The Siku Quanshu (Complete Works of the Chinese Classics) is the most comprehensive encyclopedia of Chinese thought and culture. It was compiled at the order of Emperor Qianlong by more than 300 specialists during the years 1773-1782, and brings together some 3,460 works totaling more than 36,000 volumes. Organizing them into four major categories, the Siku Quanshu represents the heritage of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, including philosophy, history, literature and art, social studies, economics, mathematics and science.
Just seven copies of the Siku Quanshu were made by some 4,000 amanuenses. The emperor ordered the construction of seven special libraries at various locations, including the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace in Beijing, to house the volumes.
Over the centuries, some of the volumes were lost to wars or natural disasters while others were replaced or repaired by various people at various times so that eventually the seven copies became seven distinct editions. Three of the editions ultimately disappeared entirely, while more than half of the Wenlange edition, stored in Zhejiang Province, was lost. Only the Wenyuange edition of the Forbidden City, the Wenjinge of Hebei Province and the Wensuge of the former Imperial Palace in Shenyang have survived essentially intact.
Last year, the Lujiang Publishing House published 300 copies of the Wenyuange edition, adding an index volume and printing the entire collection on rice paper bound with thread in the traditional style.
The company donated 100 sets to the National Library, the Forbidden City's Palace Museum and other cultural organizations. Another 100 sets were sold in domestic bookstores at a price of 390,000 yuan (US$47,000) per set, and the final 100 were sold overseas, fetching a price of US$99,000.
The Commercial Press' compilation of the Wenjinge edition is considered a national-level important project, in part because the original, maintained at the National Library of China, will be permanently sealed this year to protect it.
The Press is releasing 500 copies of the photo-offset edition at a price of 180,000 yuan (US$21,750) each this June. The photo-offset technique will enable the publisher to print the books to order, and customers who wish to purchase only certain volumes may do so.
The Hangzhou Publishing House is keeping the issuance of the Wenlange edition of the Siku Quanshu somewhat low-key. More than half of the original was lost to fire and other damage, and the existing version was completed by borrowing from other editions. Hangzhou Publishing plans to complete all the volumes next year.
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin, February 27, 2005)
