| Author |
: |
| Publisher |
: Psychology Press |
| Total Pages |
: 540 |
| Release |
: 2003-12-18 |
| ISBN-10 |
: 0700714553 |
| ISBN-13 |
: 9780700714551 |
| Rating |
: 4/5 (53 Downloads) |
Book Synopsis A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms by :
Download or read book A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms written by and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003-12-18 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This invaluable interpretive tool, first published in 1937, is now available for the first time in a paperback edition specially aimed at students of Chinese Buddhism. Those who have endeavoured to read Chinese texts apart from the apprehension of a Sanskrit background have generally made a fallacious interpretation, for the Buddhist canon is basically translation, or analogous to translation. In consequence, a large number of terms existing are employed approximately to connote imported ideas, as the various Chinese translators understood those ideas. Various translators invented different terms; and, even when the same term was finally adopted, its connotation varied, sometimes widely, from the Chinese term of phrase as normally used by the Chinese. For instance, klésa undoubtedly has a meaning in Sanskrit similar to that of, i.e. affliction, distress, trouble. In Buddhism affliction (or, as it may be understood from Chinese, the afflicters, distressers, troublers) means passions and illusions; and consequently fan-nao in Buddhist phraseology has acquired this technical connotation of the passions and illusions. Many terms of a similar character are noted in the body of this work. Consequent partly on this use of ordinary terms, even a well-educated Chinese without a knowledge of the technical equivalents finds himself unable to understand their implications.