Preface
Mr. Kosaku Eto, director of the Center in Russia of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy,
acting at the behest of Dr. Yoichi Kawada, director of the Institute of Oriental
Philosophy, has asked me to address some remarks to the Tangut edition of the “LotusSutra.” I consider this a great honor.
Tangut studies—which examines Tangut literature and documents in Tangut
writing, the history and culture of the Tangut people, and the creation of the Tangut
state of Xixia (982-1227)—has in the 20th century become an independent branch oforiental studies. If one leaves aside the efforts to identify the writing of the Liangzhou
stele and one of the texts on the gates of Juyong guan, the text that served as the impetus
for this new field was none other than the “Lotus Sutra,” now published in Tanguttranslation.
After the armed forces of the eight nations which crushed the boxer rebellion(Yihetuan) entered Peking on August 1, 1900, three employees of the French embassyin China, among them the great future Sinologist Paul Pelliot, strolled along the White
Pagoda (stupa) (baita), built during the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Among thepapers and refuse scattered there, the three friends found six books of texts written in
the little-known writing of Xixia. The manuscript was of excellent quality, written inneat, attractive handwriting, in gold, and on black-and-white folios. The book was
clearly Buddhist in content, as indicated by its concertina binding, traditional for
Buddhist books in China. It seems that the three colleagues at first divided the books
equally: two for Paul Pelliot, two for M. Morisse, and two for F. Berteaux. For reasonsthat remain unclear—perhaps P. Pelliot gave up his share—Morisse and Berteaux ended
up with three each.
M. Morisse, a qualified Sinologist, determined on the basis of the Chinesecharacters added to certain Tangut characters—“Chinese equivalents have been written
to the right of certain characters, and undoubtedly by a Chinese”1—that the text was thatof the “Lotus Sutra.” Morisse boldly undertook a comparison of the Chinese and Tangut
texts of the sutra, relying on information about the writing of Xixia provided by G.
Devéria, A. Wylie, and S. Bushell in the late 19th century. M. Morisse’s work was thefirst and, in the end, only true decipherment of Tangut writing.
M. Morisse did not support G. Devéria’s earlier assertion that Tangut writing wasphonetic; he correctly determined that the writing system was created on the basis ofChinese writing. He established the meanings and approximate readings of a few dozen
signs by comparing the Tangut transcriptions of proper names with their Chinesespellings, identified several grammatical particles, determined that Tangut was amember of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages, and indicated that “Tibetan is alanguage with similar grammatical phenomena,”2 where the verb is in final position,
preceded by the object, and attributes can follow the word they describe.3
M. Morisse did not display further interest in this, or any other, Tangut text. In
1912, he sold his three books of the “Lotus Sutra” to the Berlin library. F. Berteaux kept
his three books as a rarity and did not study them. When he died, his widow sold all
three books to different people. Later, at the initiative of the French scholarly
community, all three books were acquired from collectors by the Musée National desArts Asiatiques Guimet. These books of the “Lotus Sutra” discovered by the French in1900 may still be held in France and Germany. Those of M. Morisse’s books held inGermany were later studied by German Sinologists (A. Bernhardi and E. von Zach,1919); those held in France do not seem to have drawn the attention of scholars.
In 1914, the Chinese scholar Luo Fucheng published “A study of the Tanguttranslations of the ‘Lotus Sutra’”; it is based on the text published by M. Morisse and on
photographs of M. Morisse’s books provided by the Japanese Prof. Toru Haneda.4
The discovery of the dead city of Khara-Khoto in 1907-1908 by Ts. Badmazhapov
and P.K. Kozlov at the mouth of the Edzin-Gol river at the southern edge of the Gobi
Desert marked a turning point in the then nascent field of Tangut studies. The
Tangut ”dictionary” of 1190, “A jewel in a palm which meets the needs of the time,”
printed as a xylograph, significantly eased the difficulty of deciphering Tangut writing.
There remained the problem of building up lexical material, primarily by readingtranslated texts, the task of phonetic reconstruction, the interpretation of Chinese andTibetan transcriptions and dharani texts with the aid of modern phonetics, and a
description of Tangut grammar. All of this promised many years of hard work, but thevolume of extant material rendered the task eminently accomplishable. The small
community of Tangut specialists throughout the world continues to work to this end.
What is important about this edition? First, one can confidently state that Tangut
studies began with the text of the “Lotus Sutra.”The second important aspect of the text of the “Lotus Sutra” that has been readiedfor publication is that, by all indications, the text of the “Lotus Sutra” was one of thefirst, if not the very first, to be translated into the Tangut language. With the appearanceof Korea and Japan on the stage of Asian history; the adoption, by the time of theestablishment of the Tang dynasty (7th-9th century), of Chinese hieroglyphic writing by
the Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese; and with Buddhism and Confucianism as thebasis for state and ethical-moral ideology, East Asian civilization took shape. In muchthe same fashion and at the same time, Near Eastern civilization formed around Islam;
European civilization began its path on a Christian foundation. But a certain rebellion
took place within East-Asian civilization. The Tibetans, who did not accept Chinese
Buddhism entirely and were oriented toward Buddhism from India, did not adopt
Chinese hieroglyphic writing, although they could have. Nor did the Turkic peoples andthe Uighurs. In the 10th century, the Qidan followed their example. The Qidan, Tangut,and Jurchen cultures developed in the main within the cultural framework of East Asia.
But while using the model of Chinese hieroglyphic writing, the Qidans, Tanguts andJurchen, who initially chose “their path” and began with Chinese culture, created theirown writing systems.
Tangut writing was developed in 1036, and introduced into official use in Xixia. In
1038, by decree of the Tangut emperor, a working group of translators was created totranslate the Chinese Buddhist canon into Tangut. The “Lotus Sutra” was one of theirfirst projects if not the very first. The foreword to the 12th-century manuscript copy ofthe Sutra, completed during the rule of the emperor Ren-xiao (1139-1193), provides abrief history of the translation: “This sutra appeared in India and was graduallytransmitted to the Eastern states. Under the emperor of the [Later] Qin dynasty(386-417) it was translated [into Chinese]. Luoshi (Kumarajiva)... After this, [our]emperor with the title of City-Wind-Horn (Li Yuanhao, reigned 1031-1048),
introducing the rituals of the Lhi (which Tangut called themselves) on the basis of thelanguage of his realm, invented writing and translated [this] sutra (into Tangut).” Thetranslation of the sutra immediately benefited the Tangut state; as the foreword explains,“many disputes and wars vanished, the number of good deeds increased precipitously,
and it became impossible to compare the efforts made for the people with [those ofearlier times].”
One can assume that the sutra was copied and published many times in xylographform. A manuscript copy from 1157 has been preserved. The text, under the royal
editorial guidance of the emperor Ren-xiao, was copied by Ngwi-ndi Ra-shio-we, theorder was placed by Je Wgiu. Of great interest is the xylograph edition from the second
half of the 11th century carried out under the patronage of the emperor Bing-chang(reigned 1068-1086) and his mother, the widow empress Liang. The text was copiedand carved on boards for printing by the monk Wiwo Jie (Gao Hui 高慧) with the titleof “he who cares for the sutras.” This is a unique print edition of the 11th century.
Xylographs of the 11th century differ noticeably from their counterparts of the 12thcentury, primarily, it seems, in the lower quality of the printing.
Thanks to the efforts of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy and its founder andpresident of the Soka Gakkai International, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, the director of theInstitute, Dr. Yoichi Kawada, and Mr. Kosaku Eto, the Tangut texts of the “Lotus
Sutra” today held at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies are
now being published. One of the remarkable creations of the Buddha Sakyamuni will
reappear, and faithful Buddhists will gain access to an ancient example of the sacred
text. Tangut scholars and specialists on Buddhism will receive new material for theirtextological research. And the scholarly world will benefit from yet another work by theoutstanding Japanese professor and academician Tatsuo Nishida.
I welcome this edition with all my heart, and am confident that it will serve tostrengthen the ties of brotherhood between followers of the teaching of the “LotusSutra,” stimulate further cooperation between Japanese and Russian scholars, and all
allow us to augment the slim ranks of Tangut specialists, who are in need ofreinforcements. I wish this book success as it makes its way in the world!
Evgenij I. KychanovFormer Director
St. Petersburg Branch of
The Institute of Oriental Studies
Russian Academy of Sciences
September 2004