Most of the web is written to be skimmed. An encyclopedia should be written to be trusted. That means showing the work: which sources were used, who reviewed the entry, what changed, and what remains uncertain.
QuanShu opens with Animalia. Its first entries are animals — the dog, the cat, their wild ancestors, and the breeds people have shaped from them. Future realms will take up other subjects, but the method will stay the same.
How an entry is made
An editor chooses a topic and gathers a small set of authoritative sources. A draft is written with those sources in view, using citation markers that point back to the exact source records. The draft is then checked for structure, unsupported claims, broken links, and image credits. Only after that does it become a published entry.
Some entries in this first edition were written directly by the editorial desk and checked against their cited sources. Future entries may be drafted with DeepSeek from editor-supplied sources. In either case, the provenance panel at the foot of an article says how it was made.
Why realms
A general encyclopedia can become an endless, undifferentiated list. A realm imposes a useful discipline: a subject, a boundary, an introduction, and a promise that the whole thing was considered together. It also gives readers a way to know what is finished and what is merely planned.
Only realms with real entries are shown. We do not publish empty realms or placeholder promises. When a new realm opens, it will have its own cover, accent, and editorial note.
Citations, sources, and uncertainty
A citation is a claim about where knowledge came from. We prefer primary and institutional sources: museums, universities, veterinary manuals, registries, conservation bodies, and peer-reviewed research. Where sources disagree, the entry should say so rather than smooth the disagreement away.
External links change. If a source has moved or a link is broken, report it and we will repair or replace it. Archived links are stored where available.
Images and credits
Photographs are sourced from Wikimedia Commons and similar openly licensed collections. Each image carries a credit, a license, and a link to its source. If you believe an image has been credited incorrectly, use the report form on the entry; we will correct or remove it promptly.
Corrections
Use the “Report an issue” button at the top or foot of any entry. Reports are read by an editor and kept in a private queue. Please quote the sentence and, if possible, name a better source. We do not publish public edit wars.
What this is not
QuanShu is not veterinary or medical advice. It is not a substitute for a clinician who can examine an animal. It is not a neutral machine: editorial choices are made by people, and those choices are described here.