The Yongle Encyclopedia or Yongle Dadian (永樂大典) was commissioned by the Chinese Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle in 1403. It is the world's earliest and largest general encyclopedia.

Two thousand scholars worked on the project, incorporating eight thousand texts from ancient times up to the early Ming Dynasty. They covered an array of subjects, including agriculture, art, astronomy, drama, geology, history, literature, medicine, natural sciences, religion, and technology, as well as descriptions of unusual natural events. The Encyclopedia, which was completed in 1408 at Nanjing Guozijian (南京國子監; the ancient Nanjing University - Nanjing Imperial Central College), comprised 22,877 manuscript volumes in 11,095 books occupying 40 cubic metres (1400 ft³).

Because of the vastness of the work, it could not be block-printed, and it is thought that only one other manuscript copy was made. In 1557, under the supervision of the emperor Jiajing, the Encyclopaedia was narrowly saved from being destroyed by a fire which burnt down three palaces in the Forbidden City. Afterwards, Emperor Jiajing ordered the transcription of another copy of the Encyclopedia.

The original copy has disappeared from the historical record. The second copy was gradually dissipated and lost from the late-18th century onwards, until the roughly 800 volumes that remained were burnt (in a fire started by imperial Chinese forces attacking the neighbouring British legation) or looted/"rescued" by European, American and Japanese forces during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Only around 400 volumes remain, in libraries and private collections around the world.

What happened to the original is not known. There are four hypotheses:

• It was destroyed in the 1449 fire in Nanjing.
• It got burnt in the Palace of Heavenly Purity (in the Forbidden City) during the reign of Qing Dynasty emperor Jiaqing.
• It was destroyed with Wenyuange (the imperial library in the Forbidden City) at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
• It was hidden.

Some think that the Encyclopedia in fact disappeared at the death of Jiajing, having being taken by the emperor to his grave, and they believe that it will yet be found hidden in the tomb complex of Yongling.

See also

• Gujin tushu jicheng (古今圖書集成; A Compilation of Books Throughout History), a later large Chinese encyclopedia made in the early Qing Dynasty.

External links

• Cornell University article on the "Encyclopedia Maxima"
• Destruction of Chinese Books in the Peking Siege of 1900
• In Search of the Yongle Encyclopedia
• China to Digitalize World's Earliest Encyclopedia