The Dharma’s Gatekeepers offers an incisive analysis of one of the most important works in Tibetan Buddhist intellectual history: Sakya Paṇḍita’s Gateway to Learning (Mkhas pa ’jug pa’i sgo). Writing in a time when a distinctively Tibetan tradition of Buddhism was first emerging, Sakya Paṇḍita wanted to present Tibetan intellectuals with what he took to be an authentically Indian (and therefore, authentically Buddhist) understanding of the nature and tasks of intellectual life—with a view of how scholarship was understood and practiced in the great monastic colleges of India.
In The Dharma’s Gatekeepers, we see Sakya Paṇḍita building the intellectual foundation for Tibetan scholasticism through a series of subtle, brilliant, and quintessentially Buddhist arguments about the nature of learning itself, with his elaboration of a model of scholastic education skillfully drawing together ideas in Buddhist epistemology, philosophy of language, translation theory, hermeneutics, and literary theory. In this study of Sakya Paṇḍita’s remarkable work, Jonathan C. Gold shows that the Gateway to Learning addresses issues that remain of concern to contemporary intellectuals; this thirteenth-century work has much to contribute to our understanding of such issues as translation and translatability, theories of reading and authorship, the connections between religious values and academic institutions, and theories of language and literary aesthetics. The book includes a translation of significant parts of Sakya Paṇḍita’s text.
目次
Preface Acknowledgments
1. The Lion’s Roar in the Assembly: Sa-pan’s Scholarly Ideal Introduction The Gateway in the History of Tibetan Learning Śākyaśrībhadra and the Indianization of Tibet The Five Sciences and the Goal of Scholarly Perfection
2. Beware of the Dharma in Translation: A Warning to Interpreters Introduction: Translation in Tibet and in the Gateway Obscure Vocabulary The Techniques of Translators Translation Mistakes Unintelligible Context Untranslatability Denied
3. The Dharma Is Only Words: A Philosophical Authorization of the Linguist Introduction Skill in Means in the Gateway The “Term Generality” at the Foundation of Grammar The “Term Generality” in Sakyapa Epistemology Sa-pan and Saussure on the Conceptuality and Conventionality of Language Sa-pan and Sönam Tsemo on the Dharma as Language Linguistics as the Study of Convention: The “Speech Intention”
4. The Expert Knows the Context: Sa-pan’s Appeals to Buddhist Hermeneutics Introduction: Sa-pan’s Contribution to Buddhist Hermeneutics Tantric Hermeneutics in the Background of the Gateway How Words Get Their Meaning Sa-pan’s Previous Position: Linguistic Analysis in the Treasury Sa-pan’s Predecessors on “Well Known in the World” and “Well Known in Treatises” Well-known Terminology and Linguistic Convention Sa-pan’s General Theory of the “Well Known” and Tantric Hermeneutics Which Scholars Form the Community of Interpreters? Conclusion
5. The Message in the Medium: Intellectual Norms and Protocols Introduction The Three Kinds of Meaning in a Good Verse of Reverence Introductory Verses and the Social Function of Rhetoric Synopsis as a Display of Mastery Ensuring Excellence by Declaring a Legitimate Purpose How to Make Meaning Evident Conclusion
6. Appealing to the Translocal: Sanskrit Poetics for a Tibetan Buddhist Elite Introduction Sa-pan’s Buddhicization of the Rasas Applying the Rasas Poetics in Defense of the Dharma Introducing Poetics to Tibetans Conclusion: Who Benefits from Aesthetic Cultivation?
7. Conclusion: Thoughts on a Future Comparative Intellectual History
Appendixes: A: Outline B: The Gateway to Learning
Notes Tibetan Orthographic Equivalents Abbreviations Bibliography Index
