The Formation and Development of Chinese Buddhist Literature

This essay addresses some of the primary issues associated with the translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese, these texts playing an invaluable role in the development of Chinese Buddhism. Specifically, the author examines the debate of prose (wen) and accuracy (zhi) in the realisation of the translated texts. The early translations of Buddhist texts into Chinese were cooperative efforts between Buddhist monks from Central Asia and Chinese. One of the problems that arose with the translation was the question of literary style.There were those that valued prose (wen), and emphasised beautiful literary expression. There were those that valued quality (zhi), that is to say translations that accurately conveyed the meaning of the original text, and these two factions disagreed over the how the texts were to be translated. In the beginning, the Chinese valued literary prose over accuracy while the foreign monks valued the accuracy of the translation. With the passage of time, however, and the increasing number of Buddhist works translated, a remarkable phenomenon occurred in which the Chinese Buddhist monks came to value accuracy, and the non-Chinese monks came to value the quality of the prose. This reversal of focus can be seen as one process of cultural exchange in which the reproduction of culture through the translation Buddhist texts led to mutual understanding and change in the respective cultures.(Translated: Philip Flavin) Session statement 3: Diverse aspects of translation: Buddhism, Islam, and Wikipedi