HDIC Project #

What is HDIC? #

The “H” in HDIC is a combination of the “H” from Heian (平安時代), the “H” from Hanzi (漢字), and the “H” from Hokkaido University (北海道大学), the representative’s affiliated institution.

The project to construct and publish the HDIC database is called the HDIC Project. This HDIC Project is being carried out with support from a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The grant numbers are 16H03422, 19H00526, and 23K17500.

At the inception of the HDIC Project, the ‘Steering Committee for Integrated Database of Hanzi Dictionaries in Early Japan’ was established on February 13, 2014, to serve as the project’s core entity. The representative was Shōju Ikeda (then a professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences at Hokkaido University).

Representative Ikeda retired from Hokkaido University at the end of March 2021. Currently, as an Emeritus Professor of Hokkaido University, he is continuing this project.

The Myōgishō Text and Commentary #

The purpose of this website is to provide a complete transcription of the main text of the Kanchi-in manuscript of the Ruiju Myōgishō (hereafter Myōgishō), and to offer various explanations regarding its content in the form of a Commentary.

The main text of the Myōgishō consists of a collection of Entries. Each Entry is composed of a Headword and what is referred to in this database as Definition (representing the original glosses from the manuscript). This Definition (original glosses) is further comprised of elements such as Notes on Character Form, Phonetic Gloss, Semantic Gloss in Chinese, Japanese Native Reading, and Other information.

As an analysis of these Headwords and the various elements within the Definition (original glosses), Compiler’s Remarks are provided by the creators of this database.

The Commentary in this database, therefore, consists of two primary components: the Original Glosses found in the source text of the Myōgishō and the Compiler’s Remarks on these original elements. Users of this database are advised to pay particular attention to this two-part structure of the Commentary.

Specifically, the Original Glosses from the Myōgishō source (which are conceptually the “original annotations”) are stored in the database’s definition column under the field name Definition. The Compiler’s Remarks on these elements are stored in the remarks column.

Links and Database Access #

The HDIC database consists of full-text data and image data.

General Project Information: HDIC homepage - General information about the HDIC project can be found here.
Full-Text Data: GitHub HDIC - The full-text data is available on GitHub.
Database Search: HDIC Viewer - A search system for the full-text and image data is available via Liu Guanwei’s HDIC Viewer.

Progress Status #

The progress status of public release as of January 2022 is as follows:

Kōsan-ji manuscript Tenrei Banshō Meigi (owned by Kōsan-ji Temple, abbreviation KTB, already released)
Tenji manuscript Shinsen Jikyō (Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department, TSJ, already released)
Song edition Yupian (Daguang Yihui Yupian) (Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department, SYP, already released)
Zushoryō manuscript Ruiju Myōgishō (Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department, ZRM, currently being prepared for release)
Kanchi-in manuscript Ruiju Myōgishō (Tenri Library, KRM, released)

Acknowledgements #

The construction and public release of the HDIC database are being carried out with permission from the respective owners (temples, research institutions, libraries) and from the editors and publishers of the facsimile editions. The facsimile editions used are as follows:

Tenrei Banshō Meigi (photographic print owned by Harumichi Ishizuka)
Facsimile of the Tenji manuscript Shinsen Jikyō, including the Kyōwa and Gunsho Ruiju editions (edited by the Department of Japanese Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University, Rinshō Shoten, 1967)
Song edition Yupian (Daguang Yihui Yupian) (photographic print of the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department manuscript)
Zushoryō manuscript Ruiju Myōgishō (Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department, 1950)
Ruiju Myōgishō (Tenri Library Rare Books Series, Japanese Books Section, Volumes 32-34, Yagi Shoten)

In the construction and public release of this database, we received tremendous support from Harumichi Ishizuka, Makoto Ōtsuki, Teiji Kosukegawa, Seiichi Nakai, Tomokazu Takada, Kiyonori Nagasaki, and Tomohiko Morioka. We also received various forms of support from colleagues at the Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University Graduate School (our former affiliation). We would like to express our sincere gratitude here.

The Editorial Committee of HDIC Database Project #

The Editorial Committee of HDIC Database Project, was founded for the purpose of compiling an unified database of early Japanese dictionaries, named the Integrated Database of Hanzi Dictionaries in Early Japan (abbreviated as HDIC). The Database includes,

Kōsan-ji manuscript Tenrei Banshō Meigi
Tenji manuscript Shinsen Jikyō
Zushoryō manuscript Ruiju Myōgishō
Kanchi-in manuscript Ruiju Myōgishō

We are currently inputting the headwords and annotation text of these Hanzi Dictionaries, in order to construct an inquiry system. By opening this system to the public, we intend to make a significant contribution to the development of academic research. A sub-database of dictionaries, compiled in China, including,

Original Yupian manuscript fragment(s)
Song edition Yupian (Daguang Yihui Yupian)
Goryeo edition Longkan Shoujing

is also being independently constructed by the research group. The headwords are being processed in two ways. One is to input the headwords using the computer-readable characters, and the other is to cut a picture of each head word down from a photocopy of the original books. The annotation text, which refers to the pronunciation, meaning and variants of each headword, is inputted using computer-readable text.