The Different Edition Of Maitreya, Met With Ji Can Be Studied

"Maitrisimit"("Meeting with the Maitreya") is a Buddhist dramatic work consisting of28chapters, which is not only the first literary works in ancient Uyghur, but also the earliest script of all ethnic groups in China (including the Han). It occupies a very important position in the history of our culture. In the postscript of the Uyghur version, there are definite records of the interpretation process from the west world to the east world. At present there are two extant versions of "Maitrisimit". Academic attentions and lively discussions are thoroughly aroused as to the discovery of the two versions, which has brought new opportunities for the study of Central Asian Philology. Taking a panoramic view of the achievements gained by our predecessors, we can find that the comparative study on the two different versions is still in its infancy with rare research fruits. We will compare the Uyghur version with the Tocharian version in order to provide a basis for further study on Philology, Buddhism rheology, language contact and so on.In this paper, we will view the Tocharian version translated by Ji Xianlin and the Uyghur version by Geng Shimin as master copies, and divide the paper into four parts. According to the sequences of the Tocharian version, there are eight sections in the first chapter, fifteen in the second chapter and ten in the third chapter, totally thirty three sections. Specifically speaking, in the form of the English translations of the Tocharian version, Uyghur transliteration and Chinese translations, we will compare the common content in these two different versions by each sentence. The comparative study includes additions and deletions, the wording differences and literary features.In the fourth chapter, we will concern about the vocabulary in "Maitrisimit" from the General Linguistics angle. There are three sections in this chapter including syntactic function of kim, voice changes in ancient Uyghur language and composition on Buddhist loanwords.In the first section, viewing kim as a special case and comparing with the meaning of the term in the modern Turkic contrary, we will analyze how and why the term functions in the sentence in Ancient Uyghur language. Referring to the following three texts such as "The Legend of Oghuz khan","Turkish Dictionary" and "The Golden Light Sutra", we will select several typical examples of kim existing in these texts mentioned above so as to sketch out the historical evolution of kim in the ancient Turkic. In addition, it is our hope to make a clear understanding of the evolution about the term and analyze why its syntactic function changed.In the second section, we will pay more attention to the voice influences which the interlanguage Tocharian brought to the Uyghur in the process of "Maitrisimit" eastward propagation. It is believed that "Maitrisimit" was initially written in ancient Indian language and when introduced in the West Region, it was translated in the Tocharian language and then in ancient Uyghur language. During the interpretation process, those nations which lived in the West Region including Tocharians have played an important role as a bridge.As the interlanguage, the impact especially in voice on the ancient Uyghur from Tocharian is the most obvious. For example, the Sanskrit suffix-1/-1was changed for-i/-u in ancient Uyghur,-u for-u, and-in for-i,-jit for-ci. The evolution tells us the truth that there exists a vowel weakening phenomenon in Tocharian which is quite common. The ancient scriptures masters have an intimate knowledge of this phenomenon, and change the Sanskrit suffix-a for Uyghur-e in accordance with the laws of Tocharian voice. When these words were translated into the ancient Uyghur language, they were changed for-i. Thus we can see that when the suffix in Sanskrit was translated into the ancient Uyghur, the Tocharian language has played a role as a transition language.In the third section, we will focus on the Buddhist loanwords in the theory of language contact. National integration, the diffusion of foreign religions and other factors can directly or indirectly bring contact between different types of languages. Regarding the Buddhist borrowed words in the first three chapters of "Maitrisimit" as object of study, we will divide them into two main categories: the transliteration loanwords and the paraphrase loanwords. In accordance with the person names, the God names, Sutra names, place names and technical terms, these transliteration loanwords will be classified into five categories and respectively listed in three different forms such as Sanskrit, Tocharian and Uyghur. The rules how the Sanskrit loanwords were changed into Uyghur words will be briefly summarized. There are no strict corresponding words to those that are used to express the Buddhist doctrine, system, ritual and temple hall. In order to maintain the original intent of these Buddhist loanwords as well as to ensure the acceptance and liquidity in Western Region, translators adopted the paraphrase way in which these words borrowed from the Sanskrit language could be accepted by Uyghur people. Selecting about24loanwords in the text, we can further illustrate the phenomenon through the analysis of its paraphrase.