Table of Contents

Preface, by Lewis Lancaster
Acknowledgments
Conventions
Introduction, by Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia
Part I: Overview
1. The Chinese Buddhist Canon Through the Ages: Essential Categories and Critical Issues in the Study of a Textual Tradition, by Jiang Wu
2. From the "Cult of the Book" to the "Cult of the Canon": A Neglected Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, by Jiang Wu
Part II: The Formative Period
3. Notions and Visions of the Canon in Early Chinese Buddhism, by Stefano Zacchetti
4. Fei Changfang's Lidai sanbao ji and Its Role in the Formation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Tanya Storch
Part III: The Advent of Printing
5. The Birth of the First Printed Canon: The Kaibao Edition and Its Impact, by Jiang Wu, Lucille Chia, and Chen Zhichao
6. The Life and Afterlife of Qisha Canon, by Lucille Chia
7. Managing the Dharma Treasure: Collation, Carving, Printing, and Distribution of the Canon in Late Imperial China, by Darui Long
Part IV: The Canon Beyond China
8. Better Than the Original: The Creation of Goryeo Canon and the Formation of Giyang Pulgyo, by Jiang Wu and Ron Dziwenka
9. Taisho Canon: Devotion, Scholarship, and Nationalism in the Creation of the Modern Buddhist Canon in Japan, by Greg Wilkinson
Appendix 1. A Brief Survey of the Printed Editions of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Li Fuhua and He Mei
Appendix 2. The Creation of the CBETA Electronic Tripitaka Collection in Taiwan, by Aming Tu
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index

About the Author

Jiang Wu is professor of Chinese religion and thought in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. His research interests include Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan/Zen Buddhism and the Chinese Buddhist canon; Sino-Japanese Buddhist exchanges; and the application of GIS tools in the study of Chinese culture and religion. He is the author of Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China and Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia.

Lucille Chia is professor of history at the University of California at Riverside. Her research interests include Chinese book culture, most recently the history of Buddhist publishing in imperial China. She is the author of Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th Centuries) (2003) and coeditor of Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900–1400 (2011).

Reviews

Bringing together leading specialists in the Chinese Buddhist canon, Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the textual and the social history of one of the most impressive textual projects in the history of the world.
*John Kieschnick, Stanford University*

The Sinitic Buddhist canons rank among the largest bodies of sacred literature ever produced by any religious tradition. The compilation, editing, and publication of these massive collections required a commitment of money and manpower that was the medieval equivalent of the moon landings of the 1960s. This groundbreaking volume gives these canons the sustained attention they have long deserved from the scholarly community and will help to demonstrate that they are among the preeminent cultural achievements of the wider Sinitic world.
*Robert E. Buswell Jr., University of California, Los Angeles*

One measure of the maturity of a discipline is its critical awareness of its sources. This collection of nine expert and groundbreaking essays on the Chinese Buddhist canon, augmented by a magisterial preface by a doyen of the field and two eminently useful bibliographical appendices, marks a genuine advance in the study of Chinese Buddhism. Now, with the appearance of this quite essential book, students of Buddhism in China have a reliable map and a guide to what is arguably the largest single collection of authoritative texts of any of the world's great religions. All who study Chinese Buddhism must keep this book handy as they pursue their research into scholarly territory now more clearly mapped.
*Robert M. Gimello, University of Notre Dame*

Intellectually sound, informative and well written... [Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia] introduce[s] readers to the political, economic, social, and religious complexities involved in the creation and dissemination of one of the world's largest repositories of sacred literature.... Highly recommended.
*Choice*

A much-needed English-language survey of the dynamic socio-historical forces at play in the creation of the many different editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon. . . . I commend the authors and editors of Spreading Buddha’s Word in East Asia for this excellent work which opens the study and teaching of Buddhist literature in English to many greater possibilities.
*Journal of Chinese History*

The editors should be commended for bringing together these essays and shedding light on this important and neglected topic of Buddhist study.
*Journal of the American Academy of Religion*

This volume on the Chinese Buddhist canon is, simply put, essential reading for anyone concerned with the study of East Asian Buddhism.
*China Review International*

The well-rounded and well-edited collection of essays provides an excellent overview of the historical development of the Buddhist canon in East Asia without sacrificing depth; it will be welcomed by all students and scholars interested in the textual heritage of Buddhism.
*Journal of Chinese Religions*

A significant contribution.... The volume importantly encourages scholars to continue fusing together multiple disciplines.
*H-Buddhism*

An outstanding edited volume examining the origins of the Chinese Buddhist canon.
*Monumenta Serica*

A clear and helpful overview for anyone interested in studying Chinese Buddhism, or, indeed, the history of religion and of writing more generally.
*Chaleur Bay Review Review of Books*