38 henrik h. sørensen
includes those texts in the Taishō outside the formal Esoteric Buddhist
section, works in the Zokuzōkyō, works found among the hoard of
Buddhists manuscripts at Dunhuang ,^4 texts in the non-standard
Mt. Fang Tripit aka carved in stone,̣^5 and the text corpus found in
Yunnan, most of of which are of Dali provenance.^6 Information
on the handful of relevant texts found in the other Chinese tripitakaṣ ,
such as the Qianlong dazang jing (Qianlong Tripit aka; ̣
hereafter QDJ) from 1735–1738^7 and the recent Zhonghua dazang jing
(Chinese Tripit aka; hereafter ̣ ZDJ),^8 are also included
here. The intent is to provide an overview and succinct introduction
to the Esoteric Buddhist material in Chinese, material that is either
less well known or otherwise not readily available in Taishō volumes
18–21.
Esoteric Buddhist Texts in the Taishō Not Included in Vols. 18–21
There are several texts in the Taishō Tripiṭaka relating to Esoteric Bud-
dhism that are not found in volumes 18–21, which contain the Eso-
teric Buddhist material. The discussion below includes most of these
texts, but without a reassessment of the proper sūtras not included
from these four volumes.
Vol. 39
Da piluzhena chengfo jing shu (Commentary
to the Mahāvairocana Sūtra),^9 compiled by Yixing. This is one of the
(^4) For a comprehensive, although far from complete, collection of this material, see
Lin and Shen, comp. 2000a and 2000b. 5
This incomplete Tripiṭaka was carved onto stone slabs between the early Tang
and the Ming dynasty, thus reflecting a very long period in the history of Chinese
Buddhism. Most of the Esoteric Buddhist texts not found in the standard tripitakạ s
were carved during the Liao and Jin dynasties, i.e., between ca. 1000 and 1234 C.E.
For additional information on this material, see Sørensen, “Esoteric Buddhism under
the Liao” and “Esoteric Buddhism under the Jin,” in this volume. 6
Cf. Hou 2009. A detailed discussion of the Esoteric Buddhist texts can be found
in Hou 1998. 7
QDJ, 168 vols., Taibei, 197–2002. The various existing PDF versions of this mate-
rial makes it relatively easy to use. Good indices are also widely available online. 8
ZDJ, 220 vols. Beijing, 1982–87. Although this is the most recent of the Chinese
tripiṭakas to appear, it is an unwieldy and old-fashioned collection with limited value
as a resource.
(^9) T. 1796.