The ''Zitong'' is a 1254

Chinese dictionary There are two types of dictionaries regularly used in the Chinese language: list individual Chinese characters, and list words and phrases. Because tens of thousands of characters have been used in written Chinese, Chinese lexicographers have d ...

of that was compiled by the

Southern Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

(1127–1279) scholar Li Congzhou 李從周. It discussed orthographic differences between

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

written in different historical styles, including

seal script Seal script or sigillary script () is a Chinese script styles, style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of bronze script during the Zhou dynasty (1 ...

clerical script The clerical script (), sometimes also chancery script, is a style of Chinese writing that evolved from the late Warring States period to the Qin dynasty. It matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty, and remained in active use through t ...

, and the contemporary

regular script The regular script is the newest of the major Chinese script styles, emerging during the Three Kingdoms period , and stylistically mature by the 7th century. It is the most common style used in modern text. In its traditional form it is the t ...

Title

The title combines two common words: ''zì'' 字 "character; script; writing; graph; style" and ''tōng'' 通 "communicate/connect (with); join; understand thoroughly; master". While the title is usually

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

as ''Zitong'' or ''Tzu-t'ung'', English translations are ''Summary of Characters'', ''General Dictionary of Chinese Characters'', and ''(A Scholar) Versed in Characters''. Li Congzhou's choice of title was the name of an earlier character dictionary that is now a lost work: the (c. 500) ''Zitong'' 字通 by Yang Chengqing 楊承慶 of the

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an Dynasties of China, impe ...

dynasty. It contained 13,734 character head entries, which was more than the (c. 350) '' Zilin'' with 12,824 entries. Yang's ''Zitong'' has been partially reconstructed from fragments of early texts and quotations in classical texts. The similarly titled (1671) '' Zhengzitong'' 正字通 "Correct Character Mastery" (with ''zhèng'' 正 "right; straight; correct") was published by

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

scholar Liao Wenying 廖文英, who bought and renamed the (1627) ''Zihui bian'' 字彙辯 "''Zihui'' Disputations", which was written by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

author Zhang Zilie 張自烈 as a supplement to the (1615) ''

Zihui The 1615 ''Zìhuì'' is a Chinese dictionary edited by the Ming Dynasty scholar Mei Yingzuo ( 梅膺祚). It is renowned for introducing two lexicographical innovations that continue to be used in the present day: the 214-radical system for in ...

'' dictionary. Furthermore, the Japanese lexicographer Shirakawa Shizuka 白川静 edited an identically titled (1996) ''Jitsū'' 字通 "Mastery of Characters"

Japanese dictionary have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present-day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized editing and electronic d ...

History

In an

alphabetic language An alphabet is a standard set of letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from another in a given ...

like English,

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

means "Correct or proper spelling; spelling according to accepted usage; the way in which words are conventionally written. (By extension) Any mode or system of spelling." (''

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' 2009, v. 4.0). When semantically extended into a logographic language like Chinese, it means "the way in which

are conventionally written", which includes

calligraphic Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an exp ...

aspects such as the script styles,

stroke order Stroke order is the order in which the strokes of a Chinese character are written. A stroke is a movement of a writing instrument on a writing surface. Basic principles Chinese characters are logograms constructed with strokes. Over the ...

, and character structure. The first Chinese orthographic dictionaries, or "'character model' dictionaries", were compiled during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

(618–907) in an effort to rectify discrepancies among characters written in seal, clerical, and regular scripts, and to standardize variant characters.

Emperor Taizong of Tang Emperor Taizong of Tang (28January 59810July 649), previously Prince of Qin, personal name Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649. He is traditionally regarded as a co-founder of the dynasty fo ...

put the scholar and calligrapher

Yan Shigu Yan Shigu () (581–645), formal name Yan Zhou (), but went by the courtesy name of Shigu, was a famous Chinese historian, linguist, politician, and writer of the Tang dynasty. Biography Yan was born in Wannian (, in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi). Hi ...

(581–645) in charge of the

Palace Library The Palace Library (; in Vietnam: 秘書所, ''Bí thư sở'') was a central government agency in Imperial and monarchical China, Korea, and Vietnam generally in charge of maintaining and archiving the collection of the monarch's documents. C ...

in order to "verify and authorize" the ''

Five Classics The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...

''.Tr. . The Archival Bureau's duties were to print authoritative editions of the classic works, to collate the styles of characters, to check and proofread government texts, and to produce a standard orthographic handbook. This became the first Chinese orthographic dictionary, Yan Shigu's book the ''Zìyàng'' 字樣 "Character Models" (aka ''Yanshi ziyang'' 顏氏字樣 "Mr. Yan's Character Models") gave model samples of writing characters in different scripts, which his grandson Yan Yuansun 顏元孫 (d. 732) used as the basis for his ''

Ganlu Zishu ''Ganlu Zishu'' () is a Chinese language, Chinese orthography dictionary of the Tang dynasty. The first surviving orthographical dictionary for the regular script, it was authored by Yan Yuansun (顏元孫), a descendant of the famous scholar Yan ...

'' orthographic dictionary. In addition to the ''Zitong'', various orthography dictionaries and character books were published during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

(960–1279), for instance, the ''Fugubian'' 复古編 "Return to Old Chapters" by Zhang You 張有 and the ''Peixi'' 佩觿 "Ivory Bodkin" by the painter

Guo Zhongshu Guo Zhongshu ( 929 – 977), courtesy name Shuxian (or Guobao, according to '' Xuanhe Huapu''), was a Chinese calligrapher, painter, philologist, and scholar during the Five Dynasties period and Song dynasty. He was noted for his paintings o ...

Text

The ''Zitong'' was in one volume, and based upon the classic (121) ''

Shuowen jiezi The ''Shuowen Jiezi'' is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen , during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the ''Erya'' (), the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' contains the ...

'' character dictionary. It included 601 character head entries, which were arranged into 89 sections according to the number of strokes in the regular script. The head character was in seal script and entries were in regular script, giving notation first, followed by the definition. All the exegetic interpretations quote the ''Shuowen jiezi'' without any other sources. There were flaws in the ''Zitong'', such as listing some characters twice and inconsistencies in the 89-radical system. It did have a useful appendix with 82 popular erroneous writings, such as ''yīchang'' 衣常 instead of ''yīshang'' 衣裳 "clothing; clothes". Nevertheless, this dictionary was important for the study of lexicographical theories concerning dictionary compilation in the Song Dynasty.

References

* Footnotes

External links

字通
copy of (c. 1660) edition ''Zitong''
字通
digital edition ''Zitong'' {{Dictionaries of Chinese Chinese dictionaries 1250s books 13th-century Chinese books