It is well-known that the text of the Chinese translation of the Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish (Taisho Canon, vol. 4. No. 202) survives in two lineages: (1) the Korean Canon version, which contains 62 stories; and (2) the Yuan-Ming Canons recension which has 69 stories. Both versions are divided into 13 scrolls 十三巻. On the other hand, the majority of the Japanese manuscripts copied during the Heian and Kamakura Periods amount to 17 scrolls. Furthermore, the Heian-Kamakura MSS lineage also shows differences in the order of the chapter titles. The dissimilarities in the scroll division and chapter order between various textual witnesses(Khitan Canon, Korean Canon, Song Canon, Yuan-Ming Canons, Todai-ji MS, Dunhuang MS) as well as in the citations from the Jinglü yixiang 經律異相 have been analysed by Rikichiro FUKUI 福井利吉郎. According to this Japanese scholar, the Todai-ji 東大寺 MS consists of 16 scrolls. The Todai-ji version presented by FUKUI consists of only small fragments, but these seem to show remarkable similarities with other old Japanese manuscripts of this sutra. In this paper, I examine three newly discovered textual witnesses: (1) the Kongo-ji 金剛寺 MS in 8 scrolls, dating from the Kamakura Period; (2) the Nanatsudera 七寺 MS in 16 scrolls, copied at the end of the Heian Period; and (3) the Saiho-ji 西方寺 MS in 8 scrolls, which goes back to the Kamakura Period. My analysis focuses on the differences in the number of scrolls in which the text was transmitted in China and Japan.
