Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy

The relevant passage in Borges’s essay “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins” (“El idioma analítico de John Wilkins”) "These ambiguities, redundancies, and deficiencies recall those attributed by Dr. Franz Kuhn to a certain Chinese encyclopedia called the Heavenly Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. In its distant pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the emperor; (b) embalmed ones; (c) those that are trained; (d) suckling pigs; (e) mermaids; (f) fabulous ones; (g) stray dogs; (h) those that are included in this classification; (i) those that tremble as if they were mad; (j) innumerable ones; (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's-hair brush; (l) etcetera; (m) those that have just broken the flower vase; (n) those that at a distance resemble flies." (Translated by Eliot Weinberger.)

General information
Vocabulary type: 
Taxonomy
Author or Editor: 
Jorge Luis Borges, supposedly after a Chinese encyclopedia
Was vocabulary created as a course project: 
No
Scope and Usage
Languages: 

Borges’s version originally in Spanish. Translated into English.

Major subjects covered: 

Mythical and real creatures

Purpose: 

To illustrate illogical and paradoxical classification

Vocabulary characteristics
Type of display : 
Hierarchy
Relationship types: 
Hierarchical (Broader/narrower terms)
Terms and Conditions
Comments, Availability: 

Book of Imaginary Beings, Borges' bestiary, a catalog of fantastic animals. Jorge Luis Borges wrote and edited the Book of Imaginary Beings in 1957 as the original SpanishManual de zoología fantástica, or Handbook of Fantastic Zoology, expanding it in 1967 and 1969 to the final El libro de los seres imaginarios. The English edition, created in collaboration with translatorNorman Thomas di Giovanni, contains descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore and literature. 

Provider
Vocabulary provider name: 
Wikipedia, UKOLN

Comments

Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy

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