On February 15, 1913, the Pronunciation Unification Society, affiliated with the Ministry of Education, held a meeting in Beijing where over 6,500 Chinese characters were voted on to determine their standardized pronunciations. This resulted in a manuscript titled Draft Compendium of National Pronunciations (Guóyīn Huìbiān Cǎo). In 1918, the former chairman of the society, Wu Jingheng (Zhihui), reorganized this manuscript based on the radical system of the Kangxi Dictionary, renaming it the National Pronunciation Dictionary (Guóyīn Zìdiǎn). At the same time, he expanded the number of characters to over 13,000, with the work reviewed and approved by former members Wang Pu, Ma Yuzao, Qian Xuantong, Li Jinxi, Chen Maozhi, and others, and arranged for publication by The Commercial Press.

In September 1919, the first printed edition of the National Pronunciation Dictionary was published. On December 24, 1920, the Ministry of Education officially announced the dictionary via an executive order—marking China’s first official standardization of pronunciation. Then Minister of Education Fan Yuanlian stated in the decree:

“All provincial education departments and directly administered schools shall henceforth adopt the pronunciations in this newly issued National Pronunciation Dictionary as the standard, in order to unify pronunciation.” He further emphasized: “The compilation of this dictionary to correct pronunciation marks the initial step toward language unification. Though the framework is still rudimentary, its practical value is evident. It is hoped that all sectors will collaborate and refine this work to fully accomplish the mission of unifying the national language.”

In June 1921, the Revised National Pronunciation Dictionary, edited by Qian Xuantong, Wang Yi, and Li Jinhui, was published and officially announced by the Ministry of Education. This was the result of further deliberation on the original dictionary by the newly established Preparatory Committee for National Language Unification, and is regarded as the second edition of the dictionary, which remained in use for over a decade.

In 1923, during the committee’s fifth session, 27 members—including Wang Pu, Qian Xuantong, and Li Jinxi—were appointed to the Committee for Expanding and Revising the National Pronunciation Dictionary. In May 1932, they published the Compendium of Common National Pronunciations (Guóyīn Chángyòng Zìhuì), considered the third edition. It was led by Qian Xuantong, co-edited by Li Jinxi, Bai Dizhou, and Xiao Jialin, and revised by Zhao Yuanren and Wang Yi. On May 7, 1932, then Minister of Education Zhu Jiahua issued an order designating this compendium as the official dictionary for promoting standardized pronunciation nationwide.

In August 1948, The Commercial Press simultaneously published two works:

National Pronunciation Dictionary with New Radical Indexing

Expanded and Annotated Compendium of Common National Pronunciations

These are considered the fourth and fifth editions of the National Pronunciation Dictionary, each containing 14,000 to 15,000 characters.

The former is arranged by radicals and compiled by Wang Yi, Xu Renyu, Fu Jieshi, Niu Jichang, Gao Jingcheng, He Meicen, Xu Shirong, Sun Chongyi, Wang Shuda, Zhang Naizhi, and Zhang Weiyu.

The latter is arranged by Zhuyin Fuhao phonetic order and compiled by the same individuals, plus Li Zengdu and Zhu Changqi.

Both dictionaries were the achievements of the Encyclopedia of China Compilation Office, with a preface written by Li Jinxi, the office’s director. They also included a newly developed radical indexing system. These two dictionaries focus primarily on the definitions and pronunciations of individual characters, offering only minimal explanation of compound words (i.e., phrases), and are therefore categorized as pronunciation dictionaries.