This book presents the author’s most recent achievement in the study on the Tangut version of “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng”.

“Sh?ng Mi?o J? Xi?ng Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng” (《聖妙吉祥真實名經》, “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng (《真實名經》)” for short) is the Chinese translation title of “?rya-ma?ju?r?-n?ma-sa?mg?ti (Chanting The Names of Ma?ju?r?, #.1190 “Taisho Tripitaka”)”. As of now, there are altogether seven surviving versions of this important Buddhist text in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, Tangut, Uighur, Mongolian and Manchu. The Tangut version of the text is listed among other Tangut Buddhist texts in the “The Catalog of Tangut Manuscripts and Woodblock Texts, by the Institute of Oriental Studies” published in 1963 by the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. Apparently, parts of the text were used by N. A. Nevskij (Nevsky) in his initial research into Tangut language, and some vocabulary items from the sutra are to be found in his posthumously published “Tangutskaya Filologia” (vol. 1-2, M: Oriental Literature Publishers, 1960). In 1994 Hiroshi Matsuzawa wrote introduction to the fragments of “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng” preserved in the holdings of Tenri Library in Japan. His publication included facsimile reproductions of fragments of Tangut text. Up to the present, there are no scholars doing the research and studying on the entire Tangut version of “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng” until 2001.

“鈿 衫 聳 芅 柝 感 掬 沮 鏈” is the title of the extant Tangut version of “Chanting The Names of Ma?ju?r?”, which is identical in all the Tangut editions of the text I have consulted. If translated back into Chinese the title would read as follows: “Sh?ng R?u J? Xi?ng Zh? M?ng Zh?n Sh? S?ng (聖柔吉祥之名真實誦)”. The text presented in this study consists of 546 lines of collated Tangut text based on five extant Tangut versions of the text. Three of the sets of fragments──(Tang. 63, No. 693, 707, 728)──are kept in the Tangut Holdings of Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. The other two extant versions of the sutra are hold in the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. All the editions contain the same title, but bear no indications as of the time of translation, the name of translation supervisor or head proofreader or editor-in-charge. Also, in the Tangut version, the appendixes and the remarks, which summarize the chapter content and are chapter dividers, are somewhat different from current Chinese and Tibetan versions. Moreover, the Tangut versions contain complete “poetic parts of the sutra (偈頌, skr., gatha)” and “five circles of essays (五輪功德)”, which make Tangut version different from Uighur, Mongolian and Manchu versions.

This book consists of two parts: Chapter 1 “Introduction”, and Chapter 2 “Translated Texts”, commentary and index. Chapter 1 “Introduction” mainly includes four parts: (1) Introduction of the extant Tangut collections and summaries of the contents of Tangut texts. (2) Inferences of what the original source text (Tibetan or Chinese) was for the Tangut translation. (3) Notes on grammatical peculiarities of the text in regard to the study of Tangut grammar. (4) The references.

Chapter 2 “Translated Texts” mainly discusses the study and research on the Tangut version of “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng”. In my presentation of the Tangut text I use four lines for each line of the original Tangut text: the first line is the original Tangut text of “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng”; the second line is the phonetic reconstruction of each of the Tangut words; third line is word by word Chinese translation of the Tangut text, the fourth line is the relevant portion of Sh?-Zh?’s Chinese translation of the text from “Taisho Tripitaka”, which may help read the Tangut text. I also have put many explanatory notes in Chapter 2, including the comparison of different language versions; and for the most part, I attempted to examine the Tangut grammar.

There are two indexes. The first index is a repertoire of each Tangut word in the text, which is instrumental in searching for the Tangut words. The repertoire is arranged according to the graphic system designed by M. A. Sofronov for his Tangut dictionary (1968). The Chinese index is limited to some Buddhism terms, and indicates the correspondences between Tangut and Chinese Buddhist terms. These “Indexes” supply a searching tool for separate vocabulary entries in the Tangut version of “Zh?n Sh? M?ng J?ng”, but also provide the essential information on Tangut grammar. Therefore the present study may be used as a database for the research of certain aspects of Tangut grammar.This book presents the author’s most recent achievement in the study on the Tangut version of “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng”.

“Shèng Miào Jí Xiáng Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng” (《聖妙吉祥真實名經》, “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng (《真實名經》)” for short) is the Chinese translation title of “ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saémgīti (Chanting The Names of Mañjuśrī, #.1190 “Taisho Tripitaka”)”. As of now, there are altogether seven surviving versions of this important Buddhist text in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, Tangut, Uighur, Mongolian and Manchu. The Tangut version of the text is listed among other Tangut Buddhist texts in the “The Catalog of Tangut Manuscripts and Woodblock Texts, by the Institute of Oriental Studies” published in 1963 by the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. Apparently, parts of the text were used by N. A. Nevskij (Nevsky) in his initial research into Tangut language, and some vocabulary items from the sutra are to be found in his posthumously published “Tangutskaya Filologia” (vol. 1-2, M: Oriental Literature Publishers, 1960). In 1994 Hiroshi Matsuzawa wrote introduction to the fragments of “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng” preserved in the holdings of Tenri Library in Japan. His publication included facsimile reproductions of fragments of Tangut text. Up to the present, there are no scholars doing the research and studying on the entire Tangut version of “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng” until 2001.

“鈿 衫 聳 芅 柝 感 掬 沮 鏈” is the title of the extant Tangut version of “Chanting The Names of Mañjuśrī”, which is identical in all the Tangut editions of the text I have consulted. If translated back into Chinese the title would read as follows: “Shèng Róu Jí Xiáng Zhī Míng Zhēn Shí Sòng (聖柔吉祥之名真實誦)”. The text presented in this study consists of 546 lines of collated Tangut text based on five extant Tangut versions of the text. Three of the sets of fragments──(Tang. 63, No. 693, 707, 728)──are kept in the Tangut Holdings of Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. The other two extant versions of the sutra are hold in the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. All the editions contain the same title, but bear no indications as of the time of translation, the name of translation supervisor or head proofreader or editor-in-charge. Also, in the Tangut version, the appendixes and the remarks, which summarize the chapter content and are chapter dividers, are somewhat different from current Chinese and Tibetan versions. Moreover, the Tangut versions contain complete “poetic parts of the sutra (偈頌, skr., gatha)” and “five circles of essays (五輪功德)”, which make Tangut version different from Uighur, Mongolian and Manchu versions.

This book consists of two parts: Chapter 1 “Introduction”, and Chapter 2 “Translated Texts”, commentary and index. Chapter 1 “Introduction” mainly includes four parts: (1) Introduction of the extant Tangut collections and summaries of the contents of Tangut texts. (2) Inferences of what the original source text (Tibetan or Chinese) was for the Tangut translation. (3) Notes on grammatical peculiarities of the text in regard to the study of Tangut grammar. (4) The references.

Chapter 2 “Translated Texts” mainly discusses the study and research on the Tangut version of “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng”. In my presentation of the Tangut text I use four lines for each line of the original Tangut text: the first line is the original Tangut text of “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng”; the second line is the phonetic reconstruction of each of the Tangut words; third line is word by word Chinese translation of the Tangut text, the fourth line is the relevant portion of Shì-Zhì’s Chinese translation of the text from “Taisho Tripitaka”, which may help read the Tangut text. I also have put many explanatory notes in Chapter 2, including the comparison of different language versions; and for the most part, I attempted to examine the Tangut grammar.

There are two indexes. The first index is a repertoire of each Tangut word in the text, which is instrumental in searching for the Tangut words. The repertoire is arranged according to the graphic system designed by M. A. Sofronov for his Tangut dictionary (1968). The Chinese index is limited to some Buddhism terms, and indicates the correspondences between Tangut and Chinese Buddhist terms. These “Indexes” supply a searching tool for separate vocabulary entries in the Tangut version of “Zhēn Shí Míng Jīng”, but also provide the essential information on Tangut grammar. Therefore the present study may be used as a database for the research of certain aspects of Tangut grammar.