Platform Sutra - History of The Text

History of The Text

The Platform Sutra underwent various redactions. Though its recollection has been attributed to Fa-hai, a student of Huineng, its origins are not clear:

The early development of the Platform Sutra is shrouded in the mists of time, and we will probably never know much for certain about it. The Dunhuang version of the text, the earliest complete edition we have, is almost certainly a product of a long evolution with elements coming together from several different Chan groups with different agendas, as the uneven character of the text and its internal inconsistencies attest.

The Dunhuang versions are the oldest texts available. Two copies dated to between 830 and 860 have been found in the Mogao Caves. Both are thought to be based on an edition from about 780. The finds at Dunhuang have been very important for the historical understanding of Zen:

Scholarship on early Chan was transformed after the discovery in the beginning of the twentieth century of a number of texts relating to the early Chan movement in the cave library at Dunhuang, which also contained an early version of the Platform Sutra.

In 1056, the Chinese monk Qisong produced a larger edition.

In 1291, Tsungpao produced the edition that became part of the Ming Dynasty Chinese Buddhist canon. This canonical version, apparently based on the Qisong edition, is about a third longer than the Mogao Caves version, and structured differently.