大周刊定眾經目錄

DàZhōu kāndìng zhòngjīng mùlù 大周刊定眾經目錄

The Great Zhōu Catalog of the Various Sutras as Authoritatively Established by 明佺 (等撰)

About the work

A fifteen-juan imperially-commissioned official Buddhist canonical catalog of the Wǔ Zé-tiān 武則天 Zhōu dynasty, compiled in Tiān-shòu / Wàn-suì-tōng-tiān-zhèng-shèng 695 CE under the imperial command of Empress Wǔ Zé-tiān by a court team led by Míng-quán 明佺, Bo-yán 波延, and others, of Fó-shòu-jì-sì 佛授記寺 (the imperial monastery in Luòyáng renamed for Wǔ Zé-tiān’s Buddhist patronage). The byline reads 大唐天后勅佛授記寺沙門明佺等撰 (“Composed by śramaṇa Míng-quán et al. of Fó-shòu-jì-sì by command of the Great Tang Heavenly Empress”). Preserved at T55 no. 2153.

Prefaces

The text opens with the DàZhōu kāndìng zhòngjīng mùlù xù 大周刊定眾經目錄序. In paraphrase:

I privately consider: the True-truth and the Conventional-truth rely on writing-and-letter to be manifest. The Right Dharma and the Semblance Dharma through protection-upholding obtain to preserve. Therefore obtaining the ten-thousand kalpas of circulating-and-distributing, the four births of benefit.

Our Great Zhōu Heavenly Strategist, Golden Wheel Sage Spirit Imperial Sovereign Majesty [Wǔ Zétiān]: the Way is fixed in the constant kalpas; her position adjacent to the upper forbearance. Mounting the original vow she descends-to-be-born; spreading great compassion she broadly saves. The Golden Wheel turns ascending; her transformation envelops the four continents. The precious horse flies-and-runs; her sound permeates the eight extremities…

[The preface continues with elaborate panegyric of Wǔ Zétiān as Buddhist sovereign and founding patron of the Zhōu dynasty’s Buddhist program.]

Abstract

Authorship and date: composed in 695 CE under the imperial command of Empress Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 (624–705, r. 690–705 as emperor of the Zhōu dynasty), by a court-team led by Míngquán 明佺 at Fóshòujìsì in Luòyáng. notBefore = 695, notAfter = 695. Catalog dynasty 唐 (here following the Buddhist canonical convention; the actual political dynasty in 695 was Wǔ Zétiān’s Zhōu 周, established 690 by displacing the Tang).

The work is one of the principal imperial-Buddhist patronage projects of the Wǔ Zétiān dynasty — alongside her sponsorship of:

• The new translation of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra by Śikṣānanda 實叉難陀 (695–699), the basis of the Tang-period 80-juan Huá-yán-jīng (cf. KR6s0011 and the Huì-yuàn yīn-yì tradition).
• The promotion of Huáyán 華嚴 doctrine through her chief Buddhist advisor Fǎzàng 法藏 (643–712), the third Huáyán patriarch.
• The renaming of major temples in her honor (the Fóshòujìsì name itself comes from her imperial rescript identifying her as a Buddha-foretold sovereign).

The 15-juan structure is the most extensive of the Suí-Tang catalog tradition before Zhì-shēng’s Kāi-yuán-shì-jiào-lù. Its bibliographic significance lies in providing a comprehensive snapshot of the canonical state at the height of Wǔ Zé-tiān’s imperial Buddhist program (mid-690s) — a period of intensive canonical translation activity (the new 80-juan Avataṃsaka, the 28-fascicle Mahāprajñāpāramitā-saṅgaha-sūtra, etc.) that substantially expanded the canonical corpus.

The work was subsequently superseded by Zhìshēng’s Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (T2154, 730), but remains a primary witness to the canonical state in the late-7th-century imperial Wǔ Zétiān period.

Translations and research

• Antonino Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century (Naples, 1976) — comprehensive treatment of Wǔ Zé-tiān’s Buddhist program.
• Antonino Forte, Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock (Roma, 1988).
• 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).

Other points of interest

The Wǔ Zétiān dynasty’s intensive Buddhist patronage made the brief Zhōu 周 dynasty (690–705) one of the principal imperial-Buddhist eras in Chinese history, despite its political brevity. The 695 catalog is one of the most enduring institutional outputs of this program — preserving the canonical state of Buddhism at the moment of imperial peak-engagement, before the Tang restoration of 705.

Links

• DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for Míngquán 明佺)
• CBETA: T55n2153
• Author: Míngquán 明佺 et al. (Wǔ Zétiān court team, 695)
• Imperial sponsor: Empress Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 (r. 690–705 as emperor of the Zhōu dynasty)
• Predecessors: KR6s0085–KR6s0088 (Suí-Tang catalog tradition)
• Successor: Zhìshēng Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (T2154, 730)
• Companion Wǔ Zé-tiān-era Buddhist project: Śikṣānanda’s 80-juan Avataṃsaka translation (695–699)