Censorship through Transliteration in Song Yamāntaka Tantra Translations.

Buddhist tantras that teach transgressive practices involving the fearsome deity Yamäntaka were translated into Chinese between the years 986 and 995. These translations exemplify a new and censorious approach to Buddhist tantrism which developed under the patronage of the Northern Song emperors. After a 1017 edict of the Zhenzong emperor prohibited the canonisation of a Vinayaka Scripture, a translation of a text with a similar title-which is loosely connected with Yamäntaka praxis passed into the canon with key terms obscured. The censorship of the Chinese translation of a related text, the Vajrabhairavatantra, was so heavy-handed that the translation has not previously been linked to its Sanskrit source text. In a third tantra in which Yamāntaka is a major figure, the *Krodhavijayakalpa, certain terms of black-magical jargon were again obscured or left untranslated in Chinese. Problematic words in the translators Sanskrit sources were masked by being phonetically transliterated into Chinese instead of being conveyed semantically. This short study identifies several original terms obscured in Chinese transliterations and shows how the topics associated with them were deemed objectionable by the Song dynasty authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]