Glossaries for early vernacular novels

[fenlan]

Hello. Just as we have glossaries for Shakespeare, do such things exist as glossaries for Hongloumeng, Xiyouji,etc, where every word is included in a special dictionary? Similary for other novels such as Sanguoyanyi.

[gato]

Yes, there're published versions of these classics with annotations (注释). The 语文新课标必读丛书 series from 人民文学出版社, designed for high school students, is supposed to be good. http://www.dangdang.com/product_detail/product_detail.asp?product_id=7384651

Here's a review of sorts:

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/101book/con_a03.htm

I've seen annotated versions of Confucian classics and Sima Qian, as well.

[randall_flagg]

a special field of scholarly research has evolved around 红楼梦 it's called 红学, that's about all i know. maybe you should google it?

[fenlan]

Thank you to you both! I have ordereed some of the books from DangDang. There is also a Hongloumeng Dictionary on Joyo.com.

[zhwj]

Like gato says, most novels are available in annotated editions; a good general dictionary should include any other problem words you find in vernacular novels, and ought to label certain definitions as "early usage." For Journey to the West you might do well with a glossary of Buddhist terms.

Then for 红楼梦, there's 《红楼梦语言词典》 (周定一, 商务, 1995).

There's also 明清吴语词典 for plays and novels written in the Suzhou dialect.

The 《近代汉语词典》(知识出版社, 1992) covers the premodern spoken language from Tang to Qing and may be of help (but beware of mistakes...)

[fenlan]

There are lots of words in 西游计 that are most definitely not in 现代汉语词典. A few more of them are in the ABCD, but I don't think ABCD is claiming to be the definitive guide to early vernacular Mandarin - or Mandaring as the language is know to most Chinese!

[chenpv]

Well, most of modern Chinese words and expressions are included in《现代汉语词典》. But if you want to better understand traditonal Chinese novels, two more dictionaries are needed------《古汉语字（辞）典》 and 《词源》 published by 商务印书馆. The first one is about RMB 30, while the second one is about RMB 200.

PS:

fenlan, I think it's a typo since you typed '西游计' there but it should be '西游记'。

计 means tactic, plan, scheme, count etc

记 means (something) u should write down or memorize, a record.

[fenlan]

Thank you for all your help. Yes I wrote Xiyouji wrong! Sorry about that!