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Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Sung shu, 97, 4 a). European scholars have all along been agreed that Chên-tan represents
«Cīnasthāna», but I must remark, (i) that the transcription is not satisfactory since we should
expect at least *Chên-t'an (with *-t'ân; not the chên-t'an or chan-t'an with ancient *-d'ân of
BEFEO, III, 253); (ii) that no Chinese commentary ever speaks of «Cīnasthāna», either with
reference to Chên-tan or in any other case; (iii) that no case is known where Chên-tan actually
renders «Cīnasthāna» of a Sanskrit original. Sanskrit texts speak of «Cīna», or of «Cīnadeśa»,
«kingdom of China» (cf. BAGCHI, Deux lexiques sanskrit-chinois, 76, 295; BSOS, IX, 522, 523),
or of «Cīnabhūmi», «land of China» (for instance in the Arthaśāstra and in JA, 1915, I, 51;
the two 秦 地 Ch'in-ti, «land of Ch'in», of BEFEO, IV, 149, probably also translate «Cīnabhūmi»,
not «Cīnadeśa» or «Cīnasthāna») «Cīnasthāna» is found nowhere.
Nor is it a form which is to be readily expected. Names of countries formed with -sthāna
are known in Sanskrit, but mainly in the north-west, i. e. in regions which had submitted to
Iranian influence and in which they were used in imitation of the Iranian -stāna >-stān (the
curious «Indrasthāna» of Hsüan-ying, ch. 18, in 磧, VI, 73 b, given as the original name of
India, may reflect the double contamination of «Indu» and «Hindustān»; for «Indudeśa», India,
cf. BAGCHI, loc. cit., 76, 295). The only instance of «Cīnasthāna» which I can trace at present
is the cinasthanade of a Kharoṣṭhī tablet from Chinese Turkestan (cf. RAPSON, Kharoṣṭhī
Inscriptions, p. 12, No. 35). Yet, if I do not believe that the «Chên-tan» of Chinese Buddhist
texts actually translate a «Cīnasthāna» of the Sanskrit originals, I have no doubt that they
represent, etymologically, a form connected with it. But that form, in my opinion, instead of
being the Sanskrit term «Cīnasthāna», is an Iranian form of the type of Sogdian *Čynstn».
If we read this last name *Čīnstan as I suggested above, the interconsonantic -s- is likely to be
omitted in the transcription and we have *Čīntan, which is exactly the original pre-supposed by
Chên-tan. Of course, the original of Chên-tan need not necessarily be Sogdian, but may be of
a type similar to the Sogdian *Čīnstan. The names ending in -stana of the region of Khotan,
and the very coexistence of Khotan and Gostana (see «Cotan») are perhaps to be considered as
a case parallel to that of *Čīnstan and Chên-tan (*Čīntan). It is well known that Khotan played
an important part in the earliest spread of Buddhism to China. Whatever the true original of
Chên-tan may be, it could not have been Skr. Cīnasthāna, and it was only because Chên-tan had
become current in early Chinese Buddhism that its use was retained as a possible rendering
of «Cīna», even after the accurate transcription of the Chih-na type had been adopted. The
various Chên-tan forms were no longer understood; one of them was interpreted in connection
with cinnabar (丹 tan); another was explained as referring to China's position in the East, where
the sun rose (旦 tan; this occurs already in ch. 5 of Fa-lin's Pien-chêng lun, completed in 626;
磧, VIII, 47 a). Such fanciful hypotheses are on a level with the opinion of those who, losing
sight of the Chinese origin of «Cīna», interpreted it as cīvara, «garment» because civilized China
had «waistband and cap», or as cintana, «thought», because the Chinese were such deep
thinkers (磧, X, 5 a, 121 a).
A last word on the subject of Chên-tan : even if the term comes from Khotan, and is not
derived from a Sogdian original, it has left no trace in our Khotanese (the so-called «Śaka»)
texts. Sthāna occurs in them in the Prakrit form thāna (cf. KONOW, Saka Studies, 185).
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531
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571
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581
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601
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611
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621
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631
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