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REV. EGERTON RYERSON

770,3

6OOO

CHINESE CHARACTERS

WITH JAPANESE PRONUNCIATIO

AND JAPANESE AND ENGLISH

RENDERINGS

BY

J. IRA JONES, A.B. H. V. S. PEEKE, D.D.

KYO BUN KWAN

TOKYO

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFACE ... ... ... ... ... v-vi

INTRODUCTION vn-ix

TABLE OF SOUNDS PRODUCED BY CERTAIN

COMBINATIONS OF TWO OR MORE LETTERS

OF THE kana ... ... ... ... x

LIST OF THE 214 RADICALS ... ... ... XI-XX

DICTIONARY 1-212

I.IST OF CHARACTERS WHOSE RADICALS ARE

OBSCURE ... ... ... ... ...213-219

LIST OF USEFUL GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 22O-223

PREFACE.

Some years ago the present writer discovered a small Chinese- Japanese dictionary containing five thousand characters. It was

fairly well printed, was portable, in fact just what he wanted, but

it was nearly out of print. He was fortunate enough to obtain a dozen copies in an obscure book-shop, and made it a practice to pre- sent a copy to young missionaries of special linguistic promise.

One of these books was given to Rev. J. Ira Jones, a student missionary at Fukuoka. When Mr. Jones took up the study of the Chinese characters in earnest, he applied the index principle to the

little dictionary. There was nothing original in indexing the side margin with numbers for the sets of radicals from one stroke to seventeen. But the indexing of the lower margin for the radicals themselves, thus subdividing the side indexes, deserves the credit of a new invention. By the first, the time required for finding a character was cut one fourth ; by the second, it was reduced an addi￾tional two fourths. Calling upon him in September, 1913, the writer saw the ingeni- ous arrangement, at:d learned that Mr. Jones had conceived the idea of a re-print of the dictionary in question, with the index feature added. Conversation developed a plan for an entirely new dictionary of something over five thousand characters, with Romaji and

English features, of pocket size, and indexed. In the end the five thousand characters grew to six thousand. However, it is hoped

that the disadvantage of a somewhat thicker book will be fully offset by the greater certainty of finding the character sought. Mr. Jones at once began the task of selecting characters and pre- paring copy. Laboring for several months quite alone, he had

blocked out the work and accomplished a good deal, when circum￾stances connected with the health of his family necessitated his return

to the United States, leaving to his associate the completion and

revision of the copy, and the carrying of the book through the press.

It is at least unusual that this collaboration has, of necessity,

VI PREFACE.

been carried on with the minimum of mutual consultation. How￾ever, there may perhaps be appropriateness in the fact that the young￾er collaborator has furnished largely the initiative, ingenuity and

energy requisite for launching the enterprise, while it has been re- served for the older, and necessarily more experienced member, to

furnish the caution and care necessary to carry the project to completion.

The compilers have proceeded on the assumption that if they

successfully completed their task, they would have rendered an un￾usual service to missionary and other students of the Japanese lan- guage, and it is to be hoped that, in a measure at least, they have

attained their purpose. Careful examination has been made of existing dictionaries pre- pared by Europeans in recent years, and of the dictionary which

primarily suggested this book, although special confidence has been

reposed in the Kan-wa Dai Jirin, of the Ikubunkwan. Acknowledge- ment is due, also, to Mr. S. Tanaka, of the Saga Chu Gakko, and Mr.

T. Sasaki, of the Kyushu Gakuin, for very considerable assistance.

It can hardly be expected that the (work is mechanically correct, or

that the judgment of the editors as shown in their renderings will be approved by all, but it is hoped that inaccuracies are few and not such as seriously to impair the usefulness of the book. It must be remembered that a pocket dictionary of such a language as the

Chinese, with renderings in Japanese and in English, has its neces- sary limitations. An especially kind judgment is bespoken for the index feature.

It is the first time that an index of this peculiar kind has been at- tempted, and granting even that its printing and cutting is mechanic￾ally correct, only experience can show whether the best form has been chosen, and whether the kind of paper selected, or indeed, whether any paper, will, without curling or tearing, stand the strain to which it will be subjected. But even though only partial success

in this direction crowns our efforts, the benefits, we feel sure, will not be small. H. V. S. PEEKE.

Saga, January, 1915.

INTRODUCTION.

Since the purpose of the compilers of this dictionary has from

the first been that of assisting fellow students, it will not be amiss to

offer a few words of suggestion as to its use, having in mind especial￾ly the needs of those who are beginning the study of Chinese

characters. The book is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive, so

its purpose will not have been achieved if many are not helped by it to pursue inquiries far beyond what is offered here. The six thou- sand odd characters given will be found, however, to cover quite

thoroughly the ground traversed by most writers. It is claimed that anyone mastering the four thousand characters given in Mr. Lay's

excellent dictionary will be able to read the columns of the Japanese

press with ease. Naturally much more can be said for a carefully

made collection of six thousand characters. Prof. B. H. Chamberlain

tells us that 9,500 is the maximum number of characters employed

in this country ; of which 3,000 are exceedingly rare. Of the Tokyo

printing offices, he says, " The number of characters kept on hand

in all the usual varieties of size and 'face' is 6,100; but this again must be regarded as a maximum, an abundantly liberal limit." (See

Moji no Shirube, p. 6.) The Chinese characters are called ideographs, and such they

eminently are. But the exact form and limitations of the "idea''

pictured are often left very vague, and the student will not find it easy to accustom himself to this vagueness. The same character may be used to represent the idea in a verbal form, either active or

passive, as a noun, singular or plural, as an adjective or an adverb.

It could hardly be expected that all this would be brought out in a

pocket dictionary, so the student will often be obliged to work his imagination hard. Some characters are more frequently used to express a transitive action, some a name, some a modifying idea, but

that does not preclude other uses on occasion.

VIII INTRODUCTION.

In order to make use of even an indexed dictionary like this, it is most desirable that the student should master the radical?, giving

especial attention to those under which the most characters are

found. The preface to Dr. Gring's Eclectic Chinese-Japanese￾English Dictionary gives excellent suggestions, and Chamberlain's Moji no Shirube is, of course, a classic. No less essential is it to become thoroughly familiar with the number of strokes in the

radicals, their order, and the method of writing. Time spent in the beginning on this latter task will be well spent. The writer ventures

to recommend his own brochure, Suggestions for the Study of the Chinese Characters, in which special attention is given to the method of writing the radicals, and to the order of strokes. In this dictionary the contractions of the radicals are noted, not only alongside the radical contracted, but separately in the list of radicals. For example, ? (san-sui) is a contraction of a four-stroke

radical, 7jt, and properly has no place in the list of three-stroke

radicals, but for convenience this and other contractions written with three strokes, are listed in that place. Similarly, contractions

written with four strokes are listed after the four-stroke radicals.

It may be well to call attention to a number of irregularities that are confusing, but must be borne with. The contraction -H-, of $fy (kusa-kammuri), is evidently written with three strokes of the brush, but as a matter of fact it is always counted as four strokes when

characters with it are classified in the dictionary. The contraction

IS of & (dzato-heti), and ft of JfL (kozato-heti), are undoubtedly written with two strokes of the brush, but they are nevertheless counted as having three strokes. The four-stroke contraction %, (of JO is often written and printed in such a way as to suggest but three strokes. In the character %, at the lower left-hand corner is a hook that seems surely to require two strokes of the brush, but that particular

hook is always counted as a single stroke wherever found.

It will not do to think that there is anything hit or miss about

writing the characters and counting the strokes. It is true that there is much faulty writing and there are many so-called vulgar

characters, but the best dictionaries discriminate very carefully,

INTRODUCTION IX and note exactly what is the correct and what the common usage, and there is a proper method of counting strokes that can be im￾plicitly relied on.

It is sometimes annoying to find a character classified under a

certain radical when apparently there is as much reason for classify- ing it under another, and it was suggested that in this book an at- tempt be made to list the characters under all possible radicals, but

that would have teen taking a liberty with the scholarship of the ages alongside which the most extreme English spelling reform would be a mere nothing, and the attempt was not made. A number of abbreviations have been introduced. Ab.f.= Ab￾breviated for; Alt.f.= Alternative for; Com. /.^Common or vulgar

for; Com. Common or vulgar (f-) form; Equiv. Equivalent to; Inc.= Incorrect form ; C0r,=Correct form. The mark "

H " before a radical in the margin indicates that the list of characters under it begins on the reverse of the page. The mark " O " found before certain characters indicates that they are among those that Prof. Chamberlain has referred to as "Just these 2,450 indispensable characters." The endeavour has been made to group these at the beginning of each set having a primitive of the same number of strokes under a given radical.