Entrance Through the Scriptures: Catalogues and Electronic Text as a New Gate to the Buddhist Tradition

傳統中國佛教從一開始，為了掌握浩瀚龐大的佛陀教導，佛經的編目和記錄便是很重要的活動。筆者在此篇文章中將陳述線上漢文佛教文獻資料庫（http:www.kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~wittern/canwww）的歷史，它的目的同樣是為了掌握經典，不同的只是使用了電子媒介。本文的主題將是此資料庫在十年持續發展中所遭遇的問題，格式、方法原則與外觀呈現的各種變化，資料庫目前的狀態與未來展望。此篇文章依下列問題陳述：1. 漢傳經典由什麼組成？2. 我們是如何處理「同一」經典的不同譯本？3. 這些譯本與源於印度或中亞的「原典」有何關連？這篇文章超越傳統學術論文的部份，而去嘗試結合經典目錄與全文電子版，進而增進我們對於經典以及當時時代背景與人物的了解。

關鍵字

佛教藏經；目錄；文獻資料庫；模型；主題圖

並列摘要

Almost from the beginning of the Buddhist tradition in China, cataloguing and recording of the scriptures has been an important activity in the attempt of coming to terms with the vast universe of the Buddhist teachings. In this paper, I will recount the history of the WWW Database of Chinese Buddhist texts (available at http://www.kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~wittern/canwww), which was started with a similar purpose to make use of the electronic medium to get a handle on and a window to explore the scriptures. The problems that have been encountered during the ten years of its ongoing development, the many changes in format, methodology and outlook, its present state, as well as prospects for future development will be the main topic of this paper. This narrative will be framed by the underlying questions of what constitutes a scripture in the Chinese cultural sphere, how different translations of the ＂same＂ scriptures are to be treated and how they relate to the ＂original＂ of Indian or Central Asian origin. This paper will however go beyond what a traditional scholarly paper is supposed to do and experiment with how a new electronic version of the scriptural catalogues, together with electronic versions of the texts themselves, can be combined to enhance our understanding of the scriptures and the times and people that produced.