Geographic Resources for the Study of Chinese Buddhist History

Here are some resources and links for the use of geographic analysis in the study of Chinese Buddhist history. My own data is published under a CC (SA-BY) license. If you find any errors, or would like to contribute other datasets, please get in touch.

Marcus Bingenheimer

October 2016 - now

• Song gaoseng zhuan 宋高僧傳 data, extracted from the Song gaoseng zhuan Project:

  • Online map of Buddhist sites mentioned in the SGSZ (with links to place authority).

  • CSV file of all temples mentioned (Ver.2020-10) in the Song gaoseng zhuan. Example map.

  • CSV file of all temples mentioned more than five times (Ver.2020-10) in the Songgaoseng zhuan. Example map.

• Canxue Zhijin 參學知津 "Knowing the Paths of Pilgrimage":

  • Canxue Zhijin 參學知津 dataset as CSV (1100+ waypoints of 56 pilgrimage routes in Canxue Zhijin by Ruhai Xiancheng 如海顯承). Sample gif map of the whole network. Sample jpeg maps of Route 1, and Routes 30-33.

  • The 1875 text of the 參學知津: 1. As PDF [c.200MB] assembled from scans of the copies in the Fusinian Library and the Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg. 2 As .txt file, including a list of errata in place names we noticed during the georeferencing.

  • Detailed data on the routes leading to and from Mount Jiuhua (Routes 37, 38, 40, 41, 45, 46, 48, 49) collected by Nan Ouyang. Excel file. Released Sept 2017.

  • Overview article on the edition history of 參學知津: ‘Knowing the Paths of Pilgrimage’ - The Network of Pilgrimage Routes in 19th century China according to the Canxue zhijin 參學知津

  • Slides from a talk on 參學知津: The Network of Pilgrimage Routes in 19th century China according to the Canxue zhijin 參學知津

• Gao Henian's 高鶴年 Mingshan youfangji 名山遊訪記.

  • Data as CSV (c.410 waypoints). Created Dec 2016, based on Gao Henian 高鶴年. 2015. Wuzinian gaidingben Mingshan youfang ji 戊子年改訂本 名山遊訪記. Hongkong: Xinyitang 心一堂. Edited by Chen Yingning 陳攖寧 and Pu Tuanzi 蒲團子.
  • Data as QGIS layer-definition .qlr file.

• Georeferenced and dated information on c.5500 Buddhist Temples in Taiwan. Created 2007-2010 at Dharma Drum, this archive in addition contains a CSV file with some of the data that I created for easy use in QGIS.

  • There is also a large image database of Buddhist temples on the Dharma Drum website for this project.
  • This Online map has pop ups with links to the image database

• Dataset on 147 temples and shrines in Shimen and Jinshan district (Northeast Taiwan). This data is the result of a survey taken as part of the Space and Cyberspace workshop (June 2017). The data is archived at the UBC Library.

• The Chinese Historical GIS at Harvard project makes important datasets freely available.

• Dharma Drum maintains an large database of Buddhist place names that includes many (6000+) geo-referenced temple names.

• Two datasets which contain a lot of Buddhist place names (already referenced to the Dharma Drum database):
  • Buddhist biographies: https://github.com/DILA-edu/biographies
  • The marked-up selection of the temple gazetteer archive: http://buddhistinformatics.dila.edu.tw/fosizhi/

home