THE INTRODUCTION TO THE VIETNAMESE TRIPITAKA TRANSLATION PROJECT
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Yo vo, ānanda, mayā dhammo ca vinayo ca desito paññatto, so vo mamaccayena satthā.
I. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE TRIPITAKA
Before His reaching Nirvana, the Buddha had given the last admonition to His disciples that: “the Dharma which I have taught and the Fundamental Laws enacted, will be your guidance now that I no longer remain with you.” To comply with the Lord Buddha’s last teachings, the Elders Arahat assembled for the First Buddhist Council at Rajagrha, so that together they would come upon an agreement on reciting all of the Buddha’s teachings during His 45-year lecturing to and educating His disciples. The foundation for Buddhist literature, which later was known as the Triple Buddhist Canon of Scriptures (the Tripitakas or the Three Baskets), was then procreated.
From then, the sacred teachings of the Lord Buddha advanced with the traveling footsteps of His Great Disciples spreading to all four directions. Wherever this teachings channeled to, the followers learned and practiced them accordingly to their respective regional dialect, just as the Buddha has instructed: anujānāmi, bhikkhave, sakāya niruttiyā buddhavacanaṃ pariyāpuṇitun’ti. “I allow you, o Bhikkhus, to learn the word of the Buddha in his own dialect.” So from the beginning, according to this teaching, the Buddhist scriptures were modified into many different native tongues. When Buddhism developed into various schools, each of the branches tried to compile its own Sacred Scriptures in the native language where Buddhism arrived. When the Old Indian system of written language was not widely developed yet, Buddhist Scriptures were mainly passed down by way of oral recitation. This means of oral transmission, which caused a lot of disparates in pronunciation due to the diverse local dialects, sometimes affected the few modifications founded in the writings. This phonological variation, in few instances, caused the different exegesis among the sects regarding the meaning of the Teachings. However, in looking at the whole picture, the essential teachings remained the same in interpretation as well as in practice among all the schools, both the Northern and the Southern traditions. This commonness can be validated through the on-going research and comparative works of all the teachings recorded in the two main Buddhist literatures that are in existence: the Pali canon and the canon written in Chinese characters. The Chinese translation originated from the Agamas, and the Pali canon that still can be verified, both are in accordance with each other in most of their contents. Hence, the differences that are known between the Northern and the Southern traditions – also incorrectly referred to as Theravada and Mahayana – are only slight diversifications in the historical and cultural backgrounds of each locality and ethnic race. That is the difference of the primitive and the later developments. The Buddhist teachings that arrived in the Southern countries were understood and practiced more in the original way, due to the fact that the development, the civilization and the societal institutions of these nations were still rather simple and uncomplicated. On the contrary, Northern societies in the north of India and northwest of China, have had more variant races and diverse cultures, thus they acquired more different societal and moral codes. Buddhism arrived in these nations, after a time, often became the state religion of such countries. And the Buddha’s teachings, likewise, was localized to be more suitable with the linguistic, traditional and social ways of life of that particular nation.
The sacred Triple Basket of Scriptures is the gateway to all understandings of the Dharma, a great source of knowledge for practice, as well as for study. The Vinaya Pitaka (The Basket of Discipline) and the Sutra Pitaka (The Basket of Sayings), a comprehensive collection of Dharma and Vinaya (Truth & Laws) that the Buddha had actually demonstrated and regulated, are the substantial ground for the Holy Disciples to learn and practice aiming at the ultimate goal of attaining the perfection of wisdom and virtue. These two Baskets also contained the interpretive explanations of the Great Disciples who heard the teachings directly from the Lord Buddha. The last of the Tripitakas, the Abhidharma Pitaka, according to the traditions of the Theravadin School in the South, and those of the Sarvastivada in the North, also came from the golden words of the Buddha. But there are some great Buddhist philosophers like Vasubandhu, along with most of the world’s well known academic authorities on the Buddhist Canon of the present time, who don’t acknowledge that the Abhidharma directly came from the Buddha Himself but rather these works are a collection of varieties of analyses, studies, interpretations, and systematization of what was taught by the Buddha from the first two Baskets – the Basket of Sayings and the Basket of Discipline. The Sutras and the Vinayas were construed during a determined period of time, gathered directly or indirectly from the golden words (verbatim) of the Buddha, and are the principal foundation for all schools of Buddhism, including the Mahayana school, regardless of the differences caused by the oral transmission in the course of time, affected by the diverse dialectical accents.
The Abhidharma is the part of the Holy Scriptures that reflects the historical development of Buddhism in all aspects, including the religious beliefs, philosophical thinking, scientific researches, and the jurisprudential, socio-political and cultural developments. Generally speaking, this Basket comprised not just the historical advancement within Buddhism itself, but also depicted the entire cultural change of the localities that the Buddha’s teachings have reached. This same change was also substantially proven in the history of Vietnam.
Each of the Buddhist traditions created its own canonical literature, which depicted the best exogesis to thoroughly understand the scriptures’ meaning, protected the comprehension and interpretation of the Canon, and refuted all heretic dogmas. This massive literature continuously evolved across many diverse geographical zones. Not until the significant spread of Islam into India was Buddhism getting gradually eliminated. One part of this Buddhist literature was transferred to Tibet, by means of the Tibetan translations from the Sanskrit scriptures, and a great number of the Sanskrit originals were well preserved until today. The other part of the historical literature – the largest and most comprehensive – was translated into Chinese and contained almost all of the different thought processes of Buddhism in the history of India, from the Primitive, Scholastics, Mahayana, and Mysticism.
Legend has it that Buddhism arrived in China under the reign of Emperor Mingdi of the Han Dynasty (bc 65), in the Era of Yungping. The very first sutra that was translated to Chinese was the Sutra of Forty Two Sections by Kashyapa-maganta and Zhu Falan. This legend, however, is really not unanimously agreed by all Chinese Buddhist scholars and historians. The only true account was that of Khang Tang Hoi (Ch. Kang Seng Hui) who was a Vietnam-born from Tonkin. He went to the Jiangzuo to become the first Buddhist propagator in southern China. All of his works in translating and commentating the Buddhist texts can authenticate that before that time, from 247 CE, when Khang Tang Hoi entered the Jianye territory, taking in Sunquan as his disciple, Buddhism has already propagated to a fairly steady form in Vietnam, and many scriptural works were already being translated. This fact can also be further reinforced by the written essay of Mau Tu called Li Hua Lun (Mu-zu’s Trease on the Justified Doubts). Unfortunately, almost all of these literatural works found in Khang Tang Hoi’s biography and Mu-zu’s record were missing, probably as a consequence from the Northern invasion. What remained only were the work that was supposedly recognized as handed down from the Chinese translation.
