Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by R. R. K. Hartmann
Chapter 1 The dawning of Chinese lexicographical culture and the origin of Chinese lexicography
1.1 The Chinese writing system and the theory of "six-category Chinese characters"
1.2 Ancient reading primers and the source of Chinese lexicographical works
1.3 The precursors of Chinese lexicographical works and their theoretical significance
1.4 Theoretical explorations in lexicographical issues in ancient China

Chapter 2 Chinese character dictionaries from the Cao Wei Period (220 -265)to the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911)
2.1 The socio-cultural background for the development and formation of character dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty
2.2 A brief introduction to some representative character dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty
2.3 Some explorations in lexicographic theories for character dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty
2.4 The academic value and cultural implications of character dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 3 Chinese word dictionaries from the Cao Wei Period (220 -265) to the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911)
3.1 The socio-cultural background for the development and formation of word dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty
3.2 A brief introduction to some representative word dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty
3.3 Some explorations in lexicographic theories for word dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty
3.4 The academic value and cultural implications of word dictionaries between the Cao Wei Period and the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 4 Chinese bilingual dictionaries from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911)
4.1 The Buddhist period
4.1.1 The preaching of Buddhism and the genesis of bilingual lexicography
4.1.2 The Buddhist sutras and the emergence of bilingual works
4.2 The ethnic minority language period
4.2.1 Combinations of Chinese with Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean
4.2.2 Combinations of Chinese with its ethnic minoritylanguages
4.2.3 Combinations of Chinese with Manchu in theQing Dynasty
4.3 The missionary period
4.3.1 Combinations of Chinese with Latin, Portugueseand French
4.3.2 Combinations of Chinese with English
4.3.3 Combinations of Chinese with other European and Asian languages
4.4 The government-led compilation period
4.4.1 The Chinese government establishments and bilingual glossary compilation
4.4.2 The introduction of western technology and specialized bilingual dictionary making

Chapter 5 Chinese special and encyclopedic dictionaries from the Cao Wei Period (220 -265) to the Qing Dynasty (1616 -1911)
5.1 The socio-cultural background for the birth and evolution of ancient special and encyclopedic dictionaries
5.1.1 The historical background for the birth and development of special dictionaries
5.1.2 The historical background for the birth and development of encyclopedic dictionaries
5.2 A brief introduction to some representative special dictionaries in ancient China
5.2.1 A brief analysis of some representative special-aspect dictionaries
5.2.2 A brief analysis of some representative rhyme dictionaries
5.2.3 A brief analysis of some representative specialized dictionaries
5.3 A brief introduction to some representative classified dictionaries in ancient China
5.4 The academic value and cultural significance of ancient special and encyclopedic dictionaries

Chapter 6 Philological dictionaries of the Chinese language in the 20th century: Status quo and trends
6.1 The innovation and transformation of philological dictionaries of the Chinese language ( 1900 - 1949)
6.1.1 The beginning of the 20th century to the May Fourth Movement
6.1.2 The May Fourth Movement to the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Agression
6.1.3 From the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Agression to the founding of the People's Republic of China
6.2 The renascence and retrogression of philological dictionaries of the Chinese language ( 1950 - 1976 )
6.2.1 The first 17 years of New China
6.2.2 The ten years of the Great Cultural Revolution
6.3 The stabilization and flourishing of philological dictionaries of the Chinese language ( 1977 - 1999 )
6.4 The development of dialect dictionaries in the 20th century.
6.4.1 Self-motivated development period ( 1900 - 1949)
6.4.2 Survey and description period ( 1950 - 1976)
6.4.3 Overall development period ( 1977 - 1999)
……
Chapter 7 The Development and boom of chinese bilingual dictionaries in the 20th Century
Chapter 8 Special and encyclopedic dictionaries in the 20th-century china:status quo and trends
Chapter 9 Chinese learners Dictionaries:their origin,status quo and trends
Chapter 10 Chinese electronic dictionaries:their origin,status quo and trends
Chapter 11 Dictionary compilation and research in hongkong,macao and taiwan in the 20th century
Chapter 12 Theoretical inquiries in chinese lexicography in the 20th century:an overview
Bibliography

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There are four main types for the formation of Chinese characters :pictographic, self-explanatory, ideographic, and pictophonetic. Pictographic formation is the earliest means by which the ancient characters are created out of the physicalform and property of the things they stand for. They mainly denote common things and concrete entities in everyday life. As they have evolved gradually, they have all changed their original forms and are eventually fixed as square characters.
Self-explanatory formation uses symbols only （e. g. "one","above", and "below"） or symbols coupled with some deictic labels（e. g."root","blade", and "blood"） to designate meaning.The former might have been employed simultaneously with pictographicfor mation while the latter should have occurred thereafter to refer to more abstract meanings. Apparently, self-explanatory formation can be usedonly in a limited way. Consequently, only a limited proportion of Chi-nese Characters are self-explanatory, and a tiny number of symbol-only characters are identified in the Chinese writing system.
Ideographic formation incorporates two or more extant character symbols into composite characters to designate a new meaning. The ancient scholars classified the Chinese characters into wen （singleelement characters）and zi（composite characters）. The pictographic and theself-explanatory characters are mainly composed of single elements, thusfailing into the wen category. The ideographic characters are respectivelycomposed of two or more characters, thus falling into the zicategory .Different symbols or pictographic characters plus some deictic labels are combined to designate a new abstract meaning in the ideographic formation. For instance,（bright） was written as , whose meaning is a composition of （the sun） and（the moon）.
Pictophonetic formation covers those characters that are made up oftwo elements: the meaning element and the sound element. This forma-tion is highly effective in creating new characters to stand for a new thingor concept..