An annotated list of online resources for the study of Buddhism in China
This list is compiled to supplement the guides and collections of bookmarks currently available online. The linked
resources are not maintained by me; I've only collected those which are potentially useful to scholars and researchers
studying Buddhist religious traditions in China. If you find that any links are dead, resources have moved or want to
suggest a resource please email [gas2122(use @ at)columbia.edu]. This page is maintained by
Gregory Adam Scott 史瑞戈, Ph.D. candidate in the
Department of Religion
at Columbia University.
The OICB was first compiled on August 26th, 2006. It was last updated on May 27th, 2009.
Please note that some resources are listed with their Chinese or Japanese names; you may need to download language packs
or fonts to have the characters display properly.
1. Language and Fonts
Tools for mastering the languages required for study, including but not limited to Modern and Classical Chinese, Modern
and Classical Japanese, and Sanskrit.
GPL-licensed, Unicode-compliant OpenType fonts that include diacritic marks for rendering scriptural languages and "Indological" characters. Includes fonts similar to
Courier, Helvetica, New Century Schoolbook, Palatino, and Times. Freely availible to download and distribute under the provisions of the GPL.
A collection of links to free fonts offered elsewhere on the web. Japanese fonts also available.
2. Texts
Digitized source texts available online. They have the advantage of being searchable and are often edited and corrected
versions of the originals.
An ongoing project to digitize temple gazetteers, 105 are currently online as scanned images with 5 also having full-text availible. A project of the Dharma Drum Buddhist College.
Scanned PDFs of the Qianlong Da Zangjing 乾隆大藏經 edition of the Buddhist canon. This page was recently blocked to all but University of Toronto internet addresses.
Digitized documents that were published by the London Missionary Society in China, many of which touch upon Buddhist figures, texts, and organizations, as well as the general religious context of the time. See also this staff paper on the collection from 1998.
Although their main collection of texts appears to be an archived copy of those available on CBETA, there are other
tools available on this site, including dictionaries. Also includes a number of non-canonical [藏外] texts. Link goes to
the server hosted in Xiamen [廈門].
Takes the Unicode database of characters as its basis, provides
different East Asian readings for each character, as well as a brief
English definition. Also includes indices organized by HSK level and
USENET frequency of use. Requires a font that includes as many
character gylphs as possible to be used effectively, such as SimSun
(Founder Extended).
Hosted by the University of Copenhagen, a digitized version of a dictionary in long development. The digital version
itself is in the process of being compiled.
Searchable online dictionary hosted by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education. You may have to manually set your encoding to
Big5 to view the site properly.
A dictionary and encyclopedia of Buddhist topics. Incorporates the Soothill-Hodous dictionary formerly listed here. Many
libraries have subscribed for full access, otherwise users can only make a limited number of searches per day.
Searchable dictionary, automatic translation, with several dictionary databases to choose from, one of which is a
selection of entries from the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (above). A complete list of
mirror sites is available.
Online dictionary that offers multuiple character definitions as well as digitized entries from the Kangxi dictionary
and the Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字. Main interface is in Simplified, but the Kangxi and Shuowen sections are in Traditional
characters.
An extension for Firefox, provides dictionary translations for Japanese text when you mouseover a word. Note that you
must install the extension and a dictionary for it to work.
6. Collected Links, Bibliographies, and Guides
Sites in this category are lists and collections of links, as well as more traditional bibliographies of print resources.
There are also guides to researching Chinese Buddhism, created by universities or professors for their students and scholars
to consult.
Focused on Chinese popular religion rather than Buddhism, but certainly for studying Chinese Religion in general or Buddhism at the local/popular level, an invaluable resource.
Now includes a dataset of Chinese Buddhist temples circa 1820, one version of which can be viewed using Google Earth. Downloading requires a (free) registration. For details on how the set was compiled, see the production notes.
The religious studies section of this online guide is still under construction, but should eventually list resources for the study of religion in Tibet.
Information on place names mentioned in Buddhist sources with longitude and latitude provided. Downloadable Google Earth files files are available as is real-time Google Maps output.
