The last twenty three centuries have seen a continuing cultural interflow between the Western Paradise that is India and the Celestial Kingdom that is China. The rustling breeze of Buddhist fragrance has awakened the mindscape of both countries, endowing them with the web of thought, the harmony or art, the magnificent colour of murals and sculptures, incarnating a new life and sinking into the sensitivities of our peoples deep-reaching muscles of mystery, draped in the intimacy of the mind. The first contacts were made by Buddhist scholars from India who appeared in the Chinese capital in 217 BC under the Qin dynasty. Contacts during the Qin dynasty are a fair possibility as the Sanskrit word for Cathay is Cina, as such was the dynastic name Qin heard by the Indians. Voltaire (1694-1778), the unrivalled French writer and philosopher, was impressed by the "sublime ideas" of the Indians about the Supreme Being. His enthusiasm for Asian civilisation and Eastern wisdom was shared by Sir William Jones. Jones followed the standards set up by the French philosopher; and he read him assiduously. Voltaire admired the political organisation of China and her ethics based on Reason. He found in China a great civilisation which owned nothing to the Graeco-Roman or Christian tradition. The Chinese managed their affairs of state more rationally and without Christianity. The German philosopher Leibnitz too had established the Berlin Academy to open up interchange of civilisation between Europe and China. The more the Europeans investigated China the more they found India to be its roots, in fact India is the Greece of Asia, the birthplace of philosophical ideas with overwhelming influence on art and poetry. The chinoiserie of the 18th century led to revealing the fabulous bonds of China with India. In their study of China, French scholars started to unravel Central Asia and India. Jean Pierre Abel-Remusat published a history of Khotan in 1820 and his French translation of the travels of Faxian (319 AD) through Central Asia, Afghanistan and India appeared posthumously in 1836. By his labour, it became evident that Chinese sources were fundamental to the understanding of Indian history. In fact, the Indian pronunciation of this first great Chinese pilgrim derives from Abel-Remusat's transcription, like that of his illustrious successor Xuanzang. The travels and biography of the latter were again translated by a French scholar, Stanislas Julien in 1853-58. The biography of Xuanzang after his return to China as summarised by Julien 132 years ago is still our main guide. Indian scholars rarely have access to this French work and are thus deprived of detailed knowledge of the academic achievements of Xuanzang after his return. Julien was again the first to point out that Sanskrit literature had been translated into Chinese on a gigantic scale for a thousand years. In his Sino-Sanskrit concordance of Buddhist works, published in 1849, he gave the Sanskrit titles of Chinese Sutras from a Chinese catalogue of 1306. Thus he injected a new dimension into Indic studies. Names of Indian savants and sages, deities and divine beings, titles of works and toponymns abound in Chinese chronicles, hagiographies, canonical texts and other historical treatises. Complete Sanskrit texts of hymns are also extant in Chinese transcriptions. These hymns have sunk their roots deep into the lipping adoration of the Chinese. To decipher Sanskrit from them, Julien wrote Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les noms sanscrits qui se rencontrent dans les livers chinois in 1861. Even after the passing of 130 years it remains our only guide, though in dire need of updating and enlarging.
目次
1.Silk across the sands 2.Heavenly horses 3.Music, milk, Paper, rice, fruits 4.Graeco-Roman elements 5.From Jade beauties flying devis 6.The path of sutras 7.Mogao Caves
