The Xiàndài Hànyǔ cídiǎn 現代漢語詞典 [Dictionary of contemporary Chinese] is a medium-sized reference work of the vocabulary of Pǔtōnghuà 普通話 (standard Mandarin). The dictionary was compiled by the Department of Lexicography at the Institute of Linguistics, the Chinese Academy of Social Science, with Lǚ Shūxiāng 呂叔湘 and Dīng Shēngshù 丁聲樹 successively as editors in chief. The first edition was published in 1978 by the Commercial Press (Shāngwù yìnshūguǎn 商務印書館) in Běijīng.

In February 1956, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued a decree that Pǔtōnghu…