinese (S) ...

Traditional Chinese edition

A traditional Chinese edition was published in 2001 by the Commercial Press (Hong Kong). It contains about 60,000 entries, with all entries labeled with Zhuyin alongside Hanyu Pinyin.

  • 現代漢語詞典（繁體版） [A Dictionary of Current Chinese (Traditional Chinese edition)]. 2001. ISBN 9789620702112.
  • 現代漢語詞典－繁體版光盤 [A Dictionary of Current Chinese - Traditional Chinese CD-ROM Version]. ISBN 9789620702143.

Controversies

Xiandai Hanyu Cidian had given discriminatory explanations to certain words and phrases. An example was the word "homosexuality" (simplified Chinese: 同性恋; traditional Chinese: 同性戀; pinyin: tóngxìngliàn). From the first edition in the 1970s (the entry in that edition is 同性恋爱 tóngxìng liàn'ài - literally 'same-sex love')[10] to the fifth edition in 2005 of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, the definition of the term had been "determined" as "a type of psychological perversion".[11] In the 2012 6th edition & 2016 7th edition, the term was redefined as "sexual behaviour between persons of the same sex".[12][13]

In the sixth edition, even though it contains a large number of new vocabulary, the word 同志 Tóngzhì ("comrade") which is an informal term for "a homosexual person", was not included in the dictionary. This could be because the term is often construed as a sarcastic reference to the Communist Party of China, according to Sociology Professor Ding Xueliang [zh] of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.[14] The original term is a common form of political address in China, e.g. Comrade Hu Jintao, Comrade Wen Jiabao.

Some detractors complained that "Entries starting with the Western alphabet" section in the 6th edition allegedly violated the regulation - "Chinese language publications shall comply with the norms and standards of the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese language" in laws such as the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language [zh] and Publication Control Regulations of the State Council (State Council Act No. 594). The act of using English vocabulary in the main body of a Chinese dictionary, and using English to substitute for Chinese characters, according to these detractors, will cause the greatest damage to the Chinese characters since the romanization of Chinese, and will have a long-term negative impact on the language.[15]

The publisher, the Commercial Press, replied that the section is meant just for easy references when looking up the dictionary. The Commercial Press says that according to a rule stated in a 2010 document by the State Council Office Secretariat, alphabetical entries recorded in Chinese dictionaries written by state authorities did not have corresponding Chinese translations. Hence, it is absolutely fine to include them in dictionaries.[16]

See also

Notes

  1. [N 1]
    Used in the compilation of a list of official pronunciations for the Putonghua Proficiency Test.[3]

References

Citations

  1. [1]
    Chinese Academy of Sciences, ed. (2002). 现代汉语词典 [Contemporary Chinese Dictionary] (Chinese-English Bilingual ed.). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. ISBN 9787560031958.
  2. [2]
    from Simplified Chinese Preface: "{...}商务印书馆出版的汉语词典，如《现代汉语词典》{...}" which translated in the English Preface reads: "{...}The Commercial Press's Chinese dictionaries such as A Dictionary of Current Chinese{...}" 精选汉英词典 [Concise Chinese-English Dictionary] (Fourth ed.). Oxford University Press and The Commercial Press. 2010.
  3. [3]
    《普通话水平测试实施纲要》 [Program for Implementing the Putonghua Proficiency Test] (1st ed.). Beijing: The Commercial Press. 2004. p. 43. ISBN 7-100-03996-7. 本表参照{...}中国社会科学院语言研究所编辑的《现代汉语词典》(1996年7月修订第三版)编制。
  4. [4]
    Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed. (2016-09-01). 《现代汉语词典（第七版）》 [A Dictionary of Current Chinese] (Seventh ed.). Beijing: The Commercial Press. p. 0 (page directly in front of page 1 of the lists of editors). ISBN 978-7-100-12450-8. 1994年第一届国家图书奖
  5. [5]
    国家语言文字工作委员会 (20 April 2016). 第一批异形词整理表（试行） (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 27 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  6. [6]
    現代漢語詞典五十年 [Fifty years - A Dictionary of Current Chinese]. 2004. ISBN 7100042178.
  7. [7]
    Chinese Academy of Sciences, ed. (October 1977) [September 1973]. 现代汉语词典 [A Dictionary of Current Chinese] (in Chinese) (Probationary ed.). Beijing: The Commercial Press. 统一书号 (National Standard Book Number of China) 17017·91.
  8. [8]
    3,000 New Entries Added to the Most Popular Chinese Dictionary
  9. [9]
    什么是居民消费价格指数（CPI）？ (in Chinese (China)).
  10. [10]
    Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed. (October 1977) [September 1973]. 现代汉语词典 [A Dictionary of Current Chinese] (in Chinese) (Probationary ed.). Beijing: The Commercial Press. p. 1029. 统一书号 (National Standard Book Number of China) 17017·91. 同性恋爱 tóngxìng liàn'ài 男子和男子或女子和女子之間发生的恋爱关系，是一种心理变态。
  11. [11]
    现代汉语词典(第五版) [A Dictionary of Current Chinese (Fifth Edition)]. Beijing: The Commercial Press. June 2005. p. 1368. ISBN 978-7-100-04385-4. 同性恋 tóngxìngliàn 名 同性别的人之间的性爱行为,属于性心理障碍。
  12. [12]
    Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed. (June 2012). 现代汉语词典 [A Dictionary of Current Chinese] (Sixth ed.). Beijing: The Commercial Press. p. 1306. ISBN 978-7-100-09354-5. 同性恋 tóngxìngliàn 名 同性别的人之间的性爱行为。
  13. [13]
    Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed. (1 September 2016). 现代汉语词典(第七版) [A Dictionary of Current Chinese] (Seventh ed.). Beijing: The Commercial Press. p. 1314. ISBN 978-7-100-12450-8. 同性恋 tóngxìngliàn 名 同性别的人之间的性爱行为。
  14. [14]
    Xiandai Hanyu Cidian sparked debates for not including the word tongzhi Archived September 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  15. [15]
    "Hundreds of researchers reported new edition of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian for violating the law". Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
  16. [16]
    "Entries like 'NBA' included in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian allegedly broke the law - Reply: Baseless Accusations". ifeng.com. 29 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-08-29. Retrieved 2012-08-30.

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