Duration: July 2020 – June 2023

 

CBETA:

The CBETA (Chinese-Buddhist Electronic Text Association) initiative (external link) aims to digitize the Buddhist canon preserved in the Chinese language and make it accessible in accordance with scholarly standards. Since the initiative’s launch in 1998, researchers have been able to access a steadily growing number of texts from the Buddhist canon in digital form. At the same time, CBETA has evolved into the research platform CBETA-RP (external link), which not only provides the canonical texts but also integrates reference works such as catalogs, dictionaries of personal and place names, and related research information. CBETA-RP is currently funded by the Taiwanese Ministry of Science and Technology and operated by the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts.

The project:

The project “Linking Buddhist Stone Sutras in China to CBETA” enables the integration of digital data compiled at the Research Center for Buddhist Stone Inscriptions in China ( internal link) with CBETA. Under the direction of Dr. Sueyling Tsai, the following specific objectives were formulated for the collaboration between the project at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA):

  • The inclusion of the Stone Sutra texts developed in the Academy Project into CBETA in accordance with CBETA standards. A significant portion of these texts, such as the writings of the Three-Stage Teaching (三階教) founded by Xinxing 信行 (540–594), have not yet been included in the traditional Buddhist canon because they have survived only in manuscripts and stone inscriptions. Previously unknown texts of the lost Three-Stage Teaching have been preserved in the unique cave at Jinchuanwan 金川灣石窟 in Shaanxi Province.
  • The inclusion in CBETA of those stone sutra texts that constitute new versions of sutras already included, such as the Sutra on the Merit of Worship (敬福經) found in Cave 2 of Cishan Monastery (慈善寺) in Linyou (麟游), Shaanxi Province.
  • A list of all variant readings found in the Steinsutras in CBETA.
  • The inclusion of the Steinsutras in the searchable catalog of CBETA.
  • A link to CBETA via the project's website www.stonesutras.org (external link).

One of the project’s main tasks is to make the existing transcriptions of the Steinsutra texts compatible with the CBETA system. A professional programmer was brought in for this purpose. A second priority was to design a way to present the Steinsutra texts within the CBETA framework.