Translation is putting a text expressed in a language into another language. Because the two languages are different in lexical meaning, grammatical structure, metrics, etc. it is extremely difficult to translate an original text perfectly. In transl ...
Translation is putting a text expressed in a language into another language. Because the two languages are different in lexical meaning, grammatical structure, metrics, etc. it is extremely difficult to translate an original text perfectly. In translating a language to another foreign language, transliteration is copying the pronunciation of the original language in case the original meaning cannot be translated to the target language.
Thus, we can guess how difficult it would be to translate Buddhist scriptures recorded in Sanskrit, which belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, into Chinese language, which belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, considering that the linguistic systems of two languages are totally different from each other. Furthermore, in translating Buddhist scriptures, which contain profound religious doctrines, a major concern must have been not just transferring Sanskrit to Chinese but conveying the deep meanings of Buddhist teachings, laws and theories faithfully to the original texts.
In translating Buddhist scriptures to the Chinese language, transliteration was inevitable and, concerning the criteria for transliteration, Hyeonjang established the rules of five kinds of non-translation. Doan also established the of five kinds of non-lose the original text and three kinds of non-exchange. The rules had been applied to the translation of Buddhist scripture since Hyunjang. This means that the dh?ra??I Transliteration did not go through the processes of whole translation(reduced translation) composite translation. What is more, in transliterating Sanskrit that is a phonogram into Chinese that is an ideogram, Banjeol(反切), a method of borrowing foreign words, consonant combination representing the characteristics of Sanskrit well, and the four tones related to long and short sounds are remarkable in dh?ra??I compared to other transliterations. Accordingly, the difference between general transliterations and the dh?ra?? transliteration suggests the possibility of interpreting the meanings of dh?ra?? that preserves the characteristics of the phonogram.