The Zhonghua Da Zidian was an unabridged Chinese dictionary

Chinese dictionary

Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for Chinese, and this article will introduce some of the most important...

 of characters published in 1915. The chief editors were Xu Yuan'gao (徐元誥), Lu Feikui (陆費逵/陆费逵), and Ouyang Pucun (歐陽溥存/欧阳溥存). It was based upon the 1716 Kangxi Zidian, and is internally organized using the 214 Kangxi radicals. The Zhonghua Da Zidian contains more than 48,000 entries for individual characters, including many invented in the two centuries since the Kangxi Dictionary.

Each character entry includes the fanqie

Fanqiè

In Chinese phonology, fanqie is a method to indicate the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters.-The Origin:...

 spelling from the Jiyun

Jiyun

The Jiyun is a Chinese rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du and others expanded and revised the Guangyun. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff , that Sima Guang completed the text in 1067...

, the modern pronunciation given with a common homophone

Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...

, different meanings (up to 40), classical quotations, and two-character compounds using the character. Although Teng and Biggerstaff (1971:131) acknowledge the Zhonghua Da Zidian "is very comprehensive and is very carefully compiled," they note three defects. The index, which is arranged by number of strokes, can be inconvenient (e.g., 2189 characters are listed under 9 strokes). The margins do not have characters to help locate entries under a radical. The two-character phrases may be listed under either component.

See also

• Dai Kan-Wa jiten
  Dai Kan-Wa jiten
  The is a Japanese dictionary of kanji compiled by Morohashi Tetsuji. Remarkable for its comprehensiveness and size, Morohashi's dictionary contains over 50,000 character entries and 530,000 compound words...
  
  
• Han-Han Dae Sajeon
  Han-Han Dae Sajeon
  Han-Han Dae Sajeon is the generic term for Korean hanja-to-hangul dictionaries. There are several such dictionaries from different publishers. The most comprehensive one, published by Dankook University Publishing, contains 53,667 Chinese characters and 420,269 compound words...
  
  
• Hanyu Da Cidian
  Hanyu Da Cidian
  The Hanyu Da Cidian is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the OED, it has diachronic coverage of the Chinese language, and traces usage over three millennia from Chinese classic texts to modern slang...
  
  
• Hanyu Da Zidian
  Hanyu Da Zidian
  The Hanyu Da Zidian is one of the best available reference works on Chinese characters. A group of more than 400 editors and lexicographers began compilation in 1979, and it was published in eight volumes from 1986 to 1989. A separate volume of essays documents the lexicographical complexities...
  
  
• Kangxi Zidian