Xītán shíèr lì 悉曇十二例
The Twelve Examples of Siddham by 安然 Annen (記)
About the work
A single-fascicle Siddham philological compendium by Annen 安然 安然 (841–c. 915), a companion piece to his magisterial Shittan-zō KR6t0413. The Shittan jūni-rei — “The Twelve Examples of Siddham” — presents twelve standard exemplary Sanskrit grammatical paradigms drawn from the dhāraṇī corpus of the esoteric scriptures and gives, for each, the morphological analysis (root, declension, vibhakti) that allows the practitioner to correctly pronounce and decompose the dhāraṇī text.
Abstract
The twelve examples are typically: (1–4) noun declension paradigms (a-stem, i-stem, u-stem, consonant-stem); (5–7) verb conjugation paradigms (present, optative, imperative); (8–10) participial and gerundive forms; (11–12) compound formations (tatpuruṣa, karmadhāraya, etc.). For each, Annen gives the Sanskrit form (in Siddham), the Chinese transcription, the morphological analysis, and the doctrinal-mantric reading.
The work is the principal Japanese pedagogical tool for the study of Sanskrit grammar as transmitted through dhāraṇī. While not a Sanskrit grammar in the Pāṇinian sense — Annen has no access to Pāṇini — the work is the closest thing to a systematic Sanskrit grammatical reference produced in pre-modern Japan and represents the high-water mark of Japanese Sanskrit philological learning before the modern period.
Date. Companion to Shittan-zō, Gangyō 4 / 880.
Structural Division
The CANWWW entry (div25.xml, T84N2703) records the work as a single-fascicle treatise by Annen with no internal toc sub-list and no related-text cross-references tabulated. The internal structure follows the twelve grammatical paradigms.
Translations and research
Critical edition: Taishō vol. 84. No English translation. Major studies: R. H. van Gulik, Siddham (1956); Yamanaka Yukio, Nihon shittan-gaku no kenkyū (Hōzōkan, 1981); Misaki Ryōshū, Annen kyōgaku no kenkyū (Daizō shuppan, 1981).
Links
- CBETA online
- Author: 安然 (Annen)
- Companion: KR6t0413 (Shittan-zō)