The second dates from the twelfth century, and deals with the same
subjects, having additional sections on History and Chronology, Writing,
Pronunciation, Astronomy, Bibliography, Prodigies, Fauna and Flora,
Foreign Nations, etc.

The third, and best known to foreign scholars, is the encyclopædia of
Ma Tuan-lin of the fourteenth century. It is on much the same lines as
the other two, being actually based upon the first, but has of course
the advantage of being some centuries later.

The above three works are in a uniform edition, published in the middle
of the eighteenth century under orders from the Emperor Ch'ien Lung.

There are also several other encyclopædias of information on general
topics, extending to a good many volumes in each case.

One of these contains interesting extracts on all manner of subjects
taken from the lighter literature of China, such as Dreams, Palmistry,
Reminiscences of a Previous State of Existence, and even Resurrection
after Death. It was cut on blocks for printing in A.D. 981, only fifty
years after the first edition of the Confucian Canon was printed. The
Cambridge copy cannot claim to date from 981, but it does date from
1566.

Another work of the same kind was the _San Ts'ai T'u Hui_, issued in
1609, which is bound up in seventeen thick volumes. It is especially
interesting for the variety of topics on which information is given, and
also because it is profusely illustrated with full-page woodcuts. It has
chapters on Geography, with maps; on Ethnology, Language, the Arts and