Datang Western Mind, "the Tibetan Translation Research

This doctoral thesis "Studies on Tibetan Translation of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty" is a comparative analysis based on a careful research made on many Chinese and Tibetan editions of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty. Among the Chinese edition used Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty (Vol.1-2) published by Zhonghua Book Company in 2000, with Prof. Ji Xianlin's annotation is the text that serves as the foundation for this study. The Tibetan texts are based on the photo copy of mGon-po-skyabs'translation script of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty in Tibetan from the library of Otani University, Japan, and the Tibetan edition of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty published by Tibetology Research Center Publishing House in 2006. This thesis through a detailed comparative study finds out some imperfections, such as mistranslation, misprint and mistakes in grammar, as well as some good annotations in the some of the translated versions..Buddhism was introduced to China before Christian era. Although we do not know the exact date, we could find out the route by which Buddhism was introduced into China according to the translators'names and the tone of Sanscrit. Buddhism was not introduced directly from India at first, but through the mid-Asia and Xinjiang. From the Sui Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, China was on its way to unification and the North and the South of China began intercommunicating. The Mahayana and Hinayana, emptiness school etc were introduced to China at this time. Many monks in China wanted to know the exact meaning of the Sutra. They hoped to go to the cradle of the Buddhism, India, to investigate and study, so many monks made their trips to the west.In China Master Xuanzang attended the India Master's lectures and heard about Yogacara-bhumi-sastra (Discourse on the stages of concentration practice), and he wanted to know more about the Sutra. After some preparation, at the age of 28, he went to the west seeking the dharma in 627 AD (Zhenguan first year of Tang Dynasty). He spent 18 years visiting the mid-Asia and India, including 56 regions and countries, and covered more than 250,000 of kilometers on foot. In 645 AD (Zhenguan nineteenth year of Tang Dynasty), Master Xuanzang brought lots of the Sutras back to Chang'an. He was summoned to Luoyang by Emperor Tang Taizong, and ordered him to write what he had seen on his way to India. So Master Xuan Zang dictated what he had seen on his way to the west to his disciple Bian Ji who recorded it in Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty, which was finished in July, 646 AD (Zhen'guan twentieth year of Tang Dynasty) within one year.Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty consists of 12 volumes. The first volume covers 34 regions and countries and describes the situations of Xianjiang and mid-Asia. The second volume begins with a general introduction to India, and the eleventh volume is the description of 82 regions and countries in the five parts of India. From the eighth to ninth volume was about the country of Magatha. The twelfth volume recorded the situation of 22 regions and countries around Pamirs and the south side of Tarim Basin. The whole book recorded 138 regions and countries, including the names of all the regions or countries, their geography, size, cities, calendars, kings, clans and races, royal courts, agriculture, products, currencies, foods, clothes and duds, language and literature, amenity, arms and punishment, customs, religion beliefs, and Buddhist historic spots and places of interest, number of temples and monks, the popularity of Mahayana and Hinayana and so on.The value and contribution of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty are its description of the history, geography, climate, and customs in the area of Xingjian to the east, Iran to the west, the end of south India peninsula to the south, the Kyrgyzstan to the north, Bengal to the northeast. It systematically records the general geographical situation, the information of the climate, lakes, landform, soil, forest, animals, etc, in the vast area between the Pamirs and Aral Sea. Very few historical documents about the area in the middle-age have been found so far, so it is a rare historical heritage, and with the full and systematic geography record, it is also the most important document for the study of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bengal, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the area of Kashmir and Xingjiang of our country in the middle-age era.The Tibetan edition of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty was translated by mGon-po-skyabs, the supervisor in charge of Tibetan studies in the Qing Dynasty, and was finished in Qianlong's time. Professor Wang Yao's paper On the Tibetan Edition and Translator mGon-po-skyabs of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty noted mGon-po-skyabs had a rank of "Gong" peerage (dukedom), from the Wuzhumuqin tribe of Mongol. He grew up under the rule of Emperor Kangxi and became an official in charge of external affairs, so he often met Tibetan Lama and Buddhist believers, and he was well versed in Tibetan. Emperor Yongzheng kept him in the capital, ordered him as the supervisor in charge of the Tibetan studies. This is a special royal service institution in charge of the research and study of Tibetan Affairs. He was directly responsible to the royal court, and often engaged in the tasks of translation, so he was very famous at that time. During the Qianlong years, he translated many books and published these sutras in succession. And according to the research of Mr. Chen Qingying, Wuzhumuqin tribe was divided into left and right Banners in the north part of Xilin Gol League in Qing Dynasty. Both banners came from Dorji, the descendants of Genghis khan. Mr. mGon-po-skyabs was an official who knew four languages, and his teacher, Pandita Xilitu, was a very famous advisor to the royal court in Mongolia. Mr. mGon-po-skyabs published many works, such as The Records of Headstream of Buddhism in Hinterland, The Dictionary of Combination between Mongolian and Tibetan. Through these works, we could know he was a great scholar who was well versed in Mongolian, Chinese, Tibetan and Manchu languages.Through our research, we find that Mr. mGon-po-skyabs faithfully translated the description of the 138 regions and counties in Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty from Chinese into Tibetan. And besides description of the 138 regions and countries, he also gave accounts to many places, temples, towers, mountains and rivers in the annotation to his translation. The added information in his annotation could be found in old literatures, and most of proper names came from the sound of Sanscrit and Pali languages. But some of them are difficult to find because of the inaccessibility to the relevant documents, which we hope can be obtainedt in our future research. In his translation Mr. mGon-po-skyabs reduced the of twelve volumes of the Chinese version into ten volumes in the Tibetan version. The Tibetan translation only cuts down some mythos and legends in Chinese edition, but the description of the regions and counties remains. In his preface he noted, "India was the source of Buddhism, I would try my best to translate all about Buddhism." So he gave more attention to the description of Buddhism, such as the number of temples and monks, schools of the studies, and the extent of temple discipline. But as for the description of mythos and legends, he only gave detailed translation to some of them.Base on the achievements of the predecessors'research, this doctoral thesis is the first attempt to compare the whole content of Accounts of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty in Chinese and Tibetan editions. After the detailed comparison of the two versions, we have made new discoveries in the translation, different editions, annotation and explanation. This thesis gives more attention to the characteristics of the language in Tibetan translation. Through this comparison, we could know how the cultures between the Chinese and Tibetan were communicated, and how they learn from each other and how they reinforced each other and went forward together. We also mention at the end of the thesis how we shall carry on this research in the future.