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Catalogue of The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language 《滿文大藏經》經錄

Disappointed by the fact that the Buddhist canons had been translated into Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian but not the Manchu language, the Qing emperor Qianlong ordered the Chinese Tripitaka be translated into Manchu language. The translation was not completed until 1790 (Qianlong’s reign), taking a total of 19 years, and was printed in red. It was entitled The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language to show its comprehensive collection of tripitaka texts. On February 1 of the lunar calendar in the same year, Qianlong himself wrote the preface to this edition in Manchu, and had it translated into Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese. The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language contains 108 sets in 699 scriptures and 2466 fascicles. The Pattra leaves, clamping, inscription, printing, binding, and layout are all exquisite; the translation is clear and smooth. Throughout the years this Manchu edition has been preserved quite well. The Imperial Palace in Beijing holds 76 sets, and the National Palace Museum in Taipei holds 12 sets. Judging from the format style and the ink color, the collections from both places originated from the same edition printed at the Qing Imperial Palace.
When The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language was printed, only emperors could access it; commoners weren’t allowed to read the text. To supplement and restore the original volumes, the Dharma Drum Buddhist College collected canons from various sources and compiled them into the present The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language in its storage. The sources are from the palace museum of Taipei, the Beijing Forbidden City (the Imperial Palace) and Lhasa. There was originally only one copy of the The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language in the world. The Forbidden City Publishing House has since re-published 20 copies of it. The only copy in Taiwan is stored in Dharma Drum Buddhist College. This database contains the catalogue of The Complete Buddhist Canons in Manchu Language.


Digital Database of Buddhist Tripitaka Catalogues,
Dharma Drum Buddhist College