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Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義

May 21, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald

The two books called Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義 "Sound and meaning of all sutras" are phonetic and semantic commentaries on Buddhist writings and also for some vernacular works. The first was written by the early Tang-period (618-907) monk Xuanying 玄應 (fl. 713), the second by Huilin 慧琳 (fl. 810) during the mid-Tang period.

Sources:
Cao Shujing 曹述敬, ed. (1991). Yinyunxue cidian 音韻學辭典 (Changsha: Hunan chubanshe), 252.
Chen Qi 陳崎 (1992). "Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義", in Zhou Gucheng 周谷城, ed. Zhongguo xueshu mingzhu tiyao 中國學術名著提要, Vol. Yuyan wenzi 語言文字卷 (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe), 199, 202.
Lai Kehong 來可泓 (1997). "Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義", in Zhou Gucheng 周谷城, ed. Zhongguo xueshu mingzhu tiyao 中國學術名著提要, Vol. Zongjiao 宗教卷 (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe), 145, 294.
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, ed. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 677; Vol. 2, 2254.
Pan Yinsheng 潘寅生, Guo Jiankui 郭建魁, ed. (1993). Zhonghua shehui kexue gongjushu cidian 中華社會科學工具書辭典 (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe), 436.
Ren Jiyu 任繼愈, ed. (2002). Fojiao da cidian 佛教大辭典 (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe), 2.
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. (1987). Jianming Zhongguo guji cidian 簡明中國古籍辭典 (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe), 1.
Xu Shiyi 徐時儀 (2009). "Lüelun Yiqiejing yinyi yu cihuixue yanjiu 略論《一切經音義》與詞彙學研究", Shaanxi Shifan Daxue xuebao (Zhexue shehui kexue ban) 陝西師範大學學報(哲學社會科學版), 2009 (5).
Xu Shiyi 徐時儀 (2009a). "Yiqiejing yinyi yu guji zhengli yanjiu 《一切經音義》與古籍整理研究", Guji zhengli yanjiu xuekan 古籍整理研究學刊, 2009 (1).
Yuan Mingren 袁明仁 et al., ed. (1992). Sanqin lishi wenhua cidian 三秦歷史文化辭典 (Xi'an: Shaanxi renmin jiaoyu chubanshe), 309.

Xuanying's 玄應 Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義

Xuanying's book is 25-juan long. It is also called Xuanying yinyi 玄應音義 "Xuanying's Sound and Meaning". In various book catalogues it is also called Zhongjing yinyi 眾經音義 "Sound and meaning of the many sutras". Xuanying was known for his mastering characters and their pronunciation. He commented on 450 different Buddhist writings by indicating the pronunciation of difficult characters or characters transcribing Sanskrit terms, and explained their meaning.

The pronunciation of his book is indicated with the help of the fanqie system 反切. At the beginning of each juan, a list is presented informing the reader which books are dealt with in that chapter. Each book is then dealt with, following the sequence of the chapters. The arrangement of the lemmata is similar to the Jingdian shiwen 經典釋文, a commentary on Confucian Classics.

For the explanation of the meaning, Xuanying also quotes from quite a few Classics and their commentaries, but of course also from dictionaries like the Cangjie 倉頡篇, Ge Hong's 葛洪 (283-343 or 363) Ziyuan 字苑, the Zilin 字林, Li Deng's 李登 Shenglei 聲類, Fu Qian's 服虔 Tongsuwen 通俗文, or the Shuowen yinyin 說文音隱, a commentary on the famous Shuowen jiezi 說文解字.

There are in total more than 100 books from which Xuanying quotes. A lot of these are long since lost. Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholars therefore used the Yiqiejing yinyi for the reconstruction of such lost books, like the Zilin or the Cangjiepian. Xuanying's book is not only interesting from the Buddhist viewpoint, but also for the study of historical phonology, or of the ancient Chinese vernacular language, which had a great incluence on Buddhist translations and writings.

Another book of similar importance is a commentary on the Huayanjing 華嚴經 "Garland Sutra", the Huayanjing yinyi 華嚴經音義 by Huiyuan 慧苑 (b. 673).

The shortcomings of Xuanying's book are that he confounds rhymes and lists some redundant words. The book has long been regarded as only of mediocre quality and therefore did not attract the attention of later scholars. It is transmitted in two versions, one being included in the Buddhist Canon Taishō Tripitaka 大正新脩大藏經, with a transmission in 25, and one in 26 juan, the other being the "Confucian" (neutral scholarly) version. This version is totally restructured because the Buddhist writings were of no meaning for worldly literati. This version survived in three editions, namely Zhuang Xin's 莊炘 (1736-1818) version from 1786, the version from the Haishanxian Studio 海山仙館 printed during the Daoguang reign-period 道光 (1821-1850), and Cao Zhou's 曹籀 (1800-1880) version printed in 1869.

There are commentaries written by the Qing-period scholars Sun Xingyan 孫星衍 (1753-1818), Yiqiejing yinyi jiaozheng 一切經音義校正, and Chen Zuolin 陳作霖 (1837-1920), the Yiqiejing yinyi tongjian 一切經音義通檢).

Sources:
Fan Shu 范舒 (2014). "Tulufan ben Xuanying Yiqiejing yinyi yanjiu 吐鲁番本玄应《一切經音義》研究", Dunhuang yanjiu 敦煌研究, 2014 (12).
Hou Jiali 侯佳利 (2014). "Beishida cang Xuanying Yiqiejing yinyi canjuan banben kao 北师大藏玄应《一切經音義》残卷版本考", Hubei Di Er Shifan Xueyuan xuebao 湖北第二师范学院学报, 2014 (3).
Huang Renxuan 黄仁瑄 (2004). "Yuanying Yiqiejing yinyi zhong de ziyi 玄应《一切經音義》中的字意", Henan Shifan Daxue xuebao (Zhexue shehui kexue ban) 河南师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版), 2004 (7).
Nie Zhijun 聂志军 (2013). "Riben Xingyu Shuwu cang Xuanying Yiqiejing yinyi canjuan zai yanjiu 日本杏雨书屋藏玄应《一切經音義》残卷再研究", Gu Hanyu yanjiu 古汉语研究, 2013 (3).
Wang Li 王力 (1982). "Yuanying Yiqiejing yinyi fanqie kao 玄应《一切經音義》反切考", Yuyan yanjiu 语言研究, 1982 (5).
Wang Xi 王曦 (2016). "Xuanying Yiqiejing yinyi chunyin shengmu kaocha 玄应《一切經音義》唇音声母考察", Zhongguo yuwen 中国语文, 2016 (11).
Xu Shiyi 徐时仪 (2009). "Xuanying Yiqiejing yinyi xiejuan kao 玄应《一切經音義》写卷考", Wenxian 文献, 2009 (01).
Yao Guowang 姚國旺 (1997). "Yiqiejing yinyi (Xuanying) 《一切經音義》(玄應)", in Men Kui 門巋, Zhang Yanjin 張燕瑾, ed. Zhonghua guocui da cidian 中華國粹大辭典 (Xianggang: Guoji wenhua chuban gongsi), 710.
Yu Ting 于亭 (2007). "Xuanying Yiqiejing yinyi banben kao 玄应《一切經音義》版本考", Zhongguo dianji yu wenhua 中国典籍与文化, 2007 (12).
Zhao Yang 赵洋 (2018). "Xinjian Lüshun Bowuguan cang Yiqiejing yinyi yanjiu: Jian lun Xuanying yinyi zai Tulufan de chuanbo 新见旅顺博物馆藏《一切經音義》研究——兼论《玄应音义》在吐鲁番的传播", Xuyu yanjiu 西域研究, 2018 (1).
Zhou Zumo 周祖謨 (1988). "Yiqiejing yinyi (Xuanying) 《一切經音義》(玄應)", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Vol. Yuyan wenzi 語言•文字 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), 445.

Huilin's 慧琳 Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義

The other book with this title has a length of 100 juan and was written by Huilin 慧琳. His book is also called Dazang yinyi 大藏音義 "Sound and meaning of the Grand Canon" or Huilin yinyi 慧琳音義 "Huilin's sound and meaning". It has two prefaces, one written by Gu Qizhi 顧齊之 and one by Jing Fan 景審. According to this preface the book was begun in 783 and finished in 807.

Huilin hailed from the city of Shule 疏勒 (today's Kašgar), a city state in the Tarim Basin, and could understand Chinese as well as Sanskrit. He compiled the Yiqiejing yinyi as a kind of extension of Xuanying's book. He commented on 1,300 Buddhist writings, for about 300 of which he copied and revised Xuanying's commentary. For some other books he could resort to earlier phonetic-semantic commentaries, like Huiyuan's commentary on the "Garland Sutra", Yungong's 雲公 commentary on the Dabanniepanjing 大般涅槃經 "Nirvana Sutra", or Kuiji's 窺基 (632-682) commentary on the Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經 "Lotus Sutra".

For more than 100 Buddhist writings, Hulin's commentary was the first commentary at all. For the phonetic and semantic commentaries he made use of earlier dictionaries like the Shuowen jiezi, Zilin, Yupian 玉篇, Yang Chengqing's 陽承慶 Zitong 字統 (lost), Gujin zhengzi 古今正字, Wenzi dianshuo 文字典說, Kaiyuan wenzi yinyi 開元文字音義, Yunquan 韻詮, Yunying 韻英, and Kaosheng qieyun 考聲切韻. For characters not included in those books, he quoted from other sources. In total he made use of 750 books for his research, a great part of which is long since lost, like the Cangjiepian, Tongsuwen, Zhang Yi's 張揖 (early 3rd cent.) Picang 埤蒼, the Gujin zigu 古今字詁, Shenglei, Ziyuan, Lü Jing's 呂靜 Yunji 韻集, He Chengtian's 何承天 (370-447) Zuanwen 纂文, Ruan Xiaoxu's 阮孝緒 (479-536) Wenzi jilüe 文字集略, Yan Zhitui's 顏之推 (531-591) Zhengsuyin 證俗音, or the anonymous Zishu 字書.

A very interesting fact is that quite of few of the books Huilin made use of are not listed in ancient book catalogues, like the Gujin zhengzi or the Renlun guijing 人倫龜鏡. Apart from dictionaries, Huilin also used commentaries on the Confucian Classics and other books, like Bao Xian's 包咸 (6 BCE-65 CE) Lunyu zhu 論語注, Zheng Zhong's 鄭眾 (d. 83 CE) Kaogongji zhu 考工記注, the Chunqiuzhuan zhu 春秋傳注 by Jia Kui 賈逵 (30-101 CE) and Fu Qian, Xu Shen's 許慎 (c. 58-c. 147) Huainanzi zhu 淮南子注, Jia Kui's Guoyu zhu 國語注, the Erya zhu 爾雅注 by Li Xun 李巡 and Sun Tan 孫炎, or Sima Biao's 司馬彪 (d. 306?) Zhuangzi zhu 莊子注.

Some quotations by Huilin are not identical to the received version. This is true, for instance, for statements of the Shuowen jiezi and the Yupian. The Qiqiejing yinyi is therefore a very important source for the reconstruction of ancient texts. Huilin's scholary work concerning the semantic of characters is also of great importance. His book was therefore in 851 officially included into the Buddhist Canon.

Figure 1. Page from Huilin's 慧琳 Yiqiejing yinyi 一切經音義
Taibei: Datong shuju edition from 1970.
Sources:
Huang Renxuan 黄仁瑄 (2005). "Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi zhong de zhuanzhu jian huiyi zi 慧琳《一切經音義》中的转注兼会意字", Yuyan yanjiu 语言研究, 2005 (6).
Huang Renxuan 黄仁瑄 (2005a). "Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi zhong de zhuanzhu zi 慧琳《一切經音義》中的转注字", Gu Hanyu yanjiu 古汉语研究, 2005 (3).
Huang Renxuan 黄仁瑄, Liu Xing 刘兴 (2013). "Jiyu Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi de yitizi shuzihua yanjiu 基于慧琳《一切經音義》的异体字数字化研究", Yuyan wenzi yingyong 语言文字应用, 2013 (11).
Wang Jianjie 王健洁 (2019). "Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi yanjiu zongshu 慧琳《一切經音義》研究综述", Liaodong Xueyuan xuebao (Shehui kexue ban) 辽东学院学报(社会科学版), 2019 (4).
Wen Yiwu 文亦武 (2000). "Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi chengshu niandai kaoshi ji qita 慧琳《一切经音义》成书年代考实及其他", Guji zhengli yanjiu xuekan 古籍整理研究学刊, 2000 (7).
Xu Shiyi 徐时仪 (1989). "Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi banben liuchuan kao 慧琳《一切經音義》版本流传考", Guji zhengli yanjiu xuekan 古籍整理研究学刊, 1989 (12).
Xu Shiyi 徐时仪 (1990). "Huilin Yiqiejing yinyi de yueshu wenxian jiazhi 慧琳《一切經音義》的学术文献价值", Wenxian 文献, 1990 (4).
Yao Guowang 姚國旺 (1997). "Yiqiejing yinyi (Huilin) 《一切經音義》(慧琳)", in Men Kui 門巋, Zhang Yanjin 張燕瑾, ed. Zhonghua guocui da cidian 中華國粹大辭典 (Xianggang: Guoji wenhua chuban gongsi), 711.
Zhou Zumo 周祖謨 (1988), "Yiqiejing yinyi (Huilin) 《一切經音義》(慧琳)", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Vol. Yuyan wenzi 語言•文字 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), 445.

Xu yiqiejing yinyi 續一切經音義

In 987 the monk Xilin 希麟 wrote a kind of supplement called Xu yiqiejing yinyi 續一切經音義. The book was also, on request by the courts, transmitted to Korea and later to Japan. It was printed there in 1737 and came back to China where it was first printed in 1912 by the Pinjia Jingshe Press 頻伽精舍, which is the most widespread version, together with that in the Taishō Canon.

Sources:
Lai Kehong 來可泓 (1997). "Xu yiqiejing yinyi 續一切經音義", in Zhou Gucheng 周谷城, ed. Zhongguo xueshu mingzhu tiyao 中國學術名著提要, Vol. Zongjiao 宗教卷 (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe), 331.
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, ed. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 678.
Nie Hongyin 聶鴻音 (2001). "Heicheng suo chu Xu yiqiejing yinyi canpian kao 黑城所出《續一切經音義》残片考", Beifang wenwu 北方文物, 2001 (2).
Zhou Zumo 周祖謨 (1988). "Xu yiqiejing yinyi 續一切經音義", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Vol. Yuyan wenzi 語言•文字 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), 436.