Jīnzàng xīn zīliào kǎo 《金藏》新資料考
An Investigation of New Materials Concerning the Jin Canon by 李際寧
About the work
A modern Chinese-language scholarly monograph (one fascicle) by Lǐ Jìníng presenting newly discovered evidence concerning the Jīnzàng 金藏 (the Jurchen-Jīn-dynasty Buddhist canon, the Zhàochéng zàng 趙城藏) — specifically, materials related to the lost Zhào Fēng bēi 趙渢碑 (1193) inscription that originally documented the canon’s printing under Cuī Fǎzhēn 崔法珍. Lǐ argues that fragments preserved in a recently recovered Míng補版 Qìshā zàng 磧砂藏 (Ming supplemented Qishaling-cliff canon) — found in 1966 inside a Buddha-image at Bólín sì 柏林寺 in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution — preserve textual material derived from the lost Zhào Fēng bēi.
Abstract
The Jīnzàng (Jin Canon, c. 1149–1173) was rediscovered in 1933 by the monk Fànchéng 范成 at Guǎngshèngshàngsì 廣勝上寺 in Zhàochéng 趙城, Shānxi 山西. Jiǎng Wéixīn 蔣唯心 (Zhīnà nèixué yuàn) published the foundational study (Jīnzàng diāoyìn shǐmò kǎo 金藏雕印始末考, 1934/1935) shortly after, but the original 1193 stele inscription by Zhào Fēng 趙渢 (calligraphy) and Dǎng Huáiyīng 黨懷英 (seal-script title), which would have answered key questions about Cuī Fǎzhēn’s printing operation, had been lost.
In 1966, Hóngwèibīng 紅衛兵 broke open Buddha-images at Bólín sì in Beijing and discovered a hoard of c. 2,000+ Buddhist text-volumes, which Dīng Yú 丁瑜 and Wáng Yùliáng 王玉良 of the Beijing Library rare-book department recognised as a Ming-supplemented Qìshā zàng and rescued. In 1992 Fāng Guǎngchāng directed a team to systematically inventory the find. Lǐ Jìníng’s 1994–95 study identifies that several of the volumes — Dà bōrě jīng and others — derive textually from Yuán Miàoyánsì 妙嚴寺 supplements (also used at Kāiyuánsì and Wòlóngsì) but additionally preserve printer’s notes and dedicatory inscriptions that derive from the Zhào Fēng bēi. The full set was commissioned for printing by the Beijing layman Yáng Ān 楊安 in Xuāndé 7 (1432) for Dǒng Fúchéng 董福成’s family, with stamp-marks “DàMíngguó Běijīng Shùntiān fǔ Dàxīngxiàn jūxián fāng” 大明國北京順天府大興縣居賢坊 throughout. The supplementary printing in Yǒnglè (1403–24) was undertaken by Bāo Shànhuī 鮑善恢 of the Korean Huìyīn sì 慧因寺 in Hangzhou.
The essay is included in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn as a substantive scholarly contribution rather than as an edited primary text — comparable to KR6v0022 (Fāng Guǎngchāng’s Chánzàng essay).
Translations and research
- Jiǎng Wéixīn 蔣唯心, Jīn-zàng diāoyìn shǐmò kǎo 金藏雕印始末考 (Nanjing: Zhīnà nèixué yuàn, 1935) — the foundational study.
- Lǐ Fùhuá 李富華 and Hé Méi 何梅, Hànwén fójiào dàzàngjīng yánjiū 漢文佛教大藏經研究 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 2003) — modern survey of Chinese canons including the Jīn-zàng.
- Storch, Tanya, The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2014) — context.
- Lǐ Jìníng 李際寧, Fójīng bǎnběn 佛經版本 (Nanjing: Jiāngsū gǔjí, 2002) — Lǐ’s own monograph drawing partly on this material.
Other points of interest
The Bólínsì Buddha-image hoard is one of the most consequential modern discoveries of medieval Chinese Buddhist printed material outside Dūnhuáng. Its survival through the Cultural Revolution — emerging from inside an iconoclastically-broken Buddha-image — is itself a striking historical irony. Lǐ’s identification of Jīnzàng-derived material within the find re-opened the question of Zhào Fēng bēi reconstruction, which had been considered closed since 1935.