The Zitong is a 1254 Chinese dictionary of that was compiled by the Southern Song dynasty (1127âÂÂ1279) scholar Li Congzhou æÂÂå¾Âå¨. It discussed orthographic differences between Chinese characters written in different historical styles, including seal script, clerical script, and the contemporary regular script.
The title combines two common words: zì "character; script; writing; graph; style" and tà Âng "communicate/connect (with); join; understand thoroughly; master". While the title is usually transliterated as Zitong or Tzu-t'ung, English translations are Summary of Characters, General Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and (A Scholar) Versed in Characters.
Li Congzhou's choice of title was the name of an earlier character dictionary that is now a lost work: the (c. 500) Zitong Ã¥ÂÂé by Yang Chengqing æ¥Âæ¿栶 of the Northern Wei dynasty. It contained 13,734 character head entries, which was more than the (c. 350) Zilin with 12,824 entries. Yang's Zitong has been partially reconstructed from fragments of early texts and quotations in classical texts.
The similarly titled (1671) Zhengzitong æ£åÂÂé "Correct Character Mastery" (with zhèng "right; straight; correct") was published by Qing dynasty scholar Liao Wenying å»ÂæÂÂè±, who bought and renamed the (1627) Zihui bian Ã¥ÂÂå½Â辯 "Zihui Disputations", which was written by the Ming dynasty author Zhang Zilie å¼µèªç as a supplement to the (1615) Zihui dictionary.
Furthermore, the Japanese lexicographer Shirakawa Shizuka ç½å·Âé edited an identically titled (1996) Jitsà « Ã¥ÂÂé "Mastery of Characters" Japanese dictionary.
In an alphabetic language like English, orthography means "Correct or proper spelling; spelling according to accepted usage; the way in which words are conventionally written. (By extension) Any mode or system of spelling." (OED 2009, v. 4.0). When semantically extended into a logographic language like Chinese, it means "the way in which Chinese characters are conventionally written", which includes calligraphic aspects such as the script styles, stroke order, and character structure.
The first Chinese orthographic dictionaries, or "'character model' dictionaries", were compiled during the Tang dynasty (618âÂÂ907) in an effort to rectify discrepancies among characters written in seal, clerical, and regular scripts, and to standardize variant characters. Emperor Taizong of Tang put the scholar and calligrapher Yan Shigu (581âÂÂ645) in charge of the Palace Library in order to "verify and authorize" the Five Classics. The Archival Bureau's duties were to print authoritative editions of the classic works, to collate the styles of characters, to check and proofread government texts, and to produce a standard orthographic handbook. This became the first Chinese orthographic dictionary, Yan Shigu's book the Zìyàng Ã¥ÂÂ樣 "Character Models" (aka Yanshi ziyang é¡Âæ°ÂÃ¥ÂÂ樣 "Mr. Yan's Character Models") gave model samples of writing characters in different scripts, which his grandson Yan Yuansun é¡Âå Âå« (d. 732) used as the basis for his Ganlu Zishu orthographic dictionary.
In addition to the Zitong, various orthography dictionaries and character books were published during the Song dynasty (960âÂÂ1279), for instance, the Fugubian å¤Âå¤編 "Return to Old Chapters" by Zhang You å¼µæ and the Peixi 佩觿 "Ivory Bodkin" by the painter Guo Zhongshu.
The Zitong was in one volume, and based upon the classic (121) Shuowen jiezi character dictionary. It included 601 character head entries, which were arranged into 89 sections according to the number of strokes in the regular script. The head character was in seal script and entries were in regular script, giving notation first, followed by the definition. All the exegetic interpretations quote the Shuowen jiezi without any other sources.
There were flaws in the Zitong, such as listing some characters twice and inconsistencies in the 89-radical system. It did have a useful appendix with 82 popular erroneous writings, such as yëchang 衣常 instead of yëshang "clothing; clothes". Nevertheless, this dictionary was important for the study of lexicographical theories concerning dictionary compilation in the Song Dynasty.
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