thumb|The Yongle Encyclopedia, in 2014, on display at the [[National Library of China]]

thumb|The Yongle Encyclopedia volume 2262

thumb|A page from the manuscript of 'Yongle Encyclopedia'. [[Chester Beatty Library]]

The Yongle Encyclopedia () or Yongle Dadian () is a Chinese leishu encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424) of the Ming dynasty in 1403 and completed by 1408. It comprised 22,937 manuscript rolls in 11,095 volumes.

Background

Although known for his military achievements, the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424) was an intellectual who enjoyed reading. His love for research led him to develop the idea of categorizing literary works into a reference encyclopedia to preserve rare books and simplify research. Instrumental to this undertaking were the Yongle Emperor's own changes to the function of the Hanlin Academy.

The encyclopedia was completed in 1408 or chapters, in 11,095 volumes, occupying roughly , and using 370 million Chinese characters—the equivalent of about a quarter of a billion English words (around six times as many as the Encyclopædia Britannica). It was larger in size, used special paper, and was bound in a "wrapped back" (, bao bei zhuang) style. The use of red ink for titles and authors, an ink exclusively reserved for the emperor, helped to confirm that the volumes were of royal production. The Yongle Dadian may have been destroyed in the fire.

  • The original was buried with the Jiajing Emperor. The time when the Jiajing Emperor was buried was very close to the time of completion of the manuscript copy. Jiajing Emperor died in December 1566, but was buried three months later, in March 1567.

thumb|The Yongle Encyclopedia volume 808 on display at the Bodleian Library in Oxford University

Sections 10,270 and 10,271 of the Yongle Encyclopedia reside at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

51 volumes are in the United Kingdom held at the British Library, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, and Cambridge University Library; the Library of Congress of the United States holds 41 volumes; Cornell University Library has 6 volumes; 5 volumes are held in various libraries across Germany.

Two volumes were sold at a Paris auction on 7 July 2020, for more than €8 million (US$9 million).

See also

  • Chinese encyclopedia
  • Four Great Books of Song
  • List of most expensive books and manuscripts
  • Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China
  • Complete Library of the Four Treasuries

References

Citations

Sources

  • Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, Anne Walthall, James B. Palais. (2006). East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. .
  • Guo Bogong (). Yongle dadian kao . Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937.
  • Digitized chapters of the Encyclopedia:
  • 221 chapters held by the National Library of China in Beijing (online via the World Digital Library)
  • 49 chapters held by the British Library in London
  • 41 volumes held by the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
  • 9 chapters held by the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin
  • China to Digitalize World's Earliest Encyclopedia. People's Daily Online. April 2002 - aspirations, pending approval.
  • Biggest and Earliest Encyclopedia. chinaculture.org.
  • Experts Urge Collectors To Share World's Earliest Encyclopedia. china.org.cn. April 2002.