If the Yongle Canon is found, what does that mean?
Editing the Yongle Canon
In July of the first year of Yongle (1403), Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ordered the scholar Xie Jin to compile the Yongle Canon in Nanjing.
Zhu Di's edict: "The ancient and modern things under the heavens are scattered in various books, and the articles are vast and difficult to read." I want to learn the things contained in each book, to gather them and unify them with rhyme, and to make a few things easy. ”
The purpose and method of compiling large-scale books are clearly explained, and the scope of compilation is required, "Since the beginning of the contract, all the books of scriptures, histories, sub-collections, and hundreds of families, as for the words of astronomy, geography, yin and yang, medicine, bu, monks, Taoism, and techniques, have been prepared into one book, and they are not tired of being voluminous. ”
Xie Jin and others gathered 147 people, hurriedly compiled, yongle second year (1404) November, the first draft was completed, named "Literature Dacheng" presented. After Reading it, Zhu Di was not very satisfied, saying that "the books entered were not yet prepared", which was too simple and not widely picked, so he was ordered to re-cultivate.
Restoration of the Yongle Canon
In the third year of Yongle (1405), he reappointed Yao Guangxiao ( Yao Guangxiao , the Grand Master of zishan and the young master of the Crown Prince , Zheng Zhi of the Rebbe Shangshu , and Xie Jin ( 侍讀解缙 ) to preside over the restoration.
When the Yongle Canon was compiled, the organization was strict and the division of labor was fine. The highest person in charge is the supervisor, who is Yao Guangxiao, Zheng Ci, and Xie Jin.
The following are the deputy supervisors, liu jichi, the attendant of the Punishment Department, Li Zhigang, the right tongzheng of the Department of Communications and Politics, and the editor of the Hanlin Academy and the right zanshan liang qian of the Right Chunfang.
The following directors are the president, president, and vice president of the capital, followed by the editor, writer, recorder, and circle student. Layer by layer, meticulous division of labor, the repair work is carried out smoothly.
In compiling the Yongle Canon, the whole book is based on the rhyme of "Hongwu Zhengyun", the editing method of "using rhyme to unify words, using words to tie things", and copying the relevant materials in all books on the mainland since ancient times, paragraph by paragraph, article by text, and even in whole parts.
At that time, 7,000 to 8,000 kinds of books were collected, including classics, histories, sub-collections, collections, interpretations, Taoist classics, northern opera, southern opera, plain language, engineering technology, agronomy, medicine, and zhisheng. After three years of intense compilation, it was completed in November of the fifth year of Yongle.
After the Yongle Canon was written, it was bound into 11,095 volumes, totaling about 370 million words, which is the largest book in the history of the mainland and an extremely precious historical and cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.
The Canon is missing
The original copy of the Yongle Canon has been lost, and the copy of the "Great Canon" that luckily escaped the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty also has more than 2,000 volumes of fragments.
Throughout the Qing Dynasty, the Yongle Canon was re-emphasized and used by scholars and rulers, and it also experienced a tragic fate of theft, burning, and plundering, and was finally destroyed in 1900 when the Eight-Power Alliance entered Beijing. The remaining 400 volumes are collected by thirty institutions in eight countries and regions.
Even so, the strange book of the Yongle Canon is still favored by scholars today for its huge material and cultural relics value.
What does it mean if you find the Canon?
If the Yongle Canon is found, it will have great significance in at least the following aspects:
First of all, it preserves a large number of ancient books, which is a summary of ancient culture. Secondly, in the method of sorting out ancient books, it has left many beneficial enlightenments for future generations. Finally, it can be used as a basis for the school book and has a high value for the errors in the book.
For example, the historical materials about the Song and Yuan dynasties in the "Canon" are extremely rich, and the Qing people's French style is good: "Articles that want to examine the system of the Song and Yuan dynasties are covered with inexhaustible and inexhaustible." "Such accolades are not excessive.
For example, volume 14620 -14629 contains the book "Rules and Regulations of officials", which is a compilation of archives on the system of quanheng and performance appraisal of officials in the Song Dynasty, and it is recorded that as of the Southern Song Dynasty, the gap in the period of the Song Huijiao can be repaired to the Ningzong Dynasty. This will be more conducive to our study of the song dynasty official system.
Yao Guangxiao, who supervised the revision of the "Dadian", after this doctor, Zhao Tongyou and Jiang Yongwen, who served as vice presidents of medicine, were also famous doctors of tai hospital, and the medical department of the "Dadian" not only compiled and reviewed, but also recruited a large number of medical books.
The Qing dynasty compiled only twenty-one kinds of "Great Classics" when compiling them, and at least fifty kinds of existing "Great Classics" can be compiled, which are all famous works of Song and Yuan medicine far before Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica", including internal, injury, facial features, children, obstetrics, obstetrics and other disciplines, and the written prescriptions are practical.
There are also many medical case prescriptions in the "Canon", which are also quite effective in the treatment of difficult and complicated diseases. These medical works have worthy of reference and reference for the study of ancient Chinese medicine, pharmacology, and the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese medicine.
Finally, I would like to say that the search for the Yongle Canon has its own specific historical and practical significance: the 20th century for China began with humiliation, and after 100 years of struggle, China finally marched into the 21st century with the majesty of standing tall in the forest of the world.
Obviously, the search for the lost civilization of the motherland, especially the search for those important cultural heritages, is self-evident for the Chinese people.