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Under review

Chinese translation of the whole Pali Tipiṭaka is now online at CBETA

Qianxi 10 years ago updated by Sujato Bhikkhu 10 years ago 7
Chinese translation of the Pali Tipiṭaka in 70 volumes 漢譯南傳大藏經, published 1990-1998 by 元亨寺, Kaohsiung, Taiwan has been digitised and put online at cbeta.org.  It is a Chinese translation of a Japanese translation from the Pali (Takakusu Junjiro 高楠順次郎 (ed.) 南伝大蔵経, published 1935-41)

Here it is (unfortunately this page just lists numbered volumes without indication of contents):
http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N
List of contents here:
http://www.cbeta.org/news/20121225.php#note2

Contains the Vinaya, the five Nikayas, the seven books of the Abhidhamma, and some other works like the Visuddhimagga, Questions of Milinda and Dīpavamsa.

Having all this online and freely available could be quite a significant moment in modern Chinese Buddhism, who knows.  Only time will tell.

It seems like this is only hosted on the new version of the CBETA site (tripitaka.cbeta.org rather than www.cbeta.org linked to on suttacentral).  I'm not sure whether you still have the ability to link to specific lines of text in the new version, as you do in the old.
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In the new CBETA you can still hash link to a line (eg. http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T01n0001_017#0107a20 ) but i'm not sure if you can get it to turn red like you can in the old version (eg. http://www.cbeta.org/cgi-bin/goto.pl?linehead=T01n0001_p0107a20 )

I've got a little free time in the next few weeks, if it would help I wouldn't mind going through the Chinese translation of the Pali Tipiṭaka and finding the locations of the individual suttas.
eg.
DN 1 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_001#0001a01
DN 2 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_002#0054a01
...
AN 11.20 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N25n0007_012#0308a06
AN 11.21 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N25n0007_012#0309a13
etc. (The Chinese translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya at CBETA is numbered according to the numbering listed in grey square brackets here http://suttacentral.net/an11.20 so my link next to AN 11.20 above actually takes you to a sutta numbered 21 on the Chinese page)

I could work through all the suttas in the nikayas and post the links up here like that, if that would help.
Under review
Hi Qianxi,

Thanks so much for this, it is really useful. I was kindly sent a copy of the latest CBETA CD a couple of weeks ago by Ven Dhammadinna, and I've had the chance to have a look at it. I extracted the XML files, but they're pretty hard to work with directly. But I didn't know that they were on the website already, which is fantastic. Congratulations to CBETA for making this happen!

Your offer of help is greatly appreciated, and I would definitely like to take you up on it. However, we don't, as a rule, link to sites any more, we prefer to host the texts ourselves. So the existing links to CBETA that we have are legacy only, and we mean to replace them with our own files as soon as we can. I've already done this with the Vinayas, and hope to do the Agamas in the next couple of months.

So if you could help us, in any capacity, with this that would be great. Rather than supplying links, though, what would be really useful is some help in preparing the files for SuttaCentral. In fact, one of the main difficulties is identifying the little discrepancies, such as you noted above in the AN numbers. If you could help us get this together, we could get these translations happening on SC without too much problem.
"what would be really useful is some help in preparing the files for SuttaCentral."

I'd be happy to try, what kind of thing is required?  I'm not too familiar with XML CSS or HTML, nor do I know how to use programming language to efficiently batch edit text files, but I can copy and paste, do find=>replace on notepad, enter data into a template and check for errors!  If you would like to send me some templates to fill or files to check, then do email anotherDELETETHISoliATgmailONEDOTcom

A couple of things I have just noticed: http://suttacentral.net/zh/da21 is showing the text of Taisho 21.  It should be showing DA 21, ie. part of the text from Taisho 1 scroll 14.  The Taisho numbers in square brackets under the DA listings http://suttacentral.net/da are wrong after DA 8 (presuming the notation is [T SutraNumber.ScrollNumber]).  DA 9 does not start on scroll 9 it starts on scroll 8 [T 1.8].

Personally I don't think that putting gaps between the Chinese characters as you have done http://suttacentral.net/zh/zh-mg-bu-vb-pj1 helps with readability.  I find the spacing used on http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002 easier to read.
I'll post some links to the Chinese translation of the Pali canon, just for reference.  In theory I think it should be possible to automatically extract the title and text of each sutta with this info - the link is always to the line of text containing the sutta title.
DN 1 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_001#0001a01
DN 2 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_002#0054a01
DN 3 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_003#0099a01
DN 4 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_004#0126a01
DN 5 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_005#0143a01
DN 6 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_006#0164a01
DN 7 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_007#0175a01
DN 8 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_008#0176a01
DN 9 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_009#0195a01
DN 10 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_010#0220a01
DN 11 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_011#0227a01
DN 12 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_012#0239a01
DN 13 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_013#0250a01
DN 14 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N06n0004_014#0272a01
DN 15 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_015#0001a01
DN 16 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_016#0021a01
DN 17 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_017#0128a01
DN 18 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_018#0160a01
DN 19 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_019#0179a01
DN 20 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_020#0212a01
DN 21 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_021#0243a01
DN 22 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_022#0275a01
DN 23 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N07n0004_023#0300a01
DN 24 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_024#0001a01
DN 25 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_025#0036a01
DN 26 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_026#0055a01
DN 27 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_027#0075a01
DN 28 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_028#0092a01
DN 29 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_029#0112a01
DN 30 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_030#0138a01
DN 31 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_031#0181a01
DN 32 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_032#0200a01
DN 33 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_033#0225a01
DN 34 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N08n0004_034#0283a01

MN 1 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0001a11
MN 2 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0007a02
MN 3 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0014a02
MN 4 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0020a02
MN 5 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0030a02
MN 6 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0041a02
MN 7 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0045a02
MN 8 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0051a02
MN 9 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0060a02
MN 10 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_001#0073a02
MN 11 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0082a02
MN 12 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0089a02
MN 13 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0109a02
MN 14 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0117a02
MN 15 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0125a02
MN 16 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0137a02
MN 17 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0144a02
MN 18 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0150a02
MN 19 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0160a02
MN 20 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_002#0168a02
MN 21 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0173a05
MN 22 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0184a02
MN 23 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0202a02
MN 24 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0206a02
MN 25 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0213a02
MN 26 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0224a02
MN 27 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0243a02
MN 28 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0254a02
MN 29 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0263a02
MN 30 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_003#0271a02
MN 31 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0280a05
MN 32 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0288a02
MN 33 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0297a02
MN 34 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0303a02
MN 35 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0307a02
MN 36 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0319a02
MN 37 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0340a02
MN 38 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0346a02
MN 39 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0364a02
MN 40 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N09n0005_004#0376a02
MN 41 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0001a05
MN 42 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0008a02
MN 43 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0010a02
MN 44 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0019a02
MN 45 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0027a02
MN 46 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0033a02
MN 47 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0042a02
MN 48 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0047a02
MN 49 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0054a02
MN 50 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_005#0063a02
MN 51 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0074a08
MN 52 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0088a02
MN 53 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0094a02
MN 54 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0101a02
MN 55 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0113a02
MN 56 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0117a02
MN 57 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0137a02
MN 58 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0143a02
MN 59 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0149a02
MN 60 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_006#0155a02
MN 61 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0172a05
MN 62 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0180a02
MN 63 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0188a02
MN 64 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0196a02
MN 65 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0202a02
MN 66 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0215a02
MN 67 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0227a02
MN 68 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0234a02
MN 69 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0243a02
MN 70 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_007#0249a02
MN 71 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_008#0260a05
MN 72 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_008#0264a02
MN 73 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_008#0272a02
MN 74 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_008#0283a02
MN 75 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_008#0289a02
MN 76 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N10n0005_008#0304a02
MN 77 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_009#0001a02
MN 78 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_009#0022a02
MN 79 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_009#0029a02
MN 80 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_009#0041a02
MN 81 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0047a05
MN 82 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0057a02
MN 83 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0079a02
MN 84 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0088a02
MN 85 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0097a02
MN 86 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0104a02
MN 87 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0115a02
MN 88 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0122a02
MN 89 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0128a02
MN 90 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_010#0135a02
MN 91 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0144a05
MN 92 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0157a02
MN 93 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0158a02
MN 94 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0170a02
MN 95 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0177a02
MN 96 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0190a02
MN 97 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0198a02
MN 98 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0209a02
MN 99 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0210a02
MN 100 http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/N11n0005_011#0224a02
wow, amazing, thanks. I'll contact you via email to continue the discussion.

Regarding the spacing, thanks for the feedback. Allow me to explain the background to this choice.

One of the things I've done for SuttaCentral is to research the way that traditional typography is done for these texts. In old Chinese manuscripts, the text is often laid out in square grids. This isn't always the case, but it does seem as if the original form of the written Chinese language was as a series of characters each of which had its own square in a theoretical grid. Of course the texts were also written in descending lines, so it's not the same as modern usage.

In modern web typography the grid is usually ignored and characters are just laid out side by side. This follows the conventions of Roman text typography, but there is an important difference. In text that uses Roman characters, a series of glyphs together make up a word, which is distinguished from the words around it by spaces. The absence of spaces between letters helps the eye to see each word as a distinct entity.

In Chinese, by way of contrast, each glyph is (more or less) a word, that is, a distinct semantic entity (there are of course exceptions to this.) And this is why, it seems to me, Chinese characters most naturally prefer the breathing space that a square grid provides.

However, this is all theory. I'm not a Chinese speaker, and my reading skills are virtually non-existent. At the end of the day, the typography is in service of the reader, and if the reader's experience is not good, the typography is not working. Fortunately, the space is added with a single CSS rule, so it's trivial to change.

It would be good, though, to seek the opinions of a few different readers to guide the decision. I wonder whether the fact that you find it easier without the spacing has something to do with the horizontal flow rather than the traditional vertical flow? Or is it, perhaps, just something that changes with the times, so that everyone today is used to seeing the characters without spaces?
I should say that i'm not a native speaker of Chinese, but I do spend a lot of time reading it in books and online.  I'd be interested to hear what someone educated in a Chinese speaking country thinks.

I'm not sure that Chinese naturally goes in a grid pattern.  Here's a page from a 1239 Song dynasty printing of the Buddhist canon, here's a page of the Dīrghāgama from the 1251 Korean printing of the canon on which the Taisho canon is based.  You can see that in the vertical lines each character almost touches the preceding and following characters, whereas there is clear space between the vertical lines.

I'd say the natural layout of Chinese was formed when it was written by hand on vertical strips of bamboo.  There characters were only of an approximately fixed width(height), and there was not a fixed number of characters per vertical line.  So it's all about the vertical line, there's no hint of a horizontal+vertical grid-like alignment.

I think the reason why bunched together characters are easier to read (in the case of Buddhist texts at least) is that it makes it easier to recognise compounds and set phrases.  Just as in English you don't read familiar words letter by letter, so familiar compounds of Chinese characters (like 阿難 for Ananda, 涅槃 for nirvana, 世尊 for Bhagavan 如來 for Tathagata, and so on) can be visualised as a whole and read as a whole.  With the convenience of the Taisho punctuation, whole phrases such as ."..。佛告諸比丘。" '...The Buddha told the Bhikkhus', can be picked out by the eye and read as a whole in a similar way to reading a single English word.  This only really works if there is a clear contrast between the ordinary spacing between characters and the spacing between punctuated phrases.

All good points, I have to admit. I had been using things like this manuscript from Dunhuang as template. I can't really say, but it does seem as if the "vertical lines" layout is more common. But it is definitely a good point about the conjoined characters used for Indic terms; it was in fact these that I was thinking of when I said there were exceptions to the rule that each character is one word. Perhaps the ideal thing would be to group characters semantically; but this would be a vast job, and not really in line with how the characters are used. I'll seek feedback from some other users, and make the change if it seems useful.