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Catalogue of the Gaoli Tripitaka (Tripitaka Koreana) 《高麗藏》經錄

Records show that the Kaibao Tripitaka spread to Goryeo during years 988 and 989 (Duangong years of the Northern Song Dynasty). Later the Tianxi and Xining revisions of the book spread eastward, respectively, in 1022 (Qianxing’s reign) and in 1083 (Yuanfeng’s reign). In 1063 (Qingning’s reign, Liao dynasty), the Liao Kingdom gave Goreyo the Khitan Tripitaka as a gift. In 1025 the Kingdom of Goryeo duplicated the Kaibao Tripitaka and thus came the first Tripitaka Koreana.
In 1090, a prodigious Buddhist canon editing project started. The involved works were the Tianxi and Xining revisions of Kaibao Tripitaka, the Khitan Tripitaka, as well as the General Catalogue of Buddhist Teachings by the Korean monk Uicheon. The project’s fruits were compiled into the Tripitaka Koreana Sequel. Around 4,000 volumes were produced by Xingwang Temple. Both the Tripitaka Koreana and its sequel were stored in Buin Temple but were all destroyed during an invasion in 1232, and the printed canons were also lost. From 1236 to 1251 duplications of the printing blocks were made according to the remaining copies. They were originally stored in Seonwon Temple, but were transferred to Jicheon Temple in 1398, and to Haein Temple the next year. Fifty printings were produced later, followed by another 12 printings in 1960. After the 1970s, the tripitaka was copied and bound into 45 volumes. Four of the 50 printings produced at Haein Temple were disseminated to Japan, and in 1957 the Japanese published a compact edition of the paintings in hard-bound books. The Gaoli Tripitaka contained 639 sets, numbered according to the Thousand Characters Classic1, from tian (天) to dong (洞); 1522 scriptures and 6558 fascicles were collected in it. This database contains the catalogue of the Tripitaka Koreana.

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,
Dharma Drum Buddhist College