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JULY, 1905.]
CHINESE WORDS IN THE BURMESE LANGUAGE.
211
CHINESE WORDS IN THE BURMESE LANGUAGE.
BY TAW SEIN KO. In studying the Burmese form of Buddhism we have hitherto been accustomed to look only to India for prototypes and influences. The possible influence of China 13 a factor in the religious development of the Burmese has been overlooked. The Northern form of Buddhism, which was crystallized by the fourth Buddhist Council held under Kanishka, the Scythian king, in Kashmir, was, together with its Scriptures in Sanskrit, introduced into China, in 67 A. D., under the Emperor Ming Ti, who reigned at Loyang in Houan. Balli rays: “The first centuries of its arrival were marked by the translation into Chinese of numerous Buddhistio works; and there was considerable progress in making proselytes, for, in the fourth century, nine-tenths of the inhabitants of China were Buddhists."
Later on, Indian missionaries passed into China through Nepal and Tibet as well as Burma, and Chinese monks visited India and Ceylon by way of Central Asia and Afghanistan, with the object of studying Buddhism in the land of its birth and of making a collection of religious books for translation into Chinese. Buddhism was at the zenith of its power in China, in the tenth and twelfth "centuries, not only being popular, but also exerting great literary influence.
It is extremely remarkable that terms intimately connected with Buddhism should have boon borrowed by Burms from China and her translations from Sanskrit, rather than from Ceylon and her Pali literature; and this circumstance alone is convincing proof that the Burmese are indebted to the Chinese for a good portion of their knowledge of Buddhism,
In the sixth century A. D. there was intercourse between China and Burma, and Ed kins? says: "In A. D. 523, the king of Banban sent, as his tributary offering, a true sharira (she-li) with pictures and miniature pagodas; also leaves of the Bodli, Buddha's favourite tree. The king of another country in the Burmese peninsula had a dream, in which a priest appeared to him and foretold to him that the new prince of the Liang dynasty would soon raise Buddhism to the summit of prosperity, and that he would do wisely if he sent him an embassy. The king paying no attention to the warning, the priest appeared again in a second dream, and conducted the monarch to the court of Liang-Wu-ti. On awaking, the king, who was himself an accomplished painter, drew the likeness of the emperor, as he had seen him in his dream. He now sent ambassadors and an artist with instructions to paint a likeness of the Chinese monarch from life. On comparing it with his own picture, the similarity was found to be perfect."
The exchange of courtly amenities between the rulers of China and Burma must have been followed by a close religious intercourse, for we find it recorded in the Chinese annals that Subhùti, a Buddhist monk of Burma, was the translator of the Mahayanaratnaméghasutra, wbich was lost in 732 A, D.3 Further, Sriksbatra or Prome is mentioned in the rocords of their travels by both Hiuen Thsang and I-tsing, who were in India in 629-645 A. D. and 671-695 A. D., respectively. When such intercourse began and how long it lasted, cannot, as yet, be determined with precision without examining the annals of the Later Han (25-589 A. D.) and Tang (618-960 A. D.) dynasties. But, for practical purposes, it may be accepted that Buddhism was introduced from China into Burma during the fourth century after Christ, when nine-tenths of the population of the former country were Buddhist, and when the zeal and enthusiasm for the propagation of that religion had reached its highest point.
It is, indeed, remarkable that two out of the three Burmes0 equivalents for the "Three Gems, namely, for Buddha and Dhamma, should be derived from a Chinese source. Sakra, the Recording Angel of Buddhism, also reached Burme through China. The terms for such 1 Ball's Things Chinsas, p. 51.
Pp. 104-105, Chinese Buddhism. Eitel's Hand-book of Chinese Buddhiano, p. 161. Beal's Biyuki, Vol. II., P. 200, and Takakusa's Record of the Buddhist Religion by I-tring, p. 9.
