Kāiyuán shìjiào lù luèchū 開元釋教錄略出
The Abridged Extract of the Kāi-yuán Catalog of Buddhist Teaching by 智昇 (撰)
About the work
A four-juan abridged extract of Zhìshēng’s 智昇 main Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (KR6s0093, T2154, 20 juan), produced by Zhìshēng himself. The abridgment provides the Rùzàng lù 入藏錄 (canonical roster) in compact form — the actual catalog of which works are included in the canon, with their juan-count and bundle-letter (千字文) — without the more elaborate translation-history apparatus and bibliographic-discussion of the main catalog. This format made the abridgment the practical working catalog for monastic libraries and canon-printing projects throughout subsequent East Asian Buddhist history. Preserved at T55 no. 2155.
Prefaces
The byline (with annotation noting that the Nán-zàng edition prefixes “gēng-wǔ year”): (南藏多庚午歲三字)西崇福寺沙門智昇撰 (“(The Southern canon adds ‘gēng-wǔ year’ three characters) — composed by śramaṇa Zhì-shēng of Xī Chóng-fú-sì”). The text opens immediately with the canonical-roster proper:
Bō-rě bù 般若部 (the Prajñāpāramitā section, totaling 22 bù):
- Dà bō-rě bō-luó-mì-duō jīng 大般若波羅蜜多經, 600 juan: translated by Tang Tripiṭaka Master Xuán-zàng at Yù-huá-gōng-sì 玉華宮寺. 60 zhì, totaling 10,649 sheets, 【天】 character starting through 【柰】 character ending.
- Fàng-guāng bō-rě bō-luó-mì jīng 放光般若波羅蜜經, 30 juan: Western Jìn Tripiṭaka Wú-luó-chā 無羅叉 (Mokṣala) together with Zhú Shū-lán 竺叔蘭 translated.
- …
[The text continues through the entire 5,048-juan canonical roster organized by section, with each entry giving the title, juan-count, translator information, and bundle-letter assignment.]
Abstract
Authorship and date: composed by Zhìshēng in Kāiyuán 18 = 730 CE, contemporary with his main Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (KR6s0093) and his Xù gǔjīn yìjīng tú jì (KR6s0091). notBefore = 730, notAfter = 730. Catalog dynasty 唐.
The work’s significance is practical-operational rather than scholarly: it provides the actual bibliographic-roster information needed for canon-organization and canon-printing in compact form. Where the main Kāiyuánlù is a vast scholarly compendium with extensive translation-history apparatus, the Luèchū is the canon-builder’s working manual — listing exactly which works are in the canon, how many juan they contain, and under which bundle-letter they should be shelved.
This format made the Luèchū the direct organizational template for the Kāibǎo canon-printing project of 971–983 — the first xylographic Chinese Buddhist canon-printing — which used Zhìshēng’s bundle-letter assignments as its physical canon-organization scheme. Subsequent canon-printings (Liáo, Goryeo, Yǒnglè, Qiánlóng) all used the same scheme, originating from this Luèchū.
The work is therefore one of the most operationally consequential documents in pre-modern Chinese Buddhist canonical history — even if its scholarly content is less impressive than the main catalog, its practical impact on the physical organization of every subsequent East Asian Buddhist canon makes it second only to the main Kāiyuánlù in canonical-bibliographic significance.
Translations and research
See KR6s0093 for general references on Zhì-shēng’s bibliographic project.
Other points of interest
The Luèchū is the most-used of Zhìshēng’s 730 CE works in subsequent canonical-printing practice: the main Kāiyuánlù is too unwieldy as a working reference, but the abridgment is exactly the practical-operational format that canon-printers and monastic-librarians needed. Its 千字文 bundle-letter assignment scheme — assigning each canon-bundle a sequential character from the Thousand-Character Classic — became the standard physical organization of every subsequent East Asian Buddhist canon-printing.
Links
- DILA authority: A001261 (智昇)
- CBETA: T55n2155
- Author: Zhìshēng 智昇 (Tang, fl. 730)
- Main work: KR6s0093 Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (T2154, 20 juan, 730)
- Companion: KR6s0091 Xù gǔjīn yìjīng tú jì (T2152, 1 juan, 730)
- Operational impact: foundational for every subsequent East Asian Buddhist canon-printing’s physical organization