The time span of Dunhuang scripture writing lasted from the 4th century to 1 1 century. In the long years, many classics have become broken and need to be repaired before they can continue to be used. How did the ancients practice Buddhist scriptures? They didn't leave us detailed records. Fortunately, there are some materials in Dunhuang literature, most of which are related to a monk, who is the truth.
Daozhen and Shang surnamed Zhang were born in 9 15 and died in 987. They lived in the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty, when Dunhuang was under the rule of the rebel army. He is a monk of Sanjie Temple in Dunhuang, in charge of Buddhist scriptures in the temple. When collecting Buddhist scriptures, he saw that many ancient scriptures were damaged, which he felt was a disrespect for the magic weapon. Moreover, Dunhuang is remote, lacking in materials, and Buddhist scriptures are hard to get. So the Taoist priest vowed to practice Buddhist scriptures. The National Library has the inscription BD05788 Thirteen Books of Buddha Names, which was written by Daozhen himself. Shaman Daozhen practiced this sutra, aged 19, and bathed (vulgar) (surname) Zhang. ? This is the record of Daozhen 19 annual repair Classic.
Paper is needed to repair the damaged warped loop. At that time, paper was a military strategic material, which was very rare. The Guiyijun regime set up a military library department, which was responsible for the management and use of paper. There is not so much white paper in the temple, so Daozhen collects waste paper everywhere, and overdue deeds, contracts, official documents, notices, files, and Buddhist scriptures without heads and tails are all collected by Daozhen for mounting or supplementing broken scriptures. Is there a Tao in the inscription of the British National Library S.2952? Paper and ink are rare? Sigh.
In the fifth year of Changxing (934), Daozhen made a wish to repair the Buddhist scriptures of Sanjie Temple on a large scale. Looking for the ancient and bad scriptures, collecting them in the temple, trimming the head and tail, spreading them around the world, and decorating the porch with light, which will last forever? . According to the textual research of Mr. Shi Pingting, an expert from Dunhuang Research Institute, the whole process of sorting out Buddhist scriptures is reflected in Dunhuang suicide notes. Monk Daozhen compiled the catalogue of the original Sanjie Temple, which is now in Dunhuang Research Institute, namely No.345. Sanjie Temple should have a catalogue of the Tibetan scriptures. The first draft of the catalogue of Buddhist scriptures in Sanjie Temple after Daozhen's reconstruction is now in the National Library, which is BD 14 129. The British National Library S.3624 Catalogue of Everything Seen in Sanjie Temple is the final edition of the revised catalogue of Sanjie Temple Scriptures.
On the front of S.6225 in the British National Library, there is a Buddhist scripture catalogue:? Set a Mahayana Sutra, 600 volumes, complete. There is also an incomplete collection of the Great Prajna Sutra. Nirvana Trilogy. The Great Compassion is complete in three volumes. Make a record. ? On the back is the inscription:? Buddhist monks in Sanjie Temple are asking for various scriptures, and miscellaneous scriptures are also recorded with them. ? Accordingly, this is the catalogue of Buddhist scriptures searched and restored by Daozhen.
From these materials, we can see that during the period of 934-935, that is, when he was 65,438+09-20 years old, Daozhen sorted out, searched and restored 65,438+066 books collected by Sanjie Temple, especially the 600-volume Grand Prajna Sutra, which was a complete book. This Buddhist scripture restoration activity is the most complete book restoration activity recorded in ancient China, which provides us with a lot of useful information on how the ancients used and protected books. Daozhen later became a monk in Shazhou, ranking second only to Du Sangtong and Du Sangzheng. The Buddhist scriptures that he visited, repaired and sorted out became the Tibetan scriptures of Sanjie Temple, which were later stored in the Tibetan scriptures cave and sealed for thousands of years, and have been preserved ever since.
Since the discovery of Dunhuang suicide note, the source of these cultural relics has been one of the key issues that scholars pay attention to. There have been many different speculations about this, such as refuge theory, abandonment theory and so on. The scattered information about the supplement of Taoist scriptures provides us with another angle to understand this problem: the restoration of ancient bad scriptures should be an important source of Tibetan scriptures in Sanjie Temple, and the cultural relics in the Tibetan scriptures cave are closely related to the activities of collecting ancient bad scriptures and repairing Buddhist scriptures by Taoist scriptures.