The Yongle Dadian: The Origin, Destruction, Dispersal and Reclamation of a Chinese Cultural Treasure 中國文化珍藏 ──永樂大典的起源、毀壞、分散與收復

Lauren Christos Biscayne Bay Library Florida International University, U.S.A. Email: [email protected]

Keywords（關鍵詞） ： Yongle Dadian（永樂大典） ; （翰林書院） ; Cultural Repository（文化貯藏） ; Intellectual Repository（智識貯藏）; Library （圖書館） ; Peking Siege（北京圍攻）

【Abstract】 relying on siege diaries and other primary source materials, the author will present what The history of the Yongle Dadian’s[1] crea- occurred on that fateful day of June 23, 1900 tion, near total destruction, its wanton dis- when the Hanlin Academy was reduced to persal, its promising reprinting and possible ashes and its contents looted. Lastly, the digitization, is but one example of a fasci- author will conclude with the recent reclama- nating cultural treasure worth studying. As tion efforts of the Yongle Dadian and touch this paper will show, even the partial recovery upon the role of libraries as repositories of of an artifact brings to light the significant intellectual heritage and cultural record. contribution of a culture, a time, and a people. 永樂大典的編作起源幾近毀壞，肆意分散的 The author will trace the course of the Yonele 歷史，以及翻印與數位化的可能性，使它成為 Dadian over 600 years. From the original 值得研究的文化寶藏。誠如本文之呈現，即使 compilation during the fifteenth century Ming 是部分古籍的修復，也能對文化、時代以及民 Dynasty to the burning and looting of the 族作出重要貢獻。作者將追溯永樂大典六百多 prestigious Hanlin Academy where it was 年的歷史，從十五世紀明朝時原典的編纂，到 held during the 1900 Siege of Peking. The 西元 1900 年間，北京被圍攻時，永樂大典的貯 function and rising importance of the Hanlin 藏地「翰林書院」被焚燒以及劫掠。本文也將 Academy as a cultural repository of Chinese 討論翰林書院作為貯藏中國學術成就的功用和 scholarship will be discussed. In addition, 重要性。此外，根據北京圍攻的紀錄和其他文

82 Journal of Library and Information Science 36（1）：82 – 91（April, 2010）

獻，作者也將陳述西元 1900 年 6 月 23 日當天 emperor, though considered a “warrior emperor,” was 翰林書院被焚燒與劫掠的過程。結論中，將討 also a man of education, writer, philosopher, calligra- 論近來為收復永樂大典所做的努力，以及探討 pher, and historian. As a patron of literature, he com- 圖書館在貯藏人文遺產和古蹟的角色。 missioned this mammoth undertaking with the thought “It is (as difficult) as sieving the sand for “...to boost the imperial library’s collection, making the gold, or scouting the sea for diamonds.” encyclopedia the only source for ancient books now long lost,” (Bray, 2002) however Goodrich and others Zhu Di (in state that the proposal “…for this undertaking was preface to Yongle Dadian, 1408) officially made by the [3] (1369 – 1415) of the Hanlin Academy on July 19, Part I: The Origin and History 1403” (Bray, 2002). Goodrich goes on to state that the of the Yonle Dadian Emperor approved Xie’s proposal, appointed him edi- The Yongle Dadian was a massive and unique colla- tor and gave him 147 assistants. Either way, the Grand tion of Chinese literature, culture, knowledge and ex- Secretariat was given the task of oversight and the perience; it remains a singular and remarkable project was underway. However after 17 months of achievement. The Yongle Dadian spans the equivalent conscientious devotion to the project, the emperor of 8,000 years worth of texts in one encyclopedia and rejected their first draft, titled “Wenxian Dacheng”[4] embraces four main topics: the Confucian canon, his- or Great Collection of Documents, citing it as incom- tory, philosophy, and the general literature of China. Dr. plete. W.T. Swingle[2] broadly describes the Yongle Dadian The Yongle Emperor added the imperial scholars as “a universal compendium of all existing Chinese Yao Guangxiao and many other scholars and imperial history, ethics, science, art, geography, religion, in a officials to the mission. During the following five word, of all human knowledge among the Chinese up years, these scholars persevered in collecting and to 1400 A.D.” (Wilcox, 1947, p.20). L. Carrington copying between 7,000 and 8,000 texts, documents, Goodrich specifies “thought, morals, poetry, frontier and other materials from the Pre-Qin Period (221 people (the Xiongnu and Hu for example), geography, B.C – 207 B.C), also known as the Spring and Autumn surnames, government, law, the spirits, biography, periods, up to the (1368 – 1644). Thou- divination, architecture (gates, bridges, halls, store- sands of scholars traversed China’s countryside houses, walls, offices), villages, capital cities, history, searching for texts that had not been previously re- burial customs, astronomy, botany, grain, military corded or seen since ancient times. Other Hanlin matters, Buddhism, Taoism, travels, bronzes, food and scholars worked on the compilation of the texts within drink, caves, dreams, scholars, drama, sacrifices, the Imperial Library at . Finally, on December clothing, mathematics, carpentry, post stations, sha- 14, 1407, Yao re-submitted the Wenxian Dacheng to mans, literary collections (Goodrich, 1901, p.18). Two the Emperor. By now, the encyclopedia had grown to other prominent scholars in this field add “….as well 22,211 sections, or juan, bound as 11,095 handwritten as descriptions of unusual natural events” (Davis & folio volumes, “. . . 370 million characters on magnifi- Cheng, 2007, p. 436). The collection was commis- cent paper bordered with red silk, covered with perfect rd sioned by the 3 Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the script in black lacquer with punctuation and notes in Yongle Emperor Zhu Di (reigned 1402 - 1424), who vermilion, all bound in imperial yellow damask silk”[5] was also known as Ming Chengzu, his Yongle era (Polastron, 2007, p.102). This work was painstakingly means "Perpetual Happiness” (Tsai, 2001, p. 436). The copied character for character. Exact copies produced

圖書館學與資訊科學 36（1）：82 – 91（民九十九年四月） 83

not only a key dictionary, but more importantly an burning the palace and taking away many precious extraordinary, grand “lei-shu”[6] or encyclopedia, the artifacts now displayed in British, French, and U.S. earliest and largest one to date. Many of these traditional museums, eyewitness Robert Swinhoe, recorded in his characters originally copied from ancient texts are no memoir “Narrative of the North China Campaign of longer in use today. With the addition of 60 juan form- 1860,” “What they could not carry away, they smashed ing the index and the emperor contributing a preface in to atoms” (Sanello, 2004, p.6). A bibliophile and which he used the phrase “completed in the winter of British interpreter among the troops realized the his- our sixth year,”[7] the final encyclopedia contained torical importance of the Imperial Archive and man- 22,937 juan. At last, bearing the name of his reign pe- aged to save several wagon loads of books which he riod, the Yung le Emperor was satisfied and bestowed sent to the British Museum. At this time, the last re- upon it the title of Yongle Dadian, Vast Documents of the maining copy was held in the Hanlin Academy Li- Yongle Era or Grand Canon of Yongle. brary, “…nearly complete…but not cared for,” (Coul- ing, 1917, p. 256), and like its original was bound cov- Upon its completion, the original was kept in the ered with yellow silk, each volume being 1 foot by 8 Ming Dynasty capital of Nanjing. In 1409, a copy of inches in length by one foot in breadth, and averaging this extraordinary work was to have been printed, but 1 – 2 inches in thickness. Sadly, this, the only Yongle the expense of woodblock cutting was too great and Dadian manuscript copy, long revered by scholars and the work so large that the Yongle Dadian was never emperors, over time fell prey to poor preservation printed; it existed only in a simple manuscript copy in whether through theft, rodents or insects, warfare or Nanjing. In 1421, Yongle moved the capital from fire. Calculations indicate that of the 11,095 volumes Nanjing, along with the Yongle Dadian, to Bei- existing in 1407, only about 800 remained in 1900. It jing, Here it was kept in the emperor’s Old Summer was left to the Siege of Peking in 1900 to halve what Palace, in the [8] library called little remained of the once magnificent Yongle Dadian. Wenyuan Ge. A 1557 fire nearly burned the em- peror’s palace. In the 1560’s a second copy was made and housed in the Huang Shi Chen or Imperial Ar- Part II: The Hanlin Academy chives in Nanjing. A third manuscript copy was later The prestigious Hanlin Academy (Hanlin Yuan) was moved to the Hanlin Academy Library during the pe- founded in the 8th century during the riod of the Emperor Yong Zheng (1723 – 1736), the (618 – 907 AD) by Emperor Xuanzong. The Hanlin fourth emperor of the . The original Yon- Academy originated as “. . . a society of gle Dadian in Nanjing possibly perished by fire in scholar-officials. . . when medieval emperors granted 1449. However, there is speculation that the Jiajing their personal favorites an honored place as special ad- th Emperor, the 11 emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had it visors within the palace.” (Elam, 1989, p. 383 ). The placed in his tomb and it may one day be found hidden Chinese term Hanlin has several interpretations, all in the tomb complex of Jiajing (Mote, 1986). equally appropriate descriptions explaining the institu- The first manuscript copy probably perished in the tion’s various functions. Professor of East Asian Lan- collapse of the Ming Dynasty (Zhang, 1986). Some guages at Harvard University, Stephen Owen, inter- volumes have long been scattered, but the largest preted Hanlin Yuan as “Forest of Writing Feathers,” number were destroyed when invading British and “Forest of Brushes” “Brush Wood Court,” "Forest of French troops sacked the Summer Palace and the Im- Scholars" or even “Forest of Quills.” Taizu, the first perial Archive in the autumn of 1860. Along with emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1328 – 1398) defined the

84 Journal of Library and Information Science 36（1）：82 – 91（April, 2010）

academy’s purpose: “. . . to provide a body of the excellent treatments and numerous eye-witness scholar-officials for literary services to the Inner Court” accounts from 1900 siege diaries regarding the rebel- (Mote, 1999, p.601); they were responsible for drafting lion and the events that occurred inside the legations in proclamations and edicts, processing documents and Peking.[10] However, one of the most thorough and supplying specialists for high-level clerical support to compelling accounts of the siege is by Sir Claude the emperor. However, it was the third emperor of the MacDonald. The various sources addressing the cause Ming Dynasty, Yongle, who was interested in elevating of the fire are in conflict. The Chinese attest that the the status of these officials, selecting only those who British began the fire, and the British point to the Chi- ranked the highest in their special examinations to serve nese. Yet, it is difficult to believe that the Chinese in the prestigious academy. Yongle successfully turned would deliberately set fire to their own library know- daily administrative tasks over to higher ranking minis- ing their reverence for their cultural tradition and re- ters with the goal of creating a more dignified and seri- spect for their cultural record. Fleming argues that the ous central government. As a result, the emperor diplomats did not believe the “... Chinese would do fashioned this elite scholarly institution and designated anything to imperil a building which housed the oldest the imperial officials to perform secretarial, archival, and and richest library in the world” (1959, p. 122). Ac- literary tasks for the court. cording to correspondence of the events at Peking, “At 11:15 a.m. a determined attack was made on the Hanlin It was during the Yongle’s reign that the Hanlin inclosure. . .a fresh north wind was blowing and the Academy became more involved in editing and com- flames were carried nearer and nearer to the Legation piling various projects, such as anthologies, and phi- building; a stubborn fight was maintained until late in losophical and literary works, such as the Yongle Da- the afternoon when the flames were got under, but not dian. The Hanlin contained Chinese bibliographic before more than three-quarters of the temples, exami- treasures and centuries of cultural accumulation. nation halls, and libraries forming the Hanlin College, Hanlin scholars had access to the imperial library and had been destroyed” (Parliamentary Paper, No. 4, 1900, archival resources. In a 1996 conference proceeding p. 5). There is also some thought that it was a shift in paper titled “The Hanlin Academy and Cultural Au- the strong north wind veering to the northwest that was thority in the Early Fifteenth Century, Ditmanson as- the culprit. To quote Fleming again: serted that “. . . that the academy functioned as the proxy of the court in the intellectual and literary circles The old buildings burned like tinder with a of the day” and was “…a central repository of literati roar which drowned the steady rattle of mus- culture and tradition.”. Fortunately, for the scholars ketry as Tung Fu-shiang's Moslems fired who labored and lovingly compiled the Yongle Dadian wildly through the smoke from upper windows. would never know of the catastrophic losses the Yon- Some of the incendiaries were shot down, but gle Dadian would suffer over the coming centuries, or the buildings were an inferno and the old trees of the demise of their most venerable academy. standing round them blazed like torches. The firefighters had already demolished the nearest Part III: The Siege of Peking of Hanlin halls. The next one was the library. (1959, p. 122). It is not within the scope of this article to give an account of the [9] or the stirring story Davis and Cheng continue: of the actual Siege of Peking during that late hot and It was then that the British defenders imme- humid summer of 1900. The author will leave that to diately began systematic destruction of most of

圖書館學與資訊科學 36（1）：82 – 91（民九十九年四月） 85

the remaining building of the Hanlin, along famous Royal Library of Alexandria founded in the 3rd with their precious contents. Some of the century B.C. and continuing with an inventory of other books were taken as booty by the curious. cultural repositories or institutions there are numerous Others were simply thrown on the ground and examples of cultural destruction. (Prescott, 2005; still others tossed into lotus ponds and later Zgonjanin, 2005) The following list is only a small buried—all covered when the compound was listing of intellectual and cultural obliteration. leveled soon after the siege. (2007, p. 435). ● The House of Wisdom in Baghdad, circa 11th What we do know is that the Hanlin Academy Li- century; Glastonbury Abbey in Britain, 1539 brary was “. . . China’s largest repository library” ● The Library of Congress, 1814 (Knuth, 2006, p. 183). There is no complete record or catalog of the library’s irreplaceable and unique con- ● The focus of this paper, the Hanlin Academic Li- tents. What we do know is that among the valuable and brary, 1900 rare works lost in the flames was the pride of the li- ● The Catholic University of Louvain Library, 1914, brary – the Yongle Dadian. Nearly 60 days after the 1940 assault on the legations and the destruction and looting ● The Commercial Press and the Oriental Library in of the Hanlin, “. . . Peking was reached, stormed at Shanghai, 1932 different points, and the Legations relieved, or rather what was left of them”[11] (Satow, 2006, p. 153). ● The Angevin Archives in Naples, 1943 Along with the destruction of the Yongle Dadian, the ● Jaffna Library Tamil, 1981 library also included 36,000 volumes of the Siku Quan ● The National University Library of Bosnia and Shu or the Four Treasure Library, which was com- Herzegovina, Sarejevo, 1992 pleted in 1782, during the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty. It consisted of some 3,500 selected titles in 36,000 ● The Hakim Nasser Khosrow Balkhi Cultural Cen- manuscript volumes and included 385 books drawn tre, Afghanistan, 1998 from the Yongle Dadian (Davis & Cheng, 2007, p.437). ● The National Library and Archives of Iraq and As William Blades wrote in his 1888 book The Ene- The Library of the Korans, Baghdad, 2003 mies of Fire, “THERE are many of the forces of Nature What does it mean to lose libraries and great book which tend to injure Books; but among them all not collections? Why does the study of these losses extend one has been half so destructive as Fire.” (1888, p.1). our understanding of political, religious, social, cul- The following section will discuss several historical tural, and intellectual history? When we analyze the examples of the destruction of library collections and value of libraries and their importance to collective the importance of reclaiming and preserving libraries memory, and not merely value them for their purely as intellectual and cultural repositories. informational content, we move into the realm of as- sessing group contributions to the intellectual and cul- Part IV: Reclamation of Yongle tural heritages on a global scale. Valencia argues that Dadian group identity and culture are products of communica- Throughout history, most nations have been marked tion and that collections of text embody the collective by war and revolutions. There has been no shortage of memory of that group (2005). There is a Jewish a succession of devastation that has plagued libraries proverb which says that when a man dies, a library dies and archives throughout the world. Beginning with the with him. But the obverse is also true: when you de-

86 Journal of Library and Information Science 36（1）：82 – 91（April, 2010）

stroy a library you destroy the memory of a people and jiaguwen, from the Shang Dynasty (16th – 11th centu- a culture, and render them culturally homeless (Bevan, ries B.C.). While researching the destruction of Chi- 2005, p. 8). Furthermore, according to Boylan, the nese libraries, the author would mention several of the destruction of physical evidence of existence of a great many private and public libraries that were de- group’s culture is legally defined as genocide in the stroyed by war or political upheaval. From 1937 to Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 1945, some of China’s most important losses occurred Crime of Genocide of 1948 (1993). The Hague Con- during the Sino-Japanese War and include the National vention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the University of Qinghua and National University of Hu- Event of Armed Conflict is the document that governs nan, the Institute of Technology, the Medical and Ag- treatment of cultural property during war. Signed in ricultural College of Hepei, Universities of Daxia, 1954, this convention describes a model principle: Guanghua, and Nanjing; all were destroyed by bombs. The Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai had its collec- Cultural property is of importance not only tion transferred to Tokyo. From 1949 to 1957, follow- to its originators or to the community of its ing the Communist take-over, libraries all over China origin, but to all humankind – it is in all of our were purged of “reactionary, obscene and absurd” pub- interests to ensure that it is safeguarded when lications (Hoeven, 1996, p.15; Ting, 1983, p.139). threatened by war. The Convention’s definitions During the Cultural Revolution, a systematic effort was of cultural property include not only the library made to purge and destroy all politically incorrect collections, but the buildings used to house these books. All libraries were closed for various lengths of collections. (Valencia, 2002, p. 11). time between 1966 and 1970. Some were closed per- By safeguarding collections, culture, collective manently and burned.[12] Others were thoroughly memory and group identity, libraries serve as intellec- purged; only the books of Marx, Lenin and Mao were tual and cultural repositories because they represent spared. Although no record was kept of the losses, it is “. . . national and cultural identity and aspirations” and clear that destruction of books took place on an un- allow “. . . access to educational and cultural re- precedented scale (Ting, 1983, p.141). sources” for the entire human community (Rayward There is no record of what was in the collection of and Jenkins, 2007, p. 361). This paper has studied one the Hanlin Academy Library. The contents are irre- example of such cultural destruction - The Hanlin placeable. Only about 370 volumes, or 809 juan (sec- Academy Library in China and, in particular, the Yon- tions), of the more than 11,000 volumes of this great gle Dadian. Nevertheless, recall that in the century 15th century encyclopedia have been accounted for in following the First Opium War (1840 – 1842), other China and elsewhere. On a slighter, brighter note, after Chinese cultural relics had been swept away at a scale World War II the Soviet Union returned 64 volumes unprecedented in China’s history. Besides the pilfering --11 volumes in 1951 and 53 more in 1954. East Ger- in , from Lost Memory, a UNESCO report on many returned 3 volumes in 1955. By 1959, the Na- libraries and archives destroyed and damaged during tional Library of China possessed 216 volumes from the twentieth century, the author would include Dun- the original collection. The Library of Congress in the huang Buddhist relics; the legendary city of Heishui in United States received 29 volumes in 1923 and 12 today’s Inner Mongolia; the three ancient kingdoms of more a few years later. These 41 volumes in the United Loulan, Milan, and Khotan, built in Northwest China’s States have yet to be returned (Xinhua News Agency, Silk Road; as well as the earliest of Chinese inscrip- 1996). The United Kingdom has 51 volumes, Germany tions on tortoise shells and bones, pictographs, called 5, and the Republic of Korea and Japan both are keep-

圖書館學與資訊科學 36（1）：82 – 91（民九十九年四月） 87

ers of the Yongle Dadian. Duplications or photocopies largest library in Asia and the fifth largest in the of the extant volumes were accomplished by the Chi- world. Also attending the symposium, Ren Jiyu, di- nese Press, which published juan 797 since 1959 and rector of the National Library, stated, "We plan to the Taiwanese, who published juan 742 in 1962. In finish duplicating all the existing volumes that can be 1963, juan 6933 and 6934, together in one volume, found in the Chinese mainland within one and half was purchased by the British Museum from the widow years” and “… hope s we can reprint the other volumes of Captain Francis Garden Poole. Poole was in charge scattered outside China" (Bray, 2002). Also in atten- of the British defense in the legation during the siege dance, University of Texas Professor Davis, a leading and rescued/looted the volume.[13] Other volumes scholar in library history in the United States, led a continue to be held: Cornell University has juan plan to digitize the Yongle Dadian. For the first time in 13,853 in the Wason Collection,The National Central 600 years, the Yongle Dadian has been republished by Library in Taipei has juan 7,527, and The Chester The Beijing Library Press. Full-size replicas have been Beatty Library in Dublin has juan 803/4,805/6, 10, made of all volumes held at the National Library of 110/1. None of these have been returned to China. China. "It is the first time in the world to have photo- Out of 22,877juan (excluding the table of contents), copies of the encyclopedia in its original size, color only 809 juan remain and can be accounted for, less and style," Guo Youling, director with Beijing Library than 4% of the original. Press, told Xinhua. "We are making every effort to make it resemble the originals so as to give readers an In the 2001, at the Society for Ming Studies Evening idea of the Yongle Dadian" (Bray, 2002). While these Meeting in Association with the Asian Studies Con- facsimile reprints are an important contribution to- ference in Chicago, Soren Edgren, the distinguished wards preservation of this treasure, digitizing the Yon- Sinologist and Chinese bibliographer at Princeton in gle Dadian would be an ideal solution. According to charge of The Chinese Rare Book Project at Princeton Edgren “A few years ago, a digital edition of the Yon- University, outlined his proposal for the return to the gle Dadian (Yongle Dadian was planned to be pub- People’s Republic of China of the original Yongle Da- lished jointly by Gale Publishing and the National dian volumes held in American libraries. He argued Library of China, but nothing happened” (Edgren, “…. that the publication of reprinted versions makes it personal communication, July 10, 2009). unnecessary to hold these materials in this country United States and that returning them would be a sig- Answers to lingering questions elude us: “How many nificant gesture of goodwill". The following year, at more volumes from this unique collection exist in Euro- the first international symposium, Edgren addressed pean and Japanese research libraries or are in private the International Federation Library Association dele- hands is a matter of speculation,” said Davis, “How many gates in Beijing marking the 600th anniversary of the souvenir volumes, carried home by people in the Allied Yongle Dadian compilation. There 90 experts and Legations in 1900 and hidden away in attic trunks, is noted scholars from over 50 institutions “agreed it is unknown. Some could yet appear” (Bray, 2002). imperative to reprint all the remaining parts of the encyclopedia so it can be studied and shared by more Notes people” (Bray, 2002). The National Library of China The author would like to thank Amanda Hagan for reports only 62 volumes of the 400 volumes extant. allowing me use of her home library and Ana Caber- The most complete of these surviving later Ming Dy- era-Luna for her assistance in locating other needed nasty copies of the Yongle Dadian are kept there, the library materials.

88 Journal of Library and Information Science 36（1）：82 – 91（April, 2010）

[1] Also referred to as Yongle da dian, Yung Lo Dian, tions wrought by literacy see: Joseph A. Adler, The Yonglo dadian and Yung-lo ta-tien and the Confucian "Temple of Cul- [2] Dr. Walter Tennyson Swingle (1871-1952) spoke ture.” Xian means fundamental laws or polity. For a Chinese and accumulated a large personal library on brief but fine reading of all things Ming see: Hucker, Chinese agriculture procuring over100,000 books on The Traditional State in Ming Times, p.51). Chinese botany for the Library of Congress. [5] Bound in 11,100 volumes, covered with yellow [3] It is not unlikely that the proposal came from the silk, each volume being 1 foot by 8 inches in length by Grand Secretariat in conjunction with the Emperor. one foot in breadth, and averaging 1 – 2 inches in This was a time of greater collaboration among the thickness, each juan (section) contained about 20 Hanlin scholars and the Emperor. 66% of all Ming leaves, making a total of 917,480 pages for the whole grand secretaries had also served in the Ministry of work. Each page consisted of 16 columns of characters Rites, and 56% of the latter went directly from the averaging 25 to each column, or a total of 366,992,00 to the Grand Secretariat. In Ming characters (nearly 3.7 million characters) See: An Ex- political life, we see the Hanlin Academy, Ministry of hibition of Oriental and European Manuscripts, Bulle- Rites, and Grand Secretariat converging. In a typical tin of the New York Public Library, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, bureaucratic career, then, a successful graduate (nor- January, 1914. To gain a better understanding of the mally with high honors) in the metropolitan and palace vastness of this monumental work, the Yung Lo Da examinations was first appointed to the Hanlin Acad- Dian 12 times the size of the encyclopedia put together emy where he served the court as a compiler, editor, or by the 18th Century French author Diderot, and which as personal secretary to the emperor. From there he experts predict hit the scales at 40 tons. (Davis, 1996). went on to serve in a variety of possible positions but [6] For a thorough treatment of the lei-shu and en- eventually became a fixture in the Ministry of Rites, cyclopedia, I would refer you to Christoph Kaderas, often as a capital or provincial examination official Die Leishu der imperialen Bibliothek des Kaisers supervising the examination system. The Ministry of Qianlong (The lei-shu in the imperial library of the Rites then served as a springboard for promotion to the Qianlong emperor. Asienund Afrika-Studien der Grand Secretariat, which until the eighteenth century Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, vol. 4. Wiesbaden: remained the highest advisory body in the state appa- Harrassowitz, 1998. The combination “lei” and “shu” ratus. See: Benjamin Elam, Imperial Politics and Con- began to occur together only later in the seventeenth fucian Societies in Late Imperial China: The Hanlin century. Kaderas concludes his book by offering a and Donglin Academies. Modern China, Vol 15, No 4 definition of “lei-shu” translating this term as “Hand- Oct., 1989, p. 385. buch” (handbook). [4] Wen has been a central concept in Confucian [7] In this preface the number of juan is given as thought throughout its long history in China. The 22,937, excluding the table of contents 60 juan, obvi- character wen originally denoted the marks of writing ously the editors had added some 700 juan in the in- on bamboo or other surfaces, a meaning that it contin- terim between Dec 14, 1407 and the writing of the ues to carry today--e.g. denoting a piece of writing preface Dec. 17, 1408. Also: the emperor’s referral to (wenlun, an essay or thesis) or literature in general. But the “sixth year” corresponds to the sixth year of his already before ' time, it had also come to mean reign, not the sixth year of the compilation. See: Good- culture or civilization in general--particularly literate rich, More on the Yongle Dadian culture. Thus the modern word for culture is wenhua, [8] The Forbidden City was China’s imperial palace literally "writing-transformation," i.e. the transforma- from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty,

圖書館學與資訊科學 36（1）：82 – 91（民九十九年四月） 89

also known as the Manchu Dynasty and was the last 1302. ruling Chinese Dynasties of China, ruling from 1644 to Boylan, P.J. (1993). Review of the convention for the 1912. protection of cultural property in the event of armed [9] For an excellent source recounting the Boxer conflict (The Hague Convention of 1954). [Paris]: Rebellion See: Diane Preston, The Boxer Rebellion, UNESCO. New York 1999. Bray, M. (2002, April, 18). “China mega-book gets [10] For graphic accounts of the siege of the Lega- new life.” Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved May 25, tions See: Allen, The Siege of the Peking Legations, 2009 from http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/ (London, 1901); Hooker, Behind the Scenes in Peking. asiapcf/east/04/18/china.book/ (London, 1910); Gamewell, Mary Porter Gamewell Copenhagen, R. (1998). Cultural rights: A Social sci- and Her Story of the Siege in Peking, (New York, ence perspective. In Cultural Rights and Wrongs, 1907); Bainbridge, Diary of Mrs. William E. Bain- Paris: UNESCO, pp. 1-20. bridge, May, 1900, In Diary of an Iowan under Fire in Correspondence respecting the affairs of China pre- Peking. (Iowa State Department of History and Ar- sented to both Houses of Parliament by Command chives: Des Moines, IA, 1961) of His Majesty China. No. 1 and No. 4 (1902) Par- [11] The defenders of the Legations numbered: Brit- liamentary Papers. Retrieved April 2, 2008 from ish 82, Russians – 87, Americans – 58, Germans 51, ChadwyckHealey.com French – 48, Austrians - 35, Italians – 29, Japanese – Couling, S. (1917). The encyclopaedia sinica. London: 29. (See: Norie, p. 71) Oxford University Press. [12] See: Memory of the World: Lost Memory – Li- Davis, D. G., & Cheng, H. (1996). Destruction of Chi- braries and Archives Destroyed in the Twentieth Cen- nese books in the Peking Siege of 1900. In IFLA tury prepared for UNESCO on behalf of IFLA by Hans Conference Proceeding Paper. Retrieved February 2, van der Hoeven, Paris: UNESCO, 1996. 2008 from www.ifla.org.sg/IVifla62/62-david.htm [13] In 1962 E.D Grinstead discusses new volume, Davis, D. G., & Cheng, H. (2007). Loss of a recorded juan 6933 and 6934 which brings the number of extant heritage: Destruction of Chinese books in the Peking copies of the T’ang annals from three to five. He states Siege of 1900. Library Trends. 55, 431 – 441. […..“Paying homage to this majestic ‘book’ that once Ditamnson, P. (1996). Session 100: Literati, literature, occupied 300 cubic metres, and bring one more vol- and political culture in Ming Dynasty China. The ume to the attention of bibliographers and students of Hanlin Academy and cultural authority in the early history. The “Yung-lo ta-tien”: An Unrecorded Vol- fifteenth century. In Conference proceeding paper ume. E.D Grinstead. The British Museum Quarterly, at the Association for Asian Studies. Abstract re- Vol 26, No. ½ ] Sep., 1962], pp. 30 – 33. trieved May 05, 2009 from www.aasianst.org/ abst/1996abst/china/c100htm References Elman, B. (1989). Imperial politics and Confucian societies in late imperial China: The Hanin and Barmé, G. R. (2008). The Forbidden City. Cambridge, Donglin MA: Harvard University Press. Academies. Modern China, 15 (4), 379 – 418. Re- Bevan, R. (2005). The Destruction of memory: Archi- trieved March 7, 2009 from http://www.jstor.org/ tecture at war. London, UK: Reaktion Books. stable/189239 Blades, W. (1888). Enemies of books. Retrieved Feb- Fleming P. (1959). The Siege at Peking. New York: ruary 6, 2009 from www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/ Harper & Row Publishers.

90 Journal of Library and Information Science 36（1）：82 – 91（April, 2010）

Giles, H.A. (1967). A History of Chinese literature. Retrieved April 14, 2009 from http://www.colum- New York: F. Ungar Publishing Company. bia.edu/itc/eacp/asiasite/topics/LiBo/Daoism/Text.htm Goodrich, L. (1914). More on the Yung Lo Ta Tien. Retrieved February 2, 2009 from http://sunzi1.lib. Polastron, L. (2007). Books on fire: The Destruction of hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401178.pdf. libraries throughout history. (Jon E. Graham, Trans- Grinstead, E.D. (1962). The “Yung-lo Ta-tien”: An lation). Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. unrecorded volume. The British Museum Quarterly, Prescott, S. (2005). Libraries burning: A Discussion to 26 (1-2), 30-33. Retrieved May 04, 2009 from http:// be shared. Progressive Librarian. 26, 40–44. www.jstor.org/stable/4422766 Sanello, F., & Hanes, W.T. (2002). The Opium Hastings, A. (1997). The Construction of nationhood: Wars, the addiction of one empire and the corruption Ethnicity, religion, and nationalism. Cambridge: of another. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks. Cambridge University Press. Satow, E.M. (2006). The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, Hoeven, H. va der, & Albade, van J. (1996). Lost British envoy in Peking (1900-06). Morrisville, N.C.: Memory – Libraries and Archives destroyed in the Lulu Press. Twentieth Century. Paris UNESCO. Retrieved Ting, L.H. (1983). Library services in the People’s February 14, 2009fromURL: http://www.unesco.org/ Republic of China. Library Quarterly. 53, 134–160 webwordl/mdm/administ/en/detruit/html Tsai, S. (2001). Perpetual happiness: The Ming Emperor Jenkins, C., & Rayward, W.B. (2007). Libraries in Yongle. Seattle: University of Washington Press. times of war, revolution, and social change. Library Valencia, M. (2002). Libraries, nationalism, and armed Trends. 55, 361–369. conflict in the twentieth century. Libri, 52, 1–15. Knuth, R. (2006). Burning books and leveling libraries: Wilcox, E.V. (1947). Acres and people. Madison, WI: Extremist violence and cultural destruction. West- Orange Judd Publishing Co. Inc. Retrieved April 22, port, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. 2008 from http://library.du.ac.in/dspace/bitstream/1/ Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China 900–1800: The 4806/6/Chapter%201.pdf “second founding” of the Ming Dynasty. Wash- Xinhua News Agency (1996). Retrieved July 26, ington, D.C.: Library of Congress. 2009 from Global NewsBank http:/infoweb.news- Owen, S. Li Bo, Daoism, and the Hanlin Academy. bank.com/ Retrieved April 14, 2009 from http://www. colum- Zgonjanin, S. (2005). The Prosecution of war crimes for bia.edu/itc/eacp/asiasite/topics/LiBo/Daoism/Text.ht the destruction of libraries and archives during times m on April 14, 2009. of armed conflict. Libraries & Culture, 40, 128 – 144. Oxam, R. Li Bo. Daoism, and the Hanlin Academy.

圖書館學與資訊科學 36（1）：82 – 91（民九十九年四月） 91