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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s3: Personalities

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s3

Language
English

Contents

Personalities

Xuanying

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*Scripts* found in another version of *Lalitavistara Sutra* (volume four) translated by another monk named Divakara refers to 64 scripts as the first type, and the second of its kind was the Kharoùñhī *lipi* corresponding to Kharosthi script. The 11ᵗʰ volume of *Abhiniskramanasūtra* translated by an Indian monk during the Sui Dynasty lists names of 64 scripts and the annotations made about this mentions Kharosthi *lipi* as the second type and it was termed as donkey lip (lu-chun) language of the Sui Dynasty. As for Fairy Saint Kharoùñhī mentioned in volume 41 of *Mahavaipulya-mahasanni-pata-sutra*, it has been translated by Indian Tripitaka Narendrayasas with an annotation on translation talks of the donkey lip language of the Sui Dynasty. This shows that the free translation of Kharosthi or Kharoùñhī is donkey lip. It has been recorded in volume 42 of the *Abhidharma-mahavibhasa-sastra* that Brāhmī script was ranked before Kharosthi script and people usually learned the Kharosthi script after studying the Brāhmī script. This work has been written by Kātyāyani-putra with necessary interpretation by 500 arhats and the same has been translated by Indian monk Buddhavarman and Dao Tai of the Northern Liang Dynasty. Further mention has been made in volume 67 of Hui Lin's *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras* that it shall be called Kharoùñhī, meaning the script of broader area people of the north. The entry of Kharosthi in volume 5 of Fa Yun's *Collection of Terms* offers the same explanation saying that Kharoùñhī or Kharosthi meant script of Bianchu people in the north. The script was mainly used to spell northwestern dialects such as Gandhari in India. It was quite popular all throughout the Silk Road, especially in the areas including Niya in Xinjiang of China till the closing decades of the 6ᵗʰ century CE. It was one of the common scripts on the Silk Road at that time and was also used to spell the languages such as Sanskrit and Tocharian.

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The sutras unearthed in Yu-tian including Dhammapada in Gandhari and several plethora of

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Xuanying was a Buddhist monk and linguist of the Sui and Tang Dynasty. His main work was *Sound and Meaning of All Sutras*. He compiled *Annotations of Mahayana-samuparigraha-sastra*, *Annotations of Shastra on Determination of Mean and Extremes*, *Annotations of Nyayadvaratarka-sastra* etc. Xuanying made important contributions in the propagation and understanding of Indian *sutras* in China and towards the exchange of linguistic science between the two nations.

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Xuanying lived during the Sui and Tang Dynasties and he joined the institution of translation run by Master Xuanzang after the 19ᵗʰ year of the reign of Zhenguan in the Great Tang Dynasty (645 CE) as 'the Eminent Monk of Lexicology'. He resided in Li-quan Temple, the Great Zong-chi Temple of the capital and the Great Ci'en Temple etc. He was proficient in lexicology, understood Sanskrit and Chinese and had profound knowledge in classical studies. As the only 'eminent monk of Lexicology' in Xuanzang's institution of translation, Xuanying was given a place of honour in the Buddhist text catalogue of the Great Tang as the 'Master of Generation' and 'Unique Talent in the Court' along with Dao Xuan who was one of his contemporaries. Besides translating *sutras*, Xuanying transliterated difficult words of *sutra* of 465 volumes with large number of quotations from many dictionaries and literary and historical works of previous generations and compiled Xuanying's

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Master Xuanying of Tang Dynasty, '*Sound and Meaning of All Sutras* (*Yiqiejing yinyi*)', Yuan Dynasty edition *Sound and Meaning* in the 5th year of Yong-hui (654 CE). This book consisting of 25 volumes was also named *Sound and Meaning of Buddhist Sutras* and *Sound and Meaning of All Sutras*,etc. It may be reckoned as the earliest extant work explaining sounds and meanings of Buddhist sutras, and provided paradigms and solid foundations for the later generations to work on 'sounds and meanings of Buddhist *sutras*' by Chinese scholars. The concerned work, thus, with a large collection of Buddhist *sutra* is also to be found in the form of Japanese transcript and in multiple fragments in Duanhuang and Tulufan areas. According to statistics, Xuanying's *Sounds and Meanings* has a collection of over 9,400 entries in which over 850 entries are Sanskrit transliterated words. Xuanying not only explained pronunciations and meanings of words but also paid attention to the connotations of those words in the context of multiple aspects of Indian culture and in actual practice of Indian customs, convention and religion. For example, the entry of 'red pillow' in volume six of Xuanying's *Sounds and Meanings* pointed out that India didn't have wooden pillows. Instead, they used red leather and cotton cloth for pillows in which Dou-luo cotton and feathers were put. They could be used as pillows as well as back cushions, and the colour was mostly vermilion. Similar explanations of various words provided basic information for readers to understand Indian Buddhism and secular culture. This work of *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras* of Xuanying is rated as one of the famous works in the field of study of 'sounds and meanings of Buddhist sutras'.

Huilin

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Huilin (慧琳737-820 CE) was a Buddhist monk and linguist of the Tang Dynasty. His family name was Pei (裴) and belonged to a place called 'Shu-le' ( 疏勒) of the Western Regions (Kashgar, Xinjiang at present). All the deeds and achievements of his life have been described in the fifth volume of *Biographies of Eminent Monks of the Song Dynasty* and in *Biography of Hui Lin of the Xi-ming Temple of the Tang (dynasty)* capital. Huilin took his lessons on classical studies from An-xi (安西) scholars in his childhood and adopted a monastic life at the age of 20. Further, he also studied Buddhist classics with the Tripitaka Master Amoghavajra, an eminent esoteric monk. He 'learned esoteric treasures internally and studied Confucianism externally', read sutras extensively and was proficient in Indian *Shabda-vidya* (linguistics) and Chinese exegesis. He compiled 100 volumes of the *Sound and Meaning of the Tripitaka* during the period from the fourth year of Zhen-yuan (788 CE) to the fifth year of Yuan-he (810 CE). In the preface to the book written by Jing

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Master Huilin of Tang Dynasty, 'Sound and Meaning of the Tripitaka (Yiqiejing yinyi)'

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Shen, it has been further pointed out that Huilin started writing all these books towards the end of Jian-zhong (783 CE) era, and completed them in the second year of the Yuan-he (807 CE) period.

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The *Sound and Meaning of the Tripitaka* is also otherwise known as *Sound and Meaning of All Sutras* and *Sound and Meaning of Hui Lin*, consisting of about 100 volumes with plenty of quotations from normal dictionaries and rhyming dictionaries such as *Analytical Dictionary of Chinese Characters*, *Dictionary of Characters*, *Uniform Characters*, *Category of Sounds*, *Three Cangs*, *Essentials of Rhyming*, *Jade Chapters*, *Ancient and Modern Standard Characters*, *Classical Dictionary of Characters* and *Kai-yuan Sounds and Meanings of Characters*. It has also a lot of references about many classical books, history and on many volumes of *Sounds and Meanings of Sutras* authored by eminent monks such as Xuanying, Hui Yuan, Yun Gong and Kuiji of the previous generations. The same work of Huilin's too provides various annotations on a large quantity of words and terms of more than 1,300 sutras translated into Chinese that amounts to over 5,700 chapters. The *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras* has been divided into many volumes with many catalogues based on the contents of the *sutra* and it is roughly the same as the order followed in compiling the Records of Sakyamuni's Teachings of the Kaiyuan Period.

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According to the statistical information provided by Xu Shiyi, the *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras* actually annotated sounds of over 1,160 sutras of the work of Maha-Prajnaparamita Sutra translated by Xuanzang and those of another work titled *Protection of Life and Release of Animals* written by the eminent monk Yi Jing of the Tang Dynasty. The *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras* has over 31,000 entries in which Huilin personally compiled over 21,200 entries. The entries offer answers to various questions that are likely to be raised by the readers of *Sutra*. Further, the *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras* explained a lot of Sanskrit transliterated words besides pointing out correct Chinese characters and correct pronunciation of the Sanskrit words. This book proves to be very helpful in understanding various facets of ancient Indian culture and provided valuable information on the history of India-China cultural exchange. According to the contents of the sixth volume of *Sound and Meaning of All Sutras*, the word 'cane' means 'sarkara'. Explanations on Chinese characters used to translate the term 'cane' mentioned that it was the name of 'a grass of good smell'. When the juice of the cane is heated, it produces 'sugar' (shatang). After the completion of *Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras*, it has been carefully preserved in Xi-ming Temple of Xi'an along with other sutra, and is held in high esteem both by the Buddhists and laymen of the capital. It became part of the Tripitaka since the fifth year of Da-zhong (851 CE) reign and enjoyed much popularity in the Buddhist world. After this book was circulated to other places like Korea and Japan, it made great contribution towards the propagation of Buddhist culture in East Asia.

Zhiguang

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Zhiguang was a Buddhist monk and language scholar of the Tang Dynasty. He is also the author of a volume of *Siddham Script* but nothing much is known about him in detail. The official title of this work is *Records of the Shan-yin Buddhist monk Zhi Guang of Tang Dynasty*. According to the records of *Yu Qing Lai Catalog* written by Konghai (774-835 CE), a Japanese Buddhist monk who came to China during Tang Dynasty, one volume of *Siddham Script* and one volume of *Explanation of the Siddham Script* were introduced in Japan. Zhiguang probably lived during the time of Emperor Dezong of Tang (780-805 CE). The *Siddham Script* was another record of the copy of the *Siddham Chapter* written by a South Indian Buddhist monk, Prajnabodhi. When Prajna-bodhi was young, he learned phonetics and linguistics based on the language of South India from Prajna-ghou\a written by Mahesvara. Prajna-bodhi came to China by sea with a Sanskrit "Dharani". He paid religious homage to Mount Wutai and lived in a house built on the mountain. Zhiguang learned about Siddham script from Prajna-bodhi in Mount Wutai. Based on this information and understanding, he compiled this volume of *Siddham Script*. The *Records of the Siddham Script included* 47 fundamental letters and the book in its final form with further explanation turned out to be one of 18 chapters. Each chapter took the first two letters or the first letter combined with others as its name and the names of all chapters are– Jia-jia Chapter, Zhi-ye-zhi-ye Chapter, Jia-lue Chapter, Jia-luo Chapter, Jia-po Chapter, Jia-mo Chapter, Jia-na Chapter, A-le-jia Chapter, A-le-zhi-ye Chapter, A-le-jia-lue Chapter, A-le-jia-luo Chapter, A-le-jia-po Chapter, A-le-jia-mo Chapter, A-le-jia-na Chapter, Ang-jia Chapter, Qi-li Chapter, A-suo-jia Chapter, Guhe Chapter and so on. The *Records of Siddham Script* had many words of annotation which was of great help to understand the content of a text. Compared to *Siddham Chapter* of the Tang Dynasty,

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[Figure: 'The Records of Siddham Script (Xitan ziji)', front cover]

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the *Records of Siddham Script* was more close to the actual characteristic features of Sanskrit language. It has not been kept together along with other literary works and was maintained separately with an independent existence of its own. Hence, it was widespread and popular and is regarded as one of the most important works among other such research works of Siddham script in China. The *Records of Siddham Script* was introduced into Japan and was named as the *Eighteen Chapters of Southern India Prajna-bodhi Siddham*. It was read and used by Kong Hai (Hong-fa master) An Ran (the author of *Siddham Collection*), contributing to further study and development of Siddham science in Japan.

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(*Chen Ming*)

Shouwen

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Shouwen (守温) was a Buddhist monk and Chinese phonologist of the period of the Five Dynasties of the late Tang era. According to the information contained in the work of *Jade Sea*, 'Shouwen wrote a book entitled *Chart of Thirty Six Alphabets*, which is also otherwise known as *Shou Wen’s Thirty Six Alphabets*. The original work of Shouwen is believed to have been lost long back. However, its fragments are still available in the Dunhuang cave. From page 2012 of the *Dunhuang Collection*, a text titled *Records of Monk Shou Wen in the Southern Liang Dynasty* has been discovered. The introduction of the fragments of that record offers a list of the labial sounds (such as bu, fang, bing and ming), lingual sounds (duan, tou, ding and ni were tongued sounds; zhi, che, cheng and ri as retroflex sounds), glottal sounds (such as jian, jun, xi, qun, lai and ning, etc.), dental sounds (such as jing, qing and cong further sub-categorised as tip-toothed sounds and shen, chuan, chan and zhao as conical-toothed sounds), and guttural sounds (such as xin, xie and xiao, further sub-classified as unvoiced guttural sounds and xia, yu and ying as voiced guttural sounds). These alphabets differed from the *Thirty Six Alphabets of Shou Wen* which were seen in extant literature sparsely. Some scholars thought that the 'thirty six alphabets' of the Song Dynasty were the same as those of Shouwen's '36 alphabets'. These alphabets were used to represent the initials of the pronunciation of the Chinese characters. Thus, the ideas and method to use some representative characters to show different sound categories was inspired by Sanskrit letters. However, the work titled *Shou Wen's Fragments of Rhymes* was an important piece of literature to study phonology of the Tang Dynasty which reflected information on speech sounds of the northwestern part of Tang rule. Although Shouwen was not the first scholar to talk about letters (alphabets) in the comparative context of the Sanskrit and Chinese languages yet his contribution in the notation of Chinese characters was immense, and the influence of Sanskrit linguistic works on the growth of Chinese phonological study has been quite significant.

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*Shouwen's writing, Dunhuang Remnants P2012*

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(*Chen Ming*)

Panini

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Panini was an ancient Indian grammarian and his Chinese name was ‘Bo Nini (波你尼)’ or Bo Nini (波膩尼). He was born in about 4^th century BCE and wrote *Panini-sutra* which turned out to be a famous grammar book in Sanskrit. The legend of Panini was recorded in Chinese literature including the *Travelling Notes of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty*, and knowledge of Sanskrit grammar spread in ancient China based on the information contained in *Panini-sutra*.

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The earliest record of legend of Panini was in volume two of Xuanzang's *Travelling Notes of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty*. He was born in Salatura, Gandhara (Lahor/Lavor near Ohind, Pakistan). He followed the classical traditions of the Sanskrit grammar established by Brahma and Sakra (Indra) and learned grammatical knowledge from Shiva. He then wrote his famed grammar book, *Panini-sutra*. This book was based on his profound understanding of the relevant literature of the ancient time which made him a world-famous grammarian. Volume three of *A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci en Monastery of the Great Tang* recorded that Sanskrit grammar books expounded by Brahma had over 1,000,000 *slokas*. Sakra simplified the size into 100,000 *slokas*, Fairy Gunabhadra further reduced it into 12,000 *slokas*, and Panini simplified it into 8,000 *slokas*. In Indian tradition, Panini was also called Salaturiya. His alternative name was Daksiputra which may hint that his mother was Daksi. According to the information contained in the opening chapter of Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara, Panini was enlightened by Shiva, created a new grammar book and beat the grammar system of the Indra school.

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The fourth volume of Yi Jing's *An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea* titled *Learning Dharma in the West* says that *Panini-sutra* was the fundamental classic of all sounds (linguistics), i.e., 'it was the fundamental sutras of all sounds'. The book containing about 1,000 slokas, explains the essential meanings of many words and expressions. *Panini-sutra* was also named *Astadhyayi* in about 4,000 sentences in all while adopting the form of *sutra*. Each sentence explained a rule so that a theory and grammar system could be built based on the texts. The book explained the complex grammatical system of the Sanskrit language, and was regarded as the oldest work dealing with the grammatical structure of Sanskrit texts. Furthermore, it had three appendices such as the Dhatupatha, Ganapatha and Unadi. Moreover, the later generations edited three kinds of appendices including Paniniya-siksa, Paribhasapatha and Linganusasana. *Panini-sutra* was the most authoritative classical Sanskrit book and was held as a classic by later Sanskrit writers. It is also regarded as the oldest intact grammar book in the world and was also claimed as 'one of the greatest milestones of human wisdom'.

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‘*Elementary Panini's Grammar (Bo Nini yufa rumen)*’, *Duan Qing; (front cover)*

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Some ancient Chinese literature retained part of the original analysis of the Sanskrit grammar as found in *Panini-sutra* but there was no specific edition of translation of Sanskrit grammar book. The paper of Jin Kemu named *Panini Sutra: An Overall Survey of Sanskrit Grammar* was the first paper of Chinese scholar studying *Panini-sutra* which systematically explained the characteristics of the system of *Panini-sutra*, and its important significance in linguistic philosophy and history of cultural thought. In 1996, Ji Xianlin, et. al., translated the book, *An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language*, written by German scholar Adolf Fridrich Stenzler. In 2001, Duan Qing published a book *Introduction to Panini Grammar: Explanations of Sarasiddhantakaumudi* which used the Sanskrit grammar series of Panini with the Sanskrit text of *Sarasiddhantakaumudi* as the basis of explanations. It offered an overall introduction to the grammar system of Panini and has been rated as the first contemporary book devoted to the study of Sanskrit grammar in China.

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(*Chen Ming*)

Patanjali

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Patanjali was an ancient Indian grammarian and philosopher. He was born in the 2ⁿᵈ century BCE. Not much is known about him. His main grammar book was *Mahabhasya* and its full name was *Vyakaranamahabhasya*. This book in its textual form adopted the pattern of 'one question and one answer'. It revised and supplemented the earlier grammar book *Pāôini-Sâtra* and retained parts of another grammar book after *Pāôini-Sâtra*, for example, segments of Katyayana's *Varttika*. The fourth volume of Yi Jing's *An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea* titled *Learning Dharma in the West* recorded explanations of *Varttika-sutra*, which was named "Curni" which had been authored by the scholar Pantanjali. Patan-jali was his transliteration, who was also claimed as Curnikrtor Curnikara, the author of "Curni", while Curni meant 'Mahabhasya', which provides new annotations to *Pāôini-Sâtra* and *Varttika*. Only those scholars with profound academic background can master Mahabhasya after having studied the same for three years. The book, *An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea* also mentioned that the important annotation of the book of *Mahabhasya* was *Bhartrhari-tika*, which was compiled by the great scholar Bhartrhari during the 6ᵗʰ and 7ᵗʰ centuries. This book had 25,000 slokas and is regarded as one of the important grammar books.

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It is generally believed that another important book of Patanjali was *Yoga-sutra*. Some scholars thought that the author of *Yoga-sutra* was different from *Mahabhasya*. *Yoga-sutra* was the earliest book of the Yoga school which was one of the six schools of ancient Indian philosophy and this continued to exert profound influences on the later thought system of India. It had been translated into Arabic by Islamic scientist Al-Biruni in the 11ᵗʰ century because of its deep and inherent cultural content.

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(*Chen Ming*)

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