Yongle Encyclopedia
Compiled during the reign of Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Yongle Encyclopedia was ancient China's largest collection of classic works with entries listed by categories. As a massive reference tool, it featured over 7,000 kinds of works from the pre-Qin period to the early years of the Ming Dynasty, covering a wide range of topics including literature, philosophy, history, astronomy, geography, religion, technology, and art. The collection comprised 22,877 chapters (rolls) in 11,095 volumes, totaling about 370 million Chinese characters. A total of 2,196 people were involved in compiling the collection, and when it was finished in 1407, Zhu Di, Emperor Yongle himself wrote the preface for it and named it the Yongle Encyclopedia. Not until 1408 was the final copy completed.
The encyclopedia's compilation was unique in its clever use of rhymes to display Chinese characters to guide the reader to related subjects. For the purpose of indexing, Chinese characters were arranged according to their rhymes, which led to entries from numerous classics, replete with paragraphs, passages or even whole books related to those entries. At the same time, all the sources were noted, and corresponding illustrations included. This well-categorized, comprehensive collection reflected thousands of years of Chinese intellectual wealth. Unfortunately, however, the original copy of the encyclopedia was lost, and the duplicates suffered from fire, war, or theft, and now no more than 4% of the original texts have survived. Notwithstanding, it has still proved to be of great value for later generations. Currently, the National Library of China holds most of what has remained of the Yongle Encyclopedia — a total of 224 volumes, a treasure trove of evidence pointing to China's cultural glory.
《永乐大典》
《永乐大典》是中国古代史上规模最大的类书，编撰于明代永乐年间。这部集中国古代典籍于大成的分类资料工具书，保存了中国自先秦时期到明代初期的典籍资料多达七八千种，收录了文学、哲学、历史、天文、地理、宗教、技术、艺术等各类内容，全书共22877卷，11095册，约3.7亿字，堪称中国古代最大的百科全书。该书编纂队伍达到2196人，1407年定稿，朱棣亲自作序并赐名《永乐大典》。全书于1408年才抄写完毕。
《永乐大典》巧妙地采用“用韵以统字，用字以系事”的编排方式，依据音韵分出单字，从大量典籍中汇集和该字有关的词条，再整段、整篇、整部地抄录与该词条有关的文献内容，并注明出处，配有图画，由此清晰、详细、全面地保留了大量古籍，涵盖了中华民族数千年来的知识财富。遗憾的是，《永乐大典》正本下落不明，副本屡遭火灾、战乱或失窃，现存世界各地的版本不到原书的4%，但依然为后世提供了珍贵资料。中国国家图书馆是世界上《永乐大典》馆藏最多的地方，现存224册，只字片纸都弥足珍贵，蕴藏着中国的精神之源。