The ''Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao'' ("Annotated Catalog of the Complete Imperial Library") is an annotated catalog of the thousands of works that were considered for inclusion in the '' Siku Quanshu''. Work for the 200-chapter catalog began in 1773 and was completed in 1798. The ''Siku Zongmu'', as it is also known, is the largest pre-modern Chinese book catalog. It contains

bibliographic Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

notices on all 3,461 works that were included in the ''Siku Quanshu'', as well as shorter notes on 6,793 works that were not included in the imperial library but listed only by title (''cunmu'' 存目). Thousands of books are omitted from the catalog, including the almost 3,000 works that were destroyed by the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

because they were considered to be anti-

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

. The notices themselves were written by many hands, but the final drafts were edited by chief editor

Ji Yun Ji Yun (; 1724–1805), also known as Ji Xiaolan () or Ji Chunfan () was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer. He was an influential scholar of Qing dynasty China and many anecdotes have been recorded about him. Ji Yun left behind a bo ...

. The content of the ''Annotated Catalog'' reflects the strength of

Han learning Han learning (), or the Han school of classical philology, was an intellectual movement that reached its height in the middle of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in China. The focus of the movement was to reject neo-Confucianism in order to return ...

in Qing scholarly circles.

Notes and references

* * {{Authority control 1798 non-fiction books Bibliography Chinese encyclopedias Qing dynasty literature