Chinese Buddhist canon

The Tripiṭaka Koreana, also known as the Goryeo Dynasty Daejanggyeong, a 13th century woodblock print edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon.

A page from the Issai-kyo (Jingo-ji Tripiṭaka); golden and silver ink on indigo-dyed paper, mounted as a hanging scroll; c. 12th century.

The Chinese Buddhist canon refers to a specific collection of Chinese Buddhist literature which contains the main canonical scriptures of East Asian Buddhism. The traditional term for the canon is Great Storage of Scriptures (traditional Chinese: 大藏經; simplified Chinese: 大藏经; pinyin: Dàzàngjīng; Japanese: 大蔵経; rōmaji: Daizōkyō; Korean: 대장경; romaja: Daejanggyeong; Vietnamese: Đại tạng kinh). The Chinese canon is a major source of scriptural and spiritual authority for East Asian Buddhism. It is also an object of worship and devotion for Asian Buddhists and its reproduction is seen as an act of merit making.

The development of the Great Storage of Scriptures was influenced by the Indian Buddhist concept of a Tripitaka, literally meaning "three baskets" (of Sutra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma), a term which referred to the scriptural canons of the various Indian Buddhist schools. However, Chinese Buddhists historically did not have access to a single Tripitaka from one school or collection. Instead, the canon was complied piecemeal over centuries as various Indian texts were translated and new texts composed in China. These were all later collected into a distinct Chinese canon.

The Chinese Buddhist Canon also contains many texts which were composed outside of the Indian subcontinent, including numerous texts composed in China, such as Chinese Buddhist treatises and commentaries, histories, biographies and other reference works. As such, the Great Storage of Scriptures, the foundation of East Asian Buddhist teachings, reflects the evolution of Chinese Buddhism over time, and the religious and scholarly efforts of generations of translators, scholars and monastics. This process began with the first translations in the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) after which a period of intense translation work followed in the succeeding dynasties. The first complete canonical collection, known as the Kaibao Canon or Shu-pen (蜀本) edition was printed during the Song dynasty between 971 to 983. Later eras saw further editions of the canon published in China, Korea and Japan like the Tripitaka Koreana (11th & 13th centuries) and the Qianlong Canon (1735-1738). One of the most widespread edition used by modern scholars today is the Taishō Tripiṭaka, produced in Japan in the 20th century.

The language of these scriptures is termed "Buddhist Chinese" (Fojiao Hanyu 佛教漢語), and is a variety of literary Chinese with several unique elements such as a distinctly Buddhist terminology that includes transliterations from Indian languages and newly coined Chinese Buddhist words.

History

See also: Chinese translation theory

In India, the early Buddhist teachings were collected into canons called tripiṭaka (‘three baskets’; Chin. 三藏 sānzàng ‘three stores’ or ‘three repositories’). Most canons contained sūtras (discourses of the Buddha, 經 jīng), monastic rule texts (vinaya; 律 lǜ); and scholastic treatises (abhidharma; 阿毘曇 āpítán or 阿毗達磨 āpídámó). Initially these sources were transmitted orally but later they were written down into various manuscript collections. Each of the Indian Buddhist schools had their own canon, which could differ significantly from that of other schools and be in different languages (prakrits like Gandhari and Pali, and Sanskrit). Some schools had extra pitakas or divisions, including a Dharani Pitaka, or Bodhisattva Pitakas.

Xuanzang transporting Buddhist scriptures to China

The first Chinese translations of Buddhist texts appeared during the later Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Ming (r. 58–75 ce). The first sutra to be translated is said to be the Sutra of Forty-two Sections (四十二章經 sìshíèr zhāng jīng). Many of the early translators were monks from Central Asia, like the Parthian Ān Shìgāo (安世高), and the Kuchan translator Kumārajīva (鳩摩羅什; 343– 413). Later figures were native Chinese who traveled to India and studied Sanskrit texts there, like Fǎxiǎn (法顯, c. 337–422 ce) and Xuánzàng (玄奘, 602–664 ce). These translators never worked alone, making use of teams of translators and scribes. Thus, the texts of the Chinese canon were translated by various figures from different source texts (in different forms of Sanskrit and prakrit). This process happened over several centuries and thus the various texts of the Chinese canon reflect different translation styles and philosophies.

According to Darui Long, the history of the Chinese Buddhist Canon can be divided into four main periods: the handwriting era (from the Han up to the 10th century), the era of woodblock printing (beginning in the Song era with the Kaibao edition of the 10th century), the era of modern printing, and the digital era.

One early collection of Chinese Buddhist canonical material is the Fangshan Stone Sutras (房山石經) which a set of around 15,000 stone tablets containing Buddhist sutras carved at Yúnjū Temple (雲居寺). This project was begun in the 7th century by a devout monk named Jìngwǎn. His followers at the temple continue to carve sutras on stone tablets for generations after. The earliest dated Heart Sutra from 661 comes from this collection.

From the Han to the Song dynasty era, many translations were made and made new texts were also composed in China. During the Eastern Jin and the Sui Dynasties, the earliest canons were compiled using manuscripts. Another important milestone in the development of the canon was the compilation of the Kaiyuan Catalogue (Kāiyuán Shìjiàolù, 開元釋教錄, Kaiyuan Era Record of Buddhist Teachings, Taishō Tripitaka No. 2154) during the Tang dynasty by the monk Zhisheng (699-740). This catalogue provided the main blueprint for the organization of future canons. These various early textual developments influenced the compilation of the first printed canon (the Kaibao) during the Song dynasty, which was completed in 983 and comprised 130,000 woodblocks.

In the following one thousand years of Chinese Buddhist history, fifteen further editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon were constructed. Half of these were royal editions, supported by the Imperial Court, while other canons were made through the efforts of laypersons and monastics.

Language

The texts of the Chinese Buddhist canon are written in a unique variant of literary Chinese (Wényán 文言) which is termed Buddhist Chinese by scholars. This "Buddhist Chinese" contains several features that distinguish it from standard literary Chinese. One of these is the fact that Buddhist Chinese makes greater of disyllabic and polysyllabic words. Much of this is due to Buddhist terminology not found in other literary Chinese works. One example of a Chinese term that was coined to translate an India term is 如來 (rúlái, "thus come") which refers to the term Tathagata. Buddhist Chinese also contains many transliterations from Indian languages such as Sanskrit, for example 波羅蜜 bōluómì for the Sanskrit term pāramitā. Another feature of Buddhist Chinese is that it tends to rely on more vernacular elements than non-Buddhist literary Chinese.

However, these generalizations should be understood to be very broad since, as Lock and Linebarger write:

it should be borne in mind that the term in fact covers the language of thousands of texts, both those translated from Sanskrit and other languages, and those written originally in Chinese. The texts are also in a large number of different genres, and were produced over a period of nearly two thousand years. This vast corpus includes texts in a kind of ‘translationese’, influenced by the vocabulary and grammar of the original languages from which they were translated, texts written throughout in an elegant Wenyan style, and texts containing a lot of colloquial language, some of which is recognizably MSC [Modern Standard Chinese]. So any generalizations made about BC will not hold for every text.

Editions and contents

The various editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon all include translations of Indian Āgama, Vinaya and Abhidharma texts from the Early Buddhist schools, as well as translations of the Mahāyāna sūtras, śāstras (treatises) and scriptures from Indian Esoteric Buddhism. The various canons also contain texts composed in China, Korea and Japan, including apocryphal sutras and Chinese Buddhist treatises. These additional non-Indic works include philosophical treatises, commentaries, philological works, catalogues, sectarian writings, geographic works, travelogues, biographies, genealogies and hagiographies, encyclopedias and dictionaries. Furthermore, each edition of the canon has its own organizational schema, with different divisions for the various types of texts.

While the Kaibao Canon is the earliest printed canon (completed c. 983), it is the Zhaocheng Jin Tripitaka, which dates to the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), that is the earliest Tripitaka collection that survives intact. The Goryeo Tripitaka and the Qianlong Tripitaka are the only collections which have survived as complete woodblock printing sets.

Kaibao canon

The first printed version of the Chinese Buddhist canon was Song dynasty Kaibao Canon (開寶藏) also known as the Shu-pen (蜀本) or Sichuan edition (since it was printed in Sichuan province). It was printed on the order of Emperor Taizu of Song (r. 960–976) and the work of printing the whole canon lasted from 971 to 983.

The blocks used to print the Kaibao Canon were lost in the fall of the Northern Song capital Kaifeng in 1127 and there are only about twelve fascicles worth of surviving material. However, the Kaibao formed the basis for future printed versions that do survive intact. Most importantly, the Shu-pen canon (along with later editions like the Liao dynasty edition) was the main source for the Tripitaka Koreana, which in turn was the basis for the modern Taisho edition.

Korean canon

A block of the Korean canon ready to be printed

Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra scroll, a print from the First Tripitaka Koreana Edition, National Treasure of the Republic of Korea No. 284

The earliest edition of the Korean canon or Tripiṭaka Koreana (Koryŏ Taejanggyōng 高麗大藏經), also known as the Palman Daejanggyeong (80,000 Tripitaka), was first carved in the 11th century during the Goryeo period (918–1392). The first edition was completely destroyed by the Mongols in 1232 and thus a second set was carved from 1236 to 1251 during the reign of Gojong (1192–1259).

This second Korean canon was carved into 81,258 woodblocks. According to Lewis R. Lancaster "each was carved on both sides with twenty-three lines of fourteen characters each. The calligraphy was excellent and the layout such that all the characters appeared in large size. The blocks measured two feet three inches in length and nearly ten inches in width and more than an inch in thickness. A very hard and durable wood from the Betula schmidtii regal tree (known as Paktal in Korean), gathered on the islands off the coast, was used."

These woodblocks were kept in good condition until the modern era, and are seen as accurate sources for the classic Chinese Buddhist Canon. Today, the woodblocks are stored at the Haeinsa temple, in South Korea.

The main texts in this canon are divided into main sections: a Mahāyāna Tripiṭaka and a Hīnayāna Tripiṭaka, each one having the three classic sub-divisions of Sūtra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. There are also supplementary sections with East Asian sources. The contents are as follows:

• 大乘三藏 Mahāyāna Tripiṭaka
  • 大乘經 Mahāyāna Sūtra
    • 般若部 Prajñāpāramitā (1–21)
    • 寶積部 Ratnakūṭa (22–55)
    • 大集部 Mahāsannipāta (56–78)
    • 華嚴部 Avataṃsaka (79–104)
    • 涅槃部 Parinirvāṇa (105–110)
    • 五大部外諸重譯經 Other Major Sūtras (111–387)
    • 單譯經 Minor Sūtras (388–522)
  • 大乘律 Mahāyāna Vinaya (523–548)
  • 大乘論 Mahāyāna Abhidharma
    • 釋經論 Sūtra Commentaries (549–569)
    • 集義論 Collected Treatises (570–646)
• 小乘三藏 Hīnayāna Tripiṭaka
  • 小乘經 Hīnayāna Sūtra
    • 阿含部 Āgama (647–800)
    • 單譯經 Minor Sūtras (801–888)
  • 小乘律 Hīnayāna Vinaya (889–942)
  • 小乘論 Hīnayāna Abhidharma (943–978)
• 賢聖傳記錄 Records of the Noble Ones
  • 西土賢聖集 Sages of the West (979–1046)
  • 此土撰述 Writings of This Land (1047–1087)
• 宋續入藏經 Song Period and Later Additions (1088–1498)

Yongle northern canon

The Yongle Northern Tripiṭaka (yongle beizang 永樂北藏), named after the Yongle Emperor, was the most important canon carved in the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644). It was carved in the new capital of Beijing from 1419 to 1440. The Yongle was one of the first canons to merge all the texts into a single set of pitakas. Previous canons like the Korean canon had followed the older schema of having two main divisions of "Hīnayāna" and Mahāyāna sections (each with separate sub-divisions for the Sūtra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma texts of each yana). The Yongle canons however merged all these texts into a single collection of Sūtra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma (which sub-divisions for Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna).

This canon was also influential outside of China, as it was re-printed in Japan under the auspices of Tetsugen Doko (1630–1682), a renowned master of the Ōbaku school.

Qianlong canon

The Qianlong Dazangjing (乾隆大藏經) also known as the Longzang (龍藏 “Dragon Store”) or the "Qing Tripitaka" was produced in Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) between the 13th year of Yongzheng (1735 CE) and the third year of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1738 CE). The edition comes in 7,173 volumes and survives in complete woodblocks. It is the last canon printed in the traditional style (without any punctuation or modern typography) and the best preserved of the classic Chinese Tripitakas in China.

Taishō canon

Evolution of the Taishō Tripiṭaka from previous editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon

The Taishō Tripiṭaka (taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經) is one of the most influential modern editions, being widely used by modern scholars. It was published by Japanese scholars who worked in Japan from 1924 to 1929. Named after the Taishō era of Japanese history, a modern standardized edition was published in Tokyo between 1924 and 1934 in 100 volumes. It is one of the first editions of the canon with modern punctuation and also scholarly notes.

The main section of the Taishō (the section that contains the traditional contents of the Chinese Buddhist Canon) has fifty-five volumes and 2,184 texts. The main section of the Taishō mostly consists of reprints of the second edition of the Koryŏ canon. However, some texts which were missing from the Koryŏ canon were added from other sources such as Japanese collections or other Chinese canons. The Taishō also provides scholarly annotations that contain alternate readings from other sources, though it was not a true critical edition of the Chinese canon. It also contained punctuation marks not found in the earlier canons, though they are often mistaken.

They are organized into the following categories:

1. Āgamas (equivalent to the contents of the Pali Sutta Piṭaka) and the Jātakas (219 texts in four vols.).
2. Mahāyāna Sūtras, grouped into the following sections: Prajñaparamita, Lotus Sūtra, the Avatamsaka, the Ratnakūta, the Mahāparinirvāna, the Mahā-sannipāta and general ‘Sūtras’ (mostly Mahāyāna) (627 texts in thirteen vols.).
3. Buddhist Tantras (572 texts in four vols.).
4. Vinayas (monastic rules) and some texts outlining Mahayana bodhisattvas ethics (eighty-six texts in three vols.).
5. Commentaries on the Āgamas and Mahāyāna Sūtras (thirty-one texts in three vols.).
6. Abhidharma texts (twenty-eight scholastic Buddhist texts in four vols.).
7. Mādhyamaka, Yogācāra and other Śāstras (‘Treatises’ (129 texts in three vols.)).
8. Chinese commentaries (twelve vols.).
9. Chinese sectarian writings (five vols.).
10. Histories and biographies (95 texts in four vols.).
11. Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, non-Buddhist works (Hindu, Manichaean, and Nestorian Christian), and catalogues of various Chinese Canons (sixty-four texts in three vols.).

Electronic editions

The Taishō Tripiṭaka became the basis for electronic editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon. The two main projects currently available online for free are the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database and the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA). The digitization of these canons became possible with the expansion of Unicode Character encoding standard to include many ancient Chinese characters. These digital editions also contain the ability to conduct a search of the entire database.

The digital editions of the canon have also seen further improvements of the texts from previous printed editions. For example, when the Taisho Canon was first printed, many old characters found in the Tripitaka Koreana (the main source of the Taisho) were not available to the original Taisho Canon typesetters, who thus had to choose alternative Chinese characters. The new electronic editions of the Taisho have allowed for easier restoration of the original characters as Unicode expanded its base of Chinese characters.

Supplemental material

Numerous collections of supplemental texts which are not found in the main traditional canonical editions have been published by modern scholars as part of modern collections of the canon or as supplemental volumes.

Perhaps the most well known are the supplemental volumes to the Taishō Canon. The supplements are contained in forty-five volumes with 736 other texts. Volumes 56 to 84 (published 1929–1932) contain Japanese Buddhist texts, vol. 85 has Dunhuang texts, volumes 86 to 97 contain illustrations and iconography and volumes 98 to 100 contain catalogs.

The use of old catalogues is an important supplement to the study of the Chinese Buddhist canon, its history and lost editions. One well known catalog that is included in the Taishō is the Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu 開元釋教錄 (Taisho no. 2154). Other catalogs are included in Volume 55.

The Xuzangjing (卍續藏) version, which is a supplement of another version of the canon, is often used as a supplement for Buddhist texts not collected in the Taishō Tripiṭaka. The Jiaxing Tripitaka is a supplement for Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty Buddhist texts not collected, and a Dazangjing Bu Bian (大藏經補編) published in 1986 are supplements of them.

Dunhuang texts

The manuscript finds at Dunhuang contain numerous Buddhist texts in Chinese and in other languages like Tibetan and Old Uyghur which are either not in the main Chinese canon or are significantly different versions. Most these texts are no later than the 11th century, the date of the closing of the largest trove of texts found in the so-called Library Cave (Cave 17). These finds have been influential on modern East Asian Buddhist scholarship and are an important supplement to the study of East Asian Buddhist texts found in the main canonical collections. The Dunhuang texts have been published by different modern scholarly projects.

The Chinese Manuscripts in the Tripitaka Sinica (中華大藏經–漢文部份 Zhonghua Dazangjing: Hanwen bufen), a new collection of canonical texts, was published by Zhonghua Book Company in Beijing in 1983–97, with 107 volumes of literature, are photocopies of early versions, and include many newly unearthed scriptures from Dunhuang. There are also newer Tripitaka Sinica projects.

Non-collected works

Further information: Buddhist apocrypha

A number of apocryphal sutras and texts composed in China are excluded from the main collections of the canon. These Chinese works include sutras like High King Avalokiteshvara Sutra and other texts, some of which are important to Chinese folk religions. Some of these works can be found in supplementary volumes to the different editions of the canon.

Translations

A page from a Tangut edition of the Golden Light Sutra written in the Tangut script

In the medieval period, several translations of Chinese Buddhist texts were made into other languages by various groups within the Chinese Buddhist sphere of influence. In the modern era, the contents of the Chinese canon were also translated into modern languages like Korean, Japanese and English.

Uyghur Buddhist texts

From the 11th to the 14th centuries, Uyghur Buddhism thrived especially in Qocho, Beshbaliq and Ganzhou regions. Uyghur Buddhists made many translations into Old Uyghur. Many of these texts have survived.

Tangut Tripitaka

The Mi Tripitaka (蕃大藏經) is a full Buddhist canon translated into the Tangut language from Chinese sources. This canon was the main source for the Buddhism of the Tangut people of the Western Xia dynasty (1038–1227). Today, this canon is studied by a small group of scholars who work in the field of Tangutology. Eric Grinstead published a collection of Tangut Buddhist texts under the title The Tangut Tripitaka in 1971 in New Delhi.

Manchu Canon

The Qianlong Emperor (1711–1799) had the Chinese Buddhist canon translated into the Manchu language during his reign. This Qing dynasty translation of the canon is known as the Manchu Canon (ch. Qingwen fanyi dazangjing 清文繙譯大藏經, mnc. Manju gisun i ubiliyambuga amba kanjur nomun). The project involved more than 90 scholars working for 20 years. The sutras were translated from the Qianlong edition of the Chinese canon but the Vinaya texts were actually translated from the Tibetan canon.

Modern translations

The Goryeo canon has been translated in full into modern Korean. The Taisho canon was also translated in full into modern Japanese during the 20th century under the auspices of Takakusu Junjiro and other Japanese Buddhist scholars. Many sutras and treatises have been translated into English by various scholars, but many works remain untranslated into English. In 1965, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism, BDK) was founded by Dr Yehan Numata with the express goal of translating the entire canon into English.

Samples

• 
  Song dynasty Chinese printed sutra page
• 
  Tripiṭaka Koreana printed sutra page

See also

• Early Buddhist texts
• Pali Canon
• Pali literature
• Sanskrit Buddhist literature
• Gandhāran Buddhist Texts
• Taisho Tripitaka
• Tripitaka Koreana
• Tibetan Buddhist canon
• Zhaocheng Jin Tripitaka
• Taoism
• Confucianism
• Jingo-ji Tripiṭaka

Further reading

• Wu, Jiang; Chia, Lucille, eds. (2016). Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231171601.

External links

General

• The Chinese Canon (Introduction)
• WWW Database of Chinese Buddhist texts (Book index)
• (in Chinese) Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka Electronic Text Collection, Taipei Edition
• (in Japanese) Taishō Tripiṭaka, SAT
• Taishō Tripiṭaka, NTI Buddhist Text Reader With matching English titles and dictionary
• East Asian Buddhist Studies: A Reference Guide
• The TELDAP projects as the base of the Integration of Buddhist Archives -- Buddhist Lexicographical Resources and Tripitaka Catalogs as the example
• Digital Database of Buddhist Tripitaka Catalogues
• (in Chinese) 大藏经研究 (Book index)
• (in Chinese) 佛教《大藏经》34种版本介绍保证网络最全 (Book index)
• (in Chinese) 電子藏經 Extensive list of online tripitakas
• (in Chinese) 汉文大藏经刊刻源流表 (Book index)
• (in Chinese) 汉文大藏经概述 (Book index)
• (in Chinese) 近三十年新发现的佛教大藏经及其价值 (Description of rediscovered texts of the Canon) (Book index)
• (in Chinese) 历代印本汉文大藏经简介 (Description of existing versions of the Canon)
• (in Chinese) 汉文佛教大藏经的整理与研究任重道远 (Description of new versions of the Canon)

Texts

• (in Japanese) Machine-readable text-database of the Taishō Tripitaka (zip files of Taishō Tripitaka vol. 1-85)
• (in Chinese) CBETA Project (with original text of Taishō Tripitaka vol.1-55, 85; the complete Zokuzokyo/Xuzangjing, and the Jiaxing Tripitaka).
• (in Chinese) 佛教大藏經 (links to big size pdfs)
• (in Chinese) 藏经楼--佛教导航
• (in Korean) Tripitaka Koreana (electronic scans)
• Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley provides some English translations from the Taishō Tripitaka (prints or free pdf)
• Bibliography of Translations from the Chinese Buddhist Canon into Western Languages accessed 2013-07-16
• Alternative Source for CBETA
• Buddhist Scriptures in Multiple Languages
• Chinese Canon with English Titles and Translations
• 漢文電子大藏經系列 Chinese Buddhist Canon Series

Non-collected works

• (in Chinese) 報佛恩網 (A collection of many modern Buddhist works outside the existing canon versions)
• (in Chinese) 生死书繁简版 (Another collection of modern Buddhist works)
• (in Chinese) 戒邪淫网 Archived January 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine (Another collection of modern Buddhist works)
• (in Chinese) 佛學研究基本文獻及工具書 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 大藏经 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 大藏经 Archived April 15, 2023, at the Wayback Machine (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 佛教大学 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 中文佛學文獻檢索與利用 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 工具書‧叢書‧大藏經 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) Center for Buddhist Studies 國立臺灣大學佛學研究中心 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 佛教研究之近況 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 佛書- 佛門網Buddhistdoor - 佛學辭彙- Buddhist Glossary (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 兩岸佛學研究與佛學教育的回顧與前瞻 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 当代台湾的佛学研究 (Book list)
• (in Chinese) 佛教资料库网站集锦(修订3版) (Book list)
• 美國佛教會電腦資訊庫功德會「藏經閣」
• 七葉佛教書舍
• Chinese buddhism works
• 佛缘正见 Archived August 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
• 弘化社，佛教印经，经书流通，净土
• 佛教书籍网:佛经在线阅读，佛教手机电子书下载，佛学论坛，佛经印刷
• 妙音文库