Yongle Dadian

Timeline

1. 1403–1405Nanjing (initial compilation stage) · NanjingIn the first year of Yongle an edict ordered the compilation of a great leishu, with Xie Jin, Yao Guangxiao and others in overall charge, establishing the editorial principles and rhyme-heading system, recruiting scholars from across the realm for the collection work, and setting the policy of comprehensively including classics, histories, philosophers and literary collections.
2. 1406–1408Capital compilation bureau (Nanjing/Beijing) · ChinaScholars divided the work of extracting original texts of the canons of successive dynasties by rhyme headings; the juan expanded from several thousand in the initial compilation to over twenty thousand, covering classics, institutions, geography, medical formulas, divination and other categories, forming an unprecedented total collection of literature.
3. 1408–1900Wenyuan Pavilion and palace library · Beijing MunicipalityThe Dadian was completed in the sixth year of Yongle (1408) and stored in the palace, becoming the most important collection of texts of the Ming dynasty; after the Qing the original was lost, and only partial duplicates survive, still circulating at home and abroad and remaining an important resource for textual recovery.