IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
272 155. CIN
As to the name of China, we find « tiriga » and « tirngga » (< *Cinaka), « Chinese » (KoNow, ibid., 130; LEUMANN, Das Nordarische... Lehrgedicht, 3rd fasc., 421), and « taiga » ( Cina), «China» (BSOS, ix, 522-523).
Alongside of « Cina », Chinese texts of the T'ang period give ► p7 A Jj5 Mo-ho-chih-na (*Muâ-xâ-t'4ie-nâ; Hsi-lin in A, VIII, 5 a; in a letter of 795, 7, vi, 79 b [cf. BEFEO, y, 254]), p7#1S Mo-ho-chih-na (*Muâ-xâ-t'si-n5.; Hstian-tsang, in JULIEN, Vie, 91; Mémoires, I, 255; II, 79; also in ;g, iii, 92 b, and t(, iv, 76 b [cf. BAGCHI, Le canon bouddhique en Chine, n,
552]), pp A Mo-ho-chih-na (*Mâk-xâ-t'§ie-nâ; I-ching in CHAVANNES, Religieux éminents,
56; , vii, 96 a), and twice pu i Mo-ho-chên-tan (*Muâ-xâ-t'sjén-tan; in Hsin T'ang shu,
221 A, 11 a [cf. Y1, I, 68; Hobson-Jobson2, 197]). All these forms render «Mahâcina », « Great China », even the last one where « Chên-tan » is a survival, and used as a mere equivalent of « Cina ». This is of course an honorific form for « China », but it is more than that. In the Reimâyana, the « Cina » are mentioned before the « Aparacina », both preceding the Tukhâra; the same names, in the same order, occur in the Saddharmasmrtyupasthâna. The Tibetan translation of the latter text says that the rGya-nag, « Black Broad » (the usual Tibetan name of China) extends over 1,000 yojana, and the « Other Black Broad » (rGya-nag-gian) over 200 yojana. The Chinese translation speaks only of l Han, i.e. « China », but with a description which shows that, for the translator, « Han », or « China proper », was the « Aparacina », and that with all its dependencies it constituted the « Cina » of 1000 yojana (cf. LEvi, in JA, 1918, I, 49, 122-123, 126-127). A text quoted by Nit' (BEFEO, XVII, ii, 42) distinguishes in the
same way a iJ. Hsiao Chih-na, « Small Cina », and a Ta Chih-na, « Great Cina »,
but without telling us any more about the value of the two names. In a Sanskrit list of A.D. 1128, « Cina » and « Mahâcina» follow each other among countries producing silk and other cloths (Hobson-Jobson 2, 197). We have more precise information in I-ching, who says that « Chih-na (Cina) is Kuang-chou (Canton) ; Mo-ho-chih-na (Mahâcina) is the capital (Ch'ang-an, Hsi-an-fu) »
(fil, VII, 96 a : jj5 go 44j , ,i p7 A jils go ; cf. CHAVANNES, Religieux éminents,
56). Thirty years after I-ching (in 730 in fact) a similar notice is to be found in the Hsü ku-chin i-ching t'u-chi (, III, 93 b) : «The kingdom of Yin-tu (Indu, India) commonly call Kuang-fu (Canton) °Chih-na' (Cina), and give to the Imperial capital (Hsi-an-fu) the name Mo-ho-chih-na
(Mahâcina) » ( ftiP J f y A A ms, A p7 A 45). This note has passed
into the Sung kao-sêng chuan (a, iv, 76 b; cf. BAGCHI, Le canon bouddhique en Chine, II, 551-552).
I-ching's note, misplaced in CHAVANNES'S translation, is in fact given in connection with a ruined « Cina » temple of the Ganges, traditionally founded, in the 4th cent., for twenty Chinese priests who had come to India via Yün-nan and Burma (CHAVANNES, Religieux éminents, 82-83). In the Hsü ku-chin i-ching t'u-chi and the Sung kao-sêng chuan, « Chih-na », with the note on the name, is mentioned in the biography of an Indian monk who really landed at Canton. It is of course out of the question that all mentions of « Cina » should in principle be referred to Canton, and the twenty priests of I-ching's narrative had not even passed through Canton on their way from China to India. But we may admit that, in the 7th-8th cents., there was a natural tendency to speak of the capital in the north as «Mahâcina », and to understand «Cina»
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.