LOTUS SUTRA, translated by KUMĀRAJĪVA 鳩摩羅什.

Myobŏp yŏnhwagyŏng [or] Myobeop yeonhwagyeong [Ch.: Miao fa lian hua jing 妙法蓮華經; Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma]

1635. Two double-page woodcuts. Woodblock-printed. 62 folding leaves (plus one leaf, 32, in duplicate). Large 8vo (317 x 213 mm.), orig. semi-stiff wrappers, new stitching. Yongjan-sa Temple: 1635.

A very rare and early illustrated Korean edition of the Lotus Sutra, published in 1635. The woodblock of the final page with the imprint appears to have slid during printing and the text is unclear (but the date is clear). We believe it says that it was printed by Yongjan-sa 龍藏寺 temple, which would mean that the place of publication is today’s Jindo County in South Chŏlla province, South Korea. We find no record of copies of the Lotus Sutra with this year and imprint in either WorldCat or the Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System.

This edition contains four pages with two splendid double-page images of Buddha and his disciples.

The original author of the sutra is not known, but we know it existed by 255 CE. The sutra was translated into Chinese by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumārajīva (344-413 CE) in 406 CE. This translation is thought to be the closest to the presumed original version. “The Lotus Sutra is one of the most important and influential of all the sutras or sacred scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, revered by almost all branches of the Mahayana teachings, and over many centuries the object of intense veneration among Buddhist believers throughout China, Korea, Japan, and other regions of eastern Asia.” It is “an important text of world literature” (Watson, The Lotus Sutra, ix-x).

Our copy contains Daoxuan’s 道宣 (596-667 CE) “propagational preface” (hongchuan xu 弘傳序) and Jinan’s 及南 “essential explanations” (yaojie 要解, from 1127).

Yongjang-sa temple is famous for its Buddhist statues, which are assumed to date back to Koryŏ times. The temple is known to have published several works around the time when our sutra was printed. The National Library of Korea holds several works printed at the temple: Kobong hwasang sŏnyŏ 高峰和尙禪要 [Essential Chan (or Zen) Teachings by the Monk Gaofeng (of the Yuan)], Ch’ŏnji myŏnyang suryukchae ŭich’anyo 天地冥陽水陸齋儀纂要, Pulsŏl kwangbon taese kyŏng 佛說廣本大歲經, an edition of the Diamond Sutra, one of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra, Pŏpchip pyŏlhaengnok chŏlyo pyŏng’ip sagi 法集別行錄節要幷入私記, and other works (we hesitate to translate several of these titles). These books were all printed in 1635, the same year as our sutra.

Fine copy of this rare and early Korean book.

First 20 leaves with faint dampstaining.

References

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism. http://www.buddhism-dict.net/

Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System 한국고문헌종합목록. https://www.nl.go.kr/korcis/index.do

Watson, Burton, trans. The Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.