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Kaiyuan shijiao lu 開元釋教錄, briefly called Kaiyuan lu 開元錄, is a catalogue of Buddhist writings compiled during the Kaiyuan reign-period 開元 (713-741) of the Tang era 唐 (618-907) by Zhisheng 智昇 (fl. 730). It is, therefore, also known as Zhisheng lu 智昇錄.
The catalogue is divided into two main sections, the General Catalogue (Zongkuo qunjing lu 總括群經錄 or simply Zonglu 總錄), and the Special Catalogue (Fenbie shengzang lu 別分乘藏錄 or Bielu 別錄), each comprising 10 juan. It mentions the names of 176 authors or translators and lists 2,287 works with a total length of 7,046 juan.
The General Catalogue is organised chronologically and records the works translated from the Later Han 後漢 (25-220 CE) to the Tang period, noting the names of translators and whether the scripture was preserved or lost. It also includes brief biographies of the translators and reference lists from earlier scholars.
The Special Catalogue is subdivided into seven categories documenting the Mahāyāna and Theravada scriptures, vinaya texts (monastic rules), and treatises. The catalogue starts with texts used in both Buddhist traditions and of which the original Sanskrit versions exist (You yi you ben lu 有譯有本錄), then goes over to texts without original versions, including lost scriptures (You yi wu ben lu 有譯無本錄); then it lists texts specific to Mahāyāna or Theravada, along with collected commentaries and sub-school catalogues (Zhipai biexing lu 支派別行錄); redundant or variant texts with the same content under different titles (Shanlüe fanchong lu 刪略繁重錄); supplementary records (Buque shiyi lu 補闕拾遺錄); doubtful or uncertain texts (Yihuo zaixiang lu 疑惑再詳錄); and finally, apocryphal or spurious texts (Weiwang luanzhen lu 偽妄亂真錄). The last two volumes of the Special Catalogue (Ru zang lu 入藏錄) form a complete catalogue of Mahāyāna and Theravada scriptures, recording a total of 1,076 works in 5,048 volumes.
The catalogue is highly meticulous in textual verification and well-reasoned in its classification. It was the first to divide the Mahāyāna scriptures into five major collections, namely, Prajñā (Bore 般若), Ratnakūṭa (Baoji 寶積), Daśabhūmika (Daji 大集), Avataṃsaka (Huayan 華嚴), and Nirvāṇa (Niepan 涅槃). Similarly, Theravada scriptures were categorised into four main collections Dīrghāgama (Chang ahan 長阿含), Madhyamāgama (Zhong ahan 中阿含), Ekottarikāgama (Zengyi ahan 增一阿含), and Saṃyuktāgama (Za ahan 雜阿含). Zhisheng‘s catalogue clearly notes which texts had multiple translations and which had only single translations, a system that later became standard for cataloguing the Buddhist canon.
The catalogue is part of the Taisho Tripitaka (T2154).
The catalogue's abridged version, Kaqiyuan shijiao lu lüechu 開元釋教錄略出 (T2155), with a length of 4 juan, mirrors the entries for the Mahāyāna and Theravada scriptures in the full catalogue but uses the Qianziwen 千字文 "Thousand Characters Classic" as an organising method, making retrieval of individual texts easier (roughly, one character corresponds to 10 juan). Zhisheng pioneered this method, which facilitated the organisation, storage, and retrieval of the numerous Buddhist scriptures.
A continuation of Zhisheng's catalogue called Xu Kaiyuan shijiao lu 續開元釋教錄 or Xu Kaiyuan lu 續開元錄, full title Da-Tang Zhenyuan xu Kaiyuan shijiao lu 大唐貞元續開元釋教錄, was compiled in 795 by Yuanzhao 圓照. It has a length of 3 juan, documenting 160 new works in 343 fascicles, compiled into 33 sets (zhi 帙, the text mistakenly lists 345 juan in 30 sets). Most of the works collected in this catalogue are esoteric Buddhist texts, reflecting the trend from exoteric to esoteric translation practices in mid-Tang China.