中國以「雜字」為名之書始於漢代，經魏晉南北朝及隋唐不斷，原似屬載古詞難字之工具書，至宋代已演變為具「日常生活便用」及「以具體名物字詞為主」兩大特性之識字認詞用教科書，普遍流通農村鄉民並流傳域外異國。明清時期雜字書發展頗為多元化及多樣化，不僅含識字認詞用的教科書型雜字書，亦有屬檢索字詞意義與查閱生活知識的工具書型雜字書，適用對象不限童蒙成人、士農工商或民間官府，且透過唐船貿易輸入江戶時期的日本。傳入日本的中國雜字書雖各種類型均有，然發展出日人編纂的雜字書則主要為檢索漢文字詞意義並附假名音注的工具書型雜字書，且不論中國雜字書或日本雜字書均普遍為日本漢學家、俗文學家及本草學家編纂、收藏、抄錄或參考、使用，所以如此，實與當時唐話流行之背景密切相關。日本唐話流行因唐通事及黃檗宗僧侶之實務工作需要帶動風潮，而雜字書以其通俗實用內容深為學者重視，並應用於學術研究；而江戶時期日本對中國雜字書的利用與仿行，實為往後日本雜字書的性質與功能定位。透過中國雜字書的日本流傳歷程，除可觀察雜字書在隔海異地得發展之背景及其承繼與創新，亦顯現江戶時期日本學習中文的變化趨勢已由以往對書面中文（文言文）的重視擴至對口語中文（白話文、俗語）的掌握，而此一發展態勢亦影響明治以後日人學習中文之模式。

Every from Han Dynasty, Chinese named books Zazi for its tool book function of ancient words and difficult characters. In a continuous line through Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Northern and Southern dynasties, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, Zazi books became a teaching material to learn characters and words featuring "daily life usage" and "words and phrases of specific matters" in Sung Dynasty. They were widely circulated in rural area and even transmitted to foreign countries. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, with diversified and variety development, Zazi Books not only consisted of the dictionary type of teaching material for characteristics and words, but also of the tool book type for common knowledge of daily life as well as explaining the meaning of indexed words and phrases. Readers were not limited to any age group, general public and government officials, but also exported to Japan through trading inAdo period. Zazi books exported to Japan covered a variety of types, but their derived versions, edited and consolidated by Japanese were mainly used as tool of dictionary for Chinese with phonetic Katakana. Both Chinese and Japanese Zazi books were widely edited, collected, copied, referenced and adopted by scholars of Chinese studies, popular novelists and herbal scholars in Japan. This was closely related to the environment that Chinese was popular there at that time. Chinese popularity in Japan was brought up by the practical need of Chinese Translators (toutuuzi 唐通事) and by the work of monks of Huangbo School Buddhism. The popular and practical content of Zazi Books drew the attention of Japanese Scholars who applied them to academic research. Japanese use and duplication of Zazi Books during Ado period very much positioned the nature and functions of succeeding Japanese Zazi Books. Through the circulation process of Chinese Zazi Books in Japan, we can observe the background, succession and innovation of their development in over seas regions can be made. It also shows the changes and trends of Chinese learning in Japan during Ado period, from focusing on Classical Chinese (wenyanwen 文言文) to mastering oral Chinese (baihuawen 白話文) including idioms. This development also greatly influenced the way of Chinese learning in Japan afterMeiji period.