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A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese by Paul Kroll
The printed version of this Chinese-English Dictionary has become a basic resource for studying Literary Chinese, replacing the famous but rather outdated Mathews’ Chinese-English Dictionary that was first published in 1931. It contains 8,330 individual characters and a limited but well-selected number of compound words. Its entries cover the period from approximately 500 BCE to 1000 CE.
For further information, see:
https://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com/chinese-english
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Grand Ricci
This Chinese-French dictionary is the largest bilingual character and compound dictionary for a modern European language. It contains extensive additional information, like early character forms, the development of meanings, and so on. It is available in both printed and digital forms.
For further information, see:
https://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com/Connect through your institution for full access to the digital version.
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Thesaurus Linguae Sericae (TLS)
Titled ‘A Historical and Comparative Encyclopaedia of Chinese Conceptual Schemes’, this is a full-text database with an extensive dictionary. Among a raft of other features, it links directly to entries for a search term in such external resources as the Hanyu dacidian.
Access to the database is freely available at:
https://hxwd.org/index.htmlUse the top column for a range of searches in both primary texts and dictionaries.
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Handian dictionary 漢典
This on-line dictionary is a valuable resource is an extensive resource in its own right, but also contains a number of other dictionaries, including: Guoyu cidian, Kang Xi zidian, Shuowen jiezi, and Chengyu cidian.
Access to the dictionary is freely available at:
https://www.zdic.netUse the 详细字义 tab for Classical and Literary Chinese meanings and usages.
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Chinese Text Project C-Text 百家諸子
At the heart of the site is a topically arranged database of ancient texts. It contains the full text of a large variety of Chinese texts of philosophical, historical, or linguistic interest, from the pre-Qin era through to the Han dynasty and beyond. The database features a range of functions, including textual parallels and approximations, a dictionary, and a variety of scanned reproductions of textual editions for comparison.
Note that the digitized versions of the texts contained may contain errors and need to be compared with the pdfs of printed editions before being cited.
Access to the database is freely available at:
https://ctext.org/
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Scripta Sinica 漢籍電子文獻資料庫
Begun in 1984 as a digitizing project of all documents essential to research in traditional Chinese Studies, this database now boasts 1,399 titles with a total of almost 800 million characters. It is arranged according to the four-part classification system (si bu 四部), though it can be searched in various ways, including with Boolean operators.
Free access to part of the site is available at:
http://hanchi.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ihp/hanji.htmFor access to the full site, connect through your institution.
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Kanseki Repository 漢籍リポジトリ
This is an extensive collection of around 9,000 premodern Chinese texts. It is arranged according to the four-part classification system. It includes Daoist and Buddhist texts. The database features a search function displaying textual parallels in the form of string searches. The inclusion of a research platform has been announced.
Access to the database is freely available at:
http://www.kanripo.org/Note that the repository has recently been linked to the Thesaurus Linguae Sericae and can be accessed through character search results.
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Ancient Chinese Civilisation: Bibliography of Materials in Western Languages
by Paul R. Goldin (University of Pennsylvania)This bibliography is downloadable as a PDF file. It contains approximately 13,500 entries. It aims to offer comprehensive coverage of research on periods from the Neolithic through the pre-Buddhist era. It is continuously updated.
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Classical Historiography for Chinese History, Princeton University
This research guide for Chinese historiography introduces a range of resources that are foundational to the study of premodern China. It comprises an ‘Introduction to Chinese Historiography’, a ‘Sinological Toolkit’, as well as Sinological content specific to different chronological or topical interests. A separate section covers electronic resources.
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Ancient Chinese Manuscripts: Bibliography of Materials in Western Languages
by Paul R. Goldin (University of Pennsylvania)This bibliography is downloadable as a PDF file. It contains approximately 675 items. It is continuously updated.
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The Bibliography of Asian Studies
While covering all of Asia, this bibliography of the American Association of Asian Studies (AAS) contains more entries on China than on any other country; it covers traditional as well as contemporary China. It carries a substantial number of citations and the full-text of Western-language journal articles, review articles, conference proceedings and chapters in edited volumes and Festschriften published anywhere in the world.
Connect through your institution for non-member access.
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Annual Bibliography of Oriental Studies (Tōyōgaku bunken ruimoku 東洋学文献類目)
http://www.kita.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/publication/ruimoku/
Founded in 1934, this annual bibliography of articles and books published in Oriental Studies went online in the late 1990s. It can be searched by author, title, and subject. It provides full entries for all publications and is especially useful for consulting Japanese research on China. If you want to search for articles published before 1981, use the Version 5.2a (http://ruimoku.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ruimoku5/index.html.ja)
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CiNii
Established in 2005, this bibliographic database is produced by the National Institute of Informatics in Japan. It carries references to over 22 million articles, in a range of languages. Searches can be conducted according to a number of fields. Links are provided to those items available for download. The site is accessible in both Japanese and English.
Search for articles at: https://ci.nii.ac.jp/en
Books appear at: https://ci.nii.ac.jp/books/?l=en
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China Academic Journals (Zhongguo jikan quanwen shujuku 中国期刊全文数据库)
This extensive Chinese-language database offers full-text access to, and download of, articles published in 8,500 Chinese academic journals. It also contains Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, though the these may be listed, but inaccessible. The search range is limited by means of subject areas. Institutions often have limited access to areas of interest.
Connect through your institution for access.
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ChinaKnowledge.de – An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art
by Ulrich Theobaldhttp://www.chinaknowledge.de/index.html
Founded in 2000, this online encyclopaedia provides information on a wide range of topics in Chinese history, literature, language/script, art, religions, and philosophy. It draws to a great extent upon Chinese-language secondary sources and thus gives access to information rarely found in Western-language books.
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Oxford Bibliographies – Chinese Studies
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/browse?module_0=obo-9780199920082
The bibliography consists of alphabetically arranged entries on specific subjects like Ancestor worship or Architecture, written by specialists on these subjects. Each entry consists of a brief introduction followed by a list of resources with comments on their content.