A Brief Comment On The Annotations And Annotations Of The Annotation

The main contents of this paper first include the translation of the Tibetan commentary works ’Parting From the Four Attachments’ written by rje-btsun grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan (Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen) into Chinese; and then making annotation and brief introduction on them. In the early twelfth century, the first Sakya Patriarch, Sa-chen Kun-dga’ Snying-po (Sachen Kunga Nyingpo) passed on the teachings of ’the parting of four attachments’ -in which there was only one song (4 sentences) but it already covered all the essences of the three Buddhist vehicles (Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana) and incorporated the complete path of attaining Buddhahood. It was one of the main philosophies of Tibetan Sakya school. Later the third Sakya Patriarch, rje-btsun grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan (1147-1216), annotated it and completed the first annotation works on the teachings of ’the parting of four attachments’. Since then many Sakya masters wrote a lot of annotation works based on the original song. These works were different in the lengths, the scales, the ways of explanation and the points of view. And they were not the same in the depths and the widths.Among various Tibetan annotation works, the commentary works ’Parting From the Four Attachments’ written by rje-btsun grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan (Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen) is the most unique one. Because this works was written based on the actual experiences of practices which was so-called "mnemonic phrase" in Tibetan Buddhism. This works is different from most other academic commentary works which are word for word carved in annotation, but written in accordance with the author’s practical experiences and the know-how taught orally. In it there are chanting lyrics created by the religious allegory of "ballad with a moral theme". These lyrics naturally show the clear and definite way to practices; and the main ideas of ultimate enlightenment. The contents are to the point, with full structure and clear steps. Therefore, this works is often used by later Sakya masters as their teaching materials for ’Parting From the Four Attachments’.Till now this works is kept by many versions such like Tibetan woodblock, modern revised version, Western-style binding version, the electronic revised digital version and so on. The Tibetan version adopted by this paper is Sa-chen Kun-dga’ Snying-po’s "Parting From the Four Attachments" contained in the "rgude kundus". The research characteristics and innovation of this paper are: from the translation method of linguistics the original Tibetan works is translated into Chinese-both Tibetan and Chinese are listed and compared which can faithfully reflect the original meanings of the works. For this works the way of translating Tibetan into Chinese is detail translation-sentence for sentence and word for word. And exactly compare the sentence numbers and word numbers of Tibetan songs in the works to strive for completely corresponding to Chinese translation. For the philological exegetical method, try to take the scholarly study spirit of Chinese traditional critical interpretation of ancient texts and to apply it on the translation process. Exegetical study (The critical interpretation of ancient texts) is one of the Chinese traditional philology branches. This paper follows the Exegetical study method of Chinese traditional Scholastics to translate and analyze the original Tibetan works sentence for sentence (and even word for word). And slightly make comparative study on the original Tibetan works in rhymes and characters. Since the Tibetan commentary works adopted by this paper is without a directory, and the directory words verifying the traditional Tibetan literatures are mostly buried in the mutual joining texts of no paragraphs, it’s not easy to check. After fully read, master the contents and structure of the Tibetan commentary works, within the range of Sakya ideological system I make them into categories based on the contents of each chapter. By taking advantage of the traditional Sinology directory method to give a lucid exposition of an outline and hopefully to help readers to foresee the general ideas.On the method of transition sounds in philology, the Tibetan transliteration of this paper not only base on the American Wylie transliteration, EWTS and USLC, but also refer to many relevant books and papers of Chinese study and Tibetan literatures which are about translation and comparison. From these I draw the experiences of Tibetan transliteration in Chinese study and then slightly make moderate modification.On the dialogue and comparison between different cultures of classics study, I try to compare some concepts of Chinese traditional "the Book of Songs" with the way of annotation of this paper. On the analysis of ideological system, the main contents of the commentary works adopted by this paper include the common doctrines of Hinayana such like Threefold training, Three modes of attaining moral wisdom, tranquility (samatha) and insight (vipasyana), etc. And they also covers the uncommon philosophy of Mahayana such like Boddhicitta, Middle way, Consciousness-only, Madhyamaka and Emptiness (Sunyata). Further there are uncommon doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana) such like "development of both tranquility and insight", "development of both clearness and emptiness" and the main philosophy of Sakya school- "samsara is none other than nirvana". In short, this commentary works fully contains the main common and uncommon doctrines of Buddhism. And it elaborates the cultivating essentials in order from Exotoric Buddhism to Vajrayana. And these essentials are presented in a crisscross pattern in the text. Hence it is indeed a very clear and subtle Lamrim (gradual path to enlightenment).