Abhidharma vijnana kaya pada Sastra (Discourse on Consciousness Body), the First Tripitaka Koreana Edition, Volume 12

Buddhist scriptures are broadly divided into sutras, vinaya and treatises, and Abhidharma is the general name for the treatises that set out the Buddha's wisdom systematically. The Abhidharma Vijnanakaya Pada Sastra can thus be called a book that gathers and explains systematically the wisdom of the Buddha needed to attain Buddhahood. This is one volume of the first Tripitaka Koreana, carved under King Hyeonjong of Goryeo (r. 1011–1031) in the hope that the power of the Buddha would repel the Khitan invasions: volume 12 of the sixteen-volume treatise translated by Xuanzang of Tang. It is a woodblock print on mulberry paper, kept rolled as a scroll: 26 sheets 29.5 cm high and 46.5 cm wide joined together. The first Tripitaka differs in several ways from the later Haeinsa Tripitaka (the second carving, or Tripitaka Koreana). Its cutting is precise, but its characters per line differ from Haeinsa's, it has no printing records, and taboo avoidances (omitting a stroke of, or replacing, characters in the names of past kings, out of reverence) and abbreviated characters appear here and there. It usually numbers its sheets with the character jang (丈) or pok (幅), where the Haeinsa edition uses jang (張) throughout. No shortened strokes appear in this volume, but the absence of a printing record, the 23 lines of 14 characters (against the Haeinsa edition's 24 of 14) and sheets numbered with 丈 confirm the features of the first Tripitaka. Its printing and paper suggest it was printed around the twelfth century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwanak-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보