The 12-volume Hanyu Da Cidian , Unabridged Dictionary of Sinitic, is the first large-scale, comprehensive word dictionary in Chinese history that encompasses both ancient and modern language. As in other Chinese dictionaries, the index is arranged by radicals, strokes, orders of strokes, and so on. Therefore, for scholars of Chinese who read only Pinyin, the invaluable reference ranges from grindingly slow to useless. Mair and his team offer relief in an alphabetized index, which enables users to locate a word in HDC provided they know its currently accepted Modern Standard Mandarin pronunciation. For each word, it identifies the Chinese characters and the volume and page number. First published by Hanyu Da Cidian Chubanshe, Shanghai, 2001. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less