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Preface

Evgenij I. Kychanov

MR. Kosaku Eto, director of the Center in Russia of the Institute ofOriental Philosophy, acting at the behest of Dr. Yoichi Kawada,
director of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, has asked me to addresssome remarks to the Tangut edition of the “Lotus Sutra.” I consider thisa 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 of oriental studies. If one leaves aside
the efforts to identify the writing of the Liangzhou stele and one of thetexts on the gates of Juyong guan, the text that served as the impetus forthis new field was none other than the “Lotus Sutra,” now published in
Tangut translation.
After the armed forces of the eight nations which crushed the boxer
rebellion (Yihetuan) entered Peking on August 1, 1900, three employeesof the French embassy in 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 the papers and refuse
scattered there, the three friends found six books of texts written in thelittle-known writing of Xixia. The manuscript was of excellent quality,written in neat, attractive handwriting, in gold, and on black-and-whitefolios. 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 reasons thatremain unclear—perhaps P. Pelliot gave up his share—Morisse andBerteaux ended up with three each.
M. Morisse, a qualified Sinologist, determined on the basis of theChinese characters 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 that of the “Lotus Sutra.” Morisse
boldly undertook a comparison of the Chinese and Tangut texts of the162

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ページ 163PREFACE163sutra, relying on information about the writing of Xixia provided by G.
Devéria, A. Wylie, and S. Bushell in the late 19th century. M. Morisse’swork was the first and, in the end, only true decipherment of Tangut
writing.
M. Morisse did not support G. Devéria’s earlier assertion that Tangut
writing was phonetic; he correctly determined that the writing system
was created on the basis of Chinese writing. He established the meanings and approximate readings of a few dozen signs by comparing theTangut 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 a language with similar grammatical phenomena,”2 wherethe verb is in final position, preceded by the object, and attributes canfollow the word they describe.3M. 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 theBerlin library. F. Berteaux kept his three books as a rarity and did notstudy them. When he died, his widow sold all three books to differentpeople. Later, at the initiative of the French scholarly community, allthree books were acquired from collectors by the Musée National desArts Asiatiques Guimet. These books of the “Lotus Sutra” discoveredby the French in 1900 may still be held in France and Germany. Thoseof M. Morisse’s books held in Germany 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 theTangut translations 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 thennascent field of Tangut studies. The Tangut “dictionary” of 1190, “Ajewel 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, primarilyby reading translated texts, the task of phonetic reconstruction, the interpretation of Chinese and Tibetan transcriptions and dharani texts withthe aid of modern phonetics, and a description of Tangut grammar. Allof this promised many years of hard work, but the volume of extant
material rendered the task eminently accomplishable. The small com-J ̲Orient̲05 06.2.1 4:54 PM164

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PREFACEmunity of Tangut specialists throughout the world continues to work tothis end.
What is important about this edition? First, one can confidently statethat Tangut studies began with the text of the “Lotus Sutra.”The second important aspect of the text of the “Lotus Sutra” that has
been readied for publication is that, by all indications, the text of the“Lotus Sutra” was one of the first, if not the very first, to be translated
into the Tangut language. With the appearance of Korea and Japan on
the stage of Asian history; the adoption, by the time of the establishmentof the Tang dynasty (7th–9th century), of Chinese hieroglyphic writingby the Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese; and with Buddhism andConfucianism as the basis for state and ethical-moral ideology, East
Asian civilization took shape. In much the same fashion and at the sametime, 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 and the 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, theQidans, Tanguts and Jurchen, who initially chose “their path” and beganwith Chinese culture, created their own 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 groupof translators was created to translate the Chinese Buddhist canon into
Tangut. The “Lotus Sutra” was one of their first projects if not the very
first. The foreword to the 12th-century manuscript copy of the Sutra,
completed during the rule of the emperor Ren-xiao (1139–1193), provides a brief history of the translation: “This sutra appeared in India andwas gradually transmitted to the Eastern states. Under the emperor ofthe [Later] Qin dynasty (386–417) it was translated [into Chinese].
Luoshi (Kumarajiva) . . . After this, [our] emperor with the title of CityWind-Horn (Li Yuanhao, reigned 1031–1048), introducing the rituals ofthe Lhi (which Tangut called themselves) on the basis of the language of
his realm, invented writing and translated [this] sutra (into Tangut).” Thetranslation of the sutra immediately benefited the Tangut state; as theforeword explains, “many disputes and wars vanished, the number ofgood deeds increased precipitously, and it became impossible to compare the efforts made for the people with [those of earlier times].”J ̲Orient̲05 06.2.1 4:54 PM

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One can assume that the sutra was copied and published many times
in xylograph form. 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, the order was placed by Je Wgiu.
Of great interest is the xylograph edition from the second half of the11th century carried out under the patronage of the emperor Bing-chang(reigned 1068–1086) and his mother, the widow empress Liang. The
text was copied and carved on boards for printing by the monk Wiwo Jie(Gao Hui 高慧) with the title of “he who cares for the sutras.” This is aunique print edition of the 11th century. Xylographs of the 11th century
differ noticeably from their counterparts of the 12th century, 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 the Institute, 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 exampleof the sacred text. Tangut scholars and specialists on Buddhism will
receive new material for their textological research. And the scholarly
world will benefit from yet another work by the outstanding Japanese
professor and academician Tatsuo Nishida.
I welcome this edition with all my heart, and am confident that it willserve to strengthen the ties of brotherhood between followers of theteaching of the “Lotus Sutra,” stimulate further cooperation between
Japanese and Russian scholars, and allow us to augment the slim ranksof Tangut specialists, who are in need of reinforcements. I wish thisbook success as it makes its way in the world!
September 2004
Notes
1
Nevskii, N. A. Tangutskaia filologiia. Issledovaniia i slovar’ v 2-kh knigakh [Tangutphilology. Research and a dictionary in two books]. Book 1, Moscow, 1960, p. 22.
2Ibid.
3
M. G. Morisse. Contribution préliminaire à l’étude de l’écriture et de la langue
Si-hia. Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des Inscriptions. 1 série,vol. XI, Paris, 1904.
4《西夏譯s華經考釋》Xi Xia yi Lian hua jing kao shi. Higashiyama Gakusha, Kyoto,1914.

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PREFACE*This article is reprinted from the Xixia Version of the Lotus Sutra
from the Collection of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai,2005).