characters employed by various
writers in order to represent the forty-two simple letters of the
Sanskrit alphabet. The result has been that even the Chinese were
after a time unable to read--i. e. to pronounce--these random
transliterations. What, then, was to be expected from Chinese scholars
in Europe? Fortunately, the Chinese, to save themselves from their own
perplexities, had some lists drawn up, exhibiting the principles
followed by the various translators in representing the proper names,
the names of places, and the technical terms of philosophy and
religion which they had borrowed from the Sanskrit. With the help of
these lists, and after sixteen years consecrated to the study of the
Chinese translations of Sanskrit works and of other original
compositions of Buddhist authors, M. Julien at last caught up the
thread that was to lead him through this labyrinth; and by means of
his knowledge of Sanskrit, which he acquired solely for that purpose,
he is now able to do what not even the most learned among the
Buddhists in China could accomplish--he is able to restore the exact
form and meaning of every word transferred from Sanskrit into the
Buddhist literature of China.

Without this laborious process, which would have tired out the
patience and deadened the enthusiasm of most scholars, the treasures
of the Buddhist literature preserved in Chinese were really useless.
Abel Remusat, who during his lifetime was considered the first Chinese
scholar in Europe, attempted indeed a translation of the travels of
Fahian, a Buddhist pilgrim, who visited India about the end of the
fourth century after Christ. It was in many respects a most valuable
work, but the hopelessness of reducing the uncouth Chinese terms to
their Sanskrit originals made it most tantalising to look through its
pages. Who was to guess that Ho-kia-lo was meant for the Sanskrit
Vyakara_n_a, in the sense of sermons; Po-to for the Sanskrit Avadana,
parables; Kia-ye-i for the Sanskrit Ka_s_yapiyas, the followers of
Ka_s_yapa? In some instances, Abel Remusat, assisted by Chezy, guessed
rightly; and later Sanskrit scholars, such as Burnouf, Lassen, and
Wilson, succeeded in re-establishing, with more or less certainty, the
original form of a number of Sanskrit words, in spite of their Chinese
disguises. Still there was no system, and therefore no certainty, in
these guesses, and many erroneous conclusions were drawn from
fragmentary translations of Chinese wr