狻麑、师子东传试探

A Tentative Inquiry into the Eastward Spread of the Two Terms suanni and shizi

中国不产狮子。狮子一物二名，即狻 （猊）、师（狮）子；前者为某种印度语音译，后者为月氏语音译。查考先秦及两汉文献，发现狻 一词东传至迟不晚于西汉初年，而师子一词东传则始于东汉明帝永平年间或章帝章和年间。狻 一词两汉知之者寡，人们亦不知狻 即师子。而自章和元年月氏贡狮，师子一词即不径而走。

China is not the native haunt of lions.The lion has two names:suan(ni)and shi(zi),of which the former term is a transliteration of a certain Indian language,and the latterterm is a transliteration of the language of Ruezhi,a nomadic people living in the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty.Through investigating the literature of the Western and the Eastern Han Dynasties,the author finds that the term suanni was spread eastward in the early years of Western Han at the latest,while the term shizi was spread eastward during the Yongping reign of Emperor Ming Di or the Zhanghe in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The term suanni was known to few in the Western and the Eastern Han dynasty,and people were not aware that suanni means shizi. However,starting from the first year of Zhanghe reign when the lion was offered to the throne as a tribute by Yuezhi,the term shizi spread very quickly.