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In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty issued a long edict detailing the brilliant achievements he had made in sorting out and compiling documents since he ascended the throne. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the results of the "Ancient and Modern Books" compiled during the Kangxi period, because this book "cannot be fully contained according to the category of judgments." In view of the unprecedented improvement in the financial level of the Qing Dynasty, "at this time, the accumulation of the ministry treasury was as much as 80 million, and it was suspected that the accumulation was too much." He further explained: "Heaven and earth produce wealth, but there is only this number, and now compared with the early years of Qianlong, the level of fiscal revenue has exceeded more than half of the first year, and I really don't want to save more money." "Qianlong Shilu"
Therefore, it was officially decided that the state would pay a huge amount of money to carry out a huge project of compiling and revising books, and it would be necessary to exhaust all the legal books in ancient and modern times, so as to achieve "four libraries and seven strategies, benefiting zhao and beautiful preparation", and the next year this huge project was officially named the "Four Libraries Complete Book". After deciding to make Ji Xiaolan the head of the compilation, more than 300 high-level cultural officials and scholars were coordinated to participate, and the number of people responsible for copying alone reached as many as 3,800, creating the largest scale of compilation in history.
Four libraries of the whole book
Qianlong solicited books from various places, especially the Jiangnan Book Collection House himself, and promised: "At the beginning of the article, use the seal of the Hanlin Academy, and add a "plutonium note, which will be recorded on the written page of the next month's name, and will be returned to the original owner after it is used up in the future." "General Catalogue of the Four Libraries"
In fact, Qianlong ostensibly said that the state did not have the money to compile books, and in addition to showing good cultural achievements in this huge project, another important reason was to search for and destroy the anti-Qing works left behind. Although Qianlong's personal participation had previously launched hundreds of literary prisons and a large number of intellectuals, Qianlong overly believed that although the situation was superficially calm, it was inevitable that there would be a large number of privately hidden and banned books. In order to let the bibliophiles turn in the books as soon as possible, Qianlong issued several edicts to ensure that no book borrowing would be punished, but unexpectedly, none of the various books sent to the capital by the provinces appeared in the forbidden books that Qianlong was looking for.
Two years later, Qianlong still can't let go of this, believing that "since the end of the Ming Dynasty, there have been many wild histories. Although many were destroyed, there was bound to be a contradiction to the words of the dynasty, and it was just as it was time to investigate and deal with them, and to destroy them as much as possible to curb evil words. He also threatened: "After the issuance of the edict this time, if there is any hidden existence, it must be because there is a intention to hide the book of falsehood, and if it is discovered in the future, its sin is not tolerated, and the overseer who undertakes it will not be able to escape the blame." It was under this "Yang conspiracy" of Qianlong luring the snake out of the hole, and after the raging fire, Qianlong felt that the "Four Libraries" he promoted was made of steel and was the highest cultural wall to protect the empire, and from then on it was bound to be once and for all, and fundamentally put an end to any anti-Qing unfavorable ideas.
Chief Compiler Ji Xiaolan
Qianlong attached great importance to the quality of this cultural project, and in view of the successful experience of Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo Library, Qianlong specially assigned local officials to Tianyi Pavilion to learn the method of book protection, "look at the method of making its room, burn it into accurate form, and open up and present it." This magnificent giant production finally completed the first compilation work after ten years, and stored it in the "North Fourth Pavilion" and "South Third Pavilion" respectively. It was not until the forty-seventh year of Qianlong (1782) that the compilation was completed one after another, and it was not until qianlong's later years that the project was fully completed.
Under the continuous pressure of Qianlong, 2629 kinds of banned books were successively reported by local officials, and 2453 kinds of books were destroyed, so far, the "Four Libraries quanshu" replaced the banned books of the people with absolute superiority, and in Qianlong's view, it included all the knowledge achievements of the predecessors, and was the most professional and huge imperial cultural performance project.
Qianlong Study
Qianlong once said, "If a person has no bookish temperament, he is vulgar and the city is well-known, and he is not listed in the forest of scholars." In addition to the official revision of books, Qianlong himself has created the world's first book collection scale, its collection content is extensive and complex, but it is the strength of the ancients and no one, its collection of treasures and paintings is as many as more than 10,000 pieces, and others are innumerable. Including the painting masterpieces of the Song Yuanming period, they will be observed and appreciated in the bookstore every day, and these works will be stamped with their own seals to show their imperial mentality of "under the whole world, can not be the royal land" alone, and highlight their own level of identification of calligraphy and painting, proving that the works after his stamp are treasures, in order to show their super high level of identification. In addition to the seals, many paintings also have poems inscribed by Qianlong, or the beauty of aria paintings, to show his super high level of artistic appreciation, and ask foreign painters to draw him in real time, as if to create an image of a reader who is full of poetry books. q
Portrait of Qianlong Reader
In order to further condense all cultural products, Qianlong accepted a large number of tributes from various places, and a Korean envoy witnessed qianlong receiving gifts in as many as 30,000 vehicles, and treasures from all over the Qing Dynasty poured into Qianlong's treasure building like a tidal wave. The treasures of porcelain, calligraphy and painting in its collection finally reflect the "Qianlong style", that is, gorgeous, luxurious, exquisite, and finally a large number of ancient "original works" were "washed" into "Qianlong works" after Qianlong's second processing.
The fine works of the past after being stamped by Qianlong
Qianlong's personality now seems to belong to the perfectionism, the innate mentality of being high and inferior, under the constant action of power, so that its mentality has gradually expanded, since it is considered that the most accomplished and prestigious "Ten Emperors" among the emperors in ancient and modern times, there are good reasons to rank first in various ranking tables, when the historical cloud gradually dissipated, all the cultural industries left by Qianlong were covered with thick dust and could not be dispersed.
Exquisite porcelain that Qianlong liked