Yongle Encyclopedia

The Yongle Encyclopedia was a vast Chinese manuscript encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor and completed in 1408. Its entries copied and arranged material from earlier works rather than using a modern subject-indexed format.

Chinese encyclopedia: A reference work that compiles knowledge across multiple subjects in the Chinese literary tradition. The Yongle Encyclopedia belongs to a long Chinese tradition of state-sponsored compilations.
Yongle Dadian manuscripts: The surviving handwritten volumes and fragments of the Yongle Encyclopedia, preserved in scattered collections. These physical witnesses reveal the scale, handwriting, and later survival of the compilation.
Yongle Emperor: The third emperor of the Ming dynasty, who ruled from 1402 to 1424. He ordered the compilation as an expression of imperial learning and authority.
Jiajing Emperor: The Ming emperor who ruled from 1521 to 1567 and ordered a second manuscript copy of the encyclopedia. His reign produced the surviving complete copy after the original was lost.
Classical Chinese literature: Literature written in Literary Chinese from antiquity through the early twentieth century. Its source texts and quotations came from this broad literary inheritance.
Chinese character rhyme dictionary: A reference work that organizes Chinese characters according to pronunciation and rhyme categories. The encyclopedia's entries were arranged through a rhyme-based system rather than modern subject headings.
Jingnan campaign: The civil war in which Zhu Di seized the Ming throne from his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor. The emperor's contested accession formed the political backdrop to his cultural projects.
Imperial Library of the Ming dynasty: The royal book collections maintained by the Ming court. Court libraries housed the encyclopedia and linked its survival to dynastic fortunes.
Chinese historiography: The tradition of recording and interpreting China's past in written histories. Historical records formed a substantial part of the works it collected.
Classical Chinese bibliography: The cataloging and classification of books written in Classical Chinese. Its organization drew on established practices for arranging and identifying Chinese texts.

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