China Studies: Dacheng User Guide

This guide is intended as an additional resource for students and other UW library patrons who want to use Dacheng Journals (大成故纸堆).  

Some important notes on using Dacheng:

• The Dacheng database that UW subscribes to is the 老旧刊 (Old Journals) database. Information from the other databases is not available.
• Users can search using traditional or simplified characters. However, results will appear in simplified characters.
• Users can search in English. However, the results will be limited to English language material.
• The Dacheng search engine only searches for keywords in the table of contents. It does not search the contents of articles. Users are therefore advised to search the table of contents for articles that might be relevant to their research, but that may not appear using a keyword search.
• Only authors' names as they appear in the table of contents will appear in search results. Users are advised to also try searches using pseudonyms (号), courtesy names (字), etc.

Performing a Quick Search on the Main Page:

• Select the 老旧刊 (Old Journals) source tab;
• Select a search category [题名 (title)/ 作者 (author)/ 刊名 (journal title)];
• Enter a search term and click 检索 (search)

Option 1- Browsing by journal title and issue:

• Click on the 老旧刊 (Old Journals) category icon on the main page. (Note: UW does not subscribe to the other search categories.)

• Select one of the journals (by clicking on its image) and a list of all the issues sorted by year and issue number will appear. (Note: Only a small selection of the journals included in the Dacheng database are pictured. Users are advised to search by journal name-- as described below-- for additional publications.)

• Select one of the issues. Its contents will appear.
• Click on any article to read it. Use the 下载PDF (download as PDF) option in the top right-hand corner to download a copy.

 Option 2- Searching by article title:

• Select 按篇检索 [article title search]. 
  
• Select to search by 题名(title); 作者 (author); or 刊名 (journal title).

Option 3- Searching by journal title:

• Select "按刊检索” [journal title search].
  
• Select to search by 刊名 (journal title); 年代 (publication date); or 出版者 (publisher).

• 刊名 (Journal title): Allows users to search by journal title. After locating the title, click on the link to see all the issues sorted by year and issue number. 
• 年代 (Publication date): Allows users to search for all articles published in a given year. Users must enter a specific year. Entering a decade (e.g., 1930s) will not work. 
• 创刊地  (Place of publication): Allows users to search by city or province.
• 出版者 (Publisher): Allows users to search by publisher name (e.g., 上海商务印书馆). All journals issued by that publisher will appear.