Encyclopedia is a reference book that briefly introduces all human knowledge or a certain kind of learning knowledge. It is often arranged in the form of a dictionary (with entries as the basic unit), collecting nouns, idioms, place names, events, people, works, etc. in various knowledge fields, but it does not include words, so it is different from a Chinese dictionary. Want to know the largest encyclopedia in the world? Let me tell you, please browse carefully.
The world's largest encyclopedia
The Grand Ceremony of Yongle was compiled in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. Jie Jin, the chief editor of the Cabinet, first named "Literature Dacheng", is an encyclopedic collection of documents in China, with 22,937 volumes (6 volumes in the catalogue), 11,95 volumes and about 37 million words. This ancient cultural treasure house is a collection. However, apart from the fact that the original of Yongle Dadian has not yet determined whether there is a Changling mausoleum, the copies of Yongle have been devastated, and most of them died in the war. Today, there are less than 8 volumes. As a famous encyclopedia in the world, Yongle Dadian shows the glorious achievements of ancient Han culture and is a grand ceremony that embodies great achievements. Encyclopedia Britannica called Yongle Dadian, a Ming Dynasty book in China, "the largest encyclopedia in the history of the world".
Overview of ancient books
Yongle Dadian is the most famous large-scale ancient book in China and the largest encyclopedia in the world so far. Yongle Dadian is a kind of book, which was compiled in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty and completed in six years (143- 148). It preserved the historical geography, literature and art, philosophy and religion and other encyclopedias of China before the 14th century. Compared with the encyclopaedia compiled by Diderot in France and the Encyclopedia Britannica in Britain, it was more than 3 years earlier. It is a treasure of world cultural heritage and the most famous large-scale ancient book in China. The Grand Ceremony of Yongle consists of 22,877 volumes and 6 volumes of contents, which are divided into 1,95 volumes, with about 37 million words.
The scale of Yongle Dadian far exceeds all kinds of books compiled in the previous generation. Even the largest kind of book compiled in Qing Dynasty, The Collection of Ancient and Modern Books, has only 1, volumes and 16 million words, which is less than half of Yongle Dadian. The scale of Yongle Dadian is beyond the reach of western contemporary classics.
according to rough statistics, there are as many as seven or eight thousand kinds of ancient classics selected and preserved in Yongle Dadian, which is five or six times as many as those in previous generations, such as Yi Wen Lei Ju, Taiping Yu Lan and yuan gui, which is a large-scale series compiled in Qing Dynasty, but there are only over 3, kinds of books collected.
Style introduction This is a complete volume of Yongle Dadian, which is 5.3 cm high and 3 cm wide. Measured by the Ming Dynasty construction ruler, it should be one foot five inches six minutes high and nine inches three minutes wide. The format is grand, with royal dignity and verve. Each volume of The Grand Ceremony has about 5 leaves (pages), mainly in two volumes, but also in one volume or three volumes. The leaves of the book are made of snow-white and thick bark paper, which is very elegant and beautiful when opened.
The book coat of Yongle Grand Ceremony
The book coat of ancient books is the cover of modern books, because it is wrapped outside the book like clothes worn by people, and there it is? Book coat? The name of this image.
The book jacket of Yongle Dadian is hard mounted with multiple layers of rice paper, and the outermost layer is covered with yellow silk, which is particularly solemn. This binding form, which is very similar to modern books, is called? Bao Beizhuang? , is a common way of book binding in Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Bao Beizhuang's books should be inserted vertically on the shelf, unlike later thread-bound books lying on the shelf. As you can imagine, more than 1, volumes of "Yongle Dadian" are placed on the shelf, just like a small library, which can really be said to be a magnificent masterpiece.
there is a rectangular bookmark stuck on the top left of the front of the book cover, with the title? Yongle ceremony? There are four characters, and there are two lines of fine print below them, indicating the number of volumes in this book. There is also a box stuck on the upper right side of the front of the book cover, in which the rhyme to which this book belongs is inscribed with ink, and the word "low" indicates which book this book belongs. If you have a copy of Hong Wu Zheng Yun in your hand, you can easily retrieve what you need from more than 1, volumes of Da Dian. Open the Yongle Dadian
Open the book jacket of Yongle Dadian, which is the end of the volume, that is, the first leaf (page) of the text. As you can see, the whole "Da Dian" was written with Zhu and ink. Zhubi is mainly used to draw sidebar lines and write the author and title of cited books; Ink pen is used to write titles, volumes, rhymes, text of books and draw pictures; The circle dot is stamped with a pen tube made of reed, bamboo, bone or jade, which is hollow inside and round outside, dipped in cinnabar inkpad. The overall look dignified and beautiful, Zhu Mo brilliantly.
the arrangement of Yongle dadian
an encyclopedia Britannica, whose words are arranged in the order of 26 letters in English, how to organize the grand Yongle dadian into a whole in ancient China, so that people can quickly retrieve what they are looking for? The editors of Yongle Dadian adopted it? Use rhyme to unify words, and use words to tie things? The method solves this problem. In this plate of Yongle Dadian, below the first line of the scroll? Four? Is the order and name of the rhyme, the second line? Send? Zi is a rhyme word belonging to Ji Yun. Although there are only three words, the role is great!
the content and organization of Yongle dadian. When experts and scholars want to compile an encyclopedia, they often have to determine the items first, and then write them one by one according to a large number of materials. Like the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Encyclopedia of China. The editors of Yongle Dadian should also determine the entries according to the words in the literature, but they don't write any words. Instead, they transcribe all the records of this entry in various ancient books, even the whole book, and point out what articles and books are collected from and who wrote them, so that the source can be clearly checked. This practice is somewhat similar to what Confucius said? Tell without doing? .
The general rule for recording the contents of Yongle Dadian is to use one line of big ink to write the words, two lines of small ink to record the author and title, and the ink pen to record the title and content of the book, just like this plate. There are also articles under the rhyme: the classics or articles edited by Yongle Dadian are generally listed under the heading. But according to the specific situation, some are also listed under the heading. For example, the heading characters in the chart? Zhao? Below, all the records about Lu Zhaogong in Zuo Zhuan are listed below, and one column is several volumes.
Ancient sounds and ancient words are included in the book: In Yongle Dadian, firstly, the phonology, the earliest origin and interpretation of the word in Hongwu Zhengyun should be indicated, and also various scripts and variant characters such as seal script, official script, line, grass script and kai script should be indicated. The content is very rich. You see this heading? Hey? It's listed under the word? Hey? All kinds of writing, really like a calligraphy dictionary.
The responsibility system of Yongle Dadian
Turn to the last leaf (page) of Yongle Dadian, and you can see a few lines of fine print on the blank page, which is a format commonly used in official books of past dynasties to record the job names of scribes, punctuators and verifiers. This practice can also be seen from the earliest extant scriptures written by the Tang people. During the Yongle period, there was a strict responsibility system when copying the Yongle Dadian, and it was not allowed to hire someone to write it. The government supplies inkstone, pitcher, pen and ink, meals and charcoal in winter. If there is a mistake in copying a page, send a paper and write it separately, no matter how many times you copy it, it is only one page. Those who go slow are punished according to the crime. This method was also used to re-record the Grand Ceremony between Jiajing and Jiajing, and each person copied three pages a day. There is no trace of alteration, mending or addition in the Yongle Grand Ceremony today, which shows that the responsibility system was strict at that time. On this plate of the last leaf of Yongle Dadian, we can see the names of the general school official, the branch school official, the scribe and the person who circled, and their responsibilities are very clear.