Completed in 1408 under the direction of the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Yongle Dadian was a monumental Chinese encyclopedia comprising approximately 22,937 manuscript volumes — making it one of the largest encyclopedias ever assembled. The project employed nearly 2,000 scholars over several years and aimed to compile all existing knowledge in classical Chinese civilization, including literature, history, philosophy, medicine, and the arts. Although most of the original was lost to fire and war over subsequent centuries, the Dadian represents an extraordinary imperial investment in the preservation and systematization of cultural knowledge. The project reflected the early Ming dynasty's ambition to legitimate its rule through cultural patronage and literary authority.

The Yongle Dadian preserved hundreds of otherwise lost classical Chinese poems, song lyrics (ci), and dramatic texts that would not have survived without this compilation effort. Imperial encyclopedism of this kind shaped how subsequent Chinese poets understood their own literary heritage, reinforcing canon formation and the prestige of classical forms. The project also illustrates the deep entanglement of poetic tradition and state power in East Asian literary culture — a dynamic that influenced court poets for generations.