Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/400

386 words introduced by the early missionaries in the first and second centuries of our era. In the third would be the words and ways of transcribing introduced by the authors and translators of the period represented by the great Kumārajīva, who lived at the beginning of the 5th century. The fourth class would contain the numerous terms and reformed transcriptions of old terms which belong to the 7th century, the period of Yuan-chuang (Hiuen-tsang). But it must be borne in mind that the authors and translators of the third and fourth periods retained in many cases the forms of transcription as well as the translations handed down from the earlier period. Not a few of these old words and phrases are still current in the popular speech and keep their hold also on the literature. An attempt was made in the early period of the present dynasty to represent the sounds of Sanskrit as of other foreign words by Chinese characters more accurately than had been done before. In this new method there is an approach to letter-spelling, and though cumbrous and uncertain it is an improvement on the old syllabic spelling. But it is to be found in use only in books of a technical character, and it has not become popular even among the learned. So far as our subject is concerned this method of transcribing Sanskrit sounds, a combination of Western and Chinese, will be found illustrated in the Chien-lung reprint of Narindrayasa's translation of the Ta-yun-lun-ch'ing-yü-ching.

In treating of the influence which Buddhism has had on the Chinese language we first take examples of Sanskrit words introduced into and made current in various degrees in Chinese. "We are next to take examples of new Chinese words and phrases due to translations from Sanskrit ; and then of new phrases which though derived from Buddhist sources are not translations. Next we are to consider some instances of new meanings and applications given to old words and phrases; and lastly we are to notice examples of Proverbs and Common Sayings among the Chinese which are connected with Buddhism.