A Study Of The English Translation Of Concepts In Hs(u|¨)an-tsang’s The Heart Of Prajna Paramita Sutra

Since the Chinese culture has gained more and more attention in the world, it is important for us to help the world understand the Chinese culture. Chinese Buddhist culture, as a major part of Chinese culture, will definitely play a big role in this process. To promote Chinese Buddhist culture to the world, the translation of Buddhist texts is indispensible. The English translation of The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra (The Heart) thus becomes important. Included in the Prajna Sutra, The Heart captures the essence of Mahayana Buddhism——the concept of emptiness. Among the current Chinese versions of The Heart, Hsuan-tsang’s is the most popular; whereas in the West, among the five well-known English versions (Sameul Beal’s, Friedrich Max Miiller’s, Teitaro Suzuki’s and Buddhist Texts Translation Society’s), the most popular is Edward Conze’s. However, after reading Edward Conze’s version, the author finds some inappropriate translations of concepts. Meanwhile, according to the statistics from the CNKI, current studies on the English translation of The Heart in China are either all praises of Conze, or making limited comparisons of the three versions from Edward Conze, Zen Center and Buddhist Texts Translation Society. Therefore, on the basis of Hsiian-tsang’s version, this thesis will make a comprehensive comparison of the English translation of concepts in all five versions. The author first studied the meanings of the concepts in Hsuan-tsang’s version; second, the author studied and compared the translations of concepts in the five versions through using the macro and micro principles summarized by the author; finally, the author summarized the translations of the concepts and got a complete English version of The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra.Hopefully, this thesis will contribute to the English translation of The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra as well as the spread of Chinese Buddhist culture.