What is Geyi, After All?*

Victor H. Mair

China Report, 2012, vol. 48, issue 1-2, 29-59

Abstract: The term geyi is often rendered as ‘matching concepts’ and held to be a key means for the transmission of Buddhism from India to China. It is said to be a translation technique whereby Buddhists borrowed Taoist terms to express Indian ideas in Chinese. This study thoroughly debunks that notion, demonstrating that geyi was actually a very short-lived attempt to deal with numbered lists that came to China from India in great profusion during the early medieval period, and that the current misunderstanding of the true nature of geyi is purely a matter of modern scholarship.

Keywords: Buddhism; Taoism/Daoism; geyi/ko-yi; translation; technical terms; numbered lists (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:chnrpt:v:48:y:2012:i:1-2:p:29-59

DOI: 10.1177/000944551104800203

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