出三藏記集

Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集

A Collection of Records Concerning the Production of the Tripiṭaka by 僧祐 (撰)

About the work

A fifteen-juan early-Liáng-period Buddhist canonical-bibliographic and historical compendium, compiled by Sēngyòu 僧祐 (445–518), the great vinaya master of the Southern Qí and early Liáng courts and one of the founding figures of Chinese Buddhist textual-historical scholarship. The work is the earliest substantial extant Chinese Buddhist canonical bibliography and the foundational document of Chinese Buddhist historical-critical philology: it provides a comprehensive listing of all canonical translations known by ca. 510, attributing each to its translator with biographical and circumstantial information; documents the textual history of canonical translations through colophons, prefaces, and translator-biographies; and gathers extensive biographical material on the principal Indian and Chinese translators of the Hàn through Liáng periods. The byline reads 釋僧祐撰. Preserved in the Taishō at T55 no. 2145.

Prefaces

The text opens with Sēngyòu’s auto-preface (the Chū sānzàng jì jí xù 出三藏記集序). In paraphrase:

Now: the true-ultimate is dim-and-coagulated, the dharma-nature empty-and-still — yet to open the things and guide the customary, no other than words can ferry. Therefore the non-dual silent-response meets at the gate of meaning-emptiness; the one-sound vibrating discrimination responds in the realm of the multitude-existing. Since our master the Able One (= Śākyamuni) emerged in the world: the Deer Park sang the first-words; the Golden River investigated the after-saying. The scriptural canons (qìjīng 契經) entice the small-students; the expansive canon (fāngdiǎn 方典) encourages the great-mind. The wonderful wheel divided into the twelve divisions, the dharma-categories gathered the eighty-thousand of its gates.

Reaching when the Sugata dimmed his traces, and the response-truth gathered the canon. At first, the…

[The preface continues with extensive doctrinal-historical framing, then a detailed account of the work’s structure and intent.]

Abstract

Authorship and date: composed by Sēngyòu 僧祐 (DILA A001587; 445 – 21 June 518; lay surname Yú 俞; native of Xiàpī jùn 下邳郡 in modern Jiāngsū). Sēngyòu was the principal disciple of Fǎxiàn 法獻 at Dìnglínsì 定林寺 in the southern capital and a leading vinaya master of his generation under both the Southern Qí and Liáng dynasties. His scholarly output is exceptional: in addition to the present Chū sānzàng jì jí, he edited the Hóngmíng jí 弘明集 (T2102, the foundational anthology of Buddhist apologetic literature), the Shìjiā pǔ 釋迦譜 (T2040, biographical compilation of Śākyamuni and his disciples), the Sàpóduōbù xiāngchéng zhuàn 薩婆多部相承傳, and many other foundational Chinese-Buddhist canonical-historical works. He was the teacher of Bǎochàng 寶唱 (KR6s0001 Jīnglǜ yìxiàng).

The Chū sānzàng jì jí was completed late in his career, between 510 and 518. notBefore = 510 (a defensible terminus post quem — the work refers to events of the late first decade of the Liáng); notAfter = 518 (Sēngyòu’s death). Catalog dynasty 梁.

The 15 juan are organized in four sections:

1. Yuánjì 緣記 (juan 1) — origin-records: the foundational events of canonical-textual transmission (the canonical councils, the foundation of canonical structures, the 34 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, etc.).
2. Mínglù 名錄 (juan 2–5) — name-records: the standard bibliographic catalog of canonical translations, organized by translator, with each entry giving title, juan-number, translator, date, place of translation, and circumstantial notes.
3. Jīngxù 經序 (juan 6–12) — sutra-prefaces: the largest section, gathering 117 prefaces and colophons of canonical translations — many otherwise lost — providing the foundational documentary basis for the historical study of pre-Liáng Chinese Buddhist textual transmission.
4. Liè-zhuàn 列傳 (juan 13–15) — biographical traditions: biographies of the principal translators, including An Shì-gāo 安世高, Lokakṣema (Zhī Lóu-jiā-chèn) 支婁迦讖, Kāshyapa Mātaṅga 迦葉摩騰, Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什, Buddhabhadra 佛馱跋陀羅, and many others.

The work is the single most important pre-modern Chinese Buddhist bibliographical-historical document. Together with Huìjiǎo’s 慧皎 Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (T2059, ca. 530), it constitutes the foundational corpus of early Chinese Buddhist historiography. Subsequent canonical bibliographies (the Suí Zhòngjīng mùlù of KR6s0085–KR6s0086, the Tang Kāiyuán shìjiào lù of Zhìshēng) all derive from and supplement Sēngyòu’s work.

Translations and research

A vast scholarly literature; selected major works:

• Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Brill, 1959; 3rd ed. 2007) — extensively uses Chū sān-zàng jì jí as a primary source.
• Tāng Yòng-tóng 湯用彤, Hàn Wèi liǎng-Jìn Nán-běi-cháo fó-jiào shǐ 漢魏兩晉南北朝佛教史 (Zhōng-huá Shū-jú, 1938; reprinted 1962, 1983) — the classic Sinophone treatment, drawing comprehensively on Chū sān-zàng jì jí.
• Sū Jìn-rén 蘇晉仁 and Xiāo Liàn-zǐ 蕭鍊子 (eds.), Chū sān-zàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (Zhōng-huá Shū-jú, 1995) — the standard punctuated and annotated Chinese edition.
• Funayama Tōru 船山徹, Butten wa dou kanyaku sareta no ka (Iwanami, 2013) — uses Chū sān-zàng jì jí as a primary source for translation-history.
• Antonello Palumbo, Stefano Zacchetti, and successor scholars on Chinese Buddhist textual history.

Other points of interest

The Chū sānzàng jì jí preserves 117 prefaces and colophons of canonical translations, many of which are otherwise lost. The work is therefore a primary source not only for the history of Buddhist canonical translation in China but for the history of pre-Liáng Buddhist canonical literature itself — providing the only extant documentary witness to many otherwise-vanished canonical works. This preservation function makes the work irreplaceable for modern Chinese Buddhist textual history.

Links

• DILA authority: A001587 (僧祐)
• CBETA: T55n2145
• Author: Sēngyòu 僧祐 (445–518), founding vinaya master and Buddhist bibliographer
• Author’s other works: Hóngmíng jí 弘明集 (T2102), Shìjiā pǔ 釋迦譜 (T2040), Sàpóduōbù xiāngchéng zhuàn 薩婆多部相承傳
• Foundational successor: Huìjiǎo’s 慧皎 Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (T2059, ca. 530)
• Major disciple: Bǎochàng 寶唱 (KR6s0001 Jīnglǜ yìxiàng)
• Subsequent canonical bibliographies (in the Sēngyòu lineage): KR6s0085 (Fǎjīng), KR6s0086 (Yànzōng), KR6s0087 (Jìngtài)
• Dazangthings date evidence (512, 515, 516, 522): [ Rao 1997 ] Rao Zongyi 饒宗頤. “Lun Sengyou” 論僧祐. Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo xuebao 中國文化研究所學報 6 (1997): 405-416. 407, 411-412, 414 https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/500/