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| China dusts off ancient work |
| CCTV.COM 2003-07-18 13:07:09 |
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The world's biggest non－fiction work and earliest encyclopedia has finally been dusted off. A dedicated team of literary conservationists have just put the finishing touches to a mammoth project that restores a major portion of the Yongle Encyclopedia Series to its original glory. The 221 books of the giant reference work still in the country are housed in the National Library of China. Nine of the rare books are now on display for show to the public.
The job took more than 10 top restoration experts nine months to complete. Part of their delicate task involved making sure the books' papers and covers resembled the originals. The underlay of the books' covers has now been replaced with the precious "Gaoli Paper" -- a material that's very resistant to corrosion. It was no easy assignment.
Zhang Ping, staff of National Library of China, said, "We underwent many twists and turns when we selected the materials for the covers. We went to all of Beijing's cloth stores. Finally, we found something very like the original in an old shop."
The restored encyclopedia will be encased in a special chamber to ensure the volumes are exposed to a constant temperature and humidity. These conditions will preserve the book for at least another century.
The Yongle Encyclopedia was complied between 1403 and 1407 in the Ming Dynasty. Altogether there were almost 23,000 volumes in 11,000 books. The work was 12 times the size of the reference work complied in the 18th century by the French author Diderot. Much of the Encyclopedia was destroyed during the foreign invasions in the early 20th century.
Now only about 400 books remain in the world, and they are scattered across eight countries and regions. All but two of the 223 books on the Chinese mainland are in the National Library of China. The Shanghai Library and the Sichuan University Museum each have one.
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Editor: Xiao Wei CCTV.com
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