The “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” is a name that emerged in 1928, but its origins can be traced back to 1913 and even further to the Hundred Days’ Reform movement a century ago. Reformers during the Hundred Days’ Reform believed that China’s weakness was due to the complexity of the Chinese characters, which hindered intellectual progress. They proposed a reform of the Chinese script, suggesting the adoption of a phonetic script. In July 1912, the Ministry of Education decided on the “Adoption of Phonetic Alphabet Plan,” aiming to unify pronunciation. To achieve this, there was a need for a standard pronunciation dictionary. Due to political instability, the first edition of the “National Pronunciation Dictionary” and the “Revised National Pronunciation Dictionary” were not published until 1919 and 1921, respectively.

In 1920, the “National Language Dictionary Committee” was established to work on standardizing Chinese characters. In 1923, during the 5th annual meeting of the Ministry of Education’s National Language Standardization Preparatory Committee, it was decided to organize a “National Pronunciation Dictionary Revision Committee.” A “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” was set up by raising funds independently from the “National Language Dictionary Committee” to carry out this work. By the end of 1924, the dictionary compilation office decided to use Beijing pronunciation as the standard for Mandarin and finalized the dictionary’s structure.

In 1928, the Ministry of Education moved south, and the National Language Standardization Preparatory Committee was restructured and renamed the “National Language Standardization Preparatory Committee.” The “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” was also renamed, and it took over the work of revising the original “National Pronunciation Dictionary.” It was allocated office space in the former Presidential Palace, known as “Xisi Suo,” and started large-scale work.

The “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” had the ambitious task of “settling the accounts of the past four thousand years” based on historical principles. It organized a large system of work, consisting of five departments: collection, investigation, compilation, editing, and statistics, with 15 subgroups. Despite its extensive structure, the office faced challenges due to limited funding and a small staff.

By August 1933, after five years of work, the “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” had collected and compiled material from 440 sources and created nearly 2.5 million index cards. This was the first step in the compilation of a dictionary of this magnitude, and at that time, only the “Oxford English Dictionary” in England could compare in terms of scale.

The office had a relatively unnoticed department called the “Statistics Department,” responsible for collecting a certain number of books and newspapers and tallying the frequency of appearance of each character and word. This work laid the foundation for distinguishing between commonly used, less commonly used, and rarely used characters and words, helping determine their inclusion in the dictionary. This foundational work in character and word statistics was a pioneering effort in the history of Chinese lexicography.

Some of the notable works produced by the “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” include:

“National Pronunciation Commonly Used Character Glossary” (edited by Qian Xuantong, compiled by Li Jinxi, Bai Dizhou, and Xiao Jialin, with contributions from Zhao Yuanren and Wang Yi, published in May 1932). “New Radical Index to the National Pronunciation Dictionary” (edited by Wang Yi, with a preface by Li Jinxi, considered as the 4th version of the “National Pronunciation Dictionary”). “Additions and Annotations to the National Pronunciation Commonly Used Character Glossary” (edited by Li Jinxi, with contributions from Wang Yi, He Meicen, Fu Jieshi, Niu Jichang, Gao Jingcheng, Xu Renyu, Xu Shirong, Sun Shiqing, Fang Yiyi, Shen Jianshi, Li Jinwei, Xu Dishan, Lin Yutang, Wang Pu, and Zhang Weiyu, considered as the 5th version of the “National Pronunciation Dictionary”). “National Language Dictionary” (published in four volumes, with the first volume edited by Li Jinxi, Qian Xuantong, and Zhao Yuanren, and the complete work taking 10 years to publish, from 1937 to 1947). “Revised Chinese Rhyme Dictionary” (edited by Li Jinxi, with contributions from Wang Shuda, He Meicen, Fu Jieshi, Sun Shiqing, Zhang Weiyu, and Zhang Naizhi, published in 1950). “Dictionary of Cultural and Educational Terms” (edited by Li Jinxi, with contributions from Wang Shuda, He Meicen, Fu Jieshi, Sun Shiqing, Xu Renyu, and Xu Shirong, published in October 1952). “Homophonic Dictionary” (edited by Li Jinxi, with contributions from Wang Shuda, He Meicen, Fu Jieshi, Sun Shiqing, Gao Jingcheng, and Xu Shirong, published in 1956). “Chinese Language Dictionary,” a condensed version of the “National Language Dictionary,” published in 1957. Evolution:

The “Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office” was engaged in dictionary compilation for decades, accumulating extensive experience. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, in 1956, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Institute of Linguistics, which included a Dictionary Editing Office. The Compilation Office and the New China Bookstore, which was part of the former General Administration of Press and Publication, were merged into the Dictionary Office of the Institute of Linguistics, becoming one of the most powerful professional dictionary compilation units in China.