China has launched a five-year project to reprint a 266-year-old Buddhist encyclopaedia that is so big that if the pages were lined up they would stretch 100 kilometres (62 miles).
Known as the "Dazangjing" in Chinese, the royal edition of the Buddhist canon was first compiled and printed on the orders of the first emperor of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
The current edition was completed in 1738, carved onto 130,000 wood plates and containing nearly 2,000 different books.
Most were translated directly from Sanskrit and the originals are now lost in India, the Xinhua news agency said.
The reprinting, on paper, "will become a major event in the development of Chinese culture since it helps pass down this Buddhist treasure," said Yicheng, chairman of the Chinese Buddhist Association.
The encyclopaedia includes discourses with the Buddha, regulations of monastic life, and commentaries on the sutras by renowned Buddhist scholars.
It also deals with philosophy, history, ethnic groups, languages, literature, astronomy, astrology medicine and architecture.