The MCT (Main Components Table) consists of 17 categories, and every category corresponds with a section in the main body of the CCD. Every section begins with a header list table (or header table), which contains all header lists of the Character Tables (CTs) in that section. After determining the first component of a character, one only has to scan the header list of that component to find the series header of the series containing the character looked for. The page number at the end of the header list will tell you where to start looking for the series containing the character.
This method for finding characters is relatively fast because:
- For an experienced user of the CCD it usually only takes a second to know which component is the first in a particular character, and therefore, which section contains the character;
- As there are just 17 sections, finding the section header table you need (at the beginning of the section) also just takes a second;
- If you are certain what the first component is, then finding the corresponding header list and the header will probably not take more than a few seconds. If that is not the case, then you may have to check several header lists;
- Once you have found the header that fits completely into the character looked for, then finding the series is usually quite straightforward, as most character tables do not contain more than about ten series (see the header table above, and you’ll see that only two out of the 30 header lists contain more than ten headers);
- Having found the series, finding the character is also usually very straightforward, as most characters are listed in order of the radical. And as radicals are always listed in the same order, you will get used quickly to the order used.
See the page on How to use the CCD for examples.
Click the link to download/browse a pdf with all series headers/phonetics.