In the 1970s, a symposium on the planning of the compilation and publication of Chinese and foreign language dictionaries was held in Guangzhou. The conference plans to cooperate with more than ten provinces and cities across the country to compile and publish 160 Chinese and foreign language dictionaries in eight years. Among them, the revision of "Ciyuan" was led by Guangdong Province and completed by multi-province cooperation. This article reviews this period of history and has reference significance for the future compilation and publication of dictionaries.
This article was published in Essays, No. 5, 2021, and has been reprinted with permission
From May 23 to June 17, 1975, the State Publishing Administration and the Ministry of Education jointly held a symposium on the planning of chinese and foreign language dictionaries at the Oriental Hotel in Guangzhou. Attending the meeting were 115 responsible comrades of the cultural, educational, and publishing departments of 13 provinces and cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, as well as teachers from institutions of higher learning. The original meeting held in Beijing was moved to Guangzhou, and it was under such a stormy political climate with clouds and fog, which made the meeting particularly noticeable.
The meeting focused on the "Planning for the Compilation and Publication of Chinese and Foreign Language Dictionaries from 1975 to 1982 (Draft)". The report and plan (draft) of the meeting were issued by Premier Zhou Enlai in August of that year, and were approved and forwarded by the State Council to all provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and ministries and commissions of the State Council. The plan requires 17 provinces and cities across the country to work together to compile and publish 160 Chinese and foreign language dictionaries in eight years. This is an unprecedented and huge publishing project in China, which is extremely shocking.
In this plan, the revision of "Cihai" and "Ciyuan" and the newly compiled "Hanyu Da Zidian" and "Hanyu Da Dictionary" are the top priorities. Among them, the revision of "Cihai" was led by the Shanghai People's Publishing House; the revision of "Ciyuan" was led by Guangdong Province, with the cooperation of Guangxi, Henan, Hunan and other provinces (regions), and published by the Commercial Press; the newly compiled "Hanyu Da Zidian" was published by Hubei and Sichuan and published by Hubei People's Publishing House; the newly compiled "Hanyu Da Dictionary" was led by Shanghai Municipality, with the cooperation of Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, and published by Shanghai People's Publishing House.
As the host of the conference, in addition to leading the revision of "Lexicon", Guangdong also undertook 9 dictionaries such as "Chinese Proverb Dictionary", "Chinese Imaginary Character Usage Dictionary", "Concise Modern American Slang Dictionary", "English Basic Word Usage Dictionary", "English-Chinese Illustrated Dictionary", "Thai-Chinese Dictionary", "Concise English-Chinese Dictionary", "Concise French-Chinese Dictionary", "Concise German-Chinese Dictionary", the number of which was second only to Shanghai (14) and Beijing (10), at that time, the central publishing houses concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai and the central government determined the "national publishing house" In the case, Guangdong, as a local publisher, is obviously the biggest winner (most provinces and cities only bear 1-2 parts).
Published by the Commercial Press in 1915, "More than 100,000 volumes of the Book of Luo, completed in eight years", is the first large-scale dictionary in the modern sense of China. In 1931, the Commercial Press published a continuation of the "Ciyuan" edited by Fang Yi, adding more than 30,000 entries. Zhonghua Bookstore, which has always been not afraid of head-on competition with the Commercial Press, is not far behind, and it took more than 20 years to publish Cihai in 1936 to compete for the market. After the publication of the two books "Ciyuan" and "Cihai", one is known for its quotations in words, and the other is based on the key to encyclopedic interpretation, and each of them is good at winning the field, becoming a standing tool book in the reading industry, winning a huge reputation for the Commercial Press and the Zhonghua Bookstore, and of course making a lot of money.
However, there are also criticisms. According to Shu Xincheng, editor-in-chief of "Cihai", some people ridiculed "Cihai is not hai, and Ciyuan has no source", saying that "Cihai" contains too few entries, and the entries of "Ciyuan" are not traced back enough, which makes him very uncomfortable. To this end, after the publication of the two words, the addition and revision have begun. But for various reasons it did not work. (The Origin of Words was published in 1939 in two consecutive editions, and in 1951, it was published as an adaptation, neither of which was a full revision in the true sense of the word))
Ciyuan (Ciyuan) was published in the first and second volumes of the 1915 edition; Ciyuan was continued in the 1931 edition
After the founding of New China, great changes have taken place in ideology and social outlook, and various inopportune and inappropriate "Ciyuan" and "Cihai" have been exposed. From 1957 to 1958, the Supreme Leader instructed that two books be revised, which were implemented by the Commercial Press, chaired by Chen Hanbo, and the Zhonghua Bookstore, chaired by Jin Canran. In order to change the status quo of "non-sea and no source", "revision" has actually become a new editor. The goal of the new "Ciyuan" is to compile "a tool book for reading general ancient books" and "to become a reference book for classical literary and historical researchers". The goal of the new Cihai is a "classified encyclopedia dictionary". The former is dominated by ancient words, and the latter is a modern sub-disciplinary word, and the two have their own positioning and complement each other. Due to frequent political movements and the death (1960) of Shu Xincheng, editor-in-chief of Cihai, the revision of the two books was intermittent and finally stopped (Ciyuan published the first fascicle in 1964).
Why would such a large and professional business edition of the book be revised by Guangdong Province? After the 1971 National Publishing Work Conference, the Guangdong People's Publishing House was directly led by the Political Work Group of the Provincial Party Committee, and its political status suddenly increased. The provincial party committee successively sent Huang Wenyu (1971) and Yang Qi (1974) to take charge of the news, both of whom were veterans of the news front, running newspapers and periodicals in the Anti-Japanese Base Area of Dongjiang and Hong Kong, and both served as the president and editor-in-chief of nanfang daily after the founding of New China. Huang Wenyu and Yang Qi took the helm one after another, injecting considerable vitality into the development of the company. During this period, the central government successively organized the translation and publication of historical and geographical books from all over the world, and Guangdong participated as a key province and city. According to the instructions of the central government, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China has set up a special working group to be responsible for books such as national history and geographical briefings in the Asia-Pacific region, which will be implemented by the Guangdong People's Publishing House. After several years of hard work, he has successively published the "Complete History of Guam" translated by Tang Taohua and Zhu Jieqin (the first, middle and second volumes); the "Brief History of Australia" translated by He Zhaofa and Jin Yingxi; the "History of Samoa" translated by Ma Cai; the "Brief History of New Guinea" translated by Chen Yibai and Wu Jianglin; the "Brief History of New Zealand" translated by Zhang Huaneng and others, as well as "Southwest Pacific Ocean after 1900", "Solomon Islands", "Geographical Overview of Melanesia", and "French Pacific Islands". History calls it the "Gray Book". The organization and implementation of large-scale nationwide projects has greatly tempered the Guangdong People's Publishing House, which was originally limited to publishing local themes in Guangdong and is mostly popular pamphlets, and has accumulated relatively rich experience. The above-mentioned projects were implemented from 1971 to 1974, followed by the implementation of the project of compiling and publishing Chinese and foreign language dictionaries in 1975, and Guangdong dared to take over the major task of revising the "Ciyuan", and should still have a certain confidence.
The editors of Guangdong People's Publishing House participating in the revision are: Wu Kang (front row 5 left), Yang Yikai (2nd row 4 right), Bai Jiahui (back row 2 left), Xu Wei (2nd row 4 right), Zeng Dingyi (2nd row left 4)
There is an episode worth mentioning. Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe it's been communicated before. When the symposium on the planning of the compilation and publication of Chinese and foreign languages was held in Guangzhou, the parties involved in the revision of the "Ciyuan" turned out to be three Cantonese-speaking And already familiar Guangdong people: one was Xu Liyi (a native of Suixi, Guangdong), the specific person in charge of the meeting and director of the Publishing Department of the State Publishing Bureau; one was Chen Yuan, general manager of the Commercial Press (a native of Xinhui, Guangdong); and the other was Yang Qi, the host of the meeting and director of the Revolutionary Committee of the Guangdong People's Publishing House (a zhongshan from Guangdong). The meeting was decided to be co-compiled by Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Henan provinces and regions and the Commercial Press, according to Chen Yuan's recollection: "Who will be the commander-in-chief?" This problem is not easy to solve. At this time, Yang Qi (who was in charge of the publishing work in Guangdong at the time) stepped forward and he came to 'take the lead'. ...... Yang Qi is brave, determined, and enthusiastic, good at organizational work as a publisher and scholar. He not only 'led', but also 'led' out a 'head sheep', that is, Huang Qiuyun. ”
Yang Qi and Huang Qiuyun (right)
Chen Yuan used "pulling out a head sheep" to ridicule Huang Qiuyun, which can really be described as the divine stroke of a linguist. Huang Qiuyun (1918-2001), born in Shunde, Guangdong, was born in Hong Kong. It is an old revolutionary who joined the Communist Party of China in 1936. After the founding of New China, he successively served as a teacher at the South China Academy of Literature and Art, an editorial board member of Nanfang Daily, a researcher of the Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, the head of the Xinhua News Agency, and the acting director of the Fujian Branch of xinhua news agency. In 1954, he became a member of the standing editorial board of the magazine "Literature and Art Study" of the Chinese Writers Association. In 1959, he was transferred to the Central Propaganda Department's "Literature and Art Daily". In 1966, he was transferred to Yangcheng Evening News as an editorial board member. During the "Cultural Revolution", the British and German "May 7" cadre schools were sent to work. In 1970, he was transferred to the Propaganda Department of the Revolutionary Committee of Guangdong Province. In 1971, he was transferred to the Guangdong People's Publishing House and later served as the deputy director of the Social Revolutionary Committee. With Huang Qiuyun's seniority and "ability", he was willing to take on this time-consuming and arduous task, and even Chen Yuan was deeply surprised. At that time, some people said that Huang Qiuyun was "escaping into the empty door" (meaning evasion movement). On October 25, 1975, Huang Qiuyun wrote to Zhang Guangnian, describing his participation in the revolution when he was young and his participation in the revision of the "Ciyuan" in his later years as "a gift of youth and a poor scripture". The letter said: "For me, this kind of work may be more appropriate. I am nearly sixty years old, and I always hope to make a little contribution to the party and the people in my later years. ”
Because the revision of "Ciyuan" is a national task, Guangdong attaches great importance to it, and the provincial party committee has set up a leading group for Chinese and foreign language dictionaries in Guangdong Province led by provincial leaders, and set up a revision and review team for "Ciyuan" in Guangdong Province, with Huang Qiuyun as the leader, and the sign is hung in the Guangdong People's Publishing House (No. 17, Xinji Road, Guangzhou). In terms of publishing houses, the editorial office of Guangdong Province's revision of "Ciyuan" is specially set up to be responsible for specific work. After the completion of the first draft of the revision in the four provinces and regions, the Commercial Press concentrated on reviewing the draft, and Huang Qiuyun went to Beijing to be responsible for the overall review and revision of the draft. In Guangdong, Wu Kang (then vice president of Guangdong Science and Technology Publishing House, after the establishment of the Guangdong Publishing Administration in 1978, the revision of the source of the word source was coordinated by the Provincial Publishing Bureau, and the Science and Technology Society was directly subordinate to the bureau) was responsible for docking.
The revision project of "Ciyuan" is huge, the four provinces and the Commercial Press divide and cooperate, and Yang Qi and Huang Qiuyun show superb organizational and coordination capabilities. During this period, four cooperation meetings were held in Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Guilin and Changsha. Among them, at the Changsha Conference in January 1977, Chen Yuan made a seven-hour speech, and then published it in the first issue of "Chinese Chinese Wen" in 1978 under the title of "Drawing Some Boundaries Between Right and Wrong in Dictionary Work", which became a classic document compiled in the new period.
"Chinese Chinese Wen", No. 1, 1978
In February 1978, after receiving a notice from the State Publishing Bureau, huang Qiuyun, as one of the three editors of the new edition of "Ciyuan", went to Beijing to carry out the final draft of "Ciyuan". At that time, the spring breeze in the literary and art circles was just beginning, "Some people advised me to continue to engage in literary and artistic work, but until the tasks I am undertaking now are completed, I am afraid it will be difficult to take care of it." It can be seen that Huang Qiuyun attaches importance to and invests in this work.
Lexicography is a chore, which Chen Yuan described as "jumping into the sea of fire." However, the enthusiasm of the experts and scholars who have been tormented by the movement is extremely high when they are given the opportunity to put into work. "At every meeting, there was a lot of red-faced arguments, for a formulation, for an example, for a provision in the detailed rules, for a sentence that was not sweet or salty for others, for the speaker who had no intentions or even a good intention and the listener was more than a hearty completely uninformed nonsense, and even for not going to visit anywhere, arguing and arguing - but the work is serious, the level is high, but the work is so true." Chen Yuan, a lexicographer, linguist, and publisher, described the "top truth" of the revision of the "Lexicon" as follows: "If the Lexicon has 100,000 entries, and each entry uses one more unnecessary word, it is equivalent to adding 100,000 words out of thin air, 100,000 completely unnecessary words, 100,000 words arranged in 32 folios with more than 200 pages, that is, the reader is going to spend an extra five or six cents - buy 100,000 words of completely 'nothing'! It is not difficult to understand that the centralized draft in Beijing lasted for more than two years, because scholars "verified, debated, revised, supplemented, and finalized one word at a time."
In 1979, the manuscript was completed and printed, and after ten schools of editing and professional proofreading, the 14 million words of the four-volume new edition of "Ciyuan" (3620 pages of text, 123 pages of index) was completed by the Commercial Press in 1983. From the inception to the publication of the book, the project lasted more than nine years and the number of participants was thousands. The newly edited "Ciyuan" (cover design Jiang Liang) uses a dark brown divided flower pattern, embedded in the title of the book inscribed by the famous educator, publisher and writer Ye Shengtao, which is deep and solid, simple and generous.
After the publication of the new edition of "Ciyuan", it was widely acclaimed. Since then, the academic community and the dictionary have been divided into the new "Ciyuan" (1983 edition) and the old "Ciyuan" (1915 edition). The new "Ciyuan" deletes all the words of natural science, social science, applied technology, and translated words (classified as "Cihai"), and greatly expands the ancient Chinese words. "The new "Lexicon" mainly collects old and old words, but the old "Lexicon" strives to collect and expand new words and new languages. This is a big change, from an ordinary encyclopedic dictionary to a common Old Chinese dictionary." Completely changed the situation of "the source of the word" has been completely changed.
Etymology, 1983 edition, four volumes
On July 7, 1979, the revision and editorial office of Guangdong Province's "Ciyuan" took a group photo to commemorate the completion of the work, but because Huang Qiuyun was doing the final review work at the Commercial Press at that time, he did not participate. Xu Liyi, who knew the inside story, said in his memoirs: "In the work of revising the "Ciyuan", there are a large number of experts, among whom Mr. Huang Qiuyun and Liu Yeqiu are even more helpful. (According to Chen Yuan's recollection, the Commercial Press was responsible for reviewing and co-ordinating the manuscript by "Wu Zeyan, a master in the dictionary industry", who later Liu Zhongqiu joined.)
I don't know if there is telepathy, almost synchronous with the mainland, the Taiwan Commercial Press under the presidency of Wang Yunwu decided to revise the "Ciyuan". In April 1976, wang Yunwu, who was already 89 years old, "decided to completely revise and supplement the "Ciyuan" within one year, and proposed to hire Professor Wang Menggejun of the institute of Chinese of the National Chengchi University to preside over the matter." Wang Yunwu personally drafted "Increasing the Rhetorical Source Work Examples" and "Increasing the Rhetorical Source Sequence". In April 1979, the Taiwan Commercial Press published "Sources of Rhetoric" (first and second volumes, 2464 pages of the main text, 284 pages of index). More than three months later, Wang Yunwu passed away unexpectedly.
Although Taiwan's publication of "Increasing Rhetoric sources" preceded the mainland, it followed the old "Lexicon" "words are the mainstay, and encyclopedias" road number, and it is an urgent chapter formed in a short period of time, which is obviously not in the same grade as the mainland version. This is the main reason why Hong Kong immediately introduced a new "Ciyuan" from the mainland when the mainland version was launched, and launched Chinese Traditional version for overseas distribution. Wang Yunwu took the inheritance of the old business spirit of the Republic of China period as his own responsibility, and revitalized the Taiwan Commercial Press after "naked retirement" from the political arena, and Taiwan's "Add Rhetoric Sources" was the last major revision project of the Commercial Press of the Republic of China period that he handled before his death.
Stills from "The Chronicle of the Boat"
Before writing this article, I watched a Japanese film "The Chronicle of the Boat", and it was difficult for the main creator to compile and publish such a boring and tedious subject as the dictionary, which made it ups and downs. The film showing the "ingenuity" of the otaku not only won the Japan Academy Award, but also created an excellent box office, which really made the publishers and lexicographers who usually hide behind the scenes a fire. Chen Yuanyuan said: "At the beginning, all those who compile dictionaries think that they can soon be completed, that is to say, those who have not compiled dictionaries will never understand that this is a kind of 'arduous process', thousands of problems, postponed again and again, and then suddenly awakened to the fact that the compilation of dictionaries is a labor that requires perseverance, endurance, and seriousness, and is not afraid of tediousness and hardship." "It is quite in line with the mood that "The Chronicle of the Boat" wants to express. In recent years, the author has edited the news and publication volume of the Lingnan Cultural Dictionary, which can be regarded as a slight understanding.
Dictionaries are about national fortunes. "The culture of a country is often proportional to its dictionary." More than a hundred years ago, Lu Erkui edited "Ciyuan", that is, he felt that "there is no dictionary in the country, and there is no culture to speak of". After the founding of New China, the supreme leader and the premier of a major country successively issued a speech to revise the "Ciyuan" and "Cihai". Now, nearly forty years have passed since the publication of the new edition of "Ciyuan", and looking back at this period of history, it should still have its practical significance.
About the Author:
Jin Bingliang
He graduated from the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University in 1989 and was a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia (UBC) from 2000 to 2001. Senior publisher, editor, in 2016, won the honorary title of "Guangdong Province Publishing Master". He has published more than 30 papers in journals such as Journal of Sun Yat-sen University, Monthly Journal of History, Research on Publication History, China Publishing, China Editing, and Publishing Science.