Jul 28, 2026 · 16 min · 10 segments
*Today, we’ll talk about the Yongle Encyclopedia, a monumental Chinese text dating from the Ming dynasty, and provide you with a fascinating narrative detailing its six-hundred-year journey, tragic…
Scott PruittHost
On June 24, 2026, two handwritten volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia finally came home.
At a donation ceremony held at the National Editions Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, two Ming Dynasty manuscript volumes that had spent decades overseas officially entered one of China's newest institutions dedicated to preserving the nation's written heritage.
Purchased at a French auction in 2020 by Chinese collector Jin Liang and donated six years later, the books represented only two volumes out of what was once the largest encyclopedia ever compiled before the modern age.
Yet their return was celebrated as the recovery of a missing piece of China's cultural memory.
On June 24, 2026, two handwritten volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia finally came home.
At a donation ceremony held at the National Editions Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, two Ming Dynasty manuscript volumes that had spent decades overseas officially entered one of China's newest institutions dedicated to preserving the nation's written heritage.
Purchased at a French auction in 2020 by Chinese collector Jin Liang and donated six years later, the books represented only two volumes out of what was once the largest encyclopedia ever compiled before the modern age.
Yet their return was celebrated as the recovery of a missing piece of China's cultural memory.
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