The aim of the present work is to provide a philological analysis of the Fo suoxing zan 佛所行讚, the Medieval Chinese translation of the Sanskrit poem Buddhacarita, the poetic account of the life of the Buddha composed in Sanskrit by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the late first or early second century CE. The Buddhacarita defines itself as a mahākāvya, a work of ornate poetry; it belongs to the genre of the sargabandha, i.e. a collection of chapters (sarga) linked together (bandha) in a story. The Chinese translation of the Buddhacarita was completed in the first half of the fifth century CE in the capital of the Liu Song (420-479) dynasty; it is now listed as T192 in the Taishō edition of the Chinese Buddhist Canon. The critical edition of the Buddhacarita was published by Edward Hamilton Johnston in 1936; it includes the first fourteen chapters of the poem, covering the life of the Buddha up to the enlightenment. The Fo suoxing zan is made up of twenty-eight chapters, covering the life of the Buddha from his birth to the partition of his relics – similar characteristics are shared by the Tibetan translation, completed in the 11th century. Since the Chinese and the Tibetan versions are the same length, it is generally understood that Aśvaghoṣa’s poem was originally made up of twenty-eight chapters. If we consider the importance and the literary value of the Buddhacarita, the earliest complete account on the life of the Buddha in Sanskrit composed with an explicit aesthetic purpose, it is understandable that early scholarly works mostly used the Chinese and Tibetan versions as tools to edit and to reconstruct the Sanskrit manuscript. In the long term, however, this attitude led to the underestimation of the importance of the Chinese translation of the Buddhacarita and of its influence on other texts in the Chinese Buddhist Canon. This study reverses this perspective and aims to describe the peculiarities and the historical context in which the Fo suoxing zan was produced. The present work derives further conclusions from a comparison between the Fo suoxing zan and the Buddhacarita. The main hypothesis is that the discrepancies between the Fo suoxing zan and the “original” Sanskrit poem can reveal interesting details on the circumstances in which monk-translators carried out their duty.

Buddhist translation practices in Medieval China: the case of the Buddhacarita / Lettere, Laura. - (2019 Feb 28).

Buddhist translation practices in Medieval China: the case of the Buddhacarita

LETTERE, LAURA
28/02/2019

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to provide a philological analysis of the Fo suoxing zan 佛所行讚, the Medieval Chinese translation of the Sanskrit poem Buddhacarita, the poetic account of the life of the Buddha composed in Sanskrit by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the late first or early second century CE. The Buddhacarita defines itself as a mahākāvya, a work of ornate poetry; it belongs to the genre of the sargabandha, i.e. a collection of chapters (sarga) linked together (bandha) in a story. The Chinese translation of the Buddhacarita was completed in the first half of the fifth century CE in the capital of the Liu Song (420-479) dynasty; it is now listed as T192 in the Taishō edition of the Chinese Buddhist Canon. The critical edition of the Buddhacarita was published by Edward Hamilton Johnston in 1936; it includes the first fourteen chapters of the poem, covering the life of the Buddha up to the enlightenment. The Fo suoxing zan is made up of twenty-eight chapters, covering the life of the Buddha from his birth to the partition of his relics – similar characteristics are shared by the Tibetan translation, completed in the 11th century. Since the Chinese and the Tibetan versions are the same length, it is generally understood that Aśvaghoṣa’s poem was originally made up of twenty-eight chapters. If we consider the importance and the literary value of the Buddhacarita, the earliest complete account on the life of the Buddha in Sanskrit composed with an explicit aesthetic purpose, it is understandable that early scholarly works mostly used the Chinese and Tibetan versions as tools to edit and to reconstruct the Sanskrit manuscript. In the long term, however, this attitude led to the underestimation of the importance of the Chinese translation of the Buddhacarita and of its influence on other texts in the Chinese Buddhist Canon. This study reverses this perspective and aims to describe the peculiarities and the historical context in which the Fo suoxing zan was produced. The present work derives further conclusions from a comparison between the Fo suoxing zan and the Buddhacarita. The main hypothesis is that the discrepancies between the Fo suoxing zan and the “original” Sanskrit poem can reveal interesting details on the circumstances in which monk-translators carried out their duty.
28-feb-2019
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1250082
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