Translating Baihua Grammatical Elements in a Fifteenth-Century Korean Buddhist Text: Linguistic and Cultural Notes on the Mongsan hwasang pŏbŏ yangnok ŏnhae

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the fifteenth-century Korean ŏnhae 諺解 exegesis of the Mongsan hwasang pŏbŏ yangnok 蒙山和尙法語略錄 to determine the translation strategies used to render so-called baihua or vernacular Sinitic in vernacular Korean. In particular, the article aims first to clarify the linguistic features of the baihua materials from the late Southern Song period found in this text, and then to clarify the baihua comprehension and translation abilities of a fifteenth-century Buddhist intellectual who was not a trained specialist in spoken Chinese. It finds that, because Korean Buddhist temples were no longer bilingual Korean-Chinese spaces by early Chosŏn, and Korean Buddhist monks no longer had exposure to spoken Chinese, the Korean translator approached the baihua materials as if they were written in orthodox Literary Sinitic. As a result, he made a number of errors and mistranslations, especially when it came to translating vernacular Sinitic tense-aspect particles in vernacular Korean. The article concludes by briefly comparing and contrasting glossing strategies in Japan and Korea.