K'ai-yüan Era Catalog of the Buddhist Canon, The
K'ai-yüan Era Catalog of the Buddhist Canon, The
開元釈教録 (Chin K’ai-yüan-shih-chiao-lu; Jpn Kaigen-shakkyo-roku )
Also known as The K'ai-yüan Era Catalog. A twenty-volume index of Chinese Buddhist scriptures compiled by Chih-sheng. It was completed in 730, the eighteenth year of the K'ai-yüan era (713-741), during the reign of the emperor Hsüan-tsung of the T'ang dynasty. This catalog consists of two sections. The first includes all the recorded scriptures, even those not extant at the time of this compilation, and lists 2,275 works in 7,046 volumes translated into Chinese by 176 individuals between 67 and 730. Chih-sheng divided this period into nineteen eras. The section for each era contains a brief description of that age followed by a chronological list of the translators of that era with a brief biography of each and the titles of their translations. Multiple translations of the same text are noted, as are the titles of translations that had been lost, with no copies extant in Chih-sheng's time. The second section lists 1,076 works in 5,048 volumes, only those that were extant at the time of this compilation. Based on this number, the entire body of Buddhist scriptures was customarily said to consist of "5,048 volumes," "5,000 volumes," or "more than 5,000 volumes." The K'ai-yüan Era Catalog of the Buddhist Canon served as a basis for subsequent catalogs. S
See; also Chen-yüan Era Catalog of the Buddhist Canon, The.
