關於轉讀

A few words on Zhuandu

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

本文是討論中世佛敎的「轉讀」對文學影響的一篇札記。在早期中國佛敎中，轉讀是用特殊的抑揚頓挫聲調來誦讀佛敎經論，由於佛經是用梵文等語言書寫記錄的，在梵文中辨音很重要，因此在印度佛敎就有辨音的傳統，當佛敎進入中國這樣一個完全不同的語音環境中，辨音的傳統就顯示了它的意義。因為，對中國人來説，異國語言的聲音系統會引起格外的注意，而它作為對比系統，恰恰给漢語語音系統提供了歸納的框架，這一點，過去相當多的研究也均已指出。但是，本文並不完全贊同四聲直接從印度聲明論三聲而來的説法，也不完全支持對《高僧傳》等文獻中關於「轉讀」中的「飛」、「囀」、「折」、「放」、「起擲」、「蕩舉」等等過於鑿實的考據，而是希望指出，對於「轉讀」的一些描述，常常是一種對聲音的比擬與形容，指的是高低、長短、輕重等不同聲調的變化，以及這種變化給人的感受，所以「轉讀」對於漢語聲調的影響，主要是它促使中國人注意到了聲調的問題，同時又给漢語自身的四聲的發現與歸納提供了啟迪。

This essay is a short discussion on the influences of Buddhist huandu” in the Middle Age on Chinese literature. In the early part of Buddhism on China, huandu” was a special way of using rhythmical intonation in chanting Buddhist scriptures. The Buddhist scriptures were written and recorded in such languages as Sanskrit, in which sound identification was very important. Therefore, Buddhism in India had the tradition of identifying sounds. When Buddhism was spread to China, a country with a completely different speech system, this tradition revealed its meaning. It is because to the Chinese, the sound system of a foreign language would arouse particular attention. Besides, being a system for contrast, it provided the sound system of the Chinese language an induction framework, as pointed out by many previous studies. However, I do not entirely agree with the view that the four tones of the Chinese language were directly derived from the three tones of heng ming lun”. Neither do I wholly support the overly detailed examination of words involving huandu” in the texts such as ao seng-zhuan" I hope to point out that huandu” was usually about making contrasts and descriptions of sounds, which means variations in tones and the feelings they gave to people. Therefore, the main influence of huandu” on the tones of the Chinese language was that it made the Chinese more aware of the issue of tones, and provided inspiration to the discovery and induction of the four tones in the Chinese language itself.