coobybook Chapter 199 Yongle Encyclopedia (Part 1)!
Chapter 199 Yongle Encyclopedia (Part 1)!
[Task Name: The Tao Can Be Talked]
[Grade requirement: National treasure level]
[Task time limit: None]
[Mission Reward: 1 clue to the discovery of the Yongle Encyclopedia, 1 bio-battery technology]
Bai Xi took a breath of cold air. This time, the system boss was really generous!
Not to mention that she had finally found the battery technology she had always dreamed of, just talking about this first reward...
It’s enough to get people excited!
This is the Yongle Encyclopedia!
1403 years.
The first year of Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di's reign.
In order to eliminate the resentment among the government and the people after the "Jingnan Campaign", he hoped to win over the people's hearts through culture and ordered the compilation of a big book.
This great book contains 7,000 to 8,000 books from all over the world. More than 2000 people participated in its compilation. It has a total of 370 million words in volumes and volumes and is named...
"Yongle Encyclopedia".
Looking at the history of all civilizations on Earth, this is the first completely compiled encyclopedia of civilization!
There are two versions of the Yongle Encyclopedia.
They are the Yongle Encyclopedia, completed in the seventh year of the Yongle reign of Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty, also known as the Yongle Original or Yongle Edition;
There are also Jiajing copies or Jiajing transcripts that were re-recorded during the reign of Emperor Jiajing.
The two versions are exactly the same in terms of content, size, format, font, etc. There is no difference.
The encyclopedia has always been hidden deep in the Forbidden City, and only two emperors, Hongzhi and Jiajing, actually read it.
However, such a masterpiece that can be regarded as the root of China was lost later.
Let’s talk about the Jiajing copy first.
The copy was stored in the Jingyi Pavilion of the Hanlin Academy during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. Since then, ministers have successively borrowed the lost books from the Da Dian collection, and the Da Dian has been stolen and lost one after another.
50 years later.
During the Qianlong Emperor's compilation of the Siku Quanshu, an inventory was conducted and it was found that more than a thousand volumes of the Jiajing copy were missing.
During the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, when the Da Dian was used to compile the Complete Tang Poems and the Complete Geography of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of copies were stolen by officials.
During the Second Opium War in the tenth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign, the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing and countless items of fine works were lost.
By the first year of the Guangxu reign, that is, 1875, there were less than 5000 copies.
In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and the Hanlin Academy became a battlefield.
Most of the remaining volumes were burned, but someone found dozens of them in the rubble.
The ignorant invaders used the big stones instead of bricks to build fortifications and even made them into horse troughs.
Those who had some understanding of the value of ancient books took the opportunity to plunder them. The British Embassy, which was adjacent to the Hanlin Academy, took advantage of its proximity and gained the most.
The Yongle Encyclopedia, looted by British and French officers, became the main destination for the encyclopedia's dispersion abroad.
As of 2022.
There are only more than 800 volumes and 400 copies of the Yongle Encyclopedia left in the world, scattered in the hands of more than 30 units and individuals in 8 countries and regions.
There are 221 volumes in the National Library of China and 60 volumes in the 4V Library.
Each copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia is a unique copy and is priceless.
After the late Qing Dynasty.
The Yongle Encyclopedia is like a prehistoric site sunk into the ground. No one can tell how many copies there are in the world and where they are scattered.
From time to time, new zero volumes are "archaeologically excavated" and appear in libraries, auction houses, collectors, and even farmers' homes.
The last time the Yongle Encyclopedia appeared was last year, in 2014.
Compared to the miserable Jiajing copy, the Yongle original's "resume" is much simpler:
Since the copy was re-recorded, the original copy has disappeared, and all the classics handed down today are the Jiajing copies.
That's right.
No original copy has been found yet.
The loss of the Yongle original copy was later called the biggest mystery in the history of Chinese books, and it is a recognized one.
To know.
That’s a total of 20,000 volumes and more than 10,000 books.
If it was looted, there would be no way there would be no traces - the invaders would also write diaries or records. In later generations, when China became powerful, even records of the seven volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia that were taken to South Vietnam could be found.
Therefore, historians have always had three views on the original version of the Yongle Encyclopedia:
the first.
They were burned in the war.
After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Yipanshi, Li Zicheng fled back to Yanjing and hastily became emperor.
After having enough fun.
Li Zicheng set fire to the palace and then fled.
The fire burned down most of the Forbidden City, leaving only the Wuying Hall, Jianji Hall, Yinghua Hall, Nanxun Hall, the surrounding corner towers and Huangji Gate intact.
The original copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia may have been hidden or placed somewhere in the Forbidden City and was directly burned by the fire.
second.
Hidden somewhere during the war.
Because books are extremely important to ancient Chinese intellectuals.
When many ancient scholars died, they often held their favorite books in their arms rather than their children and grandchildren.
When the country was in chaos and the country was in danger, the Yongle Encyclopedia was very likely hidden somewhere.
For example, the Mogao Grottoes were where some eminent monks in Dunhuang during the Song Dynasty stored their Buddhist scriptures.
At that time, many Han monks became monks in Dunhuang, and a large number of books and scriptures were preserved in the temple.
After the Western Xia army invaded Dunhuang, they forced the monks to leave.
The monks were unable to take so many books with them, and fearing that foreign soldiers who did not know Chinese characters would burn the cultural treasures, they carefully hid them in caves.
The monks were then either killed or driven away, and the secret was never revealed.
But books themselves are immortal. Hundreds of years later, the Mogao Caves were discovered, and a large number of books were still published.
Normally.
Copies of such a large-scale book as the Yongle Encyclopedia exist for the purpose of backup and preservation.
According to the Ming Dynasty's system, it is more likely that the original copy was placed in Nanjing.
After all, Nanjing is the former capital of the Ming Dynasty, and there is still a team of government left behind.
These books may be hidden in a secret place in Nanjing, and backed up separately from the copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia in Yanjing.
After all, to this day, there are still many secrets of the Ming Dynasty in Jinling that have not been solved.
For example, where is the underground palace of Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum?
No one knows yet.
As for the third one...it is also the one with the most supporters...
The Yongle Encyclopedia was buried with Emperor Jiajing in his Yongling Mausoleum.
Emperor Jiajing was extremely fond of the Yongle Encyclopedia during his lifetime, to the point of being unable to put it down and being obsessed with it.
Later he recast the Jiajing copy, after which the Yongle original copy completely disappeared.
Therefore, many people believe that there is a high possibility that the original copy of the "Yongle Encyclopedia" was buried with the deceased.
Of course.
The reason why speculation is speculation is that it also has some loopholes that cannot convince others.
For example, the tomb of Jiajing.
After all, the Yongle Encyclopedia has tens of thousands of volumes, and the entire book is so huge that it can fill several trucks.
It stands to reason that the book might require a large tomb chamber specifically to house the books.
However, preliminary explorations have shown that the Yongling Mausoleum and Dingling Mausoleum of Emperor Jiajing are of similar size, and no specially developed tomb chambers have been found.
So it has been.
People have never stopped speculating about the Yongle Encyclopedia, and no one knows the truth.
But the only thing that is certain is.
Once the "Yongle Encyclopedia" comes out, its value will exceed almost all the national treasures currently available!