Was plurilingualism the exception or the norm in traditional Eurasian scholarship? This volume presents a selection of primary sources—in many cases translated into English for the first time—with introductions that provide fascinating historical materials for challenging notions of the ways in which traditional Eurasian scholars dealt with plurilingualism and monolingualism. Comparative in approach, global in scope, and historical in orientation, it engages with the growing discussion of plurilingualism and focuses on fundamental scholarly practices in various premodern and early modern societies—Chinese, Indian, Mesopotamian, Jewish, Islamic, Ancient Greek, and Roman—asking how these were conceived by the agents themselves. The volume will be an indispensable resource for courses on these subjects and on the history of scholarship and reflection on language throughout the world.
Chapter 1.4 Language Arose from Spontaneous Feelings and Reactions to Nature
The Doctrine of Epicurus (4th Century BCE) and Lucretius (1st Century BCE)
Chapter 1.5 Language Diversity as a Result of Social Interaction
Xunzi’s View on Plurilingualism in 3rd-Century BCE China
Chapter 1.6 Language Is a Collective Product of Mankind
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History (1st Century BCE)
Chapter 1.8 Plurilingualism in China and Inner Asia in the 12th Century CE
“Khitan Reciting Poetry”
Chapter 2.4 A 1st-Century BCE Roman Polymath’s Explanation of the Mysteries of Latin
Varro, On the Latin Language
Chapter 2.5 A 1st-Century CE Stoic Etymological and Allegorical Explanation of Greek Gods
Cornutus, Compendium of Greek Theology
Chapter 2.7 Etymology in the Most Important Reference Encyclopedia of Late Antiquity (ca. 600 CE)
Isidore of Seville, Etymologies
Chapter 2.8 Buddhist Etymologies from First-Millennium India and China
Works by Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, and Paramārtha
Chapter 3.3 Translating Oriental Words into Greek
A Papyrus Glossary from the 1st Century CE
Chapter 3.4 The Making of Monolingual Dictionaries
The Prefaces to the Lexica of Hesychius (6th Century CE) and Photius (9th Century CE)
Chapter 3.5 A 10th-Century CE Byzantine Encyclopedia and Lexicon
Suda, Letter Sigma
Chapter 3.6 A Dictionary of the Imperial Capital
Shen Qiliang’s Da Qing quanshu (1683)
Chapter 4.2 Translators of Sumerian
The Unsung Heroes of Babylonian Scholarship
Chapter 4.4 “Faithful” and “Unfaithful” Translations
The Greco-Latin Tradition in Jerome’s Letter to Pammachius (395/396 CE)
Chapter 4.5 A 4th-Century CE Buddhist Note on Sanskrit-Chinese Translation
Dao’an’s Preface to the Abridgement of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra
Chapter 4.6 An 8th-Century CE Indian Astronomical Treatise in Chinese
The Nine Seizers Canon by Qutan Xida
Chapter 4.7 Two 8th-Century CE Recensions of Amoghavajra’s Buddhist Astral Compendium
Treatise on Lunar Mansions and Planets
Chapter 5.3 A Buddhist Mahāyāna Account of the Origin of Language
The Descent into Laṅkā Scripture (Laṅkāvatārasūtra)
Chapter 5.4 Stories of Origin
Ibn al-Nadīm, Kitāb al-Fihrist
Chapter 5.5 Inventing or Adapting Scripts in Inner Asia
The Jin and Yuan Histories and the Early Manchu Veritable Records Juxtaposed (1340s–1630s)
Chapter 5.6 An Essay on the Use of Chinese and Korean Language in Late 18th-Century CE Chosŏn
Yu Tŭkkong, “Hyang’ŏ pan, Hwaŏ pan”
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