Yongle Dadian

Timeline

1. 1403–1405Nanjing · JiangsuThe Ming Chengzu emperor ordered Xie Jin and others to open a bureau and compile a great leishu, using the Hongwu Zhengyun as its framework and broadly collecting texts from the Song and Yuan onward. Directors, supervisors and compilers were appointed, lost books were sought from across the realm, and the compilation project was enormous.
2. 1406–1408Beijing · North ChinaYao Guangxiao and others served as chief compilers; the work was first titled Wencheng Dacheng and later expanded, completed in 1408 and granted the title Yongle Dadian. It comprised over 22,000 juan and some 370 million characters, arranged by rhyme headings, the largest encyclopedia in the world at the time.
3. 1409–1465Wenyuan Pavilion, Beijing · North ChinaThe original was stored in the Wenyuan Pavilion of the Forbidden City, accessible only to the emperor and specially authorized scholars. During the Jiajing era a duplicate was copied out due to a palace fire, stored separately in the Huangshicheng and Wenyuan Pavilion. The Dadian became a base text for Ming compilations and textual research.
4. 1491–1500Wenyuan Pavilion, Beijing · North ChinaIn the Hongzhi and Zhengde eras the original Yongle Dadian was still intact in the imperial library, providing documentary basis for Ming compilations such as the Daming Huidian. Some lost ancient books survive only through quotations in the Dadian; court scholars frequently consulted it by imperial command, making it a core documentary resource of the Ming scholarly community by the late fifteenth century.