Abstract: Biographies of monks in the Han areas created in the Jin and Han Dynasties (265-907) belong to the category of “biographies of northern figures,” an analogy to “biographies of the western regions,” in terms of classification standards. They serve as important evidence for organizing historical literature regarding middle-ancient Buddhist history and culture of China. These biographies included in both historical chronicles and Buddhist scriptures, though duplicate, confusing or unverifiable to varying degrees, can provide us with comparatively reliable lists of related literature according to their different academic and theoretic perspectives. By comparing these lists, and then comparing them against catalogues of Tripittaka, Dunhuang Treasures Directories and other supplemented lists, it is possible to obtain the system status, aggregate number and information on both lost and existing volumes of these biographies. In addition, biographies appearing in both kinds of lists, thanks to painstaking efforts of Buddhist scholars in the Tang Dynasty, can be deemed as true and complete. Studying their distribution from the perspective of classical bibliography can help gain a comprehensive view of the Buddhist literature and history to further promote cultural and historical studies.

Key words: directory of historical chronicles, Buddhist scripture, biography of monk in the Han area in the Jin and Tang Dynasties, comparison