新发现的梵文贝叶写本《中论颂》与《佛护释》

The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and Buddhapālita's Commentary:An Introduction to Newly Identified Sanskrit Manuscripts

"原民族宫藏梵文写本"之中新发现了两部梵文贝叶残本——《中论颂》与《佛护释》,使目前《中论》相关梵本形态迟晚和谱系单一的困境得到了改观。公元2、3世纪龙树所作《中论颂》是中观派的立宗之本,对中国佛教曾产生巨大影响。新发现的《中论颂》梵本约存全本的四分之一,是目前世界上唯一能为学者所利用的单行偈颂梵本。佛护的《中论颂》注释以前仅存藏译,此次是其梵本的首次发现,约占整个篇幅的九分之一。跟据字体特征推断,这两部残本抄出于6世纪后半或7世纪前半的尼泊尔,是现存最古的中观写本。两部写本所保存的梵文偈颂,可以对前人刊本作出多处修正,还能体现出诸家注释之间偈颂文本不同传承的一些痕迹。这证实了早前一些学者关于《中论颂》有不同梵文传本的猜测。

This article aims at introducing two incomplete Sanskrit manuscripts, Mulamadhyamakakarika and Buddhapalita-malamadhyamaka-v.rtti （BP）, which have been newly identified from the Collection of Sanskrit Manuscripts formerly preserved in the China Ethnic Library. Although the MK was composed by Nagarjuna as early as the second or third century CE, no relevant Sanskrit manuscript older than the twelfth century had been found. What was even more frustrating was that all the sources were monogenic. This situation changed with the discovery of these two manuscripts. The remaining palm-leaves of the MK amount to approximately one fourth of the entire work. To date, it is the only accessible Sanskrit manuscript of its kind for the independent karkias. The BP was formerly available to us only through a Tibetan translation. The aforementioned manuscript of BP comprises approximately one ninth of the whole work. This is the first time that this Sanskrit text has become available to the modern world. A paleographical study shows that these two manuscripts were probably written in Nepal in the second half of the sixth century or the first half of the seventh. They are therefore the oldest extant Sanskrit manuscripts insofar as Madhyamaka texts are concerned. Based on the readings preserved by these two manuscripts, some emendations may be suggested to the previous editions of the MK. Moreover, some hints of the textual lineage can be traced, which confirm the earlier conjecture by some scholars that the Sanskrit text of the MK may have existed in different versions.