THE HANLIN ACADEMY

From the Ming period on, immediately after the announcement of the results of the palace examination, the top scorer was appointed to be the first-class compiler in the Hanlin Academy.  The Hanlin Academy was really a secretariat under the emperor’s supervision that compiled books and drafted decrees.  Its staff performed editing and compiling tasks and further served as a source of young official who could be sent to the provinces as the need arose.  The Academy also served as a research institute and sometimes served as key advisors for the emperors.  Under the Ming, it also supervised the civil service examinations, participation in classical and historical discussions with the emperor, and even as imperial envoys.  

YONGLE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA

The Yongle Encyclopedia is a large-scale encyclopedia–the largest in pre-modern China--arranged by subject categories traditionally used in China. The entire work is comprised of 22,877 juan (sections) of text proper and a prolegomenon and index in 60 juan, all bound in 11,095 volumes, amounting to about 370 million characters in all. The encyclopedia preserved textual information from about 8,000 texts of all kinds, from pre-Qin times to the early Ming dynasty, covering the works of famous specialists in such areas as astronomy, geography, human affairs, famous objects, yin-yang philosophy, Buddhism and Daoism, crafts, and so forth. In addition to being large in scale and broad in scope, the Yongle Encyclopedia was neatly transcribed and finely illustrated, making it a true treasure among manuscripts.

Emperor Kangxi’s Collection of Books was smaller than the Yongle Encyclopedia, but it was more influential because Kangxi had it printed and distributed.  Qianlong’s Complete Library of the Four Treasures was too large to publish at 93,556 pamphlet-sized volumes but was safely deposited in seven libraries throughout China.  

Through all of these projects, the Chinese were able to emphasize its cultural tradition.