Ŭich’ŏn and Why the Fayuan zhulin is in the Taishō

At a length of 100 rolls, Daoshi’s (ca. 595–683) Fayuan zhulin (A Grove of Pearls in the Garden of the Dharma) is one of the largest non-scriptural texts in the Buddhist canon. Originally compiled in 668, this Buddhist encyclopedia is recognized in modern scholarship as one of the most authoritative sources on medieval Chinese Buddhism. This text was first included in Buddhist canonical or extra-canonical materials in the late eleventh century. Although the Fayuan zhulin was included in the Chongning Canon, which was published in Fuzhou between 1080 and 1112, it was simultaneously cataloged by the Koryŏ monk-prince Ŭich’ŏn (1055–1101) in his Sinp’yŏn chejong kyojang ch’ongnok (Catalog of the Newly Compiled Canon of Doctrinal Teachings of All the Schools) in about 1090. Because of Ŭich’ŏn, the Fayuan zhulin was likely included in the Second Koryŏ Canon (Chaejo Koryŏ taejanggyŏng), which was carved between 1236 and 1251. More important, because of the importance of Ŭich’ŏn’s catalog and the Koryŏ Canon among Japanese scholars of the Buddhist canon in the Edo (1603–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, the Fayuan zhulin was regarded as a text that must be included in any comprehensive Buddhist canon.