6th International Symposium Oriental Studies

73 The 6 th International Symposium on Oriental Ancient Documents Studies collection of Ancient and Modern Buddhist and Taoist Disquisitions] 續集古今佛道論衡 (in 1  juan ). The other 7 lines contain phrases that seem to be written out from extracts of two lost scriptures ( Diwangshiji 帝王世紀 by Huangfu Mi 皇甫谧 (215–282) and Zhoushu yiji 周書異記 ) cited in Xuji gujin fo dao lunheng. Therefore it is not unreasonable to assume that the whole “preface” was compiled from Xuji gujin fo dao lunheng. Besides, there is some dubious evidence about Nirvā ṇ a-sūtra digests found in Ikeda On’s “Collected colophons of ancient Chinese manuscripts” (1990). The colophon of a certain lost Nirvā ṇ a-sūtra manuscript dated AD 721 reads: “ On the 13th day of the 12th month of 9th year of Kaiyuan reign, Ma Fenglu slightly extracted the essentials from this sūtra ”. There are no grounds to claim that these digests in the Beijing collection are the “essentials” made by a certain Ma Fenglu in 721 (even the authenticity of that colophon is dubious). At least it stands in the line of mss. 北敦 6363 which should had been written after Zhisheng’s Xuji gujin fo dao lunheng approximately in the Kayuan era (713–741). Thus we can assume that there are some evidences of compilation Nirvā ṇ a- sūtra digests dated after 713 which can give a clue for further investigation. Key words: Nirvana sutra, Mahāparinirvā ṇ a-mahāsūtra, Dunhuang manuscripts, digests of sutras, 北敦  6363