Gatha:Fousing On Buddhist Sutras Which Translated Into Chinese In The Medieval Peirod

Buddhism was introduced into China in the Han Dynasty. From then on, a largenumber of Buddhist sutras were translated into Chinese over a period of nearly onethousand years. Since medieval times, both monks and laypersons made great effortsin translating Buddhist sutras. Buddhism had an enormous influence on Chinesephilosophy, ethics, literature, art, and many other areas. Buddhism thus becamedeeply rooted in Chinese culture and had a profound effect on it.Gatha is one of the twelve divisions of the Buddhist canon. It is also animportant form of translated Buddhist literature. When monks and laypersonstranslated the gatha in the Buddhist sutras, they normally used the style ofthree-character, four-character, five-character, and seven-characters line poems.There are generally two types of gatha, the first being an independent stanza (usuallycomposed of thirty-two characters), and the second being reiterative. The firstcontains no prose, it is called katho in Sanskrit. The second includes prose, itsSanskrit term is geya. In the broad sense, the category of gatha usually includes both,while in the narrow sense it includes geya only. In this thesis, I will use the termgatha in the broad sense. Because a gatha uses very few characters to expressmultiple meanings it reiterates the text of the prose in praise of the Buddhist teachings, and it has been very popular among laypeople.The translated Buddhist literature of the Chinese mediaeval period can bedivided into four historical stages:1) Later Han Dynasty,2) Three Kingdoms, andthe Western Jin Dynasty,3) the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Wei and Jin dynasties, andthe Northern and Southern Dynasties,4) Sui and Tang Dynasties. The gatha in thetranslated scriptures of each period display a unique literary style. This thesis willreview the historical development of gatha in translated Buddhist sutras of these fourperiods, focusing on aspects of literary style. Through the analysis of these fourhistorical periods, we can begin to analyze the literary characteristics of each period.As for the contents of gatha, their focus is on expressing fundamental Buddhisttruths, but gatha are also used for praises of the Buddha, as well as supplementalnarration. As for the sentence and rhyme patterns of the gatha, five-character linegatha dominated, but seven-character line gatha were also used. In terms of length,the gatha developed in the medieval period from being quite short to becomingcomparatively long. The rhetorical style of the gatha was in the Later Han periodmainly metaphor-based, but during the Eastern Jin and Southern and NorthernDynasties it slowly developed a more flexible form and a variety of rhetoricaldevices emerged. The language of gatha was in the Later Han and Three Kingdomsperiods quite simple and spasmodic, however, in the course of the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties it gradually developed into a flowery and vividform.The Dhammapada and the Buddhacarita take an important and representativeposition among the translated Buddhist sutras of medieval times. These two texts cangive us valuable insights on aspects of religion, philosophy, ethics, literature, and soon, however, this thesis will focus on analyzing their literary character. Both textsuse gatha throughout, the Dhammapada often in reasoning, while the Buddhacaritauses them skillfully in narrative. The two texts can be seen as representative of theuse of Buddhist gatha, which had an immeasurable influence on the development ofChinese literature in the mediaeval period.The Dhammapada is extremely prominent and important in Theravada Buddhistcountries, where it is considered the finest treasure of Buddhism. TheravadaBuddhists consider it the most fundamental work in the canon, and use its teachingsas a yardstick for their daily practice. The gatha in the Dhammapada are thought tobe the words of the Buddha in response to different situations, and its contents areechoed in the Agama sutras of original Buddhism and in the canon of the Theravadaschool. The Dhammapada was transmitted over a long span of time in both Paliand Sanskrit, and today there are extant editions in both languages which differsomewhat from each other.The Chinese version of the Dhammapada has changedmuch over time, and there are now four extant translations, in Chinese they are named the Faju jing, the Faju piyu jing, the Chuyao jing, and the Fajiyao song jing.This thesis will carefully examine the relationship between the Chinese versions ofthe Dhammapada and the original Buddhist scriptures, in the hope of advancing ourunderstanding of the history of the Dhammapada. The Dhammapada is not only verypopular in Asia, but also well-known in the rest the world. At present, theDhammapada have been translated into Latin, English, French, German and manyother languages. The Dhammapada spread widely in China, and it has beenextremely popular among both monastics and laypeople. By comparing twoimportant chapters from the Pali Dhammapada, the “Twin verses” and “TheBuddha,” with the Chinese translations we can analyze the content and literarycharacteristics of the Wu edition of the Dhammapada.The Dhammapada focuses on describing the fundamental truths of Buddhism.The Chinese versions used poetry, including both four-character line poems andfive-character line poems, and employing literary devices such as interpretation,contrast, and parallelism, as well as rhetorical repetition, to express its meaningplainly and concisely. The Dhammapada adresses all aspects of Buddhist moralprinciples, and it has deeply influenced the thought, expression, and rhetoric ofBuddhism in medieval China. For example, the Dazhuangyanlun jing quotedextensively from the gatha of the Dhammapada, and its rhetoric, language style, and sentence style were all affected by the Dhammapada. The Dhammapada wasunderstood to be representative of Buddhist gatha, and as such it deeply influencedthe landscape poet Xie Lingyun, and affected the contents of his poetry. Thevernacular poetry of Wang Fanzhi, which is rich with quick-witted humor, is writtenin a plain and simple style that we can see was influenced by the Dhammapada aswell.The Buddhacarita is a narrative Buddhist text that uses gatha exclusively in itspresentation of the most important biography of the Buddha found in Buddhistliterature. The author, Asvaghosa, was an extremely famous Buddhist dramatist,writer and musician, and his reputation in the history of Indian classical Sanskritliterature is unparalleled. By comparing the Chinese translation of twenty gatha fromthe third canto of the Buddhacarita with the Sanskrit original, we can see that thetranslator, Dharmaksema, actually expressed the contents of the SanskritBuddhacarita quite well. But in the description of women, among other things, theChinese translation deleted some contents and paraphrased many passages. Theliterary character of the Buddhacarita is very outstanding, and it shaped theconception of many of the images in the story of the Buddha, such as that of theBuddha himself, his father Suddhodana, the driver, King Bimbisara, Anathapindika,Mara, Mahamaya, Mahakashyapa, and many others. The layout of Buddhacarita is quite compact, but it has many scenic descriptions, and depictions of the psychology,manners, and actions of its characters. The Buddhacarita also makes extensive use ofmetaphor, personification, parallelism, rhetorical questions, parallel construction,and so on. As a representative of translated Buddhist scripture it had a huge effect onthe famous poets of the Tang Dynasty, such as Bai Juyi.