Chapter 13 Section 2 "The Sounds and Meanings of All Sutras"——A Dictionary Extensively Interpreting the Sounds and Meanings of Buddhist Texts

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the dissemination and translation of Buddhist classics flourished unprecedentedly.According to Tang Shizhisheng's "Kaiyuan Shijiaolu·Jingzanglu", there were 1,076 Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist scriptures, and treatises that entered Tibet at that time, and 5,048 volumes.With the increase in the number of Buddhist scriptures, the transliteration and free translation of Sanskrit nouns in Buddhist scriptures has also increased. There is a great need for some books that specifically explain the meaning of Buddhist scriptures.There was a book of this kind in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, namely "The Sound and Meaning of All Sutras" edited by the monk Daohui of the Northern Qi Dynasty, which has been lost.In the Tang Dynasty, the number of books on the pronunciation and meaning of Buddhist scriptures increased. Xuanying, the translator monk of Daci'en Temple in Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, compiled "The Sound and Meaning of All Sutras", which is the earliest extant book annotating the pronunciation and meaning of Buddhist scriptures.

Xuanying was about the same time as Xuanzang. He selected words from 454 Buddhist scriptures according to the order of the original volume, and noted their pronunciation and meaning.In addition to the specific Sanskrit words in Buddhist scriptures, the pronunciation and meaning of general Chinese characters and relatively rare words are also selected and explained, accounting for about 1/2 of the content of the book.Therefore, it is not only a dictionary that explains the pronunciation and meaning of Buddhist scriptures, but also a book that explains Chinese, mainly ancient Chinese characters and words.However, in its notes on sound and meaning, the phonetic notation is more important than the interpretation, and some of the interpretations are not accurate enough, the content is repeated, the details are inappropriate, and the style is not perfect.After Xuanying, Hui Lin (736-820 A.D.) wrote 100 volumes of "Yinyi of All Sutras", also known as "Yinyi of Huilin", or "Yinyi of Dazang".

Hui Lin, the author of "Hui Lin Yinyi", was a translator monk of Ximing Temple in Chang'an in Tang Dynasty (one said he was a master of Daxingshan Temple). His common surname was Pei.He is well versed in the wisdom of Indian statements, and he is also proficient in the study of Chinese exegesis, phonology, and Sanskrit and Western languages.Hui Lin began to compile "Yinyi" in the fourth year of Jianzhong (AD 783) of Tang Dezong, and completed it in the second year of Xianzong Yuanhe (AD 807), which took 25 years (one said that the writing time was from the fourth year of Dezong Zhenyuan to Xianzong Yuan and five years).

The Buddhist scriptures explained in the book range from Mahayana's "Maha Prajna Sutra" to Hinayana's "Protecting Life and Freeing Lives", totaling 1,300 volumes and more than 5,700 volumes.Among them, the pronunciation and meaning of more than 300 sutras are the re-editing, deletion or transcription of "Yinyi" written by Xuanying, Kuiji, Huiyuan, Yungong and others.There are more than 100 scriptures with only titles but no sound or meaning.The pronunciation and meaning of the remaining 800 sutras were written by Hui Lin herself.This is a masterpiece of Buddhist exegesis, with a total of about 600,000 words.After the publication of the manuscript, "everyone in the capital is worshiped" (Volume 5 of "Biography of Song Gaoseng").

The characteristics of "Huilin Yinyi" "Huilin Yinyi" is mainly based on the seven volumes of "Shuowen", "Zi Lin", "Yupian", "Zi Tong", "Gujin Zhengzi", "Wen Dixie Shuo", and "Kaiyuan Characters Yinyi" The book explains the meaning of words; refer to "Yunying", "Yunquan", "Kaosheng Qieyun" and other books for phonetic notation; if it is not found in these calligraphy and rhyme books, it widely quotes scriptures and commentaries, reaching as many as 251 kinds.Each explanation in the book is annotated first, and then the meaning of the words is explained by citing documentary evidence;For example, the sound and meaning of the third volume of "Records of the Western Regions" in Volume 82:

It is true that if you do not follow the fate, you will turn against it. "Yi Xici": Indeed, it is firm. "Pi Cang" made from the soil. "Wen Dian Shuo" from the stone, from the destruction of the sound.Destroy the sound angle. The explanation of "Hui Lin Yinyi" is not only the inheritance and supplement of the pronunciation and meaning of the previous Buddhist scriptures, but also many of the various ancient books it widely quotes are long-lost calligraphy books, rhyme books and annotations of various schools.For example, some of the explanations quoted from "Shuowen Jiezi" in the book are not in the current version;It quotes the annotations of various schools that have been lost, such as: the annotations of Bao Xian in the Han Dynasty, the annotations of "Kaogongji" by Zheng Zhong, the annotations of "Chunqiu Zhuan" by Jia Kui and Fuqian, and the annotations of "Huainanzi" by Xu Shen. , Jia Kui's "Guo Yu" note; Wei Sunyan's "Erya" note; Jin Si Ma Biao's note, etc.In ancient dictionaries, there is no one on the right side for the richness of preserved ancient lost texts and the variety of ancient books cited.

The spread of "Huilin Yinyi" After "Huilin Yinyi" was completed, the manuscript was collected in Ximing Temple in the capital, and later lost in the wars in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.In addition, there are surviving copies in the north, which are still well preserved in the early Song Dynasty.In the fifth year of Liao Shengzong Tonghe (987 A.D.), Yanjing Salmon Xilin wrote "Continuing the Sound and Meaning of All Sutras" based on this supplement.During the Mingshun period, "Hui Lin Yin Yi" and "Xu All Jing Yin Yi" were reprinted by Goryeo; Japan also had reprinted copies of these two books in the early Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, but they were not known in China and thought they had been lost.In the early years of the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the envoys between China and Japan brought the Goryeo and Japanese engraved editions back to China, and only then did they become known to domestic scholars. In the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (1924), Ding Fubao made a photocopy of the engraved edition in 1737 by Japan Shigu Bailian Society.

The reason why monks compose the pronunciation and meaning of Buddhist scriptures is originally to "rectify the name" and "display the teaching". Therefore, the three "All Sutras and Meanings" written by Xuanying, Huilin, and Xilin all collect and explain words in units of Buddhist scriptures. It helps us understand the original meaning of Buddhist scriptures, but from the perspective of a dictionary, it is very inconvenient to check. In 1936, the Department of Literature and History of the Research Institute of Peking University compiled and printed the "Index of Books Quoted from All Sutras of Huilin", which collected the explanations of various books quoted in "Yinyi of Huilin" and Xilin's sequels, and listed them in order of strokes. Arrange them, and indicate their entries, volumes, pages, and volumes in "Yinyi" to provide convenience for consulting the citations of these two books (however, it is still not possible to use it to find the words of the two "Yinyi" word).In the book "Zhengxu All Sutras Yinyi" published not long ago, in addition to the above index, there is also "All Sutras Yinyi Tongjian" compiled by Chen Zuolin in the late Qing Dynasty. Words are helpful.