Fān fányǔ 翻梵語
Translating Sanskrit Words anonymous (Liáng-period compilation; transmitted in Japan under attribution to Shingyō 信行 of Asuka-dera 飛鳥寺)
About the work
A ten-juan early Chinese-Buddhist Sanskrit-Chinese terminological glossary, organized by topical category — Buddha-titles (fó-hào 佛號), buddha-names (fó-míng 佛名), buddha-merit-names (fó gōng-dé míng 佛功德名), dharma-names (fǎ-míng 法名), heretical-school dharma-names (wài-dào fǎ-míng 外道法名), various dharma-names (zá-fǎ-míng 雜法名), and so on through bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, kings, persons, places, etc. Each entry gives the Chinese transcription of a Sanskrit term, alternative transcriptions, the canonical-source citation (in many cases the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra 大智度論 or the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra), and the translated Chinese meaning. The work is preserved only in Japanese transmission — lost to Chinese canonical tradition after the early medieval period — and was incorporated into the Taishō at T54 no. 2130 from the Tō-ji manuscript line. Authorship and date are uncertain; see Abstract.
Prefaces
The preserved opening matter is not an author-preface but a Japanese transmission-postface by Kenga 賢賀 (lay age 58, dharma-age 49 at the time of writing), monk of Tō-ji 東寺 holding the second seat (tei-gaku-sō dai-ni-seki 定額僧第二席, Kanju-ji Jōdoin-seki 勸修寺淨土院席), dated Kanpō 寬保 1, 8th month, jìwàng (the 16th day) = late September 1741. In paraphrase:
The present book — entirely ten juan — is the zhuànjí (compilation) of Shingyō of Asuka-dera 飛鳥寺信行. It is rare in the world. One day I climbed Mount Daigo, and at the Guāngtáiyuàn 光臺院 guest pavilion, on a day of giving lectures on the Xītán zìjì 悉曇字記 (KR6s0020), the Sānjiào zhǐguī 三教指歸, the Xíngzhuàng jì 行狀記, etc., I happened to look at this work — the holding-copy of Shen-ken master 深賢師, long stored at the bottom of his box, with the bookworms severely set in. I carried it home, and on the next return-visit borrowed it for reading. The thought of “roaming in the Buddha-country and traveling in the Hàn-territory” could be too much for me silently to suppress. Therefore I had Miyano Tsune-shin 宮野常新 (i.e. Ōin) make a copy. The work being completed, I dare to correct the original characters. The unclear meaning may be obtained and known. Yet again, in the manuscript-version, “the tiger transformed into the dog” kind [of corruption] is also hard to avoid. Later students, when convenient to view, may obtain its meaning and unroll-and-see. May I not be allowed to release it externally — be careful! be careful!
Kanpō 1, 8th month, jìwàng — Tō-ji second-seat tei-gaku-sō, Kanju-ji Jōdoin-seki, Sōjō Kenga, lay age 58, dharma-age 49, [signed].
The original text has no author-preface preserved. The body of the work begins immediately with Juan 1, Fó-hào dì-yī (Buddha-titles, first), giving entries: Tathāgata 多陀阿伽陀 (cf. Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra j. 2 — “as the dharma-marks understood by the various buddhas, the peaceful Way comes and does not go”); Arhat 阿羅呵 (“arha meaning thief, hē meaning to kill — also called worthy-of-offerings”); Samyak-saṃbuddha 三藐三佛陀 (“正遍知”); and so on through the standard daśa-bala and trikāya nomenclature.
Abstract
The Kanripo catalog meta gives no author or dynasty, and the received Japanese transmission attributes the work to the early-Heian Japanese monk Shingyō 信行 of Asuka-dera 飛鳥寺 (active 8th century). Modern scholarship, however, locates the work’s original compilation in Liáng-period China — 6th century — for the following reasons:
- The work cites only Chinese translations available by the early sixth century, with the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra of Kumārajīva (translated 405) as its principal source. Translations of the post-Liáng period (e.g. Xuán-zàng’s mid-7th-century output) are not cited.
- The transcription conventions and the choice of source-texts overlap significantly with those of the Liáng court translation projects under Liáng Wǔdì (502–549).
- The work was clearly transmitted to Japan in the early-Heian period, where it was preserved (the Asuka-dera manuscript line being one of the principal early-Heian transmissions).
- The standard Sinophone-Japanese scholarly consensus (cf. Funayama Tōru, Ochiai Toshinori) places the original compilation in the Liáng court translation milieu, possibly within or adjacent to the circle that produced Bǎochàng’s Jīnglǜ yìxiàng (KR6s0001).
The Japanese Shingyō attribution is therefore best understood as referring to the Japanese transmission and not to original authorship.
Dating: notBefore = 502 (the start of the Liáng dynasty); notAfter = 557 (the end of the Liáng dynasty). Catalog dynasty 梁 (assigned here on the basis of the modern scholarly consensus; the Kanripo catalog meta leaves the field empty).
The 10 juan are organized topically (in contrast to the Yī-qiè-jīng yīn-yì tradition’s scripture-by-scripture organization or the Suí-hán lù’s canon-bundle organization). The topical headings are similar to those of Bǎochàng’s Jīng-lǜ yì-xiàng (KR6s0001) — heavens, buddhas, bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, kings, ministers, lay disciples, ordinary persons, women, the eight non-human classes, demons, hells, plus the strictly Sanskrit-philological categories (Buddha-titles, place-names, animal-names, plant-names, etc.). This shared structure with the early-sixth-century Jīng-lǜ yì-xiàng is one of the principal pieces of internal evidence for the Fān fán-yǔ’s Liáng-period origin.
The work is the earliest substantial Chinese-Buddhist Sanskrit-Chinese transliteration glossary to survive — predating Xuányìng’s (mid-7th c.) and Huìlín’s (783–807) yīnyì by a century or more — and is therefore a primary witness to the state of Sanskrit-Chinese transcription practice in the Liáng court translation tradition. Its loss from Chinese canonical transmission and recovery from Japan is parallel to the case of Kěhóng’s Suíhán lù (KR6s0015) and other works preserved only via the Japanese / Korean canon traditions.
Translations and research
- Funayama Tōru 船山徹, various papers on Liáng-period translation and on the Fān fán-yǔ — most accessible in his Butten wa dou kanyaku sareta no ka (Iwanami, 2013).
- Ochiai Toshinori 落合俊典 (ed.), Nanatsu-dera-bon issaikyō kanseki gaku 七寺本一切經漢籍學 series — discussion of Heian-period transmission of Chinese-Buddhist philological works including Fān fán-yǔ.
- Mizukami Bunichi 水上雅晴 et al., the Kobe / Tōkyō yīn-yì and Sanskrit-transcription study groups.
- Watanabe Shōkō 渡辺照宏, classical scholarship on Sanskrit-Chinese transcription tradition.
- Sengaku Mayeda 前田專學 and the modern Tōkyō Daigaku Buddhist-Studies tradition for the Heian transmission context.
Other points of interest
The Fān fányǔ is one of the principal works for which the East Asian canonical tradition’s preservation of Liáng-period Buddhism through Japanese transmission has been decisive — without the Asuka-dera / Daigo-ji line of Heian-period manuscripts, this glossary would be entirely lost. The Tō-ji-area transmission, of which Kenga’s 1741 copying is one stage, is parallel to the more famous transmission of the Sìfēnlǜ 四分律 and other early-Chinese-Buddhist vinaya materials through Japanese monastery libraries.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved author authority entry)
- CBETA: T54n2130
- Closely contemporaneous Liáng compilation: KR6s0001 Jīnglǜ yìxiàng of Bǎochàng (516)
- Successor philological tradition: KR6s0010 Xuányìng yīnyì, KR6s0019 Fānyì míngyì jí
- Japanese transmission stage: 1741 Tō-ji recopying by Kenga 賢賀
- Dazangthings date evidence (512, 520): [ Palumbo 2013 ] Palumbo, Antonello. An Early Chinese Commentary on the Ekottarika-āgama: The Fenbie gongde lun 分別功德論 and the History of the Translation of the Zengyi ahan jing 增一阿含經. Dharma Drum Buddhist College Research Series 7. Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Co., 2013. 129-130 and n. 72 https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/24/