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A Textual Research on the Tangut Ballad Yuqie Yewugeng 桅緸睘氦禥 瑜伽夜五更


Pages 123 - 129

DOI https://doi.org/10.13173/centasiaj.57.2014.0123




In the Tangut Buddhist ballad Yuqie Yewugeng printed in 1190, the author narrated a nightlong process of meditation practice. The present paper thoroughly deciphers the lyrics and points out that the ballad is an inheritance of the literary tradition in ancient Northwest China, influenced by the style of Buddhist gāthā without rhyming. The so-called Wugengzhuan is not a fixed musical pattern as the Songci poetry, but merely a subject about five watches of the night with various popular tunes.



西夏佛教俗曲《瑜伽夜五更》刊印於1190 年,作者在裏面描述了徹夜的修禪過程。本文對這首俗曲進行了全文解讀,並且指出其創作繼承了古代中國西北地方的文學傳統,同時受到了佛教無韻偈頌風格的影響。所謂“五更轉”並不是像宋詞那樣固定的曲牌,而僅僅是以不同曲調吟唱的“五更”主題。


University of Sichuan 四川大學, China

1 I would like to thank Ruth W. Dunnell and Kirill J. Solonin for their English revisions and academic suggestions in preparing this article.

2 E. I. Kychanov, Vnov' sobrannye dragotsennye parnye izrecheniya (Moskva: Nauka, 1974). See also Chen Bingying 陳炳應 Xixia Yanyu 西夏諺語 (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, 1993).

3 We have an anthology by the Tangut monk Xianbei Baoyuan 鮮卑寶源, in which there are dozens of religious songs (Chin. Zhengdaoge 証道歌) in Chinese style. See Sun Bojun 孫伯君, “Xixia suwenxue Bian chutan” 西夏俗文學 “辯” 初探, Xixia Yanjiu 西夏研究, 2010, no. 4, pp. 3–9.

4 Nie Hongyin 聶鴻音, “Xixiawen Wugengzhuan canye kao” 西夏文《五更轉》殘葉考, Ningxia Shehui Kexue 寧夏社會科學, 2003: 5, pp. 74–75.

5 Another sample of the Tangut Yuqie Yewugeng comes from the Haimu Cave 亥母洞 in Wuwei City, Gansu Province; see Ningxia Daxue Xixia Yanjiu Zhongxin 寧夏大學西夏學研究中心, Guojia Tushuguan 國家圖書館, Gansu Sheng Guji Wenxian Zhengli Bianyi Zhongxin 甘肅省古籍文獻整理編譯中心, (ed), Zhongguo Cang Xixia Wenxian 中國藏西夏文獻 16 (Lanzhou: Gansu Renmin Chubanshe, Dunhuang Wenyi Chubanshe, 2005), p. 515. It is an untitled single sheet of manuscript in unskilled handwriting and misjudged by the editor as “a fragmentary page of Buddhist sūtra“. At the end of the manuscript we find the owner's name “Boruohua” 般若華.

6 E. I. Kychanov, Katalog tangutskikh buddijskikh pamyatnikov (Kyoto: Kyoto University, 1999), p. 600. According to Kychanov, xylograph inv. no. 7840 is completely preserved in 34 pages, but I do not know why this number and even its content do not quite tally with what we see in our available photos.

7 To the left of the topic Buddhamātrijāta-tridharmapitaka-prajñāpāramitā (Chin. Fomu Chusheng Sanfazang Boruo Boluomiduo Jing 佛母出生三法藏般若波羅蜜多經), there in an imperial title in Tangut: 猜两持菞糼箎葾翍緳藉矟砵竝笭窗盵猜索. Based on the Chinese translation of the original Tangut title Tianli dazhi zhixiao guangjing xuande quxie nazhong yongping huangdi 天力大治智孝廣淨宣德去邪納忠永平皇帝, Li Fanwen identified it as one of the imperial titles of Renzong (r. 1139–1193). See his Xixialing Chutu Canbei Cuibian 西夏陵出土殘碑粹編 (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1984), p. 15.

8 “State of White and High” (Chin. Baigao Guo 白高國) is a self-appellation of the Tanguts for their own state, i.e., Xixia.

9 The phonetic transcriptions come from Hwang-cherng Gong's 龔煌城 reconstructions quoted by Li Fanwen 李範文 in his Xiahan Zidian 夏漢字典 (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 1997). The original intonation marks are omitted here for conciseness.

10 Tentative translation.

11 The Chinese word-by-word rendering is Jin xin yu qian xin mai ce yu guan xi xiang shou ren yin shu 謹新御前薪買側於關西向守人印贖. cf. Russian translation by Kychanov: Zakazchitsa Robkaya, imeyushchaya kasatel'stvo k prodazhe brevi dlya novogo imperatorskogo dvortsa, napravlyayushchayasya k zapadnomu vkhodu /?/ gospozha Key Ndzhey-mbiye.

12 Li Fanwen, Xiahan Zidian, p. 887.

13 In the first line there are spaces before “month” and “day”, because the workers of transcribing and engraving did not know the exact date when the printing press would be donated.

14 “Five watches of the night” (Chin. Wugeng 五更) indicates the five sections from evening to dawn, i.e., the first geng (19:00–21:00), the second geng (21:00–23:00), the third geng (23:00–01:00), the fourth geng (01:00–03:00) and the fifth geng (03:00–05:00).

15 The Tangut word for “meditation” comes from Chinese dengchi 等持.

16 The expression “running elephant” (Chin. benxiang 奔象) is used in Buddhist works as a metaphor of thoughts difficult to restrain. See Zhanran 湛然, Zhiguan Fuxing Chuanhongjue 止觀輔行傳弘決. 34: “Cong ding qi, ru benzui xiang 從定起,如奔醉象.” (Getting up from meditation, as a running drunk elephant. cf. Taishō Tripitaka, vol. 46, p. 400.)

17 Buddhists advocate the lying posture as Śakyamuni's nīrwana, i.e., lying on the right side on a bed, like a lion. See Yuqie Shidi Lun 瑜伽師地論, j. 24: “Ru Shiziwang youxiewo 如師子王右脅臥.” (Lying on right side as the Lion King. cf. Taishō Tripitaka vol. 30, p. 413.)

18 The translation is tentative. “Do not sit on a high and wide bed” is one of the Buddhist commandments, i.e., sitting on a bed no more than one and six chi 尺 high, four chi wide and eight chi long. (Taishō Tripiṭaka, vol. 53, p. 934)

19 The word “Sky-walkers” come from Tibetan mkha ‘-’ gro-ma (Chin. Kongxingmu 空行母).

20 The word “dedication” (Chin. huixiang 回向) here means “to transfer one's merit to others”.

21 Śakra-devānām-indra (Chin. tiandishi 天帝釋) and Brahmā (Chin. jingfan 淨梵) are Dharma-protector gods in Buddhism.

22 Regular rhymes were used in much of the Buddhist literature of this genre, see Nie Hongyin 聶鴻音, “Xixia shige yongyun kao” 西夏詩歌用韻考, Xixia Yanjiu 西夏研究, 2013, no. 1, pp. 17–26, though most of the poems are Tangut imitations of the Chinese originals.

23 Nicolas Nevsky, “A brief manual of the Si-hia characters with Tibetan transcriptions”, Research Review of the Osaka Asiatic Society, 1926, no. 4. p. xviii.

24 E.I. Kychanov (克恰諾夫), “Xiangei Xixia wenzi chuangzaozhe de songshi” 獻給西夏文字創造者的頌詩, in Bai Bin 白濱 et al., ed., Zhongguo Minzushi Yanjiu 中國民族史研究, vol. 2 (Beijing: Zhongyang Minzu Xueyuan Chubanshe, 1989), pp. 144–155.

25 Arakawa Shintarō 荒川慎太郎, “Seika uta no kyakuin ni mi rareru inbō ni tsuite” 西夏詩の腳韻に見られる韻母について, Kyōto Daigaku Gengogaku Kenkyū 京都大學言語學研究, vol. 20, 2001, pp. 195–224.

26 Nie Hongyin 聶鴻音, “Xixiawen Wugengzhuan canye kao” 西夏文《五更轉》殘葉考.

27 In creating gāthās, the Tangut Buddhists followed the Chinese tradition, i.e., they concentrated on the syllable count but ignored the harmony of rhyme or even the completeness of verses.

28 Guo Maoqian 郭茂倩, Yuefu Shiji 樂府詩集, j. 33. For an overview on ballads related to Wugeng Zhuan in ancient China, see Yu Dongxin 于東新 and Ge Chao 葛超, “Wugengzhuan yuanliu yanbian ji qi yiyi chulun” “五更轉” 源流演變及其意義芻論, Zhongguo Yunwen Xuekan 中國韻文學刊, vol. 26, no. 2 (2012), pp. 7–13.

29 Transcriptions and relevant criticisms on all the Wugeng Zhuan found in Dunhuang are included in Ren Bantang 任半塘, Dunhuang Geci Zongbian 敦煌歌辭總編 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1987), j. 5.

30 Dunhuang manuscipt S. 6103 and S. 2679 preserved at the British Library, see Hu Shih 胡適, Shenhui Heshang Yiji 神會和尚遺集 (Taipei: Hu Shih Memorial Hall, 1982), pp. 460–462.

31 Gao Qi'an 高啟安, “Liuchuan zai Gansu de Wugengci yanjiu” 流傳在甘肅的五更詞研究, DunhuangYanjiu 敦煌研究, 1997, no. 2, pp. 140–149.

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