Xinhua Zidian

The Xinhua Zidian is the best-selling Chinese dictionary and the world's most popular reference work. This pocket-sized dictionary of Chinese characters, published by the Commercial Press, uses Simplified Chinese characters and pinyin romanization. The most recent ''Xinhua Zidian'' edition enters 3,500 and includes over 11,200 logograms, including Traditional Chinese characters and Variant Chinese characters.

Under the aegis of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the People's Education Press published the original ''Xinhua Zidian'' in 1953. The linguist and lexicographer Wei Jiangong was chief editor. In 1957, the respected Commercial Press published the ''Xinhua Zidian'' , which was alphabetically collated in pinyin order. They have subsequently revised this dictionary ten times, with over 200 printing runs, and it is a longtime bestseller among students in China. In early 2004, the total number of published copies exceeded 400 million, unquestionably making the ''Xinhua Zidian'' the most popular dictionary in the world.

Besides their popular concise version ''Xinhua Zidian'', Commercial Press also publishes a large-print edition and a ''Xinhua Dictionary with English Translation'' . In addition, the Shanxi Education Press publishes a pinyin-edition ''Xinhua Zidian'' with both characters and orthographically precise transcriptions .