The editorial team completed the dictionary in 1998 (publishing it in 2000) in the spirit of Wang's ideal ancient Chinese dictionary, which he outlined in the dictionary's preface and previously in an essay written in the 1940s entitled "An Ideal Dictionary" (理想的字典). In general, the work is informed by and incorporates the principles of Western historical linguistics, something that Wang felt was missing in previous dictionaries that descended more-or-less directly from China's native philological traditions. In the preface, Wang criticized some incorrect interpretations of citations in previously published dictionaries like the "Cihai" or "Ciyuan" for definitions incompatible with the historical evolution of a character's meaning. In addition to giving the original Classical and pre-Classical definitions of a character, it also provides Old Chinese rime group and Middle Chinese "fanqie", and gives collections of characters of common etymological origin, often, but not necessarily, derived from the same graphic element (e.g., 才，財，材 and 家，嫁，居). It also carefully notes definitions that arose post-Classically during the medieval and late imperial periods, and alerts readers to possibly unreliable definitions appearing only once in historical texts (see "hapax legomenon"). The work (published only in Traditional Chinese) was immediately recognized as an authoritative reference for scholars engaged in linguistic or historical research and was awarded first prize in the fourth National Lexicographical Works Prize.