京都大学 京都大学

JK09001Foundations I-Seminar (KBR)

Numbering Code G-LET36 6JK09 LE36 Year/Term 2022 ・ First semester
Number of Credits 2 Course Type special lecture
Target Year Target Student
Language English Day/Period Wed.5
Instructor name Tao PAN (Graduate School of Letters Program-Specific Senior Lecturer)
Outline and Purpose of the Course This course is designed for the study foci “Knowledge, Belief and Religion” (KBR) and “Visual, Media and Material Cultures” (VMC) and consists of the following three parts:
I. Scripts and Writing Systems;
II. Languages and Words
III. Translation Studies of Buddhist Scriptures
Course Goals Based on the theories of Transcultural Studies, this course offers numerous concrete examples for transculturality in the textual and linguistic aspect as well as from the perspectives of creation and dissemination of knowledge and interaction between diverse agencies on the macroscopic scale. Investigations on the microscopic scale, on the other hand, are concerned with how the formative and transformative processes result in certain cultural manifestations in the spheres of writing systems, construction and transmission of registers as well as translation studies of Buddhist scriptures.
Schedule and Contents I. Scripts and Writing Systems
Week #01 General Introduction
1.1. Writing System in the World
1.2. Logic of Writing
1.3. Interplay between Scripts and Languages (e.g. Scripts and Word Forms)
References: The world writing systems; Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics Volume 1, 5. The writing systems of Indo-European;

Week #02 Decipherment Part 1
2.1. Brahmi Script
2.2. Case Study: Asoka Inscription in Brahmi;
2.3. Mycenaean Greek Alphabet (Linear B)
2.4. Case Study: Documents KN Ca 895 and PY Ta 722


Week #03 Decipherment Part 2
3.1. Kharosthi Script
3.2. Case Study: Asoka Inscription in Kharosthi;
3.3. Case Study: Coins in Greek and Gandhari
3.4. Historical Development of Brahmi and Kharosthi Script

References: Salomon 1998 Indian epigraphy; Falk 2006 Asokan Sites and Artefacts; Handout (glass_salomon_kharosthi); A companion to linear B Mycenaean Greek texts and their world 1;
Website: http://www.indoskript.org ; http://calibra.classics.cam.ac.uk ; https://damos.hf.uio.no/1 ;

Week #04 Scripts along the Silk Road
4.1. Scripts and Languages in Turfan Collection
4.2. Scripts and Dating (Chinese Calligraphy)
4.3. Case Study: Scripts and Buddhist Sects (Saindhavi Script)

References: Fujieda 藤枝晃 Tunhuang Manuscripts Part II; Fujieda 1989 Earliest Types of Chinese Buddhist Manuscripts Excavated in Turfan; Tsui, Chung-hui 崔中慧 2020 Chinese Calligraphy and Early Buddhist Manuscripts; Dragomir Dimitrov 2020 The Buddhist Indus Script and Scriptures: on the so-called Bhaiksuki or Saindhavi Script of the Sammitiyas and their Canon;

Week #05 Recognise and Read Part 1
5.1. Case Study: Read Skt. Manuscripts (Udanavarga, Catalogue System “SHT”)
5.2. Case Study: Read Gandhari Manuscript (Dharmapada)

Week #06 Recognise and Read Part 2
6.1. Case Study: Read Skt.-Toch. Bilingual Manuscripts (“THT”, THT542, THT1018)
6.2. Case Study: Read Bactrian Manuscript

Reference: Sander 1968 Palaographisches zu den Sanskrithandschriften; Bernhard 1965 Udanavarga; Brough 1962 The Gandhari Dharmapada. London; Sims-Williams 2007 Bactrian documents from Northern Afghanistan 2 Letters and Buddhist texts;
Website: Sanskrit: http://idp.bbaw.de/ ; Gandhari: https://gandhari.org/ ; Tocharian https://www.univie.ac.at/tocharian ;


II. Languages and Words
Week #07 Tarim Basin as Contact Zone
7.1. Literary Survey of Serindia
7.2. Linguistic Survey of Serindia

Week #08 Languages and Texts along the Silk Road Part 1
8.1. Sanskrit Literature
8.2. Gandhari Literature
8.3. Tocharian Translations of Buddhist Texts

Reference: Wille 2005 Survey of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Turfan Collection; Tremblay 2007 Spread of Buddhism in Serindia; Tremblay 2001 Pour une histoire de la Serinde;
Website: https://gandhari.org/home ;

Week #09 Translation and Loanwords Part 1
9.1. General Introduction (agencies, directions, registers)
9.2. Loanwords in English (from French, Nordic, Latin, Japanese, etc.)
9.3. Loanwords in Japanese (from English, German, Dutch, etc.)

Week #10 Translation and Loanwords Part 2
10.1. Hittite, Akkadian & Sumerian (script involved)
10.2. Germanic Loanwords into Slavic and Celtic
10.3. Circular Borrowing A >> B >> A’ (e.g. Skt. pustaka- ‘book’)
10.4. Buddhist Loanwords in Chinese, Tibetan, Tocharian, Old Turkic

Reference: Oxford English Dictionary; Hethitisches Handworterbuch 2008 2nd; Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics vols 2 & 3; Adams 2013 A dictionary of Tocharian B; Wilkens 2021 Handworterbuch des Altuigurischen;

Week #11 Translation and Loanwords Part 3
11.1. Case Study: Middle Chinese Texts in Brahmi Script
11.2. Case Study: Origin of Chin. 觀音 guan yin
11.3. Case Study: Origins of Chin. 沙門 sha men, 和尚 he shang
Reference: Karashima 2017 On Avalokitasvara and Avalokitesvara; Pan 2021 Handout; Skjaervo 2004 This most excellent shine of gold 2; Bailey 1979 Dictionary of Khotan Saka;
Website: https://gandhari.org/home ;

Week #12 Languages and Texts along the Silk Road Part 2
12.1. Khotanese Translations of Buddhist Texts
12.2. Sogdian Translations of Buddhist Texts
12.3. Uighur Translations of Buddhist Texts

Reference: Emmerick 1992 Literature of Khotan; Maggi Khotanese Literature; Yoshida 2015 A handlist of Buddhist Sogdian texts; Zieme Local Literatures Uighur in Brill Encyclopedia Buddhism; Karashima 辛嶋 1994 『長阿含経』の原語の研究―音写語分析を中心として; Karashima 2016; Karashima Features of the Underlying Language of Zhi Qian’s Chin. Transl. of Vkn;


III. Translation Studies of Buddhist Scriptures
Week #13 Transculturality in Translatology
13.1. Transmission of Buddhist Literature and Early Chinese Translations
13.2. Translation Techniques and Loan Translation (Calque)
13.3. Cultural Entanglements of Sanskrit, Middle Indic, Middle Iranian, Tocharian and Chinese Transmissions.

Week #14 Vajracchedika
Case Study: Chinese translations of Vajracchedika by Kumarajiva, Dharmagupta and Xuanzang from perspectives of transcultural studies.

Week #15 Review of Course Materials

Reference: Karashima 辛嶋 1994 『長阿含経』の原語の研究―音写語分析を中心として; Karashima 2016; Karashima Features of the Underlying Language of Zhi Qian’s Chin. Transl. of Vkn;
Evaluation Methods and Policy Assessment will be based on class performance (50% = attendance 20% + one presentation 30%) and final assignment (50%)

To JDTS/MATS students: This course can be taken as either reduced (4 ECTS) or full seminar (8 ECTS). Please indicate your ECTS requirement to the teacher.
Course Requirements None
Study outside of Class (preparation and review) Students will be required to read the materials in advance and come prepared to discuss them.
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