The popular encyclopedia for daily use contains the common knowledge necessary for all the situations in the daily life, and is edited according to various subjects so that it is convenient for people to resort to. It features like the family life manual today, or so-called a miniature encyclopedia for family life. Such a book originated in the need to offer tips to solving all sorts of complications, thus more akin to encyclopedia in the past than calendar. Encyclopedia started in Wei-ching from the material collected to offer politicians and intellectuals ready references for Plan-wen, that is, a consultation on the past incidents and articles. It was popular in T'ang-Sung for the sake of K'e-Chu exam and in South-Sung developed into the encyclopedia for daily use, in which the incidents and articles of those days were also put down to offer the daily needs of the common people. Though encyclopedia for daily use was meant for the daily needs, it was still more frequently adopted by the upper class people. It was not until the Wan-Ii time in the latter period of Ming Dynasty that the really commonly used the popular encyclopedia for daily use appeared. It greatly differed from encyclopedia for daily use in terms of the content, the title, subjects, printing, wording and publication. Since its appearance at Wan-Ii time the popular encyclopedia for daily use has flourished until Ch'lng Dynasty, even until today after the rise of the Republic of China. Nowadays, this type of book is still popular. Despite the variety of its format and title, the function of its ready reference for the public people remains unchanged in the four hundred years.