Yongle Encyclopedia

Compiled during the reign of Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Yongle Encyclopedia was ancient China's largest collection of classic works with entries listed by categories. As a massive reference tool, it featured over 7,000 kinds of works from the pre-Qin period to the early years of the Ming Dynasty, covering a wide range of topics including literature, philosophy, history, astronomy, geography, religion, technology, and art. The collection comprised 22,877 chapters (rolls) in 11,095 volumes, totaling about 370 million Chinese characters. A total of 2,196 people were involved in compiling the collection, and when it was finished in 1407, Zhu Di, Emperor Yongle himself wrote the preface for it and named it the Yongle Encyclopedia. Not until 1408 was the final copy completed.

The encyclopedia's compilation was unique in its clever use of rhymes to display Chinese characters to guide the reader to related subjects. For the purpose of indexing, Chinese characters were arranged according to their rhymes, which led to entries from numerous classics, replete with paragraphs, passages or even whole books related to those entries. At the same time, all the sources were noted, and corresponding illustrations included. This well-categorized, comprehensive collection reflected thousands of years of Chinese intellectual wealth. Unfortunately, however, the original copy of the encyclopedia was lost, and the duplicates suffered from fire, war, or theft, and now no more than 4% of the original texts have survived. Notwithstanding, it has still proved to be of great value for later generations. Currently, the National Library of China holds most of what has remained of the Yongle Encyclopedia — a total of 224 volumes, a treasure trove of evidence pointing to China's cultural glory.

《永樂大典》

《永樂大典》是中國古代史上規模最大的類書，編撰于明代永樂年間。這部集中國古代典籍于大成的分類資料工具書，保存了中國自先秦時期到明代初期的典籍資料多達七八千種，收錄了文學、哲學、歷史、天文、地理、宗教、技術、藝術等各類內容，全書共22877卷，11095冊，約3.7億字，堪稱中國古代最大的百科全書。該書編纂隊伍達到2196人，1407年定稿，朱棣親自作序并賜名《永樂大典》。全書于1408年才抄寫完畢。

《永樂大典》巧妙地采用“用韻以統字，用字以系事”的編排方式，依據音韻分出單字，從大量典籍中匯集和該字有關的詞條，再整段、整篇、整部地抄錄與該詞條有關的文獻內容，并注明出處，配有圖畫，由此清晰、詳細、全面地保留了大量古籍，涵蓋了中華民族數千年來的知識財富。遺憾的是，《永樂大典》正本下落不明，副本屢遭火災、戰亂或失竊，現存世界各地的版本不到原書的4%，但依然為后世提供了珍貴資料。中國國家圖書館是世界上《永樂大典》館藏最多的地方，現存224冊，只字片紙都彌足珍貴，蘊藏著中國的精神之源。