Yongle Encyclopedia
According to "The Wall Street Journal", Until just a couple of years ago, the largest reference work ever published was something called the "Yongle Encyclopedia". A vast project consisting of thousands of volumes, it brought together the knowledge of some 2,000 scholars and was published, in China, in 1408. Roughly 600 years later, Wikipedia surpassed its size and scope with fewer than 25 employees and no official editor.The "Wall Street Journal" also says Lih's book is somewhat like Wikipedia itself.