How to add a Chinese dictionary to Calibre

I am trying to read more Chinese books. My Mandarin school teachers are probably having the last laugh, but I am genuinely interested in some of the fiction in the Sinosphere these days. Unfortunately my school-time Mandarin class experience was so poor (old school, traditional, not fun or engaging) that I feel like I am starting from scratch.

Thankfully, technology helps. I no longer have to peruse a large Chinese dictionary by looking up total number of key strokes (even though I'm glad I learned that skill). With a few things in place, I can quickly level up.

I use Calibre for ebooks. It's pretty customizable.

1. Get your Chinese ebooks wherever you get them, and add them to Calibre
2. Click to open and read the Chinese ebook inside Calibre's ebook viewer
3. Highlight some text and mouse over the symbol that looks like a little library
4. A library / lookup window should show up on the right
5. Click Add Source
6. Add the following source: name, MDBG
7. Add the following permalink: https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb={word}

Now, whenever you highlight a word or phrase, it should popup the Chinese dictionary result.

Some example photos:

Highlight text in the ebook to pop out the lookup / dictionary view on the right.

Click add source, then paste the url https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb={word} into the box.

If all goes well, you should now see the definitions from the Chinese dictionary.

Happy reading!