Classical Chinese in Buddhist texts. Considerations and tips.

[Eibar]

How to approach the Chinese of Buddhist texts? Wikipedia says that the Chinese Buddhist canon is written in "Classical Chinese", but what form of Chinese are we talking about? I mean, speaking specifically of the pre-Tang (Kumarajiva) and Tang (Zhiyi, Xuanzang) texts, what other things do we have to consider to fully understand the context of the texts? Issues like Middle Chinese and Sanskrit loanwords. 
I mean, speaking of books and readers, do "New Practical Chinese Reader", "An Introduction to Literary Chinese," and "Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar" fulfill this purpose, or do they preferably stay in the context of Zhou-Han's literature?
It is understandable that linguistic works like Jerry Norman's do not address this at all, I know they are more vernacular and not philological. But I mean that even literarily, the concept of classical Chinese makes Zhou's literature eclipse the Buddhist Canon. If I am wrong, I would appreciate any opinion.

In conclusion, I would like to start reading the Taisho Canon in its digital formats, such as CBETA and SAT, as well as tickling the monster of original manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra... The HDC or the Paul W. Kroll are dictionaries that might help?
Is there any manual on this form/stage of literary Chinese? Should I learn Sanskrit?

[somethingfunny]

Certainly plenty of Sanskrit loanwords.  

 

If you're focus is purely Chinese Buddhist texts, you might find this webpage useful: here

 

Aside from loanwords, another major issue is the complexity of the Buddhist philosophy.  From what I remember, in a number of the key texts, the central idea is one of paradox, so you end up reading lots of sentences which translate as: "A is A, A is not A", or some such meaning.  So, translating it is one thing, understanding it something else entirely.

 

The most enjoyable text I remember reading was the origin story of Huineng at the beginning of the platform sutra.  This is contained entirely in the first chapter (I never made it to later chapters) and is supposedly very famous.  It contains a well-known poetry contest for succession.

[Luxi]

Quote

On 6/2/2023 at 5:43 PM, Eibar said:

Wikipedia says that the Chinese Buddhist canon is written in "Classical Chinese", but what form of Chinese are we talking about?

 

It is classical Chinese but Han and later. Buddhism was introduced to China in the Han Dynasty, texts only started to arrive in the Eastern Han. Kumarajiva lived during the eastern? Jin dynasty. Xuanzang during Sui and Tang. Bodhidharma, 6th Patriarch, and others: Tang. Lots more after Tang.

 

Check cbeta's Text selector > By date and Dynasty at :
https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/

 

On 6/2/2023 at 5:43 PM, Eibar said:

I mean, speaking of books and readers, do "New Practical Chinese Reader",

 

First, start with traditional characters only.  Drop "Practical Chinese Reader" and anything from PCR. If you're a beginner, De Francis (if you can find it) is probably best. There must be good textbooks from Taiwan, but I'm not familiar. On the Classical Chinese front: grammars (Pulleyblank, Archie Barnes, Vogelsang) may help. Definitely Kroll dictionary. What I've seen of original texts, it's not a heavy strict 文言文，more a sort of hybrid 文言文 /百话。 But Buddhist Chinese is a branch on its own, neither typical Classical nor Modern Chinese will prepare you for translating Chinese Buddhist texts. You pick up the Sanskrit as you go along reading texts in translation, most serious translations will include the sanskrit terms. Besides reading lots of books, reading the Chinese texts alongside good translations is very, very helpful. Many texts here as you know ?

https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/

 

This a very good tool by Jean-Soulat:  

https://www.smarthanzi.net/en/index.php  

The app is available for Windows PC, Mac, Android and iOS. It incorporates the DDB (digital dictionary of Buddhism). More about it in this thread:
https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/57872-chinese-etymology-in-smarthanzi/?do=findComment&comment=448995

 

And below an overwhelming cluster of references.

 

Dictionaries

W E Soothill "A dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms" 
online at: 
https://mahajana.net/texts/soothill-hodous.html
If you have Pleco, this dictionary is also free in Pleco, search under Add-ons>Free Dictionaries.

 

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism
(Charles Muller)
http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/

 

Translations and more references

 

Lotus Sutra 
https://www.bdk.or.jp/document/dgtl-dl/dBET_T0262_LotusSutra_2007.pdf

 

Avatamsaka Sutra (better known than Lotus Sutra in China)
http://www.cttbusa.org/avatamsaka/avatamsaka_contents.asp.html

 

Bibliography of Translations
http://mbingenheimer.net/tools/bibls/transbibl.html

 

Numata Centre for Buddhist Translations / Hamburg Buddhist Studies
https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/publikationen.html
https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/publikationen/hamburg-buddhist-studies.html (refs, open access)

 

Khyentse Foundation / 84000
https://84000.co/resources/translator-resources
https://84000.co/
( includes Readinng Room with translations from Tibetan sources)

 

Centre for Buddhist Studies - Universiteit Gent
https://www.cbs.ugent.be/node/403

 

Centre for Applied Buddhism (UK)
https://www.appliedbuddhism.org.uk/library

 

Center for Buddhist Studies of National Taiwan University
https://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~ntucbs/info/index_en.html#4

 

Major Buddhist temples:

 

City of 10,000 Buddhas
(Master Hsuan Hua)
http://www.cttbusa.org/buddhadharma_tableofcontents.asp.html

 

Dharma Drum Mountain
(Master Sheng-Yen)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma_Drum_Mountain
https://ddmba.org/

 

Fo Guang Shan (Buddha Light Association) 
(Master Hsin Yun)
https://www.fgs.org.tw/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fo_Guang_Shan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fo_Guang_Universit

 

On 6/2/2023 at 5:43 PM, Eibar said:

Is there any manual on this form/stage of literary Chinese? Should I learn Sanskrit?

 

Probably in Taiwan, email any of the major tamples and they will help you. In fact, if there is a branch of a (reliable) Chinese Buddhist organization near where you live, visit them and you may even find a teacher, they are so incredibly helpful (at least they were when I was looking for Chinese tutors)

 

Hope this helps.

[SmartHanzi]

Thank you @Luxi for referring to SmartHanzi.

 

SmartHanzi actually encompasses 2 apps: SmartHanzi and DDB Access. SmartHanzi is for general purpose (contemporary Chinese), DDB Access is specifically for Buddhist texts. DDB Access includes the full definitions (meanings) from Charles Muller's DDB. DDB was originally a website, "DDB Access" adds a more comfortable... access from smartphone and desktops. Both apps are free. For details, see www.smarthanzi.net

 

For Buddhist texts, one should use DDB Access since it shows the full definitions with explanations. The point is that DDB is a cooperative work with full access only for contributors. But practically, DDB and DDB Access allow 20 full definitions per 24 hours for anyone.

 

BTW with "guest" login, be careful to use the main server. At the moment, guest access is not available on Japan mirror.

 

The Soothill and Hodous dictionary was removed from DDB Access in 2011, since it seems to be considered now as out of date and inaccurate by most scholars. According to C. Muller: "The Soothill data that resides within the DDB has for the most part been carefully checked, and correct, removed, or annotated as necessary."

 

Current versions:
- Android, Windows(*) and Mac versions are up to date.
- iPhone, iPad: significant updates to be published (hopefully) in a few days.
(*) Windows: be careful to download from www.smarthanzi.net (avoid the Microsoft Store version at the moment, WIP).

 

Let alone the apps and techical issues, some points may need to be clarified.

 

"Buddhism" encompasses spiritual traditions as well as religious, social or political organizations which developed over 2500 years in a huge geographical area (Asia). The core teachings are common but the visible forms may be very, very different. IMHO, the core teachings are not that far from a modern "therapy" (my Buddhist friends might not agree) while many schools have their own views and corpus of texts with different meanings for the same word.

 

"Classical Chinese" also seems to have no clear cut definition: see Kai Vogelsang's "Introduction to Classical Chinese" for a discussion. Moreover, as far as I know, the first Buddhist translators (from Sanskrit) in China were confronted to an Indian view of the world very different from the Chinese tradition. It took much time to "standardize the process". If I am not mistaken this had significant consequences on the Chinese language itself (e.g. description of past / present / future). "Buddhist Chinese" might be more appropriate than "Classical Chinese" for Buddhist texts.

 

Referring to Sanskrit does not necessarily clarifies the issue:
- Yes, Sanskrit is the lingua franca for Buddhism. It is helpful to know the original word in Sanskrit.
- But the Sanskrit word may also have different meanings in different times or schools. For instance, "Buddha" in ancient Buddhism refers to the original Buddha ("M. Gautama", aka Sakyamuni). In mahayana, it has a much wider and abstract sense.
- One should remember that Sanskrit words generally refer to simple, usual things. There is no mystery, the point is to understand them in the context, with our own words.

 

Buddhist texts can often be classified with:
- Root texts: very short texts with the main reasoning (concepts), not intended to be directly understood. See for instance the Trimsika (first sample in DDB Access).
- Comments for clarification.
- Comments of comments for clarification of the comments...

 

For all these reasons, I fully agree with the recommendation above: "Besides reading lots of books, reading the Chinese texts alongside good translations is very, very helpful."

 

[Luxi]

@SmartHanzi I came to correct the apps mixup in my post, but you'd already done it for me. Thanks! I haven't used the DDB in a long time, obviously ? 

Sorry about the confusion!

 

 

[somethingfunny]

On 6/3/2023 at 7:10 PM, Luxi said:

Drop "Practical Chinese Reader" and anything from PCR.

 

Funny I missed this, but as the OP mentioned it in the same sentence as Fuller and Pulleyblank, I just automatically read "Practical Chinese Reader" as Rouzer's "A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese".  Obviously, the latter will be infinitely more helpful for the OP's aims.

 

Where are you based? The Sheng-yen foundation out of Dharma Drum Mountain fund outreach work and maybe even scholarships.  When I was in London, I attended a weekly workshop and even a few weekend conferences around the translation and interpretation of Buddhist texts organised at SOAS which were funded by Sheng-yen.

[Luxi]

On 6/4/2023 at 1:02 PM, somethingfunny said:

Funny I missed thisyou can

It's all in the mind. Mine must be riddled with obscurations, Practical Chinese Reader just jumped at me ?

 

I agree with those suggestions. @Eibar Even if you're nowhere near, you can email them, they will give you better advice than most of us here can. They might even have some distance learning organised since Covid. As for books, Van Norden's book Classical Chinese for Everyone may be a good start, I'd forgotten about it but it has had good reviews and is relatively cheap.

 

 

 

[Luxi]

Briefly reopening this topic to add a very good resource for those interested in reading Classical Chinese Buddhist texts. It's an hour or so long YouTube video by Rev Jikai Dehn (who happens to be an Australian monk of the Tendai sect):

How to Learn Literary Chinese 文言r To Read Buddhist Texts

 

It's an amazingly clear and comprehensive delivery, mapping the whole process from beginner to expert, with excellent references (all linked in the explanation text for the video). It even includes a transcript! And both Pleco and Smart Hanzi get good marks. Looks like something to keep me busy for the rest of the year and beyond.

 

 

 

[OneEye]

The recently-release 2nd edition of Michael Fuller's An Introduction to Literary Chinese has a chapter on Buddhist texts. It includes excerpts from the 生經 (Jākata Sutra), 高僧傳 (Biographies of Eminent Monks), and the Heart Sutra (from 玄奘's translation). It also has a brief but useful list of suggestions for further reading in English, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as several Buddhism-specific dictionaries (again, in English, Chinese, and Japanese).

 

I haven't spent any time reading Buddhist texts myself, and it's a gap I've been meaning to fill. This seems like a nice start.

[SmartHanzi]

1. TTS will be added in the next version of DDB Access for Mac and iPhone/iPad (same TTS as SmartHanzi). SmartHanzi can already be used for reading aloud Buddhist texts.
2. Soothill will be added in some future version of DDB Access. I rechecked with Charles Muller: "The data from Soothill is fully included in the DDB in edited and corrected form". I shall add Soothill with a warning just to avoid a confusion.