Computer-age print culture
Computer technology’s coming of age at the end of the
twentieth century has created new possibilities for pre-
serving Buddhist literature, and making it accessible
electronically over the Internet. Many web sites pro-
vide access to Buddhist scriptures in a variety of canon-
ical languages and vernacular translations that are
machine readable and easily searchable. The develop-
ment of unicode fonts and digital imaging in the late
1990s made it possible to digitize the Chinese Buddhist
canon. The Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Associ-
ation (www.cbeta.org) has developed a searchable elec-
tronic text of the Taisho shinshu daizokyo (Revised
Version of the Canon, Compiled during the TaishoEra,
1924–1935). The Research Institute of the Tripitaka
Koreana (www.sutra.re.kr) has created an electronic
font that duplicates exactly the calligraphy of the
Koryo ̆ taejanggyo ̆ng (Korean Buddhist Canon or
Tripitaka Koreana), enabling researchers to view the
texts of the canon as though they were original wood-
block prints.
See also:Canon; Merit and Merit-Making; Relics and
Relics Cults; Scripture
Bibliography
Carter, Thomas Francis, and Goodrich, L. Carrington. The In-
vention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward,2nd
edition. New York: Ronald Press, 1955.
Hickman, Brian. “A Note on the HyakumantoDharanl.” Mon-
umenta Nipponica30, no. 1 (1975): 87–93.
Lancaster, Lewis R. “The Rock Cut Canon in China: Findings
at Fang-shan.” In Buddhist Heritage: Papers Delivered at the
School of Oriental and African Studies in November 1985,ed.
Tadeusz Skorupski. London: Institute of Buddhist Studies,
1989.
Ra Kyung-jun. “Early Print Culture in Korea,” tr. Richard D.
McBride II. Korean Culture20, no. 2 (1999): 12–21.
Twitchett, Denis. Printing and Publishing in Medieval China.
New York: Frederic C. Beil, 1983.
RICHARDD. MCBRIDEII
PROVINCIAL TEMPLE SYSTEM
(KOKUBUNJI, RISHOTO)
Twice in Japanese history the state has established a
provincial temple system for the purpose of political
unification and state legitimation. In emulation of the
national temple network instituted in seventh-century
China, Emperor Shomu (701–756 C.E.) set out in 741
to enhance the state’s power through the authority of
Buddhism. One official temple (kokubunji) was desig-
nated in each of the sixty-seven provinces; Todaiji in
Nara was the network’s central temple. These were
each to be staffed by twenty clerics who would pray for
the state’s protection. Provincial nunneries (kokubun-
niji) were also established, each housing ten nuns to
pray for the atonement of wrongdoing. This system de-
clined when the capital was moved from Nara to Ky-
oto in 794. None of the provincial kokubunji emerged
as temples of national importance.
The brothers Ashikaga Takauji (1305–1358) and
Tadayoshi (1306–1352), the founders of the second
shogunate, implemented another system of provincial
temples. At the urging of Zen cleric and shogunal
adviser Muso Soseki (1275–1351), temples called
ankokuji were designated between about 1338 and
1350 in every province to mourn victims of ongoing
warfare. Pagodas containing religious relics con-
tributed by the imperial court were also constructed in
each province. Called rishoto,they were usually five
stories in height and were erected at Shingon or Tendai
(Chinese, Tiantai) temples. Ankokujiwere mainly
family temples of prominent local warriors within the
Five Mountain (Gozan) Zen network. The conceptual
precedent for this temple-pagoda system was the
kokubunji,but there were also antecedents in Chinese
and Indian Buddhist practice. The countrywide estab-
lishment of temples and pagodas also bespoke territo-
rial control, reflecting Ashikaga political ambitions.
With the shogunate’s decline at the end of the fifteenth
century, the temple-pagoda system weakened; today
twenty-eight pagodas remain, but no temples.See also: Horyuji and Todaiji; JapanBibliography
Collcutt, Martin. Gozan: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in
Medieval Japan.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1981.
Tamura, Yoshio. Japanese Buddhism: A Cultural History.Tokyo:
Kosei, 2000.SUZANNEGAYPSYCHOLOGYIt has become so common, if not trite, to speak of
“Buddhism as a psychology” that the idea no longerPROVINCIALTEMPLESYSTEM(KOKUBUNJI, RISHOTO)