Foreword
As the eighth work in the Soka Gakkai’s Lotus Sutra Manuscript Series, I am pleased toannounce the publication of the Xixia Version of the Lotus Sutra from the Collection ofthe St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy ofSciences, edited by Dr. Tatsuo Nishida, professor emeritus of Kyoto University, amember of the Japan Academy, and a leading authority on Xixia studies.
The present volume contains color facsimiles of the manuscripts and xylographs ofthe rare Xixia version of the Lotus Sutra. These were shown earlier in the exhibition
held in November 1998, at the Josei Toda International Center in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The
exhibition was entitled “The Lotus Sutra and Its World” and was sponsored jointly by
the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (IOP), of which I am the founder, and the St.
Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies.
These manuscripts and xylographs were among the various articles in thepossession of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies that wereremoved to the basement of the institute for safekeeping by a man and woman of theinstitute staff and preserved there during the fierce 900-day assault by the NaziGermany armies. In doing so, they gave admirable testimony to the fact that culture andhumanism will in the end triumph over the forces of violence and narrow nationalism.
Moreover, in the days following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when theRussian economy was in a state of turmoil, Dr. Yuri A. Petrosyan, the original directorof the Institute; Dr. Evgenij I. Kychanov, the former director; Dr. Margarita I.
Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, who was in charge of manuscripts; and the other membersof the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies did their best to ensure
the preservation of these most important cultural objects. Seeking neither renown nor
material gain, they surmounted untold obstacles in order to do so.
I recall the words spoken by Dr. Kychanov as we viewed the exhibition “The Lotus
Sutra and Its World” together. “Look at the written words,” he said, speaking with greatwarmth. “Please look at the written words!”“These are the words of the sutra in Sanskrit and other languages. Through thesewords, how people must have opened up their hearts to one another! With that thoughtin mind, look long and carefully at these words and enjoy them!”Among the words he was speaking of were those of the Xixia version of the Lotus
Sutra. These words of the sutra, embodying the prayers of the various peoples whose
languages were represented here, were alive. They shone, they sang out, they called toothers. They formed a whirlpool around the core of the universe, they mirrored in theirform the breaking waves of the great rhythm of the life force. They were words
endowed with spirit and vitality.
In order to guard and transmit these words, how many Buddhist believers over the
many centuries have undergone hardships and exerted themselves to the fullest? Andnow, after surviving and enduring for all that time, these words have at last been able toreach Japan, the far eastern end of the Silk Road, and come before all these people. How
they must dance with joy!
I first became interested in the Silk Road when I was barely into my teens andlonged to know more about it. When my teacher began talking about the Silk Road andI pictured this desert region, a storehouse of cultural treasures but now devoid ofinhabitants, I was filled with a sense of strangeness. From that time on, it became for mea land of dreams and exotic imaginings.
The present Lotus Sutra Manuscript Series of publications may be described as an
attempt to trace the transmission of the Buddhist teachings and the spread of the Lotus
Sutra as they passed along the Silk Road. The earlier publication of the Sanskrit
manuscripts of the sutra, followed now by the Xixia version of the sutra, which
represents the Xixia state that dominated the region west of the Yellow River in latertimes, together present a deeply moving panorama.
The examples of the Xixia version of the Lotus Sutra that appear in the present
publication were discovered by a Russian, Col. P.K. Kozlov (1863-1935), in his
explorations of the Buddhist stupas of Suburgan, an archeological site in Khara-Khotoon the Silk Road. The explorations took place during the period 1907-09. Some of thetexts include illustrations depicting the customs and life style of the Tangut people whofounded the Xixia state, giving us some idea of their distinctive types of clothing andhair style. At the same time, they reveal the extent to which the Xixia people revered
and familiarized themselves with the Lotus Sutra.
At the end of one of the sutra scrolls, I am told, are written these words: “It is ourwish that the benefits acquired hereby may be bestowed on all living beings and that weand they together may attain Buddhahood.” The prayer reflects the teachings of theLotus Sutra, which enjoins us to seek happiness for others as well as for ourselves.
The Xixia people, who for a time governed the area where Dunhuang is situated,followed the Buddhist teachings and lived in harmony with the other peoples of theregion. They also showed respect for people of other cultures. Within the region under
their control lived Turkish followers of Nestorian Christianity, as well as believers in
the Islamic faith. In this sense, we might say, the Xixia people were pioneers in therealm of intercultural dialogue.

I first heard of the Xixia people when I was in my late teens. Through a bookentitled Tōyōgaku no hanashi or Talks on East Asian Studies by Dr. Juntarō Ishihama(1888-1968), I learned how the author joined with a young Russian scholar whom hehad met through the Osaka Foreign Languages School (the present day Osaka
University of Foreign Studies) in studying the Xixia language. I was much impressed by
the author’s vivid description of their undertaking. This same Dr. Ishihama in time
guided the editor of the present volume, Dr. Nishida, in his studies of the Xixia
language.
The young Russian scholar who participated with Dr. Ishihama in the study of theXixia language was Nikolai Aleksandrovich Nevsky (1892-1937). He came to Japanfirst in 1913, returned to Russia, and then came a second time. In order to pursue hisstudies of early Japanese culture, he traveled from one end of the country to the other,diligently applying himself to research in Japanese folklore. He also attended the regularmeetings of the Kyōdokai, an academic group centering around leading intellectuals ofmodern Japan such as Inazō Nitobe (1862-1933) and Kunio Yanagita (1875-1962) who
devoted themselves to the study of Japanese local institutions, customs, and oraltraditions.
On the evening of January 12, 1916, a meeting of the Kyōdokai was held at thehome of Dr. Nitobe in today’s Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo. There the young man Nevsky
met a geographer and elementary school principal who, as a nongovernmental scholar,
was engaged in the study of pedagogical methods. This was none other than
Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (1871-1944), the founder and first president of the Soka
Gakkai.
Later Mr. Nevsky became a teacher of Russian at the recently founded Osaka
Foreign Languages School. There he became acquainted with Dr. Ishihama, who urged
him to take up the study of the Xixia language, a suggestion that changed the wholecourse of his life as a scholar.
In 1929 Mr. Nevsky, hoping to further his efforts to master the Xixia language,
returned to Russia, where materials for such study were plentiful. But he fell victim to
the purges of the Stalin era and died in 1937.
Mr. V.M. Tityanov, who was imprisoned together with him, recalls how Nevsky
used to worry about what would become of the Xixia dictionary that he, Nevsky, was in
the process of compiling. He remembers him saying, “I have finally found the key todeciphering the written characters of the Tangut (Xixia) language….Up to now I havewritten quite a few articles on Tangut culture, but I don’t know if there is anyone whocan bring my work to completion. I’ve lived an honest life, yet I can’t help deeplyregretting that I have not been able to finish my work!” [Ay Khanum (the letters of V.M.
Tityanov), Tōkai shuppankai, 2001.]
Now Mr. Nevsky’s hopes have at last been fulfilled. The work that he began was intime taken over by Dr. Kychanov, the former director of the St. Petersburg Branch of
the Institute of Oriental Studies, and others, and their intellectual efforts have brought torealization Mr. Nevsky’s ambitious dreams. Dr. Kychanov has devoted his whole life toXixia studies. Over half a century has passed since in his student days he first heard Mr.
Nevsky’s name. After ten years of diligent and exacting labor, he published his Staturesof the Xixia State: The Revised and Newly Endorsed Code for the Designation of theReign, Celestial Prosperity (Tian sheng 天盛 (1149-69)). And, following a planworked out jointly by himself and Dr. Nishida, he and the members of the Departmentof Linguistics of Kyoto University have pooled their efforts to publish a catalogue ofBuddhist texts in the Xixia language. Continuing their research, they are now hard atwork on a Xixia-Russian-English-Chinese dictionary.
Viewing the present jointly-sponsored publication of the Xixia version of the Lotus
Sutra, I cannot help but feel a deep sense of affinity with those whose cooperation madeit possible, the editor, Dr. Nishida, and Dr. Kychanov, the participating party on theRussian side.
I keep calling to mind the impressive words of Dr. Kychanov regarding the Lotus
Sutra: “The Lotus Sutra is a scripture on the ideology of peace, one that teaches us totreat all persons with empathy and compassion. My hope is that this compassionate
heart of the Lotus Sutra will be disseminated throughout the world.”
I am of the same mind. And for nearly half a century I have traveled the world overand carried out countless dialogues in order to spread abroad this “heart of the Lotus
Sutra.”The doctrine of the dignity and equality of all human beings taught in the Lotus
Sutra is one of universal value, transcending boundaries of time and space. I hope thatthrough the present series of publications of Lotus Sutra manuscripts the message of thesutra, a call to bring happiness to persons everywhere, will continue to spread over anever wider area.
Daisaku Ikeda
Honorary President, Soka Gakkai
President, Gakkai International (SGI)
October 2, 2004