Buddhist monasteries · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Zhaocheng canon

The Jin Buddhist canon, carved on wood blocks at the Tianning Temple in Shanxi from about 1149 through donations gathered by Cui Fazhen and her followers (Wikipedia).

The Asia Society note dates the printing between 1149 and 1173, and the one surviving set was deposited at the Guangsheng Temple (Upper and Lower) at Zhaocheng, in Hongdong county north of Pingyang, where it was rediscovered in 1933; that is why it is called the Zhaocheng canon. Wikipedia adds that Kublai Khan later presented the canon to the Guangsheng Temple. From memory, not in the English pages we read: the carving house was the Tianning Temple at Jie zhou (Xie zhou, by the Jie salt lake), Cui Fazhen was a nun of Lu'an, and the blocks were handed to the court at Zhongdu in 1173.

The assignment places the canon "workshop" at Guangsheng; the sources we read put the carving at the Tianning Temple and the surviving set at Guangsheng. Pingyang's print shops carry on the book trade of the region.

Who holds it

Title
Heads of the Tianning Temple and of the Guangsheng Temple; not known
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

No source consulted dates the office-holder for the winter of 1199-1200.

Overlord

The Jin court, through the prefect and the Bureau of Rites; the house is registered and taxed like other Chinese religious houses

What it holds

  • The Guangsheng Temples at Zhaocheng
  • The Tianning Temple (the carving house)
  • The printing tradition of Pingyang

How it was acquired

Over many centuries; the dates of the present endowments are not known.

Allies and rivals

Patron: the Jin court and the local officials; no quarrel is known.

How things stand that morning

The carving is finished by 1173 on the sources we read; the Guangsheng Temple stands. Heads not known.

Wealth

Temple estates, tenants and alms in the usual pattern; no figures given by any source we could read.

Military

None; a religious house with no armed monks known.

Threats

  • The Jin's occasional restrictions on religious houses (sales of certificates, limits on new foundations).

Places of note

  • Jie zhou (Xie zhou) Tianning Temple: Where the canon was cut, from memory (position within the town not pinned)
  • Guangsheng Temple: Where the surviving set was found in 1933

Where the sources disagree

  • The assignment says "the Zhaocheng Jin canon workshop (Guangsheng Temple)". The English sources read say the carving was at the Tianning Temple and the surviving set at Guangsheng; from memory the Tianning Temple stood at Jie zhou.

Evidence: The carving at the Tianning Temple around 1149 (Wikipedia), the printing span 1149-1173 and the deposit at Guangsheng (Asia Society) and the 1933 rediscovery (Wikipedia) are in the English pages read. The Jie zhou location of the Tianning Temple, Cui Fazhen's home and the 1173 transfer to Zhongdu are from memory and unverified. Nothing dated for 1200.

On the map: The drawing is approximate; no estate boundaries are known.

Primary sources for Jin empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
  • Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
  • Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
  • Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
  • Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
  • The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
  • History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, Zhaocheng Jin Tripitaka
  2. Wikipedia, Guangsheng Temple
  3. Asia Society, Visible Traces rare books: Greater Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom, Jin Tripitaka

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.