buddhism and the creation of canons

8/10/2019 Buddhism and the Creation of Canons

1/32

Buddhism and the Creation of Canons

Lewis Lancaster

(The following is the transcript of class lectures and it is notfully annotated)

The issue of canonicity within Buddhism is a complex one,

since there are several recognied canons !ased on language anddoctrine" #n $outh and $outheast %sia, the Theravada canon inwhat is now called the &ali language is accepted and preservedin a num!er of national scripts" #n 'ast %sia, the ChineseBuddhist canon is used in one of its several configurations !y allgroups" %nd finally among the Central %sian communities, wefind the various editions of the Ti!etan language canon, made upfor the main of translations from $ansrit with a few texts that

were taen from the Chinese" %long side this Ti!etan canon, isthe scripture in ongolian translations made from the Ti!etan"Later, the anchu people also constructed a canon copied fromthe Chinese one" #ndia and *epal still preserve some copies of$ansrit Buddhist texts, !ut no complete copy of a canon can !efound among these fragmentary palm leaf and paper copies"'ach canon has its own history and development and eachdeserves more attention as an integral part of the research in thisfield" #t may !e that a study of the Chinese Buddhist canon issomewhat premature, since so many pro!lems remain unsolvedwith regard to the various canons that mae up the totality of

+


2/32

Buddhist literature and scripture" But the Chinese created theirown form of the canon, often with limited nowledge of thehistory or origins of the texts !eing included in it" The story thatfollows is not intended to !e a definitive study of Buddhistscripture, it is focused on the situation which existed in China"#t was the Chinese Buddhist community that over the yearsdesignated a particular sets of texts as official and arranged themand disseminated them !y techniues and scri!al patterns whichwere peculiar to China"

-hen the first translations of Buddhist texts were made intoChinese in the second century, the teachings of the faith had

!een a part of #ndian culture for some centuries" Thetransmission of these teachings through Central %sia into Chinawas one of the remara!le moments in the spread of culturefrom one society to another" The earliest references to theteachings in #ndia appear in inscriptions at sites such as $anci,.arli, Bharhut, and there we have the picture of an oral tradition!eing carried on !y mons who were called !hanaa or reciters"By the second century B"C"'" Brahmi inscriptions carry the term

tripitia implying that the Buddhist writings had !een sortedinto three types with teachers who were specialied in the three"%t this early stage it is pro!a!ly incorrect to assume that theword tripitaa meant the Buddhist canon, since it was !ut one ofa group of schemes that classified texts according to theircharacteristics" /aving the classifications did not mean thatthese were closed categories,since new materials could and wereadded when nown and availa!le" 0n the other hand, therecognied texts in #ndian Buddhism were not free from1udgment regarding the authenticity and nature of the teachingscontained in them" -e hear in words attri!uted to the Buddhahimself the idea that even though uestiona!le, new texts might

2


3/32

!e adopted as authentic, while the older ones, closer to theoriginal message of the Buddha could sin into o!livion3

4The sutras promulgated !y the Tathagata, which are profound in meaning, supramundane, and which teach emptiness, will not !e listened to with faith, no one will lend an ear, nor recognie them as true55!ut the sutras composed !y poets, which are poetic, artistic in sylla!les and phonemes, exoteric, promulgated !y the disciples, will !e !elieved55thus sutras in the first category will disappear"4

The 6ipavamsa speas of those who introduced changes andthus mae the original text no longer valid" 6uring the time of%soa, the records claim that ahadeva tried to get the writingsof the ahayana included in the list of accepted scripture"#ndian Buddhist had the fear that newly composed texts ortextual corruption would mae it more difficult to determine thetrue teachings" Thus, when we spea of the importance of

pseudographs in China and the pro!lems presented !y thoseearly Buddhist texts composed within China and constitutingnew cultural patterns for the religion7s literature, it should not !ethought that the pro!lem of canonicity and recently composedtexts was a!sent in #ndia" -hen the Chinese first came into contact with Buddhist textseither in the original #ndic form or in the translations, it wouldhave !een impossi!le for them to determine the canonicity ofthose materials" There was no list of texts, universallyrecognied !y the arriving missionary mons, that could !e used!y the early Chinese Buddhist community as a formal canon"-hile the #ndian Buddhist writings were classified under the

8


4/32

three headings of $utra, 9inaya and %!hidharma, there was noclosure in any of the categories as far as the Chinese wereconcerned" 'very year !rought new and unheard of texts fromthe -estern regions and who was to say which were authenticand which suspect" -hile tradition holds that the first BuddhistCouncil was called soon after the *irvana of the Buddha for theexpress purpose of determining the canon, no such uranon wasprovided to the Chinese" -hatever the form of the teachingsthat might have !een presented at the Council, it is generallyaccepted that they were transmitted orally and the accounts ofthe meeting mae no mention of any scri!es writing down the

texts"#ndia also had controversy over the contents of the three

categories" :or example, under the $utra classification, a fifthdivision had to !e added, !eyond the well nown four agamas"This fifth was a miscellaneous collection of texts which did notfall easily into any of the arrangements of the first fourcategories" There has always remained a uestion a!out whetherthis fifth ksudrakasection !elonged to the tripitaka" 6uring the

fourth century, the Chinese had availa!le in the capital a textwhich defined the canon as the tripitaa plus the sudraa" Thismeant that for some Buddhists the sudraa texts did not !elongto the $utra part of the tripitaa !ut constituted an entirely newtype of scripture" This fourth century document, which sodefined the canon, also provides an explanation for theappearance of new material, !y saying that the teachings ofBuddhism are not only those of the Buddha !ut are also thewords of the %rhats, gods and other divine !eings" -hile the$utra category may !e preserved as referring only to the wordsof the Buddha, clearly other !eings have uttered words that areworthy of preservation and study" This same idea of a variety of

;


5/32

teachers is seen in the :en pieh ung te lun where the sudraais said to !e the words of the Buddha, disciples and the gods"'tienne Lamotte maes the point that the schools of Buddhism!ased on $ansrit texts, could give the miscellaneous texts aplace in the categories of scripture, !ut they were not a!le toachieve a concensus among themselves over the exact texts to !eincluded" #t was the Theravada tradition among the $inhalesethat first gave a standard closed list for the miscellaneouscategory of texts" $ince the Chinese received only the $ansrit!ased texts and not the tradition of the Theravada, they werefaced with the pro!lem of having no clear picture of the num!er

of accepta!le titles for this part of the canon"'ven though the agama category was esta!lished in the

#ndian schools, early Chinese translators received copies of thefour divisions of the texts from different schools, whichpurported to !e the actual words of the Buddha" Thus we find inthe Chinese translations that the texts of the Madhyamagamaand the $amyutagama !elonged to the $arvastivadin school,while the 6irghamagama was part of the texts from the

6harmguptaa school and the 'ottaraagama is nowconsidered to have come from the ahasanghias" Thisheterogenious mix of !asic texts such as the agamas, comingfrom a variety of #ndian schools is an example of the way inwhich the Chinese received the texts of Buddhism" There wasno one school, no systematic transmission of a canonic list" *oone #ndian school can !e identified as the primary source forcanonic materials in the Chinese translation !ureaus and no onelist of texts,!elonging to some #ndian tradition where consensushad !een achieve a!out the canon, provided the model for theorganiation and content of the Chinese Buddhist canon" The 9inaya classification, relating to the rules of conduct,


6/32

was as ill defined for the Chinese as the $utra one" % variety of$ansrit !ased schools were represented !y the manuals ofconduct that came into China" There were the 9inayas of the$arvastivadins, 6harmaguptas, ahasamghia, ahisasaasand ulasarvastivadins" By the fifth century, the Chinesemons and scholars were aware of these varied descriptions ofthe correct rules of conduct thought to have !een passed downfrom the Buddha" /aving !efore them an array of choices, theChinese had to mae a decision a!out the nature of these textsand they did this in a typical fashion for their own culture"=pagupta was held to !e the disciple of the Buddha who

transmitted the rules of conduct and thus the autograph for the9inaya would !e his words or teachings" $ince there were fivema1or 9inayas !efore them for consideration, the mons andnuns of China determined that after =pagupta7s death the lineageof transmission of the vinaya had passed to five of his disciples"The result of these lineages was, naturally enough, differentinterpretations" -hile there might !e five interpretations, therecould !e no dou!t in the minds of the Chinese Buddhist

monastic dwellers that there had once !een a single 9inaya,which was !eing transmitted through five lineages" 6uring theseventh century, Tao5hsuan founded a school for the study of the9inaya and he used the 6harmagupta version that had !eentranslated in the early fifth century !y Buddhayasas and Cho:o5nien" This 9inaya $chool was a minor part of the Buddhistscholastic community and its choice of one text from an #ndianschool did not mean that all other vinaya codes were removedfrom the canon" %ll of the availa!le 9inaya texts were ept andgiven eual treatment" The !uilding of the Chinese Buddhistcanon had less to do with re1ecting texts than it did withdeveloping a rationale for inclusion"

>


7/32


8/32

his compassion taught people who had little !acground orunderstanding and after giving them the initial 4hinayana4teaching, he later too them into the more advanced studies ofahayana" $ince the Chinese came to consider the ahayanateachings as the most superior, it is conceiva!le that they couldhave constructed a canon made up only of the texts from thisschool" #nstead under the leadership of those who held that allthe $utras, whether of the superior or lower ran in terms ofdoctrine, !elonged to the Buddha, the Chinese put together theirBuddhist canon with !oth types of texts included in it" -hilevarious schools in #ndia struggled to produce some list of

accepted writings and to separate themselves from schools thathad opted for other choices, there was no clear pattern for theChinese to inherit" eceiving texts from every corner of theBuddhist sphere, the Chinese translated them all and from thesetranslations created a canon, unlie anything which had everexisted in #ndia"

-ithout guidance, since there was so much conflictinginformation coming from #ndia and Central %sia regarding the

teachings, the Chinese turned to their own traditions for themethod of creating and defining the limits of authentic Buddhistwritings" They had !efore them a model for canonicity whichwas universal for their culture and had a well esta!lishedstructure for transmission and standardiation" The model wasthe statecraft texts which were used for the examination systemthroughout the land" These texts were called ching, oftentranslated as 4classic"4 The earliest canon of these so calledConfucian texts was composed of the five ching" $tandardreadings of these ching existed in manuscript copies whereverthe examinations were used for the selection of governmentofficials" %nswers had to !e !ased on some standard so that

D


9/32

1udgement of the examination could !e made wherever it wasadministered" Because of the importance of maintaining astandard reading for the ching, the court esta!lished the officialcopy in the capital and had it engraved on stone stelae" Thereare references to scandals that !rought into uestion theauthenticity of the standard texts preserved either on !am!ooslips or on sil scrolls" $ome, accused scri!es of changing thosemanuscripts so that errors which occured in the answers offavored individuals taing the civil examination would appear to!e correct" 0ne solution to the pro!lem of having the standardtext in manuscript on surfaces that could !e erased or changed,

was to engrave the standard readings on stones" 0nce incised,these stones could hardly !e changed, and could !e a commonsource for the determination of the correct form of the texts"0nly scri!es of the highest position were allowed to enter thearea of the stelae and mae manuscript copies directly from thestones" These precious copies from the court scri!es were taento provincial copy centers where large num!ers of manuscriptswere prepared and distri!uted" #t was this system of maintaining

a standard and having highly trained scri!es produce officialcopies of it, that was to !ecome the model for the Buddhists"

%t the end of the


10/32

o!1ect of a copying pro1ect at 6unhuang" This Buddhist center,a long distance from the capital, was !ut one of many provincialcopying centers, !ut the fact that such copying was !eing doneprovides us with the information that the Buddhist canon was!eing recopied in exactly the fashion that the copies of the chingof the statecraft canon were produced and disseminated" -henwe compare the Buddhist developments regarding copying withthat of the Taoists, we note that similar methods were employed!y !oth religions" The manuscript tradition of Taoism continuedfor a longer period than for Buddhism" -hile the Buddhistcanon was !eing printed in the +Eth century, it was not until

+++A that the Taoist $ung canon was carved on printing !locs"The pattern of distri!ution of the Taoist canon while similar inind to that of Buddhism was done at a much later date" :orexample, while we find examples of the official copying of the #ch7ieh ching as early as ;A, the Taoist were still calling forsome pattern of copying as late as +E>;, when Ch7iuCheng5tsung and Teng Tu5ho complained3 4The !oos of Buddhism are found in every prefecture and

county, !ut what we Taoists have recorded is scattered and incomplete" -e wish to go to the capital and o!tain an official copy in order to transmit it widely"4 (9an der Loon A>)

9an der Loon points out that as early as the T7ang, specifically inthe words attri!uted to /suan5tung in ;A, we have an idea ofcopying which was !oth a reflection of the statecraft procedureas well as the Buddhist approach, 4*ow, we are issuing from the palace the Complete Taoist $criptures" Let the #nstitutte of Taoist $tudies prepare manuscripts forthwith and distri!ute them to the inspecting

+E


11/32

commissioners of the circuits, so that the prefectureswithin their 1urisdiction can mae their own copies" The

official set shall then remain in one large temple in theprefecture which is the seat of the commissioner, forregular recitation"4

The sie of the set of Chinese Buddhist texts gives us someidea of the funding necessary to mae copies" -hen Tao5anmade a catalogue of all the Buddhist manuscripts availa!le tohim at the end of the fourth century, he could account for +;>;scrolls" /is contemporary, .umara1iva, added to that total ;2

new scrolls from his translation effort" The -ei shu lists +A+Ascrolls and the now missing catalogue of Li .uo apparently had2EEE scrolls of the&ra1naparamita" By the time of the $ung dynasty the canonwould grow to more than >EEE scrolls or AE,EEE sheets of paper" -hen the Chinese Buddhists referred to their scripture as4%ll of the ching4, the uestion arises as to how they definedthat term which had !een for so long applied only to the classicsof the ancient sages of China" -hen we see in the fifth centurycolophon the expression 4%ll of the ching4, it is tempting to

++


12/32

translate the word ching as the euivalent for the $ansrit word4sutra4" /owever, if we tae note of the list of texts includedamong the Buddhist ching, it is o!vious that this categoryincluded all of the translations whether $utra, 9inaya or%!hidharma" %s mentioned a!ove, the model for the Chinesecanonicity was not that of #ndia, it was their own secularapproach" Fust as ching was a designation for the texts whichcontained the teachings of the ancient sages of China, so theearly Buddhists too the term to mean the teachings of theancients of #ndia, especially Buddha" They did not assume thatall ching were the words of the Buddha since texts attri!uted to

*agar1una and other great masters were given the samedesignation" -hile the Chinese do use the word ching wherethe $ansrit term 4sutra4 appears, the use of the term in thecatalogues and in the name for the canon of Buddhism retains itsChinese meaning" -e can say that ching means a recognied!oo, an authentic expression of a sage, a text worthy ofpreservation and coping" $ince ching referred only to thewritings which reproduced the ancient teachings, it was not a

term that could !e applied to a newly written wor !y acontemporary author" But without the term ching !eing used inthe title, a wor was not a recognied Buddhist text and couldnot !e included in the canon" #t was this restriction on the use ofthe word ching that resulted in the much discussedpseudographs, writings that purported to !e translations from$ansrit !ut which were clearly the product of the Chineseenvironment" The use of ching for official !oos or scripturewas not limited to the Confucian or Buddhist traditionsG later theTaoists, Christians and anichaens also used the term toprovide legitimacy to their scriptures"

The prevalence of the word ching for the Buddhist texts can

+2


13/32

!e seen when we loo at the catalogues that appeared in thesixth and seventh centuries" The oldest one !y $eng5yu does notuse the term ching in the title !ut rather refers to the san tsang,the tripitaa" -e might translate his title of Chu san tsang chichi as 4% Compilation of the ecords regarding the Tripitaaappearing (in Chinese translations)"4 #n his use of the term chu,it would seem that he is referring to the $ansrit texts whichhave 4come out4 or 4appeared4 in ChineseG the emphasis !eingon the #ndic nature of the texts rather than the translation" %fter$eng5yu7s time the cataloguers changed the way in which theyreferred to the canon and put the focus on the translations"

:a5ching in


14/32

%sia, we now that the word ching in that compound cannotmean 4sutra4 and that the translation used !y some scholars 4thegreat collection of sutras4 is incorrect" 'ven the term tsangraises uestions" -hat does it really mean@ 0ne solution is toturn to the $ansrit and to #ndia for the answer, since tsang is theeuivalent for the word pitaa, a 4!aset4, a 4storehouse4 henceperhaps a 4collection4" #t might !e argued that the term ta tsangis a shorten form of the $ansrit maha(tri)pitaa, !ut there islittle force in an argument that claims a!!reviation when onlyone character is omitted" % review of the history of this phraseas it applies to the canon can perhaps give us some new insights

a!out the meaning of the words that have come to mean theBuddhist canon for all 'ast %sians" $ome have suggested thatthe two terms i ch7ieh ching and ta tsang ching were used indifferent regions of China as the official names for the canon"The i ch7ieh ching was, according to this school of thought, theexpression used in the south while ta tsang ching !elonged tothe north" % close reading of the literature suggests that the useof the two terms was not geographical !ut rather reflects

chronological usage" The first term for the Buddhist canon was ich7ieh ching and this lasted until the *orthern $ung dynastywhen the new expression ta tsang ching was first introduced"%gainst the chronological arrangement which places the date ofthis term in the tenth century, there is the argument that we findthe term ta tsang ching in one of the $ui catalogues as it nowappears in our printed editions" The occurance of this phrase in adocument dating from the $ui time is a pule" Ta tsang ching asa compound was never used in the $ui shu" #n that officialhistory and in all the Tang official records, we find only the titlei ch7ieh ching" %dditional evidence of the exclusive use of ich7ieh ching in 'ast %sia prior to the *orthern $ung

+;


15/32

introduction of the new expression ta tsang ching, can !e foundin the fact that the Fapanese references from the seventh to thetenth centuries all follow the Tang precedent and never refer tothe ta tsang ching" This raises dou!ts a!out the appearance ofthe term ta tsang ching in the $ui catalogue and leaves us withthe possi!le explanation that the single example is a later scri!alchange and is not the first use of this name for the canon" -iththis in mind, the search for the meaning of the words ta tsangching taes us to the $ung court which made use of the term"There are references which point to an earlier Tang dynasty useof the expression" -hen the court ordered !loc prints to !e

made of the canon in the tenth century, the historical accountsays the emperor wanted the ta tsang ching to !e copied, he didnot say the i ch7ieh ching"

#n the $ung historical documents, the term ta tsang appears!y itself" -e are told that the officials or the ing gave ordersfor the construction of a ta tsang on the grounds of themonasteries" #t may !e assumed that this meant the constructionof a li!rary !uilding, a structure which was specifically

commissioned to hold the official ching or !oos" Iiven thisinformation we should then translate the term Ta tsang ching as4The ching of the Li!rary4, that is the ching that have !eenofficially placed in the li!rary as a recognition of their worth ortheir canonicity" #t should !e noted that the use of tsang as a!uilding appears in the Taoist tradition where the name for theli!rary !uilding or structure was Tao tsang or tsang tien"

The appearance of a Buddhist li!rary or a recognied set ofching outside of the imperial context was an event of no smallsignificance" Iiven this approval !y the northern dynasties tohave ching and to collect these ching in !uildings !uilt for thepurpose of housing them, the Buddhists !egan to occupy an

+


16/32

important place in the literary culture of China" The formationof the canon was in one sense the result of the way in whichli!raries were created, not 1ust housing for !oos !ut recognitionof the nature of those !oos" The only official li!rariespermitted prior to the Buddhist ones was that of the imperialhousehold" #t was called !ishu" This term in present parlance inChina and Fapan has the meaning of a secretary who has accessto secret and important documents" -hile !ishu has theimplication of a 4secret document4, at the same time it meant4!oo"4 The hostility of the Chin emperor toward scholars, andprivate collections of !oos may not !e an exact description of

the events of the pre Buddhist era, !ut the story certainly tells usthat !oos and the ownership of !oos was a privilege that thecourt did not easily share with others in the society" -hile theemperor is said to have !urned !oos in private collections andeven illed the scholars who had gathered the documents, hemaintained his own li!rary in the palace which contained the!oos necessary for state craft" The Chin court may well have!een faced with a new feature in Chinese life, that is the

situation where !oos and copies of the ancient ching were eptas private !oos" -ith the advent of more widespreaddissemination of these !oos, scholars could uestion theactions of the court !y giving direct uotes from the sages" 0neway to control these criticisms of the interpretation of the courtwas to remove copies of privately held !oos, while stillretaining copies in the imperial li!rary" #n the years thatfollowed this attempt to eep tight control over the writtenword, technology and learning did continue to develop" #n +8>B"C"'" there was report of the 4recovery4 of classical texts and!y


17/32

!am!oo slips and the invention of paper in the second centuryopened the way for the expansion of manuscript copying" $uchwas the growth of this enterprise that in the /an shu, an entiresection was given to the description of literature and theholdings of the royal house"

#n the second and third centuries, when Buddhism was!eginning to produce ching !ased on the teachings of the #ndiansages, upheavals in China proved to !e destructive to thearchival collections of the court" #n the Later /an when thecapital was returned to Loyang, there were some 2EEE carts of!oos and papers to !e moved, !ut in +AE C"'" riots !roe out

and the archives were !adly damaged !y people who too thesil scrolls for use as cloth" -hen the scrolls of the court wereonce again on the road as the capital was shifted to Ch7ang5an,they could !e contained in seventy carts and at least half of theseloads were destroyed in the ensuing events" Later records wouldexpress dismay over the loss which this massive destruction of!oos !rought a!out" 0ne record !emoans the fact that !y 2;EC"'" only ten scri!es were left who could compose texts among

all of the officials"The creation of Chinese translations of Buddhist texts at a

time when scri!al authority and expertise had reached a low e!!,provided China with a new type of literature and scholars whohad control over material which had no counterpart in thehistory of the nation" The monasteries treasured their scripturaltexts produced in manuscript form and followed the li!rarymodel of the emperor" % special !uilding was constructed tohouse this growing corpus of manuscripts" ore complete andlater histories of the Tang dynasty provide the information thatthe li!rary in the palace grounds was the place where ministerscould come to confer with the 'mperor on matters of state"

+


18/32

$ome royal family mem!ers maintained a private li!rary apartfrom the one in the central court, for example in the case of thecrown prince who had his own collection of !oos" *ew !ooswere presented to the central imperial li!rary, there to !erecognied, sometimes copied and recorded in the histories" Theact of the presentation of a wor to the li!rary was tantamount toofficial recognition" -hen the Buddhists started to translate andwrite their own texts and were given permission to collect andstore these volumes in their monasteries, they followed thesecular idea that 4entering4 the li!rary was a crucial step in theauthorship or translation process" /suan5tsang7s translation

efforts followed this pattern" eturning from #ndia with a largenum!er of $ansrit texts, he set up a !ureau of scholar monswho made Chinese versions of these scriptures" #n thecolophons, we are told that the wor was done at the !ehest ofthe 'mperor, and when the wor was completed, a copy, perhapsthe original, was presented to the central li!rary of the court"The copy at the palace li!rary !ecame the standard text andscri!es of the highest attainment were allowed to go to the

palace and mae copies which were sent out to the variousmonasteries and copy centers around the nation" That is the!acground for the 6unhuang texts which have in theircolophons the information that they were copied at the capital!efore !eing sent to the center in -estern China"

#n the *orthern $ung account of ancient &atriarchs, there isthe story of the invention of the revolving !oo case in the >thcentury" :u5hi (@) is said to have designed a large multi sidedshelving, large enough to contain all of the ching" This largerevolving structure was placed inside a !uilding in the monasticgrounds and in the same principle as the prayer wheel of Ti!et,causing the shelves to move produced as much merit as the

+D


19/32

reading of the entire canon" This practice of achieving merit !yhaving a mova!le canon was also part of the Taoist tradition"4Turning the repository (chuang tsang) still survives today in aritual to deliver from the Lae of Blood the souls of those whohave died from unnatural causes"4 By putting the Buddhistcanon in its own structure and providing great merit to laypeople who could visit those housed !oos, even though theydid not read them or mae use of the content, the li!rary !ecamean important part of the religious practice" #n other words, thecreation of the li!rary, the li!rary structure, the presentation ofnew wors to the collection, the esta!lishment of a standard

copy in the capital city, distri!ution of copies made !y highlytrained and selected scri!es, are all procedures followed !y theBuddhists which had long !een used !y the Chinese court forthe state classics" The veneration of these particular texts andthe ritual use of them was a particular development within theBuddhist tradition"

%nother force in the construction of the Chinese Buddhistcanon were those scholars who !egan to mae lists of ching"

'very canon is, in the final analysis, a list of accepted texts orteachings in whatever form they occur" The idea of maing listsof scriptural manuscripts as a crucial exercise in the spread andnowledge of Buddhism was not something that the #ndian andCentral %sian missionaries !rought with them" To !e sure, therewere the classification schemes of the teachings in #ndia andlists of types of texts, !ut we have yet to discover documentswhich record only the titles and relevant information a!outthem" /ere too, the Buddhists in China found a model withinthe secular system" The royal li!raries maintained shelf lists forthe titles included in them and when dynastic histories werewritten in later years, these documents were found in the

+A


20/32


21/32

decade of the ;th century" 0ur nowledge of the titles, length,and num!er of scrolls of Buddhist manuscripts in China comesto us from these two sources, the dynastic histories and theBuddhist catalogues" Fust as the archival studies made !y thosewho wrote the secular histories involved all types of informationregarding events, dates, names, places and source references, sotoo the Buddhist catalogues contained more than 1ust the list oftitles" These compilations held much of the recorded dataregarding the history of the introduction and spread ofBuddhism in China" Titles, names of translators, !iographicalsetches of authors and translators, year of translation, sie of

the manuscript, place of translation were all put together in thecreation of the catalogues" These are usually the earliest sourcesfor information a!out Chinese Buddhism" The fact thatcatalogues were primarily historical documents is another wayin which the Chinese Buddhist canonic structure can !e tracedwithin secular life of China"

$ince we have !oth Buddhist catalogues of the texts and thedynastic reports of those manuscripts housed in the imperial

li!rary, it is possi!le for us to have independent witnessesregarding the identification of Buddhist canonic wors" 0ne ofthe earliest dynastic records can !e found in the $ui shu,prepared during the early years of the T7ang dynasty !y thosewho used the documents of the past $ui dynasty" #n the $ui shuwe can find some titles and information that are not found inextant Buddhist catalogues" :rom the $ui shu comes evidencethat there were a variety of listings of the Buddhist ching !eingcirculated" This is !orne out !y the section at the end of theJhou chuan which lists Buddhist catalogues, many of them nolonger in existence" $ince many of the notations in the $ui shudo not accord with those found in the extant group of

2+


22/32


23/32

imperial li!raries, there is evidence that the courts were involvedin the process of housing, cataloguing and copying long !eforethat time" The catalogue effort of Tao5an at the end of the ;thcentury, the copying of the i ch7ieh ching at 6unhuang in ;A areindications of the construction and recognition of the Buddhistcanon as a set at an earlier date than the Liang dynasty" The process of cataloging the Buddhist ching met withseveral pro!lems" By the end of the fourth century when Tao5anset a!out the tas of maing a list of titles of Buddhist texts inChinese, political divisions had made it difficult to communicate!etween regions" -hile it is true that Tao5an was a traveller and

had visited a num!er of monasteries, sometimes crossing thepolitical !oundaries, his cataloging wor was done at/siang5yang where he lived for fifteen years" -e can imaginethat he had nowledge of texts in other locales and new oftitles that were not found in the li!rary at /siang5yang" Thisstrategically important city on the /an iver in *orthern /upeiremained a regional headuarters for many centuries and!ecause of its location had a flow of travellers from the -estern

regions, maing it a liely spot for the appearance of new$ansrit texts coming into China and for Chinese translationsthat were !eing copied and carried from place to place" %rthur-right indicates the importance of this center during the $uiwhen he identifies it as a city situated on 4esta!lished land andwater routes"4 =sing the local collections and perhapsinformation a!out scrolls in the more distant areas, Tao5anmanaged to put together a fairly comprehensive list of texts" -enow reconstruct the Tao5an version !y using the, the Chu santsang chi chi"

The early cataloguers had several tas !efore them, not theleast !eing the necessity of identifying whether there existed

28


24/32

more than one translation of the same text" This was madedifficult !y the fact that some translations !ecame nown !yseveral different titles" :urther depth of cataloguing thenreuired that the names of all translators !e included whereverpossi!le as one more step toward definitive identification":ollowing this, was the notation concerning the num!er ofscrolls used in the translation"

The oldest catalogue the Chu tsang san chi chi of the sixthcentury divided the canon into the #ndian classification schemewith one additional unit added for the wors of China"

#" $utra (a) ahayana (!) /inayana ##" 9inaya (a) ahayana (!) /inayana ###" %!hidharma

(a) ahayana

(!) /inayana

#9" iscellaneous (a) %dditional wors originating in #ndia (!) Chinese wor

The cataloguing of the canonic collections was a ma1orundertaing since the sie of the corpus of texts was so large":ar larger than the state craft canon, the Chinese Buddhist canonreuired years of effort for every cataloguer" *o small part ofthe tas was the attempt to determine the content of each text,the 1udgment of whether it was worthy of !eing included in the

2;


25/32

scriptural 4li!rary"4%t the unification of China under the $ui dynasty,

cataloguing of the Buddhist texts increased under royalpatronage" The Chung ching mu lu was compiled !y :a5chingand others during the years of .7ai /uang and was completed inthe summer of


26/32

emperor" %t the very time when the Buddhist !oos were !eingcatalogued, there was an edict against individuals who had intheir hands so called 4apocrypha and prognostic texts that hadoften !e used to inspire re!ellion4 (-right3 +2;)"

4%s early as


27/32

than ;EE"-hile there have !een many catalogues of the Chinese

Buddhist canon, perhaps none has !een as influential as the .7aiyuan shih chiao lu compiled in 8E !y Chih5sheng during thereign years of .7ai yuan" The organiation of this catalogue wasto !ecome the model for the printed editions of the canon" -iththe pu!lication of the .7ai yuan shih chiao lu, a great age ofcataloguing came to an end" :rom the Tao5an wor at the end ofthe ;th century, followed !y a period lasting until 8E, onecatalogue followed another as translations continued to !e madeand the royal house gave it support to Buddhism" The list of

extant catalogues of this period include3 Ch7u san tsang chi chi ;) .u chin i ching t7u chi (>>;5>>A++ (+8E>) *" +>>2 (+;E25+;2;)

#n the process of constructing the canon, the cataloguers playeda ma1or role" By the Ath century the list of the ching included inthe manuscript canon was esta!lished and did not change until

2


28/32


29/32

###" $utra translations made in $ung and Huan dynasties9#*%H%

#" ahayana##" /inayana

%B/#6/%%

#" ahayana ##" /inayana

###" %!hidharma translations made in $ung and Huandynasties

.$=6%.%

#" iscellaneous wors from #ndian sources ##" Chinese Buddhist texts ###" %dditional texts added from $outhern ing sources"

The *an1io catalogue is difficult to use !ecause of itsoutmoded romaniation scheme !ut it still preserves a great dealof information a!out the development of the canon and itsstructure" -hen we loo at the classification of the ing textused !y *an1io, we see the old arrangement of ahayana sutrasin the first section followed !y the 4hinayana4 one" $ince, thecataloguers tried to mae a division which could !e somewhatapplica!le to the old #ndian notion of three divisions, each of thesections related to $utra, 9inaya and $astra (an expanded

2A


30/32

concept of the %!hidharma category of the #ndian tripitaa)were seen as !eing either ahayana or 4hinayana4" Thisseuence in the catalogues and in the printed editions of theChinese canon remained in force until the Toyo Buddhistcanon changed the system for the first time" This Toyo 'ditionwas started in +DD+, twelve hundred years after the .7ai yuan lu" #n the $howa ho!o (9ol 83 ;), 0u5yi chih5hsu, a Tendaipriest changed the five ma1or classes of texts as outlined in the.7ai yuan lu" #n his categories we find the texts listed in thefollowing order3 (+) %vatamsaasutra

(2) :ang 5 teng (8) &ra1naparamitasutraThe :ang 5 teng divisions does not appear in the .7ai yuan lu" The Huen tsang chih chin classified all the sutras into fiveclasses" #n the description of the Toyo canon compilation, weread that it was divided into five ma1or sections, withtwenty5five su!divisions in accord with the Hueh tsang chihchin" #t was this Hueh tsang chih chin which first attempted to

change the arrangement of the .7ai yuan lu" The Taisho 'dition had an arrangement which wasindependent of either the Toyo 'dition or that of the .7ai yuanlu" The Taisho editors choose to put the 4/inayana4 sutras first,dividing them into the %gama and the %vadana" The ahayanasutras follow, and they were also put into divisions3&ra1naparamita, %vatamsaa, atnauta, ahaparinirvana, andahasamnipata, These six divisions of the sutras were followed!y a section for miscellaneous sutra translations" There was alsoa section for Tantra which includes a large num!er of texts" The9inaya and $astra sections are not divided into ahayana or/inayana4" %ll commentarial literature was placed in this

8E


31/32

section" %fter the canonic portions of the Taisho, we find from9ol" onward, an appendix of collected wors that wereexcluded from the canons used !y the editors" #n addition, thereare volumes which deal with Buddhist iconography" #t isinteresting to note that nowhere in the Taisho is there is anyexplanation for the classification of texts" 'ven such detailedwors as Bussho aisetsu 1iten only gives the listing of thecontents of the Taisho 'dition !ut never discusses thearrangement or its method" #t may !e said that the Taisho'dition is arranged chronologically, that is that the %gamas areconsidered to !e the oldest parts of the canon and thus come

first followed !y the later ahayana sutras" Thus, in one senseit might !e said to !e an attempt to mae a scientificarrangement of the canonic text complete independent of any ofthe older traditional methods of arrangement" #t is also an echoof the ancient attempt of Chih # to classify the teachings of theBuddha, !y esta!lishing a chronological order within hislifetime"

The content of the Chinese Buddhist canon is still in process

of !eing esta!lished" -ith each modern pu!lication in Taiwanor China, texts not found in other editions are included" Thus inone sense, we can say that the Chinese Buddhist canon is still4open"4 The long history of defining the canon indicates thelarge num!er of pro!lems that the Chinese faced when theyattempted to mae translations of all the Buddhist teachings andto create a standard list of these translations" The result of thesecenturies of wor is the remara!le collection of texts availa!letoday under the title of Ta tsang ching" The uestions of how toevaluate and arrange these thousands of texts remain and it isnot possi!le to say that we have finally arrived at a concensus onhow to answer these many uestions" %s we !egin to put the

8+


32/32

Buddhist materials into electronic data !ases, there is nolimitation to the inclusion of texts" #t is pro!a!le that theelectronic data !ases will expand the canon !eyond any of thecurrent editions in terms of sie and types of materials included"

82

buddhism and the creation of canons

Documents