The digitized form of Siku Quanshu may help more people better understand Chinese traditional culture.

It was the brainchild of Emperor Qianlong: Siku Quanshu, or The Complete Books of the Four Imperial Repositories. Qianlong, who sat on the imperial throne during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), set himself the task of preserving and restoring Chinese culture.

In 1773, he began to carry out his unparalleled ambition to compile the world's largest encyclopedia. It was to be the signature achievement of his reign.

The encyclopedia contains vast records that reveal how people lived in bygone days: their aspirations, yearning, worries and day-to-day trials. Even the ways people found entertainment and hobbies show how little people have changed.

Thousands of scribes toiled for more than 10 years, brush pens in hand. Word by word, they copied some 3,000 works selected for the grand compilation.

The emperor was pleased with the completed work and demanded the preparation of six more copies. Those were distributed to important libraries, and from there, became swept up in the tide of history. Some were burned, some were pillaged in the wars and rebellions that plagued the nation during years of upheaval. Some were damaged while being relocated.

The copy that Qianlong sat reading survived and resides today in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The other three surviving copies are kept in Beijing, Lanzhou and Hangzhou.

Today, accessing the hand-written copies is a rare privilege for a few scholars. But the complete encyclopedia may be viewed online. Digital Heritage Publishing, a Hong Kong company, developed an electronic version that is available through subscription.

As China studies have gained momentum globally, the electronic Chinese encyclopedia has drawn subscriptions from 794 universities and research institutes in 20 countries.

The number is continuing to grow with new subscribers just recently from Belgium, New Zealand, Israel and Malaysia.

Gabriel Yu, the publisher, has invested HK$50 million ($6.45 million) in the digitizing effort. He hired 200 programmers to create a pool of 80,000 Chinese characters that can be recognized and typed on computers.