Online Resources for the Study of Chan Literature in the Tang and Song Dynasties

/ Under construction /

Online Databases and Dictionaries

  • Anderl, Christoph, ed-in-chief. 2021. “Database of Medieval Chinese Texts.” Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies (Ghent Univ.) and Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies 中華佛學研究所. https://www.database-of-medieval-chinese-texts.be/. [**]

    • Variants module: useful tool for those who work primarily on manuscripts and wish to identify with more confidence a variant character form. You will not find an “identifier” for a specific graphic variant (as you would in the Jiàoyùbù yìtǐzì zìdiǎn 教育部異體字字典; see below), but you can find the references (i.e., the location in the manuscripts or prints) of similar-looking variants. The DMCT has a convenient “comparison tool” which can help in the identification of variants.

    • Texts module: although the editions vary in quality and the editorial policies are not consistent as a whole due to the convergence of various projects gathered on the platform, this module contains TEI-based scholarly digital editions of Medieval Chinese texts, among which are the most authoritative editions up-to-date.

  • Baxter, William H., and Laurent Sagart. 2014. “The Baxter-Sagart Reconstruction of Old Chinese (Version 1.1).” http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/. [**]

    • .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) table that offers (a) reconstructions of Old Chinese and (b) transcriptions of (Early) Middle Chinese pronunciation of 4968 words/characters, with glosses and other references (radical/classifier number, number of strokes minus the radical, unicode, etc.).

  • Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (Zhōnghuá diànzǐ fódiǎn xiéhuì 中華電子佛典協會), ed. 2021. “CBETA Online Reader (Xiànshàng Yuèdú 線上閱讀).” https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/. [*]

    • The most convenient online collection of Chinese Buddhist texts, for the most part based on the Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, with welcome additions from the Zhōnghuá dàzàngjīng 中華大藏經, the Fángshān shíjīng 房山石經, the Jiāxìng zàng 嘉興藏, the Dàzàngjīng bǔbiān 大藏經補編, etc. (cf. Contents section of the Home page).

    • Easy to use for various types of full-text search queries (exact word, AND/OR/NOT, NEAR). CBETA now offers a list of suggested graphic variants which comes in handy since the regularisation of graphic variants is not always consistent.

    • The quality of the editions varies: errors in punctuation, mistaken or omitted characters are not uncommon. Therefore, if you are working on a limited number of texts, it is a good practice consult the corresponding authoritative editions (e.g., from Zhōnghuá shūjú 中華書局, Shāngwù yìnshūguǎn 商務印書館, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, Zhōngzhōu gǔjí chūbǎnshè 中州古籍出版社, Zen bunka kenkyūjo 禅文化研究所) and, if possible, either the original manuscripts and prints, or reliable facsimile reproductions (i.e., without addition of strokes to damaged characters, or other modifications).

    • On the sources, abbreviations, and referencing system of CBETA, see: http://www.cbeta.org/cbreader/help/id.htm; http://www.cbeta.org/cbreader/help/zrx.htm; and the other relevant pages under the “Supplement“ (格式說明) tab.

  • Fóguāng dàcídiǎn biānxiū wěiyuánhuì 佛光大辭典編修委員會, ed. 1989. Fóguāng dàcídiǎn 佛光大辭典. Gāoxióng 高雄: Fóguāng chūbǎnshè 佛光出版社. https://www.fgs.org.tw/fgs_book/fgs_drser.aspx. [***]

  • Fóxué míngxiāng guīfàn zīliàokù jiànzhì jìhuà 佛學名相規範資料庫建置計畫 (Buddhist Studies Authority Database Project), ed. 2021. “Dìmíng guīfàn zīliào kù 地名規範資料庫 (Place Authority Database).” http://authority.dila.edu.tw/place.

  • Fóxué míngxiāng guīfàn zīliàokù jiànzhì jìhuà 佛學名相規範資料庫建置計畫 (Buddhist Studies Authority Database Project), ed. 2021. “Rénmíng guīfàn zīliào kù 人名規範資料庫 (Person Authority Database).” http://authority.dila.edu.tw/person. [*]

  • Fóxué míngxiāng guīfàn zīliàokù jiànzhì jìhuà 佛學名相規範資料庫建置計畫 (Buddhist Studies Authority Database Project), ed. 2021. “Shíjiān guīfàn zīliào kù 時間規範資料庫 (Time Authority Database).” http://authority.dila.edu.tw/time.

  • Guójiā jiàoyù yánjiùyuàn yǔwén jiàoyù jí biānyì yánjiū zhōngxīn 國家教育研究院語文教育及編譯研究中心 and Guóyǔ tuīxíng wěiyuánhuì 國語推行委員會, eds. 2017. “Jiàoyùbù yìtǐzì zìdiǎn 教育部異體字字典 (6th Ed.).” https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/. [***]

  • Harbsmeier, Christoph, Jiǎng Shàoyú 蔣紹愚, Christian Schwermann, and Christian Wittern, eds. 2021. “Thesaurus Linguae Sericae - An Historical and Comparative Encyclopaedia of Chinese Conceptual Scheme.” https://hxwd.org. [**]

  • Harvard University, Academia Sinica 中央研究院, and Peking University 北京大學, eds. 2021. “China Biographical Database Project (CBDB).” https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb.

  • International Dunhuang Project 國際敦煌項目. 2021. “International Dunhuang Project 國際敦煌項目: The Silk Road Online.” http://idp.bl.uk/.

  • Muller, A. Charles, ed. 2021. “Digital Dictionary of Buddhism 電子佛教辭典.” http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/. [*]

  • SAT Daizōkyō Text Database Committee. 2018. “The SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (SAT 大正新脩大藏經テキストデータベース).” https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2018/master30.php?lang=en.

  • Sturgeon, Donald, ed. 2021. “Chinese Text Project 中國哲學書電子化計劃.” https://ctext.org.

Websites

Websites of individual researchers:

  • Bingenheimer, Marcus: https://mbingenheimer.net/.

  • Muller, A. Charles: http://www.acmuller.net/.

    • The website of Charles Muller contains various tools and links that are useful for the study of East Asian languages and thought in general. This includes personal translations of Chinese classics (e.g., Lúnyǔ 論語, Mèngzǐ 孟子), Buddhist texts (e.g., Jīngāng jīng 金剛經, Yuánjué jīng 圓覺經, texts by Wonhyo 元曉), and others. It also provides various links to useful resources (online dictionaries, Zotero bibliography and websites) initiated by Charles Muller:

      • H-Buddhism: A social-network platform for the exchange of information related to the field of Buddhist Studies, including “academic resources, new research projects, scholarly publications, university job listings, and so forth […]”.

      • H-Buddhism Zotero Bibliography: A Zotero-based collection of bibliographical resources for Buddhist Studies.

      • Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (cf. Section above).

  • Radich, Michael and Jamie Norrish: https://dazangthings.nz/.

    • This website contains useful tools related to the Chinese Buddhist canon (dàzàng jīng 大藏經) and Buddhist Studies in general. Most notably, it includes:

      • (a) The Chinese Buddhist Canonical Attributions database (https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/), abbreviated CBC@, and the corresponding User’s Guide.

        • This user-contributor database collects information on the authorship or attributions of a large number of Chinese Buddhist texts. It lists arguments of traditional sources and modern scholarly literature, and occasionally provides further evidence to support given ascriptions. The editors insist that the aim of the database is not to act as an authoritative source on attributions, but rather as an index of attributions, pointing to the relevant scholarly sources.

        • The database can be queried by texts, persons, sources, and a list of dates. For more information, please consult: https://dazangthings.nz/cbc-guide/searching/.

      • (b) Resources related to TACL (“Textual Analysis for Corpus Linguistics”) (https://dazangthings.nz/tacl-guide/), i.e., a tool for “comparative analysis of strings contained in two or more bodies of digitised text” (cf. Radich’s 2019 user guide, p. 1).

  • Vierthaler, Paul: https://www.pvierth.com/.

Websites of academic institutions: