China News Service, Beijing, June 2, reported that the research and dissemination of Chinese culture will usher in a new starting point. China Social Science Literature Publishing House announced today that China's first dictionary "Shuowen Jiezi" book and database have been published. The publication of this book means that the bottleneck of computers being unable to process rare ancient Chinese characters has been broken, and ancient books are published by relying on traditional photocopying technology. The era also came to an end.
According to available records, there are more than 100,000 kinds of ancient Chinese books. However, for a long time, in the field of ancient Chinese book research, due to the use of two-byte encoding technology in computers, many rare and ancient characters cannot be read in the field. Display, input and editing on a computer platform
As a result, a large number of ancient books cannot be truly digitized, hindering the research and dissemination of Chinese culture.
This situation is currently changing. According to the Social Science Literature Publishing House, the "Shuowen Jiezi" database using four-byte processing technology will solve the problems of entry, editing, and full-file query management of more than 70,000 Chinese characters. The publication of this book marks that ancient books that could not be published normally due to the presence of a large number of rare characters will regain their publishing life, and the "hard ice" that has long prevented the editing of ancient Chinese characters will also be broken.
It is reported that the four-byte processing technology used in the "Shuowen Jiezi" book and database has applied for a patent. The publisher also revealed that the publication of similar calligraphy books and databases - "Kangxi Dictionary" Preparations are nearing completion. Relevant literature and history experts believe that the release of the "Shuowen Jiezi" database will be an opportunity, and the research on Chinese ancient books will enter a new digital era