The Greatest Collection of Edited and Revised Books

The Qianlong Emperor, aka Hongli, 1736.

The Siku Quanshu, aka Imperial Collection of Four, Emperor's Four Treasuries, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, or Complete Library of Four Treasuries, is a catalog of 3,461 titles from the imperial collection and libraries of Qing China.  They were bound in 36,381 volumes of more than 79,000 chapters.  It took 9 years to complete.

Front page of the Siku Quanshu.

When it was commissioned, the Yongle Encyclopedia was the world's largest encyclopedia, made in 1403 during the Ming dynasty.  The Qianlong Emperor wanted to demonstration the superiority of the Qing dynasty, so he initiated it in 1773.

Việt Sử Lược, a Vietnamese Chronicle.

The chief editors were Ji Yun and Lu Xixiong, who had an editorial board of 361 scholars to work with.  They initially collected over 10,000 manuscripts.  15,000 copyists work on the project.  Over 3,000 of the works were destroyed, as they were considered to be anti-Manchu (the Manchus led the Qing dynasty).

A copy of a book written by a Jesuit missionary to introduce western knowledge
to the Ming empire, written circa 1623, and included in the collection.

There are four parts to the collection, named for the imperial library divisions:  "Classics"; "Histories", histories and geographies; "Masters", philosophy, arts, and sciences from Chinese philosophy; and "Collections", anthologies from Chinese literature.  The books were further divided into 44 categories, and include major texts from the Zhou Dynasty on, covering all fields of learning.

Page one of the Sea Island Mathematical Manual.

Four copies were made for the Emperor and stored in specially constructed libraries in the Forbidden City, Old Summer Palace, Shenyang, and Chengde. Three other copies were placed in libraries in Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou for the public.  There are four copies extant today at in Beijing, Taipe, Lanzhou, and Hangzhou.

Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, originally written in 646 CE.

The Emperor initially had a tough time getting citizens to lend the project their books, for fear of persecution and the loss of their books.  So small a number turned in books that the Emperor issued a decree stating the books would be returned when the project was finished, and that the owners would not be persecuted.  This resulted in more books being loaned.  The Emperor also made promises and offered rewards to the owners, saying he would add his own personal calligraphy to the books.  The amount of books turned in doubled.

A Ming dynasty text.

While it preserved many works, the destruction and suppression of opposing political views is a loss.  These unfit works were considered rebellious, anti-Qing, insulted previous (albeit "barbarian") dynasties, or dealt with the problems of defending the empire and its borders.  Some works were merely modified to make them more politically correct.  Most of the works destroyed were from the Ming dynasty.  The Siku Jinshu is the catalog of all the books that were banned, containing 2,855 titles which were burned.

An example of the Emperor's calligraphy.

Aside from editing, revising, and destroying texts, the authoritative body examined new writings.  If any word or sentence was deemed derogatory, the author(s) would be persecuted.  In the Qianlong Emperor's time there were 53 cases of literary inquisition.  The punishments were beheading, corpse mutilation, or being sliced into pieces until dead.

The Emperor doing calligraphy, mid-18th century.

The Qianlong Emperor was a major patron of the arts, and saw his efforts to preserve and restore Chinese culture as very important.  He acquired rare paintings and antiquities by any means necessary.  He often added poetic inscriptions to paintings, which were considered a mark of distinction.  Unique to him was the habit of using his reflections on paintings to mark them, almost like a diary.

Example of the Emperor's calligraphy, mid-18th century.

He, himself, was a prolific writer, publishing over 40,000 poems and 1,300 prose texts in a series of his collected writings done between 1749 and 1800.  He eventually became bored and disillusioned with being an emperor, and left the governing of the empire to his officials, who were corrupt.  Between the monies spent collecting art and literature and living a very luxurious life, and the embezzlement and corrupt actions of his officials, his dynasty and empire gradually declined.

A work on Tibetan Buddhism by the Emperor, 1792.

Today, while this is looked upon as an achievement, it is more of an example of censorship, book banning, and historical deletion.  The Qianlong Emperor would probably be very dismayed, as he thought of himself as the ultimate scholar.  We think that the internet is merciless in tracking our sins, but the centuries have not been kind to the Emperor.  He receives his just but rather evil reputation, and we mourn the loss of not him, but the books he destroyed.

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Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

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The Bonfire of the Vanities

Statue of Girolamo Savonarola in his birthplace of Ferrare, Italy.
Photo courtesy of ho visto nina volare/Wikipedia.

Yes, Tom Wolfe wrote a book of that title in 1987 about ambition, greed, politics, racism, and social class in 1980s New York.  Influenced by an event in 1497, the vanities of New York society as characterized by Wolfe sound vaguely like those of 15th century Florence.  William Makepeace Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair in 1847, which takes place in a town called Vanity, representing the sinful attachment to worldly things.  The term is from Ecclesiastes, which has the phrase "vanity of vanities, all is vanity".

A "bonfire of the vanities" was a common occurrence to outdoor sermons in the first half of the 14th century - San Bernardino di Siena, a Franciscan missionary, encouraged people to burn their objects of temptation.  These tempting objects included books, artworks, gambling tables, cards, manuscripts of secular music, fine clothing, cosmetics, mirrors, and fancy furnishings.

Bernardino di Siena organizing a bonfire of the vanities.
Relief by Agostino di Duccio for the Oratorio di San Bernardio in Perugia.
Photo courtesy of Givanni Dall'Orto/Wikipedia.

But the most famous "bonfire of the vanities" was that held by Girolamo Savonarola in Florence, Italy, in 1498.  He was a Dominican friar who preached against the wealth of the Renaissance and its patrons, such as the Medici family. His apocalyptic sermons were hugely popular.  He lambasted the institutions of the Church, but not its basic tenents.

Savonarola wrote a poem at the age of 20 he called De Ruina Mundi (on the Downfall of the World), revealing his preoccupation with living a chaste and pure life.  Three years later he wrote another poem, De Ruina Ecclesiae (on the Downfall of the Church) which showed his contempt for the Roman Curia (the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the Catholic Church) and claimed it was "a false, proud, archaic wench".

Bronze medal of Savonarola of Florentine workmanship.
The hand with dagger emerging from the clouds refers to
one of his prophesies.  Image courtesy of artfund.org.

He preached against the wealth of the Renaissance, and of the ruling upper classes, particularly the Medici family.  In 1494 the Medicis were overthrown, and Savonarola emerged as a leader of Florence.  He urged the Florentines to rid themselves of the sins that their luxuries signified, and many people did so voluntarily.  He persuaded artists to burn their own works, and some poets decided that they would no longer write in verse as their lines were impure.  On February 7, 1497 he held THE bonfire of the vanities.  Afterwards there was rioting, and Pope Alexander VI (aka Rodrigo Borgia, who was closely tied to the Medicis) excommunicated Savonarola.

From Beze's Les vrais portraits des homes illustres,
published in Geneva in 1481.  Image courtesy www.sciencephoto.com.

In the meantime, the people of Florence followed this charismatic crusader, who was said to have fallen in rapturous, ecstatic trances when preaching, bringing his audience to passionate tears.  He had a gang of young followers who roamed the streets, attempting to enforce a dress code, stoning and beating prostitutes, and trashing bars and clubs.

Savonarola's cell in San Marco, Florence.
Image courtesy TheBoxagon/Wikipedia.

He made many predictions, some which came true.  There were bad decisions made, and though it was through no fault of his, the city came to starvation.  Pope Alexander VI threatened to cut off all religious functions.  The Pope had bided his time, correctly guessing that the people would soon turn against Savonarola. Almost a year after he was excommunicated, Savonarola was charged with heresy, sedition, uttering prophecies, and "religious errors" by the Pope.  He and two of his closest associates were tortured to no avail.

Image from Giovo's Elogia vivorum literis published in Basel in 1577.
Image courtesy www.sciencephoto.com.

On May 23, 1498, the three were executed on the Piazza della Signoria, at the same place where he had held his bonfire, and in the same way he had ordered executions during his short rule.  They were hung, and then burned.  Their remains were stirred and burned again and again to insure that there would be no relics for followers.  The final ashes were thrown into the Arno.

Painting by an anonymous artist from 1498 of the executions.
Image courtesy of the Museo di San Marco.

Savonarola was not against books and arts per se; he saw them as symptoms of sin, and the way to deal with these symptoms was to destroy them.  His religious fervor and call to a purer life left him with many admirers.  Erasmus, the Dutch humanist, theologian, and Catholic priest, refused to become a Protestant after reading Savonarola's works, so the story goes.  Ironically, he is considered to be a forefather of the Reformation because of his anti-papacy stance.  Martin Luther was said to be inspired by him.

Plaque commemorating the spot of the execution in the Piazza della Signoria.
Image courtesy of Greg O'Beirne/Wikipedia.

Those of us who are book lovers view the destruction of books as a heinous crime, and this alone brings his reputation disfavor.  Not to mention the works of art that were destroyed that the world will never know.  Yet he was responding to a time when the balance of power was with the wealthy ruling classes and the unrest was already simmering among the common people.  He was in the right place at the right time, yet ultimately the wrong place at the wrong time.

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