Kangyurpa

Kangyurpa (bka' 'gyur pa; ch. Guanzhuba) was the General Secretary of the Buddhist Clergy in Songjiang Prefecture by imperial appointment in the early fourteenth century. The office of the Buddhist Clergy was one of the many offices under the administration of the Commission of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Ch. Xuan zheng yuan). The Commission was responsible for the Buddhist affairs of the entire nation as well as local administration of Tibetan areas and was directed by the Imperial Preceptor.

Kangyurpa is thought to be of either Tangut or Tibetan descent, with a Tibetan education. According to a Chinese colophon to a Tangut text found in the Mogao Cave in Dunhuang dated to 1307, he was responsible for directing the printing and distribution of numerous significant Buddhist texts in Chinese, Tangut, and Tibetan script.

Kangyurpa is perhaps most known for the reprinting of the complete edition of the Tangut Tripitaka (ch. Xixiazang) in the Dawanshou Monastery in Hangzhou in 1302 under the imperial command of Khubilai Khan (although Khubilai passed away in 1294). At the completion of printing, Guanzhuba distributed numerous copies to monasteries in areas of the former Tangut state (also known as Xixia). This reprint was based on an edition that was originally printed during the time of the Xixia state (1032-1226). Examining the wood-cut illustrations within both editions of the Tangut Tripitaka, Kangyurpa’s later Tangut Tripitaka show transformations in composition and style that reflect an amalgamation of Tibetan and Chinese elements, where the earlier edition woodcut illustrations from the earlier Tangut Tripitaka that reflect an early Tibetan style influenced by the Indian Pela dynasty.

Kangyurpa also printed Tibetan-language texts of the Gandhatara, Prajñāpāramitā, and Sitatapatra, which he distributed in Tibet.

Additionally, he was responsible for printing the missing esoteric sections of the Jisha edition of the Chinese Tripitaka (ch. Jishazang) from 1306-1307. To finish these sections, he took up donations, collections of funds, as well as used his own personal contributions. He also undertook the task of printing the missing esoteric sections for editions of Tripitakas that he collected from various other provinces.

The continued interest in the Tangut canon during the Yuan more than seven decades after the destruction of the Xixia state at the hands of Chinggis Khan in 1227, demonstrates the continued influence of Tangut culture in the Yuan. The geographic scope of Guanzhuba’s activities, extending from Tibet and Xixia in the west to Fujian and Zhejiang in the east, as well as his printing base in Hangzhou, the cultural capital of the Han Chinese, reveal the pervasive paths of esoteric Buddhism under the Yuan.

Sources

Patricia Berger. 1994. Preserving the Nation: The Political Uses of Tantric Art in China. In Later Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850. Lawrence: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, pp. 89-125.

Karmay, Heather. 1975. Early Sino-Tibetan Art. Aris and Phillips. 1975. pp. 35-42.

Rinchen Trashi. 1990. “Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan Royal Court.” Tibet Studies vol. 2 , no. 2, pp. 1-26.

Eveline S. Yang
February 2010