The Chinese started engraving woodblocks of the Buddhist canon in the early Song dynasty (971 – 983). In the past one thousand years, more than thirteen editions have been engraved. They are considered invaluable treasures both in Chinese cultural heritage and Buddhist literature. Although the most popular edition is the Taisho printed in modern style, knowledge of other engraved editions will help us understand how the Imperial Court, Buddhist monks and lay people managed to embark such a huge project of engraving an edition of Buddhist canon.
The engraving of any edition of Buddhist canon is a huge project. It usually takes years to raise fund, collect and collate scriptures, select woodblocks, copy and engrave scriptures. For a court edition, it did not have problems of fund-raising because the emperors were rich enough to donate sufficient funds for the project. For the editions initiated by common people, this was no easy job. When the carving of woodblocks was completed, things were not finished. The managers of the printing house had to preserve the blocks, keeping them in a safe place from fire, worms, and humidity.
The engraving of Buddhist canon is usually considered a merit-making work. Many Buddhists, monks, nuns and lay people alike, would involve in the project. They showed respect to the scriptures and Buddhist canon and took this respect as merit-making in triple gems worship. Common people and emperors alike would take copying scriptures as a merit. The temple would organize activities involved in making scriptures or edition of the Buddhist canon. These activities included copying, sunning, donating money for fund-raising, engraving and printing of the scriptures. In fact, things are more complicated than we can imagine.
The discussion of the management of Buddhist canon offers us understanding of how Chinese Buddhists produced the canon and kept it for a long period of use.
