Online Chinese encyclopedia

Chinese encyclopedias comprise both Chinese-language encyclopedias and foreign-language ones about China or Chinese topics. There is a type of native Chinese reference work called ''leishu'' (lit. "categorized writings") that is sometimes translated as "encyclopedia", but although these collections of quotations from classic texts are expansively "encyclopedic", a ''leishu'' is more accurately described as a "compendium" or " anthology". The long history of Chinese encyclopedias began with the (222 CE) ''Huanglan'' ("Emperor's Mirror") ''leishu'' and continues with online encyclopedias such as the '' Baike Encyclopedia''.

Terminology

The Chinese language has several translation equivalents for the English word '' encyclopedia''.

''Diǎn'' 典 "standard; ceremony; canon; allusion; dictionary; encyclopedia" occurs in compounds such as ''zìdiǎn'' 字典 "character dictionary; lexicon", ''cídiǎn'' 辭典 "word/phrase dictionary; encyclopedia", ''dàdiǎn'' 大典 "collection of great classics; big dictionary"; and titles such as the 801 ''Tongdian'' ("Comprehensive Encyclopedia") and 1408 '' Yongle Dadian'' ("Yongle Emperor's Encyclopedia").

'' Lèishū'' 類書 (lit. "category book") "reference work arranged by category; encyclopedia" is commonly translated as "traditional Chinese encyclopedia", but they differ from modern encyclopedias in that they are compendia composed of selected and categorically arranged quotations from Chinese classics, "the name encyclopedia having been applied to them because they embrace the whole realm of knowledge" (Teng and Biggerstaff 1971: 83).

''Bǎikē'' 百科 (lit. "hundred subjects") in the words ''bǎikēquánshū'' 百科全書 (with "comprehensive book") and ''bǎikēcídiǎn'' 百科辭典 (with "dictionary") specifically refer to Western-style "encyclopedias". Encyclopedia titles first used ''Bǎikēquánshū'' in the final decades of the 19th century.

History

Encyclopedic ''leishu'' anthologies were published in China for nearly two millennia before the first modern encyclopedia, the English-language 1917 '' Encyclopaedia Sinica''.

While English usually differentiates between ''dictionary'' and ''encyclopedia'', Chinese does not necessarily make the distinction. For instance, the ancient '' Erya'', which lists synonyms collated by semantic fields, is described as a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an encyclopedia. The German sinologist Wolfgang Bauer describes the historical parallel between Western encyclopedias and Chinese ''leishu'', all of which arose from two roots, glossaries and anthologies or florilegia.

The boundaries between both are quite fluid at first; the shorter the entries and the more exclusively they are directed to the definition of the word concerned, the more the work partakes of the character of a dictionary, while a longer commentary delving into history and culture and provided with extensive quotations of sources is, conversely, more characteristic of the encyclopaedia. The dividing line between a language lexicon (such as glossaries, onomastica and rhyming dictionaries) and a factual lexicon, to which all general and special encyclopaedias belong, is only clearly drawn when, in addition to the definitions, necessarily supported by literary references, an ''interpretation'' appears which takes into consideration not only the current literary usage but also the thing itself, which not only describes the subject but also, at times, evaluates and thereby forms a true connection between the new and the old. The very characteristic of the traditional Chinese encyclopaedia as in contrast to that in the West is that these distinctions were ''never'' clearly drawn. All Chinese encyclopaedias are anthologies, upon which were grafted greatly varying forms of dictionary arrangement. They consist of (generally quite long) quotations arranged in one order or another and, although they may include an opinion on the subject, they rarely contain an original opinion.

Robert L. Fowler, Professor of Greek at the University of Bristol, says that although comprehensiveness is a primary criterion in defining an "encyclopedia", there are encyclopedias of individual subjects (e.g., ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'') that defy the etymology from Greek ''enkyklios paideia'' "the circle of subjects". He says, "To call a comprehensive treatment of one subject an "encyclopaedia" is a catachresis known already in medieval China, where the term ''leishu'', properly a collection of classical texts on many fields, came to be applied to similar treatments of one subject only, for instance the use of jade".

Imperial period

Chinese scholar-bureaucrats compiled about 600 leishu traditional Chinese "encyclopedias" between the 3rd and 18th centuries. About 200 of these are extant today, and 10-20 are still used by historians. Most were published by imperial mandate during the Tang dynasty (618-907), Song dynasty (960-1279), Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and early Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Some ''leishu'' were huge publications. For instance, the (1726) ''Gujin Tushu Jicheng'' contained an estimated 3 to 4 times the amount of material in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition''.

Although most scholars consider the 222 CE ''Huanglan'' (see below) to be the first Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia. Needham, Lu, and Huang call the late 4th to early 2nd centuries BCE '' Erya'' the oldest Chinese encyclopedia, and consider its derivative literature (beginning with the ''Fangyan'' and ''Huanglan'') as the main line of descent for encyclopedias in China.

The c. 239 BCE ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', which is an anthology of quotes from many Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical texts, is another text sometimes characterized as the first Chinese "encyclopedia". Although its content is "encyclopedic", the text was compiled to show rulers and ministers how to govern well, and was not intended to be a comprehensive summary of knowledge.

During the Han dynasty, the 2nd century BCE ''Shiben'' ("Book of Origins") was the earliest Chinese dictionary / encyclopedia of origins. It explained imperial genealogies, the origins of surnames, and records of legendary and historical inventors. Among subsequent encyclopedias of origins, the largest was Chen Yuanlong's 1735 ''Gezhi Jingyuan'' (格致鏡元, ''Mirror of Scientific and Technological Origins'').

Shortly after the fall of the Han dynasty, the first true Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia appeared. The 222 ''Huanglan'' ("Imperial Mirror"), which is now a lost work, was compiled for Cao Pi, the first emperor of the Three Kingdoms Cao Wei

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