 During the Ming Dynasty, Yongle Encyclopedia ( 永乐大典 ) , the world's earliest and largest known general encyclopedia, was commissioned in 1403.
Two thousand scholars worked on this masterpiece, incorporating eight thousand texts from ancient times up to the early Ming Dynasty ( 明朝 ) . They covered an array of subjects, including agriculture, art, astronomy, drama, geology, history, literature, medicine, natural sciences, religion, and technology, as well as descriptions of unusual natural events. The Encyclopedia, which was completed in 1408 at Guozijian ( 国子监 ) in Nanjing, comprised 22,877 manuscript volumes in 11,095 books occupying 40 cubic metres.
Being the vastness of the work, it could not be block-printed, and it is thought that only one other manuscript copy was made. In 1557, under the supervision of the emperor Jiajing ( 嘉靖皇帝 ) , the Encyclopaedia was narrowly saved from being destroyed by a fire which burnt down three palaces in the Forbidden City ( 紫禁城 ) . Afterwards, Emperor Jiajing ordered the transcription of another copy of the Encyclopedia.
The original copy has disappeared from the historical record. The second copy was gradually dissipated and lost from the late-18th century onwards, until the roughly 800 volumes that remained were burnt or looted by foreign forces in 1900. Only around 400 volumes remain, in libraries and private collections around the world.
What happened to the original is not known. There are four hypotheses: Firstly, it was destroyed in the 1449 fire in Nanjing . Secondly, it was burnt in the Palace of Heavenly Purity during the reign of emperor Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty. Next, it was destroyed with Wenyuange ( 文渊阁 ) at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the last hypotheses is being hidden.
Some think that the Encyclopedia in fact disappeared at the death of Jiajing, having being taken by the emperor to his grave, and they believe that it will yet be found hidden in the tomb complex of Yongling. |
