Friday, September 19, 2008

Gujin Tushu Jicheng

The Gujin Tushu Jicheng , is a vast work written in China during the reigns of emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, completed in 1725. The work was headed initially by scholar Chen Menglei , and later by Jiang Tingxi. It contained 800,000 pages and over 100 million Chinese characters. Topics covered included natural phenomena, geography, history, literature and government.

The work was printed in 1726 using copper movable type printing. It spanned around 10 thousand rolls . About 60 copies were made.

One of Yongzheng's brothers patronised the project for a while, although Yongzheng contrived to give exclusive credit to his father Kangxi instead.

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