The compilation of the Tripitaka Sutra began shortly after Sakyamuni's Nirvana. In order to preserve his preaching and unify the views and understandings of believers, the disciples gathered together through meetings to form universally recognized scriptures, laws and theories. Later, "Tibetan classics", such as annotations and interpretations of scriptures, laws and theories, were added, which became the four voluminous categories. After the split of primitive Buddhism, most of the major sects have compiled their own Tibetan scriptures according to their own views, but only the three Tibetan scriptures of the Xanadu Division have been preserved relatively completely, and the classics of other sects have basically been lost except for a part in the Chinese translation. Only a few scattered palm leaf or paper versions of the early Sanskrit scriptures still exist today, and it is difficult to see the whole leopard in all three Tibetan scriptures.
The term "Tripitaka Sutra" was not recorded in ancient India or China at the earliest stage. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties of China, there were only titles such as "All Tripitaka Sutra" and "All Tripitaka Sutra". It began to be called "Tripitaka Sutra" after the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, it mainly referred to all the classics compiled by the imperial court. The first Buddhist Tripitaka in China is the Tripitaka of Kaibao, which was first carved in the fourth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty. This engraving is generally called "Shu engraving" because it was carved in Yizhou; Because it was carved by the imperial court, it is also called the "official edition of the Northern Song Dynasty". It is the ancestor of the ancient Chinese carved Tripitaka Sutra, and has a profound impact on the ancient carved Tripitaka Jincang and Koryo Zang after the Northern Song Dynasty. Under the influence of the Chinese Tripitaka, later there were Tibetan, Mongolian and Manchu versions of the Tripitaka.
The contents of the Tripitaka include the scriptures, laws and theories. "Sutra", which means "classic", is a compilation of what Buddha said in his life. It is the basic basis of Buddhist doctrine. It is based on the principles of all Buddhas and the opportunities of all living beings. The essentials of Buddha's teachings belong to the category of sutras. The "law" is the discipline system formulated by the Buddha, which can cure the evil of all living beings and subdue the mind of all living beings. The rules formulated by Sakyamuni Buddha for the life of the Buddhist religious group belong to the law category. "Theory" is the explanation or elaboration of important ideas in Buddhist classics such as sutras and laws. In Buddhism, it is generally considered to be done by Bodhisattvas or scholars of various schools.
The existing Tripitaka can be divided into seven systems according to the different characters: Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu, Xixia, Japanese and Pali. In addition, there were also carved Tibetan scriptures in Khitan.
Tibetan Sutra in Chinese: It is a collection of Buddhist classics of both Great and Small Buddhism. For more than a thousand years since Buddhism was introduced into the mainland of China, there have been nearly 50 kinds of Buddhist scriptures alone, and there are still more than 20 kinds of Buddhist scriptures, with different numbers of Buddhist scriptures included. The form and content of the Tripitaka compiled in different times are different from each other. Except for the Fangshan Stone Sutra, books before the Song Dynasty were basically scroll bound. The first woodcut Chinese Tripitaka began in the fourth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (971),
The Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty ordered the high quality Zhang Congxin to go to Yizhou (Chengdu, Sichuan) to plan to carve it. After 12 years, it was all carved in the eighth year of Taiping and Xingguo (983) of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty and transported to Bianjing. Since it was first carved in the Northern Song Dynasty when Kaibao was opened, later generations called it Kaibao. Kaibaozang is the ancestor of the common basis of the private engraving in Fujian and Zhejiang, the Liao engraving, the gold engraving, and the Korean engraving of all editions of Tibet in the Song Dynasty. The compilation of the later Tripitaka has a close relationship with it, so Kaibaozang is called the ancestor of the Chinese Tripitaka. It is worth mentioning that since the "Kaibao Sutra", the Chinese people first created a catalog system in the order of "thousand words", and then several large-scale books in our country continued to be catalogued. Since then, Tibetan scripture printing has emerged in succession. In the Song Dynasty, there were Qidan Tibetan in Liao Dynasty, gold Tibetan in Jin Dynasty, Wanshou Tibetan and Pilu Tibetan in Fuzhou, Yuanjue Tibetan, Zifu Tibetan and Qisha Tibetan in Huzhou (Zhejiang). The Yuan Dynasty printed Tibetan scriptures according to the Song version, including Puning Tibetan scriptures and Hongfa Tibetan scriptures. However, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and the Tibetan scriptures were burned out. During the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty in Hongwu, great virtues were gathered in Jiangshan, Tibetan scriptures were collated, and South Tibetan scriptures were engraved. However, the collation was not precise, and there were mistakes from time to time. In addition to South Tibet, there are also North Tibet, Lengyan Temple and Baoen Temple editions. From the 13th year of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty to the 3rd year of Emperor Qianlong of Emperor Gaozong (1735-1738), the north Tibet was taken as the base, and new books were added to print and carve Longcang. In addition, there are also Pinka Tibetan, Baina Tibetan, the Chinese Tripitaka in 1956, and the Buddha Light Tripitaka in 1983. A total of 20 kinds of woodcut and typeset Tripitaka have been published.
With the spread of Buddhism from China to Korea and Japan, the Korean and Japanese imperial dynasties copied, engraved or printed the Tripitaka in Chinese. The first edition of "Kaibaocang" was introduced to Japan in the first year of Song Yongxi (984), and to Korea in Duangong (988-989). In the first year of Qianxing (1022) and the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), the Tianxi Revision and Xining Revision were introduced to Khitan and Korea respectively. In the ninth year of Qingning in the Liao Dynasty (1063), Khitan also sent the newly carved copies of "Khitan Collection" to Korea.
Tibetan Tripitaka: At the beginning of the 9th century, more than 700 books were translated, some of which were translated from the Chinese version. In the later Hongqi period, most of the sutras were about scriptures and supreme yoga. The whole Tibet is divided into three categories: Ganjul, Tanjul and Songteng; Ganjul, also known as Zhengzang, includes three parts: law, scripture and secret mantra; Danjul, also known as the continuation of Tibet, includes three parts: praise, sutra and mantra; Loose and taut means miscellaneous collection, which is included in relevant works of Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists. From the second year of Emperor Qing of the Yuan Dynasty (1313) to the 22nd year of the Republic of China (1933), 11 different versions of Tibetan Tripitaka were carved in different places. In addition, there are two kinds of books: Prakaben, which is carved in Bhutan, and Kuremben, which is carved in Ulaanbaatar, the current Mongolian People's Republic.
Mongolian Tripitaka: There have been four times of translation and engraving. The first time was during the Dade period of the Yuan Dynasty (1297-1307), under the auspices of the Sakya Lama Faguang, Tibetan, Mongolian, Uighur and Han monks translated Tibetan Tripitaka into Mongolian, and carved and printed it in Tibet; During the reign of Wanli (1573-1620) in the Ming Dynasty, some classics were added to the publication; Chongzhen (1628-1644) published the old edition in the early years. In the 22nd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1683), Prince Fuquan of Heshuoyu supervised the repair and re engraved Ganjul; From the sixth to the fourteenth year of Qianlong's reign (1741-1749), Danjul was proofread, translated and engraved again, which was just complete.
Manchu Tripitaka: In the 38th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1773), it was compiled and translated according to the Chinese Tripitaka. In the 55th year of Qianlong's reign, 108 letters were compiled and engraved, which only included 699 kinds of scriptures and mantras of Prajna, Baoji, Daji, Huayan, Nirvana, other Mahayana and Theravada sutras, and Secret Ministry sutras.
Tibetan scriptures in Xixia: Originally translated from the Chinese Tripitaka. In the first year of Song Jingyou (1034), the Kaibaozang was spread to the Western Xia Dynasty (probably the Tianxi revision of Kaibaozang). Zhao Yuanhao, the founding monarch of the Western Xia Dynasty, built a Gaotai Temple in Xingqing Mansion for collection, and summoned Uighur monks to translate it into the newly created Western Xia language. It took 53 years to complete the translation, with a total of 362 volumes, 812 volumes and 3579 volumes. In the seventh year of the Zhiyuan era (1270) of the Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, the Western Xia Monk and his party presided over the re collation and translation of the untranslated scriptures, and printed the Tripitaka Sutra. In the thirtieth year of the Zhiyuan era (1276), the Emperor Shizu's edict to the chief monk told more than 20 people in Shamenhui Middle School that they were responsible for sending the old scriptures of the Western Xia Dynasty to Hangzhou for printing. By the sixth year of Dade era (1302), more than 140 collections had been printed, but most of them were damaged and no remains. At present, there are only dozens of fragments of scriptures found in various places.
Japanese Tripitaka: In addition to the above-mentioned versions of Chinese Tibetan scriptures, Japan has been translating Chinese Buddhist scriptures into Japanese since the sixth year of Dazheng (1917). So far, there are "National Translation of Tibetan scriptures" published by the National Library, "Zhaohe New National Translation of Tibetan scriptures" published by the Oriental Academy, and "National Translation of All Classics" published by the Dadong Publishing House. In addition, it was translated into the Tripitaka Sutra of the Southern Transmission according to the three Tibetans of the Pali system.
Pali Tibetan Sutra: Three Tibetan classics for the Theravada Division of Southern Buddhism. It spreads in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and the Dai area in Yunnan Province of China. It is a Pali Buddhist scripture transliterated with different characters and letters. In addition to Sinhalese, Burmese, Thai, Khmer and Laotian, there are four different versions of Dai dialects. In modern times, there are three versions of Sanskrit, Latin alphabet and Japanese.
