With increasing thoughts one follows their desire,
In already having, one craves again,
Day after day one becomes delighted,
Getting what one pursues, one is unrestrained.
增念隨欲
Zēng niàn suí yù,
已有復願，
yǐ yǒu fù yuàn,
日增為喜，
rì zēng wèi xǐ
從得自在。
cóng dé zì zài.
Parallel: The Pali Sutta Nipata, Atthakavagga - Chap.1 Kama Sutta Verse 766
Bibliography
Translating the Chinese Yi Zu Jing known as the Atthakavagga in the Pali Sutta Nipata
Thursday 28 February 2019
Sunday 24 February 2019
Title of Sutra One from Yì Zú Jīng
Sutra One - Jié, Greedy King
桀貪王經第一
Jié tān wáng jīng dì yī
Parallel: The Pali Sutta Nipata, Atthakavagga - Chapter 1 Kama Sutta
Discussion: The first sutra in the collection reflects the theme of the prose text by highlighting one of the characters from India, Tān Wáng or Greedy King, who through his greed inflicts suffering upon his people. It also includes the name of the notorious Chinese king Jie, who likewise had a reputation of being greedy and cruel towards his subjects. This inclusion was most likely made to give a frame of reference as to the significance of Tān Wáng for a Chinese context (see Wikipedia Jie of Xia ).
Bibliography
Thursday 21 February 2019
Translation of the Main Sutra Title Yì Zú Jīng
Meaningful Way Sutra
義足經
Yì Zú Jīng
Alternative translation: Walk in Right Conduct Sutra
Literal translation: Yì = meaning, morality or right conduct. Zú = foot or to walk. Jīng = scripture or classical work.
Discussion: The Pali parallel Atthakavagga can be translated as Chapter of Eights. Whilst the Sanskrit parallel Arthavargīyasūtra could be translated as Meaningful Chapters Sutra.
In his 1947 translation P. Bapat translated the Yì Zú into Indian Prakrit, giving it the title of Arthapada. He hypothesised this maybe due to a mistranslation of the Sanskrit title of the sutra or that Zhi Qian changed the wording to emphases a more moralistic tone than original intended by the Prakrit.
However, with the discovery of sutras from the buddhist canon in Gandhari, including fragments of the Arthapada, we can know shed light on what the original Prakrit title. The original Prakrit could have indeed been Arthapada and was not then a mistranslation. As reported in, From Birch Bark to Digital Data:Recent Advances in Buddhist Manuscript Research 2009, The PhD dissertation of Dr Baums, “A Gāndhārī Commentary on Early Buddhist Verses...” has shown “the authentic Gāndhārī term...can now be established as Arthapada” (Harrison & Hartmann, 2014 see footnote p.61). It would seem Zhi Qian did accurately translate the Prakrit words artha and pada, and so Bapat’s hypotheses as to the title being mistranslated from Sanskrit or perhaps changed by Zhi Qian was in the end incorrect.
In Prakrit artha can be translated as: meaning, purpose or goal, whilst pada can mean foot, walk and way. With the discovery of the Gandhari Arthapada and Zhi Qian's translation of the Prakrit title into Chinese as Yi = meaning and Zu = foot, further lends weight to the hypotheses that the Prakrit he was translating from was in fact Gandhari.
Also in Sanskrit pada also carries the meaning of verse as in the basic metric unit of poetry/song typically consisting of one line of verse as part of a four-line stanza. Interestingly this close association with foot/walking and verse/metre can be found in English usage, as in the case of a musician being asked to keep in step with the beat/metre of the music (see wikipedia, prosody).
.
Finally, the purpose of this translation is not to try and reconstruct and translate the original Prakrit but rather to translate the Chinese parallel into modern English and so I have translated the sutra title as the Meaningful Way, nethertheless I feel this does get close to the meaning of the Gandhari title as well.
Bibliography
Discussion: The Pali parallel Atthakavagga can be translated as Chapter of Eights. Whilst the Sanskrit parallel Arthavargīyasūtra could be translated as Meaningful Chapters Sutra.
In his 1947 translation P. Bapat translated the Yì Zú into Indian Prakrit, giving it the title of Arthapada. He hypothesised this maybe due to a mistranslation of the Sanskrit title of the sutra or that Zhi Qian changed the wording to emphases a more moralistic tone than original intended by the Prakrit.
However, with the discovery of sutras from the buddhist canon in Gandhari, including fragments of the Arthapada, we can know shed light on what the original Prakrit title. The original Prakrit could have indeed been Arthapada and was not then a mistranslation. As reported in, From Birch Bark to Digital Data:Recent Advances in Buddhist Manuscript Research 2009, The PhD dissertation of Dr Baums, “A Gāndhārī Commentary on Early Buddhist Verses...” has shown “the authentic Gāndhārī term...can now be established as Arthapada” (Harrison & Hartmann, 2014 see footnote p.61). It would seem Zhi Qian did accurately translate the Prakrit words artha and pada, and so Bapat’s hypotheses as to the title being mistranslated from Sanskrit or perhaps changed by Zhi Qian was in the end incorrect.
In Prakrit artha can be translated as: meaning, purpose or goal, whilst pada can mean foot, walk and way. With the discovery of the Gandhari Arthapada and Zhi Qian's translation of the Prakrit title into Chinese as Yi = meaning and Zu = foot, further lends weight to the hypotheses that the Prakrit he was translating from was in fact Gandhari.
Also in Sanskrit pada also carries the meaning of verse as in the basic metric unit of poetry/song typically consisting of one line of verse as part of a four-line stanza. Interestingly this close association with foot/walking and verse/metre can be found in English usage, as in the case of a musician being asked to keep in step with the beat/metre of the music (see wikipedia, prosody).
.
Finally, the purpose of this translation is not to try and reconstruct and translate the original Prakrit but rather to translate the Chinese parallel into modern English and so I have translated the sutra title as the Meaningful Way, nethertheless I feel this does get close to the meaning of the Gandhari title as well.
Bibliography
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