100,000 Whys (also known as One Hundred Thousand Whys; Russian: Сто тысяч почему, romanized: Sto tysyach pochemu; Chinese: 十萬個為什麼) is a popular science book series for children that originated with Soviet writer Mikhail Ilin (M. Ilin). The work was first published in 1929 and later became a massively influential and widely reprinted series in China.
Origin
The original 1929 work was written by Soviet author and engineer Mikhail Ilin (1896–1953), a popular science writer and a pioneer of modern children's science literature. The title derives from a line in a poem by British writer Rudyard Kipling: "five thousand wheres, seven thousand hows, one hundred thousand whys." The book was published in English as 100,000 Whys: A Trip Around the Room.
Content and Format
The book takes a question-and-answer format, addressing a wide range of scientific and natural phenomena in language accessible to children. It covers topics such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, zoology, and health sciences.
Chinese Versions
The Chinese edition of One Hundred Thousand Whys (十万个为什么) has a particularly notable history. It was first adapted in 1934 by Dong Chuncai and published by Kaiming Bookstore. A 1938 translation by Zhen Bin also appeared. The Kaiming version was so successful that it went through ten revisions by 1949.
In 1958, Shanghai Youth and Children's Press planned a large-scale popular science series and invited over 200 authors to contribute. The first edition was published in 1960 with volumes covering mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and meteorology, agriculture, zoology, geology, and health. Ye Yonglie, a prominent Chinese science fiction writer, contributed over 300 topics—about one-third of the entire series. By 1964, the series had been reprinted 11 times, totaling 5.8 million copies.
During the Cultural Revolution, a third edition (the "worker, farmer and soldier" edition, 1971) was published by Shanghai People's Press in 21 volumes, featuring extensive political content including frequent quotes from Mao Zedong. These political elements were largely removed in later revisions.
Legacy and Impact
By 2000, the series had printed over ten million copies (over 100 million volumes). Shanghai Youth and Children's Press attempted to trademark the title but was denied because it had become a generic book title. According to the Beijing Kaijuan Book Market Research Institute, there are over 500 versions of books bearing this title from various publishing houses.
Modern Editions
In recent years, numerous modern editions of books titled 100,000 Whys have been published in English and other languages, targeting children aged 6–12 with updated scientific content. These contemporary versions continue the question-and-answer tradition of Ilin's original work, covering science, space, nature, and general knowledge.
