Yongle Encyclopedia Collenction, Research

Yongle dadian (永乐大典), as a great encyclopedia, was compiled in the early Ming Dynasty, most documents of which were collected from the old edition of Song and Yuan Dynasty, so it is the resource from which many lost books of Song and Yuan Dynasty can be collected and compiled. From Ming Dynasty, there have been nearly one thousand kinds of documents collected and compiled from Yongle dadian. The study of collection and compilation from Yongle dadian is an important topic to study Yongle dadian, and many monographs have discussed about it, yet most of which limit the study to a certain aspect, and lack in systematicness and comprehensiveness. This article tries to gather the materials as many as possible, in order to show the complete features about collection and compilation from Yongle dadian and figure out their achievements in different periods. At the same time, the author, by means of returning to the original condition, analyses the specific books collected and compiled from Yongle dadian, with purpose of discussing the merits and demerits of the books so as to provide lessons for compilation in our time.According to the retain and lose of Yongle dadian and the traits of collection and compilation, the author divides the work of collection and compilation from Yongle dadian into four periods: the period before Siku Academy, the period of Siku Academy (四库馆), the period of Quantangwen Academy (全唐文馆) and the period after Quantangwen Academy. This article mainly studies the former three periods.The part of introduction outlines the history of compilation, lose and recollection of Yongle dadian, generalizes the present situation of the research, and surveys the studying emphasis and method in the article.In chapter one, the author studies the collection and compilation from Yongle dadian in the period before Siku Academy when thenumber of the available volumes was the most. The feature in the period is to collect the materials as soon as they were seen. According to the materials newly found, the author discusses the exploit in initiation of Zhang Siwei (张四维) and Quan Zuwang (全祖望). The first appendix shows the thorough achievements of compilation in the period.In chapter two, the author studies the collection and compilation from Yongle dadian in the period of Siku Academy when large number of books was collected to reach high achievements. The topics included in the chapter are: analyzing the distribution of the compilers and the principles of determining lost books; comparing the extant two catalogues which indicate what Yongle dadian has or loses, and researching the exiting and lost volumes of Yongle dadian at that time with the purpose of figuring out the literature basis of compilers' collection; counting the number of compilers, studying the role of Yu Minzhong (于敏中) and Ji Yun (纪昀) as the ministers; probing into the procedure of compilation, and researching the catalogue which shows the documents singled out by the compilers, which are conveyed in appendix two and three; analyzing and determining the principles one special compiler collected one book, and researching forty compilers' achievements; investigating and recording the books which have not been found; exhaustively discussing the success and failure of the compilations and so on.In chapter three, the author studies the collection and compilation from Yongle dadian in the period of Quantangwen Academy, with Xu Song' (徐松) work as a representative. The first section summarizes the total achievements in the period. The second section researches into Xu Song's achievements of collection. The emphasis is on local records (方志) and Zhongxing Lishu (中兴礼书 ) . The collection of local records mainly exist in three books: Henanzhi (河南志), Tangliangjingchengfangkao (唐两京城坊考), Dengkejikao (登科记考). The discussion of Zhongxing Lishu involves five parts: editions, its writings' position of Yongle Dadian, thenames of categories, the division of the volumes, the complements of the lost volumes. In appendix four the author supplements the lost materials by the edition of Jiang Guangyu (蒋光焴).In the conclusion, the author generalizes the collection and compilation in the period after Quantangwen Academy, and summarizes the total achievements as appendix five. At the same time, the author researches the popular topic of the compilation from Yongle dadian — local records, and presents the opinion of Zhang Guogan (张国淦) and Huang Yansheng (黄燕生).