K A N J I D I C
===============
Copyright (C) 1996 Jim Breen
INTRODUCTION
The KANJIDIC file contains comprehensive information about Japanese kanji. It
is a text file currently 6,355 lines long, with one line for each kanji in
the two levels of the characters specified in the JIS X 0208-1990 set. (For
information about this set, see Appendix A.)
The file contains a mixture of ASCII characters and kana/kanji encoded using
the EUC (Extended Unix Code) coding.
Attention is drawn to the KANJIDIC LICENCE STATEMENT AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE
included below in this document.
A similar file, KANJD212, is available for the 5,801 supplementary kanji in
the JIS X 0212-1990 set.
CONTENTS & FORMAT
The first part of each line is of a fixed format, indicating which character
the line is for, while the rest is more free-format.
The first two bytes are the kanji itself. There is then a space, the 4-byte
ASCII representation of the hexadecimal coding of the two-byte JIS encoding,
and another space.
The rest of the line is composed of a combination of three kinds of fields
(which may be in any order and interspersed):
(a) information fields, beginning with an identifying letter and ending with
a space. See below for more information about these fields.
(b) readings (with '-' to indicate prefixes/suffixes, and '.' to separate a
reading from its okurigana). ON-yomi are in katakana and KUN-yomi are in
hiragana. Where the kanji has special "nanori" (i.e. name) readings, these
follow the regular readings, and are separated from them by the marker "T1".
Radicals have their names in kana, preceded by a "T2" tag.
(c) English meanings. Each such field begins with an open brace '{' and ends
at the next close brace '}'.
INFORMATION FIELDS
There are currently a variety of predefined fields (programs using KANJIDIC
should not make any assumptions about the presence or absence of any of these
fields, as KANJIDIC is certain to be extended in the future):
B -- the radical (Bushu) number. There is one per entry. As
far as possible, this is the radical number used in Nelson. Where
the classical or historical radical number differs from this, it is
present as a separate C entry.
C -- the historical or classical radical number (where this
differs from the B entry.) There will be at most one of these.
F -- the frequency-of-use ranking. At most one per line. The
2,135 most-used characters have a ranking; those characters that lack
this field are not ranked. The frequency is a number from 1 to 2,135
that expresses the relative frequency of occurrence of a character in
modern Japanese. The data is based on statistics published by The
National Language Research Institute (Tokyo), interpreted and adapted
by Jack Halpern in a manner to make it useful to the learner. The
data is derived from the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary
(Kenkyusha, Tokyo 1990; NTC, Chicago 1993). The commercial
utilization of the frequency numbers is prohibited without written
permission from Jack Halpern. Use by individuals and small groups
for reference and research purposes is permitted, on condition that
acknowledgement of the source and this notice are included.
G -- the Jouyou grade level. At most one per line. G1 through
G6 indicate Jouyou grades 1-6. G8 indicates general-use characters.
G9 indicates Jinmeiyou ("for use in names") characters. If not
present, it is a kanji outside these categories.
H -- the index number in the New Japanese-English Character
Dictionary, edited by Jack Halpern. At most one allowed per line.
If not preset, the character is not in Halpern.
N -- the index number in the Modern Reader's Japanese-English
Character Dictionary, edited by Andrew Nelson. At most one allowed
per line. If not present, the character is not in Nelson, or is
considered to be a non-standard version, in which case it may have a
cross-reference code in the form: XNnnnn. (Note that many kanji
currently used are what Nelson described as "non-standard" forms or
glyphs.)
P -- the SKIP pattern code. The is of the form
"P--". The System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns
(SKIP) is a scheme for the classification and rapid retrieval of
Chinese characters on the basis of geometrical patterns. Developed
by Jack Halpern, it first appeared in the New Japanese-English
Character Dictionary (Kenkyusha, Tokyo 1990; NTC, Chicago 1993), and
is being used in a series of dictionaries and learning tools called
KIT (Kanji Integrated Tools). SKIP is protected by copyright,
copyleft and patent laws. The commercial utilization of SKIP in any
form is strictly forbidden without the written permission of Jack
Halpern, the copyright holder (jhalpern@cc.win.or.jp). (A brief
summary of the method is in Appendix C. See Appendix E. for some of
the rules applied when counting strokes in some of the radicals.)
S -- the stroke count. At least one per line. If more than
one, the first is considered the accepted count, while subsequent
ones are common miscounts. (See Appendix E. For some of the rules
applied when counting strokes in some of the radicals.)
U -- the Unicode encoding of the kanji. See Appendix B for
further information on this code. There is exactly one per line.
I -- the index code in the Spahn & Hadamitzky dictionary.
These are in the form nxnn.n, e.g. 3k11.2, where the kanji has 3
strokes in the identifying radical, it is radical "k" in the S&H
classification system, there are 11 other strokes, and it is the 2nd
kanji in the 3k11 sequence. I am very grateful to Mark Spahn for
providing the (almost) full list of these descriptor codes for the
kanji in this file. At the time of writing some 800 kanji in the
file lack the SH descriptor. This is because the book used a
different glyph as the primary kanji. The gaps are gradually being
filled in. Where the JIS X 0208 glyph is the second kanji for a
particular descriptor code, it has a "-2" appended to the code.
Qnnnn.n -- the "Four Corner" code for that kanji. This is a code
invented by Wang Chen in 1928, it has since then been widely used for
dictionaries in China and Japan. In some cases there are two of these
codes, as it is can be little ambiguous, and Morohashi has some kanji
coded differently from their traditional Chinese codes. See Appendix
D for an overview of the Four Corner System. Christian Wittern,
who passed on these codes, comments that they are in need of
proof-reading and thus users are advised to be cautious using the
codes for serious scholarship.
MNnnnnnnn and MPnn.nnnn -- the index number and volume.page
respectively of the kanji in the 13-volume Morohashi "DaiKanWaJiten.
In the MNnnn field, a terminal `P`, e.g. MN4879P, indicates that it
is 4879' in the original. In some 500 cases, the number is terminated
with an `X`, to indicate that the kanji in Morohashi has a close, but
not identical, glyph to the form in the JIS X 0208 standard.
Ennnn -- the index number used in "A Guide To Remembering Japanese
Characters" by Kenneth G. Henshall. There are 1945 kanji with these
numbers (i.e. the Jouyou subset.)
Knnnn -- the index number in the Gakken Kanji Dictionary ("A New
Dictionary of Kanji Usage"). Some of the numbers relate to the list
at the back of the book, jouyou kanji not contained in the
dictionary, and various historical tables at the end.
Lnnnn -- the index number used in "Remembering The Kanji" by James
Heisig.
Onnnn -- the index number in "Japanese Names", by P.G. O'Neill.
(Weatherhill, 1972)
Wxxxx -- the romanized form of the Korean reading(s) of the kanji.
Most of these kanji have one Korean reading, a few have two or more.
The readings are in the (Republic of Korea) Ministry of Education
style of romanization.
Yxxxxx -- the "Pinyin" of each kanji, i.e. the (Mandarin or Beijing)
Chinese romanization. About 6,000 of the kanji have these. Obviously
most of the native Japanese kokuji do not have Pinyin, however at least
one does as it was taken into Chinese at a later date.
Xxxxxxx -- a cross-reference code. An entry of, say, XN1234 will mean
that the user is referred to the kanji with the (unique) Nelson index
of 1234. XJ0xxxx and XJ1xxxx are cross-references to the kanji with
the JIS hexadecimal code of xxxx. The `0' means the reference is to a
JIS X 0208 kanji, and the `1' references a JIS X 0212 kanji.
Zxxxxxx -- a mis-classification code. It means that this kanji is
sometimes mis-classified as having the xxxxxx coding. In the case of
the SKIP classifications, an extra letter code is used to indicate
the type of mis-classification. ZPPn-n-n, ZSPn-n-n and ZBPn-n-n
indicate mis-classification according to position, stroke-count and
both position and stroke-count. (ZRPn-n-n codes are where Jim Breen &
Jack Halpern are having a [hopefully temporary] disagreement over the
number of strokes.)
If the final field of a line is not an English field, there is a final space.
Each reading and information field is therefore bracketed by space characters
(which makes it convenient for searches using programs like "grep".)
As far as possible all entries will have their yomikata and readings
attached, even if they are a recognized variant of another kanji. This is to
facilitate electronic searches using these fields as keys, and should not be
taken as a recommendation to use such obscure kanji.
CURRENT USAGE
KANJIDIC is used now to build the "kinfo.dat" file which is used by JDIC and
JREADER, and by Stephen Chung's JWP. "kinfo.dat" contains the identical
information, but in a compressed form and in a structure suitable for fast
indexed access.
KANJIDIC is also used in the XJDIC and MacJDic dictionary programs, and a
growing number of other programs such as KDRILL and KDIC.
SUPPORT
KANJIDIC was originally compiled, and is maintained by:
Jim Breen
(jwb@dgs.monash.edu.au)
Department of Digital Systems
Monash University, Victoria, Australia
If you have suggested changes, send diffs [not complete files] with
corrections to him.
TOO MUCH INFORMATION?
KANJIDIC is now rather large, and has information in it which is not much use
for people who are not studying and researching Japanese orthography. It is
still appropriate to maintain it as a useful freely-available compendium of
such information.
For people who only wish to use a subset of the information in KANJIDIC,
there is a program "kdfilt.c", also available as kdfilt.exe for MS-DOS, which
will strip out unwanted fields. Dan Crevier has also released a program
(kanjidicSplit) which does the same for MacJdic users. (For users of the JDIC
program, the KANJDFIX.EXE utility also strips out unwanted fields prior to
building the KINFO.DAT file.)
HISTORY (comments by Jim Breen)
KANJIDIC began as two files: jis1detl.lst and jis2detl.lst, which were later
merged into a single file.
The first file was compiled initially from the file "kinfo.dat" supplied by
Stephen Chung, who in turn compiled his file from a file prepared by Mike
Erickson. I originally added about 1900 "meanings" by James Heisig keyed in
by Kevin Moore from the book "Remembering The Kanji". I later added the
meanings from Rik Smoody's files, compiled when he was working for Sony in
Japan. These appear to have been based on Nelson.
The second file was compiled from a complete JIS2 list with Bushu and stroke
counts kindly supplied to me by Jon Crossley, to which I added Nelson
numbers, yomikata and meanings extracted from Rik Smoody's file.
Theresa Martin was an early assister with this file, particularly with
tracking down and correcting many mistranscribed yomikata (the old zu/dzu,
oo/ou, ji/dji, etc. problems).
Jeffrey Friedl did a major overhaul in September-October 1992, in which he
added the frequency rankings, Halpern codes, SKIP patterns, updated the
grading ("G" fields) to reflect the modern Jouyou lists, corrected radical
numbers, corrected stroke counts and readings to fall in line with modern
usage.
Magnus Halldorsson corrected some erroneous Halpern numbers, and provided
them for a lot of the radicals. He provided the list of Heisig indices,
which he originally compiled himself, then verified and expanded using lists
from Richard Walters and Antti Karttunen. He also passed on to me the list of
Gakken indices compiled by Antti Karttunen.
Lee Collins provided the Unicode mappings (see appendix B)
Iain Sinclair has provided the yomikata, meanings and S&H indices of many of
the obscure JIS2 kanji.
Christian Wittern, a Sinologist working at Kyoto University, sent me a
monster file prepared by Dr Urs App from Hanazono College. From this I have
extracted the Four Corner and Morohashi information. Christian also provided
the original Pinyin details, which were later replaced. I am very grateful
for these significant contributions.
In March 1994 the Morohashi indices were proof-read and corrected by
Christian.
Alfredo Pinochet supplied all the Henshall numbers.
Ingar Holst has provided considerable assistance in regularizing the Bnnn and
Cnnn radical classifications to remove some errors that were in the original
JIS2 file, and to make it all conform to Nelson's classification.
In mid-1993 I withdrew the SKIP codes from the distributed file as it
appeared that their presence violated Jack Halpern's copyright on these
codes. Jeffrey Friedl contacted Jack about this, and Jack obtained permission
from his publisher for the codes to be included subject to the copyright and
usage restrictions stated in this document. In March 1994 the Halpern indices
and SKIP codes were checked against an extract from Jack's files, and the "Z"
mis-classification codes added, again from his files. Jack has also made a
lot of useful comments and suggestions about the content and format of the
file. I am most grateful to Jack for his permission and assistance, and also
to Jeffrey for making the contact.
In May 1995, a number of updates took place. Jeffrey Friedl established
contact with James Heisig, and obtained a further set of his indices. I
contacted Mark Spahn (via the "honyaku" mailing list) and he kindly provided
most of the missing S&H descriptors, and Jack Halpern released to me the SKIP
codes of the kanji not in the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary. For
all this material I am most grateful.
In August 1995, I added the O'Neill index numbers. These were compiled by
Jenny Nazak, David Rosenfeld and myself. Thanks to Jenny & David for their
assistance.
In January and February 1996 the Morohashi numbers were checked thoroughly
against two important sources: a file of Unicode-Morohashi data (Uni2Dict)
which was prepared by Koichi Yasuoka from the allocation in the JIS X 0221
standard, and the review draft of the proposed revision of the JIS X 0208
standard, which was prepared by the INSTAC Committee, and made available in
a text file, thus enabling comparisons. All the mismatches between the three
files were examined against the Morohashi text, and extensive corrections
made to all three files. I am grateful to Koichi Yasuoka and Masayuki
Toyoshima for their considerable assistance in this task.
In March 1996 the Korean readings were added. They were provided by Charles
Muller of Toyo Gakuen University (acmuller@gol.com), to whom I am most
grateful.
In April 1996 the readings of all the kanji were compared with those in the
JIS X 0208 draft, and a number of corrections and additions made.
In May 1996 I carried out a "unification" of the readings of the KANJIDIC
and KANJD212 files, wherein all the readings of the "itaiji" were brought
into line. The identification of these itaiji was drawn from a file posted
to the fj.kanji group by Taichi Kawabata (kawabata@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp),
which was compiled at the ETL from the itaiji identification in the
JIS X 0208 and JIS X 0212 standards. I corrected a few errors, and added
some extra sets which were indicated in the JIS X 0208-1996 draft.
In July 1996 the Pinyin details were completely replaced by a new set. The
original Pinyin were from an earlier compilation by Christian Wittern, and
and contained many errors. Two more reliable sources had become available:
the Uni2Pinyin file compiled by Koichi Yasuoka, which is based in part on
the TONEPY.tit by Yongguang Zhang; and the PYCHAR set of readings of Big5
hanzi compiled by Christian Wittern. The Punyin currently in the KANJIDIC
file is a combination of the two, following the order in the Uni2Pinyin
file.
In August 1996 I corrected a few more missing and erroneous Nelson numbers,
using a massive Nelson list prepared by Wolfgang Cronrath. He also flagged
the kokuji, so I added these to the readings fileds as "{(kokuji)}".
Also in August 1996 I deleted the handful of former "XJxxxx" cross-references,
and replaced them with a much more comprehensive set, so that they now
represent all the recognized "itaiji". The file I used for this was the
corrected itaiji file mentioned above.
KANJIDIC LICENCE STATEMENT AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE
===============================================
This licence statement and copyright notice applies to the KANJIDIC file, the
associated documentation files (KANJIDIC.DOC), and any data files which are
derived from them.
COPYING AND DISTRIBUTION
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of these files
provided this KANJIDIC.DOC file, the copyright notice and permission notice
is distributed with all copies. Any distribution of the files must take
place without a financial return, except a charge to cover the cost of the
distribution medium.
Permission is granted to make and distribute extracts or subsets of the
KANJIDIC files under the same conditions applying to verbatim copies.
Permission is granted to translate the English elements of the KANJIDIC file
into other languages, and to make and distribute copies of those translations
under the same conditions applying to verbatim copies.
KANJIDIC USAGE
These files may be freely used by individuals and small groups for reference
and research purposes, and may be accessed by software belonging to, or
operated by, such individuals and small groups.
The files, extracts from the files, and translations of the files must not be
sold as part of any commercial software package, nor must they be
incorporated in any published dictionary or other printed document without
the specific permission of the copyright holders.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright over the documents covered by this statement is held by James
William BREEN, subject to the exceptions outlined below.
The following people have granted permission for material for which they hold
copyright to be included in the files, and distributed under the above
conditions, while retaining their copyright over that material:
Jack HALPERN: The SKIP codes and Frequency codes in the KANJIDIC file.
With regard to the SKIP and Frequency codes, Mr Halpern stated as follows:
"The commercial utilization of the frequency numbers is prohibited
without written permission from Jack Halpern. Use by individuals and
small groups for reference and research purposes is permitted, on
condition that acknowledgement of the source and this notice are
included."
"SKIP is protected by copyright, copyleft and patent laws. The
commercial utilization of SKIP in any form is strictly forbidden
without the written permission of Jack Halpern, the copyright
holder."
Christian WITTERN and Koichi YASUOKA: The Pinyin information in the KANJIDIC
file.
Urs APP: the Four Corner codes and the Morohashi information in the KANJIDIC
file.
Mark SPAHN and Wolfgang HADAMITSKY: the kanji descriptors from their
dictionary.
APPENDIX A - JIS CODES
======================
For full information about JIS codes, please see Ken Lunde's "japan.inf"
file, or his book "Understanding Japanese Information Processing", O'Reilly
1993. The following is a brief extract from the "japan.inf" file.
"The Japanese character set as described in the document JIS X 0208-1990
specifies 6,879 standard characters; 6,355 kanji in 2 levels (Level 1: 2,965
kanji arranged by pronunciation; Level 2: 3,390 kanji arranged by radical),
86 katakana, 83 hiragana, 10 numerals, 52 Roman characters, 147 symbols, 66
Russian characters, 48 Greek characters, and 32 line elements (for making
charts).
This standard was first established in 1978, modified for the first time in
1983 (character position swapping, glyph changes, and four kanji appended to
JIS Level 2), and modified again in 1990 (two kanji were appended to JIS
Level 2). This character set is widely implemented on a variety of platforms.
Encoding methods for JIS X 0208-1990 include Shift-JIS, EUC, and JIS."
APPENDIX B - UNICODE
====================
The following information about Unicode was provided in 1992 by Lee
Collins at Taligent.
(The Unicode sequences are) "the final, official mapping to JIS of the
CJK-JRG's (Chinese, Japanese, Korean- Joint Research Group) "Unified
Repertoire and Ordering Version 2.0" which is the unified Han character set
of ISO 10646 and Unicode. All of the Unicode companies (Apple, IBM,
Microsoft, NeXT, Taligent, etc) are now using this mapping. There has been
some confusion because of difference in nomenclature. Unicode people call it
UniHan, the Chinese sometimes call it HCS (Han Character Set) and ISO calls
it "Ideographic CJK Character Unified Repertoire and Ordering". ISO can't use
the term "Han" character because Japan was very sensitive to this (even
though it is a direct translation of "Kanzi") and it can't be called a
character set because only ISO WG2 is empowered with the authority to encode
characters. Problems of naming aside, they are all the same thing.
The CJK-JRG was formed under the aegis of ISO in 1990 to investigate and
propose a unified Han character set for inclusion in ISO 10646. It brought
together various experts on Han characters from China, Hong Kong, Japan,
Korea, Taiwan and the United States selected by the national bodies
participating in ISO WG2.
Including the initial work in the US on Unicode and in China on GB 13000,
which were merged and became the basis for the URO, the task spanned about 4
years. The work was completed in April of this year. It contains 21,000 Han
characters from all of the major standards used in East Asia, including JIS X
0208-1990 and JIS X 0212-1990. The Unicode consortium provides a
cross-reference file for all of the source sets. To get a copy contact
Steve Greenfield
unicode-inc@HQ.M4.Metaphor.COM
For further details about the URO/UniHan, you might want to pick up a copy of
the "The Unicode Standard Version 1.0 Vol II". It's published by Addison
Wesley, ISBN 0-201-60845-6. It's been available in the USA for over a month
now. For a slightly different presentation of the characters, a copy of 10646
or of the "Ideographic CJK Character Unified Repertoire and Ordering Verion
2.0" might be available through the the Australian national body to ISO WG2."
APPENDIX C - SKIP CODES
=======================
S K I P - SYSTEM OF KANJI INDEXING BY PATTERNS
[This document contains the text and examples from the covers of the "New
Japanese-English Character Dictionary" edited by Jack Halpern and published
by Kenkyusha and NTC. It is reproduced with Mr Halpern's kind permission.
The text on which this is based used four patterns which are not able to be
reproduced in this document. Theye are referred to below as #1 through #4,
and relate to the following shapes in the NEJCD:
¢£¢£¡±¡±¡Ã ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£
¢£¢£ ¡Ã ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£
¢£¢£ ¡Ã ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£ ¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£
¢£¢£ ¡Ã ¡Ã ¡Ã ¢£ ¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£
¢£¢£ ¡Ã ¡Ã ¡Ã ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£
¢£¢£¡²¡²¡× ¡Ã¡²¡²¡× ¢£¢£¢£¢£ ¢£¢£¢£¢£
#1 #2 #3 #4
LEFT- TOP- ENCLOSURE SOLID
RIGHT BOTTOM]
HOW TO LOCATE AN ENTRY
A. Determine the SKIP number of your character.
STEP 1 IDENTIFY PATTERN
Determine to which of the four PATTERNS your character belongs to get the
first part of the SKIP number (the PATTERN NUMBER).
If your character belongs to pattern #1, #2 or #3 (Áꢪ#1), carry out the
steps in the left column; if it belongs to pattern #4 (²¼¢ª#4), carry out the
steps in the right column. (REF: R4. How to Identify the Pattern)
#1 #2 #3 #4
STEP 2
DIVIDE CHARACTER OMIT
Divide the character into two parts at (Since solid characters
the first division point. [Áê=ÌÚ+ÌÜ] cannot be divided, go to
REF: R5. How to Divide the Character STEP 3.) REF: R6. How to
Subclassify the Solid Pattern
STEP 3
COUNT STROKES OF SHADED PART DETERMINE TOTAL STROKE-COUNT
Count the strokes of the SHADED PART Determine the total stroke-count of
to get the second part of the SKIP your character to get the second part
number. [Áê #1 1-4-] of the SKIP number. [²¼ #4 4-3-]
REF: Appendix 2. How to Count Strokes REF: Appendix 2. How to Count Strokes
STEP 4
COUNT STROKES OF BLANK PART IDENTIFY SOLID SUBPATTERN
Count the strokes of the BLANK PART Determine to which of the four
to get the third part of the SKIP SOLID SUBPATTERNS your character
number. [Áê #1 1-4-5] belongs to get the third part of the
REF: Appendix 2. How to Count Strokes SKIP number. Select from: `¡±' 1,
`¡²' 2, `|' 3, or `¢£' 4. [²¼ #4 4-3-1]
REF: R6. How to Subclassify the
Solid Pattern
After determining the SKIP number of your character, locate your character
entry in one of two ways:
1. Determine the entry number in the Pattern Index beginning on p. 1952 then
locate your character entry in the main part of the dictionary. See R3.1.2
Index Method for details.
2. Locate your character entry directly (without referring to the Pattern
Index) from its SKIP number. See R3.1.3 Direct Method for details.
NOTE: All references preceded by a section mark (R) refer to SYSTEM OF KANJI
INDEXING BY PATTERNS beginning on p. 106a
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE PATTERN
DETERMINE TO WHICH OF THE FOUR PATTERNS YOUR CHARACTER BELONGS
#1 Characters that can be divided into left and right parts
RIGHT: Áê 4-5 Ȭ 1-1 ½ç 1-11 °· 3-3
WRONG: ÊÒ 1-3 ÍÑ 1-4 ²Ä 3-2 ¿ 3-3
#2 Characters that can be divided into top and bottom parts
RIGHT: Æó 1-1 »û 3-3 ¸Å 2-3 ½Õ 5-4
WRONG: Ëü 1-2 ¹Í 4-2 ´Ö 8-4 ºÁ 4-3
#3 Characters that can be divided by an enclosure element
RIGHT: ¿Ê 3-8 ¹ 3-2 Ìä 8-3 ¹ñ 3-5
WRONG: Æþ 1-1 ¸â 4-3 ̾ 3-3 °Ù 5-4
#4 Characters that cannot be classified under patterns #1, #2, or #3
RIGHT: ±« 8-1 ʼ 5-2 Ãæ 4-3 Í¿ 3-4
WRONG: Åá 2-1 Æü 4-1 ¿å 4-3
IF A CHARACTER CAN BE CLASSIFIED UNDER MORE THAN ONE PATTERN, SELECT THE ONE
THAT FOLLOWS THE NATURAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHARACTER
RIGHT: »ù 2-5-2 È¢ 2-6-9
WRONG: »ù 1-2-5 È¢ 1-7-8
HOW TO DIVIDE THE CHARACTER
DIVIDE THE CHARACTER INTO TWO PARTS AT THE FIRST DIVISION POINT
#1 Going from left to right, divide at the first space
RIGHT: ÌÀ 4-4 ¾® 1-2 °· 3-3
WRONG: ¾® 2-1 ³¹ 9-3
#2 Going from top to bottom, divide at the first space, horizontal line, or
frame element, whichever comes first
RIGHT: »° 1-2 ¶¼ 2-8 ÀÖ 3-4 ¸Å 2-3
WRONG: »° 2-1 ¶¼ 6-4 ÀÖ 2-5 ²¼ 1-2
#3 Going from the outside toward the inside, divide after the first enclosure
element
RIGHT: ÅÙ 3-6 ¿Ê 3-8 ÊÄ 8-3 ÌÜ 3-2
WRONG: ÅÙ 7-2 Ëá 11-5
DO NOT VIOLATE THE PRINCIPLE OF ELEMENT INTEGRITY
1. Never break through strokes
RIGHT: ¶§ 3-2-2 WRONG: ¶§ 1-1-4
2. Never break through indivisible units
RIGHT: ¾ð 1-3-8 WRONG: ¾ð 1-1-10
3. Never make unnatural divisions
RIGHT: µ¤ 3-4-2 WRONG: µ¤ 2-2-4
HOW TO SUBCLASSIFY THE SOLID PATTERN
A. DETERMINE TO WHICH OF THE FOUR SOLID SUBPATTERNS YOUR CHARACTER BELONGS
`T' 1. Characters that contain a top line
RIGHT: ±« 8-1 ²¼ 3-1 ¼ª 6-1 ²Ì 8-1
WRONG: Åá 2-1 Àé 3-2 ¿â 8-1 ʼ 5-1
2. Characters that contain a bottom line
RIGHT: ¾å 3-2 ʼ 5-2 ¿â 8-2
WRONG: »³ 3-2 Êñ 5-2 ¼Ô 8-2
3. Characters that contain a through line
RIGHT: Ãæ 4-3 Åì 8-3 ÌÓ 4-3
WRONG: ¿å 4-3 À£ 3-3 ¸á 4-3 Äï 7-3
4. Characters that do not contain a top line, bottom line, or through line
RIGHT: Í¿ 3-4 Âç 3-4 ¼÷ 7-4
WRONG: »å 6-4 µ× 3-4 ͧ 4-4 Îô 6-4
B. IF A CHARACTER CAN BE CLASSIFIED UNDER MORE THAN ONE SUBPATTERN, THE
SUBPATTERN WITH THE SMALLEST NUMBER TAKES PRECEDENCE
RIGHT: ²¦ 4-1 ¸Ê 3-1 ÆÓ 7-1 ²Ì 8-1 ½Ð 5-2 À¸ 5-2 ¹Ã 5-1
WRONG: ²¦ 4-2 ¸Ê 3-2 ÆÓ 7-2 ²Ì 8-3 ½Ð 5-3 À¸ 5-3 ¹Ã 5-3
APPENDIX D: - AN OVERVIEW OF THE FOUR CORNER CODING SYSTEM
==========================================================
The Four Corner System has been used for many years in China and Japan for
classifying kanji. In China it is losing popularity in favour of Pinyin
ordering. Some Japanese dictionaries, such as the Morohashi Daikanwajiten
have a Four Corner Index.
The following overview of the system has been condensed from the article "The
Four Corner System: an introduction with exercises" by Dr Urs App, which
appeared in the Electronic Bodhidharma No 2, February 1992, published by the
International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism, Hanazono College. (More
examples will be added from that article in due course.)
1. Stroke shapes are divided into ten classes:
0 LID е
1 HORIZONTAL LINE °ì
2 VERTICAL LINE ¡Ã
3 DOT Ц
4 CROSS ½½
5 SKEWER ¥
6 BOX ¸ý
7 ANGLE ÒÌ
8 HACHI Ȭ
9 CHIISAI ¾®
2. The Four Digits are derived from the Four Corners in a Z-shaped order.
A B 7 1 7 7
for example: ¸¶ ·î
C D 2 9 2 2
Some examples: »Å 2421 ¹Ô 2122 Îò 7121 µû 2733 »ì 0762 Ʊ 7722 ¶¶ 4292
3. A shape is only used once. If it fills several corners, it is counted as
zero in subsequent corners.
Some examples: ¸ý 6000 ¼ó 8060 ʬ 8022 Âç 2003 Ï 2690 ÉÊ 6066 µþ 0096
4. When the upper or lower half of a character consists of only one (single
or composite) shape, it is, rergardless of its position, counted as a left
corner. The right corner is counted as zero.
Some examples: Ω 0010 ͳ 5060 Àã 1017 Êý 0022 Äí 0024 »å 2090 ¼ê 2050
5. When there is no additional element to the four sides of the characters
¸ý, Ìç, ò¨ (and sometimes ¹Ô), whatever is inside these characters is taken
for the lower two corners.
Some examples: Ìä 7760 ¼ü 6080 Ô¢ 6015 ÌÜ 6010 ³« 7744 ÌÌ 1060 îò 2110
6. The analysis is based on the block-style handwritten kaisho (Ü´½ñ) shape
of characters.
(This needs attention, as ¸Í is 3027, not 1027. The top stroke is treated as
a Ц.)
7. Some points to note when analysing shapes:
o Shape 0:
When the horizontal line below a DOT shape (number 3) is connected to another
stroke at its right-hand end (as in Õß ¸Í, etc.) it is not counted as a LID
(number 0) but as a DOT.
Examples: °Â 3040 ¿À 3520 µ§ 3222
o Shape 6:
Characters such as »® and Õù where one of the strokes of the square extends
beyond it, are not considered to be square (number 6) shapes, but corners
(number 7).
Examples: ³î 7710 ½ê 3222 »® 7710 ´Û 8377 µ¹ 3010
o Shape 7:
Only the cornered end of corner shapes (number 7) is counted as 7.
Examples: ¶è 7171 ¶Ô 7222 ¶ç 2762 È¿ 7124
o Shape 8:
Strokes that cross other strokes are not counted as shape number 8 (Ȭ).
Examples: Èþ 8043 ´Ø 7743 Âç 4003 ¼º 8043 ¹Õ 2143 Àí 9043
o Shape 9:
Shapes resembling shape 9, but featuring two strokes in the middle (as in the
top part of ¶È or ÁÑ) or two strokes on one side (as in ¿å or the bottom part
of Êé) are not considered as 9 shapes.
Examples: Êé 4433 ¶È 3290 ÁÑ 3214
8. Some points to note when choosing corners.
- when a corner is occupied by more than one independant or parallel strokes,
the one that extend furthest to the left or right is taken as the corner,
regardless of how high or low it is.
examples: Èó 1111 Ðë 2124 ¼À 0013 Äë 0022 ¼Ò 3421 ÌÔ 4721
- if there is another shape above (or, at the bottom of the character, below)
the leftmost or rightmost stroke of a character, that shape is given
preference and is taken as the corner.
examples: »¡ 3090 ¹¬ 4040 ᶠ6020 ½÷ 4040 ã¹ 3521 ¶ 4480
- when two composite stroke shapes are interwoven and each could be regarded
as a corner, the shape that is higher is taken as the upper corner, and the
lower stroke as lower corner.
- when a stroke that slopes downwards to the left or right is supported by
another stroke, the latter is taken as the corner.
examples: ±° 2740 ΢ 0073 ¾Ë 1962 é° 4464 ·Ô 4410 Èï 3424
- a left slanting stroke on the upper left is taken for the left corner only;
for the right corner one takes a stroke more to the right.
examples: ¿È 2740 ̶ 2350 ³û 6752 Ū 2762 ½Ü 2762 Åç 2772
9. Shape variations: (Dr App includes several pages of examples)
10. The fifth corner:
In order to differentiate between the several characters with the same code,
an optional "fifth corner" is sometimes used. This is, loosely, a shape above
the fourth corner which has not been used in any other shape.
APPENDIX E. RADICAL-COUNTING RULES
===================================
These rules apply:
(a) to the stroke-counts themselves;
(b) to the stroke counts in the SKIP codes. Where this results in a SKIP
which differs from that in the NJECD, or in the non-NJECD SKIPs
provided by Jack Halpern, the Jack Halpern version is included prefixed
with "ZR"
The radicals listed below are ones where there are differing approaches to
the counting of radicals in the various references. The stroke counting in
this file does not strictly follow any reference, but tends to more
aligned to Halpern.
1. B140 KUSA-KANMURI e.g. ²× always counted as 3 strokes (Halpern counts
this 4 strokes for the (mostly level 2) kanji where the older form is
often printed.)
2. B162 SHIN-NYUU e.g. ô£ or °© counted as 3 or 4 strokes. (Nelson and S&H
count it as 2 strokes, and Halpern as either 3 or 4.) [See Note 1 below.]
3. B163 OOZATOZUKIRI & B170 KOZATO-HEN Ë® and ïô always counted as 3 strokes
(Nelson and S&H count it as 2, Halpern as 3.)
4. B199 MUGI Çþ always counted as 7 strokes, except for óÎ & óÏ where it
is counted as 11. (Nelson and Halpern do the same, and S&H avoid treating
it as a radical, but count it as 12 in the remainder.)
5. B113 SHIMESU e.g. Îé, is counted as 4 strokes in that form, and 5 strokes
in its older form, ã«. 18 kanji are in the 4-stroke form and 20 are in
the 5-stroke form. (Nelson and S&H count it as 4; Halpern counts it as 4
or 5. [See Note 1.])
6. B184 SHOKU HEN ¿©, µ², etc.is counted as 8 strokes in the µ² form, and as
9 strokes in the Ò¬ and »Á forms. (Nelson and S&H count it as 8 strokes,
and Halpern as 8 or 9.) [See Note 1. below.]
7. B131 SHIN/KERAI ¿Ã. Counted as 7 (Nelson counts it as 6, Halpern as 7,
and S&H as both for different kanji.)
8. B136 MAI ASHI Á¤. Counted as 7 (traditionally counted as 6, in
accordance with the older writing of `¥ð'. Nelson counts as 6, S&H as
7, and Halpern as 7 for ¾ïÍÑ and ¿Í̾ÍÑ´Á»ú and 6 for the rest.)
9. B131 SHIN or KERAI ¿Ã. Counted as 7 (traditionally counted as 6). Nelson
counts as 6, Halpern as 7, and S&H as 6 or 7 in different cases.
Note 1: The JIS X 0208-1990 standard does not formally specify the precise
glyphs used for kanji, however the glyphs it uses in the published
version have become de facto standards for many font compilations. In
the published standard, for several kanji, e.g. é/íé, Îé/ã«, µ²/Ò¬, the
JIS level one kanji use the simpler form, and the Level 2 kanji use the
older more complex form. Just to make matters worse, many fonts for
JIS X 0208 kanji are based on the bit-maps specified in JIS X 9051-1984
standard, which defines the 16x16 patterns for JIS X 0208-1983 characters.
According to Ken Lunde: "This standard was not very good, and JSA is no
longer supporting it."
Anyway, JIS X 9051-1984 had the simpler form for all these bushu in both
Levels 1 and 2, as well as having simplifications of kanji like ßÉ. Thus,
as the font foundries have freedom to choose whichever glyphs they like,
what you see on your screen may well not agree with these rules. All
the rules in this appendix relate to the glyphs as published in the
JIS X 0208-1990 standard, and as appearing in font compilations based
on them.