photo of books
The SAT Daizōkyō Text Database

Humanity's repository of the Buddhist wisdom: the full text of 85 volumes of Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō (大正新脩大藏經), is now available on-line.

What's new

The SAT Daizōkyō Text Database Committee opens this data for public use with the full approval of Daizō Shuppan Kabushiki Kaisha, the original publisher of the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō .

SAT Daizōkyō Text Database 2012 Edition (SAT 2012)

The 2012 edition of the SAT Daizōkyō text database (SAT 2012) aims at enhancing the usability of the online Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō. It reflects the results of our latest research regarding the methods of accurate gathering and confirmation of academic information. This is based on four main principles: (1) assuring the reliability of textual sources; (2) construction of a sustainable collaboration system for researchers; (3) achievement of cooperation between research projects while respecting individual independence, and (4) offering an interface that can apply these various functions in an integrated manner. As is explained below, it is at present a cutting-edge example of the kind of digital approach to research that is advancing rapidly around the world. The value of this work has been well-acknowledged at the various academic symposia where it has been presented, and it is buttressed by a high level of academic reliability. These efforts have been advanced based on the collective power of the various academic societies (both domestic and international), cooperation from public service corporations, domestic and foreign scholars, and graduate students, as listed in item #5 below.

(1) Assuring the reliability of textual sources

The Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō has been widely used in the field of Buddhist Studies as a basic canonical authority both in Japan and abroad. It has a form suitable for modern literary studies in its maintenance and presentation of "location information" — an indispensable basis for sharing the results of one's research; thus the digital form of the Daizōkyō has taken on the role of basis for the entire domain of Buddhist textual research. Securing this location information for the continuity and maintenance of the research when the medium is converted from paper to digital is in itself an important issue. The SAT database is constructed in such as way as to allow access to the location information in the book and the location information in a digital medium in a confirmable manner.

An especially important new addition in SAT 2012 is the making available of the image of the original pages with the ability to zoom in and out, so that one may confirm the words of the text in detail. For example if the reader accesses the below URL he or she can go to the pointed line location:

http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T1564_,30,0001b10.html

At present, using this function, to reflect the text of the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō more accurately, proofreading of the original texts is being continually carried out at present with the help of many young researchers. Various problems concerning the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō will be solved in the future, and a canonical source with high reliability or more that reflects study results of Buddhist Studies to up to present is planned to be offered through the digital medium. [Related presentations]

(2) Construction of a sustainable collaboration system for researchers

Not only in Buddhist Studies, but also in the humanities in general, the gathering of the cooperation of various information and research results in a single location to become the basis for conducting research is an extremely important concern. By collaboration through the Internet, in recent years this is rapidly becoming feasible — in various fields around the world research and practice are now developed based on this model. Making this zeitgeist its priority, SAT, through web collaboration, is aiming to construct the basic material of the Buddhist studies research in a collaborative manner through the digital medium. Presently, as part of this activity, we are also conducting the proofreading of the text of the Taishō Daizōkyō and the matching of parallel sentences in the English translations of the Taishō done by the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai (BDK). This kind of system is theoretically extensible to the study of Buddhist canonical corpora as a whole as different portions of the Taishō canon can be compared to Sanskrit, Tibetan, and other versions of the canon. We intend to extend this practice in the near future.[Related presentations]

(3) Achievement of cooperation between research projects while respecting individual independence

Recently, various digitization projects are growing around the world in the fields of Indian, East Asian, and Buddhist Studies. Although from the user's perspective it is preferable to be able to have access to them in an integrated manner, each project has developed in its own distinct way through its own distinct history, and is usually stored in its own distinct format, with its own delivery system. And for funding purposes, as well as for future development, the maintenance of that distinct identity is of utmost importance. Thus, in order to use such various resources in an integrated manner, it is necessary to overcome various kinds of technical hurdles. SAT has now reached a certain level of success in achieving a format that allows the integrated usage of these resources while preserving their independent identity. Thus, in SAT 2012, readers have access to the lexical reference work, the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism along with the article databases of INBUDS, SARDS, CiNii, and the logographic information resources Chise, Chise Linkmap, HMS, and the Unihan database. We expect to expand the scope of this integrated functionality in the future. [Related presentations]

(4) Offering an interface that can apply these various resources in an integrated manner

SAT aims at the offering of an interface that can use the above-mentioned various functions integrated in a Web browser. SAT 2012 offers the separate functions of the main Taishō text view (and related footnotes), search and retrieval, and linking with other data in a convenient manner. Search options include enhanced functions of narrowed-down searches, and Keyword in Context (KWIC) display. For details, see the instructions for usage. [Related presentations]

(5) SAT 2012 Groups and persons collaborating in the development of SAT 2012

See here.

(6) Related presentations

The following is a list of presentations related to development of SAT 2012.

Presentations relating to development of the SAT 2012
(1) Assuring the reliability of textual sources^
(2) Construction of a sustainable collaboration system for researchers^
(3) Achievement of cooperation between research projects while respecting individual independence^
(4) Offering an interface that can apply these various resources in an integrated manner^