Primary Source Index for East Asian Interpretations of Catuṣkoṭi: A Digital Humanities Research Dataset

The Primary Source Index for East Asian Interpretations of Catuṣkoṭi is a digital humanities research dataset documenting the principal East Asian Buddhist primary sources examined in Reinterpreting Catuṣkoṭi in Contemporary Philosophy: Tensions between Non-Classical Logic and East Asian Buddhist Soteriology (Green 2025). The dataset provides structured metadata describing historical figures, canonical texts, doctrinal concepts, and philosophical relationships associated with catuṣkoṭi (tetralemma) in Chinese Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism. It is designed to support research in Buddhist philosophy, East Asian Buddhism, comparative philosophy, Buddhist logic, and the digital humanities. Version 1.0 focuses on four influential East Asian Buddhist thinkers: Jizang (549–623), Zhiyi (538–597), Kuiji (632–682), and Gomyō (fl. ninth century). Their writings represent the Sanlun, Tiantai, Faxiang, and Hossō traditions and provide distinctive interpretations of catuṣkoṭi, śūnyatā (emptiness), the Middle Way, Yogācāra, and Buddhist soteriology. Each record includes standardized metadata for authors, original-language titles, canonical references, doctrinal themes, philosophical functions, and relationships to both primary sources and modern scholarship. Rather than functioning as a conventional bibliography, the dataset is organized as a normalized relational database consisting of linked authority tables for persons, works, passages, concepts, interpretations, comparative claims, bibliographic references, and article crosswalks. Persistent identifiers and controlled vocabularies enable researchers to trace relationships among historical figures, canonical texts, philosophical concepts, and contemporary scholarship while minimizing duplication and supporting interoperability with digital research environments. The dataset was developed according to digital humanities principles emphasizing interoperability, transparency, long-term preservation, machine-readable metadata, and FAIR data practices. It is intended for researchers in Buddhist studies, Chinese philosophy, Japanese intellectual history, Buddhist logic, comparative philosophy, religious studies, library and information science, and digital humanities. The structured metadata are suitable for bibliographic research, text annotation, semantic search, linked open data, digital editions, knowledge graph construction, educational resources, and artificial intelligence applications involving scholarly metadata. The dataset is designed as an expandable research infrastructure. Future versions may incorporate additional primary sources from East Asian, Indian, Tibetan, Korean, and Southeast Asian Buddhist traditions, providing a broader foundation for comparative research on catuṣkoṭi, Buddhist philosophy, and the historical development of Buddhist thought.