Tripitaka Koreana: 80,000 Woodblocks Carved in Goryeo

The Tripitaka Koreana is a complete collection of the Buddhist scriptures carved in reverse on more than 81,000 wooden printing blocks in Goryeo Korea between 1236 and 1251. It was made during the Mongol invasions as a prayer for the protection of the kingdom, after the Mongols had burned an earlier set. Kept today at Haeinsa temple in South Korea, it is the oldest and most complete surviving set of woodblocks of the Buddhist canon in the world.

What is a Tripitaka?

Tripitaka is a Sanskrit word meaning “three baskets”. It refers to the three main divisions of Buddhist scripture: the sutras, or teachings of the Buddha; the vinaya, or rules for monks and nuns; and the abhidharma, or philosophical commentaries. In East Asia the canon grew to include thousands of texts translated into Chinese and works by Chinese scholars.

Woodblock printing of Buddhist texts was already centuries old, as the Diamond Sutra of 868 shows, but printing the whole canon was a huge undertaking that only states could afford. The first complete printed edition, the Kaibao canon, was produced in China between 971 and 983. The kingdom of Goryeo, founded in 918, obtained copies and, in the 11th century, carved its own edition, partly as a religious defence against invasions by the Khitan Liao dynasty.

Background: war with the Mongols

In 1231 the Mongol Empire invaded Goryeo, beginning almost three decades of war described in the article on the Mongol invasions of Korea. In 1232 the court, led by the military dictator Choe U, fled to Ganghwa Island. The same year Mongol troops burned Buinsa temple near Daegu, where the 11th-century woodblocks were stored, and the first Korean canon was lost.

King Gojong and his court decided to make a new set. A text by the scholar-official Yi Gyu-bo, written in the king’s name, explains the reasoning: the first canon had been carved when the Khitans invaded, and the Khitans had withdrawn; now, the king hoped, a new canon would bring the same protection against the Mongols. The project was both an act of faith and a statement that the dynasty and its culture would survive.

How it was made

The court set up a special office, the Daejanggyeong Dogam (Directorate for the Great Canon), on Ganghwa Island, with a branch office in the south of the peninsula. Work began in 1236, and the dates carved on the blocks themselves run from 1237 to 1248; the completed set was celebrated in 1251. Wood, mostly from mountain cherry and pear trees according to modern analysis, was cut, soaked and dried to prevent warping and cracking.

Calligraphers wrote the text on thin paper, which was pasted face down on the boards so that carvers could cut the characters in reverse. Each block is about 70 cm long and 24 cm high and weighs roughly 3 to 4 kg, with text on both sides and wooden end pieces to keep the surfaces from touching. The blocks were then coated in lacquer and fitted with metal corners.

The scholar-monk Sugi directed the editing. He compared the old Korean edition with the Chinese Kaibao canon and the Khitan canon and wrote detailed notes on errors and differences. As a result the Tripitaka Koreana is famous for its accuracy: about 52 million Chinese characters across more than 1,500 titles, with remarkably few mistakes.

Moving to Haeinsa

The blocks were stored on Ganghwa Island until the late 14th century, when coastal raids by Japanese pirates made the island unsafe. In 1398, early in the Joseon dynasty, they were moved to Haeinsa, a major temple on Mount Gaya in the south-east. The two long storage halls built for them there, the Janggyeong Panjeon, date from the 15th century; they were rebuilt in 1488.

The halls are simple wooden buildings, but their design is highly effective. Windows of different sizes on the front and back walls keep air flowing, and a floor of clay mixed with charcoal, lime and salt absorbs or releases moisture as needed. Haeinsa survived the Japanese invasions of the 1590s and several fires that damaged other parts of the temple, and the blocks remain in excellent condition.

Legacy

The Tripitaka Koreana became the standard text of the Buddhist canon in East Asia. Japanese rulers repeatedly asked Joseon Korea for printed copies in the 14th to 16th centuries, and the Taishō edition of the canon, published in Japan in 1924-1934 and still used by scholars worldwide, was based largely on the Korean text.

The storage halls were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995, and the woodblocks were added to the Memory of the World Register in 2007. The blocks are also a South Korean National Treasure, and a digital edition now makes the text freely available. In the 20th century there were proposals to move the collection to modern climate-controlled storage, but tests suggested that the traditional halls protect them as well as any modern building.

By the numbers

Key people

• Gojong (1192-1259): King of Goryeo, in whose name the new canon was ordered.
• Choe U (died 1249): military dictator who controlled the court and backed the project.
• Sugi: monk-scholar who edited the text and compared it with Chinese and Khitan editions.
• Yi Gyu-bo (1168-1241): scholar-official who wrote the royal prayer explaining the purpose of the canon.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the woodblocks are made of birch. Fact: this was long believed, but modern wood analysis has shown that most blocks are made of mountain cherry and wild pear, with smaller numbers of other species.
• Myth: the Tripitaka Koreana was carved at Haeinsa. Fact: it was carved under the court’s direction during the Mongol wars and was only moved to Haeinsa in 1398.
• Myth: every block is original. Fact: some blocks were damaged or recarved over the centuries, and supplementary texts were added later, which is why slightly different totals are given.

During the Korean War, Haeinsa is said to have been spared in 1951 when a South Korean air force officer, Kim Young-hwan, refused an order to bomb the area around the temple; a memorial at Haeinsa honours him. The story is widely accepted in South Korea, although accounts differ in their details.

Timeline

• 1011-1087: The first Korean edition of the canon is carved.
• 1231: The Mongols invade Goryeo.
• 1232: The first canon is destroyed at Buinsa temple.
• 1236: Work on a new canon begins under King Gojong.
• 1251: Completion of the new canon is celebrated on Ganghwa Island.
• 1398: The blocks are moved to Haeinsa temple.
• 1488: The Janggyeong Panjeon storage halls are rebuilt.
• 1995: The storage halls become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 2007: The woodblocks join UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

Why it matters

The Tripitaka Koreana is one of the great achievements of medieval printing and scholarship, made at a moment when Korea was under attack. It preserves the Buddhist scriptures in an exceptionally accurate form, and its survival for nearly eight centuries is a testament to the craftsmanship of both its carvers and the builders of Haeinsa.