Song Zang Yi Zhen (Complete 20 Volumes)

Author: None
Publisher: National Library of China Microfilm Center
Publication Date: 2002-04-01
Features: Among the world's religions, Buddhism has the most extensive scriptures. In the Chinese Buddhist Canon, the Kaibao Canon of the early Northern Song Dynasty is China's first official edition of the Buddhist Canon and also the first woodblock-printed edition. Subsequently, over twenty such official and private editions were published in various dynasties. Notable examples include the Fuzhou Canon of the Song Dynasty, the Zhaoshan Canon, the Sixi Canon, the Zhaocheng Canon of the Jin Dynasty, the Puting Canon of the Yuan Dynasty, the Nan Canon, the Bei Canon, and the Jiaxing Canon of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the Long Canon and the Manchu Buddhist Canon of the Qing Dynasty. In the 1930s, Buddhist scholars photocopied the Song Dynasty Zhaoshan Canon, as this edition was incomplete. Monk Fan Chengcheng was commissioned to seek missing volumes, and during his search in Shanxi's Zhaoshan Guangsheng Temple, he discovered the world-renowned Jin Dynasty woodblock-printed Buddhist Canon, comprising 4,757 volumes. This canon is known as the Zhaoshan Canon, or the Jin Canon, or the Zhaoshan Jin Canon. This collection was organized and printed by the Tianning Temple in Jiezhou, Shanxi, and completed in the 13th year of the Dading era of the Jin Dynasty (1173). Due to frequent wars, the canon suffered damage. Afterward, it was never recorded again. In 1934, the Beijing Three Periods Society selected rare texts missing from other Song Dynasty canons, such as the Chuan Deng Yu Ying Ji, Jingyou Tianzhu Ziyuan, Da Zhongxiangfu Faobao Lu, Tiansheng Shijiao Zonglu, and Jingyou Xinxiu Faobao Lu, totaling 49 volumes, titled "Remnants of the Song Canon," comprising three series, twelve boxes, and 120 volumes.