À la recherche de la fidélité perdue du Sūtra du diamant : reconstruire l'Original des textes bouddhiques à partir de sources sanskrites

Abstract

As a prevalent Buddhist text, the Diamond Sūtra translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva in the fifth century is the subject of inter-lingual studies, in comparison with the Sanskrit versions. Hence his translation is supposed to be less faithful on the textual level. The primordial method in the Buddhist research refers to critical edition, used at its origin to Western sacred and classical texts. The question arises about the “Original” regarding to “Eastern sacred texts” : we discuss the question around “the language of the Buddha”, then situation of Sanskrit versions and comparative study of the Sūtra questioned, with some reflections on interaction of the religions from point of view of the “translation”.

Keywords

• Chinese Buddhist translation
• Buddhist philology
• critical edition
• Diamond Sūtra