"One Hundred Thousand Whys" is a set of popular science books for teenagers. The latest edition is the sixth edition. The chief editor of the sixth edition is Han Qide. Over the past 50 years, this set of books has been published in 6 editions, with a cumulative circulation of more than 100 million copies. It has been the scientific enlightenment reading book for generations of teenagers in New China, and has become the number one brand of original popular science books in China.

It has played a positive role in spreading knowledge and popularizing science, and has influenced several generations of young people to embark on the path of science. Affected by it, books titled "One Hundred Thousand Whys" emerged one after another, becoming synonymous with children's popular science books.

The title of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" is borrowed from the popular science book "One Hundred Thousand Whys" by Soviet scientific and literary writer Ilin (real name Ilya Yakovlevich Marshak) .

Ealing is taken from a poem by Joseph Rudyard Kipling, the British writer and winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature: "Where are the five thousand? What to do with the seven thousand?" "One hundred thousand why?" "One hundred thousand" is a fictitious reference, used to describe many.

The first edition of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" was published by Children's Publishing House

The success of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" lies in the word "set". When planning the first edition of "One Hundred Thousand Whys", we paid attention to the supporting issues. The first edition is divided into five volumes: physics, chemistry, astronomy and meteorology, agriculture, and physiological hygiene, with more than 900 "whys". Later, three volumes of mathematics, geology and geography, and animals were added.

Eight volumes were published in December 1962. At this time, the first edition of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" contained 1,484 questions and 1.05 million words. More than 5.3 million copies of the first edition were printed.

After our country issued the call to "march toward science" at that time, the editors of Children's Publishing House, one of the only two professional children's publishing houses at that time, were very encouraged and wanted to publish books for children. Some good popular science books broke the current situation that popular science books at that time were either thin or sparse.

However, due to failure in all aspects, editors also stopped from producing books that only focused on speed and not quality, and thought that only focusing on quality was the right way.

In 1959, they began to prepare a set of natural science "encyclopedia"-style books that answered various questions for high school and junior high school students. After a period of practice in drafting, they gradually established a breakthrough textbook The editing ideas of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" and the classroom teaching framework set the tone for the future editing work of One Hundred Thousand Whys. "One Hundred Thousand Whys" has become one of the most resounding brands among Chinese popular science books.