Feng Dian'an 馮奠安 and Zhao Wanli's 趙萬里 Discovery of Puning Canon 普寧藏 in Famen Temple 法門寺

Hariti Statue

The fragments of Puning Canon in China National Library mentioned in my previous posted are cataloged as 宗211 in Beihai branch library and have 16 half pages in total. It was actually sent to Beijing around 1965 by a Communist official Feng Dian'an 馮奠安 (zi. Gongyi 公異) in Fufeng county 扶風縣. (Another letter says some one wanted to pay a good deal to buy these fragments but he refused.) He wrote a long note to explain his discovery. He thought this is a Buddhist scriptural catalog which was collated during the Later Zhou dynasty and was inserted into the mud statue of the page boy of Goddess of Nine Sons （Hariti) 九子母侍童 in Famen Temple 法門寺 in 1045. (or 九子鬼母 Hariti, Chinese name 诃梨帝母) It survived the savage of the late Ming peasant rebellion but was destroyed by local students at the time of the Communist liberation. This scripture was taken out from the mud statue and burnt. Only a few pages survived and were smeared with abusive inked words on the back. (More on this in the future.) Therefore, Mr. Feng sent it to Beijing for further examination. It seems that Mr. Zhao Wanli 趙萬里（1905—1980）, a famous Chinese bibliographer, examined these fragments and said it is actually a Yuan print. He noted the date is Sept. 1965. I was not allowed to take photos of these handwritten letters and only have partial transcriptions from my notes.

此佛經目錄系五代後周勘定，宋慶曆五年塑入扶風縣法門寺九子母侍童泥腹中，至今已近千年，（查此像曾經兩次劫火，一為元末此經實系元刻本，以上說法均妄。萬里記。六五年九月記【此處系趙萬里先生手跡】兵燹，一為明末高迎祥驅逐法門寺三百懶僧，放火燒寺）屹然完好。解放時曾被鄉村學生毀壞，取出此經目錄。大部認為是迷信東西，取火燒掉，僅余這幾頁，亦塗抹墨污，極可惜。奠安從小學生手中索來保存至今。究竟在於古上有多大價值。諸同志與專家研究一下，來信示知為荷。

馮奠安


五月十八日信 （節錄）：

維動兄：
“馮公異（奠安）老師今日由家赴賈家坡過此，順便將他收藏的古經目錄交我，要我轉寄你。請你轉給有關考古方面的同志。該經馮老師曾在太原與省府某同志談及，彼愿以高價收買。馮老師以為是扶風的，未便給予。”