景祐新修法寶錄

Jǐngyòu xīnxiū fǎbǎo lù 景祐新修法寶錄

The Newly Revised Catalog of Dharma-Treasures of the Jǐng-yòu Era edited by 呂夷簡 (等編修)

About the work

A fourteen-juan Northern Sòng official Buddhist canonical bibliography, compiled in the Jǐngyòu 景祐 era (1034–1038) of Sòng Rénzōng 仁宗 under the editorial direction of the senior court official Lǚ Yíjiǎn 呂夷簡 (979–1044), Chief Councilor (zǎixiàng 宰相) of the early-Rén-zōng era. The work updates the earlier Sòng canonical catalogs (KR6s0099 Tiānshèng zǒnglù, KR6s0100 Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù) with the additional translation activity through the early Jǐngyòu period. Preserved in the Zhàochéng Jīncáng at A112 no. 1502.

Prefaces

The text opens with the Jǐngyòu xīnxiū fǎbǎo lù xù 景祐新修法寶錄序. In paraphrase:

Of old the Tathāgata, in the substance complete with bhūtatathatā, the Way completed right awakening, lifting up the multitude beings’ delusion-and-falsehood, manifesting the good teaching’s round-penetration. Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna — following the capacity-and-occasion in their response-and-stimulation. Right Dharma and Semblance Dharma — pointing to the sudden-and-gradual to open the predecessors. From the Jade-Hair [Buddha’s uṣṇīṣa] sinking its radiance and the Golden River showing the extinction, there were the great Kāśyapa and Anāgāmi [arhats] together stitching the bequeathed text, praising-and-clarifying the meaning-fully-understood. This then is the quán-yú (origin-source) of the jīng and lùn.

Subsequently the white horse came west [the legendary first arrival of Buddhism to Hàn China in 67 CE]. The Lántái [Imperial Library] in the middle was hidden. So the Cīna people came to recognize the root of the pure-and-clear, despised the dust of vexations-and-troubles, abandoned the heretical schools, all rushed to the wonderful shade — as if leaving the burning-house and peacefully obtaining the carriage; as if in the middle of the river ferried by means of a raft…

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

Abstract

Authorship and date: composed under the editorial direction of Lǚ Yíjiǎn 呂夷簡 (CBDB; 979–1044; zì Tānfū 坦夫; native of Láizhōu 萊州 in modern Shāndōng), the senior court official and three-time Chief Councilor of the early-Rén-zōng era (1029–1033, 1035–1037, 1040–1044). The work was completed in the Jǐngyòu era (1034–1038), conventionally dated 1034–1037. notBefore = 1034, notAfter = 1037. Catalog dynasty 宋.

The work is the third in the series of three early-Sòng official canonical bibliographies — KR6s0099 Tiānshèng (1023–1031), KR6s0100 Dàzhōngxiángfú (1011–1013), and the present Jǐngyòu (1034–1037). Together they constitute the principal early-Sòng imperial-bibliographic series documenting the consolidation of the Sòng-period Chinese Buddhist canon following the foundational Kāibǎo canon-printing project (971–983).

The substantive editorial leadership by Lǚ Yíjiǎn — a senior secular Chief Councilor rather than a Buddhist scholar-monk — is significant: it parallels the editorial leadership of KR6s0100 by Yáng Yì (a senior court literatus). The pattern reflects the deep Northern-Sòng literati-elite engagement with imperial Buddhist canonical scholarship, with senior court figures contributing direct editorial work to canonical-bibliographic projects.

Translations and research

• Hé Méi 何梅, Lì-dài hàn-wén dà-zàng-jīng mù-lù xīn-kǎo (2014).
• John Chaffee and Charles Hartman on early-Sòng court politics and intellectual life.

Other points of interest

The series of three early-Sòng official Buddhist canonical bibliographies under literati-bureaucratic editorial leadership (KR6s0099–KR6s0101) exemplifies the early-Sòng integration of Buddhist canonical scholarship with the senior court bureaucratic establishment — a pattern that contrasts with the more strictly monastic-scholarly canonical-bibliographic tradition of the Tang (cf. KR6s0084–KR6s0098) and reflects the broader Sòng-era restructuring of Buddhism’s institutional position within the imperial system.

Links

• DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for Lǚ Yíjiǎn — but well-documented in CBDB and Sòng dynastic sources)
• CBETA: A112n1502
• Editor: Lǚ Yíjiǎn 呂夷簡 (979–1044), three-time Sòng Chief Councilor
• Imperial sponsor: Sòng Rénzōng 仁宗 (r. 1022–1063)
• Era: Jǐngyòu 景祐 (1034–1038)
• Predecessors: KR6s0099 Tiānshèng zǒnglù, KR6s0100 Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù