Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

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khemindas
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Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by khemindas »

Actually there are already whole Pali tipitaka in english even in electronic version, but I found a problem to find whole Chinese Tripitaka in english, mostly mahayana followers are bringing some sutras to some websites or selling small collection of sutras. Is there a whole Chinese Tripitaka in english or at least the most part of it?
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Zhen Li
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Zhen Li »

khemindas wrote: Sat Dec 25, 2021 8:31 am Actually there are already whole Pali tipitaka in english even in electronic version, but I found a problem to find whole Chinese Tripitaka in english, mostly mahayana followers are bringing some sutras to some websites or selling small collection of sutras. Is there a whole Chinese Tripitaka in english or at least the most part of it?
Unfortunately not yet. The Pali Canon is roughly 40-50 volumes in total, depending on the language and script. The Taishō Tripitaka of Chinese Buddhist texts is 85 volumes in Chinese characters. One Chinese volume is usually equivalent to 1.5 or 2 English volumes in Translation (sometimes more if notes are included), meaning we are looking at more like 150 volumes or so if they were all translated. Each one of which sometimes contains very different quality Chinese translations, so people usually just focus on one rather than going through a whole Taishō volume—though this is being done with the Āgamas (volumes 1 and 2).

This bibliography is useful for keeping track of what is available and where it can be found: https://mbingenheimer.net/tools/bibls/transbibl.html
khemindas
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by khemindas »

And are there any website projects among mahayana practicioners same as suttacentral or accesstoinsight, but with chinese buddhist canon?
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

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www.84000.co for Tibetan Buddhists
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Genjo Conan
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Genjo Conan »

I know I've seen English translations of a few of the agamas online, but quite few.
jmlee369
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by jmlee369 »

khemindas wrote: Sat Dec 25, 2021 8:31 am Actually there are already whole Pali tipitaka in english even in electronic version, but I found a problem to find whole Chinese Tripitaka in english, mostly mahayana followers are bringing some sutras to some websites or selling small collection of sutras. Is there a whole Chinese Tripitaka in english or at least the most part of it?
The most ambitious project to translate the Chinese Tripitaka into English is Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai's English Tripiṭaka Project. They have set a goal of translating 10% in 100 years, starting 1986. If it goes to plan, we will have the complete Chinese Tripitaka translated into English by 2986.
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Zhen Li
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

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khemindas wrote: Sat Dec 25, 2021 1:42 pm And are there any website projects among mahayana practicioners same as suttacentral or accesstoinsight, but with chinese buddhist canon?
Maybe we should make a site that links to the currently available translations online. I guess Marcus Bingenheimer's site could do this, but he would probably get flack from publishers whose publications are being linked to (even though he wouldn't be hosting them). It is probably something best done anonymously.
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Zhen Li
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Zhen Li »

This took a long time to compile, but I felt like a resource like this was necessary. Bibliographies exist, but I couldn't find a collection of links to readily accessible translations online from the Taishō Canon.

If find anything that could be added, or find any dead links, please let me know. I am to keep this complete and up to date:
English Taishō Tripiṭaka.
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KeithA
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by KeithA »

Zhen Li wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:27 am This took a long time to compile, but I felt like a resource like this was necessary. Bibliographies exist, but I couldn't find a collection of links to readily accessible translations online from the Taishō Canon.

If find anything that could be added, or find any dead links, please let me know. I am to keep this complete and up to date:
English Taishō Tripiṭaka.
Thanks for this!
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

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Zhen Li wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:27 am This took a long time to compile, but I felt like a resource like this was necessary. Bibliographies exist, but I couldn't find a collection of links to readily accessible translations online from the Taishō Canon.

If find anything that could be added, or find any dead links, please let me know. I am to keep this complete and up to date:
English Taishō Tripiṭaka.
:applause:
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
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Zhen Li
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Zhen Li »

KeithA wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 1:08 pm
Zhen Li wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:27 am This took a long time to compile, but I felt like a resource like this was necessary. Bibliographies exist, but I couldn't find a collection of links to readily accessible translations online from the Taishō Canon.

If find anything that could be added, or find any dead links, please let me know. I am to keep this complete and up to date:
English Taishō Tripiṭaka.
Thanks for this!
No problem. I think this can also give an idea of the massive amount that is still to be translated.

Marcus Bingenheimer's bibliography is useful, but it is not complete and even old translations are sometimes missing. Also, even though it says last updated 2022-01-10, there is a lot that isn't included and it isn't clear what criteria are used for inclusion. There are some BDK translations missing, which are certainly peer-reviewed, and yet it includes Rulu's non-scholarly translations (which are nonetheless pioneering and linked extensively in my website). So, a bit of work is still needed for locating stuff he might have overlooked.

The Compassion Network has an interesting index, somewhat similar to mine, but not all of the links are accessible online and some go to book purchase pages: https://thecompassionnetwork.org/tripitaka-lists/

My principle was essentially to link to whatever is available directly online. This is pretty important, because today if a translation is not accessible online or, is hidden in a back issue of an obscure journal, it's practically non-existent for the majority of non-scholar practitioners. In principle, I think that all Dharma should be available for free online, and of course, hard copies can be purchased to directly support translators.

I actually agree with "The Compassion Network"'s mission, which is stated as:
The reason that we are using an editor that imitates Wikimedia is because the aim here is “wiki”, to quickly translate the Buddhist Canon so that some initial draft is available for the English-speaking public. The “wiki” process also offers an opportunity to focus less on the ego, particularly in building a name for oneself as a Buddhist translator, editor, or scholar. This is meant to be in keeping with the Buddhist training.
I think that having an initial draft is a great idea, even if it is not perfectly polished. I think of many of Rulu's translations as great examples of this principle in action—at least we now have an idea of what those texts say, even if they are not 100%. Also, this looks like what I have seen in Chinese translations. For instance, in translating the Tathāgataguhya, the 3rd Century Dharmarakṣa (or rather, his committee) clearly was struggling to express Buddhist ideas in Chinese and resorted to a lot of Daoist terminologies. By the time of the Song Dynasty, the latter Dharmarakṣa re-translated the same sūtra and it reads far more fluently—I almost felt like I was reading Sanskrit through the Chinese. Translation principles and methods had evolved significantly, and that's over an 800 year period.
khemindas
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by khemindas »

I found an interesting project for translation of Chinese texts https://canon.dharmapearls.net/
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Leo Rivers
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Leo Rivers »

Just to concieve of such a thing rivals the Flower Array as an exercise in imagination!
:applause:
The most ambitious project to translate the Chinese Tripitaka into English is Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai's English Tripiṭaka Project. They have set a goal of translating 10% in 100 years, starting 1986. If it goes to plan, we will have the complete Chinese Tripitaka translated into English by 2986.
khemindas
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by khemindas »

So in total there are 5 useful resources about Chinese Tripitaka for english language:
1) https://web.archive.org/web/20180324130 ... net/world/
2) https://sites.google.com/view/english-t ... piaka/home
3) https://thecompassionnetwork.org/tripitaka-lists/
4) https://mbingenheimer.net/tools/bibls/transbibl.html
5) https://canon.dharmapearls.net/

I hope in future Chinese Tripitaka will be complete same as Pali Tipitaka nowadays (except the only thing patisambhidamagga in not in complete translation)


mod narwhal90 note; this followup is contrary to the site necropost rule but I'm allowing because this is a technical topic and the post is responsive to the question.
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Leo Rivers
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Leo Rivers »

Thanks for posting.
:)
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by SilenceMonkey »

I would imagine that once 84,000 is done translating the Kangyur and Tengyur from Tibetan into English and Chinese (via its branch organization the Kumarajiva project), they may decide to translate the Chinese canon into English.

Right now they are giving people who want to become translators free Tibetan language training over zoom for (I think) 4 years. 84,000 may one day decide to uphold Chinese Dharma in the same way.

Perhaps wealthy sponsors in the mainland, HK, Taiwan, Malaysia or Singapore will take a hint from 84,000 and organize the same kind of project. And perhaps substantial grants may become available from the US, UK and Chinese governments.

Personally, I think it will become much easier to translate in a couple years when AI translation tools have been developed. Right now, the organization Monlam AI based out of Taiwan and India is training the AI to translate all genres of Tibetan text into English with appropriate style. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese Buddhist world picked up on this idea as well within the next ten years. This translation tool has massive potential for bridging the various Dharma cultures around the world.
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JieshiShan
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by JieshiShan »

i have this book

A Catalogue of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka

The Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan
Compiled by Bunyiu Nanjio
山结实 Shan Jiēshi
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PeterC
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by PeterC »

jmlee369 wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 10:55 am
khemindas wrote: Sat Dec 25, 2021 8:31 am Actually there are already whole Pali tipitaka in english even in electronic version, but I found a problem to find whole Chinese Tripitaka in english, mostly mahayana followers are bringing some sutras to some websites or selling small collection of sutras. Is there a whole Chinese Tripitaka in english or at least the most part of it?
The most ambitious project to translate the Chinese Tripitaka into English is Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai's English Tripiṭaka Project. They have set a goal of translating 10% in 100 years, starting 1986. If it goes to plan, we will have the complete Chinese Tripitaka translated into English by 2986.
You wonder what the point of a project like that is. Any serious scholar will just learn Chinese to read it, reading in translation isn't an option for an academic. Within a decade, any casual reader will be ok with machine translations, given the steady improvement in their quality. Most of the critical texts for practitioners are already translated anyway.
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by humble.student »

Zhen Li wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:06 am
Marcus Bingenheimer's bibliography is useful, but it is not complete and even old translations are sometimes missing. Also, even though it says last updated 2022-01-10, there is a lot that isn't included and it isn't clear what criteria are used for inclusion. There are some BDK translations missing, which are certainly peer-reviewed, and yet it includes Rulu's non-scholarly translations (which are nonetheless pioneering and linked extensively in my website). So, a bit of work is still needed for locating stuff he might have overlooked.
Send him an email if you happen to have a list, and I'm sure he will update the page. It's a community effort.
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Zhen Li
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Re: Is there a chinese tripitaka in english?

Post by Zhen Li »

humble.student wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2024 8:44 pm
Zhen Li wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:06 am
Marcus Bingenheimer's bibliography is useful, but it is not complete and even old translations are sometimes missing. Also, even though it says last updated 2022-01-10, there is a lot that isn't included and it isn't clear what criteria are used for inclusion. There are some BDK translations missing, which are certainly peer-reviewed, and yet it includes Rulu's non-scholarly translations (which are nonetheless pioneering and linked extensively in my website). So, a bit of work is still needed for locating stuff he might have overlooked.
Send him an email if you happen to have a list, and I'm sure he will update the page. It's a community effort.
Yeah, I have done and it's getting much better. It is hard to keep track of everything of course.
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