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

UnknownGoryeo Dynasty, 12th century

Horim Museum

Horim Museum
Seoul, South Korea

This treatise Abidalmasiksinjoknon (Skt.AbhidharmaVijñāna-kāyapādaśāstra),composed of 7,000 verses, was written by the Indian scholar-monk Devakṣema (提婆設摩) around 100 C.E. The title, Abidalmasiksinjoknon, means “A supplementary Treatise that Analyze the Problems of Mind and Consciousness in Buddhist doctrines”. In this case, it is a supplement to the Abhidharma-Jñāna-prasthāna-śāstra(Ch. Apidamofazhilun, 阿毘達磨發智論), and a major representative text of the SarvâstivādaAbhidharma school of Buddhism. In 650 C.E., the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang translated its sixteen fascicles into classical Chinese at Cien Monastery. Fascicle 12 is indexed under the Chinese character yeon (蓮), as part of a system of indexing books using characters from the Thousand Character Classic (Ch. Qian zi wen, 千字文), similar to alphabetization. It contains explanations on the twelve mind-states, as well as the six sense organs, six sense objects and six correcting consciousness. This point, made in the 12th century, is that of the first edition of the Tripitaka Koreana. The woodblocks and prints of the first edition Tripitaka Koreana, or the Buddhist canon as established in Korea, was commissioned in the reign of the Goryeo Dynasty King Hyeonjong(1011-1031 C.E.), in order to invoke the power of the Buddha in repelling Mongolian Khitan invaders. Its original woodblocks have since been lost, but scattered prints such as this remain. Among the fascicles of the first edition Abidalmasiksinjoknon, all designated as a National Cultural Asset, this fascicle is the only one categorized as a National Treasure.
Rather than having a separate scroll header, the title of this scroll is written in ink at the beginning of the print. Its first character a(阿) has been torn off and lost. The text is laid out with 23 lines of text per page and 14 characters per line, and the Chinese character used for pagination is jang (丈) rather than the jang (張) found in the second edition of the Tripitaka Koreana. The last page of the fascicle, page 26, contains only the page number and the index character, omitting the name of the text found in the previous pages. The variant characters written to avoid mention of royalty, found in the Song Dynasty Tripitaka, are not found in this print. There are instead a few deviant characters (Ch, yizi, 異字): ten characters across six pages that differ between the second edition Tripitaka Koreana. Lastly, there are also occasional characters with missing strokes, perhaps due to its being a later reprint.

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  • Title: Abhidharma vijnana kaya pada Sastra (Discourse on Consciousness Body), the First Tripitaka Koreana Edition, Volume 12
  • Creator: Unknown
  • Date: Goryeo Dynasty, 12th century
  • Physical Dimensions: w1209 x d29.5 cm
  • Provenance: Horim Museum
  • Type: Book
Horim Museum

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