Language Chinese Originally published 1978 Genre Dictionary Country China | Pages 1789 pages ISBN 9787100084673 | |
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Publication date December 1978 (1st edition)
June 2012 (6th edition) Publisher Commercial Press (Beijing) Similar Hanyu Da Cidian, Cihai, Xinhua Zidian, Shuowen Jiezi, Wen Xuan | ||
Xiandai Hanyu Cidian (simplified Chinese: 现代汉语词典; traditional Chinese: 現代漢語詞典; pinyin: Xiàndài Hànyǔ Cídiǎn), also known as the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, is an authoritative one-volume Chinese language dictionary published by the Commercial Press, now into its 6th (2012) edition. It was originally edited by Lü Shuxiang and Ding Shengshu as a reference work on modern Standard 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 Chinese, with explanatory notes in simplified Chinese. The subsequent second through sixth editions were respectively published in 1983, 1996, 2002, 2005, and 2012.
Contents
The first edition of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian won China's First National Book Award and was compiled as an authoritative reference work for modern native Chinese speakers. Although Xiandai Hanyu Cidian is not as comprehensive as the multi-volumed Hanyu Da Cidian, the single-volume dictionary is popular, especially amongst students at tertiary levels and the general populace. In comparison, the more compactly sized Xinhua Zidian tends to target native learners at the primary to secondary levels.
The sixth edition contains about 69,000 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.
Traditional Chinese edition
Published in 2001 by the Commercial Press (Hong Kong). It contains about 60,000 entries, all entries labeled with Zhuyin alongside Hanyu Pinyin.
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 1978 (the entry in that edition is 同性恋爱 Tóng xìng liàn ài - literally 'same-sex love') to the fourth edition in 2002 of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, the definition of the term had been "determined" as "a type of psychological perversion". In the 2005 5th edition, the term was redefined as "sexual behaviour between persons of the same sex", with no obvious discrimination in the content.
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 of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 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 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.
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 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.