Vairocana: Esoteric Buddhism (Vol. 1 & 2)

Author: Wu Limin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Buddhism was introduced to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty and underwent transmission and development through the Three Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties periods. It reached its peak during the Sui and Tang dynasties. In the late Tang Dynasty, Emperor Wu Zong suppressed Buddhism, leading to its gradual decline. Through the efforts of eminent monks and scholars during the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, each sect of Buddhism still made new contributions. After the Opium War, influenced by Western culture, the Buddhist community in China faced unprecedented challenges and shocks.
《》 (Wēyīn), a Buddhist journal, was first published in January 1930. Initially a bimonthly, it was changed to a monthly starting from its 25th issue and ceased publication in September 1937, with a total of 78 issues. The original journal published articles in nine categories: essays, sect traditions, scriptural interpretations, esoteric Buddhism, translations, miscellaneous notes, monographs, lectures, and news. Due to the limited space in magazine publications, some articles spanned several years and were scattered across different issues, making research cumbersome and reading inconvenient.
Now, the Cultural Department of Zhiliang Jingyuan in Hong Kong has vowed to reorganize and classify 《》 as a (library collection). They invited Mr. Wu Limin to serve as the chief editor, to reformat and punctuate the content, and to divide the entire work into nine volumes based on the original journal's categories: essays, sect traditions, scriptural interpretations, esoteric Buddhism, translations, miscellaneous notes, monographs, lectures, and news. The original cover pages of books were also compiled and attached at the end of the (News volume). Additionally, a general index of 《》 (Wēyīn Library Collection) was included at the end of each volume.