The Chinese Buddhacarita: Complete Chinese-English Dictionary
Synopsis
The Fourteen known chapters of the Sanskrit Buddhacarita, famous biography of the Buddha, belong to world literature, not only to Buddhism. The style is kavya literature, ornate poetry. Conversion seems to be the main concern of its author (ca 100 A.D. ?), himself a concerted Brahmin from Central India. The text reads like a play. The doctrinal affiliation of the author may be said to be sautrantika sarvastivada, influenced by mahasamghika views.
The Tibetan version of the text (between 1260 – 1280 A.D.) contains all twenty-eight chapters, and so does the Chinese "translation", Taisho ed. IV 192. The Chinese is the work of the Chiense monk Baoyun (376-449 A.D.) from Liangzhou. It was completed in 421 in the Liuheshan Temple near Jiankang (Nanjing). The authorship is opten erroneously ascribed to Tan Wuchen (385-433 A.D.), Dharmarddhin, a monk from Central India who brought out the so-called northern version of the Mahaparinivanasutra (T.ed.374). Between 414 and 421 he worked in Liangzhou.
The Chinese Buddhacarita is Baoyn's oral version of the contents, making them clear to a Chinese audience. It is his understanding and explanation of the original Sanskrit, not a true translation. The style is polished colloquial there and then, so important for Japanese Kanbun. It is hardly meaningful to try to make a Sanskrit-Chinese glossary. A Chinses-English glossary, however, is very useful for our understanding of the colloquial style of the time, and –especoially- it is a tool to translate more Buddhist tests, a Buddhist "dictionary" (Chinese-English).
Read more
The Tibetan version of the text (between 1260 – 1280 A.D.) contains all twenty-eight chapters, and so does the Chinese "translation", Taisho ed. IV 192. The Chinese is the work of the Chiense monk Baoyun (376-449 A.D.) from Liangzhou. It was completed in 421 in the Liuheshan Temple near Jiankang (Nanjing). The authorship is opten erroneously ascribed to Tan Wuchen (385-433 A.D.), Dharmarddhin, a monk from Central India who brought out the so-called northern version of the Mahaparinivanasutra (T.ed.374). Between 414 and 421 he worked in Liangzhou.
The Chinese Buddhacarita is Baoyn's oral version of the contents, making them clear to a Chinese audience. It is his understanding and explanation of the original Sanskrit, not a true translation. The style is polished colloquial there and then, so important for Japanese Kanbun. It is hardly meaningful to try to make a Sanskrit-Chinese glossary. A Chinses-English glossary, however, is very useful for our understanding of the colloquial style of the time, and –especoially- it is a tool to translate more Buddhist tests, a Buddhist "dictionary" (Chinese-English).
112.50
101.25
$
125.00 $
Free delivery Wolrdwidе in 10-18 days
Ships in 1-2 days from New Delhi
Membership for 1 Year $35.00
Get it now and save 10%
Get it now and save 10%
BECOME A MEMBER
Similar items
-
Sanskrit-Chinese Lexicon: Being Fan Fan Yu, the First Known Lexicon of its Kind dated to AD 517
-
Sanskrit-Tibetan Dictionary: Being the Reverse of the 19 Volumes of the Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary
-
A Hand-Book of Chinese Buddhism Being a Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary with Vocabularies of Buddhist Terms
-
Pentaglot Dictionary of Buddhist Terms: In Sanskrit, Tibetan, Manchurian, Mongolian and Chinese
Bibliographic information