The Study On Zihui(字汇)

Among the lexicons by Mei Yingzuo of Ming Dynasty, 《Zihuil Lexicon》 holds a very important place in the history of Chinese lexicographical works. It simplifies the Bushou system, i.e. radicals by which characters are arranged in traditional Chinese dictionaries and makes more rational the classification of Chinese characters. It implements the stroke index of Chinese characters with the Bushou index, thus it makes more scientific and clearer the ordering of the Chinese characters in dictionaries and makes it more convenient for people to use and enhances the characteristics of the dictionary as a tool. In the past, when researching and commenting on it people remained on the level of introduction and analysis of its general frame and comments on its achievements and insufficiencies. Few systematic research and analysis have ever been done on its content style and other aspects. Thus this article will research comprehensively on its editing style, pronunciation marking method, meaning explanation method, jargon system, the Bushou system and its achievements and insufficiencies, expecting to give this dictionary an objective and comprehensive comments and thus making clear its place in the history of Chinese dictionaries.Since Qin and Han Dynasty the Chinese character experienced two major changes in its font, i. e. change to the Official script and change to the regular script and more and more characters were created. In order tomake it easier for people to look up words in dictionary and in the need of to regularize the font of Chinese character, people edited all kinds of dictionaries. The editing of these dictionaries laid a solid foundation for the development of dictionaries in the future. Thus we can say 《Zihui》 is the inevitable result of the development of Chinese character and dictionary.《Zihui》 is unique in its editing purpose and editing style. This article will research systematically on its editing style, font, pronunciation and the way to explain the meaning of the words. 《Zihui》 is complete in its editing style and it's correct and concise in its marking of pronunciation ,the explanation of words meaning and the explanation of the formation of the words. The content and the appendix of the dictionary are integrated and complement each other and achieve the practicality of a dictionary.This article will research on the jargon system of phonetic notation, explanation of words meaning and the differentiating of the formation of words. Altogether 25 frequently-used jargons are discussed with the support of some examples. These jargons comply with the jargons employed in the critical interpretation of ancient texts, so we say《Zihui》 is a dictionary of great values in critical interpretation of ancient texts.This article puts 《Zihui》 in the history of dictionary editing and analyses its reform on the Bushou system. 《Zihui》 inherits and develops the editing principles of Bushou and the belonging of wordsand establishes 214 radicals in Bushou system and it implements the pattern of ordering the words by its stroke and thus establishes its important position in the Chinese dictionary history. The very 214 radicals in Bushou system played a very active role in the editing of Chinese dictionaries in he following time.At last, this article will give an objective comments on 《Zihui》 's achievement and insufficiencies. While I acknowledge its role as such a dictionary that inherits the past and gives enlightenment to the followings and also its affect and contribution on the editing of Chinese dictionary I also point its insufficiencies expecting to offer reference to the editing of all kinds of Chinese dictionaries. Of course all the insufficiencies were caused by the historical reasons and this doesn't influence its historical role in the history of Chinese dictionaries.