大唐內典錄

DàTáng nèidiǎn lù 大唐內典錄

The Catalog of the Inner Canon of the Great Táng by 道宣 (撰)

About the work

A ten-juan Tang-period official Buddhist canonical catalog, compiled by Dàoxuān 道宣 (596–667), the founding patriarch of the Nánshān Lǜ 南山律 vinaya school and one of the most consequential Buddhist scholar-monks of the Tang. Composed at Xīmíngsì 西明寺 in Líndé 麟德 1 = 664 CE. The work is the principal early-Tang official Buddhist canonical bibliography and the immediate successor (and substantial improvement) to the Suí-period catalogs of KR6s0085–KR6s0086 and the early Tang catalog KR6s0087. Preserved at T55 no. 2149.

Prefaces

The text opens with the DàTáng nèidiǎn lù xù 大唐內典錄序:

Líndé 1, jiǎzǐ year, the京師 西明寺釋氏 composed 麟德元年甲子歲京師西明寺釋氏撰 (“Composed in Líndé 1, the year jiǎzǐ [664 CE], by the Shì of Xīmíngsì in the capital”).

Now: the right Dharma, called the Jewel — truly there is its reason. It is in fact the ferry-route for leaving the customary, the carriage-tracks for entering the True. Therefore through-the-kalpas the heroic sages look up to it as to father-and-mother. Following the ancient down to today, [they] revere it as the sun-and-moon. How could it be that, having lost-the-self-inversion footprint, it traps the jewel-position of the unborn?…

[The preface continues with elaborate doctrinal-historical framing.]

Abstract

Authorship and date: composed by Dàoxuān 道宣 (DILA A001519; 596–667; zì not preserved; native of Wúxìng 吳興 in modern Zhèjiāng) at Xīmíngsì in Cháng’ān, the principal imperial monastery of the early Tang and the residence of Xuánzàng’s translation bureau. Dàoxuān was concurrently the founder of the Nánshān Lǜ vinaya school, the principal compiler of the Tang Sòng gāosēng zhuàn continuation tradition (his Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳, T2060, ca. 645), and a senior figure of the broader Xīmíngsì scholarly community that included Dàoshì 道世 (KR6s0002 Fǎyuàn zhūlín) and other principal early-Tang Buddhist scholars. notBefore = 664, notAfter = 664 (firmly dated by the preface). Catalog dynasty 唐.

The 10 juan are organized in nine sections, building on but substantially extending the Suí-Tang catalog tradition:

1. Dynastic-period catalogues of Hàn through Tang Buddhist translations (juan 1–5, organized by dynasty: Hàn, WèiWú, WèiJìn, YáoQín, Sòng, Qí, Liáng, Chén, Suí, Tang).
2. Comprehensive sectional catalogues integrating across dynasties.
3. Suspect / spurious catalogues.
4. Translator biographical notices.
5. Tang-period new translation register, including especially Xuánzàng’s post-645 imperial translation bureau output.
6. Sub-catalogues of supplementary materials (commentaries, ritual-texts, etc.).

The work supersedes the contemporary Tang catalog KR6s0087 (Jìngtài’s Zhòngjīng mùlù) by its substantially greater scope, organizational sophistication, and Xuán-zàng-translation coverage. It became the standard early-Tang canonical bibliography and was itself in turn superseded by Zhìshēng’s 智昇 Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154, 730).

Dàoxuān’s catalog is also significant for its inclusion of substantial textual-historical commentary — going beyond the inventory-bibliographic function of earlier catalogs to provide what amounts to a comprehensive canonical-philological history of Chinese Buddhist textual transmission to the mid-7th century. This makes the work a primary source for Chinese Buddhist textual history in its own right.

Translations and research

• 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) — comprehensive treatment.
• John R. McRae and Andy Bullen on Tang catalog tradition.
• Antonello Palumbo on Tang catalogs and Tang Buddhist textual transmission.

Other points of interest

The Líndé 1 (664) dating coincides with the death-year of Xuánzàng (664/02/05). Dàoxuān’s catalog therefore documents the canonical state at the precise moment of Xuánzàng’s death — a crucial bibliographic snapshot of the Chinese Buddhist canon at one of its most consequential transitional moments.

Links

• DILA authority: A001519 (道宣)
• CBETA: T55n2149
• Author: Dàoxuān 道宣 (596–667), founding patriarch of the Nánshān Lǜ vinaya school
• Predecessor: KR6s0085–KR6s0087 (Suí-Tang Zhòngjīng mùlù tradition)
• Subsequent canonical bibliography: Zhìshēng Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (T2154, 730)
• Author’s other major work: Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 (T2060, ca. 645)
• Companion canonical work: KR6s0002 Fǎyuàn zhūlín of Dàoshì (Dàoxuān’s Xīmíngsì colleague)
• Auto-supplement: KR6s0089 Xù DàTáng nèidiǎn lù