文白之辨——译经史上文质之争的实质

On the Discussion of Translating the Buddhist Scriptures in Classical Chinese or Vernacular

汉译佛经不但对佛教的传播起到重要作用,而且成为中国近代汉语发展的一股原动力。译经伊始,就出现了所谓文质问题。学界倾向性的看法一般认为译经中的文与质实际上是指意译与直译,即译经方法问题。译经史上的文质之争虽与意译、直译有一定关系,而其最关键者乃在于语言上的文与白,以文言翻译则显文,以白话翻译则为质。

It is important to translate the Buddhist scriptures in Chinese not only for the Buddhism to disseminate but also for modem Chinese to develop. The discussions named text-quality issues which was actual the method of translation arose at the begin- ning of traralating the Buddhist scriptures. In fact, the key of the discussion was in what kind of language to translate since it would be ＂wen＂ in classical Chinese, and ＂zhi＂ in vernacular language.