At 16:04 18.01.2005 +0000, Yong Peng wrote:

>Dear Kare, Sukhdev, Gunnar, Jadhao and friends,
>
>thanks for the update. It is true that well-informed people do not
>refer to Theravada countries as Hinayana countries anymore. Some
>people also used Southern countries as another way to distinguish
>from the Northern countries. It is also true that 'hiina' is small as
>opposite to great (not big), which is why the term is now deemed
>inappropriate and irrespectful.

Sorry, but I do not agree when you say that 'hiina' is opposite to 'great'.

If you forgive me for quoting from my own article, you will observe the
following:

In Pali texts and commentaries hiina often occurs in the combination
hiina-majjhima-pa.niita, that is: bad - medium - good. In the context of
hiina - majjhima - pa.niita (or sometimes only hiina - pa.niita) the word
hiina is always used as a term for undesirable qualities, like for instance
hatred, greed and ignorance. It obviously means "low, undesirable,
despicable" – and not "small" or "lesser".

In Mahayanasutralankara by Asanga, which is a very representativ Mahayana
text, Asanga says: "There are three groups of people:
hiina-madhyama-vishishta ...(bad – medium – excellent)." This expression is
parallell to the Pali: hiina-majjhima-pa.niita, and goes to show that the
Mahayanists who coined the therm "hiinayaana", regarded "hiina" as a
derogatory term, with the same meaning as in the Pali texts.

So we find that hiina in Pali is opposite to pa.niita, and in Sanskrit it
is opposite to vishishta. I am not sure that 'great' is the best word for
pa.niita and vishishta.

Yours,

Kåre A. Lie
http://www.lienet.no/