Under the direct orders of the Yongle Emperor, over 2,000 scholars completed the 'Yongle Encyclopedia' in Nanjing, China, during the Ming Dynasty. Comprising 22,937 manuscript chapters bound into 11,095 volumes, it stood as the world's largest paper-based general encyclopedia for centuries. The work preserved whole texts of Chinese history, philosophy, science, and literature, codifying the absolute entirety of Confucian and classical knowledge into a single administrative reference.

By preserving massive quantities of ancient Chinese poetry, opera, and prose that faced destruction through war or decay, the encyclopedia sustained the structural continuity of Chinese classical verse. It allowed generations of Ming and Qing dynasty poets to study and emulate authentic Tang and Song dynasty poetic models.