Editing Chinese characters (section)

=== Dictionaries ===
{{Main|Chinese dictionary}}
[[File:Chenzihmyon typefaces.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|The first four characters of the 6th-century ''[[Thousand Character Classic]]'' in different styles. From right to left: seal script, clerical script, regular script, Song type, and sans-serif type.|alt=天地玄黃]]
According to analyses of mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Japanese, and Korean sources, the total number of characters in the modern lexicon is around {{val|15000}}.{{sfn|Su|2014|pp=47, 51}} Dozens of schemes have been devised for indexing Chinese characters and arranging them in dictionaries, though relatively few have achieved widespread use. Characters may be ordered according to methods based on their meaning, visual structure, or pronunciation.{{sfnm|Su|2014|1p=183|2a1=Needham|2a2=Harbsmeier|2y=1998|2pp=65–66}}

The ''{{tlit|zh|[[Erya]]}}'' ({{cx|3rd century&nbsp;BCE}}) organized the Chinese lexicon into 19 sections according to character meaning, with 3 dealing with everyday vocabulary, and each of the remaining 16 dedicated to specialized vocabulary related to a specific topic.{{sfnm|Xue|1982|1pp=152–153|Demattè|2022|2p=37}} The ''{{tlit|zh|Shuowen Jiezi}}'' ({{cx|100&nbsp;CE}}) introduced what would ultimately become the predominant method of organization used by later character dictionaries, whereby characters are grouped according to certain visually prominent components called ''[[Chinese character radicals|radicals]]'' ({{zhi|c=部首|p=bùshǒu|l=section headers}}). The ''{{tlit|zh|Shuowen Jiezi}}'' used a system of 540 radicals, while subsequent dictionaries have generally used fewer.{{sfn|Yong|Peng|2008|pp=100–103, 203}} The set of 214 [[Kangxi radicals]] was popularized by the ''[[Kangxi Dictionary]]'' (1716), but originally appeared in the earlier ''{{tlit|zh|[[Zihui]]}}'' (1615).{{sfnm|Zhou|2003|1p=88|Norman|1988|2pp=170–172|3a1=Needham|3a2=Harbsmeier|3y=1998|3pp=79–80}} Character dictionaries have historically been indexed using [[radical-and-stroke sorting]], where characters are grouped by radical and [[Stroke-based sorting|sorted within each group by stroke number]]. Some modern dictionaries arrange character entries alphabetically according to their pinyin spelling, while also providing a traditional radical-based index.{{sfn|Yong|Peng|2008|pp=145, 400–401}}

Before the invention of romanization systems for Chinese, the pronunciation of characters was transmitted via [[rhyme dictionaries]]. These used the {{tlit|zh|[[fanqie]]}} ({{zhi|c=反切|l=reverse cut}}) method, where each entry lists a common character with the same [[Syllable#Chinese model|initial sound]] as the character in question, alongside one with the same final sound.{{sfn|Norman|1988|pp=27–28}}