The Private Collections of the Printed Chinese Buddhist Canons in Yunnan: From the 10th–17th Centuries
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1.In Section 3.3 “Jiaxing Canon”, the phrase “A frontispiece is found in the beginning. A colophon of seven Chinese characters reads: Jingshan Huacheng Heng rui Zi 徑山化城恒瑞梓” should be revised to “A frontispiece woodblock print is found in the beginning…” to clarify the medium. A corresponding image should also be added to support the description.
2.The article includes relatively few references to English-language scholarship and should be supplemented accordingly. For example:
•In Section 2, please refer to Wu, Jiang, and Lucille Chia, eds. Spreading Buddha’s Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon (2015).
•In Section 3.1, when discussing the Qisha Canon, please refer to:
Li, Zhouyuan. “Unveiling the Sacred Journey: The Birth of a Woodblock-Printed Buddhist Canon in the Great Hangzhou Region of the Southern Song Dynasty.” Religions 14, no. 9 (2023).
•In Section 3.2, when discussing Buddhist illustrations, please refer to Shih-shan Susan Huang’s The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture: Mapping Buddhist Book Roads in China and Its Neighbors (2024), especially her discussion on woodblock prints.
3.Please supplement the Chinese references with the following important works. When citing Chinese-language materials, please provide both the original Chinese and English translations of the bibliographic entries:
•张敬霞：《二十世纪以来<嘉兴藏>研究综述》（2024）Zhang Jingxia. “A Research Overview of the Jiaxing Canon since the 20th Century.” (2024)
•李际宁：《佛教大藏经的雕刻、印刷、流通制度》（2023）Li Jining. The Carving, Printing, and Distribution System of the Buddhist Canon. (2023)
•李周渊：《<碛砂藏>研究百年综述》（2021）Li Zhouyuan. “A Century of Research on the Qisha Canon.” (2021)
Author Response
Thank you for your revision of this article. It has been revised and brieflyexplained according to your revision. Please check it out.
- In Section 3.3 “Jiaxing Canon”, the phrase “A frontispiece is found in the beginning. A colophon of seven Chinese characters reads: Jingshan Huacheng Heng rui Zi 徑山化城恒瑞梓”should be revised to “A frontispiece woodblock print is found in the beginning…” to clarify the medium. A corresponding image should also be added to support the description.
Response 1: Thank you for pointing this out. I agree with this comment. Therefore I supple a corresponding image.
2.The article includes relatively few references to English-language scholarship and should be supplemented accordingly. For example:
- In Section 2, please refer to Wu, Jiang, and Lucille Chia, eds. Spreading Buddha’s Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon(2015).
- In Section 3.1, when discussing the Qisha Canon, please refer to:
Li, Zhouyuan. “Unveiling the Sacred Journey: The Birth of a Woodblock-Printed Buddhist Canon in the Great Hangzhou Region of the Southern Song Dynasty.” Religions 14, no. 9 (2023).
- In Section 3.2, when discussing Buddhist illustrations, please refer to Shih-shan Susan Huang’s The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture: Mapping Buddhist Book Roads in China and Its Neighbors(2024), especially her discussion on woodblock prints.
Response 2:Agree. I have, accordingly, done to emphasize this point.
3.Please supplement the Chinese references with the following important works. When citing Chinese-language materials, please provide both the original Chinese and English translations of the bibliographic entries:
- 张敬霞：《二十世纪以来<嘉兴藏>研究综述》（2024）Zhang Jingxia. “A Research Overview of the Jiaxing Canon since the 20th Century.” (2024)
- 李际宁：《佛教大藏经的雕刻、印刷、流通制度》（2023）Li Jining. The Carving, Printing, and Distribution System of the Buddhist Canon.(2023)
- 李周渊：《<碛砂藏>研究百年综述》（2021）Li Zhouyuan. “A Century of Research on the Qisha Canon.” (2021)
Response3:I have added the Chinese, English and Japanese papers you mentioned in the references, and added some other papers.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis essay shows much promise. This reviewer is not aware of any study published in English regarding the existence of volumes of Buddhist scriptures from Chinese Buddhist canons held in private collections in Yunnan Province. However, the very title is somewhat misleading. The essay is not really about “Private Collections of Chinese Buddhist Canons.” It is really a study on the existence of a few selected volumes that were originally part of Chinese Buddhist Canons that, from existing colophons, suggest the whole “Buddhist canon” was originally imported to Yunnan Province. The existence of these volumes (accordion books and threaded volumes) in private collections in Yunnan in important and instructive, but these are not complete Chinese Buddhist Canons.
General Significance
The closing lines of the abstract (lines 36-37) and the conclusion of the paper (lines 602-663) do not match. The significance of this study needs to be more than: “The study of these extant volumes of CBC may enrich people’s knowledge of CBC in Yunnan province” (lines 36-37). In addition, in the conclusion, the author emphasizes the role of Chan masters and Buddhist communities (lines 623-630). Considering Chan rhetoric regarding Buddhist scriptures, the author should explain why Chan masters would be so interested in Chinese Buddhist canons? Hence, the larger significance of this study needs to be articulated more clearly.
General Stylistic Issues
The essay needs to be vetted for consistency and English language usage. The author is not consistent in his or her transliteration of Chinese proper nouns, including names, places, and book titles. Sometimes transliteration of sinographs is provided and sometimes not. Articles (a, an, the) are often missing and should be added so that the paper reads for fluently in English. In addition, there are many strange and awkward expressions or phrases.
This reviewer has also marked up a pdf copy of the paper for the author to view with these and other suggestions.
Specific issues:
Line 53: “other skilled use of Chinese phenomenon” => this is awkward and needs clarification. Does the author mean the use of Chinese cultural technology, such as writing and printing?
Line 59: Tubo regime => Tubo (Tibetan) regime
Lines 73-74: “the indigenous peoples of Yunnan region have long been making efforts to create locality” => What does the author mean? This is awkward and unclear.
Line 77: Zen 禅宗 teachings => Chan 禅 teachings
Line 114: Chinese language CBC => Chinese Buddhist canon in literary Chinese or literary Sinitic
Lines 125-135: the English translation and the Chinese underneath don’t match. There seems to be some Chinese missing.
Line 191-192: “The total number of Great Canon of Buddhism” => is “Great Canon of Buddhism” an attempted translation of 大藏經? This is not clear.
For the Jiaxing Canon, they use the term zhengzang 正藏 for the main canon of scripture. There were separate supplements as well.
Line 141 and passim: works => by this you mean “book titles” (部)
Line 156 – 162: unit ???? => What does the author mean by “unit” ? 3 units of Qisha Canon? Etc. The author needs a better word that is more clear. Perhaps he or she can get help from the special editor of this volume because Wu Jiang’s specialty is the study of canons.
Line 196–204: Jiaxing Canon: There is something missing in the author’s discussion of the Jiaxing Canon. This reviewer would summarize its publication history as follows:
The Jiaxing Canon 嘉興藏, also known as the Wanli Canon萬曆藏or the Jingshan Canon 徑山藏, was compiled over a 120-year period from 1589 in the late Ming period to 1712 in the reign of the Kangxi 康熙 Emperor of the Qing dynasty. The Jiaxing Canon may be divided into such editions as the Lengyansi edition 楞嚴寺版, Wanli Canon 萬曆藏, Mizang edition 密藏本, and the Jingshan edition 徑山版. The Ming-dynasty monk Mizang Daokai 密藏道開 (fl. 1560–1595) promoted its publication by means of a vow; and Daokai, along with the monk Huanyu 幻豫 (fl. late sixteenth century), initially had woodblocks engraved at Miaode Hermitage 妙德庵 on Mt. Wutai in 1589. Work on this canon progressed at several places over many years; but eventually all the woodblocks were gathered together at Lengyansi in Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province. In 1620, the “main canon” (zhengjing 正經) was published comprising 1192 titles 部 in 210 cases 函. In 1666, the “supplementary canon” (xuzangjing 續藏經) was printed as an addendum with 237 titles in 90 cases; and in 1677, it was supplemented again with a further supplementary canon (yuxuzang 又續藏) of 189 titles in 43 cases. This is the core of the Jiaxing Canon. In total, 2,195 titles in 10,332 volumes. The Jiaxing Canon is the most massive and voluminous of Chinese Buddhist canons. See Nakajima Ryūzō 中嶋隆藏, Minbanreki kakōzō no shuppan to sono eikyō 明萬暦嘉興蔵の出版とその影響 [The publication of the Jiaxing Canon in the Wanli reign period of the Ming dynasty and its influence] (Tokyo: Tōhoku Daigaku Daigakuen 東北大学大学院, 2005).
Line 207-208: “As the images of the CBC in the Yunnan public collections have not been made available…” What does the author mean by “images”? Does he/she mean PDF files? Illustrations?
Line 210: “image information” => what is meant by this?
Lines 232 and passim: “volume”. If the Jiaxing Canon was the first canon bound by thread in book-like (codex-like) volumes, were other “canons” were in scroll, roll, or fascicle form? The images later seem to show that these are accordion books.
Lines 78, 264: Esoteric vs. Tantric. Tantric and Esoteric Buddhism are not necessarily the same thing. “Esoteric Buddhism” is conventionally used for East Asian traditions and “Tantric Buddhism” is used for Indian, Tibetan, and Mongolian traditions that have tantras as their sacred texts. The main reason is that there are no texts called “tantras” in East Asian Buddhism.
The author may wish to consult the following:
Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen, Richard K. Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011. See pp. 487–497, passim, for material dealing with the Nanzhao kingdom.
Line 385: Abhidharma Vibasha Sūtra => it is not a sutra, it is a śāstra or treatise (lun). It should be Abhidharmavibāṣā or Abhidharmavibāṣā-śāstra, although the tradition just calls it the Vibāṣā
Line 387 and 670: Yuan Ning Zhai and Yuanningzhai respectively. It needs to be consistent. Yuanning zhai
Line 442: Dao’an He and Yanba and others => Is Dao’an He one name or two?
Line 504: Jinsha Gu Long Mountain => is this a monastery or mountain, Mt. Gulong in Jinsha?
Line 512: “requested printing this set of .” => something is missing and it needs a citation.
Line 526: Bodhisattvavamālā-sūtra => this sūtra is apocryphal. There is no Sanskrit text. It is known in Western scholarship as the Sūtra on the Original Acts that Serve as Adornments for the Bodhisattva (Pusa yingluo benye jing 菩薩瓔珞本業經, T 1485). Is this the text intended here?
Lines 531-532: “to keep the CBC, Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma …” => would it not be better for the translation to read the “to keep the Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma of the Buddhist Canon”. This is because a dazangjing 大藏經 is more than a sanzang 三藏; the sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma and much more are part of a dazangjing (a Buddhist canon or great library of scriptures).
Line 584：Jingangbanruoboluimijing => Jingang bore boluomi jing
Line 589: Longguang biqiu Zongshang => the Bhikṣu (monk) Zongshang of Longguang Monastery
Line 613: unit of the Qisha Canon => same as above: what is a “unit”?
Line 689: Lichunlong => Li Chunlong
Line 696: Yangjie => Yang Jie
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
The English needs professional vetting. This reviewer has marked some places where missing articles (a, an, the) should be added. But there are other odd expressions that need work. See the attached file.
Author Response
My reply to the review opinion is expressed in bold letters.
First，thank you for your revision of this article. It has been revised and brieflyexplained according to your revision. Please check it out. In addition, I added a picture, and added some research papers and monographs in English, Japanese and Chinese to the references.In addition,I have commissioned the journal recommendation language modification agency to make a professional language revision and polish of this article.
This essay shows much promise. This reviewer is not aware of any study published in English regarding the existence of volumes of Buddhist scriptures from Chinese Buddhist canons held in private collections in Yunnan Province. However, the very title is somewhat misleading. The essay is not really about “Private Collections of Chinese Buddhist Canons.” It is really a study on the existence of a few selected volumes that were originally part of Chinese Buddhist Canons that, from existing colophons, suggest the whole “Buddhist canon” was originally imported to Yunnan Province. The existence of these volumes (accordion books and threaded volumes) in private collections in Yunnan in important and instructive, but these are not complete Chinese Buddhist Canons.
Response :Thank you.Your suggestion is very correct.I modified the title to” A Preliminary Study on Fragmentary Fascicles of the Private Collections of Chinese Buddhist Canon Constructed in the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties (960-1644) Kept in Yunnan Province”.
General Significance
The closing lines of the abstract (lines 36-37) and the conclusion of the paper (lines 602-663) do not match. The significance of this study needs to be more than: “The study of these extant volumes of CBC may enrich people’s knowledge of CBC in Yunnan province” (lines 36-37). In addition, in the conclusion, the author emphasizes the role of Chan masters and Buddhist communities (lines 623-630). Considering Chan rhetoric regarding Buddhist scriptures, the author should explain why Chan masters would be so interested in Chinese Buddhist canons? Hence, the larger significance of this study needs to be articulated more clearly.
Response :Thank you for pointing this out. I agree with this comment. Therefore I revised the content in the abstract of the paper and added an exposition(Line 616-625),and added a note on the relationship between Yunnan Zen Buddhism and Jiaxing canon in the text.
General Stylistic Issues
The essay needs to be vetted for consistency and English language usage. The author is not consistent in his or her transliteration of Chinese proper nouns, including names, places, and book titles. Sometimes transliteration of sinographs is provided and sometimes not. Articles (a, an, the) are often missing and should be added so that the paper reads for fluently in English. In addition, there are many strange and awkward expressions or phrases.
This reviewer has also marked up a pdf copy of the paper for the author to view with these and other suggestions.
Response :Thank you very much for your detailed revision of the paper below. I have downloaded the pdf and modified it as per your comments.
Specific issues:
Line 53: “other skilled use of Chinese phenomenon” => this is awkward and needs clarification. Does the author mean the use of Chinese cultural technology, such as writing and printing?
Response :I have changed the word “Chinese “ to “Chinese rhetorical devices “
Line 59: Tubo regime => Tubo (Tibetan) regime
Response :I have modified it according to your comments
Lines 73-74: “the indigenous peoples of Yunnan region have long been making efforts to create locality” => What does the author mean? This is awkward and unclear.
Response :I have modified it “regional cultural characteristics”.
Line 77: Zen 禅宗 teachings => Chan 禅 teachings
Response :I have modified it according to your comments
Line 114: Chinese language CBC => Chinese Buddhist canon in literary Chinese or literary Sinitic
Response :I have modified it according to your comments
Lines 125-135: the English translation and the Chinese underneath don’t match. There seems to be some Chinese missing.
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.There is an extra translation, which has been deleted
Line 191-192: “The total number of Great Canon of Buddhism” => is “Great Canon of Buddhism” an attempted translation of 大藏經? This is not clear.
For the Jiaxing Canon, they use the term zhengzang 正藏 for the main canon of scripture. There were separate supplements as well.
Response :I have deleted it according to your comments
Line 141 and passim: works => by this you mean “book titles” (部)
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 156 – 162: unit ???? => What does the author mean by “unit” ? 3 units of Qisha Canon? Etc. The author needs a better word that is more clear. Perhaps he or she can get help from the special editor of this volume because Wu Jiang’s specialty is the study of canons.
Response :I consulted the scholars who study the Tripitaka,He suggested using”set”
Line 196–204: Jiaxing Canon: There is something missing in the author’s discussion of the Jiaxing Canon. This reviewer would summarize its publication history as follows
The Jiaxing Canon 嘉興藏, also known as the Wanli Canon萬曆藏or the Jingshan Canon 徑山藏, was compiled over a 120-year period from 1589 in the late Ming period to 1712 in the reign of the Kangxi 康熙 Emperor of the Qing dynasty. The Jiaxing Canon may be divided into such editions as the Lengyansi edition 楞嚴寺版, Wanli Canon 萬曆藏, Mizang edition 密藏本, and the Jingshan edition 徑山版. The Ming-dynasty monk Mizang Daokai 密藏道開 (fl. 1560–1595) promoted its publication by means of a vow; and Daokai, along with the monk Huanyu 幻豫 (fl. late sixteenth century), initially had woodblocks engraved at Miaode Hermitage 妙德庵 on Mt. Wutai in 1589. Work on this canon progressed at several places over many years; but eventually all the woodblocks were gathered together at Lengyansi in Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province. In 1620, the “main canon” (zhengjing 正經) was published comprising 1192 titles 部 in 210 cases 函. In 1666, the “supplementary canon” (xuzangjing 續藏經) was printed as an addendum with 237 titles in 90 cases; and in 1677, it was supplemented again with a further supplementary canon (yuxuzang 又續藏) of 189 titles in 43 cases. This is the core of the Jiaxing Canon. In total, 2,195 titles in 10,332 volumes. The Jiaxing Canon is the most massive and voluminous of Chinese Buddhist canons. See Nakajima Ryūzō 中嶋隆藏, Minbanreki kakōzō no shuppan to sono eikyō 明萬暦嘉興蔵の出版とその影響 [The publication of the Jiaxing Canon in the Wanli reign period of the Ming dynasty and its influence] (Tokyo: Tōhoku Daigaku Daigakuen 東北大学大学院, 2005).
Response :I have fully adopted your suggestion about Jiaxing canon.
Line 207-208: “As the images of the CBC in the Yunnan public collections have not been made available…” What does the author mean by “images”? Does he/she mean PDF files? Illustrations?
Response :I have modified it to“scanned copies”
Line 210: “image information” => what is meant by this?
Response :I have modified it to“scanned copies”
Lines 232 and passim: “volume”. If the Jiaxing Canon was the first canon bound by thread in book-like (codex-like) volumes, were other “canons” were in scroll, roll, or fascicle form? The images later seem to show that these are accordion books.
Response :In the description of Jiaxing canon,I have modified the “volume” to “copy”.
Lines 78, 264: Esoteric vs. Tantric. Tantric and Esoteric Buddhism are not necessarily the same thing. “Esoteric Buddhism” is conventionally used for East Asian traditions and “Tantric Buddhism” is used for Indian, Tibetan, and Mongolian traditions that have tantras as their sacred texts. The main reason is that there are no texts called “tantras” in East Asian Buddhism.
The author may wish to consult the following:
Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen, Richard K. Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011. See pp. 487–497, passim, for material dealing with the Nanzhao kingdom.
Response :I agree with your opinion. Has included in the references your recommendation of Charles D. Orzech, the esoteric literature written by them. The esoteric buddhism in Dali area is esoteric buddhism, and no Tantric esoteric literature has been found. Therefore, the concept of “esoteric buddhism” is used in the paper.
Line 385: Abhidharma Vibasha Sūtra => it is not a sutra, it is a śāstra or treatise (lun). It should be Abhidharmavibāṣā or Abhidharmavibāṣā-śāstra, although the tradition just calls it the Vibāṣā
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 387 and 670: Yuan Ning Zhai and Yuanningzhai respectively. It needs to be consistent. Yuanning zhai
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 442: Dao’an He and Yanba and others => Is Dao’an He one name or two?
Response :Sorry,I wrote an extra word and it has been deleted.
Line 504: Jinsha Gu Long Mountain => is this a monastery or mountain, Mt. Gulong in Jinsha?
Response :Gu Longshan should be a mountain. This mountain is still secret in Jintan（jinsha）. It is still unclear through which institutions and individuals Gu Longshan participated in the publishing activities of Jiaxing canon at that time.The use of your term “Mt. Gulong in Jinsha” is adopted in the paper.
Line 512: “requested printing this set of .” => something is missing and it needs a citation.
Response :I have filled in what is missing.
Line 526: Bodhisattvavamālā-sūtra => this sūtra is apocryphal. There is no Sanskrit text. It is known in Western scholarship as the Sūtra on the Original Acts that Serve as Adornments for the Bodhisattva (Pusa yingluo benye jing 菩薩瓔珞本業經, T 1485). Is this the text intended here?
Response :Yes.I have deleted its Sanskrit name. I may have been misled by this book.:
Tong,wei童瑋 eds. 1997.Ershierzhong Dazangjing Tongjian二十二種大藏經通檢[Twenty-two Tripitaka Retrieval] .Bei Jing:Zhonhua shuju中華書局. page.460.
Lines 531-532: “to keep the CBC, Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma …” => would it not be better for the translation to read the “to keep the Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma of the Buddhist Canon”. This is because a dazangjing 大藏經 is more than a sanzang 三藏; the sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma and much more are part of a dazangjing (a Buddhist canon or great library of scriptures).
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 584：Jingangbanruoboluimijing => Jingang bore boluomi jing
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 589: Longguang biqiu Zongshang => the Bhikṣu (monk) Zongshang of Longguang Monastery
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 613: unit of the Qisha Canon => same as above: what is a “unit”?
Response :I have modified the “unite” to “set”.
Line 689: Lichunlong => Li Chunlong
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
Line 696: Yangjie => Yang Jie
Response :I have modified it according to your comments.
The English needs professional vetting. This reviewer has marked some places where missing articles (a, an, the) should be added. But there are other odd expressions that need work. See the attached file.
Response :I have commissioned the journal recommendation language modification agency to make a professional language revision and polish of this article.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article is well written and is a good piece in general. I didn't detect any major issue or problem to be fixed except perhaps some sections that would need a good editing. Nothing that the journal couldn't solve during the final editing.
Author Response
The article is well written and is a good piece in general. I didn't detect any major issue or problem to be fixed except perhaps some sections that would need a good editing. Nothing that the journal couldn't solve during the final editing.
Thank you for your input. I have adjusted the specific content of the paper and added some Japanese, English and Chinese references.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
