A Study On The Tradition Of Translating Buddhism Scriptures Into Chinese

Translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese lasted more than one thousand years, from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and over five thousand volumes had been translated, which is an important component of Chinese culture. Translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese is the source and foundation of translation studies in our country. This dissertation selects the period "from Zhi Qian to Xuan Zang", which is from prosperity to the climax, and makes a comprehensive specific research on the tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. Tradition refers to the factors that has existed for a long time with some characteristics. The tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese refers to the factors that has existed for a long time with some characteristics in translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese among Buddhists and translators. Among these factors, the thought, belief, or way of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese are typical, therefore this dissertation expounds these three aspects and constructs Wenzhang studies translation tradition, which has some originality theoretically.This dissertation consists of seven chapters. The first chapter "the introduction" overviews the research status of the tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese, and then introduces the significance, objective, thinking, methodology, main arguments and contents. The second chapter "tradition" gathers material, searches the definitions of tradition in Chinese and Western countries, analyzes the connotation, characteristics and denotation of tradition, in order to introduce the method of studying the tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. The third chapter "the controversy between Wen and Zhi" is the main line in the thought of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. This chapter advocates talking from the beginning, analyzing the source, evolution and definitions of the Concepts Wen and Zhi. It also advocates returning to history and having a scientific interpretation on the controversy between Wen and Zhi, a dispute on the style of target language whether it is Wen or Zhi. It originated from Preface to Dhammapada, experienced the Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, till Tang Dynasty, and Xuan Zang’s New Translation was the fruit. In the fourth chapter "the belief of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese", Wen is used to enunciate Dao. Since Parthamasiris opened up the road, using Wen to enunciate Dao has become the first principle to judge whether the translation is successful or not. Kumarajiva’s oath of honest translation is the manifestation of using Wen to enunciate Dao and Shi Yancong’s "eight requirements" is its development. The fifth chapter "cooperative translation" is the way of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. In early period it’s private cooperative translation foreigners dominate, in metaphase it’s Yichang cooperative translation both foreigners and Chinese play important roles and in Boom period it’s Yichang cooperative translation Chinese Buddhists dominate. Therefore cooperative translation is the special way of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. The sixth chapter is "Wenzhang studies tranlation tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese and its historical echo", which talks from Wenzhang to Wenzhang studies, discusses the controversy between Wen and Zhi is the characterization of Wenzhang studies tranlation tradition, using Wen to enunciate Dao is the core, cooperative translation is the cause, and these three aspects build Wenzhang studies tranlation tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. Furthermore this chapter enunciates Yanfu’s translation standard of "fidelity, fluency and elegance" is its historical echo. The second, third, fourth, fifth and the sixth chapters are the main parts of this dissertation. The seventh chapter "the conclusion" shows Wenzhang studies tranlation tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese is a type of translation paradigm, waiting to be inherited, summarizes the full text, thinking about the success or failure in research range, material gathering and theory enunciating, and finally puts forward the future research.This research runs across Buddhism, translation studies, Wenzhang studies and history, belonging to crossing research, which contributes to deepen the thought of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese and helps to enrich the study of Chinese translation history. Moreover, some disadvantages of the dissertation are also necessary to be mentioned:with time limited, this dissertation selects the period "from Zhi Qian to Xuan Zang" and the research subject is expected to expand with more original references to be collected and organized so that we will make a whole and comprehensive research from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty on the tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese in the future. Also, the tradition of translating Buddhism scriptures into Chinese has to be promoted theoretically.