In February 1998 a group of researchers met in Taipei under the auspices of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the National Taiwan University and created the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) under the leadership of Professor Ven. Hengjing and Ven. Huimin. The immediate aim was to digitise the Chinese Tripitaka and distribute it free of charge. For that purpose CBETA received the copyright for electronic publication from the Japanese publishing house that produces the standard Taishō edition.[43] Though the scope of the project was challenging, the work was completed successfully in only three years. Today a CD on which the Taishō volumes 1-55 & 85 are available in different formats is distributed by CBETA. These volumes comprise all texts by Indian and Chinese authors in the Chinese canon.

 

The digitisation of the Chinese script is comparatively more difficult than that of texts in an alphabetical language. The most immediate problem was how to cope with the many so-called ‘missing characters” (quezi) that are not available in any of the current fonts. Various strategies had to be devised to make sure the user of the digital version can view even the strangest version of a Chinese character exactly as it appeared in print. The “missing characters” were described in co-operation with the Mojikyō Project.[44] For the digitisation CBETA used a XML compatible mark-up the standard developed by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), which has proved to be a suitable solution. As a result the digital version of the Chinese canon is now extremely flexible and it is e.g. possible to link different the original with other Tripitakas, different versions of one Tripitaka, translations or even research papers.

 

The challenge of digitising the Buddhist canonical scriptures has to be seen in the larger context of the communication revolution we are experiencing. As our understanding of what a “text” is slowly changes with the advent of digital text, it is obvious – though not widely discussed – that Buddhist studies and the humanities in general will be deeply influenced by these changes. For the time being we might still look at a CD as a digital copy of some authoritative book. Soon, however, books may become a printed snap-shot of a digital “text”, which in turn will be more open, more complex and (hopefully) more accessible than any of our canons were in the past. This is, however, not only a technological question, but also something to be willed and decided on a social and political level. The current trend in the interpretation of copyright for instance, is neither in the interest of the public nor the author, but heavily skewed towards the purely financial interests of media corporations. If this trend continues, the chance to greater freedom and availability of information will be wasted. Nevertheless there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the changes the age of digital text will bring. Among other things, one consequence that is to be expected is a certain empowerment of the reader. Because digital text, once produced, needs but a computer to be stored, used and developed, its potential availability is far greater than that of books. Since our work is usually financed by the public, it is part of our academic responsibility to make the results available to as many people as possible. The trouble is that the usual way of publication via expensive journals and books makes sure that a majority of the world’s population will not be able to access the results of our research. Digital publication, rightly used, might contribute to diminish the information inequality that mars global society just as deeply as economic inequality for which it is partially responsible.[45]

4. Conclusion

From the above one can see that Taiwan has emerged as a centre of Buddhism as well as of Buddhist studies. For now, Taiwan is a place where Chinese Buddhism is, allowed to seek its own path into so-called modernity. Free, after many centuries of governmental control and Confucian hegemony, Chinese Buddhism on Taiwan has again found a favourable environment to prosper and develop.

Literature:

Chandler, Christopher Stuart: Establishing a pureland on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist perspective on modernization and globalization (China, Taiwan). PhD-dissertation Harvard University, 2000. 397 pages.

Chen Meihua (= Chern, Meei-Hwa) 陳美華: “Linglei dianfan: dangdai Taiwan biqiuni de shehui shijian另類典範﹕當代台灣比丘尼的社會實踐 [The other paradigm: The social practice of Taiwanese Buddhist nuns.]” Zongjiao zhuantong yu shehui shijian zhongxing yantaohui宗教傳統與社會實踐中型研討會. Taipei: Institute for Ethnical Studies Academia Sinica中央研究院民族研究所, 1999.

Chern, Meei-Hwa: Encountering Modernity: Buddhist Nuns in Postwar Taiwan. Unpublished PhD-thesis. Temple University NY, 2000.

Günzel, Marcus: Die Taiwan-Erfahrung des chinesischen Sangha. Göttingen: Seminar für Indologie und Buddhismuskunde, 1998.