Everyone uses dictionaries in various languages in the process of studying and working, but few people understand how a dictionary is compiled.
The novel "The Chronicle of the Boat", which won the Japan Bookstore Award and was adapted into a film of the same name, brought the work of dictionary compilation into the public eye. It turns out that high-quality dictionaries are not just simple translation entries, but need to be based on scientific research, coupled with comprehensive and careful analysis and synthesis. The complexity and hardship of this job is unimaginable to ordinary people.
Stills from the movie "The Chronicle of the Boat"
From 1975 to 2012, the Chinese version of "Zhou Ji" came and went
The meticulous craftsmanship of the dictionary compilers in the Chronicle of the Boat is admirable, and there is no shortage of such stories in China.
In April 2012, 76-year-old Che Hongcai took a bus to the Commercial Press. He went to the window of the communication room and said to the people inside, I was going to the first editing room, but I was told that there was no first editing room anymore. He was then told he should go upstairs to the foreign language editing room.
There was only one little girl in the editing room, and Che Hong said to her: "I have come to contact a dictionary, Pashto." Seeing that the little girl did not respond, she added: "Afghan." ”
"How many words can there be?" she asked.
"About two million." Che Hongcai replied.
She immediately stood up and said, "You please sit down, I'll go find our director." ”
When Zhang Wenying, the director of the editorial office, arrived, Che Hongcai handed her the printed dictionary writing process and the materials explained. After reviewing all the materials, she said: "I have my personal opinion on your dictionary, and we have accepted it." However, the project should be approved by the library council, and I will report it to the library council next month. ”
After exchanging contact information with Zhang Wenying, Che Hongcai walked out of the Commercial Press with ease. In the archives of the Commercial Press, a red-headed document that has been sealed for many years has also been seen again because of the arrival of Che Hongcai.
In 1975, in order to increase China's influence at UNESCO, the State Council held the "National Working Conference on the Publication of Chinese and Foreign Dictionaries", preparing to spend 10 years publishing 160 Chinese and foreign dictionaries. Pashto, the official language of Afghanistan, is also included. However, the situation changed, and after several twists and turns, no one mentioned this dictionary anymore before Che Hong stepped into the gate of the Commercial Press.
By this time, exactly 34 years had passed since he had received the national assignment.
1975 "Planning for the Compilation and Publication of Chinese and Foreign Language Dictionaries"
Yin and yang are inextricably linked to the Pashto language
Che Hongcai was born in October 1936 in Hailun, Heilongjiang Province. In his childhood impression, Helen City "is a very small county town, there is no city wall, there is a wide and deep moat around the city", the people's customs are sincere, moral, dare to do. In the subtle, it also affected Che Hongcai's personality. Che Hongcai's mother did not go to school, but attached great importance to education. In middle school, Che Hongcai followed his mother to Beijing, where he attended beijing no. 6 Middle School at the time.
1957 Che Hongcai high school graduation photo
At the time of the college entrance examination, Che Hongcai, who had excellent grades, was originally preparing to apply for Peking University, but just in time for the early enrollment of Beijing Foreign Chinese University (formerly Beijing Chinese College of Foreign Studies), a classmate secretly helped him sign up for Che Hong, and only after receiving the admission ticket did he come to tell him: "You have always studied Russian very well, have special skills, and have a future in reporting foreign languages." ”
Che Hongcai, who originally "did not want to engage in foreign languages all his life", took the early admissions examination with the mood of accumulating experience, and did not expect to be successfully admitted to Beijing Foreign Chinese University.
In his autobiography My Dictionary Life, Che Hongcai recalled that his mood when he received the acceptance letter was "It's over, it's fixed." "Because of early admissions, you can no longer participate in the national examination." But it was also such a yin and yang error that made him have an indissoluble relationship with the Pashto language for the rest of his life.
In the 1950s, in order to cultivate non-lingua franca talents, major colleges and universities across the country began to send students from the Department of Foreign Languages to study small languages abroad. Che Hongcai, a third year of college, was selected to study Pashto at Kabul University in Afghanistan. After returning to China, he first organized Pashto broadcasting on the Central People's Radio and then taught at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute (now the Communication University of China). Later, due to work needs, he was seconded back to the radio station.
Che Hongcai is in Afghanistan
"I must accomplish this task entrusted to me by the country"
In 1978, Mr. Zhu Puxuan, then director of the First Editorial Office of the Commercial Press, took the "national mission" to the International Radio Station, the unit with the largest concentration of domestic and foreign language talents, to discuss the compilation of dictionaries of non-lingua franca, including Pashto. Che Hongcai accepted this task, but the daily business of the radio station was complicated and trivial, and he was almost not allowed to quietly engage in research. After consulting with his old colleague Zhang Min, Che Hongcai decided to return to school to work, and applied to the school to second Song Qiangmin, who changed careers after graduating from the 63rd class, to return to the school to assist in writing a dictionary.
There was no funding for the dictionary, and Che Hongcai did not want to ask the organization. At that time, a large number of cards were needed to compile dictionaries, and Che Hongcai's salary could not be supplied, so Song Qiangmin found a printing factory and asked for free some "scraps" left over from the cover and asked them to cut them into cards of the same size, which solved a big problem.
Che Hongcai wrote some of the cards used in the dictionary
The work of writing dictionaries gradually began to be carried out in an orderly manner, and in order to determine the meaning of a word, Che Hong repeatedly consulted various materials. For some religious-related words, check the dictionaries of religions and the relevant knowledge in the dictionary of religions. Background on Afghan history, culture, ethnicity and customs, as well as access to relevant books. By 1982, he had written about 100,000 cards, completing 70 percent of the entire dictionary program.
However, writing dictionaries is a job that requires a lot of time and concentration, and the school's various meetings, studies, presentations, etc. have slowed him down. In 1984, he was arranged by the school to do correspondence education, the task was heavy, the dictionary writing work was stranded, and the contact with the Commercial Press gradually lost.
In 1989, Che Hongcai, who was fluent in Pashto, was sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Embassy in Pakistan to do diplomatic work, and three years later, due to tensions, he was transferred directly from Pakistan to war-torn Afghanistan. Although there was no time to do the writing work, during his time in Afghanistan, Che Hongcai was still worried about accumulating materials for the dictionary, and finally brought back a copy of the English Pashto Dictionary compiled by the local Pashto Language Society, which helped to determine the meaning of the word later.
"My Dictionary Life" is a real picture
After returning to China, Che Hong found that time was easy, and almost no one remembered that there was still a Pashto Chinese Dictionary that needed to be written. The leaders in the school were all changed, and no one listened to his report. After his retirement, he was rehired to teach Pashto at the school, life seemed plain as water, and no one in the Commercial Press asked about the dictionary anymore, for many people, this is a good opportunity to lose this boring task.
However, Che Hongcai's heart is still thinking about completing the compilation of the dictionary, "I must complete this task entrusted to me by the state."
Che Hongcai's handwritten card
In 2008, Che Hongcai retired from the front line of teaching, and he was finally free to spend his time and devote all his energy to the "national task" that only he remembered. At this time, Song Qiangmin, who had compiled the dictionary with him, had passed away. He found his former colleague Zhang Min as a co-editor-in-chief to complete the dictionary.
Compared with decades ago, the publishing industry has also undergone earth-shaking changes, and the cards he once regarded as treasures have long been eliminated by the times. In order to make the publishing house published, che hong, who is more than seventy years old, must enter the entries on the card one by one into the computer, he found the Pashto input method software from an Afghan website, at the beginning, he was not familiar with the computer, he encountered various problems, Pashto software and windows are incompatible, many symbols are often not played, Che Hong only thought of a lot of ways to solve.
During this period, he traveled back and forth between his residences in Beijing and Xiamen, but he never interrupted the compilation and entry of dictionaries, never forgetting to bring these precious cards every time, and every time his luggage was overweight.
Che Hongcai's work photo when he proofread the dictionary in front of the computer
After 4 years of time, after a long period of exploration, he finally entered the entries on the cards into the computer and sent the first draft of the dictionary to the Commercial Press. Due to the complexity of Pashto typesetting, in the process of publishing, Che Hongcai also personally went to the typesetting company of the Commercial Press many times to fix it, and after comprehensive and meticulous editing and processing, on February 9, 2015, the launch ceremony of the Pashto Chinese Dictionary was officially held at the Commercial Press.
This national mission, which spanned 36 years, has finally come to a perfect end.
Che Hongcai attended the dictionary publishing symposium
Pashto is the national language of the Pashtun people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. At present, there are about 30 million people in the world who speak the language, but only about 100 people in China have it, which is a veritable "small language".
For many years, there has been a lack of Pashto reference books in China, and this Pashto Chinese Dictionary not only fills the professional gap, but also makes great contributions to Sino-Arab cultural exchanges. Che Hongcai was selected as a "Chinese Cultural Figure" in 2014 and nominated for "Moving China", and in 2015, he was awarded the Afghan National High Medal by the President of Afghanistan in recognition of his outstanding achievements.
Che Hongcai accepted the order from the President of Afghanistan
This is his own choice of "dictionary life"
In the autobiography "My Dictionary Life", Che Hongcai reflected on his life. It seems that since his youth, he has been wrapped up in the tide of the times, whether out of the good intentions of others or obeying the arrangements of the organization, he has been living a "chosen" life, until he abandons all distractions and pours all his enthusiasm into the editing work of the Pashto Chinese Dictionary, and only then does he have inner firmness and peace - this is the "dictionary life" he chose.
Although it took almost a lifetime to complete this tedious and heavy task, he did not think of taking a penny from the state in compiling this dictionary: "I have the bottom in my heart, and I know the weight of what I make up." Dictionaries are the masters of later generations, influencing at least two or three generations. Now material things are very explicit, and everything must be bargained, and in my opinion, it is possible to do something for the country, even if it is not in vain. ”
Article source | "Do books" WeChat public account
WeChat Editor | Deng Jiefeng