The Sancai Tuhui, compiled by Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 natives Wang Qi (王圻) and Wang Siyi (王思義), is a Chinese encyclopedia

Chinese encyclopedia

Chinese encyclopedias are encyclopedias published in the Chinese language or encyclopedias about China and Chinese-related topics. The origin of encyclopedias in China can be traced to the late Han dynasty, circa 220 CE. Chinese has two words for "encyclopedia, encyclopedic", common baike and...

 known at the time as a type of Book by category

Book by category

A Book by category is one kind of reference book in ancient China.*First appeared in Cao Wei for the emperor Cao Pi.*During Song Dynasty Extensive Records of the Taiping Era and Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era, Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau....

 (類書), completed in 1607 and published in 1609 during the Ming dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

, featuring illustrations of subjects in the three worlds of heaven, earth, and humanity.

Title

The title of this encyclopedia has been variously translated into English as “Illustrations of the Three Powers”, “Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms”, “Pictorial Compendium of the Three Powers”, and others; in the original title, “Sancai” refers to the three realms of “heaven, earth, and man”, and “Tuhui” literally means “collection of illustrations”.

Description

This encyclopedia is organized into 106 chapters in 14 categories (astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, biographies

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, and such), with text and illustrations for the articles. Reproductions of this encyclopedia are still in print in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

While it contains some inaccurate or mythological articles (for example, the articles on the horseshoe crab

Horseshoe crab

The Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. Horseshoe crabs are most commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America...

 and the crane

Crane (bird)

Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...

), it also distinguished itself from the common “everyday encyclopedias” (riyong leishu 日用類書) at that time by being accurate in some other articles (for example, accurate depictions of the Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 and Korean

Korean people

The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...

 people’s clothing, and a very accurate world map

World map

A world map is a map of the surface of the Earth, which may be made using any of a number of different map projections. A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane....

 (the Shanhai Yudi Quantu

Shanhai Yudi Quantu

The Shanhai Yudi Quantu is a Chinese map which was published in 1607/1609 in the geographical treatise Sancai Tuhui .- Influences :The Shanhai Yudi Quantu is known to have be highly influenced by the Jesuit missions in China, starting with the work of Matteo Ricci...

)