衆生から有情へ, そして再び衆生へ --サンスクリット語sattva漢譯史

Abstract

The Sanskrit bodhisattva/bodhisatva was translated as zhongsheng 衆生 in older times and as youqing 有情 in the Tang. This paper attempts to explore remarkable aspects of zhongsheng and youqing. Zhongsheng is not evidently attested in translations by An Shigao 安世高 (the mid-second century C. E), the first translator in Chinese Buddhism. Zhongsheng was started to use by Zhi Loujiachen 支婁迦讖 (Lokaks ema?) who was active one generation after An Shigao. After becoming a fixed transltion of sattva by Wu 吳 of the Three Kingdoms, zhongsheng was continuously used until the time of Prabhākaramitra (565-633) in the early Tang dynasty. Youqing, a new translation of sattva was coined by Xuanzang 玄奘 (d. 664) around 649 C. E. Kuiji (632-682), the successor of Xuanzang, pointed out a problem of zhongsheng to the effect that it could includes plants which should be excluded from sattva in the doctrinal sense. Kuiji claimed that youqing was the only precise translation. Thereafter, however, post-Xuanzang translators, including Yijing 義淨 (635-713) and Bukong 不空 (Amoghavajra 705-774), chose not only youqing but also zhongsheng ; they intentionally re-evaluated and resurrected zhongsheng. It was Zhanran 湛然 (711-782) of the Tiantai school who explicitly criticized Kuiji's statement. In conclusion we see a notable series of Chinese translations of sattva in a way such as the establishment of zhongsheng by the third century, the birth of new translation youqing by Xuanzang in the mid-seventh century, and returning once again to zhongsheng after the death of Xuanzang.