The Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China (or the Gujin Tushu Jicheng) is a vast
encyclopedic work written in China during the reigns of the
Qing dynasty emperors
Kangxi and
Yongzheng. It was begun in 1700 and completed in 1725. The work was headed and compiled mainly by scholar
Chen Menglei (陳夢雷). Later on the Chinese painter
Jiang Tingxi helped work on it as well.
The encyclopaedia contained 10,000 volumes. Sixty-four imprints were made of the first edition, known as the Wu-ying Hall edition. The encyclopaedia consisted of 6 series, 32 divisions, and 6,117 sections.[1] It contained 800,000 pages and over 100 million
Chinese characters,[2] making it the largest
leishu ever printed. Topics covered included natural phenomena,
geography,
history,
literature and
government. The work was printed in 1726 using copper
movable type printing. It spanned around 10 thousand rolls (卷). To illustrate the huge size of the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China, it is estimated to have contained 3 to 4 times the amount of material in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.[3]
One of Yongzheng's brothers patronised the project for a while, although Yongzheng contrived to give exclusive credit to his father Kangxi instead.
Name
The Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China is known as the Gujin Tushu Jicheng (
traditional Chinese: 古今圖書集成;
simplified Chinese: 古今图书集成;
pinyin: Gǔjīn Túshū Jíchéng;
Wade–Giles: Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng;
lit. 'complete collection of illustrations and books from the earliest period to the present') or Qinding Gujin Tushu Jicheng (
Chinese: 欽定古今圖書集成)[5] in Chinese, also translated as the Imperial Encyclopaedia, the Complete Collection of Ancient and Modern Illustrations and Texts, the Complete Collection of Ancient and Modern Writings and Charts, or the Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times.
Compilation
The
Kangxi Emperor hired
Chen Menglei of
Fujian to compile the encyclopedia. From 1700 to 1705, Chen Menglei worked day and night, writing most of the book, including 10,000 volumes and around 160 million words. It was originally titled the Compendium or Tushu Huibian (图书汇编). By 1706 the book's first draft was completed, and the Kangxi emperor changed the title to Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China (Gujin Tushu Jicheng). When the Yongzheng emperor ascended the throne, he ordered Jiang Tingxi to help Chen Menglei finish the encyclopedia for publication by around 1725.[6]
Heavens/Time/Calendrics (历象): Celestial objects, the seasons, calendar mathematics and astronomy, heavenly portents
Earth/Geography (方舆): Mineralogy, political geography, list of rivers and mountains, other nations (Korea, Japan, India,
Kingdom of Khotan,
Ryukyu Kingdom)
Man/Society (明论): Imperial attributes and annals, the imperial household, biographies of mandarins, kinship and relations, social intercourse, dictionary of surnames, human relations, biographies of women
Nature (博物): Procivilities (crafts, divination, games, medicine), spirits and unearthly beings, fauna, flora (all life forms on Earth)
Philosophy (理学): Classics of non-fiction, aspects of philosophy (numerology, filial piety, shame, etc.), forms of writing, philology and literary studies
Economy (经济): education and
imperial examination, maintenance of the civil service, food and commerce, etiquette and ceremony, music, the military system, the judicial system, styles of craft and architecture
The six series in total are subdivided into 32 subdivisions.
Note that a pre-modern sense is intended in both "society" (that is, high society) and "economy" (which could be called "society" today), and the other major divisions do not match precisely to English terms.
Gallery
Part 1: Heavens/Astronomy
Part 2: Geography
Territories
Map of the Qing dynasty's east coast (Mongolia and Taiwan marked as 蒙古 and 臺灣, Ryukyu and Korea marked as 琉球 and 朝鮮)
Further inside China (Chengdu marked as 成都 and the northern desert marked as 沙漠)
Kingdom of women (
女人國), recorded in travels during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, possibly referring to some part of
Australia. It is mentioned in the
History of Yuan and was described by the Yuan dynasty traveler
Wang Dayuan.
^Allen, Tony; Grant, R. G.; Parker, Philip; Celtel, Kay; Kramer, Ann; Weeks, Marcus (June 2022). Timelines of World History (First American ed.). New York:
DK. p. 176.
ISBN978-0-7440-5627-3.
^Fowler, Robert L. (1997), "Encyclopaedias: Definitions and Theoretical Problems", in P. Binkley, Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts, Brill, p. 9; citing Diény, Jean-Pierre (1991), "Les encyclopédies chinoises," in Actes du colloque de Caen 12–16 janvier 1987, Paris, p. 198.
^Wilkinson, Endymion Porter; Wilkinson, Scholar and Diplomat (Eu Ambassador to China 1994–2001) Endymion (2000).
Chinese History: A Manual. Harvard Univ Asia Center. p. 605.
ISBN978-0-674-00249-4.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)