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The Siku Quanshu corpus includes the Wang Bi Daodejing commentary as imperial stock

By 1782 the Qing Siku Quanshu project had copied the received Daodejing with Wang Bi’s commentary into the imperial manuscript library. In the causal graph this event strengthens Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

By 1782 the Qing Siku Quanshu project had copied the received Daodejing with Wang Bi’s commentary into the imperial manuscript library.

Context

Imperial collecting preserves and canonises. It also decides which commentary counts as the text.

Laozi is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

Why it matters

A Siku copy is a Qing instrument.

A Siku copy is a Qing instrument.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Laozi

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.24 · verified

    Traditional heading of the Daodejing plus later editors, excavators, temples, or states. Complex, not an autograph.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.ChinaKnowledge.de — Daoist Books (daojia lei) in the Siku quanshuChinaKnowledge.de — An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History and Literature (Ulrich Theobald) · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.ChinaKnowledge.de — Siku quanshuChinaKnowledge.de — An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History and Literature (Ulrich Theobald) · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Confidence is stated on the impact path.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorLaozi
  2. contributed toFactThe Siku Quanshu corpus includes the Wang Bi Daodejing commentary as imperial stock
  3. strengthensDriverDigital Learning Access
  4. weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). The Siku Quanshu corpus includes the Wang Bi Daodejing commentary as imperial stock. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/lz-wang-bi-siku-1782

https://factrail.ai/facts/lz-wang-bi-siku-1782

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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