The Japanese Equivalent of the Western Word‘Religion’

Abstract

When Japan opened the gate to the world and Japanese intellectuals began to introduce Western ideas into this country in the 19th century, Japanese intellectual leaders made great efforts to have them understood by people in general. They tried to coin new words to translate Western ideas. In order to convey the idea of‘religion’, they adopted the traditional word‘shukyo’, which had already been in use among Buddhists of China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan. (Contemporary Chinese pronounce it as chiou tsong.)
But the word shukyo does not necessarily correspond to the Western word religion.
The author of this article exhaustively checked passages where the word shukyo is mentioned throughout Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures and various scriptural texts of Japanese Buddhism, and tried to make clear the various nuances of the use of the term with implications.
One of the noteworthy results of this research is as follows;
In the Lankavatara-sutra shu is the Chinese and Japanese translation of the Sanskrit term siddhanta, whereas kyo is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term desana. The word shukyo is a combination of shu and kyo.
Then what is the meaning of the term shu or siddhanta? And what is the meaning of desana?
The author of this article discusses in this connection the meaning of siddhanta in various philosophical texts of India and the Four Kinds of Siddhanta in the Mahaprajnaparamita-upadesa-sastra traditionally ascribed to Nagarjuna. The author discusses also the meaning of desana (teaching) in relation to siddhanta.
One of the conclusions to which we are led is: siddhanta means something fundamental or the ultimate principle which is ineffable, i.e. beyond our thinking and conceptualisation, whereas desana is something provisional, conveniency.
Dharma as the ultimate principle in Indian thought is also discussed in this connection.
In the Appendix the author mentioned similar ideas and thoughts held by some Western thinkers.
[The epitome of this article was published in the author's article:“The Meaning of the Terms‘Philosophy’and‘Religion’in Various Traditions”, included in Gerald James Larson and Eliot Deutsch (ed.): Interpreting Across Boundaries, New Essays in Comparative Philosophy, Princeton University Press, 1988, pp. 137-151.]