The Chinese Buddhist canon
Canonical collection
The Chinese Buddhist canon includes early discourses, Mahāyāna scriptures, monastic discipline, treatises, and works by East Asian teachers.
Early discourses
Scriptures
Treatises and teachings
Translations & sourcesEditions & translators
Find selected English translations from the Chinese canon, many available as free PDFs. The translation project does not yet cover the entire canon.
Edition & attribution
This is a brief introduction to these texts, not a translation.
Introductions, reflection questions and added section headings are editorial material, separate from the attributed translation.
The linked publisher provides the text and its usage terms.
Connections
Guru Viking0
No connected episodes found for this text.
People & teachers2
- Kumārajīva
Translator of influential Chinese versions, including the Lotus Sūtra.
Source
- Xuanzang
Translator of Yogācāra works preserved in the Chinese canon.
Source
Traditions & history3
- Translation into Chinese
The long history of translating Buddhist works into Chinese.
Source
- East Asian traditions
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to East Asian traditions.
- Dharmaguptaka
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Dharmaguptaka.
Books1
- The Essentials of the Eight Traditions
A historical guide to eight Japanese schools that inherited East Asian Buddhist texts.
Source
Make yourself comfortable
About this textContext & reading guide
This large collection serves traditions across East Asia. It includes translated Indian works and writings composed in East Asia.
Its Āgamas preserve many early discourses parallel to Pāli Nikāya texts. It also includes monastic codes, Mahāyāna scriptures, philosophical treatises, esoteric material and commentaries.
Different schools emphasize different parts of this inheritance: the Lotus Sūtra in Tiantai and Nichiren traditions, Pure Land texts in devotional traditions, and much more.
A Chinese canon is not simply a Chinese translation of the Pāli canon. The collections preserve intersecting but different transmission histories.