View source for Yongle Dadian

*''Compiled: [[1407]]''
*''Chinese/Japanese'': 永楽大典 ''(yongle dadian / eiraku daiten)''

The ''Yongle Dadian'' is a Chinese encyclopedia compiled in [[1407]], and the largest encyclopedia ever written.

It was commissioned by the [[Yongle Emperor]] in 1407, who commanded 2,000 [[literati]] to assemble it. The final product was divided into 22,877 chapters, and contained the complete canon of the [[Chinese Classics]].

Only a few manuscript copies were ever produced, and most were unfortunately lost in a series of fires in the 19th century; only a few thousand pages are known to survive today, having been discovered in a secondhand bookshop early in the 20th century. These sections contain, among much else, the only surviving copies of a number of [[Song Dynasty|Song]] and [[Yuan Dynasty]] theatrical plays. Some believe, however, that a complete copy of the encyclopedia may have been buried with the Yongle Emperor.

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==References==
*Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire, New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 377. 
*Herbert Plutschow. ''A Reader in Edo Period Travel''. Kent: Global Oriental, 2006. p13.

[[Category:Historical Documents]]
[[Category:Muromachi Period]]