Transliteration of the Names of Chinese Buddhist Monks

Abstract

CONTRARY to beliefs which prevail in some quarters, occidental sinology of good quality has been and continues to be the result of the recognition and the application of the fruits of centuries of Chinese native scholarship. This does not mean that the occidental is bound to accept as the gospel truth any and every statement made by any Chinese in regard to any problem. In using Chinese books, and in seeking Chinese advice, we must exercise the same discretion that is shown towards our fellow-citizens of the West. In addition to the problems presented by his subject itself, the occidental sinologist is troubled and annoyed by a multitude of nasty little snags which, on the large, if left unsolved, do not alter materially any fundamental truth which he may have succeeded in establishing, but which, if successfully solved, will add to the beauty and finesse of his demonstration.2 One that I would like to discuss is that of the transliteration of Chinese Buddhist names. Accord now seems to be established (entirely in harmony with and in natural imitation of the Chinese' own habits) that names like K'ung Ying-ta and Ssui-ma Ch'ien are to be written in the way here employed: i. e., K'ung and Ssui-ma, the surname or family name, form indivisible units, and, when composed of two syllables, are to be joined by a hyphen, the capital letter being used only for the first syllable. The same reasoning also applies to the personal name, as well as to the tzii or hao. It is only on the rarest occasions that these compound names, whether surname or personal name, are separated.3 The writer has, in fact,