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Four-corner method
The four-corner method or four-corner system (simplified Chinese: 四角号码检字法; traditional Chinese: 四角號碼檢字法; pinyin: sì jiǎo hàomǎ jiǎnzì fǎ; lit. 'four corner code lookup-character method') is a character-input method used for encoding Chinese characters into either a computer or a manual typewriter, using four or five numerical digits per character.
The four digits encode the shapes found in the four corners of the symbol, upper left to lower right. Although this does not uniquely identify a Chinese character, it leaves only a very short list of possibilities. A fifth digit can be added to describe an extra part above the lower right if necessary.
The four-corner method, in its three revisions, was supported by the Chinese state for a while, and is found in numerous older reference works and some still in publication. The small Kangorin Sino-Japanese Dictionary by Yoneyama had a four-corner index when it was introduced in the 1980s, but it has since been deleted. However, it is not in common usage today, although dictionaries using it are available. It is identified, in public opinion, with the time when many Chinese were illiterate and the language was not yet unified; more Chinese today use the dictionary to help them write, not read. But it is useful for scholars, clerks, editors, compilers, and especially for foreigners who read Chinese. In recent years it has achieved a new usage as a character input system for computers, generating very short lists to browse.
The four-corner method was invented in the 1920s by Wang Yunwu, the editor in chief at Commercial Press Ltd., China. Its original purpose was to aid telegraphers in looking up Chinese telegraph code numbers in use at that time from long lists of characters. This was mentioned by Wang Yunwu in an introductory pamphlet called Four-Corner Method, published in 1926. Cai Yuanpei and Hu Shih wrote introductory essays for this pamphlet.
The four digits used to encode each character are chosen according to the "shape" of the four corners of each character.[clarification needed] In order, these corners are upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right. The shapes can be memorized using a poem composed by Hu Shih, called Bihuahaoma Ge (筆畫號碼歌; Bǐhuà hàomǎ gē; 'stroke number song'), as a "memory key" to the system:
In the 1950s, lexicographers in the People's Republic of China changed the poem somewhat in order to avoid association with Hu Shih, who had criticized the Chinese Communist Party, although the contents remain generally unchanged. The 1950s version is as follows:
Several other notes:
There have been scores, maybe hundreds, of such numerical and alpha-numerical systems proposed or popularized (such as Lin Yutang's "Instant Index", Trindex, Head-tail, Wang An's Sanjiahaoma, Halpern); some Chinese refer to these generically as sijiaohaoma (after the original pamphlet) though this is not correct.
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Four-corner method
The four-corner method or four-corner system (simplified Chinese: 四角号码检字法; traditional Chinese: 四角號碼檢字法; pinyin: sì jiǎo hàomǎ jiǎnzì fǎ; lit. 'four corner code lookup-character method') is a character-input method used for encoding Chinese characters into either a computer or a manual typewriter, using four or five numerical digits per character.
The four digits encode the shapes found in the four corners of the symbol, upper left to lower right. Although this does not uniquely identify a Chinese character, it leaves only a very short list of possibilities. A fifth digit can be added to describe an extra part above the lower right if necessary.
The four-corner method, in its three revisions, was supported by the Chinese state for a while, and is found in numerous older reference works and some still in publication. The small Kangorin Sino-Japanese Dictionary by Yoneyama had a four-corner index when it was introduced in the 1980s, but it has since been deleted. However, it is not in common usage today, although dictionaries using it are available. It is identified, in public opinion, with the time when many Chinese were illiterate and the language was not yet unified; more Chinese today use the dictionary to help them write, not read. But it is useful for scholars, clerks, editors, compilers, and especially for foreigners who read Chinese. In recent years it has achieved a new usage as a character input system for computers, generating very short lists to browse.
The four-corner method was invented in the 1920s by Wang Yunwu, the editor in chief at Commercial Press Ltd., China. Its original purpose was to aid telegraphers in looking up Chinese telegraph code numbers in use at that time from long lists of characters. This was mentioned by Wang Yunwu in an introductory pamphlet called Four-Corner Method, published in 1926. Cai Yuanpei and Hu Shih wrote introductory essays for this pamphlet.
The four digits used to encode each character are chosen according to the "shape" of the four corners of each character.[clarification needed] In order, these corners are upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right. The shapes can be memorized using a poem composed by Hu Shih, called Bihuahaoma Ge (筆畫號碼歌; Bǐhuà hàomǎ gē; 'stroke number song'), as a "memory key" to the system:
In the 1950s, lexicographers in the People's Republic of China changed the poem somewhat in order to avoid association with Hu Shih, who had criticized the Chinese Communist Party, although the contents remain generally unchanged. The 1950s version is as follows:
Several other notes:
There have been scores, maybe hundreds, of such numerical and alpha-numerical systems proposed or popularized (such as Lin Yutang's "Instant Index", Trindex, Head-tail, Wang An's Sanjiahaoma, Halpern); some Chinese refer to these generically as sijiaohaoma (after the original pamphlet) though this is not correct.