Traditional Chinese Translation Discourses in Translation of Buddhist Texts—A Case Study on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

The Chinese translation of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra—Dafoding rulai miyin xiuzheng liaoyi zhu pusa wanhang shoulengyan jing 大佛頂如來密因修證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經—is a unique classical work that articulates a specific Buddhist worldview, its recondite principles, and ways of practice. Unsurprisingly, it has attracted the attention of almost every school of Buddhism. The first full English translation of the sūtra was published by the Buddhist Text Translation Society (BTTS) in the 1970s—a decade when a number of newly established institutions embarked on the project of translating Buddhist texts into English for the first time. By contrast, China has been translating Buddhist scriptures for more than 1,000 years, which has given rise to a variety of translation discourses. Therefore, it makes sense to utilize these discourses when analyzing the recent translation of Buddhist texts into English. From the perspective of the three traditional Chinese translation discourses—Yan Fu’s three principles of fidelity, fluency, and elegance; Sengrui’s matching term and meaning; and Xuanzang’s five guidelines for not translating a term, this paper discusses translation issues by comparing the Chinese and English versions of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. This analysis reveals that the traditional Chinese translation discourses are valuable resources that should be respected in the contemporary translation of Buddhist texts into English.