Recreating the image of Chan master Huineng: The role of personal pronouns
HailingYu and CanzhongWu
Macquarie University
The article is on the recreation of the image of Chan master Huineng in four English translations of the Platform Sutra through the choice of personal pronouns. Adopting SysConc as analytical tool, the study looks at the use of personal pronouns and the image of Huineng recreated in each translation. In Wong (1930a), the use of we in combination with you presents Huineng as both friendly and authoritative; in Heng (1977b), Huineng tends to avoid personal pronouns and seems to be detached; in Cleary (1998b), Huineng is more involved in the interaction and uses many I’s as well as you; in Cheng (2011), Huineng speaks in an elegant way and uses generic one as personal reference. It is argued that both the choices of personal pronouns and the images of Huineng recreated can be better understood in terms of the context of translation.
The aim of this study is to investigate the image of Huineng recreated in four English translations (1930, 1977, 1998, and 2011) of the Platform Sutra (1291) through the use of personal pronouns. Huineng (638–713) was a great Chan master in the Tang Dynasty in China and the Sixth Patriarch in the history of Chan Buddhism. He is considered the real founder of Chinese Chan, Japanese Zen, Korean Sŏn and Vietnamese Thiên (Jorgensen 2005, 1). The Platform Sutra is the only text dedicated to Huineng and “one of the best known, most beloved and most widely read of all Chan texts” (Schlütter 2007, 382). The sutra is a collection of Huineng’s public teachings, private conversations and deathbed instructions.
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