四角号码检字法应该普及——由《辞源》说开去

A Proposal for the Popularization of the Four-corner Decimal Indexing: To Take CiYuan as an Example

四角号码检字法是20世纪初伴随出版发展和辞书编纂与文化传播产生的继部首、笔画索引之后最重要的检字方法。随着拼音排序和索引的推广,四角号码渐渐变得陌生。四角号码与《辞源》等辞书关系密切,希望克服了新老四角号码方案、新旧字形不足的"四角号码"在字形规范的今天能重新发挥作用。

The four-comer decimal indexing, the most important way in which Chinese characters are arranged after the indexing systems by radicals and strokes, was developed in the eady 1900s when there was a lexicogrophic and cultural boom in China. However, with the popularization of arranging Chinese characters according to the phonetic order and the employment of indexes, few people know the four-corner system, which is closely related to CiYuan, an etymological Chinese dictionary, and other important dictionaries in the Chinese lexicogmphic tradition. This paper proposes that the four-corner decimal indexing should play its deserved role at the present time when the problem of inconsistencies between the old and new schemes is solved and the old and new forms of characters are standardized.