心經=Heart sutra,; 音寫; 音譯=transliteration; 梵漢對音; 佛經譯音; 二合; 引; 中古音=the phonetics in the Middle Age; 隋唐音韻=phonetics in the Sui, Tang Dynasty; 長安方言=the dialect in Changan; 風格學分析=stylistic analysis; 河西方言=dialect in Hexi
Concerning the Heart Sutra, five pieces are found in the Tun-huang Manuscripts. Among these five, the Manuscript S. 2464 is exactly the one titled ‘The Chinese transliteration from Sanskrit of the PrajJApAramitA-hRdaya-sUtra’ in the Taisho Tripitaka (Vol. 8, No.256, p. 851a-852a). In terms of the authorship of this material, one can find that it has been explicitly mentioned in the preface of the manuscript, that this transliteration was composed by Master Husan-tsang. Although Tetsucho Nagata had doubted the authenticity of this statement, it is generally accepted among scholars. In the Mandarin-speaking culture circle, Mr. Yinke Cheng probably is the first one who suspects that this Chinese transliteration was not from Master Husan-tsang but Amoghavajra. Furthermore, Prof. Guangchang Fang also suggests that it is plausible that this transliteration was translated by Husan-tsang, and revised by Amoghavajra. However, it is failed to see any strong evidences are supported by them. In 1985, an article titled ‘The newly found Amoghavajra’s translation of the Sanskrit manuscript of the PrajJApAramitA-hRdaya-sUtra’ was published by Prof. Fumimasa Fukui. Through the philological comparison and the examination of the recordings of Buddhist Catalogue, Prof. Fukui has asserted that this transliteration was done by Amoghavajra instead of Husan-tsang. After the Fang Shan Stone Sutras in Yun Ju Temple are found and published, Prof. Fukui wrote several monographs on this transliteration of the PrajJApAramitA-hRdaya-sUtra based on the Fang Shan Stone Sutras. In these works, he had affirmed that the author of the Tun-huang Manuscripts and one of the two Chinese transliterations in the Fang Shan Stone Sutras was Amoghavajra. In this present paper, the main issue is not about the argument of the authorship. The emphasis is applying a different approach here. Not using the ‘external evidence’ as Prof. Fukui did, but the ‘internal evidence’ is supplied. In other words, I am trying here to demarcate and describe the phonetic characteristics of these words, as well as trying to analysis the words they used, in order to provide more solid evidence on the issue of the authorship. It is because, I suppose, these internal evidences such as the phonetic and stylistic analysis would stand on a firm ground than those external evidences such as Fang Shan Stone Sutras which are not available in every circumstances. After all, these phonetic components are within the words and texts.
