一切經音義 25.474

25.474

力力（去聲未曾常用時往一度用補聲引聲之不足。高才愽學曉解聲明能用此四字。初學童蒙及人眾凡庶實不曾用也。其三十四字母譯經者呼為半字。足知不曾師授。胸臆謬說也。凡文句之中有含餘音聲不出口者名為半字。非呼字母以為半字。今且略舉三二以明其義。假令云薩嚩即含囉字在娑嚩二字中間囉聲即名為半字。若梵書即寄囉字一半於嚩字頭上。如言沒馱即母字之末任運含其娜字。娜是半字。梵書即寄娜於馱字之上故娜為半字。如言達麼兩字中間含其囉音。梵文囉字一半寄書麼字之上。囉即名為半字。以是三句例諸他皆倣此其義明矣。奈何根本字母一切文字之源能含眾德之美玅義說不盡而乃謗為半字。足知不解。若言合如此者自身既是半字義不圓滿何能出生一切眾字。以此觀之足知所譯不明。展轉相傳訛謬不可依據。有識梵文學士請勘梵本及問傳學梵僧方知所論一一實爾。梵天所演字母條例分明。今且略說相生次第。用前十二字為聲勢舉後字母一字一字翻之一字更生十一字兼本成十二字如此遍翻三十四字名為一番。又將野字遍加三十四字之下一遍准前一一翻之又成一番。除去野字即將囉字遍加三十四字之下準前以十二字聲勢翻之一字生十二字三十四字翻了成四百八字又是一番。次以攞字嚩字娑字賀字仰字孃字拏字曩字麼字等十二字𢌞換轉加成十二番。用則足矣。亦須師授方知次第句義文翰攝在十二番中悉皆備足。若展轉相加雖無竆無盡義理相涉聲字乖僻人間罕用。只用前十二番字又以八轉聲明論參而用之。備盡世間一切聲韻種種差別名言依字辯聲。依聲立義字即廻互相加聲義萬差條然有序。繁而不雜。廣而易解。此乃梵天王聖智所傳。五通神仙高才術士廣解略解凡數百家。各騁智力廣造聲論名論數論等終不能說盡其玅。是故前劫後劫諸佛出現世間轉玅法輪皆依此梵文演說方盡其美也。是故大毘盧遮那經中有字輪曼荼羅品持誦此五十餘字功德無量無邊。能令眾生三業清淨決定當成無上菩提）。

力力 (*ḷ* and *ḹ* [i.e., *ḷ* and *ḹ*]: departing tone. They were never in common use, but only employed once in a while to supplement sounds or prolong sounds when they were deficient. Those of high talent and erudition who clearly understood śabdavidyā could use these four characters. Beginners, ignorant children, and the common multitude in truth never used them. Translators of scriptures called the thirty-four mātṛkā 'half-characters' [i.e., consonants without vowels or conjunct elements]. This is sufficient to know that they had not received master-to-disciple instruction, but made erroneous statements from their own imaginations. Whenever a phrase contains a residual sound that is not vocalized from the mouth, it is called a 'half-character'; it is not that the mātṛkā are called half-characters. Now let me briefly cite two or three examples to clarify this meaning. Suppose one says *sarva*: the sound *ra* is contained between the two characters *sa* and *va*; the *ra* sound is precisely called a 'half-character'. In Sanskrit writing, half of the character *ra* is attached atop the character *va*. Like saying *buddha*, the end of the character *bu* spontaneously contains the character *da*; *da* is a half-character. In Sanskrit writing, *da* is attached atop the character *dha*, therefore *da* is a half-character. Like saying *dharma*, between the two characters is contained the sound *ra*. In Sanskrit script, half of the character *ra* is attached and written atop the character *ma*; *ra* is precisely called a half-character. Taking these three phrases as an example, all others are modeled on this; the meaning is clear! How could one slander the fundamental mātṛkā—the source of all letters, which can contain the beauty of manifold virtues, whose subtle meanings cannot be fully told—by calling them half-characters? It is plain to see that they did not understand! If one says it ought to be so, since they themselves would be half-characters and their meaning would not be complete, how could they give birth to all the various characters? From this observation, it is sufficient to know that the previous translations were unclear, and what was handed down from one to another was erroneous and cannot be relied upon. Let scholars knowledgeable in Sanskrit compare Sanskrit manuscripts and consult Sanskrit-transmitting monks; only then will they know that every point argued here is truly so. The mātṛkā revealed by Brahmā have clearly defined rules. Now I will briefly explain their sequence of generation. Using the preceding twelve characters as the phonetic momentum, take the consonants that follow and inflect them character by character: one character generates another eleven characters, making twelve characters including the base; inflecting all thirty-four characters in this way is called one round. Then, take the character *ya* and add it beneath all thirty-four characters; inflecting them one by one according to the previous method yields another round. Removing the character *ya*, take the character *ra* and add it beneath all thirty-four characters; inflecting them with the phonetic momentum of the twelve characters according to the previous method, one character generates twelve characters, and when the thirty-four characters are fully inflected, they make 408 characters, which is yet another round. Next, taking the twelve characters such as *la*, *va*, *sa*, *ha*, *ṅa*, *ña*, *ṇa*, *na*, and *ma*, alternately rotating and appending them, twelve rounds are formed. For practical application, these are sufficient. One must also receive master instruction to know the order, the meanings of sentences, and the written forms: all are subsumed and fully complete within these twelve rounds. If one continues to combine them reciprocally, although there would be no end, their principles and meanings would intermingle, and the sounds and characters would become obscure and aberrant, seldom used among humans. One uses only the former twelve rounds of characters, and by cross-referencing and applying the treatise on the eight cases of śabdavidyā, all the phonetic rhythms and diverse expressions of the world are completely exhausted. Distinguishing sounds on the basis of characters and establishing meanings on the basis of sounds, the characters are mutually combined, and their sounds and meanings have ten thousand variations, perfectly arranged in order. They are complex without being chaotic, extensive yet easy to understand. This is indeed what was transmitted by the sagely wisdom of the King of the Brahmā Heaven. Several hundred masters—five-supercognition ṛṣis, men of high talent, and skilled scholars—have explained it extensively or concisely; each exerting their intellectual powers, they broadly composed treatises on phonetics, nominal terms, enumeration, and so forth, yet in the end they could not fully express its marvel. Therefore, when the Buddhas of past and future kalpas appear in the world to turn the wondrous wheel of Dharma, they all rely on this Sanskrit text to expound it so as to exhaust its beauty. For this reason, in the *Mahāvairocana-sūtra*, there is the 'Chapter on the Wheel of Characters Maṇḍala'; the merit of upholding and reciting these fifty-odd characters is immeasurable and boundless, able to make the three karmas of sentient beings pure, and cause them definitively to realize unsurpassable bodhi.)