6000 Chinese Characters with Japanese Pronunciation And

o trJ c ilmnrg of tt|e nf rmtta REV. EG TON SON Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from Microsoft Corporation https://archive.0rg/details/6OOOchinesecharaOOjoneuoft Ir 41 V m f .4 .’ ii •^ 6000 CHINESE CHARACTERS WITH JAPANESE PRONUNClATIOIsr AND JAPANESE AND ENGLISH RENDERINGS BY J. IRA JONES, A.B.—H. V. S. PEEKE, D.D. V KYO BUN KWAN TOKYO CONTENTS Page T^R FACE ••• ••• ••• v-vr Introduction ... ... ... ... ... vxi-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 I— 212 List OF characters whose radicals are 3-2 OBSCURE ... ... ... ... ... 2 1 19 List of useful geographical names ...220—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 enou h to obtain a dozen copies in an obscure book-shop, and made it a practice to present 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 it character was cut one fourth ; by the second, was reduced an addi- tional two fourths. Calling upon him in September, 1913, the writer saw the ingeni- ous arrangement, ai;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 be an 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, leavin to his associate the completion and revision of the copy, and the carryin 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 unusual service to missionary and other students of the Japanese language, 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 Gakk5 , 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 renderin s in Japanese and in English, has its necessary 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 mechanically 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. 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 especially the needs of those who are be inning 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 thousand 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. Prot 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 re arded 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 e idea in a verbal form, either active or passive, as a noun, sin ular 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. Grin ’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 e beginning on is 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. four-stroke For example, '7 b,w") is a contraction of a radical, 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 ia 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 of {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 R of ipsato-hen), and R of [kosato-hen), ave undoubtedly written with two strokes of the brush, but they are nevertheless counted as having three strokes. The four-stroke contraction of is often written and printed in such a way as to suggest but three strokes. Ill 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 at 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.

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