well as Mahayanist works, and (2)
included a great number of relatively late sutras, arranged in classes
such as Prajnaparamita and Mahasannipata.

2

The Tripitaka analyzed by Nanjio, which contains works assigned to
dates ranging from 67 to 1622 A.D., is merely the best known
survivor among several similar thesauri.[744] From 518 A.D. onwards
twelve collections of sacred literature were made by imperial order
and many of these were published in more than one edition. The
validity of this Canon depends entirely on imperial authority, but,
though Emperors occasionally inserted the works of writers whom they
esteemed,[745] it does not appear that they aimed at anything but
completeness nor did they favour any school. The Buddhist Church, like
every other department of the Empire, received from them its share of
protection and supervision and its claims were sufficient to induce
the founder, or at least an early Sovereign, of every important
dynasty to publish under his patronage a revised collection of the
scriptures. The list of these collections is as follows:[746]

1. A.D. 518 in the time of Wu-Ti, founder of the Liang.
2. " 533-4 Hsiao-Wu of the Northern Wei.
3. " 594 } Wan-ti, founder of the Sui.
4. " 602 } Wan-ti, founder of the Sui.
5. " 605-16 Yang-Ti of the Sui.
6. " 695 the Empress Wu of the T'ang.
7. " 730 Hsuan-Tsung of the T'ang.
8. " 971 T'ai-Tsu, founder of the Sung.
9. " 1285-7 Khubilai Khan, founder of the Yuan.
10. " 1368-98 Hung-Wu, founder of the Ming.
11. " 1403-24 Yung-Lo of the Ming.
12. " 1735-7 Yung-Ching and Ch'ien-Lung of the Ch'ing.[747]

Of these collections, the first seven were in MS. only: the last five
were printed. The last three appear to be substantially the same. The
tenth and eleventh collections are known as southern and
northern,[748] because they were printed at Nanking and Peking
respectively. They differ only in the number of Chinese works admitted
and similarly the twelfth collection is merely a revision of the tenth
with the addition of fifty-four Chinese works.

As mentioned, the Tripitaka contains thirteen catalogues of the
Buddhist scriptures as known at different dates.[749] Of these the
most important are (_a_) the earliest published between 506 and 512
A.D., (_b_) three published under the T'ang dynasty and known as
Nei-tien-lu, T'u-chi (both about 664 A.D.), and K'ai-yuan-lu (about
72