Buddhist enrichment of Sino-Japanese vocabulary

I'm often surprised by the number of terms in modern Japanese that have their roots in ancient Buddhist usage.  Some of the most common ones are introduced in this article by Brendan Craine from The Japan Times (2/2/23):

"The Buddhist terms that find their way into everyday conversation"

A good example is aisatstu あいさつ /  挨拶:

    [noun] a greeting, a salutation, a polite set phrase     [noun] an address given at an official function or ceremony     [noun] greetings or respects such as given at holidays or funerals     [verb] to greet, to say hello, to address

This derives from ichiaiissatsu / いちあいいっさつ / 一挨一拶:  "dialoging (with another Zen practitioner to ascertain their level of enlightenment)​" (source).

Another frequently encountered Buddhist term in modern Japanese, one that has even found its way into English, is kōan, from Chinese gōng'àn 公案 ("public case"):  "a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the 'great doubt' and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen" (source).  See also American Heritage Dictionary:  "A puzzling, often paradoxical statement, anecdote, question, or verbal exchange, used in Zen Buddhism as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening."

Craine gives the wrong Japanese expression as the source for this term:  kōan 考案 ("plan; device; idea; design; contrivance; conception; invention​").

An interesting Buddhist-derived term that Craine touches upon is danna-san 旦那さん ("husband"), which he correctly states comes from the Sanskrit word dāna for someone who provides alms.  We may follow the etymological trail deeper by pointing out that modern Japanese danna comes from Middle Chinese 旦那 (MC tɑn^H nɑ), 檀那 (MC dɑn nɑ), both used as transcriptions of Sanskrit दान (dā́na, “generosity, giving, donating”). Ultimately cognate with English donate and donor, from Proto-Indo-European *déh₃nom." (source)

All of these widespread linkages bear out the linguistic and cultural interconnectedness of the Eurasian ecumene (and beyond), which has been a constant theme on Language Log for the past two decades.

 

Selected readings

• "The linguistic origins and affiliations of Zen" (11/13/21)
• "Japanese proverbial wisdom of the ages" (2/1/13)
• See the many works of Fabio Rambelli (UCSB) on the influence of Indian religion, language, and culture on Japan. (here and here)
• Victor H. Mair and Tsu-lin Mei. “The Sanskrit Origins of Recent Style Chinese Prosody.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 51.2 (1991): 375-470.

[Thanks to Don Keyser and Alan Kennedy]