Research On Huaying Tongyu

“Hua Ying Tong Yu”, one of the earliest English-Chinese contrastive works of vocabularies and dialogues in modern China, is consistent with English grammatical rules and edited by Chinese people independently. This book was finished in 1855 by Ziqing from Qing Dynasty. It applies the compilation method featured by classification and tries to categorize collected English words and sentences, and assign phonetic notations and connotations to them with Chinese. It is an attempt of people in modern China to transform pidgin English to formal English in the matter of English learning.This paper comprises five parts:The first part is the introduction, which briefs the status of research on “Hua Ying Tong Yu”in the academic world both at home and abroad as well as major problems and research methods involved in this paper. The second part introduces the background of the author and his completion of this book. It concentrates efforts on analyzing the social background of the book and the geo-identity background of the author Ziqing. The third part elaborates on the edition and distribution of the book while carries out comparative studies among several representative editions. The fourth part summarizes the compiling features of the book. It has applied a large amount of words in Cantonese dialects and is consistent with the language habit in its manner of writing. The book was compiled in Cantonese dialects in consideration of the social background at that time and the practical situation of potential readers. This book is strongly featured by trade and businesses in the matter of its content. Taking consideration of the practical situation of potential readers, the author applied a compiling strategy of localization in stylistic selection and text content. The fifth part concludes the influence and value of the book, focusing on its influence among Chinese people and on Japan. In addition, it enlarges on the value of the book from the perspectives of the saving of literatures, Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, language contact and learning.