This article offers an introduction to Bhikkhu Dhammajoti’s book, The Chinese Version of Dhammapada, Translated with Introduction and Annotation, with a few comments for the complete translations of Chinese Dharmapada (T210) in the future. There are many outstanding points highlighted in this book. Such as:
1. Highlights one of the problems showed in the previous English translations of this Chinese Dharmapada. Some of them tends to ‘read Pāli into Chinese’.
2. Offers facts that the Indic text(s) of some verses out of the ‘core 26 chapters’ apparently not from the Pāli version. It also suggests that ‘the source text’ of this Chinese Dharmapada might be in neither Pāli nor Sanskrit.
3. Envisages a proposal to explain why Dhammapada or Dharmapada was not included in the four major Nikāyas, nor the four Āgamas.
4. Accomplishes a complete translation of the ‘core 26 chapters’ with lots of valuable annotations.
5. Where there is a difference between Pāli version and Chinese translation, some scholars inclined to suggest it due to Zhi Qian’s improper rendering(s). Through comparative studies, Bhikkhu Dhammajoti claims that Zhi Qian’s work demonstratd some sort of authenticity of its own original text.
This article also provides comments against this book for the future reprints or revisions. They are majorly: ‘Another proposals for the rendering of some verses’, ‘about collations and scribe’s errors’ and ‘issues pertaining to tetrasyllabic verses and pentasyllabic verses’
