Yongle dadian

Chinese encyclopaedia

Also known as: “Yongluo Dadien”, “Yung-lo ta-tien”

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Article History

Chinese:: “Great Canon [literally, Vast Documents] of the Yongle Era”

Wade-Giles romanization:: Yung-lo ta-tien

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Yongle dadian, Chinese compilation that was the world’s largest known encyclopaedia. Compiled during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) by thousands of Chinese scholars under the direction of the Yongle emperor (reigned 1402–24), it was completed in 1408. The work contained 22,937 manuscript rolls, or chapters (including the index), in 11,095 volumes and was designed to include all that had ever been written on the Confucian canon, history, philosophy, and the arts and sciences. It was, in effect, a vast collection of excerpts and entire works from the mass of Chinese literature. Fewer than 400 volumes of the three manuscript copies of the set survived into modern times. About 800 rolls have been published in photo-offset copy.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.