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On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s6: Written and Spoken Language &c

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s6

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English

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Written and Spoken Language &c

v1.c8.s6.1

The description next proceeds to tell of the writing and learning of the Hindus.

v1.c8.s6.2

Their system of writing was invented, as is known, by the deva Brahmā who at the beginning instituted as patterns forty seven [written] words. These were combined and applied as objects arose and circumstances occurred; ramifying like streams they spread far and wide becoming modified a little by place and people. In language, speaking generally, they have not varied from the original source, but the people of "Mid India" are preeminently explicit and correct in speech, their expressions being harmonious and elegant, like those of the devas, and their intonation clear and distinct, serving as rule and pattern for others. The people of neighbouring territories and foreign countries repeating errors until these became the norm, and emulous for vulgarities, have lost the pure style.

v1.c8.s6.3

The statement here made to the effect that the Sanskrit alphabet was invented by the god Brahmā is repeated in several other books by Buddhist writers. Some tell us that Brahmā was once a rājah on earth, and that he then invented an alphabet of 72 letters called the “Kharu writing” (佉樓書). Disgusted with the bad treatment given to these letters he proceeded to swallow them all; but two, *a* and *au* escaped from his mouth and remained among men.¹ But we are also told that Brahmā invented the Brahma writing first, and that afterwards Kharoshtha produced the script which bears his name.² Another account represents the Brahman writing (or Devanagari) to have been the invention of a wise (kovida) Brahmin, and the Kharu writing to have been the work of a stupid (kharu) rishi. This Kharu writing is that mentioned in the Lalitavistara and other books under the name Kharoshtha (or Kharosta). This word is translated by “Ass-ear”, and is the name of an ancient rishi who was a great astronomer and astrologer. In some Buddhist treatises we find the invention of letters ascribed to the Buddha, and in some Siva, as in Indian tradition, is credited with the first teaching of spelling and writing.³ The “forty seven words” of our passage are the twelve symbols which represent the ten vowels, and anusvāra and visarga, and the thirty-five consonants; and so constitute the alphabet. The letters admit of endless combinations to make words as objects require names and circumstances need expression. Some authors give the number of the letters in the Sanskrit alphabet as less, and others as more, than the number here given; but this is generally regarded as the correct number. With the statements here made by Yuan-chuang about the Sanskrit alphabet and language we may compare the more detailed account given in the third chuan of the Life.¹

v1.c8.s6.4

¹ Pai-lun-su (百論疏).

v1.c8.s6.5

² Liu-shu-liao (六書略), ch. 5.

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³ See Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching, ch. 8 (No. 113); Si-t'an-san-mi-ch'ao (悉曇三密鈔), ch. 1; Si-t'an-tsang, ch. 1; Si-t'an-tzŭ-chi (字記).

v1.c8.s6.7

¹ Julien I, p. 165; cf. Alberuni Vol. i, p. 170; Bühler's Ind. Palæographie pˢ. 1 and 19 to 30.

v1.c8.s6.8

It is evident that Yuan-chuang, like other non-Indian Buddhists, had been taught to regard the spoken and written language of "Mid-India" as at once the parent and the standard of all the dialects of "North-India". These latter had departed a little from the correct form in their writing, some of them, as in Gandhāra, having written alphabets so unlike the parent one that they had special names. In oral speech the border lands and outlying regions generally had come to differ much from the people of "Mid-India". They had lost the rich purity of the standard language, and had persisted in erroneous forms of expression until these had come to be taught as the rule.

v1.c8.s6.9

The description continues—

v1.c8.s6.10

As to their archives and records there are separate custodians of these. The official annals and state-papers are called collectively *ni-lo-pi-t'u* (or *ch'a*); in these good and bad are recorded, and instances of public calamity and good fortune are set forth in detail.

v1.c8.s6.11

The *Ni-lo-pi-t'u* of this passage has been rightly restored by Julien as Nilapiṭa, and the Chinese annotator tells us the word means "Dark-blue store". We find the word Nilapiṭa in our Sanskrit dictionaries, but the P. W. gives only one illustration of its use, and that is the passage before us.

v1.c8.s6.12

Proceeding to the education and learning of the people of India our author writes—

v1.c8.s6.13

In beginning the education of their children and winning them on to progress they follow the "Twelve Chapters". When the children are seven years of age the great treatises of the Five Sciences are gradually communicated to them. The first science is Grammar which teaches and explains words, and classifies their distinctions. The second is that of the skilled professions [concerned with] the principles of the mechanical arts, the dual processes, and astrology. The third is the science of medicine [embracing] exorcising charms, medicine, the use of the stone, the needle, moxa. The fourth is the science of reasoning, by which the orthodox and heterodox are ascertained, and the true and false are thoroughly sought out. The fifth is the science of the Internal which investigates and teaches the five degrees of religious attainments (lit. the “five vehicles”) and the subtle doctrine of karma.

v1.c8.s6.14

The “Twelve Chapters” of this passage is in the original *Shi-êrh-chang* (十二章) and Julien translates this by “un livre en douze sections”. In a note to this rendering he translates a short passage from a well-known Buddhist Dictionary about a book called the “Siddham-chang”. This is doubtless the sort of work to which the pilgrim refers as the first book which the children of India learned. The name is made up of *Siddham* which means, we are told, “Perfection” or “May good fortune be attained”, and *chang* the Chinese word for a “section” or “chapter”. But Julien makes the whole stand for a Sanskrit compound *Siddhavastu*, a term apparently known only from his use of it. From a passage in I-ching’s “Nan-hai-ch'i-kuei” and from other works we learn that the Siddham-chang was the name of a child’s primer ABC., the first chapter of which was headed by the word *siddham*.¹ This word forms an “auspicious invocation”, and the Buddhists used it alone or with “Namo Sarvajnāya, “Praise to the omniscient [Buddha]” prefixed, at the beginning of their primers. They used it in a similar way to head such documents as deeds of gift to religious establishments. In these places Bühler took the word to mean “Success”, i. e. may there be success, an interpretation which agrees with the accepted Chinese rendering. But Fleet thinks that *siddham* in these places is to be understood as meaning “Perfection has been attained by Buddha”, an interpretation which does not seem to be so good.¹ Instead of siddham the non-Buddhist teachers in India placed "siddhir-astu" meaning "May there be success (or accomplishment)" at the head of their ABCs. Thus these books came to be called Siddham or Siddhir-astu, the former being the name by which they became known to the Chinese. There are many varieties of them and the number of chapters or sections ranges from nine to eighteen, the latter being the number in the work which may be regarded as the standard one in China. This is the Si-tan-tsü-chi (悉曇字記) by the monk Chih-kuang (智廣) of the T'ang period taken from the Siddham of Prajnābodhi of South India. A Siddham gives the Sanskrit alphabet, beginning with the vowels and proceeding in the order in which the letters are given in our Sanskrit grammars, then the combinations made by single consonants and vowels, and then those made by two or more consonants with a vowel. In some of the Siddhams made for Chinese use we are told that this word denotes "the alphabet", while in others we are told that it is a designation for the twelve so-called vowels, but the statements are not borne out by any authority, and are evidently not correct. It may be interesting, however, in connection with subject to quote a statement from Alberuni. He relates—"The most generally known alphabet is called Siddha-mātṛkā, which is by some considered as originating from Kashmir, for the people of Kashmir use it. But it is also used in Vārāṇasi. This town and Kashmir are the high schools of Hindu science. The same writing is used in Madhyadeśa, i. e. the middle country, the country all around Kanauj, which is also called Aryāvarta".² According to I-ching a child began his primer when he was six years of age and learned it within six months.

v1.c8.s6.15

¹ Nan-hai-ch'i-kuei, *ch*. 34; Si-t'an-san-mi-ch'ao, l. c.

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¹ Bühler in Ind. Ant. Vol. x, p. 273; Fleet in Corp. Insc. Ind. Vol. iii, p. 25.

v1.c8.s6.17

² Alberuni Vol. i, p. 173.

v1.c8.s6.18.1

After mastering the Siddham the Indian child, according to Yuan-chuang, was introduced to the “great śāstras of the Five Sciences (Wu-ming-ta-lun 五明大論). The word ming of this phrase is often used to translate the Sanskrit word vidyā, but a five-fold classification of vidyā does not seem to be known to Indian literature. We find, however, our pilgrim’s list in certain Chinese translations of Buddhist books and the “sciences” are there acquired by aspiring Bodhisattvas.¹ They are called the “Five Science places” or the “Five Science śāstras”. In his translation of the present passage Julien has treated the name of each ming as the name of a treatise. This is evidently a mistake, and the context shews that ming here denotes a department of knowledge, and that the Wu-ming named are the literatures of five categories of learning and speculation. Yuan-chuang properly places at the head the Shêng-ming or “Science of Sounds”, i. e. Grammar. Julien agrees with I-ching in giving Śabdavidyā as the original for this term. But Śabdavidyā was apparently the Buddhist name for Grammar which by the people of India generally was called Vyākarana. It is this latter word also which Yuan-chuang elsewhere uses as the original for Shêng-ming. The next group is called Chiao-or in some texts Kung-chiao(工巧)-ming, the “Science of the Arts and Crafts”. Julien retranslates the Chinese name by Śilpasthānavidyā, which seems to be rather the original for the “Arts-place Science” of the sūtra.

v1.c8.s6.18.2

The third group is the I-fang-ming, “Healing-prescriptions Science”, that is Medical science in all its branches. Julien gives as the Sanskrit original for the Chinese name Chikitsāvidyā or Science of Medicine, but this seems to be only a conjecture. The fourth group in our passage is the Yin(因)-ming or the Science of Reasoning. Julien restores the Sanskrit equivalent as Hetuvidyā which, like Yin-ming, means literally “Science of causation”. But Yin-ming is the technical term used to translate the Nyāya or Logic of Indian writers, and Julien learned afterwards that it was Nyāya which was the original for Yin-ming. The fifth is the Nei(內)-ming or "Internal Science"; Julien translates "la science des choses intérieures" and gives as the Sanskrit original Adhyātma-vidyā. This word adhyātma means (1) the highest spirit and (2) belonging to oneself. In Kapila's system adhyātmika means self-caused (in Chinese i-nei 依內), and it is opposed to that which is due to external influences. But in the present passage, as the context shows, and as we learn from other authorities, the nei-ming or Inner science is Buddhism. The son of Buddhist parents went through a course of secular instruction like other boys, and he also studied the books of his religion including the metaphysical and argumentative treatises of the great Doctors of Abhidharma. In these he learned all about the Five degrees or "Five Vehicles, the fivefold gradation of moral beings.

v1.c8.s6.18.3

These "vehicles" or progressive stages are given as lay believer (or "inferior degree"), ordained disciple, Pratyeka Buddha, Bodhisattva, Buddha. They are also said to be Men, Devas, ordained disciples, Pratyeka Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas, and there is further difference of opinion as to the classes of beings which form the successive groups.¹ In the Buddhist śāstras moreover the student found the doctrine of karma stated, defended, and illustrated with a subtlety of intellect and boldness of imagination almost matchless. All the five groups of learning here enumerated were apparently comprised in the training of an Indian Buddhist; and no one could be a leader in the church, or an authority on dogma, who did not shew himself a proficient in these departments of learning. We are told of Kumārajīva that he studied the śāstras of the Five sciences, and of Guṇabhadra it is recorded that in his youth he learned all the śāstras of the Five sciences, astronomy, arithmetic, medicine, exorcisms. The religious training in the Tripitaka was according to some authorities a separate affair, while others treat it as a part of the "Inner Science".

v1.c8.s6.19

¹ Fan-wang-ching, ch. 2, Glossary; Yoga-shih-ti-lun, ch. 38 (No. 1170); P‘u-sa-ti-chih-ching, ch. 3 (No. 1086 tr. cir. A.D. 415).

v1.c8.s6.20

¹ Shih-chiao-fa-shu, ch. 1; Ta-ming-san-tsang-fa-shu, ch. 22 (No. 1621).

v1.c8.s6.21

Our author's description proceeds.

v1.c8.s6.22

The Brahmins learn the four Veda treatises. The first called Shou (壽), "Longevity" (the Āyur-Veda) tells of nourishing life and keeping the constitution in order; the second called Tzu (祠), "Worship" (the Yajur Veda) tells of the making of offerings and supplications; the third called Ping (平) "Making even" (the Sāma Veda) describes ceremonial etiquette, divination, and military tactics; the fourth called Shu (術) or "Arts" (the Atharva Veda) tells us of the various skilled arts, exorcisms, medicine. The teacher must have a wide, thorough, and minute knowledge of these, with an exhaustive comprehension of all that is abstruse in them.

v1.c8.s6.23

The words here rendered "the four Veda treatises" are in the original "ssŭ-fei-t'ê-lun (四吠陀論). Julien translates them simply by "les quatres Vêdas", and Beal by "the four Vēda Sāstras". Neither of the translators attempts to explain why the first Veda is here not the Rig but the Āyur. The latter term denotes life or longevity, as Yuan-chuang translates, and there is an Āyur-Veda. But this is only a supplement or appendix to the Atharva-Veda, and denotes rather the science of medicine than any particular treatise. It is reckoned as Veda, we learn, because its teachings have been found by experience to be wise and beneficial. Yuan-chuang knew that the Rig was the first, the original Veda, yet he does not even mention it here. His descriptions of the other Vedas also are not good, and it is plain that he knew very little about them and the great literature to which they had given rise. The Sāma Veda, for example, with its Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras, has nothing to do with the subjects which Yuan-chuang assigns to it, and it is concerned only with the worship of Indra, and Agni, and the Soma. When writing this passage Yuan-chuang may have had in view only those Vedic works which were in writing, and were known to or owned by the Brethren in "North India". Some of these Buddhists were converted Brahmins, and it was perhaps by some of them, as has been suggested, that the Vedas were first reduced to writing. The Rigveda itself still existed only in the memories of the Brahmins, and it was taught entirely by oral communication, but there were commentaries and other Vedic treatises in writing. Moreover we are probably justified in treating the word "Veda" in our text as denoting a group or collection of treatises, each Veda being a title under which several departments of learning were classed. The translators into Chinese sometimes render Veda like vidyā by ming (明) which simply means knowledge, science, intelligence, as with the Brahmins the Trayi-vidyā or "threefold Science" denotes the Rig, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas. The reader also will observe that Yuan-chuang here does not use the words books, treatises with the terms for Ayur, Yajur, Sāma, Atharva.

v1.c8.s6.24

Our author proceeds to sketch the Brahmin teacher's way of educating his disciples.

v1.c8.s6.25

These teachers explain the general meaning [to their disciples] and teach them the minutiae; they rouse them to activity and skilfully win them to progress; they instruct the inert and sharpen the dull. When disciples, intelligent and acute, are addicted to idle shirking, the teachers doggedly persevere repeating instruction¹ until their training is finished. When the disciples are thirty years old, their minds being settled and their education finished, they go into office; and the first thing they do then is to reward the kindness of their teachers.

v1.c8.s6.26

¹ The original for "doggedly persevere repeating instruction is 拘繫反開. This is the reading of the D text but instead of fan-k'ai the Ming edition has 及關 and Julien translates the four words "ils les attachent et les tiennent enfermés".

v1.c8.s6.27

We have next some account of a kind of men peculiar to India and long famous in the world. Our author writes—

v1.c8.s6.28

There are men who, far seen in antique lore and fond of the refinements of learning, "are content in seclusion", leading lives of continence. These come and go (lit. sink and float) outside of the world, and promenade through life away from human affairs. Though they are not moved by honour or reproach, their fame is far spread. The rulers treating them with ceremony and respect cannot make them come to court. Now as the State holds men of learning and genius in esteem, and the people respect those who have high intelligence, the honours and praises of such men are conspicuously abundant, and the attentions private and official paid to them are very considerable. Hence men can force themselves to a thorough acquisition of knowledge. Forgetting fatigue they "expatiate in the arts and sciences"; seeking for wisdom while "relying on perfect virtue" they "count not 1000 *li* a long journey". Though their family be in affluent circumstances, such men make up their minds to be like the vagrants, and get their food by begging as they go about. With them there is honour in knowing truth (in having wisdom), and there is no disgrace in being destitute. As to those who lead dissipated idle lives, luxurious in food and extravagant in dress, as such men have no moral excellences and are without accomplishments, shame and disgrace come on them and their ill repute is spread abroad.¹

v1.c8.s6.29

¹ The 'content in seclusion' of this passage is in the Chinese *fei-t'un* (肥遯) which is the *fei-t'un* (肥遁) of the commentary to the 33rd Diagram of the Yih-Ching. The phrase means "to be comfortable and happy in a life of retirement", to be content and cheerful in a voluntary seclusion, in a life of final withdrawal from the contact of bad men in the hurly-burly of an official career. For the words 'seeking for wisdom while relying on perfect virtue' the original is *fang-tao-yi-jen* (訪道依仁). The phrase *yi-jen*, "depending on (or following) benevolence" is a quotation from the Lun-yü; so also is the expression for "expatiate in the arts and sciences; then "count not 1000 *li* a long journey" is from the first chapter of Mencius; and 'acquired accomplishments' is for the *shih-hsi* (時習) or "constant practise" of the first chapter of the Lun-yü.

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