The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (535 page)

(Chin.,
San-ts'ang
, ‘Triple Treasury’, or
Ta Ts'ang-ching
, ‘Great Treasury of Scriptures’). The collection of
Buddhist scriptures
in Chinese. It contains versions of most of the texts found in the Tripi
aka with the addition of
Mah
y
na
s
tras
, commentaries, histories, biographies, encyclopaedias, and even some non-Buddhist writings. The number of texts is not fixed. Various editions have appeared since the 1st printed edn. in 10th cent. CE. The most commonly used is the
Taish
Shinsh
Daiz
ky
(Tokyo, 1924–9 and reprs.) containing 2,184 texts in 55 vols. In 1982 the State Council of the Peoples' Republic of China established the Chinese Tripitaka Editorial Bureau, charged with producing a new version, which is projected to contain 4,100 texts in 220 vols.

 
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(Chin., ‘semen’). One of the three life forces in Taoism, the others being
ch'i
(breath) and
shen
(conscious mind). Ching is both semen and the menstrual flow, not so much in their literal manifestation, as in the power inherent in them.

 
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(Chin., ‘clear and bright’). The fifth of the twenty-four periods of the Chinese solar
calendar
. It is also the name of the festival which is additionally called ‘the sweeping of the tombs’: families sweep and tidy the graves of ancestors, offering food to them—and afterwards consuming food with them near the site.

 
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