Encyclopedia of China

Encyclopedia of China
LanguageChinese
SubjectGeneral
GenreReference encyclopedia
PublisherEncyclopedia of China Publishing House
Publication date
1978–present
Publication placePeople's Republic of China
Media type74 hardback volumes
ISBN978-7-5000-7958-3

The Encyclopedia of China (simplified Chinese: 中国大百科全书; traditional Chinese: 中國大百科全書; pinyin: Zhōngguó Dà Bǎikēquánshū; lit. 'Great Encyclopedia of China') is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, beginning in 1980 with a volume on astronomy; the final volume was completed in 1993. It comprised 74 volumes, with more than 80,000 entries.[1] Arranged by subject, which numbered 66 (some subjects occupy more than one volume), within each subject, entries were arranged by pinyin as many modern Chinese dictionaries have been. A Uyghur language edition was also published in 2015.[2]

A CD-ROM version and a subscription-based online version are also available. A second and more concise edition of the work was published in 2009.

The third online edition was released and published in the end of 2018,[3] which is free to use.[4] More than 20,000 scholars participated in this online encyclopaedia program which started in 2011, including some experts from Chinese Academy of Sciences. The encyclopedia has more than 300,000 entries.[5][6]

  1. ^ "China taking on Wikipedia with online encyclopaedia". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2017-05-03. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  2. ^ 《中国大百科全书》(维吾尔文版)新书首发仪式在乌鲁木齐举行. news.ts.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  3. ^ 《中国大百科全书》第三版编纂开始攻坚 Archived 2018-07-25 at the Wayback Machine. 张隽. 《 中华读书报 》( 2017年04月19日 01 版)
  4. ^ 《中国大百科全书》将触网 Archived 2020-10-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ China to launch national online encyclopaedia in 2018 Archived 2020-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. China Plus.
  6. ^ China to launch own encyclopaedia to rival Wikipedia[permanent dead link]. AFP.