The Development and Application of the Xiaoxuetang Wenzixue Database,  published  in  December  2017

24 years’ research and development experience of the largest Wenzixue (philology) database Xiaoxuetang (小學堂) is now complied and available as a monograph!

The Xiaoxuetang Wenzixue Database started as the Academia Sinica’s Database of Chinese Characters Composition (漢字構形資料庫) and Chinese Character Readings (漢字古今音資料庫) that set up in the 1990s. With 24 years of expansion, revision and integration, Xiaoxuetang database is now a collection of over 220,000 characters in oracle bone script, Chinese bronze inscriptions, Warring States Chinese characters, small seal script, and regular script; over 1.34 million entries of Chinese phonology, and a character dictionary index with over 360,000 entries.

As a comprehensive database of form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters, Xiaoxuetang allows users to query by the character’s form and sound to firstly find out the radical, which can then link to separate databases of form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters or dictionary entries. Five external online dictionaries are now linked up, including Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (異體字字典), Master Ideographs Seeker for CNS 11643 Chinese Standard Interchange Code (CNS11643中文標準交換碼全字庫), and International Encoded Han Character and Variants Database (國際電腦漢字與異體字知識庫).

The most commendable feature of Xiaoxuetang is its clear layout of the evolvement from ancient to modern forms of Chinese characters, which allows readers to quickly grasp the idea.  In terms of data volume, it is the largest database of its kind in Taiwan.  Since its launch in 2013, Xiaoxuetang has near 10 million page views and has achieved remarkable results in facilitating Chinese teaching.  It has also become an important reference for the study of Chinese philology.

This technical report is clear and well-structured, providing a detailed description of the development process, system architecture, user interface, as well as database and website design of Xiaoxuetang.  Its 24 years of R & D experience is now fully disclosed—it is a one-stop solution for you to know the mechanism of database connection, character connection, word searching, uncoded character processing of Xiaoxuetang.

This book is an excellent popular science literature, illustrating the model course of interdisciplinary cooperation between humanities and information technology. 

For book purchase, please contact Si Fen Xi Book Store (02-2652-1876) and San Min Book (02-2500-6600).  For free access of the eBook, please go to the websites of National Library of Public Information (sign up free for full-text access), HyRead eBook (sign up free for full-text access), and iRead eBook (click to view the full text).

About the Author:
Der-Ming Juang is assistant research specialist at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Juang is an expert of philology database and has devoted himself to setting up Xiaoxuetang Wenzixue Database for 24 years.