Chinese Collections in the Digital Library: introduction to a special issue

Brian Bruya

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Moving into XML Functionality: The Combined Digital Dictionaries of Buddhism and East Asian Literary Terms

Charles Muller, Michael Beddow

A report on the new developments in the online Digital Dictionary of Buddhism and CJK-English Dictionary, focusing on their implementation in XML.The paper is in two parts: 1. Project Manager's Report, by Charles Muller 2. Delivering CJK Dictionaries from Pure XML Sources: A Developer's Perspective, by Michael Beddow

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Chinese Buddhist texts for the new Millenium — The Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) and its Digital Tripitaka

Christian Wittern

This paper deals mostly with work by the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) in preparing an electronic edition of a large collection of Chinese Buddhist texts. A short opening section about the history and significance of these texts is followed by a sketch of the digitization efforts prior to the CBETA project. The main part of the paper provides some background on the organizational structure and aims of CBETA, and then describes key aspects of the CBETA project, which are, among others: focus on quality assurance of existing electronic data, not foremost on input; reliance on open standards like the TEI Guidelines, XML and Unicode. The paper closes with an assessment of open questions, including the different formats for distribution of texts currently used by CBTEA, the reasons for their choice and the problems encountered. This will also touch on some more general questions concerning the distribution and continuing development of electronic ressources.

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Linking Chan/Seon/Zen Figures and Their Texts: Problems and Developments in the Construction of a Relational Database

Michel Mohr

Issues related to the construction of a database on Buddhist historical figures and their written legacy are discussed in the paper, which deliberately takes the researcher's point of view, reviewing concrete examples rather than elaborating on technical issues. One part of the IRIZ "Zen Knowledge Base" project initiated by Urs App is to establish a unique ID number for each Chan/Seon/Zen figure, thereby enabling each author to be linked with the extant documents. The primary stages of this project having now been completed, the paper presents some initial results and working hypotheses [see endnote], and reflects on wider issues related to the digitization of Buddhist research materials.

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CHANT (CHinese ANcient Texts): a comprehensive database of all ancient Chinese texts up to 600 AD

Che Wah Ho

The CHinese ANcient Texts (CHANT) database is a long-term project which began in 1988 to build up a comprehensive database of all ancient Chinese texts up to the sixth century AD. The project is near completion and the entire database, which includes both traditional and excavated materials, will be released on the CHANT Web site (www.chant.org) in mid-2002. With more than a decade of experience in establishing an electronic Chinese literary database, we have gained much insight useful to the development of similar databases in the future. We made use of the best available versions of all texts, noting variant readings in footnotes. The biggest problem we encountered is the inclusion of rare and obsolete Chinese characters. For excavated materials, we also have to incorporate a considerable number of inscriptions in the original oracle bones and bronze forms. Since we started building the database, information technology has advanced so rapidly that we had to upgrade the technical devices already in use in the database. Unification of different sub-databases is also a daunting task. To maintain our competitive edge over free online Chinese databases, we need to continue developing new databases employing the existing ones.

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