At 14:57 25.03.2005 +0100, Rett wrote:

> >At 15:14 24.03.2005 +0000, you wrote:
> >
> >>Kåre A. Lie wrote:
> >>
> >> > I hope someone also can give some idea of the early Chinese
> translations
> >> > as
> >>well.
> >>
> >>As there don't seem to be any other takers, I'll have a go.
> >>For the compound phrase, "saranam *gam", the normal Chinese is "guiyi" in
> >>which the individual charcaters mean something like "turn to" and "rely
> on".
> >>I think the connotation would simply have been "rely upon". There may be
> >>other earlier non-standard equivalents but come spring to mind at present.
> >>In the "diipo le.na ..." chain, saranam is often just translated by "gui" =
> >>something you rely on or turn to.
> >>
> >>Best wishes,
> >>Stephen Hodge
> >
> >This is very interesting, and it confirms my "suspicion" that a study of
> >the early Chinese translations can contribute quite a lot to the
> >understanding of Pali.
>
>I also found it interesting, but I don't see what
>it contributes to our understanding of the word
>sara.na.m. Perhaps I'm just dense, but what have
>we learned?

We have learned how the early translators into Chinese understood the term.
This opens yet another window for our own understanding.

Best regards,

Kåre A. Lie
http://www.lienet.no/