金剛般若波羅蜜經略疏 1.8

1.8

(Phonetic commentary) Huilin's pronunciation says: The correct Sanskrit sound is vajra, translated here as 'vajra'. Regarding prajñā: for 'pra', the original Sanskrit sound is pra (conjunct), taking the rising tone of la with a rolled tongue; being a conjunct, each of the two characters takes half a sound merged into one. The ancient reading 'ban' was an abbreviated error. For 'jñā' (pronounced er-zhe), the correct Sanskrit sound is jñā (sound ji-yi combined with rising-tone ña into a conjunct) merged into one sound (the dhāraṇī in the Shouhu guojie jing has 'jñā', meaning 'wisdom' or 'correct understanding' in Chinese). The ancient reading 'ruo' was an abbreviation. Regarding pāramitā: for 'pā', the correct Sanskrit sound should be pā (prolonged sound of bo-ge); for 'ra', the correct Sanskrit sound should be ra (taking the rising tone of la pronounced with a rolled tongue); for 'mitā', it correctly says mitā (mi pronounced mi-yi). In full, it should be: vajra-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra.