Grammatica et verba

Glamor and verve

Studies in South Asian, historical, and Indo-European
linguistics in honor of

Hans Henrich Hock

on the occasion
of his seventy-fifth birthday

edited by

Shu-Fen Chen and Benjamin Slade

Beech Stave Press

Ann Arbor New York

 Beech Stave Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grammatica et verba : glamor and verve : studies in South Asian, historical, and IndoEuropean linguistics in honor of Hans Henrich Hock on the occasion of his seventyfifth birthday / edited by Shu-Fen Chen and Benjamin Slade.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN ---- (alk. paper)
. Indo-European languages. . Lexicography. . Historical linguistics. I. Hock, Hans
Henrich, - honoree. II. Chen, Shu-Fen, editor of compilation. III. Slade, Benjamin, editor of compilation.
.
dc

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents
HHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Bibliography of Hans Henrich Hock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Anvita Abbi, Traces of Archaic Human Language Structure
in the Great Andamanese Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Shu-Fen Chen, A Study of Punctuation Errors in the Chinese Diamond Sutra
Based on Sanskrit Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jennifer Cole and Jos I. Hualde, Prosodic Structure in Sound Change . . . . . . . .

Probal Dasgupta, Scarlet and Green: Phi-Inert Indo-Aryan Nominals

in a Co-representation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice Davison, Reversible and Non-reversible Dative Subjects:
A Structural Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Madhav M. Deshpande, Sanskrit Traditions during the Rule of the Peshwas:

Role, Maintenance, and Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jost Gippert, An Outline of the History of Maldivian Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Olav Hackstein, Polar Questions and Non-headed Conditionals

in Cross-linguistic and Historical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stephanie W. Jamison, RV s hina ym (VI..) with a Return Visit
to na ym and na na . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Brian Joseph, Aspirates, Fricatives, and Laryngeals

in Avestan and Indo-Iranian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jared S. Klein, Some Rhetorical Aspects of Adjacent

Interstanzaic Phrasal Repetition in the Rigveda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kelly Lynne Maynard, Balkan Sprachbund Features in Samsun Albanian . . . . . . .

H. Craig Melchert, Agreement Patterns in Old and Middle Hittite . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adriana Molina-Muoz, Sanskrit Compounds and the Architecture
of the Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Don Ringe, The Linguistic Diversity of Aboriginal Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

v

Table of Contents
Steven Schufele, Constituent Order in Song Lyrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Marco Shappeck, Ecuadorian Andean Spanish ya:
Contact, Grammaticalization, and Discursivization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Benjamin Slade, Question Particles and Relative Clauses in the History of

Sinhala, with Comparison to Early and Modern Dravidian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Karumuri V. Subbarao and Rajesh Kumar, Aspects of Agreement in Hmar . .

Yasuko Suzuki, On Characterizing Sanskrit anusvara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sarah Tsiang, Horses Lost, Found, and Jockeying for Position
in the English Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

vi

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Traces
Human
Language
A
StudyofofArchaic
Punctuation
Errors
in theStructure
Chinese
* *
in the Great
Language
Diamond
Sutra Andamanese
Based on Sanskrit
Texts
HHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Introduction
Introduction

The Andaman Islands are a cluster of approximately islands, running from north
to south,
located punctuation
southeast of the
Indian
subcontinent
in theDiamond
Bay of Bengal.
This
paperand
considers
errors
found
in the Chinese
Sutra. The
biggest Andaman
isana
known
Great
andathe
island approximately
Diamond
Sutra is aisland
Mahay
Sutraas
from
theAndaman,
Prajaparamit
or Perfection
of (Tran km. south
of it isgenre.
knownItasisLittle
Andaman.
Map onimportant
the following
scendent)
Wisdom
one of
the mostSee
historically
texts,page.
and it
the Andaman
Islands
hunter-gatherers
Negrito
ethhasIndigenous
maintainedtribes
a highofdegree
of popularity
in are
Buddhism,
especiallyofinthe
East
Asia. One
nicits
group
(Kashyap is).
The
tribes residing
Great Andaman
and their
various
of
key principles
that of
non-abiding,
the in
renunciation
of all sorts
of grasping
languages
aresuffering.
known asThe
Great
Andamanese.
Another
that livesa Praj
on the
and
thus end
Sanskrit
title of the
text is tribe
Vajracchedik
apwestern
aramita
coast of
Great
Andaman
known as
Jarawa
andLike
speaks
language of theHowever,
same name.
Stra
The
Perfection
ofisWisdom
Which
Cuts
thea Thunderbolt.
it
Little
Andaman
is home
to Onge,
andSutra,
Sentinel
Island isthat
habited
by Sentinelese,
is
commonly
known
as the
Diamond
indicating
its teachings
are likewho
diare obscure
thecut
outside
world
as they resist
all outside contact. releasing one from
amonds
thattocan
through
confusion
and misunderstandings,
Andamanese
constitutes
the sixth
India (Abbi ,
theGreat
attachment
to objects,
and bringing
one tolanguage
the otherfamily
shore of
of enlightenment
and
),
the
other
five
being
Indo-Aryan,
Dravidian,
Tibeto-Burman,
Austroasiatic,
peace.
andThere
Austronesian.
However,sources
categorization
of Onge-Jarawa
as Ongan
within
Ausare four published
of this Sanskrit
text. The first
is the one
published
tronesian
argued
for by
Blevins
()
is fardocuments,
from universally
accepted.
Although
it
by
Max Mller
()
and
is based
on three
one old
hand-copied
manuis
not
conclusively
established
whether
the
group
Jarawa-Onge
belongs
to
Austronescript preserved in the Kokiji temple in Japan and two woodblock prints from China.
sian, its
and genealogical
distinction
Great Andamanese
has
been
They
are typological
all comparatively
late, dating from
aroundfrom
the mid-th
century. The
second
established
by
Abbi
(),
who
finds
corroboration
in
geneticists
findings
that
the
is the Central Asian manuscript of the th century , discovered by Sir Aurel Stein
speakers
these languages
to two separate
haplogroups,
M
andone
M,
rein
EasternofTurkestan
in belong
and published
by Pargiter
in . The
third
is the
spectively
(Thangaraj
et thth
al. ).
Their research
indicates
that Andamanese
are the
Gilgit
manuscript
of the
centuries
, found
in Naupur,
three miles north
of
descendants
of
early
Paleolithic
colonizers
of
Southeast
Asia
and
are
the
survivors
of
Gilgit, Pakistan in . This manuscript has been edited by N. P. Chakravarti (),
the Dutt
first migration
Africa that
tookThe
place
,
yearsthe
ago.Schyen
Their analyses
of
N.
() andfrom
G. Schopen
().
fourth
is from
collection
complete
sequences
from
two out of three
accessible
tribes,
the
(MS
),mitochondrial
which is fromDNA
the Bamiyan
area
in Afghanistan,
also dated
to the
thth
Onge and.
Great
populations,
revealedand
twoSh
deeply
clades
centuries
TheAndamanese
text was published
by Harrison
ogo inbranching
. The
first that
half
share
their
most
recent
common
ancestor
in
the
founder
haplogroup
M.

This paper is based on A Study of Some Punctuation Errors Found in the Taisho and CBETA Diamond

I Based
am thankful
to Bernard Comrie,
Andrej
Malchukov,
Aikhenvald,
Andrew
Spencer, and
Sutra
on Sanskrit-Chinese
Comparative
Studies
which Alexandra
was co-authored
with Bernard
Montoneri
TaniaatKuteva
for American
discussionConference
and criticism
an earlier
version(NACCL-),
of this paper. .
Abbreviations
used: views
= st
read
the North
onon
Chinese
Linguistics
Dr. Montoneris
person;
= nd person;
= rd person;
=and
absolutive;
= applicative;
=text
class;

= conon
the punctuation
errorsrelated
to the second
the last sentences
of the Sanskrit
were
questioned
ditional;
= formative
= nonpast;
=paper.
objectThe
clitic;
examples
= plural;presented
= possessive;
the
=
by
some scholars,
and areaffix;
not included
in the present
four
here, except
past;one,
=
= transitivizer.
first
aresingular;
all new data.


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From Shu-Fen Chen and Benjamin Slade (eds.), Grammatica et verba: Glamor and verve. Studies in South Asian, historical,
and Indo-European linguistics in honor of Hans Henrich Hock on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. Copyright
Beech Stave Press, Inc. All rights reserved.


Untitled-2 1

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of the Vajracchedika Prajaparamita Stra is missing in the Gilgit manuscript, while

the second half is missing in the Schyen collection manuscript. The Sanskrit text
presented in this paper is from E. Conze () which uses Mllers version as the base
text, revised based on Kumarajvas Chinese translation, Asangas and Vasubandhus
commentaries, the Central Asian manuscript, the Gilgit manuscript, the Khotanese
version, and the Tibetan translation.
There are no punctuation marks used in ancient Chinese texts, and there are none
in the original Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures. A woodblock printed copy
of the Diamond Sutra in Chinese dated , now preserved in the British Library,
is described as the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book and it does
not contain any punctuation marks. Moreover, none of the earlier Buddhist Tripit.akas
translated into Chinese are punctuated. The lack of punctuation marks in ancient Chinese writing has given rise to much confusion and misinterpretation among modern
readers. People in ancient times had few problems reading texts without punctuation
marks, partly because the prose was usually quite standard in meter and structure,
and partly because they were trained to add punctuation to texts by hand in school
to aid comprehension while reading. However, for modern readers, ancient Chinese
texts, especially the Buddhist scriptures which communicate a complex philosophy,
are difficult to understand without punctuation. The first Chinese book printed with
modern punctuation was Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy (
) by Hu Shi (), published in . The first Tripit.aka which uses punctuation
marks is the Hongjiao Tripit.aka (). The utilization of punctuation marks makes
the unpunctuated Buddhist texts much easier for the general public to read. This paper deals with the punctuation used in the Taisho Tripit.aka, published . In it,
only one Chinese punctuation mark is used, namely, jho or period/full stop
( ).
The Taisho Tripit.aka is the most widely used and read version of the Tripit.aka
in Chinese Buddhist and academic circles. However, many scholars are aware that
the Taisho edition contains many errors. Q. Yan (:) points out that although
the Taisho Tripit.aka does not adopt new punctuation marks, one cannot ignore the
large contributions it has made to facilitate the reading of Buddhist texts for common
people. Nevertheless, he also mentions that it contains many sentences with wrong
punctuation. Bodiford () gives the following advice in his introduction to the
Taisho: While the annotation provides alternate readings from other manuscripts or
Diamond Sutra, British Museum Online Gallery.
In the Taisho Tripit.aka, we can see some other punctuation marks which were included by Japanese
emenders, such as , , and , which are called kaeriten ( or ) return marker.
These punctuation marks are used especially by Japanese scholars from the th century onward for the
purpose of reading ancient Chinese texts. Chinese is an SVO language while Japanese is an SOV language,
and kaeriten grammatically transforms ancient Chinese writings into Japanese word order. Since how the
Japanese read ancient Chinese texts is not our main concern, the kaeriten marks are disregarded in this paper.
For more information on kaeriten, see Crawcour .

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A Study of Punctuation Errors in the Chinese Diamond Sutra

xylographic canons, this is not a true critical edition. The punctuation is frequently
wrongdo not hesitate to try a different reading. Dharmamitra (:) also points
out, Those following the translation in the Chinese should be aware that Taisho
scripture punctuation is not traceable to original editions, is often erroneous and misleading, and is probably best ignored altogether. Due to the change in the reading
habits of modern people, the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA)
offers an online version of the Tripit.aka, and marks most of the Buddhist scriptures
with so-called new punctuation marks, seventeen different punctuation marks to
facilitate the reading of the Buddhist scriptures. However, neither the Taisho version
nor the CBETA version offers a consistent use of punctuation marks for the Buddhist
texts.
Correct punctuation is essential because punctuation can affect the interpretation
of a string of words, and incorrect punctuation impedes our understanding of the
text and is the origin of many misinterpretations. Huang () points out that there
are three approaches which can be used to avoid the misuse of punctuation: reference to different Chinese translations, better understanding of Buddhist terminology,
and consultation of Sanskrit and/or Tibetan texts. In this study I will consult Sanskrit texts for the purpose of correcting wrong punctuation in Chinese translations.
The Diamond Sutra is chosen as a starting point for consulting Sanskrit texts for the
purpose of correcting wrong punctuation in Chinese translations because it is one of
the most popular Buddhist scriptures in the world, and it has been widely studied by
lay people, as well as clerics and scholars. There are six Chinese versions of the Diamond Sutra in the Taisho Tripit.aka. In this paper we will only focus on the two most
popular versions, namely, Jngang Bore Bolum Jng (T. ) by
Kumarajva and D Bore Jng Djiu Nngdun Jngangfen
(T. ) by Xuanzang. The reference Sanskrit text and its English translation are from
Conze ().

Punctuation corrected based on the Sanskrit text

Chinese classics have no punctuation marks and they can be misinterpreted if one
breaks the line inappropriately. The CBETA online edition of the Taisho Tripit.aka
uses modern punctuation, in contrast to the original version (with just full stop; see
above). According to the CBETA New Punctuation Project, there are seventeen
punctuation marks used for the scriptures. In the CBETA Diamond Sutra, we find that
ten different punctuation marks are used. However, even though the punctuation is
modernized, the use of the puncuation marks is not always coherent. Therefore, it
is difficult for modern readers to fully understand the Buddhist texts. An additional
problem for English speakers is that many English translations of the Diamond Sutra are translated from the Chinese texts (mainly Kumarajvas translation), not the

See http://www.cbeta.org/xb/table.htm.


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Sanskrit originals. The earliest English translation, by S. Beal (), was made seventeen years before the first Sanskrit manuscript was available, but even though the
four Sanskrit sources of the Diamond Sutra are now accessible, many English translations are still based on Kumarajvas text: W. Gemmell (), Dhyana Master Hsan
Hua (), Price and Wong (), and more recently, the Chung Tai Translation
Committee (). If the Chinese texts cause misinterpretations due to wrong punctuation, misconceptions might spread to other languages through translation. In this
section, I will present four cases of punctuation errors found in the Diamond Sutra
both in Taisho Tripit.aka and CBETA, and offer corrections based on the corresponding Sanskrit text.
.

A verb phrase or two words in separate clauses

In () we find that in Taisho there is no punctuation between bsh to give alms

and fd merits, while in CBETA there is a comma between the two phrases.
However, the meanings are different if the punctuation is different. With no comma
in between as in (a), bsh to give alms and fd merits constitute a
verb phrase within the same clause: bsh is the verb and fd is the object.
However, if there is a comma between the two phrases as in (b), the grammar, and
consequently the meaning, is changed: bsh is the verb of the preceding clause
while fd is the subject of the following clause.
.

a. Taisho

Xupt Ps
w zh
xing bsh
Subhti Bodhisattva not attach sign give-alms

y f
rsh
also again thus

fd
merits

bke
sling
cannot reckon

Subhti, Bodhisattvas are not attached to signs to give merits as charity,

and again in this way, merits cannot be reckoned.
b. CBETA

(T, no. , p., a)
Subhti, Bodhisattvas are not attached to signs to give alms, and again
in this way, merits cannot be reckoned.

Throughout the paper, the English translations of

the Chinese texts are mine.

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A Study of Punctuation Errors in the Chinese Diamond Sutra

The Sanskrit text is therefore important to consult at this point for clarification.
Conzes text (:) is given as follows:
.

evam
eva subhte yo
bodhisattvo
in-this-way so Subhti who
Bodhisattva
.. .... ..
pratis.t.hito
danam
tasya
. dadati
not-abiding
gift
give
his
... .. .. ..

subhte
Subhti
..

pun.ya-skandhasya na sukaram
praman.am udgrahtum
.
heap-of-merits
not easy
measure
take away
..
... ..
Subhti, the merits attained by bodhisattvas who practice charity without
abiding in its signs are also incalculable like this. (Muller )
Even so, that Bodhi-being who unsupported gives a gift, his heap of merit,
Subhuti, is not easy to measure. (Conze :)
We can see that Chinese bsh must be translated from Sanskrit danam
. dadati
to give a donation, which is a VP itself (danam
. the act of giving, donation, gift +
dadati gives). The word fd would be translated from Sanskrit pun.ya merit
which in the Sanskrit version is part of the subject of the correlative clause. Thus, it
is clear that the CBETA version is correct: there should be a comma between
bsh to give alms and fd merits, since the two expressions occur in separate
clauses.
.

An apposition or two nouns in separate clauses

Taisho and CBETA use different punctuation in example () which was translated by
Xuanzang. The pronoun b that/those and the phrase yqi youqng all
sentient beings are in two separate sentences in Taisho, where b that/those is the
object of ju to awaken and yqi youqng all sentient beings is the
subject of the verb phrase dang sheng wling wsh fj should
grow immeasurable and innumerable heaps of merits and the other verb phrase

Grammatical abbreviations: = accusative, = active, = adjective, = causative, = dative, = feminine, = future, = genitive, = instrumental, = infinitive, = masculine, =
neuter, = nominative, = plural, = perfect passive participle, = present, = pronoun, = relative, = singular, = vocative.

Conzes () translation is not as exact as Mullers (), also provided here.

In fact, pun.yaskandhasya is a compound noun (masculine singular genitive): pun.ya merit + skandha
heap. In the Chinese translations, the second part of the compound is not translated.

The whole
 subject is tasya pun.ya-skandhasya praman.am the measure of his heap of merits.

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dang sh wling wsh fj should grasp immeasurable and innumerable heaps of merits. However, in CBETA, the corresponding b that/those is in
apposition to yqi youqng all sentient beings. They are the object of ju
to awaken, while the subject of the two above-mentioned verb phrases is Rli
Tathagata.
.

a. Taisho

Rli
y q fzh
x
y
zh
b
Tathagata with his Buddha-wisdom entirely already know that/those
Tathagata has already entirely known them with his Buddha-wisdom.

Rli
y q fyan
x
y
jin b
Tathagata with his Buddha-eye entirely already see that/those
Tathagata has already entirely seen them with his Buddha-eye.

Shnxin Rli
x
y
ju
b
Subhti Tathagata entirely already awaken that/those
Subhti! Tathagata has already entirely awakened them.

yqi youqng

all

dang sheng wling

wsh

fj

sentient-beings should grow immeasurable innumerable heap-of-merits

dang sh
wling
wsh
fj
should grasp immeasurable innumerable heap-of-merits
All the sentient beings should grow and grasp immeasurable and
innumerable heaps of merits.
b. CBETA



(CBETA, T, no. , p. , c)
Tathagata has already entirely known them with his Buddha-wisdom.
Tathagata has already entirely seen them with his Buddha-eye. Subhti!
Tathagata has already entirely awakened them, namely, all the sentient
beings, and should grow and grasp immeasurable and innumerable heaps
of merits.


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AA Study
Study ofof Punctuation
Punctuation Errors
Errors in
in the
the Chinese
Chinese Diamond
Diamond Sutra


We can consider the corresponding Sanskrit text, as shown in (), to resolve whether
yqie youqng all sentient beings or Rli Tathagata is the subject
of
the two verb phrases:
.

jatas
te
subhte tathagatena buddhajanena
known
they
Subhti Tathagata Buddha-knowledge
... .. .. ..
..
dr.s.t.as
te
subhte tathagatena buddhacaks.us.a
seen
they
Subhti Tathagata Buddha-eye
... .. .. ..
..
buddhas
te
subhte tathagatena.
understood
they
Subhti Tathagata
... .. .. ..
sarve
te
subhte prameyam
all
they
Subhti immeasurable
.. .. .. ...
prasavis.yanti
pun.yaskandham
heap-of-merits beget
..
..

asamkhyeya
m
innumerable
...

pratigrahs.yanti.
seize
..

Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition,

seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known
they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata. And they all, Subhuti, will beget and
acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
(Conze :)
From () we can see that the subject of the two verbs prasavis.yanti will beget and
pratigrahs.yanti will grasp is sarve te all of them, not Tathagata. Thus, we know
that the punctuation used in CBETA is wrong while that used in Taisho is correct.
.

Same or different referent

In () we see an example of how using different punctuation results in completely

different syntactic roles for two noun phrases, Rli Tathagata and shrn
this man. In (a), there is a full stop right after the first z wi Rli then
[they] are the Tathagata, which indicates that the subject of the sentence is
shnnnzhu shnn rn good men or good women. Here the word

Sanskrit te they is not translated as a pronoun in Chinese, but is implied in the noun youqng
sentient beings.


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wi functions as a copula. However, according to Buddhist philosophy, we know

that it cannot be the case that good men or good women are the Tathagata, and we

can guess that the punctuation might be wrong. Moreover, the following two verb
phrases xzh shrn z wi Rli entirely knows this man to be
Tathagata and xjin shrn z wi Rli entirely sees this man
to be Tathagata show that the two noun phrases Rli Tathagata and
shrn this man have the same referent. In the final phrase, shrn this man is
the object of ju to awaken, and shnnnz hu shnn rn good
men or good women is the subject. Again, this interpretation cannot be possible. On
the other hand, in (b) CBETA uses different punctuation that indicates that
Rli Tathagata and shrn this man are different referents, related as agent
and patient in their respective clauses. In this case, wi should be interpreted as
introducing an agent in a passive construction, and wi Rli means by
Tathagata. Thus, Rli Tathagata is the agent of the three verbs zh to
know, jin to see, and ju to awaken, and shrn this man is the object.
.

a. Taisho

Ru shnnnz hu shnnrn y c f amn

shuch
if
good-men or good-women in/at this dharma-door bear-and-maintain

dsng jiujng
tongl
recite final, ultimate pass-throughsharp

j guang
wi ta xuanshuo kaish
r
and extensive for him preach
proclaim comply-with

l
zuy
reason/truth beget-resolve

z wi Rli
then be Tathagata

If good men and women can bear this dharma-door in mind, recite it, be
able to penetrate the ultimate truth, and extensively preach and proclaim
for him according to truth and beget the resolve, then they are the
Tathagata.

In Chinese the word wi has multiple meanings; among them, a copula. It also can function as a
preposition to introduce an agent in a passive construction, as what we will see in the CBETA version.

See Pulleyblank (: ) for the usage of wi in passive constructions.

That is, so intelligent as to be able to penetrate truth.



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y q fzh
x
zh
shrn
with his Buddha-wisdom entirely knows this-man
With his Buddha-wisdom, he entirely knows this
Tathagata.

z
wi Rli

then be Tathagata
man to be the

y q fyan
x
jin shrn z wi Rli
with his Buddha-eye entirely sees this man then be Tathagata

x
ju
shrn
completely awaken this man
With his Buddha-eye, he entirely sees this man to be the Tathagata,
and completely awakens this man.
b. CBETA



(CBETA, T, no. , p. , a)
If good men and women can bear this dharma-door in mind, recite it, be
able to penetrate the ultimate truth, and extensively preach and proclaim
for him according to truth and beget the resolve, then Tathagata
completely knows this man with his Buddha-wisdom. Then,
Tathagata completely sees this man with his Buddha-eye. Then,
Tathagata completely awakens this man.
In order to disambiguate whether Rli Tathagata and shrn this man
refer to same or different referents, we consult the Sanskrit text in ():
.

api
tu khalu punah. subhte ye
moreover but indeed again Subhti who
.. ....

kulaputra
va kuladuhitaro
va imam
sons-of-noble-family or daughters-of-noble-family or this
..
..
..

dharmaparyayam udgrahs.yanti dharayis.yanti

vacayis.yanti

Buddhist-doctrines take-up

bear-in-mind

recite

..

... ...

..

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paryavapsyanti,
study
..

parebhya ca vistaren.a
another and fully, in detail
..
..

samprak
aayis.yanti
illuminate
...

jatas
te
subh
te tathagatena
know
they
Subhti Tathagata
... .. .. ..
buddhajanena dr.s.t.as
te
subh
te tathagatena
Buddha-wisdom see
they
Subhti Tathagata
..
... .. .. ..
buddhacaks.us.a buddhas
te
tathagatena.
Buddha-eye
awaken
they
Tathagata
..
... .. ..
Furthermore, Subhuti, those sons and daughters of good family, who will
take up this discourse on dharma, will bear it in mind, will recite it, study
it, and illuminate it in full detail for others, they have been known,
Subh
uti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-cognition, they have been
seen, been fully known by the Tathagata. (Conze :)
In the Sanskrit we find that Tathagata occurs in the instrumental tathagatena by
Tathagata while te they m. pl. nom. is the subject of the three past passive participles
jatas known, dr.s.t.a s seen, and buddhas awakened. Thus, Tathagata is the agent and
te they is the patient. In Chinese, tathagatena is translated by Xuanzang as
wi Rli by Tathagata, and te they is translated as shrn this man, which
although singular, is more like a collective noun, meaning this kind of people. After
considering the Sanskrit text, we can conclude that CBETAs punctuation is correct.
Rli Tathagata is the agent and shrn this man is the patient. They are
two different referents instead of the same one.
.

A generic or specific noun

Huang (:) calls attention to a punctuation error in the CBETA Diamond Sutra
translated by Kumarajva. He corrects the error by referring to the translations of
Xuanzang and Yijing. Here we will consult the Sanskrit text as another means of
identifying the error. In (a) Taisho does not put punctuation between
wzhngsanmi the samadhi in which there is absence of debate or disputation and
rn person; human beings, whence the compound noun wzhngsanmirn people who attain the samadhi in which there is absence of debate or disputation.
However, in (b) CBETA puts a comma in between them, making wzhngsanmi the object of the preceding clause and rn the subject of the following
clause, with the generic meaning human beings:


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a. Taisho

Shzun
F
shuo wo d wzhngsanmirn zhong
World-honored Buddha say I get man-who-attains-etc. middle

zu wi dy
sh dy
ly
Aluhn
most Hsan
be number-one
free-of-greed
Arhat
Dhyana Master
Hua. .be
Thenumber-one
Diamond Sutra:
A General Explanation
of the
Vajra Praja Paramita Sutra. San Francisco: Buddhist Text Translation Society.
World-Honored One. The Buddha says that I am foremost among the
ones who got the samadhi in which there is absence of debate or
disputation. (I) am the best Arhat who is free from greed.
b. CBETA

(CBETA, T, no. , p. , c)
World-Honored One. The Buddha says that I got the samadhi in which
there is absence of debate or disputation, and am the best among all
human beings. (I) am the best Arhat who is free from greed.
To decide which punctuation is correct, we can again turn to the corresponding
Sanskrit text, which is given in ().
.

aham
asmi bhagavams
tathagatena arhata
I
am World-honored Tathagata Arhat
.
..
..
..

samyaksambuddhena
aran.aviharin.am
one-having-perfect-universal-knowledge dwelling-in-forest
..
..
agryo
nirdis.t.ah..
aham
asmi
foremost
proclaim
I
am
... ... .

bhagavan
World-honored
..

arhan
vtaragah..
Arhat
free-from-passions
.. ...
I am, O Lord, the one who has been pointed out by the Tathagata, Arhat,
Fully enlightened One as the foremost of those who dwell in Peace.
I am, O Lord, an Arhat free from greed. (Conze :)

An enlightened,
saintly man.


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From () we see that Sanskrit aran.a viharin.a m forest-dweller, one who practices meditation in the quiet of the wilderness was translated as wzhngsanmirn

people who attain the samadhi in which there is absence of debate or disputation in
Taisho, referring to people who attain a specific kind of samadhi. There is no generic
nominal in Sanskrit which can be translated into Chinese as rn human beings.
Therefore, there should be no punctuation mark between wzhngsanmi
the samadhi in which there is absence of debate or disputation and rn person;
human beings, so it is correct in Taisho. CBETAs punctuation is completely wrong.
However, many dictionaries, such as A Dictionary of Buddhist Terms and Foguangshan
Electronic Dictionary of Buddhist Terms, still employ CBETAs erroneous punctuation.

Conclusion

This paper has sought to show how consulting Sanskrit texts that are now available
can be used to resolve questions about the different interpretations of Chinese translations that result from absent or added punctuation. I have presented four different
examples to illustrate how this can be done. Of these, two examples of wrong punctuation were found in the Taisho Tripit.aka, and the other two in CBETA. The CBETA
Tripit.aka has done much work in providing modern punctuation marks; however,
it still contains errors and more improvements are needed. The Diamond Sutra was
chosen as a starting point as it is one of the most profound and influential Buddhist
scriptures, and the four examples elaborate the need for correct punctuation marks to
enable a more accurate understanding of Buddhist texts.

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