從平行梵本看支譯《維摩詰經‧菩薩品》所謂「『是』後置特殊判斷句」的真實句法語義結構

The True Syntactic and Semantic Structure of the “Special Panduan Sentences with Postpositive Shi” in Zhi Qian's Chinese Translation of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa in Light of its Sanskrit Parallel

Ancient Chinese translations of Indian Buddhist scriptures provide the basic data for studying the history of Sino-Indian cultural exchange. As translated works, these texts contain many non-Chinese elements, which often led to misunderstandings. To eliminate these misunderstandings, comparative analysis should be undertaken using existing Sanskrit parallel texts. The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa is an important sutra in Mahayana Buddhism. There is a paragraph in Zhi Qian's Chinese translation which, according to the traditional reading, contains “special panduan 判斷 sentences with postpositive shi 是”, a kind of ancient Chinese yes-no sentence that has a final shi. Scholars have been discussing the origins and features of this kind of sentence during the past fifteen years. Through a comparative analysis with its parallel Sanskrit original, however, we find that these sentences are the results of loan translation, the basic method of translation used by the foreign translators. Their true syntactic and semantic structures are revealed only through a comparative analysis with the source language. This paper has two findings. First, the traditional reading of some of these sentences is probably not correct. Second, in some cases, this kind of sentence in Buddhist texts may be the result of loan translation.