A Study on the Burnt and Banned Books of the Imperial Examinations during Qianlong’S Reign

During his ruling time, Qianlong enacted an unprecedented book recruitment to compile Siku Quanshu. The order with an implication of making use of the recruitment to ban some particular books made certain parts of bibliography all burnt, and countless of that were ruined selectively. A great number of books for the imperial examinations in the end of the Ming and the early Qing Dynasty were also destroyed. The available studies on the books for the imperial examinations are limited, and the issue on the burnt and banned books for the imperial examinations during Qianlong’s reign has not been thorough discussed. Hence, this study will be conducted to probe into the questionable points regarding the books for the imperial examinations, and the reason of Qianlong’s act via digesting the bibliography. This study will have the advantage of deeply knowing the compilation, the circulation, and the burnt and banned of the books for the imperial examinations.