Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s1: Ancient Chinese Translation
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s1
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Ancient Chinese Translation
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Like modern times, translation in ancient China was of two kinds: interpretation and translation. Translation has played an important role in cultural exchanges between India and China. Interpretation lacked documentary records, although it appeared much earlier. Translation had rich data in spite of its late appearance, especially with the spread of Buddhism into China and the translation of Buddhist scriptures, translatology in China developed very early, both with theoretical summary and operational standard.
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Painting depicting translation of scriptures, Western Xia Period
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1^st-6^th century CE: According to Lu Cheng (refer to Lu Cheng's entry), An Shih-kao (refer to An Shihkao's entry) and Lokaksema (refer to Lokaksema's entry) must be considered as the earliest translators in China. An Shih-kao was from Parthia. His scriptures were altogether 39, which maintained righteous argumentation, fair and proper writing, natural words, plain but not vulgar letters. An Shih-kao's writing set solid foundation for translators of later generations. Lokaksema was from Yuezhi and whatever he translated from Sanskrit amounted to over 10 scriptures in translation. His translation was true to the original text and maintained a plain style. In the 2^nd century CE, there were Indian, central Asian and Chinese translators of the Buddhist scriptures and they often worked together. Their work could be divided into three parts: Kou-xuan (reading the original text), Chuan-yan (interpretation) and Bi-shou (writing into texts).
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It was found that the number of translators of Buddhist literature greatly increased during the 3^rd century mainly represented by Zhi Qian (refer to Zhi Qian's entry) and Dharmarakasha (refer to Dharmarakasha's entry). Zhi Qian translated 36 books and 48 volumes. His translation tried to fit into Chinese taste, thus relatively magnificent. Dharmarakasha translated a good deal of Buddhist scriptures that mainly included 175 books and 354 volumes. Yet most of his work didn't come down. His translation style was comparatively plain.
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There were many translators in 4^th century CE, mainly represented by Dao An (refer to Dao An's entry) and Kumarajiva (refer to Kumarajiva's entry). Dao An contributed to the task of translation in many ways. He developed a theory of 'Wu Shi Ben'(五失本); 'San Bu Yi' (三不易) . 'Wu Shi Ben' meant that the translator would delete repeated, trivial and cumbersome words to be found in the original texts of Buddhism and make it fit into a pattern and taste of Chinese expression. 'San Bu Yi' refers to three different types of situations that the translators usually encounter. This theory had profound influence on the translation work of later generations.
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Kumarajiva occupies a very important place in the history of Chinese translation. First, he translated a great number of Buddhist scriptures including 74 books and 384 volumes (Catalogues of Kai Yuan Buddhist Books - volume 4). Secondly, he paid full attention to his predecessors' success and failure in translation. He treated translation carefully and combined literal and free translation. Thirdly, unlike former translators who substituted concepts of Buddhist scriptures with metaphysical terms and words, he tried to innovate new and simple ways of expressions. He invented Buddhist terminology for translation more faithful to original texts. Fourthly, in order to be responsible, he started the rule to sign the translator’s name at the front of the translation. Fifthly, his institution set some guidelines to be followed by the government-run translation organisations of later times. And sixthly, most of the Buddhist scripture translated by him were preserved and had profound impact on posterity.
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Jianfu Temple at Xi’an was a translation centre during the Tang Dynasty
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The translation of Chinese Buddhist scripture flourished during the period from 5ᵗʰ and 6ᵗʰ centuries to the early 7ᵗʰ century. Two points need to be mentioned in the translation work of this period. The first is the theoretical issue, namely translation theory put forward by Yan Cong. The second is a practical issue, namely, the organisational system and translation procedure of government-run translation organisation of that time. Both issues were of great importance because they served as preludes to the climax in the translation of scriptures during the Tang Dynasty. Yan Cong’s common surname was Li and was from Zhao County. He came to Beijing in the 12ᵗʰ year of Kai-huang Period (592 CE). In the second year of Ren-shou Period (602 CE), he accepted the emperor’s command to compile Catalogue of Scriptures.
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In the second year of Da Ye Period (606 CE), he took charge of a royal translation organisation and translated 23 books and over 100 volumes. Yan Cong’s contribution in theory was the writing of the famous essay in the history of Chinese translation named *Syndrome Differentiation*. In the book, he first approved Dao An’s theory of *Wu Shi Ben*, *San Bu Yi* and then he developed it into another theory of the *Eight Requirements* (ba-bei) to be followed by Buddhist translators. The theory included comprehensive requirements both in psychological quality like aim, manner and style and in professional quality like knowledge, scope and the nature of writing.
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In the Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE), the government organised and supported two translation organisations. One was in Chang’an with Na lian ti li ye she (refer to Na lian ti li ye’s entry) and Jnanagupta (refer to Jnanagupta’s entry) successively as director. Another was in Luoyang, with Dharmagupta (refer to Dharmagupta’s entry) as director. Translation in those two organisations involved such works as 'interpreting Sanskrit' (du-yu), 'word recording' (bi-shou), 'auditing' (chong-dui), 'sorting out literary content and finalising (quanding)'. They had many people with careful division of labour.
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During the period starting from 7ᵗʰ to 10ᵗʰ centuries, the translation of Buddhist scripture reached its heyday. In the early 7ᵗʰ century, Prabhamitra, the sramana in ancient middle India, arrived in Chang’an and started organising translation work in Da Xing-shan Temple in the third year of Zhenguan Period (629 CE). Prabhamitra died in the seventh year of Zhenguan Period. Twelve years later, Xuanzang returned to China and directed the translation work in Hongfu Temple. After that Xuanzang translated Buddhist scriptures in Ci’en Temple and Yuhua Palace. From the 19ᵗʰ year of Zhenguan Period (646 CE) to the first year of Linde Period (664 CE), he translated 73 amounting to 1,330 chapters. Xuanzang had unprecedented contribution in translation history. Firstly, he set up a large scale translation organisation and founded a complete set of organisational system for it. Secondly, he used various translation skills that could be referred to by modern scholars even till today. Thirdly, he put forward important translation theories and enacted 'five conditions that were appropriate to the principle of transliteration'. Fourthly, the Buddhist scriptures he translated took up over half of newly translated Buddhist Scriptures in the Tang Dynasty. Fifthly, he was the first Chinese in Chinese Buddhist scripture translation history that translated alone without the help of any Indian or other scholar of the Western Region. Sixthly, he had outstanding achievements in translating Chinese into Sanskrit and had translated 5,000 words of Lao Zi into Sanskrit. Seventhly, his professional ethics became a model for posterity.
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After Xuanzang, Yijing and Amoghavajra served as director of the organisation of translation. Amoghavajra was one of the 'four Buddhist scripture translators (the other three were Kumarajiva, Paramartha and Xuanzang)', he translated 110 books and 143 volumes of Buddhist Tantra Classics and played a significant role in the spread of Tantra in China.
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Yijing also had significant contributions in translation. He possessed flexible translation methods and his translation organisation featured exquisite division of labour. Yijing also compiled *A Thousand Sanskrit Words to Cultivate Buddhist Scripture Translator*. The book has 1,000 Chinese characters and is a Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary. During this period of 10ᵗʰ–17ᵗʰ century, especially in the early Northern Song Dynasty, translation of Buddhist scripture in China reached another climax. In the seventh year of the Taiping Xingguo Period (982 CE), the emperor ordered to set up a translation school and renamed it as Chuanfa School the next year. The organisational scale and ability of the translation work during Northern Song was as big as that of the Tang Dynasty. It was managed and supported by senior officials of the government. They had a full-fledged organisation
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while in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Buddhist scripture translation appeared occasionally. But in Tibet, large-scale translation of Buddhist scriptures still continued.
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(*Xue Keqiao*)