Four-corner method: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:17, 20 December 2018

Revision as of 17:20, 20 December 2018

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Then, in 1958, with the introduction of [[Pinyin]], a small "Xin Sijiaohaoma Cidian" was produced by the Beijing Commercial Press, but the rapid Han character simplification of the following years made the small (30,000 compound) book obsolete in China. Overseas and in Hong Kong, it remained popular for a number of years as a high speed key to phonetic dictionaries and indexes. It was used by those partly literate in Chinese or—in some areas—unfamiliar with [[Standard Chinese]], especially Hanyu Pinyin.

Wang Yunwu produced a "Xiao Cidian" and "Zonghe Cidian" in the late 1940s. In Taiwan, "Zonghe Cidian" remains in print with an auxiliary section of rare characters. The telecode number, radical and stroke counts are shown for each character in a convenient size, but a phonetic index is still lacking. Also, it's all in [[traditional Chinese characters]], and it contains a lot of obsolete information. Still, it is convenient for reading old [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic]]-period materials and literature, and as a handy finder for pronunciations.

===Third Revision===

During the [[Cultural Revolution]] in mainland China, the Four-Corner Method underwent a radical Third Revision during the compilation of the experimental volume of the [[Chinese dictionary#Chinese–Chinese dictionaries|Xiandai Hanyu Cidian]], Commercial Press, Beijing, 1972. Another medium-sized dictionary, the [[Xinhua Zidian]], appeared with this index as well, but in the late 1990s the four-corner index disappeared from newer editions. Both works now use only the Pinyin main entry and multi-door radical index systems that make it possible to look up a character with perhaps a wrong radical (i.e., characters appear redundantly under different radicals) and the number of strokes and variant forms are greatly reduced, and many more people are literate and capable of transcribing Mandarin Chinese with Pinyin. The use of stroke counting and radicals puts memorization of the character ahead of sheer speed in handling it. This method is more supportive of mass literacy than classical scholarship or processing and filing names or characters for the majority in China today.

The four-corner method is ultimately for readers, researchers, editors and fileclerks, not for writers who seek a character that they know in speech or recitation. In China today, a new version of the excellent small "Xin Sijiaohaoma Cidian", soft cover from Commercial Press, Beijing, has been available since the late 1970s, updated in several new editions and printings. It uses the Third Revision and enjoys some popularity.

==Current usage==

The main purpose of the original four-corner system today is in doing academic research or handling large numbers of characters, terms, index cards, or names. It is also used in computer entry, where a smaller list of items is created to browse from than with other systems. The [[Xinhua Zidian]] large type edition is available with a four-corner index for those whose failing eyesight precludes browsing and counting strokes.

In China today, many famous [[Kuomintang|KMT]] period reference books and collections with four-corner indexes are being reprinted for sale to scholars and those interested in Old Chinese language or historical studies.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}}

==Summary==