| Siku Quanshu | |||||||||||||||||||
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_WDL3020.jpg) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 四庫全書 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 四库全书 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Complete Books of the Four Repositories" | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Manchu name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Manchu script | ᡩᡠᡳᠨᠨᠠᠮᡠᠨ ᡳᠶᠣᡠᠨᡳᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Möllendorff | duin namun i yooni bithe | ||||||||||||||||||
TheSiku Quanshu, literally theComplete Library of the Four Treasuries,[1] is aChinese encyclopedia commissioned during theQing dynasty by theQianlong Emperor. Commissioned in 1772 and completed in 1782, theSiku quanshu is the largest collection of books inimperial Chinese history, comprising 36,381 volumes, 79,337 manuscript rolls, 2.3 million pages, and about 997 million words.[2] The complete encyclopedia contains an annotated catalogue of 10,680 titles along with a compendium of 3,593 titles.[3] TheSiku Quanshu surpassed the 1403Yongle Encyclopedia created by the previousMing dynasty, which had been China's largest encyclopedia. Complete copies of theSiku Quanshu are held at theNational Library of China inBeijing, theNational Palace Museum inTaipei, theGansu Library inLanzhou, and theZhejiang Library inHangzhou.
TheQianlong Emperor of theQing dynasty ordered the creation of theSiku Quanshu in 1772. Local and provincial officers were put in charge of locating and collecting important books, and the emperor encouraged owners of rare or valuable books to send them to the capital. At first, few did, because of concerns about theLiterary Inquisition, but towards the end of 1772 the emperor issued a decree stating that books would be returned to their owners once the compilation was finished and that the owners would not be punished if their books containedAnti-Qing sentiment. Less than three months after the issue of this decree, four to five thousand books were handed in.
By March 1773, an editorial board composed of hundreds of editors, collators, and copyists had been created inBeijing to gather and review books brought to them.[4] This board included more than 361 scholars, withJi Yun and Lu Xixiong (陸錫熊) as chief editors.[3] Around 3,826 scribes copied every word by hand. They were not paid incash, but each was given a government position after he had transcribed a set number of sections of the encyclopedia.[5] Following its ten-year-long compilation, seven copies were produced of the completed encyclopedia, which were distributed throughout the empire.
By 1782, theSiku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao ('Annotated Bibliography of the Four Treasuries'), a guide to theSiku Quanshu, had also been completed. It contains bibliographical information about the 3,593 titles in theSiku Quanshu and about 6,793 other books that were not included in it. TheAnnotated Bibliography of the Four Treasuries, which was published in 1793, became the largest Chinese book catalog of the time.
The initial compilation of theSiku Quanshu started with theSiku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao bibliography, which was completed by 1773. The first workable drafts were completed in 1781. These included bibliographical information on all the works included in theSiku Quanshu in full as well as a large number of works that are mentioned only by title.[6]
As indicated by its title, the work is structured in four categories, which reference the divisions of the imperial library:
In the course of editing, a large number of corrections were made to local records. Personal documents, often describing the actions of noteworthy local people, were often included in theAnnotated Bibliography of the Four Treasuries if their contents could be verified through central government records. In theSiku Quanshu itself, documents that could not be verified were often included by title only. Even officially sponsored writings, such as local gazetteers, were not safe from the scrutiny of the compilers.[6]
Medical knowledge was often documented through case studies, on the model of twenty-five instances inSima Qian'sRecords of the Grand Historian, which blended narrative with analysis.[7] Similarly, works on philosophy tookHuang Zongxi's writings as their model, though they came to be divided into two types: "archival", meaning scholarly articles, and "cultural", meaning Buddhistkoans. Because authors and previous compilers had not considered philosophical works to form part of historical records, the compilers of theSiku Quanshu redefined the classifications in several compilations and set boundaries based on authors' biographies and the purposes of their writings.[7]
The Qianlong Emperor reviewed many of the works that were being compiled, and his opinions were conveyed through direct comments or imperial edicts. These colored the compilers' criteria for works suitable for inclusion in theSiku Quanshu, especially in relation to works expressinganti-Qing sentiments.[6] This can be exemplified in the compilers' handling of the story ofZhang Shicheng and his rivalZhu Yuanzhang. The Qianlong Emperor sought to discredit theMing dynasty by highlighting the cruelty of its early rulers and contrasting it with the policies of his the Qing. The compilers did not see Zhang Shicheng's rule as legitimate, but as a natural response to the tyranny imposed on the people under the Ming.[6]
The Qianlong Emperor commissioned seven copies of theSiku Quanshu. The first four copies were for the emperor himself and were kept in the north, in specially constructed libraries in theForbidden City,Old Summer Palace,Shenyang, andChengde. The remaining three copies were sent to the south, where they deposited in libraries in the cities ofHangzhou,Zhenjiang, andYangzhou.[4] All seven libraries also received copies of the imperial encyclopediaComplete Classics Collection of Ancient China, completed in 1725.
The copy kept in theOld Summer Palace was destroyed during theSecond Opium War in 1860. The two copies kept inZhenjiang andYangzhou were also completely destroyed, while the copy kept in Hangzhou was only about 70 to 80 percent destroyed during theTaiping Rebellion. The four remaining copies suffered some damage during theSecond Sino-Japanese War. Today, those copies are located in theNational Library of China in Beijing, theNational Palace Museum in Taipei, theGansu Provincial Library inLanzhou, and the Zhejiang Library inHangzhou.[3]
It is said[by whom?] that the Qianlong Emperor did not keep his promise to return books to their owners.[page needed] Any books that did not make it into theSiku Quanshu risked becoming part of theSiku Jinshu (四庫禁書), a catalogue of over 2,855 books that were rejected and banned during the completion of theSiku Quanshu. An additional four to five hundred books were also edited or censored. The majority of the books that were banned had been written towards the end of the Ming dynasty and containedanti-Qing sentiment. TheSiku Jinshu was partially the Qianlong Emperor's attempt to rid China of any remainingMing loyalists by executing scholars and burning any books that made direct or implicit political attacks on theManchu people.[4][page needed][need quotation to verify] However, it has been also pointed out that most works banned under the Qing's censorship have been preserved, whereas most of the works lost were not among those prohibited.[8][verification needed]
Each copy of theSiku Quanshu was bound into 36,381 volumes (册;cè), with more than 79,000 volumes (卷;juàn). In total, each copy is around 2.3 million pages, and has approximately 800 millionChinese characters.
The scholars working on theSiku Quanshu wrote a descriptive note for each book, detailing the author's name along with place and year of birth. Next, after they determined what parts of the author's work would go into the compilation, they analyzed the main points of the author's argument. This short annotation, which reflected their own opinions, was put at the beginning of theSiku Quanshu and formed the Complete Catalogue. The catalogue divided the Siku Quanshu into its four sections (庫;kù; 'repository').[3]
The books are divided into 44 subcategories (类;類;lèi). TheSiku Quanshu includes most major Chinese texts, from pre-ClassicalZhou dynasty works like theI Ching to those written during the Qing.[3][4] Included within the 44 subcategories are theAnalects of Confucius,Mencius, theGreat Learning, theDoctrine of the Mean, theI Ching, theRites of Zhou, theClassic of Rites, theClassic of Poetry, theSpring and Autumn Annals, theShuowen Jiezi, theRecords of the Grand Historian, theZizhi Tongjian,The Art of War, theGuoyu,Stratagems of the Warring States, theCompendium of Materia Medica, and other classics.
