Dasabhumika vibhasa Sastra (Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra), the First Tripitaka Koreana Edition, Volume 17

The Dasabhumika vibhasa Sastra explains the precepts a bodhisattva should observe in practice and the state of mind a bodhisattva should maintain, and it is included within the Hwaeomgyeong (the Avatamsaka Sutra). This volume is one of the Chojo Tripitaka (First Tripitaka Koreana), carved during the reign of King Hyeonjong of Goryeo (r. 1009–1031) in the hope that the power of the Buddha would help overcome the Khitan invasions; it is the last of the seventeen volumes of the Dasabhumika vibhasa Sastra translated by Kumarajiva of the Later Qin. It is a woodblock print on mulberry paper, made by joining twenty-eight sheets of paper, each 30 cm high and 47.3 cm wide, so that it could be rolled up and stored like a scroll. Compared with the Haeinsa Tripitaka (the Jaejo Tripitaka, or Goryeo Tripitaka) produced later, the Chojo Tripitaka shows several differences. Its woodblock carving is finer, but the number of characters per line differs from the Haeinsa Tripitaka, there is no record of the year of publication, and in places it shows examples of pihwi—avoiding a taboo character by omitting a stroke of a character that appears in a former king's name, or replacing it with another character of similar meaning, out of respect—as well as abbreviated characters. The Chojo Tripitaka also generally uses the character 丈 (jang) or 幅 (pok) to indicate the sheet number, whereas the Haeinsa Tripitaka consistently uses the character 張 (jang). This volume likewise uses the character 丈 to indicate the sheet number and has no publication record at the end, and the final stroke of the character 敬 (gyeong) is omitted, confirming that it is a print of the Chojo Tripitaka. Judging from the condition of the printing and the quality of the paper, it is presumed to have been printed in the eleventh century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeonsu-gu, Incheon

Designation

Treasure · 보물