Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia

(Ben Green) #1

. translation of tantras 443


Asian monks there in 1073.^18 According to the Song Huiyao (SHY), the
Institute for Printing of Scriptures was abolished in 1071, but appar-
ently this order was not executed, since new copies were produced
in response to requests from the Tanguts and the Vietnamese.^19 The
institute was reconstituted under the Southern Song (1127–1279) with
different functions.


The Institute Catalogue


Records of the ongoing work of the institute is found in a variety of
sources, but none conveys the flavor of the undertaking better than the
Catalogue of the Dharma Treasure Compiled in the Dazhong Xiangfu
Period (Dazhong xiangfu fabao lu , hereafter Cata-
logue).^20 Presented in 1013 and covering the first decades of the institute,
the catalogue consists of dated reports of completed translations, sum-
maries of the scriptural contents, names of members of the translation
teams, and requests for entry into the canon and circulation.
The bibliographical taxonomy of the Catalogue is simple. Sūtras
are assigned three categories: the “Hinayāna Scriptural Collection”
(Xiaocheng jingzang ), the “Mahāyāna Scriptural Collec-
tion” (Dacheng jingzang ), and the “Esoteric Portion of the
Mahāyāna Scriptural Collection” (Dacheng jingzang mimi bu
).^21 Other subsidiary classifications, such as “Yoga” (yuqie
), “Lineage/School of the Five Secrets” (wumi zong ), and
even a “Section on Subjugation” (xiangfu bu ), occur spo-
radically.^22 However, doxological categories of texts of the Anuttara-
yogatantra or Yogini tantra, which would signal the distinctiveness of
the cult of the cremation ground, are absent. For example, the Cata-
logue records Dānapāla’s 1002 translation of the Guhyasamāja-tantra


(^18) See Jōjin , San Tendai Godai san ki , BZ (1978–1983) 15:
321–490. 19
See Sen 2002, 40; Song huiyao (SHY), 200 (daoshi 2): 7893a; Song shi (SS), 486:
14009; 20 Song huiyao 197 (fanyi 4): 7734a.
This catalogue is an essential resource for the study of the period. Issued in 1013,
the Catalogue was compiled under the leadership of Zhao Anren (958–1018).
It is found in the Zhonghua da zang jing (ZDJ) , vol. 73: 414–523. It is
now available online in digital facsimile at http://www.fjdh.com/soft/. Another cata-
logue, the Jingyou xinxiu fabao lu is a continuation. It is found in
ZDJ 21 vol. 73: 524–600.
See, for example, ZDJ, vol. 73: 420, which has all three classifications.
(^22) ZDJ, vol. 73: 456.

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