Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components


The Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components is a lexicographic tool used to order the Chinese characters in mainland China. The specification is also known as GF 0011-2009.
In China's normative documents, "radical" is defined as any component or 偏旁 of Chinese characters, while 部首 is translated as "indexing component".

History

In 1983, the Committee for Reforming the Chinese Written Language and the State Administration of Publication of China published The Table of Unified Indexing Chinese Character Components , a draft version of the current standard. In 2009, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the State Language Work Committee issued The Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components, which includes 201 principal indexing components and 100 associated indexing components.

Usage

This table has been adopted in the newer versions of Xinhua Zidian and Xiandai Hanyu Cidian. While mainland China has a different method to identify a Chinese character's indexing component from Traditional Chinese dictionaries, many dictionaries index Chinese character in a "multi-entry" way which allow readers to look up a character through different radicals.
The specification specifies the table may also be used in Traditional Chinese dictionaries or dictionaries that collect both traditional and simplified forms of Chinese characters with some necessary adjustments.

List of radicals