The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces E-Book

Arthur Waley

• Herausgeber: Olympia Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The Real Tripitaka gives an account of the seventh century pilgrim's adventures, spiritual and material, both in India and after his return to China. That legendary journey was fictionalized in the classic Journey to the West, translated in part by Waley. In addition this book contains an account of a Japanese pilgrim's visit to China in the ninth century, which describes the Wu-t'ai Shan, China's great place of Pilgrimage, and an eyewitness' account of the great persecution of Buddhism in 842-845 A.D.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE THE REAL TRIPITAKA

CHAPTER 1 BIRTH AND EARLY CAREER IN CHINA

LAKE VICTORIA

CHAPTER 2 BACK IN CHINA

PART TWO ENNIN (A.D. 794-864) AND ENSAI

PART THREE EIGHT CHINESE STORIES

PART FOUR FROM THE JAPANESE

PART FIVE ORIGINAL STORIES IN CHINESE STYLE

The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces

Arthur Waley

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PARTS I AND II of this book (The Real Tripitaka and Ennin and Ensai) are here printed for the first time. Some of the other pieces have appeared in The Cornhill, Horizon, Lilliput, Ballet and Rider's Review. The Lady Who Loved Insects was published in a limited edition by the Blackmore Press in 1929, but has long been out of print. I should explain that in deference to the wishes of the printer an ordinary S has been used instead of S with a dash over it in words like Siva.

My book, down to page 265, is addressed to the general reader, who may also find the list of translations of Buddhist texts (page 279) useful. The remaining few pages (additional notes, etc.) will enable the specialist to check and criticize my statements, and in some cases to follow up and improve upon my results.

April 1951.

TO ANNA BONER

PART ONE THE REAL TRIPITAKA

CHAPTER 1BIRTH AND EARLY CAREER IN CHINA

READERS of the Chinese novel Monkey, which I translated some years ago, have often asked where they could find out more about the real and historic Tripitaka, the pilgrim whose legendary adventures are the subject of the novel. On looking into the matter I found that almost everything European writers have said about him is taken, directly or indirectly, from an incomplete and very imperfect French translation of his biography by Stanislas Julien, published nearly a hundred years ago. Numerous other Chinese sources had, I found, never been used at all. The following is not, however, an attempt to set down everything that can be discovered about the great pilgrim and his travels. I have merely tried to give the general reader a brief outline of the historical (as opposed to the legendary) Tripitaka's career.

He was born in A.D. 602 as the fourth child in a family of fairly high officials. When he was twelve a grand ordination of new Buddhist monks was held at Lo-yang.1Tripitaka's elder brother Ch'ang-chieh was already a monk and Tripitaka longed for the time when he would be old enough to join him at the Pure Land Monastery. On the occasion of this great ordination he was found by Cheng Shan-kuo, the lay official in charge of the proceedings, loitering wistfully at the gates of the public building where the ceremony was to take place. Cheng got into conversation with him, was touched by his eager piety and despite his extreme youth accepted him for ordination. For the next five years Tripitaka lived with his brother at the Pure Land Monastery. In 618 a new dynasty, that of the T'ang, had set up its capital at Ch'ang-an, in the north-west. Conditions in Central China were still very disturbed, and Tripitaka persuaded his brother that it would be better to settle at Ch'ang-an, where law and order had already been restored. It turned out, however, that at Ch'ang-an handbooks of military strategy were the only literature that was studied; 'no one had time for Buddhism or Confucianism.' Most of the Buddhist teachers who had been prominent under the late regime had fled to Ch'eng-tu, far away to the south-west. Tripitaka persuaded his brother that it would be a waste of time to stay any longer at Ch'ang-an. They went first to Han-chung, about 130 miles south-west of Ch'ang-an, and here to their delight they found two learned monks, refugees from Ch'ang-an, with whom they studied for several weeks. At Ch'eng-tu, which had remained unaffected by the famine that had swept over the rest of China, they found a great concentration of Buddhist teachers who had taken refuge there from far and wide. It was a unique opportunity for study and Tripitaka worked unceasingly at every branch of Buddhist knowledge during 620 to 622. But in the autumn of that year he came to the conclusion that he had learnt all that his present masters could teach him and he decided to go back to Ch'ang-an and get fresh opinions about points concerning which he was in doubt. His brother Ch'ang-chieh tried to dissuade him. Ch'ang-chieh had in fact every reason for wishing to stay where he was. He had made a great impression at Ch'eng-tu, not only because of his learning (he could discourse with equal eloquence upon the Buddhist texts, Chinese history and Taoist philosophy), but also because of his personal beauty, which was so striking that whenever he went out into the town people stopped their carriages to look at him.