bàngtī 傍 梯 (pole-step); śaṅkupatha; xuándù 懸 度 (suspended crossing); Dharmodgata (Tanwujie 曇無竭 alias Fayong 法勇); yì 杙 (peg); Xuanzang 玄奘; zhuóyì 椓杙 (hitting-peg); bàngyì 傍杙 (pegs in a post)
摘要
As the sixth article on Buddhist monk Faxian,1 the present essay aims to supplement Chinese historical sources concerning the “suspended crossing” (śaṅkupatha) in the mountainous north of ancient India, which had been first discussed in paragraph §2.1-§2.4 of my 2011 article.2 The complementary materials added here deal mainly with three aspects: (1) Corresponding to Faxian’s word bàngtī 傍 梯 (pole-step), the paper discusses how Faxian’s direct successor Dharmodgata used yì 杙 (peg) to climb the rock on the bank of the Indus as recorded in the Gaosengzhuan 高僧傳 (§3). In this context, a complete English translation of Dharmodgata’s biography written by Huijiao is published here as appendix (§7). (2) The śaṅkupatha (peg-path) belonging to the uttarapatha (Northern route) was called xuándù 懸度 (suspended crossing) in Chinese historical records. This article tries to systematically analyze the Chinese sources in connection with the word xuándù such as in Daoxuan’s (596-667) Shijia Fangzhi 釋迦方志 and some other books (§4). Also personal observations by scholars who travelled to this area in the 20th century are added here. (3) In addition to Dharmodgata’s yì, Xuanzang (602-664) described in the Datang Xiyuji 大唐西域記 how he crossed the gorges of the Indus with help of the same technique (zhuóyì 椓 杙 : hitting-peg). Moreover, one description therein includes the word bang-yì 傍杙 (pegs in a post) which is lexically similar to Faxian’s term bang-tī 傍梯 (§5).
目次
§1. Preface: Another look at Faxian’s bàngtī 傍梯 (śaṅkupatha) 167 §2. Multi-view investigation of the Sanskrit term śaṅkupatha (peg-path) 169 §3. On Dharmodgata (Tanwujie 曇無竭), Faxian’s direct successor 173 §4. The “Suspended Crossing” (xuándù 懸度) as described in Chinese historical records 177 §5. zhuóyì 椓杙 and bàngyì 傍杙 in Xunzang’s Datang Xiyuji 大唐西域記 179 §6. Some concluding remarks on the potential of future research 182 §7. Appendix: The English Translation of Dharmodgata’s Biography 183
