They go back to the first real Chinese dictionary, Shuowen jiezi "Explaining simple characters and analyzing complex characters", from the first century. https

They go back to the first real Chinese dictionary, Shuowen jiezi "Explaining simple characters and analyzing complex characters", from the first century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi