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133-749: Kumārajīva first studied teachings of the Sarvastivadin schools, later studied under Buddhasvāmin , and finally became an adherent of Mahayana Buddhism , studying the Mādhyamaka doctrine of Nāgārjuna. After mastering the Chinese language, Kumārajīva settled as a translator and scholar in Chang'an (c. 401 CE) under the patronage of the Later Qin dynasty during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. He

266-469: A nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong , diphthong , or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant , or consonant + glide ; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone . There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where

399-457: A subject–verb–object word order , and like many other languages of East Asia, makes frequent use of the topic–comment construction to form sentences. Chinese also has an extensive system of classifiers and measure words , another trait shared with neighboring languages such as Japanese and Korean. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction , pronoun dropping , and

532-455: A Chinese character is the morpheme, as characters represent the smallest grammatical units with individual meanings in the Chinese language. Estimates of the total number of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly. The Hanyu Da Zidian , a compendium of Chinese characters, includes 54,678 head entries for characters, including oracle bone versions. The Zhonghua Zihai (1994) contains 85,568 head entries for character definitions and

665-546: A Sanskrit Mahāvibhaṣa , compiled by the Kashmir Sarvāstivāda synod. The Jñānaprasthāna and its Mahāvibhaṣa, were then declared to be the new orthodoxy by Kashmiris, who called themselves Vaibhāṣikas. This new Vaibhāṣika orthodoxy, however, was not readily accepted by all Sarvāstivādins. Some "Western masters" from Gandhara and Bactria had divergent views which disagreed with the new Kashmiri orthodoxy. These disagreements can be seen in post- Mahāvibhaṣa works, such as

798-599: A Shanghai resident may speak both Standard Chinese and Shanghainese ; if they grew up elsewhere, they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region. In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台語 ; 'Taiwanese' ), Hakka , or an Austronesian language . A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages of Taiwan in everyday speech. In part due to traditional cultural ties with Guangdong , Cantonese

931-462: A central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方言 ; fāngyán ; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地点方言 ; 地點方言 ; dìdiǎn fāngyán ; 'local speech'. Because of

1064-624: A commonly used synonym for Mahāyāna. The Mahāvibhāṣā reads: What is the Vaipulya? It is said to be all the sūtras corresponding to elaborations on the meanings of the exceedingly profound dharmas. According to a number of scholars, Mahāyāna Buddhism flourished during the time of the Kuṣāṇa Empire, and this is illustrated in the form of Mahāyāna influence on the Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra . The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa also records that Kaniṣka presided over

1197-615: A compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language known as Guanhua , based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin. Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore , and one of

1330-714: A corresponding increase in the number of homophones . As an example, the small Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary lists six words that are commonly pronounced as shí in Standard Chinese: In modern spoken Mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used as-is. The 20th century Yuen Ren Chao poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den exploits this, consisting of 92 characters all pronounced shi . As such, most of these words have been replaced in speech, if not in writing, with less ambiguous disyllabic compounds. Only

1463-452: A flowing smoothness that reflects his prioritization on conveying the meaning as opposed to precise literal rendering. Because of this, his renderings of seminal Mahāyāna texts have often remained more popular than later, more literal translations, e.g. those of Xuanzang . Kumārajīva's translations were very influential on the development of Buddhist Chinese and they introduced much commonly used terminology, such as: These translations were

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1596-491: A form of classical Chinese – have enjoyed enormous success in the Sinitic tradition. This success is so great that even when, in the subsequent centuries, other scholars produced new and supposedly improved translations of the same texts, it has been the “Kumarajiva versions” that have remained in use in the devotional, exegetical, and literary life of East Asia up to the present day. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as

1729-555: A great deal of material with what appear to be strong affinities to Mahāyāna doctrines. The Mahāvibhāṣā is also said to illustrate the accommodations reached between the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna traditions, as well as the means by which Mahāyāna doctrines would become accepted. The Mahāvibhāṣā also defines the Mahāyāna sūtras and the role in their Buddhist canon. Here they are described as Vaipulya doctrines, with "Vaipulya" being

1862-478: A group effort and therefore it is more accurate to say that they were translated by a committee which was guided by Kumārajīva, not by Kumārajīva alone. The process of translation began with the reading of the text by Kumārajīva who would also give a running commentary in Chinese. The Chinese monks and students would discuss the text with Kumārajīva and among themselves. A translation in Chinese would emerge from this process, which would be checked by Kumārajīva. The text

1995-661: A later date, the Śāriputraparipṛcchā , contains a very similar passage with nearly the same information. In the earlier source, the Sarvāstivāda are described as wearing dark red robes, while the Dharmaguptas are described as wearing black robes. However, in the corresponding passage found in the later Śāriputraparipṛcchā , the Sarvāstivāda are described as wearing black robes and the Dharmaguptas as wearing dark red robes. In traditions of Tibetan Buddhism , which follow

2128-576: A millennium. The Four Commanderies of Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st century BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese. Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as

2261-542: A secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty . As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate

2394-508: A similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European languages. Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin

2527-678: A single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a family . Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese , of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min ), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese ), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese ). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with

2660-478: A text translated by him, also has a clear association with the Vaibhāṣikas ( Sarvāstivādins ). Kumārajīva revolutionized Chinese Buddhism , and his team's translation style is known for its clarity and for overcoming the previous geyi (concept-matching) system of translation which matched Buddhist terminology with Daoist and Confucian terms. Kumārajīva's readable translation style was distinctive, possessing

2793-631: A unified standard. The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c.  1250 BCE , during the Late Shang . The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching . Scholars have attempted to reconstruct

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2926-575: A variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong . In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and 190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more similar to the Guangzhou dialect than

3059-517: A warlord in 386 CE, and had Kumārajīva captured when he was around 40 years old. Being a non-Buddhist, Lü Guang had Kumārajīva imprisoned for many years, essentially as booty. During this time, it is thought that Kumārajīva became familiar with the Chinese language . Kumārajīva was also coerced by Lü into marrying the Kucha King's daughter, and so he was forced to give up his monk's vows. After

3192-602: Is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from Guangzhou on the Pearl River , whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities separated by several river valleys. In parts of Fujian , the speech of some neighbouring counties or villages is mutually unintelligible. Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials: Proportions of first-language speakers The classification of Li Rong , which

3325-628: Is a great deal of mystery surrounding the rise and early development of the Sarvāstivādin school." According to Dhammajoti, "its presence, as well as that of its rival — the Vibhajyavāda lineage — in the time of Emperor Aśoka is beyond doubt. Since Aśoka's reign is around 268–232 B.C.E., this means that at least by the middle of the 3rd century B.C.E., it had already developed into a distinct school." In Central Asia, several Buddhist monastic groups were historically prevalent. According to some accounts,

3458-655: Is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China , as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora . Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language . Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of

3591-680: Is actually an erroneous and mistaken view, and the main difference was due to the earlier versions of Kumarajiva's source texts: [W]here Kumārajīva's work can be compared with an extant Indic manuscript – that is, in those rare cases where part or all of a text he translated has survived in a Sanskrit or Prakrit version — a somewhat surprising result emerges. While his translations are indeed shorter in many instances than their extant (and much later) Sanskrit counterparts, when earlier Indic-language manuscript fragments are available they often provide exact parallels of Kumārajīva's supposed "abbreviations." What seems likely to have happened, in sum,

3724-747: Is because they had been influenced by Neo-Taoist Xuanxue philosophy and thus they saw emptiness as either a kind of non-being, as a real, or absolute substance (both of which are mistaken interpretations of the concepts of śūnyatā and anatman ). Kumārajīva and his students like Sengzhao and Sengrui recognized these errors and worked to correct them by introducing proper interpretations based on Indian Madhyamaka philosophy. Sarvastivada The Sarvāstivāda ( Sanskrit : 𑀲𑀭𑁆𑀯𑀸𑀲𑁆𑀢𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤 ; Pali : 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤 , romanized:  Sabbatthivāda Chinese : 說一切有部 ; pinyin : Shuōyīqièyǒu Bù ; Japanese : せついっさいうぶ ; Korean : 설일체유부 ; Thai : สรวาสติวาท )

3857-490: Is called either 华语 ; 華語 ; Huáyǔ or 汉语 ; 漢語 ; Hànyǔ ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For example,

3990-666: Is famous for being the author of the Abhidharmakośa (4–5th century CE), a very influential Abhidharma work, with an auto-commentary that defends the Sautrāntika views. He famously later converted to the Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna Buddhism , a tradition that itself developed out of the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma. Vasubandhu's Kośa led to a vigorous reaction from his contemporary, the brilliant Vaibhāṣika master Saṃghabhadra, who

4123-648: Is important to realize that not all of them necessarily subscribed to each and every view sanctioned by the MVŚ compilers. Moreover, the evolving nature of the Vaibhāṣika views must be recognized as well." The Vaibhāśika-Sarvāstivādins are sometimes referred to in the MVŚ as "the Ābhidharmikas", "the Sarvāstivāda theoreticians" and "the masters of Kāśmīra." In various texts, they also referred to their tradition as Yuktavāda (the doctrine of logic), as well as Hetuvāda (the doctrine of causes). The Vaibhāṣika school saw itself as

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4256-624: Is much uncertainty as to the relationship of the Mūlasarvāstivāda (meaning root or original Sarvāstivāda) school and the others. They were certainly influential in spreading their Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, as it remains the monastic rule used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism today. Also, they seem to have been influential in Indonesia by the 7th century, as noted by Yijing . A number of theories have been posited by academics as to how

4389-603: Is often described as a 'monosyllabic' language. However, this is only partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Old and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, around 90% of words consist of a single character that corresponds one-to-one with a morpheme , the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In modern varieties, it usually remains the case that morphemes are monosyllabic—in contrast, English has many multi-syllable morphemes, both bound and free , such as 'seven', 'elephant', 'para-' and '-able'. Some of

4522-445: Is only about an eighth as many as English. All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words. A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese. A very common example used to illustrate

4655-518: Is said to have spent 12 years composing the Nyāyānusāra , a commentary to Vasubandhu's verses to refute his views and those of other Sautrāntika monks, such as Sthavira Śrīlāta and his pupil Rāma. The Kośa was so influential that it became the Abhidharma text par excellence in both Indo - Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism , and remains the primary source for Abhidharma studies. There

4788-668: Is specifically meant. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, 石 ; shí alone, and not 石头 ; 石頭 ; shítou , appears in compounds as meaning 'stone' such as 石膏 ; shígāo ; 'plaster', 石灰 ; shíhuī ; 'lime', 石窟 ; shíkū ; 'grotto', 石英 ; 'quartz', and 石油 ; shíyóu ; 'petroleum'. Although many single-syllable morphemes ( 字 ; zì ) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllable compounds known as 词 ; 詞 ; cí , which more closely resembles

4921-533: Is that Kumārajīva was working from earlier Indian versions in which these expansions had not yet taken place. According to John M. Thompson "at present there are fifty two translations in the Taishō under his name and their authenticity is fairly well accepted." They include Mahāyāna sutras as well as works on Buddhist meditation ( dhyāna ) and Abhidharma . Among the most important sutras translated by Kumārajīva and his team (probably from Kuchan target sources) are

5054-489: Is the largest reference work based purely on character and its literary variants. The CC-CEDICT project (2010) contains 97,404 contemporary entries including idioms, technology terms, and names of political figures, businesses, and products. The 2009 version of the Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary (WDCD), based on CC-CEDICT, contains over 84,000 entries. The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary,

5187-414: Is the principle of 'all exists' that is the axial doctrine holding the larger movement together when the precise details of other doctrines are at stake. In order to explain how it is possible for a dharma to remain the same and yet also undergo change as it moves through the three times, the Vaibhāṣika held that dharmas have a constant essence ( svabhāva ) which persists through the three times. The term

5320-501: Is used as an everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau . The designation of various Chinese branches remains controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese people consider all the spoken varieties as one single language, as speakers share a common national identity and a common written form. Others instead argue that it is inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because

5453-500: Is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence. Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) in 111 BCE, marking the beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost continuously for

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5586-552: Is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups: Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect on Hainan , Waxianghua spoken in western Hunan , and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in northern Guangdong . Standard Chinese is the standard language of China (where it is called 普通话 ; pǔtōnghuà ) and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it

5719-428: Is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics. The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia : as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while

5852-753: The Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese , borrowed Chinese words in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system

5985-630: The Dazhidulun , which was traditionally held to be an original work of Nagarjuna that was translated by Kumārajīva's team, actually contains numerous additions by Kumārajīva and his team or is actually a product of the editorship of Kumārajīva's student Sengrui . As Etienne Lamotte notes, Kumārajīva's team also edited and abridged the latter half of this text considerably. According to Rafal Felbur, The translations associated with his name – executed both from Prakrits , i.e. vernacular forms of Sanskrit, and from early forms of Buddhist Sanskrit, into

6118-789: The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya. In the 7th century, Yijing wrote that in eastern China, most people followed the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, while the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya was used in earlier times in Guanzhong (the region around Chang'an ), and that the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya was prominent in the Yangzi River area and further south. In the 7th century, the existence of multiple Vinaya lineages throughout China

6251-578: The Dīrgha Āgama in Sanskrit. The Madhyama Āgama (T26, Chinese trans. Gotama Saṅghadeva) and Saṃyukta Āgama (T99, Chinese trans. Guṇabhadra) have long been available in Chinese translation. The Sarvāstivāda is therefore the only early school besides the Theravada for which we have a roughly complete sutra collection, although unlike the Theravada it has not all been preserved in the original language. During

6384-525: The Former Qin Dynasty to bring Kumārajīva to the Qin capital of Chang'an . To do this, his general Lü Guang was dispatched with an army in order to conquer Kucha and return with Kumārajīva. Fu Jian is recorded as telling his general, "Send me Kumārajīva as soon as you conquer Kucha." However, when Fu Jian's main army at the capital was defeated, his general Lü Guang declared his own state and became

6517-533: The Korean , Japanese and Vietnamese languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies. This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure in Japanese and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean. Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in

6650-632: The Little Vehicle of the school of the Sarvāstivādas (Shwo-yih-tsai-yu-po). Their doctrine (teaching of Sūtras) and their rules of discipline (principles of the Vinaya) are like those of India, and those who read them use the same (originals). Sarvāstivāda was a widespread group, and there were different sub-schools or sects throughout its history, the most influential ones being the Vaibhāṣika and

6783-874: The Mahāsāṃghikas used Prākrit, the Sarvāstivādins used Sanskrit, the Sthavira nikāya used Paiśācī , and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa . The Sarvāstivādins of Kāśmīra held the Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra as authoritative, and thus were given the moniker of being Vaibhāṣikas. The Mahāvibhāṣā is thought to have been authored around 150 CE, around the time of Kaniṣka (127–151) of the Kushan Empire . This massive treatise of Abhidharma (200 fascicles in Chinese) contains

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6916-710: The May Fourth Movement beginning in 1919. After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old Mandarin ) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital. The 1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new sanqu verse form in this language. Together with

7049-747: The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, red robes are regarded as characteristic of their tradition. During the first century BCE, in the Gandharan cultural area (consisting of Oddiyana , Gandhara and Bactria , Tokharistan , across the Khyber Pass ), the Sthaviriyas used the Gāndhārī language to write their literature using the Kharosthi . The Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that

7182-400: The Mūlasarvāstivāda sect, although the relationship between these two groups has not yet been fully determined. According to Prebish, "this episode corresponds well with one Sarvāstivādin tradition stating that Madhyantika converted the city of Kasmir, which seems to have close ties with Gandhara." A third tradition says that a community of Sarvāstivādin monks was established at Mathura by

7315-497: The National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话 ; 普通話 ; pǔtōnghuà ; 'common speech'. The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and

7448-479: The Prajñāpāramita sutras and Madhyamika commentaries, Kumārajīva says that the Buddha's teachings ultimately come from and lead us to a level beyond words and thought. Because the Buddha and Bodhisattvas reside in this transcendent realm (which is none other than our present world) their wisdom enables them to use various upaya to lead suffering beings to enlightenment. Apparent contradictions and confusions in Buddhist texts are due to their upāya, which accommodate to

7581-434: The Samayabhedoparacanacakra state that the Mahīśāsaka emerged from the Sarvāstivāda. The Sarvāstivādins are believed to have given rise to the Mūlasarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika schools, although the relationship between these groups has not yet been fully determined. Sarvāstivāda is a Sanskrit term that can be glossed as: "the theory of all that exists". The Sarvāstivāda argued that all dharmas (phenomena) exist in

7714-542: The Sautrāntika schools. According to Cox, Willemen and Dessein: we have, basically, to differentiate the original Sarvāstivādins originating from Mathura , the Kaśmīri Vaibhāṣikas, the Western Masters of Gandhara and Bactria (the Dārṣṭāntika-Sautrāntika Masters) who were also referred to as Bahirdesaka, Aparāntaka and Pāścāttya, and the Mūlasarvāstivādins. As the various groups influenced one another, even these sub-schools do very often not form homogeneous groups. [REDACTED] Religion portal The Vaibhāṣika

7847-647: The Shixiang lun ( Treatise on Tattva , now lost). Kumārajīva and his team are also responsible for a biography of Nagarjuna (T. 2047), which may have been based on Kumārajīva's own accounts to his students. Another text which contains some original teachings by Kumārajīva is the Jiumoluoshi fashi dayi (The Great Teaching of Dharma Master Kumārajīva; T. no. 1856), which is a series of letters between Kumārajīva and Lushan Huiyuan (334–416) discussing some basic Mahayana topics. Regarding Kumārajīva's own philosophical views, according to Richard H. Robinson: He shows himself to be an orthodox Śūnyavādin and Mādhyamika, rejects

7980-466: The Tarim Basin in 630 CE, he received the favours of Suvarṇadeva, the son and successor of Suvarṇapuṣpa , the non- Mahayana Buddhist king of Kucha. Xuanzang described in many details the characteristics of Kucha, and probably visited the Kizil Caves . Of the religion of the people of Kucha, he says that they were Sarvastivadins: There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to

8113-626: The Tibetan tenets system as the two tenets of the Hinayana , ignoring other early Indian Buddhist schools, which were not known to the Tibetans. Sarvāstivādin meditation teachers also worked on the dhyāna sutras ( Chinese : 禪經 ), a group of early Buddhist meditation texts which were translated into Chinese and became influential in the development of Chinese Buddhist meditation methods. Chinese language Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; lit. ' Han language' or 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing')

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8246-423: The oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c.  1250 BCE . The phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the Northern and Southern period , Middle Chinese went through several sound changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The Qieyun , a rime dictionary , recorded

8379-542: The phonology of Old Chinese by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters. Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at

8512-468: The "five gates of chan" (五門禪) "associated with the so-called yogācāras of northwest India", which "became a standard arrangement in later writings on meditation" and are the following: After having calmed the mind and entered dhyāna (chan 禪) through these methods, the meditator then proceeds to develop wisdom (prajñā) by cultivating the four "foundations of mindfulness" (si nian chu 思念處; smṛtyupasthāna ). According to Greene, "following this, one moves through

8645-426: The * Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra (成實論), the * Abhidharmahṛday a (T no. 1550) and its commentaries (T no. 1551, no. 1552), the Abhidharmakośakārikā of Vasubandhu and its commentaries (who critiqued some orthodox views), and the * Nyāyānusāra (Ny) of master Saṃghabhadra (ca fifth century CE) who formulated the most robust Vaibhāṣika response to the new criticisms. When the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited Kucha in

8778-444: The Buddha-Dharma, the medicine of prajñā is just like this. By this medicine, one demolishes the objects of addictions. If within prajñā beings then conceive addiction, then one must practice a method of treatment. If within prajñā there are no addictions to prajñā , then further treatment is not applied." These ideas are found in the Dazhidulun (T. 1509; Skt. Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa ). Various modern scholars also hold that

8911-659: The Chinese language. Yao Xing looked upon him as his own teacher, and many young and old Chinese Buddhists flocked to him, learning both from his direct teachings and through his translation bureau activities at the Xiaoyao Gardens where daily sessions were held (attended by over a thousand monks). Within a dozen years, Kumārajīva's translation bureau had translated about thirty five sutras in 294 scrolls. His translations are still in use today in Chinese Buddhism. Kumarajiva had four main disciples who worked on his team: Daosheng (竺道生), Sengzhao (僧肇), Daorong (道融), and Sengrui (僧睿). According to Paul Williams, Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa ,

9044-527: The Chinese term, Shuōyīqièyǒu bù ( Chinese : 說一切有部 ), which is literally "the sect that speaks of the existence of everything," as used by Xuanzang and other translators. The Sarvāstivāda was also known by other names, particularly hetuvada and yuktivada . Hetuvada comes from hetu – 'cause', which indicates their emphasis on causation and conditionality. Yuktivada comes from yukti – 'reason' or even 'logic', which echoes their use of rational argument and syllogism . According to Charles Prebish, "there

9177-490: The Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet . English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 ( tê ), dim sum from Cantonese 點心 ( dim2 sam1 ), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 ( gam1 gwat1 ). The sinologist Jerry Norman has estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum , in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though

9310-407: The Sarvāstivāda school held a synod in Kashmir during the reign of Kanishka II (c. 158–176), the most important Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma text, the Astagrantha of Katyayaniputra was rewritten and revised in Sanskrit. This revised text was now known as Jñānaprasthāna ("Course of Knowledge"). Though the Gandharan Astagrantha had many vibhaṣas (commentaries), the new Kashmiri Jñānaprasthāna had

9443-410: The Sarvāstivāda’: Dharmatrāta, Buddhadeva, Vasumitra and Ghoṣaka. The doctrines of Sarvāstivāda were not confined to 'all exists', but also include the theory of momentariness ( ksanika ), conjoining ( samprayukta ) and causal simultaneity ( sahabhu ), conditionality ( hetu and pratyaya ), a unique presentation of the spiritual path ( marga ), and others. These doctrines are all inter-connected and it

9576-533: The Sarvāstivādins emerged from the Sthavira nikāya , a small group of conservatives, who split from the reformist majority Mahāsāṃghikas at the Second Buddhist council. According to this account, they were expelled from Magadha, and moved to northwestern India where they developed into the Sarvāstivādin school. A number of scholars have identified three distinct major phases of missionary activity seen in

9709-678: The Sinitic Buddhist traditions have contributed to the emergence of a distinctly global modernist Buddhism, the Kumarajiva corpus of early fifth-century translations has been an implicit major presence. Aside from the linguistic and terminological influence of Kumārajīva's translation work, his work also influenced the philosophical understanding of Buddhism in China. According to Fan Muyou, before Kumārajīva, many Chinese Buddhists had serious misunderstandings of emptiness and not-self. This

9842-500: The Taisho Tripitaka (vol. 15), five meditation works are attributed to Kumārajīva: Scholars are divided on how many of these were actually worked on by Kumārajīva (though T. 613 and T. 614 are well attested in early catalogs and prefaces). Furthermore, Chinese sources indicate that these works were edited, summarized and extracted from Indian sources. Eric Greene explains that the main methods of mediation taught in T. 614 are

9975-759: The Vinaya section of the Chinese canon are the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya (T. 1435), the Sarvāstivāda - prātimokṣa -sutra (T. 1436), and, according to tradition, the Pu-sa-chieh-p n ( bodhisattva- prātimokṣa ), which is probably the second half of the present Brahmajala-sutra (T. 1484). Kumārajīva is also known to have authored a few original works, including his Commentary on the Vimalakīrti-nirdesa-sūtra ( Zhu Weimojie Jing. Taisho number 1775) and

10108-513: The Yao family of Later Qin overthrew the previous ruler Fu Jian, the ruler Yao Xing made repeated pleas to the warlords of the Lü family to free Kumārajīva and send him east to Chang'an. When the Lü family would not free Kumārajīva from their hostage, an exasperated Yao Xing had armies dispatched to Liangzhou in order to defeat the warlords of the Lü family and to have Kumārajīva brought back to them. Finally

10241-662: The age of 20, Kumārajīva received full monastic ordination. Around this time he also began to study the Sarvastivada Vinaya and the Madhyamaka philosophy. Over his early life, Kumārajīva became a famous figure in Buddhism , known for his breadth of studies and skill in debate. In 379 CE, Kumārajīva's fame reached China when a Chinese Buddhist monk named Seng Jun visited Kucha and described Kumārajīva's abilities. Efforts were then made by Emperor Fu Jian (苻堅) of

10374-539: The armies of Emperor Yao succeeded in defeating the Lü family, and Kumārajīva was brought east to the capital of Chang'an in 401 CE. At Chang'an, Kumārajīva was introduced to the emperor Yao Xing , the court, and the Buddhist leaders. He became a famous and well respected in China, being given the title of "National Preceptor" ( guoshi ). At Chang'an, Kumārajīva led a court sponsored translation team of scholars who worked on translating numerous Sanskrit Buddhist texts into

10507-472: The audience's level and lead them to the truth. Kumārajīva even suggests that the teachings in the sutras may delude those who are unprepared, i.e. at a lower level of understanding. According to Kumārajīva, we truly understand the Dharma only when we attain complete and pure prajñā . Prajñā is the means of removing all obstacles and hindrances, all attachments–even attachments to itself. As Kumārajīva says, "In

10640-474: The authority of the Abhidharma, and interprets the Āgamas in a Mahāyāna way, holds that the Buddha's statements are purely pragmatic and do not imply any real entities, and denies that real entities arise, because (a) neither inherence nor non-inherence of the effect in the cause is admissible, and (b) simultaneous and successive occurrence of cause and effect are alike untenable. He maintains that reality transcends

10773-481: The bodhisattva path, the actual meditation practices are not different, they are just approached in different ways. For example, the bodhisattva practices the same contemplation of impurity as the sravaka, but they are also warned not to become so disgusted with the world that they seek immediate nirvāṇa. Instead, a bodhisattva should always practice these meditations with the wish for perfecting themselves in order to help others. As such, Kumārajīva seems to have understood

10906-406: The development of the Chinese language itself, not only in the adoption of specifically Buddhist terms, but also regarding certain secular terms as well (such as "moment"). Kumārajīva has sometimes been regarded by both the Chinese and by western scholars as abbreviating his translations, with later translators such as Xuanzang being regarded as being more "precise." According to Jan Nattier, this

11039-399: The different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which

11172-484: The difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been proposed. These include topolect , lect , vernacular , regional , and variety . Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the morphology and also to the characters of the writing system, and phonologically they are structured according to fixed rules. The structure of each syllable consists of

11305-576: The end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language lacks inflection , and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles . Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui , Tang , and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries CE). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by

11438-570: The establishment of Prajñāpāramitā doctrines in the northwest of India. Étienne Lamotte has also pointed out that a Sarvāstivāda master is known to have stated that the Mahāyāna Prajñā sūtras were to be found amongst their Vaipulya sūtras. According to Paul Williams, the similarly massive Da zhidu lun also has a clear association with the Vaibhāṣika Sarvāstivādins. The Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika subschools are both classified in

11571-615: The first century, the Sarvāstivāda abhidharma primarily consisted of the Abhidharmahrdaya authored by Dharmashresthin, a native from Tokharistan , and the Ashtagrantha authored/compiled by Katyayaniputra. Both texts were translated by Samghadeva in 391 AD and in 183 AD. respectively, but they were not completed until 390 in Southern China. The Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma consists of seven texts: Following these, are

11704-413: The first one, 十 , normally appears in monosyllabic form in spoken Mandarin; the rest are normally used in the polysyllabic forms of respectively. In each, the homophone was disambiguated by the addition of another morpheme, typically either a near-synonym or some sort of generic word (e.g. 'head', 'thing'), the purpose of which is to indicate which of the possible meanings of the other, homophonic syllable

11837-670: The following: They also translated several key treatises (mainly of the Madhyamaka school), which became the central works of East Asian Madhyamaka Buddhism. These are: Other treatises that the team worked on include the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā (T. 1521) , a commentary to the Daśabhūmikā Sūtra attributed to Nagarjuna and the Treatise On Arising Bodhicitta (T. 1659). Kumārajīva and his team also translated some treatises on meditation ( dhyāna ) . In

11970-491: The form of a word), to indicate a word's function within a sentence. In other words, Chinese has very few grammatical inflections —it possesses no tenses , no voices , no grammatical number , and only a few articles . They make heavy use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood . In Mandarin, this involves the use of particles such as 了 ; le ; ' PFV ', 还 ; 還 ; hái ; 'still', and 已经 ; 已經 ; yǐjīng ; 'already'. Chinese has

12103-493: The four modes of the tetralemma , and he holds Nagarjuna's concept of negation. Likewise, according to John M. Thompson, the philosophy which emerges from the explanations of Kumārajīva is "virtually identical to the views of Nagarjuna and other Madhyamikas, stressing the emptiness of all dharmas (even the "emptiness of emptiness") and the Bodhisattva's non-attachment to all things and teachings". Thompson adds, Like both

12236-618: The government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking communities overseas . Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family , together with Burmese , Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian Massif . Although

12369-525: The history of Buddhism in Central Asia , which are associated with respectively the Dharmaguptaka , Sarvāstivāda, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda, and the origins of the Sarvāstivāda have also been related to Ashoka sending Majjhantika (Sanskrit: Madhyāntika ) on a mission to Gandhara , which had an early presence of the Sarvāstivāda. The Sarvāstivādins in turn are believed to have given rise to

12502-586: The language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese. Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations . Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into

12635-528: The late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji , and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses

12768-455: The more conservative modern varieties, usually found in the south, have largely monosyllabic words , especially with basic vocabulary. However, most nouns, adjectives, and verbs in modern Mandarin are disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonetic erosion : sound changes over time have steadily reduced the number of possible syllables in the language's inventory. In modern Mandarin, there are only around 1,200 possible syllables, including

12901-425: The mutual unintelligibility between them is too great. However, calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and could not be properly called a single language. There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when varieties share intelligibility with

13034-583: The nasal sonorant consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ , and voiceless stops /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , or /ʔ/ . Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /ɻ/ . The number of sounds in

13167-512: The orthodox Sarvāstivāda tradition, and they were united in their doctrinal defense of the theory of "all exists" ( sarvām asti ). This is the doctrine which held that dharmas , past present and future, all exist. This doctrine has been described as an eternalist theory of time . While the Vaibhāṣikas held that dharmas of the three times all exist, they held that only present dharmas have "efficacy" ( karitra ), thus they were able to explain how

13300-558: The orthodox Vaibhāṣika views or provided a defense of the orthodoxy. Dhammajoti provides the following list of such later abhidharma works that are extant in Chinese: 108 109 Between 148 and 170 CE, the Parthian monk An Shigao came to China and translated a work which described the color of monastic robes (Skt. kāṣāya ) utilized in five major Indian Buddhist sects, called Da Biqiu Sanqian Weiyi (大比丘三千威儀). Another text translated at

13433-538: The other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern Mandarin , Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin , Jin with Central Plains Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan . All varieties of Chinese are tonal at least to some degree, and are largely analytic . The earliest attested written Chinese consists of

13566-489: The past, present and future, the "three times". Vasubandhu 's Abhidharmakośa-bhāsya states, "He who affirms the existence of the dharmas of the three time periods [past, present and future] is held to be a Sarvāstivādin." Although there is some dispute over how the word "Sarvāstivāda" is to be analyzed, the general consensus is that it is to be parsed into three parts: sarva "all" or "every" + asti "exist" + vada "speak", "say" or "theory". This equates perfectly with

13699-583: The patriarch Upagupta . In the Sarvāstivādin tradition Upagupta is said to have been the fifth patriarch after Mahākaśyapa, Ānanda, Madhyāntika, and Śāṇakavāsin, and in the Ch'an tradition he is regarded as the fourth. The Sarvāstivāda enjoyed the patronage of Kanishka (c. 127–150 CE) emperor of the Kushan Empire , during which time they were greatly strengthened, and became one of the dominant sects of Buddhism in north India for centuries, flourishing throughout Northwest India, North India, and Central Asia . When

13832-464: The practice of a bodhisattva to have consisted of the same methods of meditation found in śrāvaka-yāna sources, the only difference being that bodhisattvas have a different motivation and a different goal (Buddhahood). Other translations include the Da zhuang yan jing lun 大莊嚴經論 (*Mahālaṃkāra-sūtra-śāstra)  of Asvaghosa and Samyukta avadana sutra. According to Robinson, Kumārajīva's additions to

13965-406: The present seems to function differently than the past or future. Among the different Sarvāstivāda thinkers, there were different ideas on how this theory was to be understood. These differences were accepted as long as they did not contradict the doctrine of "all exists" and can be seen in the MVŚ, which outlines the four different interpretations of this doctrine by the ‘four great Ābhidharmikas of

14098-404: The rate of change varies immensely. Generally, mountainous South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North China Plain . Until the late 20th century, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia and North America came from southeast coastal areas, where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century spoke Taishanese ,

14231-552: The related subject dropping . Although the grammars of the spoken varieties share many traits, they do possess differences. The entire Chinese character corpus since antiquity comprises well over 50,000 characters, of which only roughly 10,000 are in use and only about 3,000 are frequently used in Chinese media and newspapers. However, Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. A more accurate equivalent for

14364-509: The relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive border zones. Without

14497-517: The school composed the large and encyclopedic Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra around the time of the reign of Kanishka (c. 127–150 CE). Because of this, orthodox Sarvāstivādins who upheld the doctrines in the Mahāvibhāṣa were called Vaibhāṣikas . According to the Theravādin Dīpavaṃsa , the Sarvāstivādins emerged from the older Mahīśāsaka school, but the Śāriputraparipṛcchā and

14630-517: The six official languages of the United Nations . Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a logography of Chinese characters , largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified characters has been promoted by

14763-561: The slightly later Menggu Ziyun , this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. Up to the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety. Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties , known as 官话 ; 官話 ; Guānhuà ; 'language of officials'. For most of this period, this language

14896-419: The so-called four nirvedha-bhāgīya-kuśalamūla (si shan gen 四善根), the "roots of good that lead to liberation", which in the Sarvāstivādin system are the highest levels of mundane accomplishment. This in turn leads to the so-called “path of vision” (darśana-maraga), a sequence of sixteen mental moments in which, by means of insight into the four noble truths." While T. 614 discusses the path of hinayana as well as

15029-676: The sūtras"), also known as Dārṣṭāntika (who may or may not have been a separate but related group), did not uphold the Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra but rather emphasized the Buddhist sūtras as being authoritative. Already by the time of the MVŚ, the early Dārṣṭāntika monks such as Dharmatrāta and Buddhadeva, existed as a school of thought within the fold of the Sarvāstivāda who disagreed with the orthodox views. These groups were also called "the western masters" ( pāścātya ) or "the foreign masters" ( bahirdeśaka ; also called ‘the masters outside Kaśmīra’, and

15162-602: The sūtras"). However, the Sautrāntikas did not reject the Abhidharma method; in fact, they were the authors of several Abhidharma manuals, such as the Abhidharmahṛdaya . The later Buddhist tradition of pramāṇa , founded by the Buddhist monks Dignāga and Dharmakīrti , is also associated with the Sautrāntika school. The most important Sautrāntika was Vasubandhu (ca. 350–430), a native from Purusapura in Gandhara . He

15295-658: The texts that became the authority of the Vaibhāṣika: All of these works have been translated into Chinese, and are now part of the Chinese Buddhist canon . In the Chinese context, the word abhidharma refers to the Sarvāstivāda abhidharma, although at a minimum the Dharmaguptaka, Pudgalavada and Theravada also had abhidharmas. Various other Abhidharma works were written by Sarvāstivāda masters, some are more concise manuals of abhidharma, others critiqued

15428-623: The tonal distinctions, compared with about 5,000 in Vietnamese (still a largely monosyllabic language), and over 8,000 in English. Most modern varieties tend to form new words through polysyllabic compounds . In some cases, monosyllabic words have become disyllabic formed from different characters without the use of compounding, as in 窟窿 ; kūlong from 孔 ; kǒng ; this is especially common in Jin varieties. This phonological collapse has led to

15561-547: The traditional Western notion of a word. A Chinese cí can consist of more than one character–morpheme, usually two, but there can be three or more. Examples of Chinese words of more than two syllables include 汉堡包 ; 漢堡包 ; hànbǎobāo ; 'hamburger', 守门员 ; 守門員 ; shǒuményuán ; 'goalkeeper', and 电子邮件 ; 電子郵件 ; diànzǐyóujiàn ; 'e-mail'. All varieties of modern Chinese are analytic languages : they depend on syntax (word order and sentence structure), rather than inflectional morphology (changes in

15694-422: The two are related including: The Dharmaguptaka are known to have rejected the authority of the Sarvāstivāda pratimokṣa rules on the grounds that the original teachings of the Buddha had been lost. The complete Sarvāstivāda Vinaya is extant in the Chinese Buddhist canon . In its early history, the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya was the most common vinaya tradition in China. However, Chinese Buddhism later settled on

15827-512: The use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma . The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words: In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be " checked tones " and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such: Chinese

15960-452: The words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on Chinese characters , but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until

16093-517: The written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical or Literary Chinese . Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the Spring and Autumn period . Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with

16226-484: The ‘Gāndhārian masters’). They studied the same Abhidharma texts as the other Sarvāstivādins, but in a more critical way. According to K. L. Dhammajoti, they eventually came to repudiate the Sarvāstivāda doctrine that "all exists". It is this group, i.e. those who rejected the most important Sarvāstivāda doctrine (along with numerous other key Vaibhāṣika views), which came to be called the Sautrāntika ("those who rely on

16359-453: Was a koiné based on dialects spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect. By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court. In the 1930s, a standard national language ( 国语 ; 國語 ; Guóyǔ ), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation,

16492-418: Was also identified as a unique mark or own characteristic ( svalaksana ) that differentiated a dharma and remained unchangeable throughout its existence. According to Vaibhāṣikas, svabhavas are those things that exist substantially ( dravyasat ) as opposed to those things which are made up of aggregations of dharmas and thus only have a nominal existence ( prajñaptisat ). The Sautrāntika ("those who uphold

16625-585: Was an Indian monk called Kumārāyana who was probably from Kashmir while his mother was a member of the Kucha royal family called Jīva . Himself an eminent Buddhist monk , Kumārāyana endeavoured to journey from his native Kashmir to China to spread his Buddhist teachings. After crossing the Pamir Mountains , Kumārāyana stopped in Kucha , where he stayed as a guest of the king. The king of Kucha

16758-511: Was criticized by prominent Vinaya masters such as Yijing and Dao'an (654–717). In the early 8th century, Daoan gained the support of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang , and an imperial edict was issued that the saṃgha in China should use only the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya for ordination. Scholars at present have "a nearly complete collection of sūtras from the Sarvāstivāda school" thanks to a recent discovery in Afghanistan of roughly two-thirds of

16891-550: Was formed by adherents of the Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra (MVŚ) during the council of Kashmir. Since then, it comprised the orthodox or mainstream branch of the Sarvāstivāda school based in Kāśmīra (though not exclusive to this region). The Vaibhāśika-Sarvāstivāda, which had by far the most "comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics" of the early Buddhist schools , was widely influential in India and beyond. As noted by KL Dhammajoti, "It

17024-485: Was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries. The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half

17157-761: Was just seven, his mother Jīva joined the Tsio-li nunnery, north of Kucha . Beginning at the age of nine, Kumārajīva studied the Agamas and the Sarvastivada Abhidharma under masters in North India, Kashmir , and Kucha: all centers of Sarvastivada monasticism and scholarship. He later converted to and studied Mahayana under the Kashmirian Buddhayaśas in Kashgar . In Kucha at

17290-432: Was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE). It was particularly known as an Abhidharma tradition, with a unique set of seven canonical Abhidharma texts. The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout North India , especially Kashmir and Central Asia , until the 7th century CE. The orthodox Kashmiri branch of

17423-527: Was so impressed with Kumārāyana ’s ideas that the king proposed the marriage of his younger sister Jīva (also known as Jīvaka), a Kuchan princess and herself a devout Buddhist, to Kumārāyana . Kumārāyana and Jīva both acquiesced to this marriage. It was therefore that Kumārajīva’s father Kumārāyana settled in Kucha , became the royal priest, met Kumārajīva’s mother Jīva who influenced both his own subsequent Buddhist studies and later those of their son, and thereafter begat Kumārajīva. When Kumārajīva

17556-537: Was the head of a team of translators which included his amanuensis Sengrui . This team was responsible for the translation of many Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Chinese . Kumārajīva also introduced the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy into China which would later be called Sanlun (the "Three Treatise school"). Kumārajīva was born in the kingdom of Kucha in the Tarim Basin in 344 CE. His father

17689-469: Was then written down and revised numerous times. These were also public events which were attended by devotees, including emperor Yao Xing. Kumārajīva also developed a system of transcription in order to render Sanskrit terms in Chinese by using certain Chinese characters and their sounds to represent each syllable of a foreign word. This system would go on to become the basis of the development of pinyin romanization. This encounter with Sanskrit influenced

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