The encounter of English and Chinese lexicographical traditions: A genealogical study of Wilhelm Lobscheid’s English and Chinese Dictionary (1866–1869)

Rui Li
Guangdong University of Finance & Economics
Abstract

The publication of Wilhelm Lobscheid’s (1822–1893) English and Chinese Dictionary, with the Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation (1866–1869) marked a turning point in the history of English-Chinese lexicography. This article traces the genealogy of Lobscheid’s English and Chinese Dictionary by examining its multiple sources and discusses how the lexicographical tradition of English-Chinese dictionaries was built on previous dictionaries in the East and the West.

Publication history

Date received: 21 May 2024

Date accepted: 30 September 2024

Published online: 15 November 2024

Table of contents

The history of English-Chinese lexicography in the 19th century began with Robert Morrison’s (1782–1834) English and Chinese (1822) and reached its peak with the birth of Wilhelm Lobscheid’s (1822–1893) English and Chinese Dictionary, with the Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation (1866–1869). Robert Morrison, the pioneer Protestant missionary to China, compiled and published the world’s first Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionary, Dictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts (1815–1823). This remarkable dictionary contains three parts: Part I, Chinese-English Zìdiǎn 字典 [The Character Dictionary] in three volumes (respectively 1815, 1822, and 1823) arranged according to the Chinese radicals (bùshǒu 部首 [radical or key]); Part II, Chinese-English Wǔchē yùnfǔ 五車韻府 [The Erudition Syllabic Dictionary] in two volumes (respectively 1819 and 1820) arranged according to alphabetical order; and Part III, English and Chinese (1822) in one volume arranged alphabetically (cf. Yong & Peng 2008: 386; Yang 2014: 303; Li & Hansen 2018: 263; Li 2022: 236).

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