Dàzàng shèngjiào fǎbǎo biāomù 大藏聖教法寶標目
The Headed Catalog of Dharma-Treasures of the Sage-Teaching Great Canon by 王古 (撰)
About the work
A ten-juan Yuán-period Buddhist canonical-bibliographic descriptive register, compiled by Wáng Gǔ 王古 (Yuán, lifedates not preserved). The work is a descriptive bibliography providing brief content-summaries of each canonical work, organized in the standard canonical order — making it function as both a bibliographic register and a canonical-content overview for the educated lay reader. Preserved in the Qiánlóng-canon (Lóngzàng) at L143 no. 1608.
Prefaces
The text opens with a verse-invocation (paraphrased):
歸命正徧知 如來妙法藏 十方大菩薩 三尊真聖眾 我今於法寶 願作勝妙緣 若以一毛端 測量太空界 如說須彌頂 …
Returning-life to the Right-Pervasive Knowing One; / The Tathāgata’s wonderful Dharma-treasury. / The Ten-Direction Great Bodhisattvas; / The Three-Honored true holy multitudes. / I now toward the Dharma-Jewel / Vow to make a victorious wonderful cause. / If with one hair-tip / Measuring the great-space realm; / As speaking the Mount Sumeru summit…
[The verse-preface continues, then the body of the text begins with the descriptive-bibliographic register.]
Abstract
Authorship and date: composed by Wáng Gǔ 王古 (Yuán, lifedates uncertain, active 13th c.). The work is conventionally dated to the mid-Yuán period — notBefore = 1230, notAfter = 1290 (broadly the mid-Yuán bracket, allowing for substantial uncertainty in Wáng Gǔ’s lifedates and activity period). Catalog dynasty 元.
The work is one of the principal Yuán-period canonical-bibliographic descriptive registers — distinct from the earlier strict canonical bibliographies (which provided only inventory data) by its content-summary apparatus for each canonical work. This descriptive-bibliographic format makes the work suitable for use as a canonical reading guide by educated lay-Buddhist readers, complementing the more technical bibliographic-roster works of the Tang and Sòng tradition.
The work’s preservation in the Qiánlóng-canon reflects its continuing utility through the late-imperial period as a practical canonical-content overview — providing readers with a single-volume guide to the contents of the entire canon without requiring direct consultation of each canonical work.
Translations and research
- Hé Méi 何梅, Lì-dài hàn-wén dà-zàng-jīng mù-lù xīn-kǎo (2014).
- General Yuán-period Buddhist scholarly tradition.
Other points of interest
The Yuán-period descriptive-bibliographic format — providing content-summaries of canonical works — anticipates the modern annotated bibliography genre and represents an important pre-modern Chinese contribution to the broader history of bibliographic-descriptive scholarship. The work’s continuing transmission into the Qiánlóng canon reflects its lasting practical utility.