AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL STRUCTURE OF THE TAISHO TRIPITAKA

Abstract

The academic objective of the research work on “An Analytical Study on Developmental Structure of the Taishō Tripiṭaka” is focused on the understanding how the structure of the Taishō Tripiṭaka being developed. What reason does shape its structure? How are the groups or collections of scriptures divided?  In addition, the research has also introduced the Sanskrit name of sutras or scriptures contained in the Taishō Tripiṭaka which were composed in India by transliterating from Romanization of Sanskrit into Thai. In the case that there is no Sanskrit title, the name will be transliterated from Chinese words into Thai characters, followed with transcription into Thai in the bracket. The research work also makes an abridged explanation on certain sutras or scriptures as well.

Though the Taishō Tripiṭaka is not the latest edition of Buddhist Canon in Chinese, it is the standard edition accepted by all Buddhist scholars throughout the world as a source for reference published in Japan in 1924 and completed 100 volumes later on. The research work on the Taishō Tripiṭaka is documentary research proceeding by observation, collecting, and analysis. Analysis of data is based on ethnographic research because the method of collecting data is from several sources with the continuity of recording, which is the distinctive characteristic of ethnographic research. The analytical method towards the studying of the structure of the Taishō Tripiṭaka has the basis on belief, viewpoint, the new sets of values, and language.

The result of research on the Taishō Tripiṭaka’s structure is summed up as three baskets or collections as follows.  That is, the collection of translation works of scriptures composed in India into Chinese, the collection of commentaries composed in China, and the collection of commentaries, sub-commentaries, composed in Japan. In this research, these 3 collections are called “Indian Collection”, “Chinese Collection”, and “Japanese Collection” respectively. Therefore the Taishō edition can be designated as “Tripiṭaka” in the sense of dividing into three baskets of Buddhist canon. The designation followed the conception of ethnography as the scriptures or texts are generated. Each collection is comprised with three basic categories, that is, sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma including various explication literatures. The commentaries, sub-commentaries, and explication works particularly composed by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhist scholars are specifically termed as “treatises”.

The scriptures and treatises contained in the Taishō Tripiṭaka are mostly depend on Chinese Buddhist Canon which have been gathered since the Jin Dynasty, particular the Zhifu version of the Song Dynasty, the Puning version of the Yuan Dynasty, the Jiaxing version of the Ming Dynasty, and the Tripiṭaka Koreana edition as important sources, but the classification of categories on the Taishō edition has been rearranged and is distinctive from all previous versions. There was no style of classifications as Mahayana category and Hinayana category as appeared in early Chinese Buddhist Canon anymore. No any previous Chinese version can reflected as the base for reference in the new arrangement. It is, therefore, accounted as the new and unique style of the Taishō Tripiṭaka edition.

The Taishō Tripiṭaka has revealed the new belief and paradigm changed from the five periods of Tiantai school’s teachings. It is mostly depend on the chronicle order which maybe trace back through the historical evidence of Indian Buddhism. An approach of new education at the beginning of the twentieth century has been adopted and influenced on the new sets of religious value as shown in the Taishō Tripiṭaka.