Zhòngjīng mùlù 眾經目錄
The Catalog of the Various Sutras (the Yànzōng 彥琮 Zhòngjīng mùlù) by 彥琮 (撰)
About the work
A five-juan Suí-dynasty Buddhist canonical catalog, the second imperially-commissioned bibliographic project after KR6s0085 (Fǎ-jīng’s 594 catalog), compiled by Yàn-zōng 彥琮 (557–610) and a court translation-bureau team in Rén-shòu 仁壽 2 = 602 CE under the Suí Wén-dì 文帝. The byline reads 隋翻經沙門及學士等撰 (“Composed by Suí translation-bureau śramaṇas and scholars”). Preserved at T55 no. 2147.
Prefaces
The text opens with the Zhòngjīng mùlù xù 眾經目錄序. In paraphrase:
Buddhism flowed east; the years are already far. The Sanskrit canons came from the west, gradually multiplying in distribution. The old True Canons all came through translation. Recently encountering the chaotic age, much has lost its original-rise. The previous-writing and the after-translation, in substance and text, are not the same. One sutra in several copies has additions and reductions also differing — leading to ordinary people obtaining capacity for false-creation. Either privately taking the essential matters and further establishing a separate name; or simply constructing surplus phrases yet taking the true title; or treating lùn as if a sutra-claim, shū as if a lùn-title — large and small…
[The preface continues with an analysis of the canonical-textual problems Yànzōng’s catalog aims to address.]
Abstract
Authorship and date: composed in Rénshòu 仁壽 2 = 602 CE by Yànzōng 彥琮 (DILA A000829; zì Dàojiāng 道江; 557–610) and team at the imperial Suí translation bureau. notBefore = 602, notAfter = 602. Catalog dynasty 隋.
Yànzōng 彥琮 was one of the principal Suí translation-bureau scholars and a key figure in Suí canonical-philological work. He was distinguished by his deep Sanskrit competence — he is conventionally credited as one of the first Chinese Buddhist scholars to have substantial direct Sanskrit-grammatical knowledge, and his earlier Biànzhènglùn 辨正論 (a Buddhist apologetic work) and Biàhuòlùn 辨惑論 (anti-Daoist polemic) are foundational works of Suí Buddhist scholarship.
The 5-juan structure of Yànzōng’s catalog is more compact than Fǎjīng’s 7-juan structure of KR6s0085, reflecting an editorial revision and consolidation of the earlier work. Yànzōng’s particular concern, articulated in the preface, is the problem of textual corruption and false attribution in the canonical transmission — making his catalog a more critical-philological instrument than Fǎjīng’s primarily inventory-bibliographical work. The treatment of suspect / spurious (yíwěi) sutras, established by Fǎjīng, is here further developed.
The work occupies the chronological position between Fǎjīng’s 594 catalog and the Tang-period Buddhist bibliographies — together with Fǎjīng’s catalog, it constitutes the principal Suí-period bibliographic resource for understanding the state of the Chinese Buddhist canon at the dynastic transition into the Tang.
Translations and research
See KR6s0085. Specific to Yàn-zōng:
- Tāng Yòng-tóng 湯用彤, Suí Táng fó-jiào shǐ-gǎo.
- Hé Méi 何梅, Lì-dài hàn-wén dà-zàng-jīng mù-lù xīn-kǎo (2014).
- Funayama Tōru 船山徹, scholarship on Yàn-zōng and Suí translation studies.
Other points of interest
Yànzōng’s deep Sanskrit competence — combined with his scholarly position at the Suí imperial translation bureau — makes him an important transitional figure in Chinese Buddhist canonical-philological scholarship between the Liáng-period Sēngyòu generation and the Tang-period Xuánzàng / Yìjìng translation tradition. His catalog is one of the principal Suí-period bibliographic instruments through which this transition was effected.
Links
- DILA authority: A000829 (彥琮)
- CBETA: T55n2147
- Author: Yànzōng 彥琮 (557–610), Suí imperial translation-bureau scholar
- Predecessor: KR6s0085 Zhòngjīng mùlù of Fǎjīng (594)
- Successor: KR6s0087 Zhòngjīng mùlù of Jìngtài (Tang)
- Author’s other works: Biànzhènglùn 辨正論, Biàhuòlùn 辨惑論
- Dazangthings date evidence (602): [ 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/