Summary
The Four-Corner Method or system, in its three revisions, is the one that was most widespread and actually supported by the Chinese state for a while, and is found in numerous older reference works and some still in publication. The small Kangorin Sino-Japanese Dictionary by Yoneyama had a four-corner index when it was introduced in the 1980s, but it has been since deleted.
The four-corner method is not in common usage in China or Taiwan today, although dictionaries with it are available in many bookshops and libraries for those who need or desire to learn or use it. It is identified, in public opinion, with the time when many Chinese were illiterate and the language was not yet unified; more Chinese today use the dictionary to help them write, not read. But it is useful for scholars, clerks, editors, compilers, and especially for foreigners who read Chinese. In recent years it has achieved a new usage as a character input system for computers, generating very short lists to browse.
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