Is the Yongle Grand Ceremony Lost?

Yongle Dadian is a collection of ancient China classics compiled by Yao and others at the behest of Ming Taizu during Yongle period of Ming Dynasty. It was originally named "literary masterpiece", and later Ming Chengzu personally wrote the preface and named it "Yongle Grand Ceremony". The book has 22,877 volumes (60 volumes in the catalogue, 22,937 volumes in * * *), 1 1095 volumes, with about 370 million words, bringing together seven or eight thousand kinds of ancient and modern books.

In the first year of Yongle (A.D. 1403), Judy made up her mind to write a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation to show her national prestige and benefit all generations. The aim is to "compile all the hundreds of books on classics and history since the book was made, as for astronomy, geography, yin and yang, medical divination, Buddhism and Taoism, and the number of skills." Initially, Jie Jin presided over the compilation (scale 147 people).

A year later, it was edited into a documentary masterpiece, but it was very dissatisfied after reading it in person, and Yao was appointed as the producer. At the same time, the editing team was expanded to 2 196 people (more than 3,000 people in total), and it was finalized in the fifth year of Yongle (A.D. 1407). Judy personally prefaced and named the Yongle Grand Ceremony. The whole book was copied in the sixth year of Yongle (AD 1408).

The original Yongle Dadian has not yet determined whether there is a permanent tomb, but the copy of the Dadian was destroyed, most of it was destroyed by war, and a considerable part was stolen by later generations in the name of repairing books. Today, there are only over 800 volumes, which are scattered all over the world. The contents of Yongle Dadian include classics, history, books and collections, involving astronomical geography, Yin and Yang medicine, divination, interpretation of Tibetan Taoist scriptures, drama, crafts and agriculture, covering thousands of years of intellectual wealth of the Chinese nation.

Encyclopedia Britannica called China's Ming Dynasty book Yongle Dadian "the largest encyclopedia in world history". It has become an important symbol of China culture.

The Historical Value of Yongle Dadian

There are abundant historical materials of Song and Yuan Dynasties in Yongle Dadian. When the Library of Sikuquanshu was opened in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, Anhui scholar Zhu Jun invited him to "collate Yongle Dadian, select uncommon books and compile them", and with the approval of Emperor Qianlong, he set up a "Collating Institute of Yongle Dadian Collection". There were 30 people at first, and then there were nine famous scholars.

In the forty-six years of Qianlong (178 1), * * compiled books: 66 kinds of classics, 4 1 species, divided into 103 species and set 175 species, with a total of 385 species and 4946 volumes. 4620- 14629 has a book "Official Rules and Regulations", which is a compilation of files about the civil service system and performance appraisal system of officials in the Song Dynasty. The records of Li Zongnian in the Southern Song Dynasty can make up for the vacancy in the collation of Song Yao Hui to Ningzong.

In the past, Luo Zhenyu only copied the official rules in the second volume of Yongle Dadian, which was collected by the Japanese, and it has always been regarded as a treasure. Now we can supplement seven volumes according to Yongle Dadian, which will be more conducive to our research on the official system of the Song Dynasty.

The Grand Ceremony is a masterpiece. Although there are only fragments left in the Grand Ceremony, it can be used as evidence for those who study the laws and regulations of the Yuan Dynasty. Another masterpiece of the Yuan Dynasty, History of the Yuan Dynasty, has nearly 800 volumes of original books, which records the geographical division and evolution of the Yuan Dynasty in great detail, as well as mountains and rivers, products, local tributes and ancient relics. It is also an important document for studying yuan dynasty history.

As the largest and most mature book in ancient China, Yongle Dadian has more value than the above points. Even the existing fragments are rich treasures of ancient literature, medicine, language and geography in China.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Yongle Grand Ceremony