This kind of books originated from Huang Lan edited by Wei Wendi and Cao Pi. After Cao Wei pi usurped the Han Dynasty, in the first year (220 \), he organized famous officials and bachelors Wang Xiang, Huan Fan, Liu Shao, Dan Wei and others to take charge of it, and extensively collected and sorted out more than 40 kinds of classics, historical biographies, poems and other books 1000, and compiled them into a comprehensive book of 8 million words, named "Huang Lan".
Since then, many emperors have liked it for its convenience in finding and checking, and followed suit. For example, A Collection of Arts and Literature in the Tang Dynasty, Taiping Review in the Song Dynasty and Ancient and Modern Books Collection in the Qing Dynasty are all representative works. But compared with the grand ceremony, these books are far from each other in terms of scale and collection scope.
Mr. Guo Moruo thinks that the western encyclopedia is similar to the Yongle Grand Ceremony in arrangement form, so he said in the preface of Photocopying the Grand Ceremony: "The completion of the Grand Ceremony not only provides the earliest and largest encyclopedia in China's cultural history, but also is outstanding in the world cultural history." Mr. Zhang also said in the Preface to the History of Yongle Grand Ceremony: "Yongle Grand Ceremony". Therefore, the Grand Ceremony has the reputation of the largest encyclopedia in ancient China. In fact, Da Dian is an encyclopedia compiled in the Ming Dynasty, and there is still room for discussion. The sorting methods of ancient books in China are mainly classified according to things, and some are arranged according to the title of the book or the first word of the item. Yongle Dadian is an arrangement method that classifies words according to rhyme first.
The differences between books such as Yongle Dadian and western encyclopedias mainly include the following aspects:
First of all, Yongle Dadian is a comprehensive collection of all books and materials from ancient times to that time. The related contents are quoted and copied sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph or the whole book, and even the same thing can be compiled into different versions for reference. It is not clear whether it is correct. Western encyclopedias are divided into several volumes and entries according to knowledge categories, and then authoritative scholars are invited to write their own opinions or recommend research results and introduce correct knowledge, academic views and works.
Secondly, according to the current situation, regardless of the ancient books before the Tang Dynasty, there should be more than 10,000 kinds of books published in the Song Dynasty and more than 3,000 kinds in the Yuan Dynasty. When compiling Yongle Dadian, 7,000 kinds can be collected, but up to now, only over 3,000 rare books of Song and Yuan Dynasties have been preserved in the world. That is to say, through Yongle Dadian, we can see a large number of secret historical materials that have been lost from pre-Qin to early Ming Dynasty, which can play an important role in compiling and sorting out ancient books for scholars. In Qing Dynasty, officials of Siku Library compiled more than 300 kinds of lost books, and later scholars compiled 600 kinds, which will continue to be collected in the future. The encyclopedia has the characteristics of textbooks written by scholars at that time and facing the public. With the development of social culture and the update of scientific knowledge, it will be revised and reprinted continuously.
Thirdly, judging from the purpose and function of editing, the main purpose of ancient books such as "Da Dian" is to preserve and sort out historical documents, facilitate inquiry and serve feudal rulers. Encyclopedia is the product of modern education and plays the role of national education.
China's ancient books have played a great role in preserving thousands of years of traditional culture. Although there are different opinions on the evaluation of Yongle Dadian, the evaluation of the Source of Ancient Books Arrangement should be well-deserved, which is beyond the reach of western culture. This cultural classic with China characteristics should certainly occupy a place in the world cultural history.
The sorting methods of ancient books in China are mainly classified according to things, and some are arranged according to the title of the book or the first word of the item. According to the rhyme of "Zheng Yun in Hongwu", Da Dian compiled seven or eight thousand kinds of ancient and modern books at that time into one volume. Different from the current step-by-step arrangement of dictionaries, it should be said that the arrangement of rhymes meets the requirements of China ancient literati's poetry creation. But such a huge book, according to the rhyme, is not very convenient. No wonder contemporary scholars have another evaluation of Li, thinking that she is too big and useless. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why several generations of emperors in the Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to it. It was not until Emperor Jiajing regarded him as a treasure. However, the role and value of Yongle Dadian in preserving ancient books and compiling and collating can not be ignored.