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Catalogue of the Qianlong Tripitaka (Qianlong Zang) 《乾隆藏》經錄

Qianlong Tripitaka, also called the Qing Tripitaka, is an official Buddhist canonical publication from the Qing dynasty. In 1733 (Yongzheng’s reign), a Buddhist canon library was set up in Shianliang Temple, Beijing, under the direction of the princes Yunlu and Hungshu, the abbot Chaosheng, and others. In 1733 (Yongzheng’s reign), the production of the printing blocks for the Qianglong Tripitaka began. In 1738 (Qianlong’s reign), 79,036 Buddhist blocks were created, numbered according to the Thousand Characters Classic1, from tian (天) to ji (機). The Qianglong Tripitaka contains an aggregate of 724 sets, 1669 scriptures, and 7168 fascicles of canons. The carving was formatted in the same way as the Yongle North Tripitaka. It is divided into two parts, the main tripitaka and the sequel. The main tripitaka has 485 sets, numbered according to the Thousand Characters Classic1, starting from tian (天) to chi (漆); the contents are the same as Yongle North Tripitaka. The sequel part includes 239 sets of books, numbered according to the Thousand Characters Classic1 from the character shu (書) to ji (機), but the contents are slightly different from the Yongle North Tripitaka. A hundred copies of the book were distributed to temples in the Beijing area. In 1935, 22 more copies were produced. The Buddhist blocks were originally stored in the palace at Wuying Hall and later transferred to their present location, Bailin Temple. This database contains the catalogue of the Qianlong Tripitaka.

Note1: Thousand Characters Classic is an essay that was written using exactly 1,000 Chinese characters, none of which were repeated. These characters were sometimes used sequentially to substitute numbers 1 to 1,000 to prevent tampering with numerations.


Digital Database of Buddhist Tripitaka Catalogues
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Dharma Drum Buddhist College