Bao Chang 寶唱 [Pao-ch'ang]

Bao Chang 寶唱 [Pao-ch'ang] (466- ??)

Baochang, the writer of this work, was a well-known Buddhist monk-scholar. He was of peasant descent and became a monk at the age of eighteen under the tutorship of the Vinaya master Sengyou (444–518) of Jian-chu Monastery. There he studied Buddhist texts as well as Confucian and Taoist philosophical works, and he became a versatile scholar.

As a biographer, he is credited, besides the Biographies of Buddhist Nuns, with the Biographies of Famous Monks. An accomplished cataloguer, he revised Sengsao’s Catalogue of Buddhist Texts of the Hua-lin Garden and compiled his own New Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Texts (generally known as “Baochang’s Catalogue,” in four fascicles). With the monk Sengmin of Zhuang-yan Monastery, he compiled the Jing-lü-yi-xiang (Classified Excerpts from the Sutra and Vinaya Pitakas). He also took part in the translation work undertaken by Saμghapåla, a monk from Fu-nan (Cambodia), who rendered a number of Sanskrit texts into Chinese, including the Vimoksamārga.

Baochang’s contribution through his literary effortsorts to the dissemination of Buddhism in China earned him a record in a separate section of Biographies of Eminent Monks, compiled by Daoxuan of the Tang dynasty, in which details of his career are described. (Rongxi Li 2002 p65)

Klassieke teksten

- samensteller van de Biqiuni zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Nuns)

Literatuur

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Boeken 1 tot 2 van de 2

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