Karlgren Bernhard. Analytic dictionary of Chinese and Sino-Japanese

Reprinted. — Taipei: Ch'eng-Wen Publishing Company, 1973. — 436 p.The present dictionary is intended to facilitate a systematic study — scientific and practical — of the Chinese script. There are two great epochs in the history of the Chinese written characters: a) from the oldest times down to the Ts'tin dynasty, b) from the fixing of the siao tchuan — "small seal" character by Li Si. about 200 B.C. toour days. For a rational study of the modern script it is essential to remember that it s based directly upon the small seal — being a modification of the small seal due to technical changes — and only indirectly has it anything to do with the older stages of the script. For the small seal was not, as it has been often stated, a mere shortening and simplification of the earlier script: it was in fact to a large extent a new system of writing. If we compare the characters preserved in old inscriptions (mostly on bronzes) from the Shang and Tshou periods to the corresponding characters in the small seal, we very frequently come upon differences in the composition.