Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (a Chinese-English Dictionary Compiled for the China Inland Mission): Revised American Edition

This Chinese-English dictionary is a classic that has withstood the test of time. It is arranged alphabetically according to the Roman alphabet in conjunction with the Chinese classification by number of strokes.. Its value is not only in giving the English translation for a word, but it also gives extensive examples of the usage of the word.

This dictionary of course is the best there is on the subject. I do not know anyone involved in the language who does not have a copy. I could not continue to take my larger copy on trips with me, so this small edition does the job quite well. Looking up characters with this dictionary is quite easy once you identify the radical and determine the correct number of strokes in the character. One can also look up the character by sound; however, as some people discovered, it is not as easy to find characters that way. Always very useful is the range of meanings the book shows for the characters as each is used in combination with other characters. This addition to the "Matthews" (one seldom refers to it as dictionary, just "Matthews") allows one to choose very quickly an application that is already accepted in the language, instead of chancing an original usage that may not work. Chinese is a wonderful language, and the "Matthews" is a wonderful addition to it.

I bought this because it was mandatory for class and don't need it. Get an app with handwriting recognition if you can afford it (Pleco). Wave of the future!

I agree with the previous review stating that it is an unfair criticism to compare Mathews - a Chinese-English dictionary - alongside other Chinese-Chinese dictionaries.But equally, the dictionary should be fairly judged in the light of the period when it was published. It is NOT a Modern Chinese dictionary by any standards. It dates back to the 1930's, when the Chinese language was gradually transitioning from the old Literary Chinese standard to Modern Mandarin. Also, the promulgation of the standard pronunciation of words in Mandarin was still relatively new and therefore somewhat in a state of flux. Point in context: Even the Sino-linguists of the day were still muddling over the so-called "5th (entering) tone" round about that time! So, to criticise the inconsistency of Mathews' pronunciations, when even the native Chinese had not gotten their own heads around it yet, is also unfair, given the benefit of several decades' hindsight. Besides, Mathews provides a radical index in the Appendix (and even a "hard-to-find" supplementary character list), so looking up a character by radical as a fallback is still an option.True, there are other newer Chinese-English dictionaries with more updated word definitions and consistent pronunciation standards. But which other Chinese-English dictionary in the market today can you find the definitions of over 7,500 head characters and their compounds (apart from the Far East Chinese-English dictionary, being arguably the strongest contender)? With most modern Chinese-English dictionaries, you would be lucky to have anything over 5,000 characters. Also, given that the dictionary was published not long after the promulgation of Mandarin, the whole concept of differentiating between what word definitions are 'Classical' and what are 'Modern' would have been relatively new at that time (even newspapers in the 1930's would have still have had strong Classical Chinese elements).If you take Mathews for what it is - a Chinese-English dictionary published in 1932 - and judge it objectively on those terms and in that light, it really is quite a monumental work jam-packed with information. If you are going to complain that it weighs a ton, then large-volume dictionaries (Lewis & Short's Latin Dictionary comes to mind) are clearly not for you. Stick to pocket-sized dictionaries, but don't complain about the shortage of words. As books go, size and comprehensiveness go hand-in-hand (unless you can live with tissue-thin pages and size 1 font). You can't have your cake and eat it at the same time, so decide what is more important to you.I personally still find myself referring to Mathews regularly - usually when I want to find the ENGLISH definition of a now-uncommon character or compound. Put it this way: My first copy of Mathews was a disintegrated edition inherited from my late grandfather; over the years, I found it useful enough to invest in this fine re-print by Harvard University Press (my collection of other large Chinese-Chinese dictionaries notwithstanding).

Dieses Wörterbuch, das schon weit über 50 Jahre alt ist und seit dieser Zeit auch nicht mehr revidiert wurde, ist nichtdestoweniger eines der wichtigsten Werkzeuge eines (angehenden) Sinologen.Die Umschrift ist in Wade-Giles, nicht dem heute genutzten Pinyin, aber man kann sich einfach eine kleine Konvertierungstabelle ausdrucken und ins Buch legen.Die Schirft im Buch ist klar und die Übersetzungen teils sehr ausführlich, was mir bei Übersetzungen von klassischen chinesischen Texten ernorm weitergeholfen hat.Die Suchfunktionen sind ausreichend um auch seltene, oder obskure Zeichen zu finden,doch man tut sich leichter wenn man das Zeichen zuvor in einem elektronischen Wörterbuch nachschlägt, um die Wade-Giles-Umschrift zu erhalten und dann zu suchen.Beim Kauf sollte man vorsichtig sein, denn ich habe schon häufiger erlebt, dass das Buch zu überhöhten Preisen angeboten wurde (€30+). Ich habe es für rund €14,- gekauft.