一切經音義 25.423

25.423

梵經（云阿察囉唐云文字義釋云無異流轉。或云無盡。以名句文身善能演說諸佛秘密萬法差別義理無窮故言無盡。或云常住。言常住者梵字獨得其稱諸國文字不同此例何者如東夷南蠻西戎北狄及諸胡國所有文字並是小聖睿才隨方語言演說文字。後遇劫盡三災起時悉皆磨滅不得常存。唯有此梵文隨梵天王上下前劫後劫皆用一梵天王所說。設經百劫亦不差別故云常住。總有五十字從初有一十二字是翻字聲勢。次有三十四字名為字母。別有四字名為助聲稱呼梵字亦五音倫次喉𦠍齗齒脣吻等聲則迦左䋾嚲跛五聲之下又各有五音。即迦佉誐伽仰乃至跛頗㦄𠴸莽皆從深向淺亦如此國五音宮商角徵羽。五音之內又以五行相參。辯之以清濁。察之以輕重。以陰陽二氣揀之萬類差別悉能知矣。故易曰觀乎天文以察時變。觀乎人文以化成天下即其義也。經言十四音者是譯經主曇無讖法師依龜茲國文字取捨不同用字差別也。若依中天竺國音旨其實不爾。今乃演說列之如右。智者審詳）。

The Sanskrit scriptures (say akṣara; in Chinese, it means "written characters." The semantic explanation states: "having no differentiated flow or transmigration." Or, it means "inexhaustible." Because the bodies of words, phrases, and syllables are skillfully able to expound the secrets of all Buddhas and the differences of the myriad phenomena, their meanings and principles being boundless, they are therefore said to be inexhaustible. Or, they are said to be "eternal." As for being "eternal," the Sanskrit script alone obtains this designation; the scripts of other countries do not follow this rule. Why is this? The scripts of the Eastern Barbarians, the Southern Barbarians, the Western Rong, the Northern Di, and the various Hu states were all devised by the sagacious talents of minor sages according to the local languages to expound spoken and written words. Later, when the kalpa comes to an end and the three disasters arise, all of them are wiped out and cannot endure eternally. Only this Sanskrit script ascends and descends along with the Brahmā King; both the previous kalpa and the subsequent kalpa use what was spoken by the one Brahmā King. Even after a hundred kalpas, there is still no difference, hence it is said to be eternal. There are fifty characters in total: from the beginning there are twelve characters that are the tonal inflections (svara/vowels) for transcribing characters. Next there are thirty-four characters called the mother characters (mātṛkā/consonants). Separately there are four characters called auxiliary sounds. In uttering Sanskrit characters, there is also the sequence of the five sounds: sounds of the throat, palate, gums, teeth, lips, and mouth corners, which fall under the five sounds of ka, ca, ṭa, ta, and pa; and beneath each of these five sounds there are also five tones: namely, ka, kha, ga, gha, ṅa, up to pa, pha, ba, bha, ma. All proceed from deep to shallow, just like the five notes of this country: gong, shang, jiao, zhi, and yu. Within the five notes, they are also harmonized with the five phases. One distinguishes them by clear and turbid; one examines them by light and heavy. Sorting them with the two qi of yin and yang, the differences among the myriad kinds can all be known. Thus the Book of Changes says: "Observe the astronomical patterns to examine the changes of seasons; observe the human cultural patterns to transform and complete the world"; this is its meaning. The sūtra's reference to fourteen sounds was due to the translator-in-chief, Dharma Master Dharmakṣema, following the script of Kucha, whose inclusions and omissions differed, resulting in discrepancies in the use of characters. If one relies on the sound-principles of Central India, in reality it is not like that. Now they are expounded and set out as to the right. Let the wise examine them closely).