itions: (_a_) that
of Tokyo, begun in 1880, based on a Korean edition[755] with various
readings taken from other Chinese editions. (_b_) That of Kyoto, 1905,
which is a reprint of the Ming collection.[756] A Chinese edition has
been published at Shanghai (1913) at the expense of Mrs. Hardoon, a
Chinese lady well known as a munificent patron of the faith, and I
believe another at Nanking, but I do not know if it is complete or
not.[757]

3

The translations contained in the Chinese Tripitaka belong to several
periods.[758] In the earliest, which extends to the middle of the
fourth century, the works produced were chiefly renderings of detached
sutras.[759] Few treatises classified as Vinaya or Abhidharma were
translated and those few are mostly extracts or compilations. The
sutras belong to both the Hina and Mahayana. The earliest extant
translation or rather compilation, the Sutra of Forty-two sections,
belongs to the former school, and so do the majority of the
translations made by An-Shih-Kao (148-170 A.D.), but from the second
century onwards the Prajnaparamita and Amitabha Sutras make their
appearance.[760] Many of the translations made in this period are
described as incomplete or incorrect and the fact that most of them
were superseded or supplemented by later versions shows that the
Chinese recognized their provisional character. Future research will
probably show that many of them are paraphrases or compendiums rather
than translations in our sense.

The next period, roughly speaking 375-745 A.D., was extraordinarily
prolific in extensive and authoritative translations. The translators
now attack not detached chapters or discourses but the great monuments
of Indian Buddhist literature. Though it is not easy to make any
chronological bisection in this period, there is a clear difference in
the work done at the beginning and at the end of it. From the end of
the fourth century onwards a desire to have complete translations of
the great canonical works is apparent. Between 385 and 445 A.D. were
translated the four Agamas, analogous to the Nikayas of the Pali
Canon, three great collections of the Vinaya, and the principal
scriptures of the Abhidharma according to the Sarvastivadin school.
For the Mahayana were translated the great sutras known as Avatamsaka,
Lankavatara, and many others, as well as works ascribed to
Asvaghosha and Nagarjuna. After 645 A.D. a further development of
the critical spirit is perc