Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t1: Pancavidya
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t1
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Pancavidya
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Ancient Indian knowledge system called *Pańcavidyā* (five disciplines of knowledge) played a significant role in expanding transmission of a whole range of new ideas from India to China. It was customarily comprised of *Śabdavidyā* (science of language), *Hetuvidyā* (science of logic), *Cikitsāvidyā* (science of medicine), *Śilpakarmasthānavidyā* (science of fine arts and crafts), and *Adhyātmavidyā* (science of spirituality). Known in Chinese as Wu-ming-lun, it is also referred to as *Sabdavidya* (science of language), *Hetuvidya* (science of logic), *Chikitsavidya* (science of medicine), *Śilpakarmasthanavidya* (arts and crafts) and *Adhyatmavidya* (science of spirituality).
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Indian Buddhist monks were learned people; many of them were Hindu Brahmins by birth. They customarily studied the prominent sciences of time in their childhood. Biographies of Indian monks, who visited China from the 2^nd century onwards, mention that they learnt five secular sciences or *Pańcavidyā* as a basic training course. These sciences were also taught at the Nalanda University along with other religious training.
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One of the earliest references to *Pańcavidyā* in the Chinese language is found in a Buddhist work Wu Ming Lun 五明論 that has been part of the Chinese Buddhist canon. This work is attributed to Nagarjuna which is often written as Long Shu 龍樹 in Chinese, so the title Long Shu Wu Ming Lun 龍樹五明論or Nagarjuna’s *Pańcavidyā*. There are references to medicine including gynaecology and obstetrics in this work. Incidentally, Nagarjuna had studied and taught at Nalanda too according to the accounts of Xuanzang 玄 奘 (602-664 CE) and Yijing 義 淨 (635-713 CE) the famous Chinese Buddhist travellers of Tang Dynasty. An Indian Buddhist monk Jnanabhadra, visiting China in 6^th century CE, translated this work in collaboration with three other monks.
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Each area of the Pańcavidyā or the corpus of knowledge that a Buddhist monk was supposed to master, made its mark in the new place where it was transmitted to. It is well manifest in canonical, historical and popular literature, in cave engravings and paintings, in manuscripts stored there, and also in popular legends like those of ‘Bhaiṣajyaguru’, Yaowang or Yaoshi (藥王 or 藥士). The names of authors like Long Shu 龍樹for Nagarjuna and Qutan Xida 瞿曇悉達for Gautama Siddhartha were used for works on ophthalmology and astronomy, respectively, and even names of medicinal formulae and alloys point at these exchanges. Many loan words entered Chinese language from Sanskrit too, e.g., Chan 禪for *Dhyāna*, Jiu zhi 九執 for *Navagraha*, Ka mo lo迦 摩羅for *Kāmalā* or jaundice in Sun Simiao’s literature and San guo 三 果for *Triphalā*.
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Ancient Indian medicine left its profound mark on Chinese medicine in the fields of ophthalmology, gynecology, pediatrics, pharmaceutics, physical fitness, and psychological treatment like ‘*dhyāna*’. Many anecdotes of Buddha and Bodhisattva relate to their delivering medical instruction, medicines and medical texts to the needy.
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Amoghavajra (CE 705-774), a prominent Buddhist monk from South Asia, introduced esoteric Buddhism in the form of Tantra and alchemy into China. He translated a large number of Buddhist works into Chinese. As the Buddhists were committed to lessening of human sufferings and hunger, the Buddhists pursued alchemy, both physiological to achieve immortality and metallurgical to make silver- and gold-like alloys. Worshipping Buddha involved making idols and vessels made of metals like copper and alloys, like brass and bronze. This process opened more areas of interest where ideas could be exchanged viz alchemy and metallurgy. New processes and materials became known and new words entered Chinese scientific terminology. They were first found in technical books and later, listed in ancient dictionaries and compendia. Xinxiu Bencao 新修本草 of the 7^th century CE and Bencao Gangmu 本草纲目 of the 16^th century CE include ‘Nao sha’ for ammonium chloride or Sal ammoniac, Ti hu 醍醐 for ‘Ghṛta’ or clarified butter and Niu Huang 牛黄 for ‘Gorochona’ ie dried gallstone of domestic cattle. Transliterated terms like Totamu 士多伞 for zinc, which is ‘Tutthanāga’ in Sanskrit, became common in Chinese literature.
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As a first step, the Buddhists had to learn each other’s languages. They wrote elaborate articles on systematic learning of Sanskrit or Fan wen 梵 文 as it is called even today. They compiled specialised dictionaries to translate Sanskrit and Pali works into Chinese and Tibetan. For that, Chinese phonetic parallels for Sanskrit words were selected. The very first such attempt is seen in Faxian’s writings. He left China in the late 4th century CE to reach India in the early 5th century CE. As translation activity gained momentum dictionaries were composed. ‘Mahāvyutpatti’ ie Fanyi mingyi da ji 翻 譯名義大集 (collection of translated names), is a 9th century Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary; during Song Dynasty in the 12th century Fa yun 法雲 compiled a Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary. Fanyi mingyi ji 翻譯名義集. There is also a work by Li yan 禮言 viz Fan yu za ming 梵語雜名 (miscellaneous nuances of Sanskrit). These dictionaries are part of the canonical literature.
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These are a few among numerous examples of alchemy, medicine, lipi or script and Tantra making their mark on Chinese cultural and scientific life.
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(*Vijaya J Deshpande & Kamal Sheel*)
Cites (1)
- Mahāvyutpatti — Sanskrit