Zhòngjīng mùlù 眾經目錄
The Catalog of the Various Sutras by 法經 (等撰)
About the work
A seven-juan Suí-dynasty official Buddhist canonical catalog compiled by Fǎ-jīng 法經 and team. The work was the first imperially-commissioned post-Sēng-yòu Buddhist canonical bibliography, produced under the Suí Wén-dì 文帝 in Kāihuáng 開皇 14 = 594 CE. The byline reads 隋沙門法經等撰 (“Composed by śramaṇa Fǎ-jīng of the Suí and others”). Preserved at T55 no. 2146.
Prefaces
The text opens with the catalog organization. Sample (Section 1):
Dà-shèng xiū-duō-luó zàng lù dì-yī 大乘修多羅藏錄第一 (six divisions): the Mahāyāna sūtra-piṭaka catalog, totaling 645 bù in 1,478 juan.
The catalog is structured into a comprehensive system: 9 main categories × multiple sub-categories covering the entire canon as it was known in Suí Chángān. The systematic structure was a foundational organizational achievement that influenced all subsequent Chinese Buddhist canonical bibliographies.
Abstract
Authorship and date: composed in Kāihuáng 14 = 594 CE by a court-team led by Fǎjīng 法經 (DILA A000732; lifedates not preserved, active second half of 6th c.) under the patronage of Suí Wéndì 文帝 (r. 581–604). notBefore = 594, notAfter = 594. Catalog dynasty 隋.
The work is the first imperially-commissioned Buddhist canonical bibliography after the period of dynastic-fragmentation Buddhist scholarship represented by KR6s0084 Chū sānzàng jì jí. Where Sēngyòu’s work was a private scholarly compilation, Fǎjīng’s Zhòngjīng mùlù is an imperial-court-sponsored project undertaken in the context of the Suí dynasty’s ambitious canonical-printing and unification project (the Suí imperial copies of the canon being one of the principal Suí Buddhist patronage projects).
The 9-category systematic structure organizes the canon by:
- Dàshèng xiūduōluó (Mahāyāna sūtra) — divided into single-translation, multiple-translation, missing-translator, single-translation-but-formerly-multi, etc.
- Dàshèng píní (Mahāyāna vinaya)
- Dà-shèng ā-pí-tán (Mahāyāna abhidharma / śāstra)
- Xiǎoshèng xiūduōluó (Hīnayāna sūtra)
- Xiǎoshèng píní (Hīnayāna vinaya)
- Xiǎoshèng āpítán (Hīnayāna abhidharma)
- Yízhì 疑偽 (suspect / spurious)
- Biéshēng 別生 (extracted-from-other)
- Xiánshèngzhuàn 賢聖傳 (Indian and Chinese sage-biographies)
This 9-category structure became the foundational organizational framework of Chinese Buddhist canonical bibliography, adopted with modifications by KR6s0086 (Yànzōng), KR6s0087 (Jìngtài), and ultimately by Zhìshēng’s 智昇 Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154, 730).
The systematic identification of suspect / spurious (yíwěi 疑偽) sutras as a separate category was an important Suí-period bibliographical innovation: Fǎjīng’s catalog was the first to treat the problem of Chinese-composed Buddhist apocrypha (wěijīng 偽經) as a systematic bibliographic-critical problem rather than ad hoc.
Translations and research
- Tāng Yòng-tóng 湯用彤, Suí Táng fó-jiào shǐ-gǎo 隋唐佛教史稿 (Zhōng-huá Shū-jú, 1982).
- Hé Méi 何梅, Lì-dài hàn-wén dà-zàng-jīng mù-lù xīn-kǎo 歷代漢文大藏經目錄新考 (Zōng-jiào-wén-huà, 2014) — comprehensive treatment.
- Antonello Palumbo and successor scholars on the Tang catalog tradition.
- Stefano Zacchetti and Tilmann Vetter on the systematic study of Chinese Buddhist canonical bibliography.
Other points of interest
The 594 Zhòngjīng mùlù is one of the principal state-bibliographic projects of the Suí dynasty — paralleling the contemporary state-Confucian and state-Daoist bibliographic projects under Suí Wéndì. The systematic organizational framework that Fǎjīng established became the canonical-bibliographic standard for the next two centuries until Zhìshēng’s Kāiyuán shìjiào lù in 730 superseded it.
Links
- DILA authority: A000732 (法經)
- CBETA: T55n2146
- Author: Fǎjīng 法經 et al. (Suí court team, 594)
- Imperial sponsor: Suí Wéndì 文帝 (r. 581–604)
- Predecessor: KR6s0084 Chū sānzàng jì jí (Sēngyòu, ca. 510–518)
- Subsequent canonical bibliographies in the same lineage: KR6s0086 (Yànzōng), KR6s0087 (Jìngtài), and the Tang Kāiyuán shìjiào lù of Zhìshēng (T2154, 730)
- Dazangthings date evidence (594): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/