Chinese encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Chinese Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia of China.

Chinese encyclopedias are encyclopedias published in the Chinese language or about China and Chinese-related topics. The origin of encyclopedias in China can be traced to the late Han dynasty, circa 220 CE. Chinese has two words for "encyclopedia, encyclopedic", common baike (Chinese: 百科; pinyin: bǎikē; Wade–Giles: pai-ke; literally: "hundred subjects") and literary dadian (Chinese: 大典; pinyin: dàdiǎn; Wade–Giles: ta-tien; literally: "great canon"). For example, baike quanshu (百科全書 "hundred subjects complete book") "comprehensive encyclopedia" and Yongle dadian (永樂大典 'Yongle [Emperor's] great canon) "Yongle Encyclopedia". Encyclopedic works were published in China for well over one and a half thousand years before China's first modern encyclopedias were published after China's economic liberalization in the 1980s, during the reform period. Several encyclopedias have been published in China since then, including several specialist and children's encyclopedias. The major title currently available - in both paper and online versions - is the Encyclopedia of China (中国大百科全书 Zhōngguó Dà Bǎikē Quánshū), published by Encyclopedia of China Publishing House.

Since the 21st century, with internet use proliferating, a number of online encyclopedias have been started. The three largest online Chinese encyclopedias are Hudong, Baidu Baike and Chinese Wikipedia.

History

Main article: Leishu

The history of encyclopedias in China is distinctive and covers almost two thousand years. Traditional Chinese encyclopedias, called leishu (classified books), differ from the modern encyclopedia in that they are mainly anthologies of significant literature with some aspects of the dictionary. Compiled by eminent scholars, they have been revised rather than replaced over hundreds of years.

The earliest compendium of the kind was the Lüshi Chunqiu (3 c. BCE). However, the Song dynasty scholar Wang Yinglin zh:王應麟 (1223-1296) names the Huang lan zh:皇覽 of the Three Kingdoms (3 c. CE, now lost) to be the first encyclopedia. Among the most prominent in the imperial history are the Tang dynasty Tongdian and the Ming dynasty Yongle Encyclopedia. The Tang precedent was followed by creation of large imperial compendia known as the Ten Universals zh:十通.

Publications

Encyclopedias written in Chinese.

Onlines

Free

Non free

Other related encyclopedias

Though not technically Chinese encyclopedias because they are not written in Chinese, there have been many specialist works in other languages that have focused on China itself as a subject. These include:

English

See also

References

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  17. Archived November 30, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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