Encyclopedias are tools that summarize all branches of human knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge . Encyclopedias are larger in size and content than any other type of tool. The main role of the encyclopedia is for people to check the necessary knowledge and factual information, and its completeness lies in the fact that it is almost inclusive of the components of various tools, including all aspects of knowledge. It is often called "the university without walls". The compilation of high-quality encyclopedias has become a measure of the level of scientific and cultural development of a country.
Ancient Greek scholar Ronaldo had prepared a comprehensive account of the then-academic handbook, the West as "the magic of the encyclopedia", China's early Han Dynasty, "Er Ya", is the source of Chinese encyclopedic nature of the work. The term "encyclopedia" in Chinese only appeared in the early 20th century.
The founder of the modern encyclopedia was the French scholar D. Diderot, who led the French encyclopedists to compile and publish the Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of the Classifications of Science, Arts, and Crafts, in 1751-1772.
In the 18th century to the 20th century, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan, the West and other countries have compiled and published a number of authoritative encyclopedias, such as the Neapolitan Section of the Encyclopedia, the Washington Encyclopedia, the Moscow Encyclopedia, the Cold War Encyclopedia, and so on. Most of the modern Western encyclopedias are organized according to the word order, highlighting the retrieval function of tools and adopting the compilation idea of small entryism. Those that focus on the educational function of the encyclopedia adopt large entryism. Revision of the way there are reprint system, make-up volume system, publication of the yearbook and continuous revision of the system of four kinds.
Classical books in ancient China were a kind of encyclopedic compilation of information, favoring ancient literature and history. The Encyclopedia of China, which has been edited and published since 1978, totaling 74 volumes, took 15 years to complete in August 1993, and in 2009, the second edition was published. And in 2009, the second edition was published.
In ancient times, works similar to encyclopedias could be edited by one person all together. But in modern times, due to the knowledge explosion, it is no longer possible for one or a few people to complete the compilation of an encyclopedia on a vast scale. This has created the need for a body of rules and guidelines for codification to resolve the conflicts between the many codifiers.
The format of an encyclopedia includes many aspects. Including the design of the name of the entry, the outline of the preparation of the entry, the format of the contributor's writing, the requirements of the illustrations, the rules of foreign writing and translation, and the format of the book. Among them, the Soviet Encyclopedia is one of the most exhaustive of the existing encyclopedias, the third edition of which is written in a detailed and meticulous manner and is very comprehensive, with a total of 200,000 characters in Chinese characters. For example, under the category of medicine, there are entries on diseases, pathology, treatments, drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, sanatoriums, medical machinery, and medical careers.
Anecdotes:
Encyclopedic titles
Ancient encyclopedias have had a variety of strange titles, such as "Paradise", "Book of Brocade", "Book of Ten Thousand Flowers" and "Pearl". "and" pearl "and so on. Serious scholars love to use the "treasure" and other titles. "Jian" is a mirror, people can learn from the world, learning and writing, but also apt.
The ancient Chinese encyclopedic nature of the book is called class book. Class book of the most orthodox book name is "Huangdan", "imperial", "canon" and so on, until the end of the 19th century, there is "encyclopedic The term "encyclopedia" was not introduced from the West until the end of the 19th century, when it was re-exported through Japan and combined with the traditional Chinese book name "Quanshu".
When people talk about encyclopedias, they immediately associate the word "big" with the word "encyclopedia". I think it may be initially influenced by the old translation "Encyclopedia Britannica". The word "big" does not actually refer to the size of the book. The first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica consisted of three volumes and was a small volume. The USSR Encyclopedia was called "large" to distinguish it from the Small Soviet Encyclopedia (11 volumes).
The Encyclopedia of China was originally named to distinguish between large and small encyclopedias, but its first edition of 74 volumes, can also be called "big".
The encyclopedia in the title of the word "small" and called "small encyclopedia", there may be three meanings: a very small pocket encyclopedia; not too small single-volume desk encyclopedia; for young readers of the Department is not necessarily small. children's and young adults' encyclopedias.
Love and the Atomic Bomb
An encyclopedia is not a language dictionary or a guide to life. An encyclopedia is a tool of knowledge, and its entries should be on topics of knowledge with encyclopedic content. You can't look up an encyclopedia to find explanations of general terms or words without encyclopedic knowledge content.
In the history of encyclopedic compilation, there is such a foreign example, quite illustrative of this nature of the encyclopedia. One or two hundred years ago, the Encyclopaedia Britannica (formerly known as Encyclopaedia Britannica), in its first few editions, had an entry on "love" and devoted 5-6 pages to "explaining" love. About love, people naturally have inexhaustible sweet feelings in their hearts, but generally do not talk about it in public, only in novels, plays, poems and other literary works, the description of love is a great spectacle. But what can an encyclopedia say about love? Early Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry is quite emotional, and there is really something to be said about how people in love are tender and affectionate, in front of the moon and flowers; how lovers are in love with each other, how to talk to each other; and how to write a love letter to express their love, etc. However, after the 14th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, there is a lot more to be said about love. However, after the 14th edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica probably felt that such content was not quite like encyclopedic knowledge, so it withdrew the "love" entry. At the end of the Second World War and the surrender of Japan, a new entry on "atomic bombs" was added to the book, and it took up quite a bit of space from the original entry on "love".
This deepening of encyclopedic awareness was not immediately understood. One reader was so outraged that he protested to the editorial board, accusing them of flouting the best of human feelings in favor of murderous weapons. Editor-in-chief Joost replied with humor: "For love, reading an encyclopedia is not as good as experiencing it for yourself; and for the atomic bomb, it is better to read a book."