Mahāvaipulya Mahāsamghāta Sutra is a collection of Mahayana mahāsamghāta classics. It mainly interprets six paramitas and sunyata (emptiness) in Mahayana and has a strong feature of Esoteric Buddhism. This sutra was successively translated by Dharmaksema in the Northern Liang Dynasty, Narendrayasas in the Northern Qi Dynasty, Narenyasas in the Sui Dynasty and generations of other masters, and has been included in the sutra of all past dynasties. The edition consists of 60 volumes and 17 chapters in 'Taishopitaka. Almost each chapter has a different translation which has been handed down from ancient times. A systematic search shows that among all published Dunhuang literature, there are a total of 171 pieces of 'Mahāvaipulya Mahāsamghāta Sutra, including 44 in the National Library of China, 10 in la Bibliothèque nationale de France, 27 in the British Library, 75 in Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, the Russian Academy of Sciences, 5 in Gansu (including 2 in Gansu Provincial Museum and 3 in Dunhuang Research Academy), 2 in Tianjin Art Museum (TAM), 3 in Kyou Shoku, 2 in Nakamura Fuestsu, 1 in Annexe of Mitsui Library (AML), 1 in Cathay Bookshop and 1 in the National Taiwan Library (NTL). Compared with photocopies handed down from ancient times, these manuscripts retain more of the original version and are precious literature for the study of 'Mahāvaipulya Mahāsamghāta Sutra. Except 141 pieces in TAM (Volume 4), 13 pieces in NTL, 76 pieces in TAM (Volume 27, corresponding to Volume 47 of 'Taishopitaka), 25 pieces in AML (Volume 29, corresponding to Volume 48 of 'Taishopitaka) and 4 pieces in AML (Volume Ⅹ), all of the remaining 167 pieces are fragments or remnants and are stored in different libraries, which causes difficulties for research. Among the fragments, quite a few are the pieces which were torn apart from the same manuscript. However, there is only one group which has been rejoined by 'Dunhuang Documents Collected by Russia. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done. According to the consistency of content, the mutual agreement of fragments, the same arrangement of thin black lines, similar writing styles or calligraphy and the same contents on the back, etc., 38 fragments of 'Mahāvaipulya Mahāsamghāta Sutra can be rejoined together as 13 groups, i.e., 1. BD9617 ... BD10846 ... BD6812+BD14825CF+BD14825BH; 2. BD7653 ... BD10843+BD11437 ... BD14825BA+BD10540+BD9856; 3. ДХ.6487+ДХ.8050 ... ДХ.18338; 4. ДХ.15327+ДХ.15362+ДХ.15227+ ДХ.12852; 5. BD9793+S.627 ... BD11119; 6. BD11137+ДХ.744 ... BD11017; 7. ДХ.10823A+ДХ.10823B; 8. (ДХ.8962+ДХ.8963)+ДХ.9091; 9. BD11123+BD7438; 10. ДХ.6369A+ДХ.6369B; 11. ДХ.6301+ДХ.6304; 12. ДХ.11332+ДХ.11360; 13. BD11202+BD10555. Patching up the fragments of Dunhuang manuscripts is the basis for further research. By doing so, the original fragments can be reunited, and the wrong data can be corrected on BD9793, BD11119 and S627, etc. in 'Dunhuang Literature in the National Library of China or 'Dunhuang Literature in the British Library. This will pave the way for further denomination, division of periods and collation in the future.
张磊 周小旭. 敦煌本《大方等大集经》残卷缀合研究[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2016, 2(3): 34-.
Zhang Lei Zhou Xiaoxu. Research on patching up the Fragments of Dunhuang Manuscripts Dafangdeng Dajijing. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2016, 2(3): 34-.