Bulseol ubasaeo gyesanggyeong, the First Tripitaka Koreana Edition

The Bulseol ubasaeo gyesanggyeong is a sutra explaining the five basic precepts that upasaka — ordinary Buddhist lay believers — must observe, distinguishing between light and heavy transgressions, and between those that can be absolved through repentance and those that cannot. This volume is one of the Chojo Tripitaka, carved during the reign of King Hyeonjong of Goryeo (r. 1011–1031) in the hope of overcoming the Khitan invasions through the power of the Buddha. It is a woodblock print on mulberry paper of a translation made by Gunavarman of the Liu Song dynasty, made to be rolled up like a scroll for storage, and measures 29 cm in height and 47.3 cm in width. The Chojo Tripitaka differs in several respects from the later Haeinsa Tripitaka (also called the Jaejo Tripitaka, or Goryeo Tripitaka), which was carved afterwards. Although its woodblock carving is finer, the number of characters differs from the Haeinsa Tripitaka, there is no record of the year of publication, and in places it shows pihwi (avoiding the personal names of former kings out of respect, by omitting a stroke of a character or substituting one of similar meaning) and abbreviated characters. The Chojo Tripitaka generally uses the character "丈" or "幅" to indicate the number of leaves in a volume, whereas the Haeinsa Tripitaka consistently uses the character "張". This volume likewise uses "丈" to indicate its leaf count, and since it bears no record of its year of publication, it is regarded as one of the Chojo Tripitaka volumes produced during the reign of King Hyeonjong of Goryeo.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwanak-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물