Siku quanshu

ALTERNATE TITLE

四庫全書

ACCESS

subscription

URL

http://www.sikuquanshu.com/

DESCRIPTION

This electronic database, published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Digital Heritage Publishing Ltd., contains on at least 183 CD-ROMs the complete contents, in full text and image, of the 3460+ titles of the Wenyuange edition of the Si ku quan shu (1782) plus a few other useful tools. The total content is a staggering 800 million characters, and is arranged under almost 2 million piece titles. Some of the titles contained in the Si ku quan shu are themselves large compilations, such as the Quan Tang shi, Zi zhi tong jian , Xu Zi zhi tong jian chang bian , Wen xuan , Pei wen yun fu , Tai ping yu lan , the 25 Histories . One should realize, however, that the Siku quanshu editions are not always the best ones available, nor are they always complete: as is well known, its compilation involved censorship. The Electronic Si ku quan shu ("e-SKQS") is useful not only for searching, but also for studying: it has linked dictionaries, and the possibility of saving notebooks. Princeton University's license is valid for 3 simultaneous users, and the electronic Siku Quanshu is available from all public computers located in the East Asian Library. The functionality of the database is well thought-out, but its interface is not very intuitive: in addition to consulting a guide, users are advised to ask for explanatory session with the Chinese Bibliographer. Alternatively, Siku quanshu is also available via the Diaolong database collection.

SOURCE LIST

Princeton China Studies Research Guide

LAST MODIFIED

2026-01-16