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Yongle Dadian (Yongle Canon) is a reference book of materials taken from various sources and compiled according to subjects for reference use. When it was finished in the 16th century, it was known as the biggest encyclopedia in the world for its rich content and vast collection. Even today, compared with the updated encyclopaedia of the world, it still wins first place as far as its contents and size are concerned. 1155815.cn
In July 1403, Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty asked Xie Jin, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, to be in charge of the compiling of the book. When it was finished in December 1404, it was initially entitled Wenxian Dacheng (A Vast Collection of Documents). But the emperor was not satisfied with its brief content so he ordered it to be recompiled and sent the prince's tutor, Yao Guangxiao, to supervise the project. More than 2000 people were involved in the compilation. By the end of 1408, the whole book was finished, prefaced by the emperor himself and renamed as Yongle Dadian, in which Chinese characters were listed in order of their rhymes, and all relevant historical and literary documents were listed under each character. Apart from the collection of books of the Imperial Library, another seven to eight thousand books were bought from all parts of China for the compilation. The whole book, including contents and notes, were in 22937 volumes bound into 11095 booklets, covered 3.7 hundred million Chinese characters, and collected enormous materials from the Pre-Qin Period (before 221 B. C. ) to the Ming Dynasty (1368---1644 A. D. ). Many ancient works were collected in Yongle Dadian and were hence preserved.
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A transcript of the book was made during the reigns of Emperors Jiajing and Longqing of the Ming Dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty was overthrown, the Imperial Library was destroyed, and the original Yongle Dadian was burned. The transcript was partially lost during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty. When the aggressive troops of the Eight-power Allied Forces came to Beijing, much of the transcript was burnt, and almost all the rest was plundered. In 1960, a photo-offset copy in 730 volumes was published by Zhonghua Book Company. In 1984, an enlarged edition was reprinted in 797 volumes. wish.1155815.com
Siku Quanshu (The Imperial Collection of Four) finished during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty is the biggest book series in ancient Chinese history. It was so named because in the old times, Chinese books were divided into four categories: classics, history, philosophy and belles-letters. In the early Tang Dynasty (618---907A. D.) the four categories of books in the Imperial Library were kept in storage in four separate storerooms. Siku Quanshu was such a comprehensive collection that it really deserved the title. Ever since 1772, when Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty issued an imperial edict to collect books, 33000 books of various kinds had been collected wthin ten years. In 1781, the initial book was finished. And three copies were made in the following three years. In 1787, another three copies were made. Now, over a hundred years later, there are only four copies existing.
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Siku Quanshu includes a total of over 3500 kinds of books in over 79000 volumes, which is 3.5 times the size of Yongle Dadian . It has served as a good preservation and sorting of those ancient Chinese works concerning politics, economy, philosophy and literature.
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