A comparative study of English translations of the Chinese versions of the Lotus Sutra (Miaofa lian hua jing)

中英《妙法蓮華經》對比研究
Start - End 
2017 - 2020 (ongoing)
Type 

Tabgroup

Abstract

The Chinese Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra) has in the past more than a thousand years exerted great influence on the East Asian Countries since its introduction into China during the 3rd century CE, especially after Kumārajīva’s Chinese version, which started to invoke westerners’ curiosity about this sutra since one and a half centuries ago. The Lotus Sutra then becomes the first Buddhist sutra translated from Sanskrit to a European language (which is French) and the first Buddhist text appeared in America. Up till now, there are more than a dozen English translations of this sutra, among which apart from the first full English version translated directly from Sanskrit, the rest full English versions are all from Kumārajīva’s Chinese Miaofa Lianhua Jing (妙法蓮華經). This paper will be a comparative study on these English versions of Lotus Sutra, along with its circulation in and effect on the west.

People

Supervisor(s)

Phd Student(s)

External(s)

Feng Duan

College of Foreign Languages and Cultures - Sichuan University