The Secret Behind China’s Greatest Library

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Imagine a ruler so determined to preserve his nation's [music] wisdom that he commands the creation of the largest collection of books the world had ever seen.

[00:00:09]In 1772, this [music] vision became reality as a massive literary project began. The compilation of the Siku [music] Quanshu, or complete library in four sections.

[00:00:22]Over 360 scholars were summoned [music] to the Forbidden City tasked with searching, evaluating, and copying texts from every corner of the empire.

[00:00:32]Their mission, collect, catalog, and hand [music] copy over 36,000 volumes covering philosophy, history, literature, and the sciences.

[00:00:43]This monumental [music] effort took nearly a decade to complete reflecting an unprecedented dedication [music] to knowledge preservation.

[00:00:51]But this wasn't just about safeguarding wisdom.

[00:00:54]It was also a way to control it.

[00:00:56]Officials scoured [music] private libraries offering rewards for rare books, but also scrutinizing for forbidden texts which were [music] sometimes destroyed to align with imperial ideology.

[00:01:09]Seven colossal manuscript [music] sets were produced, each housed in a different city to ensure their survival.

[00:01:16]The Siku Quanshu became a symbol of intellectual ambition and imperial power. Its volumes still treasured today as the grandest literary achievement of pre-modern China.