论《四十二章经》译文的历史经典性

On the Historical Classicality of the Translation of The Forty-two Chapter Sutra

《四十二章经》作为今存最早的佛经汉语译本,以往的对其研究主要是文献梳理和材料比对的分析和判断,没有能够真正从翻译各要素、翻译过程合作和作为两种语言文化初始接触的特殊历史语境去思考问题,因而产生了诸多不确定的模糊认识和推测,甚至由于后来的任意添加文字,导致否定其历史的存在。本文在前人研究的基础上,对于《四十二章经》译者、翻译目的和翻译方式的追问,对于其文本形式、内容和两种最主要的不同版本的语篇分析比较,较为清晰地揭示了它的翻译译写特征,并由此梳理和勾勒出佛经汉译历史上最初一段从《四十二章经》到支谦《法句经序》所总结的以译写策略为主的译经发展轨迹。显明了《四十二章经》译文的历史经典性和不断历史经典化现象。这对于重新理解我国佛教史、佛教思想史、佛经翻译史,以及翻译理论体系演变有一定的学术参考价值。

The Forty-two Chapter Sutra is now the earliest extant Chinese translation of the Buddhist sutras. All the previous studies about it were mainly sortout of the documents,comparative analysis and judgment of the materials. They did not take into consideration the factors of translation,translation cooperation and the special historical context of the primary contact between Chinese and Indian languages and cultures,and thereby produced some speculations. Because of random additions of new understanding of Buddhism in different historical periods,the sutra was even denied of its validity of existence. This thesis examines the translators,translation purpose and translation approach of the sutra,analyzes its form,content and two different editions,and reveals clearly its features of translation-editing policy on the basis of the previous studies. Therefore it outlines briefly the earliest period of the historical development in the translation of the Buddhist sutras mainly with the translation-editing policy from The Forty-two Chapter Sutra to The Preface to Dharmapada by ZHI Qian. It points out that the fact of classicality and continuously being classicized of the sutra in history. This study provides certain academic reference for re-understanding of the sutra in the history of Chinese Buddhism,the intellectual history of Chinese Buddhism,the history of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist sutras,and the development of the theoretic system of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist sutras as well.