A Glossary of Dharmaraksa's Translation of the Lotus Sutra.

• Author: Kroll, Paul W.
• Position: Book Review

A Glossary of Dharmaraksa's Translation of the Lotus Sutra [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] By SEISHI KARASHIMA. Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica, 1. Tokyo: INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED BUDDHOLOGY, SOKA UNIVERSITY, 1998. Pp. xxxv + 696. Y 1,000 (paper).

This large-format and very thick paperback is the most useful reference volume for the study of Buddhist Hybrid Chinese to be published in at least a quarter of a century. Prof. Karashima, a leading Japanese Buddhologist who has also studied extensively abroad (two years at Cambridge, four years at Beijing University, three years at Freihurg), has here chosen for explication approximately four thousand terms that appear in Dharmaraksa's late-third-century Chinese translation of the Saddharmapundarikasutra.

For each item, alphabetized according to the Pinyin system of romanization, the author has provided an English translation, quotation of the passage(s) in which the term occurs in Dharmaraksa's translation with citations to the text as printed in volume 9 of the Taisho canon, the parallel translation given in Kumarajiva's early fifth-century Chinese rendering (with page and line citation to the Taisho printing), and the Sanskrit equivalent citing the Kern/Nanjio edition. In addition, each entry includes citations to the Hanyu dacidian and Dai Kan-Wa jiten with mention of the earliest example quoted in those dictionaries. Beyond this, if the term is found in the eighth-century Yiqiejing yinyi --[CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or in the mid-third-century Chinese translation of the Lotus called Satan fentuoli jing [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or in Kumarajiva's separate Tianpin Miaofa lianhua jing [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or in various editions of Central As ian provenance, or differing editions of the Chinese canon, appropriate reference is given...