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The Role of Iranians in the Spread of Buddhism, Manichaeism and Mazdaism in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Nahal Tajadod
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Extract

Gandhara, an area that welcomed Buddhism and where the earliest monasteries are found from the late third century BC, was also a ‘land of immigration’.

With the aim of converting the Greco-Iranian peoples to Buddhism, the dignitaries in charge of these provinces under Asoka had identified in Greek and Aramaic vocabulary equivalents of Hindu or Buddhist themes. But the Gandhara Buddhists seem not to have continued this attempt to translate their sacred texts into Greek, Aramaic and probably Middle Iranian. On the other hand the Buddhists from Bactrian, Sogdian and Xinjiang translated the great texts of Buddhism from Sanskrit into the indigenous languages.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 50 , Issue 4: From East to West - Civilizations in a Looking-Glass: 50 Years, 1952-2002 , November 2003 , pp. 61 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2003

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References

Notes

1. Fussman, ‘ “Upaya-kausalya”, Bouddhisme et cultures locales. Quelques cas de réciproques adaptations.’ Actes du colloque franco-japonais de septembre 1991, Fukui Fumimasa and Gérard Fussman (eds), École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1994, p. 18.

2. Zhi Pan, Fo zu tong ji (Annals of the Patriarchs of Buddhism), chap. 39, III, pp. 233-238.

3. Wang Qinruo, Ce fu yuan gui, chap. 971, XII, p. 11,406.

4. Zhi Pan, op. Cit., chap. 54, IV, pp. 340-349.

5. Ouyang, Xiu, Song Qi, Xin Tang shu (A New History of the Tang Dynasty), chap. 217, XIX, p. 6, 126.

6. M. G. Deveria, ‘Musulmans et manichéens chinois’, in Journal Asiatique (1897), p. 74.

7. Ibid., p. 479.

8. E. Chavannes and P. Pelliot, ‘Un traité manichéen retrouvé en Chine’, in Journal Asiatique (1911), p. 269.

9. R. Grousset, L'Empire des steppes, Paris, Payot, 1969, p. 163.

10. Ibid, p. 163.

11. E. Chavannes and P. Pelliot, ‘Un traité manichéen retrouvé en Chine’, (note 8 above) p. 308.

12. R. Grousset, 1969, op. cit., p. 163.

13. E. Chavannes and P. Pelliot (note 8 above), p. 278.

14. Ibid., p. 239.

15. N. Tajadod, Mani, le Bouddha de Lumière, Paris, Editions du Cerf, Sources gnostiques et manichéennes 3, 1990.

16. Ibid., pp. 47, 90.

17. Unpublished work by P. Demiéville in N. Tajadod, 1990, op. cit., p. 363.

18. The Dênkart was an encyclopedia in nine books, of which the first two and the first folio of the third have been lost. The first author of the Dênkart was a contemporary of the ninth century Caliph Ma'moun. The Third book of Dênkart takes up moral and theological questions, polemicizing with Islam.

19. J. de Menasce, Le troisième livre du Dênkart, Paris, Klincksieck, 1973, p. 101.

20. N. Tajadod, 1990, op. cit, pp. 47, 94.

21. H. Corbin, En islam iranien, II, Paris, Gallimard 1971, p. 86.

22. N. Tajadod, 1990, op. cit., pp. 53, 159.

23. See G. Widengren, Les Religions de l'Iran. Paris, Payot, 1968, p. 110.

24. N. Tajadod, 1990, op. cit., pp. 55, 173.

25. These helpers are purity, truth, greatness, force, vigilance, justice, bravery, protection, generation, benediction, pacification, and meditation. See J. de Hammer, Mémoire sur le culte de Mithra, Paris, Pinard, 1833, p. 30.

26. N. Tajadod, 1990, op. cit., p. 55.

27. See J. Filliozat, L'Inde classique, II, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1953, p. 569.

28. H. de Lubac, Amida, Paris, Seuil, 1955, p. 237.

29. N. Tajadod, op. cit., pp. 57, 193-205.

30. They are the Dayinglun (the Gospel), Zintihe (the Treasure), Niwan (the Letters), Eluozon (the Mysteries), Bojiamodiye (the Legends), Juhuan (the Giants), Afuyin (Psalms and Prayers), and Damen heyi (the Image).

31. See G. Haloun and W. B. Henning, ‘The Compendium of the Doctrines and Styles of the Teaching of Mani, the Buddha of Light’, in Asia Major, III (1952), p. 207.

32. N. Tajadod, op. cit., pp. 59, 213-217.

33. G. Haloun and W. B. Henning, Compendium, p. 195.

34. E. Chavannes and P. Pelliot (note 8 above), p. 74.

35. R. Gauthiot, ‘Quelque termes techniques bouddhiques et manichéens’, in Journal asiatique (1911), p. 60.

36. N. Tajadod, op. cit., pp. 62-63, 240-244.

37. Zhi Pan, Fo zu tongji (Annals of the Buddhist Patriarchs), chap. 39, IX, 71 v6; a similar mention is made in chapter 54, fol. 151 r6.