Siku Quanshu

The Siku Quanshu (the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature) was a large book collection compiled in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), covering a time span of over 2,000 years from pre-Qin period to Qianlong Emperor's reign. The compilation was personally supervised by Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799). More than 360 renowned scholars and officials, including the famous scholar Ji Yun, were involved in compiling and editing the works and another 4,200 scholars participated in transcription. The project took 15 years to complete (1773-1787). The collection contains over 3,500 important works, with a total of 79,300 manuscript rolls in 36,000 volumes, and about 800 million characters. It is the largest collection of books in ancient China.

The collection is divided into four parts according to the ancient Chinese book classification convention: Classics, His- tory, Works by Renowned Scholars, and Anthologies. Hence, it is called the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature. The Classics branch contains Confucian classics and related works; the History section features history books; classified under Works by Renowned Scholars are works of various schools of thought; and the Anthologies section includes collections of poetry, prose, and other literary works. The covers of the four sections are in green, red, blue, and taupe respectively, following the order of the seasons — spring, summer, autumn and winter — for ease of reference. To better preserve and disseminate these classics, seven extra copies were made and stored in libraries across China. Only four of these copies- those stored in the Wenyuan Ge (in the Palace Museum), the Wenjin Ge (in the Chengde Mountain Resort), the Wensu Ge (in Shenyang Imperial Palace) and the Wenlan Ge (the Imperial Library in Hangzhou) - have survived years of vicissitude.

The Siku Quanshu contains an enormous number of ancient texts, covering philosophy, history, culture and art, politics, society, the economy, military affairs, law, medicine, astronomy, arithmetic, biology, agriculture, and divination. It presents China's ancient culture in a systematic way, as an important window into traditional Chinese culture.

《四庫全書》

《四庫全書》是清代編修的一部大型叢書，由清乾隆皇帝（1711—1799）親自主持，紀昀等著名學者、官員360 余人負責編撰，近4200人抄寫， 前后歷時15年（1773— 1787）完成。全書收錄了先秦時期至清代乾隆以前2000 多年間的重要典籍3500余種，共計79300余卷、36000余冊，約8億字，是中國古代規模最大的叢書。

全書按照中國古代圖書分類法分為經、史、子、集四部，故稱“四庫”。經部收錄儒家經典及相關著作，史部收錄歷史類書籍，子部收錄諸子百家相關學術著作，集部收錄詩文詞總集和專集等。全書封面按照春、夏、秋、冬四季的順序標明書的類別，分綠、紅、藍、灰褐四色裝潢書冊封面， 以便于檢閱。為便于保存和傳播典籍，全書編成后又謄抄7部，分別收藏于中國各地藏書閣。歷經歷史滄桑，全書現僅存文淵閣本、文津閣本、文溯閣本、文瀾閣本四部全本。

《四庫全書》保存了大量古代文獻，內容覆蓋哲學、歷史、文藝、政治、社會、經濟、軍事、法律、醫學、天文、地理、算學、生物學、農業、占卜等，系統呈現了中國古典文化的知識體系，是研究中國傳統文化的重要文獻。