ロシア所蔵ウイグル語断片の研究2 : 『阿含経』『千字文』『阿毘達磨倶舎論実義疏』(中国所蔵)

Abstract

In this paper we did research on seven Uighur fragments, six of which are kept at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences and one of which is kept in China. Three of the Russian fragments are from the Uighur versions of Samyukta-āgama and one is from Dīrgha-āgama. These Āgama texts are translations of extracts from the Chinese version of an Āgama and the texts include some Chinese characters at the beginning of each extract, which is a characteristic of the Uighur version of Āgamas. Among these fragments, the Dīrgha-āgama text only extracts proper names which are Sanskrit in origin, the only exception being sögüt ("tree"). The contents of the other fragments in Russia are from the Uighur translation of the Chinese 千字文 ("Thousand Character Essay"). Examining these texts in detail we have found that Uighurs used to recite the Chinese 千字文 as written in the texts : first in Chinese pronunciation and then in Uighur translation. This way of reciting the Chinese 千字文 bears a close parallel to the Japanese way, known as "Monzen-reciting". The fragment kept in China is from the Uighur translation of extracts from the Chinese Abhidharmakośabhāsya-tīkā Tattvārthā. Fortunately the contents of this fragment are included in the Uighur version of Tattvārthā kept in The British Library. By comparing these two texts of Tattvārthā we have found that they have much similarity in the manner of translation, which leads us to the conclusion that the two translations were made from the same Chinese text. It is obvious that all the seven Uighur fragments in this paper are written on the premise that they would be compared with Chinese texts.