The full name of the "Four Libraries of the Four Libraries" is a series of books revised during the Qianlong period, and many people compare the "Yongle Canon" with the "Four Libraries Complete Book", first of all, we must distinguish the difference between the "series of books" and the "book of the kind"
The series of books ----- cluster-type books, that is, most of the books are edited into a set of books, which is called a series of books, whether it is still unclear, for example, for example, the "Ghost Blowing Lights" written by Tianxia Baxiang Dada is divided into several books, which is called a series of books.
Book-like ----- is a large-scale information book in ancient China. Compile the materials in various books, arranged according to categories, rhymes, etc. for inspection. Still don't understand? So let's see, to put it bluntly, it is equivalent to our modern search engine.
The "Four Libraries of the Whole Book" is known as qianlong "Wenzhi Wugong: Why did the emperors of all generations like to repair books?
Let us sum up the five thousand years of the history of book revision in our country and the purpose of its revision.
First, the State of Qin, Lü Buwei's "Lü Shi Chunqiu", completed around 239 BC, which was on the eve of the unification of the Six Kingdoms by the State of Qin. At that time, the State of Qin was already in its heyday. When Lü Buwei finished the manuscript of "Lü Shi Chunqiu", he hung it at the gate of Xianyang City and promised that whoever could modify a word would reward him with thousands of gold, but no one dared to challenge Lü Buwei below one person and above ten thousand people for gold. This is the symbol of dominance.
Second, the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian's "History", completed time: the first year of the Taichu Dynasty (104 BC) began to be revised, the history of 14 years completed, Sima Qian's era of Emperor Wu of Han, the feudal economy has developed greatly, cultural and academic situation also appeared prosperous, Sima Qian began to roam the famous mountains and rivers in the country, soon was promoted to Langzhong, and often accompanied Emperor Wu to tour various places, sorting out the literature in various places, so "the great singing of historians, the rhymeless "Departure from Sorrow", "History" was born.
Third, the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di's "Yongle Canon", we all know that Zhu Di is the emperor who seized the throne, did this emperor do a solid job? It was not practical, so Zhu Di had to do something to consolidate his imperial power, that is, to repair the Yongle Canon, and by the sixth year of Yongle, the 22,877 volumes of about 370 million words of the Yongle Canon were completed. Unfortunately, due to the occupation of Beijing by the British and French forces, the Hanlin Temple was plundered, the Yuanmingyuan was burned and the Qing Dynasty was poorly managed, and the Yongle Grand Ceremony was lost. A generation of ancient books has declined. (Don't forget the national shame)
To sum up, Qianlong, who called himself the "Ten Perfect Old Man," put the matter of revising books in the highest position, which could not only show his peace and prosperity, but also increase the imperial rule. Why not? A huge book repair project began.
Stills from "Daming Style"
General Manager: Aisin Kyora Hiroshi (Shiquan Elderly)
Editor-in-chief: Ji Yun (yes, the red-haired Ji Xiaolan in the TV series), Lu Xixiong, and Sun Shiyi
Leading 360 executives and 3800 transcriptions, whether you are a relative of the emperor or a eunuch minister, all of them took thirteen years to participate in the compilation. It is divided into four parts: the classic, the history, the sub-book, and the set, so it is called "four libraries". A total of 3462 kinds of books, a total of 79338 volumes, about 800 million words. The 800 million words are all copied and sorted into a book by hand, and the degree of neatness of the font is outrageous. The following is an excerpt from the Siku Quanshu 's "Sub-Division-Taoist Class-Baopuzi Inner Chapter" Yes, written by the immortal Ge Hong.
In the process of revising books, it is difficult, and this is also the most controversial point; Lu Xun, a member of the Republic of China, once commented in "Miscellaneous Discussions After Illness": "The Qianlong Dynasty's compilation of the "Four Libraries of the Whole Book" was praised by many people as a prosperous cause of a generation, but they not only disturbed the format of ancient books, but also revised the articles of the ancients; not only did they hide the inner court, but also issued the place where the style of writing was relatively strong, so that the disciples of the world would never feel that among our Chinese authors, there were also people with a very strong backbone." "The Qing dynasty revised the Siku Quanshu and the ancient books died because they changed the old style and deleted and changed the original text."
Did Qianlong delete or destroy the book when he was repairing the Siku Quanshu? Indeed there is. In Qianlong's words, what does it mean to "stop storing the title of the book, and collect it as a general purpose, so as to show the prosperity of the right text"? It is a book that is in doubt and is not true, and it is written and not copied to show the wind of our country's inclusive culture. Call it "Four Inventory Items", interested comrades can go to see.
Is that what it really is?
Not
There is also a part of the direct physical elimination, not even the directory left, the amount of this part is huge. Interested friends can go to the modern "Four Libraries Forbidden Book Series" and "Four Libraries Forbidden Destruction Book Series Supplement"
What is even more interesting is that in the catalogue of destruction there is the Ming Dynasty firearms masterpiece "Illustration of Military Weapons", which was destroyed only because there is a sentence in it: "Those who are most afraid of China by Yi Yu are also firearms." ”
The scolding, the spray, we still have to face up to his historical value, "Four Libraries of the Whole Book" can be called the richest and most complete integration of traditional Chinese culture. Chinese literature, history, philosophy, science, industry, agriculture, medicine, almost all disciplines can find its source and bloodline, almost all emerging disciplines about China can find the soil and nutrition for its survival and development from here. You go and ask your friends who study literature and history to have two different voices: "If you can have other books, you will never use "Four Libraries" but you can't find books anywhere, you go to "Four Libraries" to find, hey, just lie there." 」
First, it has pioneered a multi-level project for the compilation and preservation of ancient books. More than 100 kinds of rare books are printed and circulated with newly made wooden movable type, namely the famous "Wuyingdian Juzhen Edition Book". It has an indelible contribution to the promotion of Chinese culture.
Second, the scale is unprecedented, and the whole book almost contains the classic documents handed down before the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It is the largest collection and collection of documents that have existed since there are written records of China. In the more than 200 years of modern wars and chaos and the warlord era of the Republic of China, without the "Four Libraries of the Whole Book", the loss of scattered ancient books would be an unacceptable cultural loss to the Chinese nation.
Third, to quote the master of traditional Chinese studies, Ji Xianlin, "Although Qianlong's original intention in compiling this book was to "forbid the signs", it objectively sorted out and preserved a large number of important classics, pioneered Chinese bibliography, established the dominant position of sinology in social culture, and has unparalleled documentary value, historical value, cultural relics value and edition value. ”
Regardless of the merits of the "Four Libraries", what is indelible is that its contribution to Chinese civilization and culture is still the most dazzling treasure of our country, fortunately we can still have the "Four Libraries Of the Whole Book", look forward to the people of the country, do not forget the national shame, remember the shame of the Yuanmingyuan.