(Gǔ-jīn tú-shū jí-chéng) Shén-yì diǎn shì-jiào bù jì-shì (古今圖書集成)神異典釋教部紀事
[From the Gǔ-jīn tú-shū jí-chéng*]: Section on Buddhism within the* Shén-yì Compendium — Recorded Events
extracted from the imperial encyclopedia 古今圖書集成 (Yōng-zhèng 4 = 1726)
About the work
A 2-juan companion-extract to KR6r0183 from the same imperial encyclopedia 《古今圖書集成》 Gǔ-jīn tú-shū jí-chéng (1726). Where the Èr-shì bù huì-kǎo KR6r0183 gathers investigative-historical materials organised by dynasty and reign, the present Shì-jiào bù jì-shì gathers the anecdotal-narrative records (jì-shì 紀事) — biographical-anecdotal materials drawn from the Buddhist tradition itself rather than from the dynastic histories. Transmitted in the Xù-zàng-jīng as X1661, in two juan.
Prefaces
The work has no separate preface; it opens directly with an extract from Xīn-tài’s 《佛法金湯編》 KR6r0161 — the Mòu-zǐ Lǐ-huò lùn 牟子理惑論 (the Late-Hàn / Three-Kingdoms apologetic treatise) — citing the canonical narrative of Mòu Róng 牟融 of the Cāng-wú region during the late Hàn (Xìng-píng 2 = 195 CE), who composed the 37-chapter Lǐ-huò lùn in the chaos of the late Hàn after declining official appointment.
Abstract
The work catalogues biographical-anecdotal materials drawn from the Buddhist canonical-historiographical tradition — principally:
- Xīn-tài’s KR6r0161 Fó-fǎ jīn-tāng biān.
- The Sòng Fó-zǔ tǒng-jì 佛祖統紀 of Zhì-pán 志磐 (T2035).
- The Yuán Fó-zǔ lì-dài tōng-zǎi 佛祖歷代通載 of Niàn-cháng 念常 (T2036).
- The Yuán Shì-shì jī-gǔ lüè 釋氏稽古略 of Jué-àn 覺岸 KR6q0035 and the Míng continuation KR6q0036.
- The Tang Fǎ-yuàn zhū-lín 法苑珠林 of Dào-shì 道世 KR6s0002.
- The Tang Sòng gāo-sēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061) and Liáng Gāo-sēng zhuàn (T2059).
- Various Sòng-Yuán zhì-guài and bǐ-jì sources.
The selection emphasises anecdotal episodes — famous monk-imperial encounters, miraculous events, monastic eccentricities, doctrinal-controversial incidents, and the standard repertoire of Chinese Buddhist gōng-àn. The compilation is broadly chronological from the Latter Hàn through the Yuán-Míng (the Qīng having only just begun at the time of compilation, 1726), with a heavier emphasis on Tang-Sòng materials.
The work supplies a secondary-derivative compendium of the Buddhist anecdotal tradition, comparable in function to the gǎn-yìng and yīng-yàn anthologies but organised on the secular encyclopedic-historiographic principle of the Gǔ-jīn tú-shū jí-chéng parent encyclopedia. Its inclusion in the Xù-zàng-jīng signals the late-imperial Buddhist tradition’s acceptance of secular imperial-encyclopedic compilations as legitimate canonical materials — an extension of the same posture visible in the inclusion of Sasaki Kentoku’s KR6r0168 modern-philological reconstruction.
The dating bracket — 1726 to 1726 — follows the parent encyclopedia.
Translations and research
- See bibliographic notes at KR6r0183 for the principal scholarship on the Gǔ-jīn tú-shū jí-chéng.
- Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (5th ed., Cambridge MA: Harvard Univ. Asia Center, 2018) — standard reference.
Other points of interest
The pairing of KR6r0183 (huì-kǎo / “investigations compiled”) and the present KR6r0184 (jì-shì / “recorded events”) within the Gǔ-jīn tú-shū jí-chéng reflects the encyclopedia’s distinctive two-track classificatory scheme: each subject is treated under investigative-historical materials (drawn from the canonical histories) and under anecdotal-narrative materials (drawn from less authoritative sources) — preserving the distinction between primary-historiographic and secondary-anecdotal evidence that became standard in Qīng historiographic methodology.
Links
- CBETA: X88n1661