The work of Sanskrit scholars in translating thousands of texts into Chinese over a period of centuries required creation of new words.

According to famed linguist Wang Li, Sanskrit words came to be embedded in Chinese language deeply in many ways that most are unaware.

1)

Scholar Victor Mair estimates that at least 35000 words are from Sanskrit, & many are in common use (e.g., fang-bian [convenient; from Sk., upāya, skill-in-means] and cha-na [instant; from Sk., kṣaṇa (क्षण, instant])

2)
Old Chinese was mainly monosyllabic. di- & polysyllabic word creation influence of Sanskrit

= pú ti xīn mind of enlightenment, gōng dé shuǐ meritorious water, zheng si wei right thought, po luo mi duo, pāramitā is perfection, fēi xiǎng fēi fēi xiǎng not thought nor non-thought
"According to Kuiji (632-682) translators even introduced the Sanskrit way of explanation called “liu li han shi” (sat-samāsāh) =six ways first explaining each word individually followed by explanation when combined. Today these words are used in daily life without origins."

4)
Enormous influence ranges "from vocabulary to phonetics, such as the four tones and Qieyun, and even the use of vernacular. The Sanskrit phonetic studies triggered the Chinese people’s interest in linguistic studies and eventually led Chinese people to invent tonal prosody."

5)

More from All

You May Also Like

I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹