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Rating: 
Summary: Ian Myles Slater on: Revealing Meaning
Review: "A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols" is the work of Wolfram Eberhard (1909-1989) A German-born Sinologist and sociologist, and a political refugee from Hitler, he spent eleven years in Turkey introducing Sinology to that country at Ankara University, and then most of the rest of his career (1948-1976) at the University of California at Berkeley, in the then-new Department of Sociology. He published in German, English, and Turkish, on both standard Sinological subjects and Chinese and comparative folklore, and the local cultures of China and adjacent areas. His "Dictionary of Chinese Symbols" is based on a lifetime of study, and an unusual diversity of experience.
The bulk of Eberhard's publications (thirty-five books, 195 articles, 300-some book reviews) are usually fairly technical, or, if popular, rapidly becoming obsolete. (His "History of China," first published in German in 1948, was last revised in 1977, just before an explosion of archeological and other work.) However, his "Folktales of China" (1965), part of University of Chicago Press series aimed at both college students and the general public, should be accessible to most readers, if a copy is available. The present volume was also apparently aimed at a wider public, although it was well-received by Sinologists.
The 1983 German edition of "Lexicon chinesischer Symbole," translated by G. L. Campbell, as "A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols," was his last major work. It is the condensed -- in some ways perhaps too condensed -- product of a lifetime of study. It is organized not around the meaning of Chinese art motifs as such, but around the symbolic associations of the written characters of classical China, with their fully pictorial counterparts as supporting data; and it includes primarily verbal symbolisms as well. It is primarily historical, and, inevitably, very selective: "no more than an introduction to the subject," according to the author. A topic is always given its Chinese character, or set of characters; and many are illustrated from traditional art, mostly reproduced rather well. Eberhard uses the traditional, or "full" forms of Chinese characters, rather than the recent simplified forms, pointing out that the symbolic associations may depends on the perceived imagery of at least part of the character, as well as on, or in addition to, its phonetic reading.
Eberhard does use survival of ideas into modern times -- by which he apparently means the first part of the twentieth century -- as an important criterion of selection. There is, however, no attempt made to include specifically *modern* China, whether the mainland or Taiwan, in any systematic way. The reader who is interested in classic Chinese literature, or traditional art probably will be far better served than those interested in twentieth-century innovations or drastic adaptations. A history encompassing millennia is given priority over recent decades. But, if modernity as such is given short shrift, Eberhard often notes the geographic and cultural distribution of a concept or image within China, instead of offering an impression of "all Chinese ... at all times." To those without access to the primary and secondary sources (the latter of which include some of Eberhard's own publications), this feature is very important all by itself.
First published at a time when the mainland government was pressing the claims of its official "Pinyin" system for Romanizing Chinese as the international standard, the transliteration used in the book, at least in its English-language version, represents a compromise. It uses the character set of Pinyin, instead of the old Wade-Giles system (or a German equivalent), but breaks up the long polysyllabic forms of the official version with hyphens, in the Wade-Giles manner. This is, I am sure, annoying to those who know and like the Pinyin system, but it is a practical compromise. The uninitiated, faced by, say, "huijiaotu" (Muslims) are, I would think, at least as likely to try pronouncing it as huiji-aot-u as they are to read it as hui-jiao-tu, the form given here.
Eberhard was very much aware of theoretical issues, and raises some in his brief Introduction, which deals with written Chinese as itself a symbolic system. He mentions, with regret, that he was not able to include the symbolic systems of Chinese craftsmen, and explains that Buddhist and Taoist symbols are included only if they are meaningful to ordinary Chinese. He adds that the full range of Chinese symbolism, and its functions, remains to be explored and evaluated, but he does not turn a dictionary into a vehicle for promulgating his own theories.
The main purpose of the "Dictionary" is to present useful information in a condensed fashion. It succeeds at this quite brilliantly. While not as all-encompassing as Williams' antiquated (and not always reliable) "Outlines of Chinese Symbolism," and lacking the sheer beauty of Fang Jing Pei's "Symbols and Rebuses in Chinese Art: Figures, Bugs, Beasts, and Flowers," it is dense with relevant, and authentic, information. The simple indication of a cross-reference, an arrow pointing at the head-word of another article, is usually less distracting than common alternatives, such as the use of italics, small capitals, or boldface, although in a few articles their abundance becomes an obstacle to reading.
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Summary: Essential to understand Chinese culture.
Review: I am half Chinese and lived in Taiwan for a few years. Growing outside Chinese culture, I found this dictionary very informative on learning about the meaning of many things I saw in Taiwan. For example, why fish are seen in many stores, why is there a phoenix and a dragon at every wedding, who are the different Chinese deities and gods, why is eight such a popular number, what does it mean to give oranges to someone, why you shouldn't wear anything white on your hair, etc. Until a better dictionary of symbols comes out, this one is essential to your understanding of Chinese culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative but...
Review: It seems to be general consensus that this is one of the only books of its kind. While its content is concise and informative, it does seem to be dated. I had to double-check that it had indeed been originally published in 1983 because stylistically speaking (in addition to the weird romanization issues and lack of "modern" symbology that others have mentioned), it seems to stuck in the early 20th century and perhaps a little tainted with the Edward Said notion of "Orientalism." I can't help but get the feeling that it is from an "outsider looking in" perspective, meaning I wish it was written in a more intimate and warmer way, and that if it were, perhaps the text would become more alive. I also found the method of cross-referencing information (by peppering the text with a lot of arrows -->) fairly distracting, and that the descriptions of individual symbols did not really "flow," but rather were written in a piecemeal fashion. Again, I am grateful that this information has been compiled and assembled in this text; however, I wish that it could be updated.
Rating:
Summary: Informative but...
Review: It seems to be general consensus that this is one of the only books of its kind. While its content is concise and informative, it does seem to be dated. I had to double-check that it had indeed been originally published in 1983 because stylistically speaking (in addition to the weird romanization issues and lack of "modern" symbology that others have mentioned), it seems to stuck in the early 20th century and perhaps a little tainted with the Edward Said notion of "Orientalism." I can't help but get the feeling that it is from an "outsider looking in" perspective, meaning I wish it was written in a more intimate and warmer way, and that if it were, perhaps the text would become more alive. I also found the method of cross-referencing information (by peppering the text with a lot of arrows -->) fairly distracting, and that the descriptions of individual symbols did not really "flow," but rather were written in a piecemeal fashion. Again, I am grateful that this information has been compiled and assembled in this text; however, I wish that it could be updated.
Rating: 
Summary: It needed to revised with the help of a Chinese!
Review: The book can be of help but some of items don't value to know Chinese Culture! But some very modern and popular items are not included in the book. Now I was asked to give my personal comments to it by a Westner, a very good friend of mine and interested in Chinese Culture very much. ....
Rating:
Summary: Good content. Poor romanisation.
Review: The content of this book is more or less well-written. Each item is richly described and explained following the romanised Chinese, Chinese characters, and English translation of the entry. The unfortunate aspect of this publication is in its poor rendering of pinyin romanisation and the absence of simplified alternates to the full-formed Chinese characters. With regards to the pinyin, in practice, syllables of a given meaning unit are grouped as one, forming a polysyllabic word, and are not linked by a dash. Hence, "pinyin" and not "pin-yin", "huzi" and not "hu-zi", "qilin" and not "qi-lin", etc. This also applies to names and titles: "Mao Zedong" and not "Mao Ze-dong". There is a tendency in this book to apply Wades-Giles vowel renderings like replacing "-ong" with "-ung" and "-e" with "-o"; and there is a lack of tonal diacritics or an intermittent application of them when it have been better applied throughout, especially in the heading term to be defined. With regards to the characters, not only is there an absence of the simplified alternates in the head entries, there is an absence of Chinese characters in the following text where they would have been an excellent reference accompanying the pinyin. This is quite disappointing coming from a sinologist who spent years at Beijing University (why some people, including some at the university itself, use the old French postal spelling "Peking" to this day is a mystery to me) and should know better. Still, this is probably the only book of its kind available and you will be immensely rewarded if you are aware of its faults and learn to adjust to them.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: This is a noteworthy volume from someone who for five decades had been one of the worlds preeminent Sinologists. The late Wolfram Eberhard, a former instructor at Peking National University, unfolds the story behind over 400 Chinese characters giving the reader a vivid insight to Chinese life and thought. The book starts with a ten-page introduction to Chinese symbolism and how the Chinese conception of words differ from views held by the West. The remainder of the book is an alphabetical listing of important symbols written in the form of an English-Chinese dictionary. Each entry contains the English word for a particular symbol, the Chinese equivalent (using both Chinese characters and Peking romanization) and an explanation as to why the ideas behind the symbol are important. Many entries are multiple paragraphs long and are accompanied by black-and-white illustrations from Chinese texts. Among the entries are numbers, colors, plants and animals, mythological characters, the cardinal directions, body parts, bodily functions, and several concepts that are uniquely Chinese. While the title implies the book is a dictionary this is a bit of a misnomer. Eberhard uses the dictionary format as a vehicle to introduce the reader to the cultural symbolism that lies behind selected Chinese characters. You will not find any detail on radicals, stroke order, stroke counts, or pronunciation as you might in a more typical language-oriented Chinese dictionary. It would be impossible to comprehensively survey even the most common elements of Chinese symbology. The author himself states that his selections follow from a few basic themes such as health, happiness, and longevity. For a volume of its size and given the level of detail that it contains, Eberhard's work is about as comprehensive as one can get. The only real detraction is the lack of an index. Language students might also be disappointed by the lack of pin-yin romanization. The book is wonderful as a stand-alone primer on Chinese culture or as an adjunct text for students of the Chinese language who desire an intimate knowledge of the latent symbology that accompanies many Chinese words.
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