Previous Encyclopaedias.The Chinese began at an early date in their literary history to compile dictionaries and other works of reference, the usefulness of which, however, was much restricted owing to the lack of an alphabet. Of the clumsier methods of arrangement which in consequence they found it necessary to adopt, the oldest is division according to subject. This system is employed in the
爾雅 Êrh Ya, an ancient guide to the correct use of terms probably dating from the 5th century B.C, and its use, in the class of works known as 類書
lei-shu or 'encyclopaedias', has persisted down to the present day. The following are the 19 classes or categories of the
Êrh Ya: (1) 詁 Expositions; (2) 言 Terms; (3) 訓 Instructions; (4) 親 Relationships; (5) 宮 Buildings; (6) 器Utensils; (7) 樂 Music; (8) 天 Heaven; (9) 地 Earth; (10) 丘 Hills; (11) 山 Mountains; (12) 水 Rivers; (13) 草 Plants; (14) 木 Trees; (15) 蟲 Insects; (16) 魚 Fishes; (17) 鳥 Birds; (18) 獸 Beasts; (19) 畜 Domestic Animals. The vagueness of the first three divisions will be noted, as also the crudeness of the classification as a whole. The
通典 T'ung Tien, a voluminous treatise on the various departments of official administration, compiled by 杜佑 Tu Yu about 800
A.D., is divided into nine sections: (1) 食貨 Political Economy; (2) 選舉 Literary Degrees; (3) 職官 Government Offices; (4) 禮 Ceremonies; (5) 樂 Music; (6) 兵 The Army; (7) 刑 Punishments; (8) 州郡 Political Geography; (9) 邊防 National Defences.
[1] Another, even more famous, compilation of the same class is the
文獻通考 Wên Hsien T'ung K'ao by 馬端臨 Ma Tuan-lin, which was published in 1319. This is based on the T'ung Tien, but the nine sections of the earlier work are expanded into 24, and the bulk of matter proportionately increased. A certain deviation from the original plan is noticeable in this work, in that new categories are admitted, such as 經籍 Bibliography and 象緯 Uranography, which have little or nothing to do with official administration. The first
lei-shu, however, which made a serious attempt to cover the whole field of existing human knowledge, and thus has a real claim to the title of encyclopaedia, had appeared more than three centuries earlier. This was the
太平御覽 T'ai P'ing Yü Lan, an extensive collection issued by Imperial command in 1,000
chüan or books, grouped under 55 categories, each of these being divided into further subheads. It professes to give information on any subject required, through the medium of passages drawn from no fewer than 1,690 classical and other works, a list of which stands at the beginning.
[2] It should be noted in passing that the Chinese
lei-shu, that is, a work of reference arranged under categories, differs from the Western 'encyclopaedia' in that it contains no original articles on any subject, but consists simply of grouped
