Zihui

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Zihui exhibits in the Chinese Dictionary Museum, Jincheng, Shanxi

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The Zhu (Chinese: /; WadeGiles: Tzu Hui; literally: "lexicon") is a Chinese dictionary, edited
by Mei Yingzuo () during the late Ming Dynasty and published in 1615, the forty-third year of the
Ming Wanli Emperor. The work is divided into 14 scrolls (juan ) and contains a total of 33,179 Chinese
characters.[1] It was the first dictionary to introduce the modern radical-stroke system. Whilst the ancillary
first and last fascicles explain topics like stroke order and radicals, the main ones are named after the twelve
Earthly Branches. The Qing Dynasty scholar Wu Renchen (c. 1628 c. 1689) published the 1666 Zihui Bu
( "Zihui supplement").

Contents

1 Classification system

2 Legacy

3 Modern day meaning

4 References

5 External links

Classification system
Compared to the 540 section headers used in the earlier Shuowen Jiezi, the dictionary reduced the number of
radicals (bushou , literally 'section header') used for classification to 214 and included a number of nonstandard character forms known as s z (). The Zihui also formed the basis for the later Zhengzitong
written by Zhang Zilie (). In order to make this lexicographical advance into the logically arranged
214 radicals, Mei Yingzuo simplified and rationalized the inefficient classification system used in the
Shuowen Jiezi in which some radicals contain few characters. For instance, its "man radical" , which
compounds the "field radical" and the "power radical" , only lists three: nan ("man; male"), sheng

 ("nephew; niece"), and jiu ("uncle; brother in law"). The Zihui more efficiently lists nan under the
"power radical", sheng under the "life radical" , and jiu under the "mortar radical" .

Legacy
The Zihui is renowned for establishing the system of 214 radicals still used in dictionaries today as the basis
for the collation of Chinese characters. It also introduced the "radical-and-stroke sorting" principle of
arranging characters under a radical according to the number of residual strokes. After the noted 1716
Kangxi Dictionary adopted these 214 graphic elements, they became commonly known as the Kangxi
radicals rather than "Zihui radicals".

Modern day meaning

In modern Chinese usage, zihui can mean "glossary, wordbook, or lexicon".

References
1.
1.

"Surprise emergence of Ming Dynasty dictionary in Qianan, Hebei Province ("

")" (in Chinese). Xinhua News Agency. June 9, 2009. Retrieved
November 24, 2010.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zihui.

Chinese Text Project

The 214 Radicals , ChinaKnowledge

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This page was last modified on 27 January 2015, at 23:00.

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