Great Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Personal Names: Manuscript Left by Venerable Zhenhua

Author: Shenghua
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-03-01
Features: This book is a 2 million-word work and the largest Buddhist biographical dictionary in China to date. Shenghua, the former abbot of Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple, also founded Shanghai Buddhist College in the 1940s. As early as the 1930s, Shenghua set out to compile the Great Dictionary of Buddhist Personalities in China, gathering materials with his disciples and gradually collecting over 10,000 preliminary entries. After his passing, the manuscript was stored in Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple. In the 1950s, it was brought to the Buddhist Association of China, intended for publication, but later discarded as waste paper during the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution, the manuscript was rediscovered. At the request of Shenghua's senior disciple, the abbot of Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple, Zhenchan, WANG Xin, a lay practitioner, organized efforts to supplement entries, verify information, and finally completed the book. During this period, after Juexian succeeded Zhenchan as the abbot of Jade Buddha Temple, he also provided strong support, arranging resources and logistics to ensure the book's smooth publication, thus fulfilling Shenghua's wish to see it published. The length of its compilation is considered a record in China's publishing industry. It is reported that Shenghua's manuscript primarily collected figures from China's Northern Buddhist tradition; the supplementary compiler added entries from China's Southern and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, as well as some modern Buddhist figures, enhancing its practicality. The dictionary includes seven categories of entries: monks, nuns, lay Buddhists, lay Buddhist women, royalties, empresses, and princesses. Additionally, foreign monks who came to China and were recorded are included. Experts praise the dictionary's features: it is relatively comprehensive, and a significant portion of its content comes from notes, interviews, epitaphs, and inscriptions, which are not found in other works, making it particularly valuable. This book is the unfinished manuscript of the Great Dictionary of Buddhist Personalities in China compiled by Shenghua during his lifetime, now organized by his disciples. It includes 16,973 entries of figures related to Buddhism in China since its introduction. These are categorized into seven groups: monks (Bodhisattva monks, bhikkhus, ?ramanas), nuns (bhikkhunis, ?ramanīs), lay Buddhists, lay Buddhist women, royalties (emperors, generals, high officials), empresses, and princesses. The majority are figures from China's Han Buddhist tradition, with supplementary entries from Tibetan and Southern Buddhist traditions. Foreign Buddhist masters are included only if they had interactions with China's Han Buddhist tradition; others are excluded.
1. This dictionary includes 16,973 entries of figures related to Buddhism in China since its introduction, categorized into seven groups: monks (Bodhisattva monks, bhikkhus, ?ramanas), nuns (bhikkhunis, ?ramanīs), lay Buddhists, lay Buddhist women, royalties (emperors, generals, high officials), empresses, and princesses. The majority are figures from China's Han Buddhist tradition, with supplementary entries from Tibetan and Southern Buddhist traditions. Foreign Buddhist masters are included only if they had interactions with China's Han Buddhist tradition; others are excluded.
2. In the "monk" and "nun" categories, the term "monk" () is an abbreviation for sangha, meaning a community. However, in China, the term has been traditionally used to refer to an individual monk, which is considered imprecise. Yet, it has been retained as it is the common usage.
3. Monks and nuns are listed under their standard historical names or titles, while alternative names, aliases, and other titles are listed as cross-references. For lay Buddhists, lay Buddhist women, royalties, empresses, and princesses, emperors are listed using conventional titles (e.g., Emperor Taizong of Tang is referred to as such), while others are listed by name, with selective cross-references.
4. For entries with verifiable birth and death dates, the corresponding years are noted in parentheses. Approximately 2,800 entries, based on Chen Yuan's Chronological Records of Buddhist Birth and Death Dates, differ from general historical records. For entries with birth and death dates, the years are generally not repeated unless there is a special case.
5. Under each entry, alternative names, aliases, and titles are listed. Honorary titles, posthumous honors, and post-nominal letters are indicated in the main text. Generally, names are not preceded by honorifics, except in special cases.
6. The explanations are concise. After the dharma name, birth and death dates, dynasty, identity, place of origin, and surname, the main life events, education, and major works are summarized. Key sayings are selectively quoted, with general omissions. Sources are briefly noted at the end, with numbers indicating the volume. Two exceptions are: (1) entries without original sources that could not be verified, retained as Shenghua was known for rigorous scholarship; (2) modern works, where sources are omitted.
7. For historical place names, current names are added for place of origin, e.g., "Jiahe (Zhejiang Jiaxing) Xu family." For names identical in ancient and modern forms, the current administrative division is noted in parentheses, e.g., "Fenyang (now part of Shanxi)." Unclear historical names are not annotated. Other historical place names are not included.
8. For dynasty names, to avoid confusion, the Later Han is referred to as the Eastern Han, the Southern Dynasties as the Liu-Southern Dynasties, and the Northern Wei as the Northern Wei. The Five Dynasties are sometimes referred to as such, with specific examples like "Five Dynasties Later Tang" or "Five Dynasties Later Jin."
9. Old calendar years are annotated with corresponding reign titles or other dates, with the Gregorian equivalent. If the same reign title appears more than twice in one entry, it is noted only once.
10. The dictionary uses Arabic numerals for Gregorian years and source volumes but employs traditional characters in the text, with selective inclusion of variant characters.
11. Entries are arranged by stroke count. If dharma names are identical, they are sorted by dynasty (earlier first) and then by stroke order (①, ②, ③, etc.). Starting from ②, no additional labels are used. For different dharma names, entries are sorted by the stroke count and shape of the first character, with fewer strokes first. For characters with the same stroke count, stroke order (horizontal, vertical, hook, dot, turn) is used. Entries with the same first character are sorted by the length of the second character, then the third, and so on.
12. Stroke order follows the Dictionary of Modern Usage (1999 edition) Stroke Lookup Table. Characters outside horizontal, vertical, hook, dot, and turn strokes are classified as follows: hooks are grouped with horizontal strokes, dots with vertical strokes, and characters with hooks or turns are grouped with turns.
13. Foreign masters who came to China for propagation or study are marked by the first or second character of their home country. Examples: "Shu" for India, "Yin" for India, "Jia" for Kapilavastu, "Ji" for Gandhara, "An" for Parthia, "Fu" for Funan, "Ri" for Japan, "Ni" for Nepal, "Xin" for Silla, "Li" for Goguryeo, "Ji" for Baekje, "Kang" for Kangju, "Zhi" for Yuezhi, "Bo" for Bactria, "Han" for Samguk, "Shi" for Sri Lanka, "He" for Srivijaya, "Gan" for Gambo, "You" for Upavarsa, "Yue" for Vietnam.
14. The dictionary includes a stroke index at the beginning and a Chronological Table of Major Buddhist Events in China at the end for reference.