Classical chinese dictionary

[HW60]

I would like to study classical chinese (texts dating from 500 - 200 B.C.). Are there dictionaries available that can be used with Pleco, sometimes ...? Which software dictionary or paper dictionary can be recommended for students?

 

[mikelove]

We don't offer any dictionaries specifically for Classical Chinese yet, but the badly-in-need-of-a-new-name "A Chinese-English Dictionary" database includes classical meanings in a lot of its character definitions, so it's a pretty solid reference for reading classical texts.

 

[Junsu]

(Mike and others), how good is the Guifuan Cidian for classical Chinese?

 

[gato]

Guifan is more or less limited to just modern Chinese. DeFrancis's ABC C-E dictionary has actually more classical Chinese entries than the Guifan dictionary.

 

[HuShifang]

If you're willing to pay a little more, I think the Hanyu Da Cidian is really the gold standard - the closest thing there is to the Oxford English DIctionary in terms of completeness and authority. The version 3.0 CD-ROM has mouse-over lookups to go along with the highly detailed definitions and the numerous examples of usages. (If you get it, go through the Commercial Press (HK)'s website, not Cheng & Tsui - it's a *lot* cheaper, and even though it ships from HK you'll receive it within a few days of ordering.) That said, when I'm doing reading for my Chinese history/philosophy graduate seminars, the ABC included in Pleco serves me quite well for getting the gist of things. Although I'll use HYDC for tricky characters, the huge number of possible meanings it offers can actually trip you up if it's your first-line reference...

 

[Wan]

In our Classical Chinese courses, we created an excel file and a Pleco database for Classical Chinese, based on the Unger glossary of Classical Chinese, which is very accurate. It includes the character, Pinyin and Wade-Giles transcription, and the German translation.
If this is violating any copyrights: Please, Mike, remove my post.