The Puchao sanmei jing 普超三昧経 (PSJ) is one of the extant Chinese translations of the *Ajātaśatrukaukṛtryavinodana. By investigating variant readings in the PSJ, this paper aims to clarify the relationship among the following four Chinese Buddhist canon materials: The first edition of the Korean canon (KC1), the second edition of the Korean canon (KC2), the Fangshan Stone Sutras (Fangshan shijing 房山石経) and the Scrolls in the Shōgozō 聖語蔵 repository. In these four sources, the PSJ is composed of three volumes (巻), whereas the PSJ of the so-called Jiangnan canons (江南諸蔵) consists of four volumes. In the second and third volumes of the PSJ, the KC1 shares a number of variant readings with the Shōgozō. Therefore, I assume that these two sources are closely related with regard to the last two volumes of the PSJ. Regarding the first volume of the PSJ, I can find only two minor variants shared between the KC1 and Shōgozō. Thus, it is probable that the first volume of the PSJ of the KC1 or/and the Shōgozō has a different background or history than do the other volumes. The fact that KC1 and KC2 share many variants supports the hypothesis that both of the Korean canons are based on the Kaibao canon (開宝蔵). The KC2 also shares a number of variants with the Fangshan, whose parent, the Qidan canon (契丹蔵), is believed to have been consulted when the KC2 was created.
