Chinese gama Literature Research on early Buddhist texts

Kathmandu, 4.9.2008

Outline
1) Buddhist Canon and Canonical Editions 2) gama Literature 3) Case Studies:
Shorter Chinese Sayukta-gama (T.100) Chinese Madhyamgama (T.26)

The Multiverse of Buddhist texts

CHINESE PLI TIBETAN SANSKRIT

Canon and Canonical Editions

Canon = effort to order the textual universe Canon: a more or less bounded set of texts accorded preeminent authority and sanctity (Ency. of Bud.). Consensus based, coretexts vs. fringe texts; changes over time; monolingual Canonical editions: Decisions made by few people; all texts equally part of the edition; collection of unchanging text witnesses

Canonization

Pli: Canon as Tripitaka; PTS-edition Chinese: Sutra catalogs as non-normative records of existing literature; Kaibao-edition (10th c.) to CBETA (21st c.) Tibetan: Bu-ston (1290-1364) & the Old Narthang canon to Peking edition Sanskrit: Collections of the early Buddhist schools, so far no canonical edition

Canonical Editions of the Chinese Tripitaka

Q Ms.
: Fangshan Stone Canon : From Sui to Ming (580-1644)
Sheng yu 759-1093

Dunhuang Nor. Wei -Nor. Song (386-960)

Kaibao 971-983

Korean 1011-1082 Korea Sup. 1094

Korean Sec. 1236-1251

Individual Ms.

Qidan 1031-1063 Chongning 1080-1171 Jap. Imperial Household Jianwen ( ) 1399-1443

Tenkai ( ) 1637-1648

Manji 1902-1905

Taish 1922-1932

Manji zo 1905-1912 Hongjiao 1881-1885

Sutra Catalogs East Jin 317 - Tang 907

baku 1669-1681

Showa Rev. 1935-

Ms. Print. Combine Independent By Korea By Japan By China Confirm Info. Doubtful Info or not direct Influence

Pilu 1115-1150

Puning 1269-1286 Hongfa 1277-1294 Yuanguan 1330-1336

Yongle Nan 1413 - 1420

Qianlong 1735-1738

Puhui 1943-

Jin 1148-1173 Sixi 1132, 1175

Yongle Bei 1420-1441

Baina 1866-

Wulin 1522-1566

Zhonghua (China) 1984-present

Pinqie 1909-1914

Qisha 1231-1322 Song (960 - 1276) Yuan (1279 -1368)

Jiaxing 1589-1677 Ming (1368 -1644 ) Qing (1644 -1911)

Zhonghua (Taiwan) 1984-present

Before Song(960CE)

original provided by L. Lancaster. Adapted M.B.

After 1911-

Strapiaka sections

Northern tradition: gama (canonical text, scriptural authority) Southern tradition: Nikya (collection, group) Apart from the Mhasutras almost nothing of the early Strapiaka has been included in the Tibetan canon

gamas
gama/Nikya Literature

CHINESE PLI

TIBETAN SANSKRIT

gama/Nikya collections
Dghanikya Drgha-gama Chang ahan jing Collection of Long Discourses Collection of Middle Length Discourses Connected Discourses

Majjhimanikya Madhyama-gama Zhong ahan jing Sayuttanikya Sayukta-gama Za ahan jing Anguttaranikya Ekottarika-gama Zengyi ahan jing Khuddakanikya (Kudrakapiaka Za zang )

Enumerating Discourses Collection of short texts

Larger Chinese gama texts

Drgha-gama Chang ahan jing Madhyama-gama Zhong ahan jing Sayukta-gama Za ahan jing T.01 (22 vol.): Dharmaguptaka T.26 (60 vol.): (Mla-) Sarvstivdin T.99 (50 vol.): (Mla-) Sarvstivdin T.100 (16 vol.): (Mla-) Sarvstivdin? T.101 (1.vol.): ?? T.125 (51 vol.): Mahsghika

Ekottarika-gama Zengyi ahan jing

Open questions

What is the relative chronology of the gamas? What criteria are sufficient to attribute gama texts? To what degree are doctrinal differences between the early schools reflected in the Sutrapitaka?

Researching gama literature

1) Creating a comparative catalog:

Identifying Pali parallels (Anesaki (1908), Akanuma (1929)) Identifying Sanskrit, Tibetan a.o. parallels

2) Create comparative, critical editions (print or digital) 3) Translate into modern languages

BZA - project The Shorter Chinese Sayukta gama

Aim: create the best edition of the BZA (T.100) (and partial translation) Best edition: all previous textual information + added value Funded: 2005-2008, Jiang Jingguo Foundation 1000+ short texts arranged in clusters XML/TEI markup eXist Database Parallel edition

Comparative Catalog:

Comparative critical Edition:

Digital Critical Editions

Source file Output file

TEI/XML source:

Variant readings in Chinese

Madhyamgama (T.26) - project

Funded by the Numata foundation (BDK) 3 editors, 9 translators Started in Dec. 2005. First third to be published in 2010. 60 juan Interest in gama literature among Chinese scholars

Challenges

Ensuring correctness English Style Consistency of terminology Legal framework

Solution(s)

Electronic supports:

Glossary generated from occurrence list TransHelp tool to automatically compare the Chinese text with the English translation

TransHelp: Glossary

TransHelp: Compare

TransHelp: Results

Translation workflow:

Conclusion

gama literature (idem Vinaya, Abhidharma, Avadna) exists in multiple languages We need critical, multilingual editions These editions will be digital The basic technology of creating digital editions is markup Questions? m.bingenheimer@gmail.com http://buddhistinformatics.ddbc.edu.tw/~mb/