Defining the Chinese Buddhist Canon: Its Origin, Periodization, and Future

本文由中國大藏經研究的著名學者撰寫，詳述了中國佛教史中大藏經的演變。方廣錩教授透過對漢文大藏經研究中的一些根本問題反思，提供了一個關於漢文大藏經歷史的全景考察。作者首先釐清了大藏經的名稱和來源，並提出了一個關於大藏經的定義以利進一步研究。本文還將大藏經的歷史進行了如下分期：寫本時期、刻本時期、近代刻本時期，以及數碼化時期，作者對每個時期大藏經的特點進行了具體分析，並指出了今後的研究方向。

關鍵字

漢文大藏經；敦煌寫本；分期；印刷史；數字化

並列摘要

This article is written by an eminent Chinese author of the Chinese canon and provides the author's insights on how to understand the history of the canon in relation to Chinese Buddhism. Fang discusses the issues of historical periodization of the canon in history and various possibilities for the future development of the canon. This paper examines the history of the Chinese Buddhist canon by reflecting upon various essential issues. Fang first clarifies the origin of various name of the canon and proposes a working definition for the study of the canon. He also provides a periodization scheme of the canon and divides the history of the canon into the period of manuscript editions, the period of printed editions, the period of printed editions in modern times, and the period of digital editions. The author provides a detailed analysis of the characteristics of the canon during different periods and also makes suggestions for future studies.