Tripitaka Koreana

History

Work on the first Tripiṭaka Koreana began in 1011 during the Goryeo–Khitan War and was completed in 1087. Choi's Goryeo Military Regime, which moved the capital to Ganghwa Island due to Mongol invasions, set up a temporary organization called "Daejang Dogam".

The act of carving the woodblocks was considered to be a way of bringing about a change in fortune by invoking the Buddha's help. The first Tripiṭaka Koreana was based primarily on the Kaibao Canon completed in the 10th century, but other scriptures published until then, such as the Khitan Tripiṭaka, were also consulted in order to identify items in need of revision and adjustment. The first Tripiṭaka Koreana contained around 6,000 volumes.

The original set of woodblocks was destroyed by fire during the Mongol invasions of Korea in 1232, when Goryeo's capital was moved to Ganghwa Island during nearly three decades of Mongol incursions, although scattered parts of its prints still remain. To once again implore divine assistance with combating the Mongol threat, King Gojong thereafter ordered the revision and re-creation of the Tripiṭaka; the carving began in 1237 and was completed in 12 years, with support from Ch'oe U and his son Ch'oe Hang, and involving monks from both the Seon and Gyo schools. This second version is usually what is meant by the Tripiṭaka Koreana. In 1398, it was moved to Haeinsa, where it has remained housed in four buildings.

The production of the Tripiṭaka Koreana was an enormous national commitment of money and manpower, according to Robert Buswell Jr., perhaps comparable to the US 1960s Apollo program Moon landings. Thousands of scholars and craftsmen were employed in this massive project.

Evaluation and significance

The Tripiṭaka Koreana is the 32nd National Treasure of South Korea, and Haeinsa, the depository for the Tripiṭaka Koreana, has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UNESCO committee describes the Tripiṭaka Koreana as "one of the most important and most complete corpus of Buddhist doctrinal texts in the world". Not only is the work invaluable, it is also aesthetically valuable and shows a high quality of workmanship. Currently, the Palman Daejanggyeong is one of the three woodblocks in the world that are registered on UNESCO.

The Tripiṭaka Koreana is stored in Haeinsa temple. While most of the wood blocks have remained in pristine condition for more than 750 years, a few were damaged when a new depository was built in the early 1970s (by the Park Chung Hee regime) and few blocks were transplanted to the new building on a trial basis. Those blocks were damaged almost immediately. They were subsequently moved back to their initial spots and the new building was shut down. That building is now the 'Zen Center'. Currently there are ongoing debates as to the quality of the current storage area.

The historical value of the Tripiṭaka Koreana comes in part from the fact it is comprehensive: it is used as a compilation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon. It is a popular misconception that the Tripitaka Koreana does not contain a single error; a survey found that the text does indeed have missing characters and errors. The compilers of the Korean version incorporated older Northern Song Chinese, Khitan, and Goryeo versions, and added content written by respected Korean monks. Contemporary scholars are able to conduct research about the older Chinese and Khitan versions of the Tripiṭaka using the Korean version. The quality of the wood blocks is attributed to the National Preceptor Sugi, the Buddhist monk in charge of the project, who carefully checked the Korean version for errors. Upon completing the Tripiṭaka Koreana, Sugi published 30 volumes of Additional Records which recorded errors, redundancies, and omissions he found during his comparisons of the different versions of the Tripiṭaka. Because of the relative completion of the Korea edition of the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka, the Japanese Taisho edition of the Tripiṭaka was said also to have been based on the Korean edition. Some of the Tripiṭaka Koreana's texts were even used in the Chinese edition of Zhonghua dazangjing which was based on the Jin edition which in turn was a sister edition sent to Korea.

The Tripiṭaka Koreana was one of the most coveted items among Japanese Buddhists in the Edo period. Japan never managed to create a woodblock Tripiṭaka, and made constant requests and attempts to acquire the Tripiṭaka Koreana from Korea since 1388. 45 complete printings of the Tripiṭaka Koreana were gifted to Japan since the Muromachi period. The Tripiṭaka Koreana was used as the basis for the modern Japanese Taishō Tripiṭaka.

Each block was made of birch wood from the southern islands of Korea and treated to prevent the decay of the wood. The blocks were soaked in sea water for three years, then cut and boiled in salt water. Next, the blocks were placed in the shade and exposed to the wind for three years, at which point they were ready to be carved. After each block was carved, it was coated in a poisonous lacquer to keep insects away and then framed with metal to prevent warping.

Every block was inscribed with 23 lines of text with 14 characters per line. Therefore, each block, counting both sides, contained a total of 644 characters. The consistency of the style - and some external sources - led people to believe that a single man carved the entire collection, but it is now estimated that a team of 30 men carved the Tripiṭaka.

Digitization

As of 2024, the Cultural Heritage Administration expects to have digitization files publicly available by 2027.

Modern edition

The modern edition has 1514 texts in 47 volumes.

Cited works

• Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S., eds. (2010). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-49875-0.
• Turnbull, Stephen (2003). Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests 1190–1400. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-523-6.