Hist Trans EN 3

Hist_Trans_EN_3  

Abstract

The translation of Buddhist Sutra is a major event in the history of Chinese translation. The introduction of Buddhism and the translation of Buddhist Sutra have not only had a great impact on ancient Chinese society, but also promoted the cultural exchange between China and India. Firstly, starting from the history of Buddhist Sutra Translation in China, this paper focuses on the contributions of several famous translators to Buddhist Sutra translation; Then it analyzes the “translation centers” of Buddhist scripture translation; Finally, it analyzes the impact of Buddhist Sutra translation on Chinese culture.

Key words

Buddhist Sutra translation, “translation center”, cultural influence

摘要

佛经翻译是中国翻译史上的一次重大事件，佛教的传入和佛经翻译对中国古代社会造成了许多重大影响，也促进了中印的文化交流。本文首先从中国的佛经翻译史出发，重点介绍几位著名的翻译家对佛经翻译的贡献；接着分析佛经翻译的“译场”问题；最后分析佛经翻译对中国文化和文化交流造成的影响。

关键词

佛经翻译、“译场”、文化交流

Introduction

Introduction Buddhism is one of the three major religions in the world. It was founded by Sakyamuni in ancient India in the 6th century BC. Soon after the establishment of Buddhism, it began to spread abroad. With its spread, some Buddhist ideas and works also spread abroad. Buddhist Sutra is the abbreviation of “Buddhist Classics”. Buddhist Classics: collectively; Tibetan Sutra, commonly known as; Buddhist Sutra, also known as the Da Zang Sutra, is generally composed of Sutra, Law and Theory. “Sutra” refers to the Dharma script personally said by Sakyamuni and integrated by his disciples, “Law” refers to the commandments formulated by the Buddha for his disciples, and “Theory” refers to the experience gained by the disciples of the Buddha after learning the Sutra. For Buddhists, the status of Buddhist scriptures is equivalent to the influence of the Bible on Christians. In China, Buddhism was introduced from the Silk Road at the end of the Western Han Dynasty. With the introduction of Buddhism, Buddhist scripture translation activities also began. According to the data cited in Pei Songzhi’s note in The Annals of the Three Kingdoms, “in the first year of Emperor Ai’ s (7BC-1BC) ruling time in the past Han Dynasty, the doctor’s disciple Jinglu was dictated the Sutra of The Floating Slaughter by Yicun, the envoy of King Dayue.” in the first year of Emperor Ai's Yuanshou life in the Han Dynasty, that is, in 2 BC, that is, China began the translation of Buddhist scriptures more than 2000 years ago. Liang Qichao cited the General Record of Magic Weapon Exploration in the Yuan Dynasty to record that from the tenth year of Yongping in the later Han Dynasty (AD 67) to the Song Dynasty, the translation only lasted until the early year of Zhenghe (AD 1111), 194 translators participated in the translation of Buddhist scriptures, 1335 scriptures and 5396 volumes. There are 3673 Tibetan Sutras and continued Tibetan Sutras carved in Japan, including 15682 volumes, excluding those added to the Dazheng Tibetan Sutra, and 150 volumes of the complete book of Buddhism in Japan. Hu Shi believes that there are more than 3000 Buddhist scriptures and more than 15000 volumes preserved, including the annotations and commentaries made by the Chinese people. When Buddhism first entered China, it was incompatible with Confucianism. In order to cater to China's Confucianism and Taoism culture, the word “Buddhism and Taoism” was used in the translation of Buddhism. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism spread by relying on the Taoism popular in China at that time. During the Three Kingdoms period in the late Han Dynasty, Buddhism began to attach itself to metaphysics. From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the southern and Northern Dynasties, the translation of Buddhist scriptures changed from individual translation to collective translation, from private translation to official translation, and there was a translation field organization. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Buddhism, metaphysics and Neo Confucianism were complementary and integrated with each other. From the Sui Dynasty to the middle of the Tang Dynasty was the heyday of Buddhist scripture translation. During this period, Kumarajiva, Zhen Di, Xuan Zang and Bu Kong were known as the “four translators”. Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty has developed into Chinese Buddhism. After the late Tang Dynasty, Buddhism gradually declined in India, and there were no large-scale Buddhist scripture translation activities in China after the song and Yuan Dynasties. The first Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures appeared in the middle of the 2nd century (some researchers believe it was in AD70). Few Buddhist missionaries who came to China in the first century A.D. were proficient in Chinese, and few Chinese knew Sanskrit at that time. Therefore, the Chinese translation of early Buddhist Scriptures was completed by many people: foreign monks recited scriptures, usually with the participation of interpreters, first produced a rather rough translation, and then modified and polished by Chinese assistants. This process made Buddhism sinicized from the very beginning of its introduction into China, and was therefore rapidly absorbed and assimilated by Chinese culture. This form of collective translation has lasted for nearly nine centuries, sometimes with a large number of participants, but the vast translation work can usually be sponsored by the ruling class. Due to the change of time span and the number of translators involved, translation methods and means are often not fixed, and with the passage of time, the cultural and linguistic background of translators will also change. Despite all kinds of obstacles, Chinese Buddhist believers are still committed to the translation of Buddhist scriptures, which has preserved many lost scriptures. It is worth mentioning that some Chinese versions are closer to the original Sanskrit texts than the later Sanskrit texts of India and Nepal. Buddhist missionary translation not only played a constructive role in the spread of Buddhism in the Far East, but also contributed to the establishment of literary languages in various countries and had a great impact on Asian culture. The translation of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit to Chinese can be roughly divided into three stages: the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period (AD 148-265), the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (AD 265-589) and the Sui, Tang and Northern Song Dynasties (AD 589-1100).

I. Major Buddhist Scripture Translators and Their Contributions

1.1 An Shigao An Shigao, a Parthian who was active in the Chinese capital Luoyang in the mid-2nd century, was the first important translator of Buddhist Sutras into Chinese. Until now, Chinese translation histories have painted a portrait of his life and his work that is based exclusively on historical Buddhist sources. He is thus described as the crown prince of the Parthian royal house who gave up his throne to pursue a Buddhist missionary life; his work is classified as exclusively Hinayana. Chinese Buddhist materials first mentioned the life of An Shigao was in the 3rd century, Kang Senghui wrote “An Ban Shou Yi Jing Xu”, which is the blueprint for the biography of later monks to describe the life of An Shigao, and most of the existing translation histories are based on The Records of the Three Great Tibetans and The Biography of Eminent Monks. The most famous translation of An Shigao is his “An Ban Shou Yi Jing”, which is the most important Buddhist Sutra translated by An Shigao. It is recorded in Seng You's “A Collection of Three Zang Records · A New Collection of Sutras”. This sutra was translated by An Shigao at the time of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD.146-AD.168). However, the situation has changed during the dissemination of this sutra. According to The Catalogue of Comprehensive Sutras written by Master Dao An in the collection of the Three Zang Records, various versions of An Ban Shou Yi Jing translated by An Shigao were handed down at that time. When in the time of Master Dao An in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were big and small differences in An Ban Shou Yi Jing. In fact, after this sutra was translated, because the content of the sutra was about the practical methods of Buddhist practice and adapted to the requirements of the society at that time, people paid attention to it, and commentaries and interpretations of this sutra appeared one after another. An Ban Shou Yi Jing mainly explains the specific methods of Buddhist meditation practice. It is universally acknowledged that Buddhism is a religion that closely combines doctrine and practice. It is one of the main methods of Buddhist practice to obtain the realm of consciousness through meditation. In ancient India, the practice method of meditation was neither original nor unique to Buddhism. However, the method of Buddhist meditation has its own uniqueness. It is different from the methods of meditation practice of other religions in that Buddhist meditation emphasizes the combination with wisdom and attaches more importance to the role of wisdom. The main content of An Ban Shou Yi Jing is to explain the concept of explaining the mystery of breath, to control and hold the idea through the method of breathing, and guide practitioners to enter the realm of Buddhist meditation. The existing “An Ban Shou Yi Jing” has two volumes, and the first volume mainly talks about the method of “An Ban”, while the second volume gives full play to and expounds the method of “An Ban Shou Yi” in combination with 37 Taoist products. The so-called “An Ban” is the abbreviation of Sanskrit transliteration of “Anna, Bana”. Anna and Bana, which means promise and income. Therefore, the “safe” method is the method of adjusting and controlling breathing. Specifically, when practicing the peaceful way of counting interest, repeatedly count from one to ten, “don’t exceed ten, don’t reduce ten”. In the process of repeatedly counting interest, you will gradually control your thoughts and won’t make them scattered. At the beginning, the breath in and out is long and short, fast and slow. Through certain exercise, the breath in and out is smooth and continuous. To control and keep one’s mind from being scattered is “keeping one’s mind”. The so-called “keeping the mind” means “nothing”, that is, the mind does not fall in one place. Therefore, the Scripture says, “those who keep the will have nothing to write to keep the will.” “It is Tao to keep the meaning when the meaning doesn’t come back.” The purpose of “An Ban” is to “keep meaning”. In addition, the safe way to keep the meaning is “clean and inaction”. The Sutra says, “peace is purity, general is purity, and guarding is nothing, which means purity and inaction”. The word “pure inaction” is originated from Tao Te Ching and is a common philosophical concept of Taoism in the Han Dynasty. Later, Taoism also used the word “pure inaction” to describe its practice. In the early period of spreading Buddhism, the translators mostly borrowed the noun concepts in Chinese traditional culture to compare the names of Buddhism in order to make it easier for people to understand and accept the meaning of Buddhism. One example of this is to name An Ban Shou Yi after “clean and inaction”. 1.2 Kumarajiva and Zhen Di It should be said that the large-scale and systematic translation of Buddhist scriptures began in Kumarajiva at the beginning of the 5th century. Kumarajiva (344-413, another version: 350-409) became a monk with his mother when he was young. He once traveled to various countries in Sindhu (ancient name of India) and visited famous scholars who deeply study Buddhist Sutras in that era and make great reputation in this field. Young as Kumarajiva was, he was also refined and knowledgeable. Attracted much attention and praise, he arrived in Chang’an(Today the city Xi’ an) in the early 5th century and was supported by Yao Xing, the ruler of the Later Qin Dynasty at that time. From 401 to 413 AD, he lived in Ximing Pavilion of Xiaoyao Garden with a large number of righteous monks with high cultural cultivation(nearly 500 persons) under the influence of Dao An, such as Seng Zhao and Seng Rui. The Scriptures he translated before and after were recorded in Volume II of the collection of records of The Three Tibetans, with a total of 35 articles and 297 volumes. According to the four volumes of Kai Yuan Lu, there are 74 articles and 384 volumes. Kumarajiva’s translation achievements not only systematically introduced the theory of Mahayana empty origin based on the “Prajna Sutra” for the first time in the content of translation, but also changed the simple ancient style in the past and began to use the expressive translation method to facilitate the acceptance and understanding of Chinese Buddhist Sutra learners. He not only read ancient Indian books and had a strong foundation in Sanskrit, but also had a considerable literacy in Chinese because he stayed in China for a long time. At the same time, he also has a high appreciation and expression of literature, so he can create a style with the harmony between loanwords and Chinese. In particular, he can translate Mahayana Buddhist scriptures with literary interest, such as Fahua Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra and Vajra Sutra. In addition to trying to keep the original meaning, he pays more attention to preserving the original language interest. He advocated free translation and advocated that as long as it did not violate the original meaning, it was not necessary to stick to the original form. Under the guidance of the principle of preserving truth, it was better to “come out elegance from the faithfulness” and pay attention to the fluency and beauty of the translation. Therefore, the Buddhist scriptures he translated were full of literary interest and had been widely spread by Chinese Buddhists and literary lovers, which had a certain impact on the later Buddhist literature. The Scriptures and classics translated by Kumarajiva are not only the treasure of Buddhism, but also an important literary heritage of the whole world. It has a great impact on Chinese philosophy and literature, and it was also after Kumarajiva arrived in China that the detailed record of the number of participants in the translation center was preserved. The translation center led by Kumarajiva is very large, often more than 3000 people, while the translation centers led by other monks may be only a few hundred people. Under his lecturing and guidance, thousands of talents were brought up, which greatly developed the translation of Buddhist Scriptures at that time. After Kumarajiva, important translators came one after another, and the main scriptures were constantly translated. For example, Jue Xian translated the Huayan Sutra from 418 to 421, Tan Wuchen translated the Da Ban Nirvana Sutra in 421, and Guṇabhadra translated the Lenga Sutra in 443. The translation of these classics has had a great impact on the development of Chinese Buddhist righteousness. At the beginning of the 6th century AD, Bodhi Liuzhi came to China to create and translate some significant articles of Mahayana written by some famous Buddhists such as: You Zong and Wu Zhu, among which Shi Di Jing Lun has a great influence. Later, another well-known monk called Zhen Di (entitled with San Zang) (498-569) came to China in 546. In the year 563, he translated the She Da Cheng Lun written by Wu Zhu, a famous monk and Shiqin’s Shi Lun, in the year 564, he translated Shiqin’s Ju She Lun, and retranslated and revised Ju She Lun from 566 to 567. Zhen Di (entitled with San Zang) is not only a translator, but also a master of righteousness. He has been in China for a long time and is good at Chinese language. The translated scriptures are all translated and explained at the same time. The disciples’ accounts have become righteousness books. Those who spread them are called the Master of She Lun and the Master of Ju She. More than 20 years after Zhen Di came to China, he encountered a military rebellion, however, he was also able to translate more than 100 volumes of important Sutras in his exile, forming an important Righteousness School of Chinese Buddhism. He was the most contributing translator after Kumarajiva and before Xuan Zang. 1.3 Xuan Zang Xuan Zang (AD 602-664) was the founder of the East Asian Yogācāra(Fa Xiang Zong). When he was young, he lived with his second brother, Master Chang Jie, in Luoyang Pure Land Temple because of his family difficulties. During this period, he studied the scriptures of many Buddhist sects. Xuan Zang became a monk when he was 20 years old. Later, he left his brother and returned to Chang’an to study foreign languages and Buddhism. He studied all ministries and learned a lot, but he was not satisfied because at that time, the theory of scriptures handed down in China was very incomplete. He decided to go to and study in Sindhu, the origin of Buddhism. In the year 627, he went to Sindhu alone to study Buddhism and on his way to Sindhu, he has experienced many cruel difficulties and obstacles. When he finished his way, he succeeded in going to Sindhu and began his study. He learned in Sindhu for nearly seventeen years and he followed many famous monks. The temples he stayed in included Nalanda temple, the famous Buddhist learning center at that time, at the same time, he also studied Buddhist scriptures from the master of the temple and the Buddhist authority of India. Moreover, He visited the whole South Asian Subcontinent on foot in order to get more information about this land. After traveling alone for 50000 miles and covering more than 130 countries in the western regions and Sindhu, he finally returned to Chang’an with 520 pods of Buddhist scriptures and 657 volumes. Xuan Zang opened the Sanskrit version of Buddhist Sutras after only three months of his ten-thousand-mile journey and devoted himself to the translation industry. It took him and his fellows more than 20 years to translate 75 articles and 1335 volumes of Tibetan Sutras and Lun Gong. Xuan Zang was well versed in Chinese and Indian characters and the theory of Three Tibetans. He was welcomed and respected by the kings and monks and laymen of India and western regions. In fact, he has become the foremost master of Indian Buddhism and no one dared to argue with him at the 18-day open meeting held by Harsha Vardhana(Chinese name known as King Jie Ri) for him. Therefore, he was respected and entitled the mane as “Mahayana’s Heaven” by many Mahayana scholars, that is, the “God of Mahayana”, which was the highest academic honor between the two ancient civilizations of China and India at that time. Xuan Zang is the most accomplished translator in the history of Buddhist Translation in China. His systematic translation scale, rigorous translation style and brilliant translation achievements make him a brilliant model in the history of Chinese translation. His achievements and contributions are very significant both in Buddhism and academia. He not only comprehensively and systematically translated and transmitted the Sutra theory of Mahayana Yoga, but also completely translated the 200,000 Ode to Da Ban Ruo Jing, the fundamental Sutra of Kong Zong. In terms of translation skills, Xuan Zang internalized Buddhist scriptures and was proficient in both Sanskrit and Chinese. According to The Records of the Kaiyuan Buddhist Hermeneutics, there were 12 “testimonies” and 9 “conjugations” in Xuan Zang’s translation center. They were “familiar with the theory of Mahayana” and were “pushed by the generations”. It can be said that there were a lot of talents. Xuan Zang was not only rich in his translations, but also he made graet contributions to the essence translation skills. He initiated a new stage in the history of Chinese Buddhism. The previous translation of Buddhist scriptures before him is called “Old Translation”, and the version since his translation is called “New Translation”. Xuan Zang advocated that attention should be paid to the style of the original text, and he believed that if the original text was simple and plain, the translation should not be modified. He formulated rules for transliteration. His “Five Situations Not Be Translated” has had a very important impact on the translation of Buddhist Scriptures in later generations and even China.(Xie Tianzhen 2009:45,50-51,53-55)

II. The Formation and Development of Translation Centers

When it comes to this Chinese word “Chang”, the English concept comes to one’s mind may be this English word “field”. However, in terms of Buddhist Sutra translation, “Chang” means “center” or “organizations” where these Buddhist scriptures will be and being translated. In the early history of Buddhist Scripture Translation in China, because there was no written version of ancient Indian Buddhist scriptures, in the early stage of Buddhist scripture translation, the translator did not have the original and relied on foreign monks to “pay with oral instruction and do not listen to the text”. There are two other reasons for this: on the one hand, it is inconvenient to pass on and write on ancient bamboo and silk, on the other hand, it is due to the mysterious concept of religion. It is believed that the writing of scriptures is blasphemous, so the transmission of scriptures in the Han Dynasty depends on mouth. For this reason, in the early stage of Buddhist scripture translation, most of the translators were monks from Central Asia and Xinjiang, China, who had profound religious knowledge, but not good at speaking and understanding Chinese. Therefore, the translation method at this time was actually collective translation, which was called “translation center”, in which foreign monks acted as “translators” “Recite a sutra and explain the exact meaning of the text in detail. A monk is equipped with one or more interpreters, who are called “Du Yu” or “Chuan Yan” who are proficient in the language of foreign monks and orally translate the explanations of foreign monks into Chinese. The audience are Chinese monks, often dozens, sometimes even hundreds. Some of them record the explanations of foreign monks in the form of notes. The Chinese translators in the translation center are called “Bi Shou” and are responsible for rumors of “interpreters”. In this way, the translation process in the translation center is divided into three steps: Interpretation, Recording and Testing. In addition, the translation in this period was not supported by the imperial government, but was carried out separately with the support of folk believers. Due to the limited funds, all the translations were less-time-consuming pieces of short stories. Moreover, because the translation of scriptures was mostly based on oral instruction, it was subject to more personal factors of foreign monks, that is, foreign monks could translate whatever scriptures they could recite or what scriptures they wanted to translate, so it was not able to introduce them selectively and systematically. It can be seen from the introduction of translation center above that translation center is not only a sutra translation activity, but also a Buddhist sutra seminar to some extent. It is for this reason that there are often very detailed notes in the Chinese translation at that time. Although few foreign monks who served as translators knew Chinese, they just recited the Sanskrit sutras, they were recorded as “translators” in the Buddhist sutra translation classics, and the real translators, that is, the actual recorders at that time, were only regarded as “recorders”. At the same time, because they were in the initial stage of Buddhist scripture translation at that time, the Buddhist scriptures translation monks had a devout attitude towards Buddhist Scriptures for fear of violating the scriptures, coupled with the lack of translation experience and poor linguistic knowledge, they could not deal with the differences between the two languages well, so the literal translation method was generally adopted in the early Buddhist scripture translation. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties (AD220-AD589), because the rulers began to accept and carry forward Buddhism, the translation of Buddhist scriptures also developed greatly. Early Buddhist scripture translation was mostly private work, and there was no certain translation organization. From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, Buddhist scripture translation gradually separated from private small-scale translation and became a large-scale translation center, resulting in the translation center system and the principles and methods of sutra translation, which promoted the greater progress of sutra translation. At that time, the feudal rulers Fu Jian and Yao Xing began to organize a translation center and selected a large number of talents to participate in translation activities. Since then, the translation of Buddhist scriptures has changed from private translation to official translation, and from individual translation to collective translation. The translation centers in this period are; Xiaoyao Garden of Yao Qin Dynasty (AD384-AD417), Guzang Xianyu Palace of Northern Liang Dynasty (AD397-AD439), Shouguang Cabin, Hualin Garden, Zhanyun Cabin and Baoyun Cabin in the city called Jian Ye(Today called Nanking), the capital of Liang Dynasty (AD502-AD557), the Inner Hall in Luoyang of Northern Wei Dynasty, etc. At this stage, when translating a sutra, there are only three people: oral instruction, rumor and written acceptance. Sometimes oral instruction and rumor can also be two people. When Zhao Zheng and Dao An presided over the Fu Qin Dynasty’s translation centers, they not only increased personnel, but also had a more detailed division of labor. When Kumarajiva presided over the translation venue, more people participated. When Kumarajiva translated the Lotus Sutra of the wonderful Dharma, he “collected more than 2000 people from the four sides of Chang’an temple to translate and study Salmonella”; When translating the Vimalakirti Sutra, Yao Xing “ordered the great general to send 1200 people to Chang’an temple.”; When translating the Theory of Great Wisdom, it was collected by 500 people; The translation of Si Yi Jing is the "Enlightenment" of more than 2000 people. One of the characteristics of translating Buddhist scriptures during this period was the combination of interpretation and lecturing. Many people are not directly involved in translation. Many of them come to listen to the translator’s lectures on scriptures and participate in discussions or debates. At that time, the translator not only translated the scriptures, but also lectured. When translating scriptures, the translator must be proficient in their scriptures before he dares to translate them. The more profound the translator’s Buddhism is and the more distinguished his reputation is, the more "Tao and customs" will participate in the translation center. It is precisely because there is a part of preaching in the translation of scriptures that the translation center is very lively, such as “difficulties”, “debate questions and answers” and “exchange of argumentative texts”, which also prolongs the time of translation of scriptures. Many “monks and laymen” who listened to the lecture not only put forward censure and participated in debate, but also recorded the content of the translated master’s lecture at the same time with the recipient. In this way, the interpretation, discussion and repeated study of the translation make the translation also have the nature of research. The translation center in the Tang Dynasty (AD618-AD907) has been quite perfect, but the process of Buddhist scripture translation is obviously different from that in the past. The process of religious interpretation and translation are separated. The translation field has been reduced to a large extent, and generally no more than 36 monks are responsible for translation. This has been the case since the late 6th century, and so has the translation field organized by Xuan Zang, the most outstanding Buddhist sutra translator. Although a sutra translation academy was set up in the Song Dynasty to revive the cause of sutra translation, the translators still rely on outsiders, such as Tian Xi Zai, Fa Tian and Shi Hu, who are all scholars from India. Their Buddhist sutras are partial to esoteric classics, and their contribution to Buddhism cannot be compared with that of the Tang Dynasty. However, the perfection of the translation center system in the Song Dynasty is still worthy of attention. In order to train a new generation of translators, local monasteries established translation schools in the year 984 and recruited dozens of students.(Xie Tianzhen 2009:47-48,51-52,55)

III. The Influence of Buddhist Sutra Translation

Since Buddhism was introduced into China around the 1st century (the end of the Western Han Dynasty), the translation of Buddhist scriptures in China has a history of more than 1000 years. Through the translation of Buddhist scriptures, China’s religious system and ideological system have been greatly affected. There is a trend of ideological integration and interweaving of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, and even a completely localized new school named “Chan Zong”. Chinese language, literature and culture have also been greatly enriched through translation. The influence of Buddhist classics translation on Modern Chinese is mainly manifested in enriching Chinese vocabulary and language, enriching Chinese grammar and style, enriching Chinese literature and other aspects. 3.1 The translation of Buddhist classics has greatly enriched the vocabulary and language of Chinese Buddhist translators have had a lot of in-depth thinking on how to translate Buddhist terms. Dao An advocates keeping the vocabulary form of the original Buddhist Scriptures as much as possible. On the other hand, Kumarajiva emphasizes the search for useful words in the target language on the premise of maintaining and developing the meaning of the original text. Xuan Zang of the Tang Dynasty also put forward the famous “Five Situations Not Be Translated” principle, which stipulated five cases of using transliteration. Liang Qichao once concluded that there are two main ways of word formation in Buddhist scripture translation, and each way of word formation is “thousands of records” in quantity: 1) New meanings are added in Chinese, such as “Zhen Ru”, “Wu Ming”, “Dharma Realm”, “sentient beings”, “karma”, “Guo Bao”, etc. 2) Save Sanskrit and become idioms, such as “Nirvana”, “Prajna”, “Yoga”, “Zen” “moment”, “You Ju”, etc. Contemporary scholars have also pointed out five ways of word formation in Buddhist Scripture Translation: Chinese words with Buddhist meaning, free translation words from Buddhist Sutras, the words combine Sanskrit and Chinese meaning, words composed of newly created Chinese characters, idioms and Chinese idioms. Due to the translation of these Buddhist sutras, many words with strong Buddhist meaning appear in the Chinese language, and a large proportion of them later become the daily words of modern Chinese. The Great Dictionary of Buddhism compiled in the late Qing Dynasty contains more than 35000 commonly used words, “those created by various masters during the 800 years from Han, Jin to Tang, who joined our system and became new components”. Contemporary scholars have also counted four-character idioms in Chinese, of which more than 90% come from Buddhism. Take “origin” as an example. In Buddhism, it means simultaneous or asynchronous mutual existence, but in modern Chinese, “origin” has become a daily term to describe the cause of things. For another example, the word “world” (Shi Jie) is actually a typical Buddhist term, Shi refers to time and Jie refers to space. But in modern Chinese, “world” has become a general word to describe our environment. In addition, “Amitabha” is a typical Buddhist dharma, but now it has also entered the daily language and literary language, and has become an exclamation to express sadness and joy. There are also idioms that have been widely popularized, such as karma, one-sided relationship, six clean roots, life-long, eternal disaster, spotless, offering Buddha with flowers, five bodies to the earth, clear rules and regulations, three lucky lives and so on, which have greatly enriched the Chinese language. The translation of Buddhist scriptures not only adds many new words to the Chinese language, but also promotes the development of Chinese word formation. Many studies have shown that the process of disyllabic Chinese was very slow before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, when Buddhist scripture translation was popular, more disyllabic words and polysyllabic words began to appear, and four-character idioms increased significantly. The influence of Buddhism on Chinese should be an important motivation for the rapid realization of disyllabic Chinese in a short time. According to the textual research of scholars, “the three word formation methods of verb object type, supplementary type and subject predicate type are generally considered to be relatively rare in the Pre-Qin Dynasty”. It is the influence of Buddhist scripture translation that promotes the growth and improvement of various word formation methods, “at least it activates the potential mechanism of polysyllabic word formation in Chinese itself.” 3.2 The translation of Buddhist classics enriches the grammar and style of Chinese and provides the soil for the rise of modern Chinese In terms of syntax, a large number of inverted sentences, question sentences and explanatory sentences are used in the translation of Buddhist scriptures. For example, the “so I hear” should be “I hear so”. After the translation of Kumarajiva in the way of inversion, many Buddhist sutra translators (including Xuan Zang) continue this translation method, making “so I hear” the habitual opening phrase of Buddhist sutra translation. The passive sentence pattern of introducing the auxiliary word "Yu" also began in Buddhist sutra translation. For example, in the Fahua Sutra translated by Kumarajiva, there are sentences such as “beating the Dafa drum” and “providing for the Buddha”. This usage was later spread to Pi Huang Operas (one of the origins of Beijing Opera), thus, “beating and scolding him” and “making fun of me” appeared. The Buddhist scriptures of the Han, Wei and six dynasties also appeared new grammatical components composed of “Ba”, “Jiang”, “Zhe”, “Le”, “Bian” and “Jiu”. The translation of Buddhist scriptures has the greatest impact on Chinese in terms of style. Because the translation of Buddhist scriptures emphasizes the popularization of ideas, it uses a colloquial style of alternating prose and rhymes. This style emphasizes the beat and word number of sentences, which is not as strict as traditional rhymes. The translators choose to use the word number of sentences to replace the rhyme at the end of sentences, forming non rhymed rhymes with a strong sense of rhythm and easy to read, In Buddhism, it is called “Bian Wen”, that is, the content of the Buddhist Sutra is performed into popular words that are easy to speak and sing. “Bian Wen” became popular with the popularization of Buddhist scriptures, which laid an important stylistic foundation for later Chinese popular literature such as Pinghua, novels and operas. In addition to “Bian Wen”, due to the need of interpreting the translated Buddhist scriptures, there was also a special style of recording Chan masters’ conversation and Revelation - Quotation style. This simple, lively and free oral style was later imitated by Neo Confucianism in the song and Ming Dynasties. 3.3 The translation of Buddhist classics has provided fertile soil for Chinese literature For the translation of Buddhist scriptures, translators of all dynasties pursue not only the accuracy of information transmission, but also the literariness of language. Yan Cong once put forward eight conditions that qualified translators must have, that is, they are required to be familiar with Chinese classics and history and good at literature, so that the translation will not be too crude and lack literary grace. Kumarajiva, the master of Buddhist sutra translation, is famous for his emphasis on “Wenzao”(literariness) in the translation. His most famous metaphor is to compare the translation lacking Wenzao(literariness) to “chewing rice to people”: “changing the Vatican to Chinese in a straightforward and hard way will lose its original elegance and meaning. Although it gets the main idea, it is different from the style. It is like chewing rice to people, not only losing the taste, but also disgusting.” It may be precisely because of the literariness of the language in his translation that Kumarajiva’s Vajra sutra translation has become the most widely circulated version of the Buddhist sutra. The wide spread of Buddhist scripture translation has had an extremely far-reaching impact on Chinese literature, especially Chinese novels, operas, dramas and other literature.(Xie Tianzhen 2009:141-145)

Conclusion

In conclusion, the translation of Buddhist scriptures has indeed made great contributions to Chinese civilization. First and foremost, Buddhism, as one of the three major religions in the world was introduced from the Silk Road at the end of the Western Han Dynasty to China, which is a supplement and development to Chinese civilization. From the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, China began to translate Buddhist scriptures. The first Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures appeared in the middle of the 2nd century (some researchers believe it was in AD70). The translation of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit to Chinese can be roughly divided into three stages: the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period (AD 148-265), the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (AD 265-589) and the Sui, Tang and Northern Song Dynasties (AD 589-1100). Because few Buddhist missionaries who came to China in the first century A.D. were proficient in Chinese, and few Chinese knew Sanskrit at that time. Therefore, the Chinese translation of early Buddhist Scriptures was completed by many people: foreign monks recited scriptures, usually with the participation of interpreters, first produced a rather rough translation, and then modified and polished by Chinese assistants. This process made Buddhism sinicized from the very beginning of its introduction into China, and was therefore rapidly absorbed and assimilated by Chinese culture. This form of collective translation has lasted for nearly nine centuries, sometimes with a large number of participants, but the vast translation work can usually be sponsored by the ruling class. Due to the change of time span and the number of translators involved, translation methods and means are often not fixed, and with the passage of time, the cultural and linguistic background of translators will also change. Despite all kinds of obstacles, Chinese Buddhist believers are still committed to the translation of Buddhist scriptures, which has preserved many lost scriptures. At the same time, several famous translators, such as An Shigao, Kumarajiva, Xuan Zang and Zhi Qian, Zhi Lou Jia Chen and Zhu Fahu, have made their own contributions to China’s Buddhist scripture translation, which makes China's Buddhist scripture translation glow with different vitality in different periods. Additionally, as the emperors and rulers paid more and more attention to Buddhism, the “translation centers” gradually developed from scratch. The word “Chang” in Buddhist scripture translation usually refers to the “organization” or “center” of Buddhist scripture translation. In the early stage of Buddhist scripture translation, the translator did not have the original and relied on foreign monks to “pay with oral instruction and do not listen to the text”. There are two other reasons for this: on the one hand, it is inconvenient to pass on and write on ancient bamboo and silk, on the other hand, it is due to the mysterious concept of religion. It is believed that the writing of scriptures is blasphemous, so the transmission of scriptures in the Han Dynasty depends on mouth. For this reason, in the early stage of Buddhist scripture translation, most of the translators were monks from Central Asia and Xinjiang, China, who had profound religious knowledge, but not good at speaking and understanding Chinese. Therefore, the translation method at this time was actually collective translation, which was called “translation center”, in which foreign monks acted as “translators” “Recite a sutra and explain the exact meaning of the text in detail. A monk is equipped with one or more interpreters, who are called “Du Yu” or “Chuan Yan” who are proficient in the language of foreign monks and orally translate the explanations of foreign monks into Chinese. The audience are Chinese monks, often dozens, sometimes even hundreds. Some of them record the explanations of foreign monks in the form of notes. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties (AD220-AD589), because the rulers began to accept and carry forward Buddhism, the translation of Buddhist scriptures also developed greatly. Early Buddhist scripture translation was mostly private work, and there was no certain translation organization. From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, Buddhist scripture translation gradually separated from private small-scale translation and became a large-scale translation center, resulting in the translation center system and the principles and methods of sutra translation, which promoted the greater progress of sutra translation. The translation center in the Tang Dynasty (AD618-AD907) has been quite perfect, but the process of Buddhist scripture translation is obviously different from that in the past. The process of religious interpretation and translation are separated. The translation field has been reduced to a large extent, and generally no more than 36 monks are responsible for translation. Thus, translation center is not only a sutra translation activity, but also a Buddhist sutra seminar to some extent. In the early stage of Buddhist scripture translation, translators often use literal translation to translate Buddhist scriptures. However, in the middle and late stage, due to the gradual completion of Buddhist scripture translation theory, translators also use free translation for many times to ensure that Buddhist scripture translation is compatible with Chinese culture. However, there is also the principle of “Five Situations Not Be Translated” to ensure the original meaning of the Buddhist scriptures. The emergence and perfection of “translation center” is of great significance to some of our translation practices today. Last but not least, under the common influence of Chinese Confucian culture and Taoist culture, Buddhist culture began to adapt to Chinese culture and actively integrate into Chinese culture. Chinese language, literature and culture have also been greatly enriched through translation. The influence of Buddhist classics translation on Modern Chinese is mainly manifested in enriching Chinese vocabulary and language, enriching Chinese grammar and style, enriching Chinese literature and other aspects.

References

Xie Tianzhen, et. al 谢天振等 中西翻译简史 A Brief History of Translation in China and the West.[M].外语教育与研究出版社 Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press,北京 Beijing. Yuan Yi,苑艺 中国古代的佛经翻译与译场 Buddhist Sutra Translation and Translation Ceter in Ancient China.[J].天津师院学报 Joirnal of Tianjin Normal College.1982(2): 74-78,84.

--Written by Huang Zhuliang--Huang Zhuliang (talk) 13:01, 14 December 2021 (UTC)