Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces the Integrated Database of Hanzi Dictionaries in Early Japan, also known as the HDIC project, which is composed of three main dictionaries of the Heian period. We provide a detailed report of the full-text publication of one dictionary: Tenreibanshōmeigi 篆隷万象名義 in the HDIC.

Paper long abstract:

This paper introduces the Integrated Database of Hanzi Dictionaries in Early Japan, also known as the HDIC project, which is composed of three main dictionaries of the Heian period. We provide a detailed report of the full-text publication of one dictionary: Tenreibanshōmeigi 篆隷万象名義 in the HDIC.

HDIC is a Unicode based project, which includes three dictionaries: Tenreibanshōmeigi Shinsenjikyō 新撰字鏡, and Ruijumyōgishō 類聚名義抄. Over 70,000 Chinese characters can be processed after the release of Unicode 3.1. By materializing the full-text database of these dictionaries, head for creating a worldwide platform for the study of the dictionaries in early Japan. These dictionaries are a crucial source on the history of the Japanese language, especially in the fields of variant characters, phonemes, and lexicons.

With the spread of Unicode, chief Chinese dictionaries like Shuowenjiezi 説文解字 and Guangyun 広韻 have been provided open access. Meanwhile, though many old manuscripts are well preserved in Japan, owing to the problems such as variant characters and erratum, the data origination of old manuscripts is falling behind. Authors predominantly study only old manuscripts that are handed down.

On 1 September 2016, the full-text data of Tenreibanshōmeigi was released (http://hdic.jp/), which is the first time that the full-text of a dictionary in early Japan has been made public. One of the authors, Shoju Ikeda who is the leader of research group, began the database of the dictionaries in the 1990s, by engaging in the study of the information processing of Chinese characters, like JIS and Unicode, for instance. Furthermore, we worked on the database of Tenreibanshōmeigi, which is an abridgement of the original Yupian玉篇.

As an introduction of HDIC, this paper presents an explanation of the construction of the Tenreibanshōmeigi database, the unification standards, transliteration principles, the full-text, publication system, and future issues. We hope that the data, which has been made public, would be of practical use to researchers, both in the domains of pre-modern Chinese character dictionary studies, and information processing.