<p>According to <a href="http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/41331955.html" rel="nofollow">二十五史的字数是多少？</a>, most of the classics contain five to six thousand unique characters. 《辽史》(Liao history) contains as few as 4071; 《清史》(Qing history) contains as many as 8080.</p>

<p>《史记》93 BC contains 5122 unique characters;</p>

<p>《汉书》83 AD, 5833 unique characters;</p>

<p>《新唐书》1060 AD, 6346字;</p>

<p>《清史》1927 AD, 8080字.</p>

<p>According to <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/1712.htm#6" rel="nofollow">this site</a>, the first dictionary 《说文解字》which was finished in 121 AD contains 9353 characters; another one which was created in 1716 AD contains 47035 characters.</p>

<p>Han dynasty's《说文解字》 finished in 121 AD, contains 9353;</p>

<p>Song dynasty's《集韵》(1034AD) contains 53525;</p>

<p>Qing dynasty's《康熙字典》(1716 AD) contains 47035;</p>

<p>《中华字海》published in 1994 AD contains 85000.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-26T17:53:11.650Z
2014-10-26T17:53:11.650Z
George Chen
<p>I heard classical Chinese had a limited amount of vocabularies compared to modern Chinese. 
How many words one has to learn in order to acquire average reading abilities, disregarding the grammar?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-26T17:53:01.313Z
Not many, several hundreds I guess, if the "average" refers to the quantity that Chinese middle/high school students should learn. However even for native speakers, classical Chinese is difficult because the functional words have too many meanings. It would be a good start to read the novels after Ming Dynasty -- they are closer to modern Chinese , therefore easy to follow.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-27T21:31:06.140Z
The problem in learning to read Classical Chinese is much less acquiring the character-vocabulary than it is learning the grammar and learning to gauge the meaning of very terse sentences.
Colin McLarty
<vocabulary><classical-chinese>
What is the average number of words necessary to read classical Chinese?
# What is the average number of words necessary to read classical Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-26)

I heard classical Chinese had a limited amount of vocabularies compared to modern Chinese.
How many words one has to learn in order to acquire average reading abilities, disregarding the grammar?

**Tags:** vocabulary, classical-chinese

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not many, several hundreds I guess, if the "average" refers to the quantity that Chinese middle/high school students should learn. However even for native speakers, classical Chinese is difficult because the functional words have too many meanings. It would be a good start to read the novels after Ming Dynasty -- they are closer to modern Chinese , therefore easy to follow.  
> **username_2**: The problem in learning to read Classical Chinese is much less acquiring the character-vocabulary than it is learning the grammar and learning to gauge the meaning of very terse sentences.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-10-26. Score: 3

According to [二十五史的字数是多少？](http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/41331955.html), most of the classics contain five to six thousand unique characters. 《辽史》(Liao history) contains as few as 4071; 《清史》(Qing history) contains as many as 8080.

《史记》93 BC contains 5122 unique characters;

《汉书》83 AD, 5833 unique characters;

《新唐书》1060 AD, 6346字;

《清史》1927 AD, 8080字.

According to [this site](http://baike.baidu.com/view/1712.htm#6), the first dictionary 《说文解字》which was finished in 121 AD contains 9353 characters; another one which was created in 1716 AD contains 47035 characters.

Han dynasty's《说文解字》 finished in 121 AD, contains 9353;

Song dynasty's《集韵》(1034AD) contains 53525;

Qing dynasty's《康熙字典》(1716 AD) contains 47035;

《中华字海》published in 1994 AD contains 85000.


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