Siku quanshu is the largest collectanea ever compiled in China. Emperor Qianlong ordered the compilation of the project, which took nine years and involved over 3,600 scholars and 3,800 copyists. The so-called ‘Complete Library in Four Sections’ comprises all sorts of books from the pre-Qin period to the early years of Qianlong era, covering almost every branch of traditional academic areas with the staggering numbers of 3,503 individual titles, around 80,000 volumes and 800 millions of words. The scale of the project far exceeded its precursor Yongle Dadian, which was compiled in the previous dynasty, making it one of the momentous events in Chinese intellectual history.
When the Siku quanshu project reached completion, Qianlong commissioned seven copies to be housed in seven imperial libraries: Wenyuange (文淵閣) in the Forbidden City, Wensuge in the Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Wenyuange (文源閣) in the Old Summer Palace, Wenjinge in the Summer Palace in Rehe (present-day Chengde), Wenzongge in Jinshan Monastery in Zhenjiang, Wenhuige in the Great Observation Hall in Yangzhou, and Wenlange in the Shengen Monastery travel palace in Hangzhou. Unfortunately, the copies being kept in the Old Summer Palace, Jinshan Monastery and the Great Observation Hall were destroyed during the war-torn years of the late nineteenth century, while the Wenlange edition survives only in part. The copies that the Forbidden City, Mukden Palace and Rehe Summer Palace once housed are in relatively complete condition, of which the extant Wenyuange edition, which is also the first copy of Siku quanshu, is now preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Besides being kept in sound condition, the edition happened to be the first one that was reproduced in full and published, making it more accessible and influential than its counterparts.
The Siku Quanshu that can be found on the shelves of JAS is unsurprisingly the Wenyuange edition, published by The Commercial Press (Taiwan) Ltd. Needless to say the collectanea is the crown jewel of traditional Chinese culture that no students of Sinology can afford to overlook. By placing this eye-catching 1,500-volumed collection at the lobby of JAS, it not only showcases the grandeur of Chinese civilization, but hopefully also shows an illuminated path to Chinese scholarship.
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