The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

in the

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the

Encyclopedia of China Publishing House The Encyclopedia of China Publishing House () is a publishing company in China. It was established in Beijing on November 18, 1978. The Publishing House has published the ''Encyclopedia of China'' (中国大百科全书) and the Chinese version o ...

, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, beginning in 1980 with a volume on

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

; the final volume was completed in 1993. It comprised 74 volumes, with more than 80,000 entries. Arranged by subject, which numbered 66 (some subjects occupy more than one volume), within each subject, entries were arranged by

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

as many modern

Chinese dictionaries Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...

have been. A

Uyghur language The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xin ...

edition was also published in 2015. A

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

version and a subscription-based online version are also available. A second and more concise edition of the work was published in 2009. The third online edition was released and published in the end of 2018, which is free to use. More than 20,000 scholars participated in this online encyclopaedia program which started in 2011, including some experts from

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

. The encyclopedia has more than 300,000 entries.China to launch own encyclopaedia to rival Wikipedia
''AFP''.

References

External links

The ''Encyclopedia of China'', Third Edition

The database of the encyclopedia of China
{{Subscription required

Chinese online encyclopedias 1980 non-fiction books Chinese encyclopedias 20th-century encyclopedias 21st-century encyclopedias

See also

References

External links