于阗语“四象”以及龙王“热舍”

The Four Divine Animals in Khotanese and the Dragon Grahavatta

本文主旨,在于公布新发现的于阗语的"四象",并着重论述了作为四象之一的"龙"的相关问题。含有"四象"的于阗语文书出自敦煌藏经洞,虽经多次翻译,却无人能识别相应语句的真实意义,原因在于用词与内涵是表里不一,词是梵语的,而表述的是中国文化的元素。本文通过援引相应印度神话,衬托出词与内涵的迥异。发现了于阗语的四象之一的龙,即汉译"热舍",令忆起尼雅遗址出土的五星出东方之织锦上的龙,那是带翼的猛兽,再比较巴泽雷克出土格里芬形象,发现二者一般无二。通过词源的分析,可知"热舍"并非是基于梵语的汉译词,而应是基于一个伊朗语词。古代于阗文化特有之青龙"热舍",其实正是希腊语所谓格里芬。

The Khotanese manuscript dated to 982 AD, designed as IOL Khot S. 21(Ch.i.0021 a) of the British Library, is important for including names of gods which exhibit the religious beliefs of ancient Khotan. Nevertheless, the meanings of several names have been unclear for a very long time. This paper has revealed that the hitherto unknown names cover concepts of Chinese astrological phenomena, such as the four images of the divine animals. The main phrase used to express the Chinese concept, namely the four nāgapālas(the elephants protectors), is borrowed from Sanskrit into Khotanese, while in Khotanese ambience the four nāgapālas have lost their Indian mythical background and are used to signify Chinese astrological figures. A short introduction of the Indian dig-gajas(elephants of directions) and their names helped to build a contrast of Indian mythological background to the Chinese one. Furthermore, focusing on grahavatta—the dragon as one of the four nāgapālas—recalls the image of dragon depicted on the brocade known as "five stars from east" unearthed from Niya-site in Xinjiang. By comparing this image with the gryphon painted on a saddle cloth from Pazyrik, a strong similarity between the two cannot be denied. After pursuing the etymology of grahavatta through hints of its Chinese translation, some certainty can be reached that the Chinese translation of grahavatta 热舍(re4 she3)is based rather on an Iranian name than a Sanskrit one.