VI.F. COMPREHENSIVE INDEXES AND ELECTRONIC DATABASES

Comprehensive Indexes in Print

The Great Compendium of the Yongle Reign (Yongle da dian) contains many fragments of Song texts which are no longer extant in full. These fragments can be searched with the following two indexes:

This is a name and title index organized by the four-corner system and with stroke order and pronunciation finding aids.
It includes a table of contents of remaining and indexed chapters, indicating the original sources of the chapters.

Comprehensive Electronic Databases with Major Song Collections

1) All texts written and compiled during the Song Dynasty that were included in the Siku quanshu can be searched in the electronic version of this eighteenth-century collection:

2)

The Academia Sinica databases include a large number of Song historical and literary works, local gazetteers (fangzhi, tujing), miscellanies (biji), administrative encyclopedias (such as Ma Duanlin's Wenxian tongkao and Song Huiyao), medical, philosophical and religious texts. Searches can be conducted in individual titles or in several titles or subject categories at the same time (with the exception of Song Huiyao--see VI.B). Unlike the electronic edition of the Siku quanshu, the editions used are in most cases modern punctuated and annotated editions. The titles included and the editions used are listed in an excel sheet (2003). Updates to this sheet can be accessed at the main site listed above. Titles and editions can also be searched from the new interface (currently still under construction) http://140.109.138.237:9080/Handy/index
US Libraries with full access to the Academia Sinica databases include Harvard University and the University of California.

For an account of the making of this database and an overview of sources and editions included, see

3)

This database includes a large number of Song Dynasty historical, philosophical, religious and literary works (including large anthologies of Song prose and poetry in the shi and ci genres), encyclopedias, miscellanies (biji), some gazetteers, and a selection of Qing Dynasty and twentieth-century scholarship on topics related to the Song period. This database uses modern punctuated and annotated editions. It includes, for example, modern editions of Su Shi's or Zhu Xi's collected works. This distinguishes it from similar material included in the electronic edition of the Siku quanshu described above.
For a classified list of titles included, go to http://www.guoxue.com/cp/gjjs/gxbd.htm
Note that this list does not mention the editions used and does not specify copyright privileges!
The company also sells thematic collections chosen from this large database in CD-ROM format. See the site listed above for more information.

4) All texts written during the Song Dynasty or Song editions of pre-Song texts included in the early twentieth-century series Sibu congkan can be viewed and searched in the electronic version:

This collection is noted for its reproductions of rare (particularly Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasty) editions of Song texts. The manual includes a table of titles already included in The Electronic Edition of the Complete Works in the Four Treasuries (see above), but contrasts the (earlier) Sibu congkan editions to the Siku quanshu edition.
The software was developed by the same company that produced The Electronic Edition of the Complete Works in the Four Treasuries. The functionality and layout is therefore very similar (see guides mentioned above).

Includes a large collection of Song texts. There is a list of included titles arranged by subject category, and then by dynasty.

This is an excel file listing major Song primary sources and indicating whether or not they are contained in large full-text databases such as Scripta Sinica and Siku quanshu. It is particularly useful as it shows both which primary sources have and which have not been made available electronically.