Some issues with the Chinese texts

Glad that it’s found helpful. It can probably be revised and expanded a bit in the future as well. :smile_cat:

If so, that would be helpful.

I have a reasonable idea of how the texts were brought to China and translated. But I don’t know about what happened next. How were the texts were gathered in canons, and how were those canons were passed down? Any clarity would be most appreciated!

On a slightly different note, perhaps I may be so bold as to make another request. I’ve found it very useful to check the Chinese texts when comparing with the Pali. I have studied Chinese only very little, and rely almost exclusively on the lookup tool on SC. Fortunately, Chinese lookup is a lot easier than Pali, and we have an excellent dictionary to back us up.

But it would be nice to have a short, simple how-to for people who’d like to do this. Not necessarily to be able to read Chinese texts in depth, which obviously takes serious study, but to check up a different reading or variation. Something that would encourage people to at least give it a go, so that these texts are not hidden away behind walls of obscurity. Perhaps even an online course? Anyway, just a thought.

Good point, and I think that whole development is often overlooked.

Sure, I’ve made a little post about this here:

I recommend others give it a go and try for themselves. The biggest hurdle is just the vocabulary. Once the vocabulary is clear, then the grammar is usually pretty apparent as well. The lookup tool will give most of the vocabulary, although there are always some occasional problems with grouping and false positives (but it’s not a big deal most of the time).

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Wow, so good, thank you! Hopefully this will encourage some people to look beyond the Pali texts.