Foreign Buddhist Documents (Volume 9)

Author: Fang Guanglang, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-07-01
Features: Since the first issue of Buddhist Documents Outside the Tang Tripitaka was published in December 1995, to the sixth issue in September 1998, although there were many twists and turns, thanks to the strong financial support from Hong Kong Lianjing Yuan, the publication process was generally smooth. The book received high praise from domestic and international experts and became essential reference material for many researchers. It was also hailed as a meritorious act by many eminent monks and lay Buddhists in the Buddhist community, who were full of admiration. It is hoped that Buddhist Documents Outside the Tang Tripitaka can continue to operate through its own distribution revenue after the sixth issue. However, with increasing superficiality, books like Buddhist Documents Outside the Tang Tripitaka may only be appreciated by a few, like fine music played to an empty hall. Thus, it has always been in a situation where it cannot operate without funding. Of course, a high-quality book with social benefits that fails to generate economic returns is also partly due to the compilers' lack of understanding of commercial promotion. The delay in the seventh issue until June 2000 was a significant deviation from the original plan of publishing two issues per year. The eighth and ninth issues were finally published much later. Buddhist Documents Outside the Tang Tripitaka issues eight and nine included the following documents: Three documents compiled from Dunhuang manuscripts: A Brief Commentary on the Avatamsaka Sutra published in the eighth issue, and A Collection of Commentaries on the Diamond Sutra and A Treatise on the Practice of Buddhist Nature published in the ninth issue. The eighth issue also announced an important document on the Yunnan Azele sect, The Ten Kinds of Meritorious Practices for the Universal Sage's Generous and Filial Conduct, collected by the monk Sijue of the Dazhong Xiangfu Temple in Mianzhu, Sichuan, during the Southern Song Dynasty, in eight volumes. The eighth issue also compiled and published a unique folk war altar document, The Fusion of the Two Bright Ones' Diamond Sutra. The eighth and ninth issues together published five research papers. Among them, four were on Buddhist documents, and one was on digital libraries: Huilin's Phonetic Meanings and the Tang Tripitaka, and An Overview of the Tang Tripitaka Held by Dunhuang Monasteries both studied ancient Buddhist Tripitakas. A Review of Three-Stage Teaching Documents introduced all discovered Three-Stage Teaching classics to date. On Jiang Bi's Woman Monk Fa Song's Copying of Sutras explored an ancient case.