Zitong (dictionary)

The (1254) Zitong 字通 or Mastery of Characters is a Chinese dictionary of orthography that was compiled by the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) scholar Li Congzhou 李從周. It discussed logographic differences among Chinese characters written in the ancient Qin dynasty seal script, standard Han dynasty clerical script, and contemporary Song regular script.
Title.
The title combines two common words: "zì" 字 "character; script; writing; graph; style" and "tōng" 通 "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" (Zhou and Zhang 2003: 72), "General Dictionary of Chinese Characters" (Yong and Peng (2008: 198), and "(A Scholar) Versed in Characters" (Theobald 2013).
Li Congzhou's choice of title was the name of an earlier character dictionary that is now a lost work: the (c. 500) "Zitong" 字通 by Yang Chengqing 楊承慶 of the Northern Wei dynasty. It contained 13,734 character head entries, which was more than the (c. 350) "Zilin" with 12,824 entries (Zhou and Zhang 2003: 72; Lin 2008). Yang's "Zitong" has been partially reconstructed from fragments of early texts and quotations in classical texts (Xu 2013).
The similarly titled (1671) "Zhengzitong" 正字通 "Correct Character Mastery" (with "zhèng" 正 "right; straight; correct") was published by Qing dynasty scholar Liao Wenying 廖文英, who bought and renamed the (1627) "Zihui bian" 字彙辯 ""Zihui" Disputations", which was written by the Ming dynasty author Zhang Zilie 張自烈 as a supplement to the (1615) "Zihui" dictionary.
Furthermore, the Japanese lexicographer Shirakawa Shizuka 白川静 edited an identically titled (1996) "Jitsū" 字通 "Mastery of Characters" Japanese dictionary.
History.
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 (618–907) in an effort to rectify discrepancies among characters written in seal, clerical, and regular scripts, and to standardize variant characters (Yong and Peng 2008: 197, 177). Emperor Taizong of Tang put the scholar and calligrapher Yan Shigu (581–645) in charge of the Palace Library in order to "verify and authorize" the "Five Classics" (tr. Yong and Peng 2008: 194). 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" 字樣 "Character Models" (aka "Yanshi ziyang" 顏氏字樣 "Mr. Yan's Character Models") gave model samples of writing characters in different scripts, which his grandson Yan Yuansun 顏元孫 (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 (960–1279), for instance, the "Fugubian" 复古編 "Return to Old Chapters" by Zhang You 張有 and the "Peixi" 佩觿 "Ivory Bodkin" by the painter Guo Zhongshu.
Text.
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 "yīchang" 衣常 instead of "yīshang" 衣裳 "clothing; clothes" (Theobald 2013). Nevertheless, this dictionary was important for the study of lexicographical theories concerning dictionary compilation in the Song Dynasty (Yong and Peng 2008: 198).