Ancient Chinese Encyclopedic Classics

Author: None
Publisher: United Press
Publication Date: 1999-04-01
Features:
1. This book is a compilation of the essence of ancient Chinese classics. The "Jing" (classics) serve as a treasure trove containing the essence of China's five thousand years of cultural heritage. They are a synthesis of systematic culture and folk culture, and the source of traditional Chinese culture. To ensure that Ancient Chinese Encyclopedic Classics truly fulfills its purpose of "bridging the five thousand years of Chinese history, cultivating character, learning from the past to understand the present, applying ancient wisdom to the modern world, and promoting traditional Chinese culture," we spent six years and three months amidst countless books, meticulously reviewing and selecting over 160 ancient classics after consulting the opinions of numerous experts and scholars.
2. The principles for selecting the 160 classics in this book are as follows:
- Those that play a pivotal role in Chinese history and culture or continue to have a significant impact on people's lives, Chinese culture, and even world culture today.
- Ancient secret manuscripts or rare books of the present day, as well as those preserved in libraries of other countries.
3. During the compilation process, the editors macro-classified the 160 classics based on their content, dividing them into twenty-one categories: Confucianism, Governance, Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Divination, Chess, Craftsmanship, Tea Art, Brewing, Farming Tools, Animals, Plants, Military Strategy, Martial Arts, Mathematics, Calendar, Geography, Miscellaneous, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The book spans 8 million words and consists of 16 volumes.
4. In addition to classifying the 160 classics, the editors also wrote prefaces for each, explaining the era in which the classic was written, its origins, and the author.
5. To better highlight the cultural and historical value of the classics, all the included texts are presented in their original form. Missing or lost parts of the text are marked with "□," and omitted or fragmented illustrations are noted as "╳╳╳╳ (Illustration omitted)." Furthermore, as the annotation and translation of ancient classics have long been a point of debate in academia, to avoid unnecessary cultural disputes, this book follows the experts' recommendations by providing no colloquial annotations or translations. Nor does it offer critiques of incorrect ideas (such as gender discrimination, disdain for science, promotion of ignorance, superstition, or feudal and decadent ethical and moral concepts). Readers are advised to judge for themselves.
6. To maintain consistency between the title, table of contents, and text, this book includes only a general table of contents, with no sub-volume indexes, and the table of contents is limited to primary-level headings. For ease of reference, the single and double-page headers in the text are labeled with the book title, "Ancient Chinese Encyclopedic Classics," and "╳╳ Category. ╳╳ Classic," allowing readers to identify them quickly.