| Bianhua | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 變化 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 变化 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | transformation; metamorphosis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | biến hóa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 변화 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 変化 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hiragana | へんか | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Biànhuà, meaning 'transformation' or 'metamorphosis', was a keyword developed in bothDaoism andChinese Buddhism. Daoists usedbiànhuà to describe things transforming from one type to another, such as from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Buddhist translators usedbiànhuà for Sanskritnirmāṇa 'manifest through transformations', such as thenirmāṇa-kaya 'transformation body' of a Buddha's reincarnations.
In themorphology of the Chinese language,Chinese:變化;pinyin:biànhuà;trans. "change, esp. in form or character', 'variation', 'transformation', 'metamorphosis', 'reincarnation" is categorized as a "synonymic compound" whose parts aresynonyms, e.g.,艱難;jiannan; "difficult; hard";compounds艱;jian; "difficult; arduous" and難;nan; "difficult; troublesome".[1]
For theOld Chinese etymologies, Axel Schuessler[2] has變;biàn < *prans "to change" cognate withTaiplian "to change" and perhapsWritten Tibetansprul-ba orˈpʰrul-ba "juggle; appear; change; transform"; andhuà <hŋrôih化; "to transform' change, e.g., from a fish into a bird; people through education; raw food through cooking", cognate withe < *ŋôi吪; "to move; act; change", with possibleTibeto-Burman etymological links toKinnauriskwal "to change" orKhalingkʰwaal "to shift; move". Walter Simon[3] proposed theSino-Tibetan etymological link between Chinesebiàn "change; transform" andTibetan languagesprul "juggle; perform tricks of illusion; change", and noted that the Chinese and Tibetan Buddhists chose these words to translate the Sanskrit technical vocabulary meaning "change; illusory transformation", such as, bothsprul-sku and變化身;bianhuashen translatenirmāṇa-kaya "transformation body".
InModern Standard Chinese usage,变;變;biàn means "change; become, change into; transform; perform (magic/etc.)"; and化;huà means "change, transform, convert; melt; dissolve, thaw; digest, remove; burn up, incinerate; disguise; [religion] die, pass away".[4] Some commonchengyu; "four-character idioms" based uponbiànhuà are:變化多端;biànhuàduōduān; "changeable" (with "many kinds"),變化莫測;biànhuàmòcè; "changeable; unpredictable" (with "unmeasurable"),變化無常;biànhuàwúcháng; "constantly changing; unending changes" (with "changeable"), and千變萬化;qiānbiànwànhuà; "ever-changing (esp. tides and fortunes)" (with "1000" and "10,000").
The modernChinese character變 forbiàn is classified as aradical-phonetic graph, combining the semantically significant"strike" radical攴 or攵 at the bottom with the phonetic indicatorluan䜌 (from言 "words" between two糸 "silk threads") at the top.Bian was first recorded onZhou dynastybronze script; "The meaning of the drawing is uncertain, but it contains two hanks of silk, andXu Shen [in his ca. 100 CEShuowen Jiezi] said that it meant 'to bring into order', as in spinning or reeling".[5] The modern character化 forhuà is classified as acompound-ideograph, combiningthe "person" radical亻 or人 on the left and"spoon" radical匕 on the right. However, in earlierbronze script andoracle script forms of化, the right side was originally a人 "person" upside-down, depicting "a person who flips, changes".[6]
Chinese has a rich lexicon of words meaning "change", includingbiàn,huà,反;fǎn; "turn over; return; counter; oppose",還;huán; "go/come back; give back; return; repay",易;yì; "change" (as in theYìjīng), and移;yí; "shift; adapt; modify; adjust". There are so many that, asJoseph Needham notes, "the exact meaning of which are sometimes difficult to differentiate".[7]
Semantically distinguishing betweenbiàn andhua is multifaceted. Compare these explanations.
The exact difference between [biàn] andhuà is perhaps more uncertain [thanfǎn "reaction" andhuán "return"]. In modern Chinese usage, [biàn] tends to signify gradual change, transformation or metamorphosis; whilehuà tends to mean sudden and profound transmutation or alteration (as in a rapid chemical reaction)—but there is no very strict frontier between the words. [Biàn] could be used of weather changes, insect metamorphosis, or slow personality transformations;huà may refer to the transition points in dissolving, liquefying, melting, etc., and to profound decay. [Biàn] tends to be associated with form (xing) andhuà with matter ([zhi]). When a snowman melts, the form changes ([biàn]) as the snow melts (huà) to water. In the Sung dynasty, [Cheng Yi] explainedbiàn as implying inward change with full or partial conservation of the external Gestalt or form, andhuà as fundamental change in which the outward appearance is also altered.[7]
Huà化 denotes a fundamental and essential change—a transformation. However, sometimes one also encounters the word [biàn], denoting external, momentary, or apparent change. Alocus classicus for this distinction is in the [Guanzi] ...: "The exemplary man ([shengren]) changes ([biàn]) in accordance with the times without transforming [the essence of his being]" ... This in turn permits us to understand the passage in the [Huangdi neijing suwen] ...: "When the beings take rise (sheng生 ...), this is calledhuà (transformation); when the beings have reached their full development [極] ... [and consequently have taken on a different appearance], this is called [biàn] (change).[8]
biàn has the sense of alteration among states of being (for example, from ayin to ayang state, or vice versa) or of variation within defined parameters. It differs fromhuà化, "transformation", in implying alternation or variation rather than fundamental and lasting change. The change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, for example, which is both substantive and irreversible, is a frequently cited instance ofhuà in the earlier literature. By contrast, a change that involves the realignment of constituent parts in a dynamic system (and that may be or is regularly reversed), such as that from day to night and back again, would be considered an instance ofbiàn.[9]
Wing-Tsit Chan listsbiànhuà "transfiguration and transformation" as a basic Chinese philosophical concept.[10]biànhuà has very diverse meanings, from basic "change and transformation" to "universal life" or "creation", even referring to the Daoist "science of metamorphosis" and generically "supernatural powers obtained by either magical practices or meditation exercises".[11]
The (c. 4th century) encyclopedicGuanzi text usesbiànhuà 5 times (3 in the心術;Xinshu; "Mind Techniques" chapters). Where the形勢;Xingshi; "Conditions and Circumstances" chapter says "The Way brings about the transformation of the self", the corresponding形勢解; "Explanation" chapter elucidates "The Way is the means by which the self is transformed so a person will adhere to correct principles."[12]
The ancientYijing orBook of Changes has 12 usages ofbiànhuà describing the manifestation of everything in heaven and on earth. All occur in the (c. 3rd century BCE)Ten Wings commentaries, and none in the (c. 7th century BCE) core hexagram and line statements.
For hexagram 1乾;Qian; "The Creative", the "Commentary on the Decision" (彖傳傳) says:
Kong Yingda's sub-commentary[14] distinguishesbiàn andhuà: "'Alternation' refers to afterwards changing from a former state, it has gradually changed. This is called 'alteration'. 'Transformation' refers to existence in one moment and absence of existence in the next, it has suddenly changed. This is called 'transformation'."
Biànhuà occurs most often (8 times) in the "Appended Judgments Commentary" (繫辭傳) or "Great Commentary" (大傳). Three contexts mention the work of divine sages.
Inwritten Japanese,変化 can be pronouncedhenka "change (state)" (inKan-on reading) or the Buddhisthenge変化 "incarnation" (Go-on reading). TheNihon Kokugo Daijiten (2001) notes both pronunciations were first recorded during theNara period;henge変化 "A god, Buddha, spirit, etc. that temporarily appearing in human form, or such a thing. Avatar. Reincarnation"(神仏, 天人などが仮に人間の姿になって現われること. また, そのもの. 神仏の化身 (けしん). 権化 (ごんげ).; c. 810-824Nihon Ryōiki); andhenka変化 "A change from one nature, state, etc. to another, or, such changeability" (ある性質, 状態などが他の性質や状態に変わること, または, 変えること.; 827Keikokushū).
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The Daoist idea ofbiànhuà, "that the certainty that the world is in flux leaves open the possibility that things may transform from one type to another",[18] can be traced from theZhuangzi through theShangqing School.
The (c. 3rd century BCE)Zhuangzi was the first Daoist text to explainbiànhuà. The word occurs five times (all in the Outer Chapters), referring to the ability of things to change from one category to another. For instance,
Spring and summer precede, autumn and winter come after—such is the sequence of the four seasons. The myriad things evolve and develop; even twisted little shoots have their own special shapes—such are the gradations of fullness and decline, the flow of transformation and evolution [biànhuà]. (13)[19]
TheZhuangzi text begins with a parable about interspecific metamorphosis.
In the darkness of the Northern Ocean, there is a fish named K'un. The K'un is so big that no one knows how many thousands of tricents [three hundred paces] its body extends. After it metamorphoses [huà] into a bird, its name becomes P'eng. The P'eng is so huge that no one knows how many thousands of tricents its back stretches. Rousing itself to flight, its wings are like clouds suspended in the sky. (1)[20]
TheZhuangzi uses the closely related word物化;wuhua; "transformation of things" ten times, most famously in the story ofZhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly.
Once upon a time Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself. He didn't know that he was Chou. Suddenly he awoke and was palpably Chou. He did not know whether he was Chou who had dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that he was Chou. Now, there must be a difference between Chou and the butterfly. This is called the transformation of things. (2)[21]
AZhuangzi passage explains change in the sense of evolutionary continuity.
In seeds there are germs [幾]. When they are found in water they become filaments. When they are found at the border of water and land they become algae. When they germinate in elevated places they become plantain. When the plantain is found in fertile soil it becomes crow's foot. The crow's foot's roots become scarab grubs and its leaves become butterflies. The butterflies soon evolve into insects that are born beneath the stove. They have the appearance of exuviae and are called "house crickets:" After a thousand days the house crickets become birds called "dried surplus bones." The spittle of the dried surplus bones becomes a misty spray and the misty spray becomes mother of vinegar. Midges are born from mother of vinegar; yellow whirligigs are born from fetid wine; blindgnats are born from putrid slimebugs. When goat's-queue couples with bamboo that has not shooted for a long time, they produce greenies. The greenies produce panthers; panthers produce horses; horses produce men; and men return to enter the wellsprings of nature [機]. The myriad things all come out from the wellsprings and all reenter the wellsprings. (18)[22]
Liu An's (c. 139 BCE)Huainanzi usesbiànhuà 17 times. For instance, this hunchback story about子求;Ziqiu; "Master Seek", adapted from theZhuangzi (6)[23] description of子輿;Ziyu; "Master Chariot".
Ziqiu had lived for fifty-four years when an injury made him hunchbacked. The arch of his spine was higher than his forehead; his chin pressed down on his chest; his two buttocks were on top; his rectum pointed to the sky. He crawled over to peer at himself in a well: "Amazing! That which fashions and transforms us! How has it turned me into this crumpled thing?" This shows that from his viewpoint, alterations and transformation [biànhuà] are the same. (7)[24]
TheHuainanzi describes transformations in nature:[25] "Now the frog becomes a quail, [and] the water scorpion becomes the dragonfly. These give rise to what is not their own kind. Only the sage understands their transformations." To know thebiànhuà of things is the hallmark of spiritual knowledge.[26]
While theDaodejing text does not usebiànhuà, its (c. 2nd century CE) commentary attributed toHeshang Gong (河上公; 'Riverbank Elder') uses the word twice, explaining the transformations ofdragons andspirits. The text and commentary for Section 26 (重德) says:
Section 39 (法本) says:
The (c. 2nd century CE)老子變化經;Lǎozǐ biànhuà jīng; "Scripture of the Transformations of Laozi", which is preserved in a fragmentary (612 CE)Dunhuang manuscript discovered in theMogao Caves, usesbiànhuà to describe the many historical reincarnations ofLaozi老子, deified asLaojun (老君; "Lord Lao"). This text says Laozi "can make himself bright or dark, disappear and then be present, enlarge or diminish himself, coil up or extend himself, put himself above or below, can be vertical or horizontal, (and) can go forward or backward."[29] In every generation, this Master of Emperors cosmically "transforms his own body" in order to teach humanity, through the incarnate power of the Dao, he assumes numerous identities, and leaves behind adapted writings with his teaching.[30] The transformations of Laojun began with the first mythical rulerFu Xi, includedGautama Buddha, theYellow Emperor's teacherGuangzhengzi (廣成子; "Master Broadly Complete") (mentioned in theZhuangzi), and ended with a 155 CE manifestation in theSichuan region.
Mark Csikszentmihalyi distinguishes between early Daoist discussions that tended to emphasize the way in whichbiànhuà applies to human beings in the same way it does to the natural world,[31] and later Daoism that stressed the potential for the adept to harnessbiànhuà, particularly in the eschatological picture of the Shangqing tradition.
Like Laozi, the diverse spirits of the Shangqing tradition are able to transform themselves, and the adept had to be able to identify their different manifestations. Adepts, in turn, might usebiànhuà to transform themselves. The Shangqing textShenzhou qizhuan qibian wutian jing神州七轉七變舞天經 (Scripture of the Divine Continent on the Dance in Heaven in Seven Revolutions and Seven Transformations; CT 1331) describes methods for transforming into clouds, light, fire; water, and dragons.[18]
Isabelle Robinet notes that "the powers of metamorphosis had always been a key characteristic of the immortals, but these powers came to be even more central in Shangqing where they were synonymous with deliverance and salvation."[32]
Biànhuà was employed by both Daoist mystics andFangshi magicians. The Daoist adept practices metamorphosis both internally through meditation on colored breaths and gods within the body, and externally using magic to change the appearances of things.[33]Ge Hong's (c. 320 CE)Baopuzi explains these extraordinary powers of Daoists. Describing themultilocation technique calledfenxing "divide/multiply the body", Ge Hong says his uncleGe Xuan could be in several dozen places at once: "When guests were present there could be one host speaking with the guests in the house, another host greeting guests beside the stream, and still another host making casts with his fishing line, but the guests were unable to distinguish which was the true one."[34]隱形;Yǐnxíng; "invisibility" is another manifestation ofbiànhuà. TheBaopuzi says: "What is it that the arts of transformation cannot do? May I remind my readers that the human body, which is normally visible, can be made to disappear. Ghosts and gods are normally invisible, but there are ways and means to make them visible. Those capable of operating these methods and prescriptions will be found to abound wherever you go."[35]
Several centuries after Chinese Buddhists borrowed the Daoist meaning ofbiànhuà orhuà "manifest through transformation; incarnate", earlyTang dynasty Daoists elaborated the Buddhist doctrine about a Buddha's "three bodies" (see below) into a theory that the True Body of the Dao, the Supreme Truth, assumes different metaphoric "bodies" in order to manifest as specific deities, including those in theLaozi bianhuajing. The (late 8th century) Daoist三論元旨;sānlùn yuánzhǐ explains that: "The saint responds to all things, but his essence is distinct from them. Therefore, since his transcendent root is immobile, he is called the "true body" [真身;zhēnshēn] and since he propagates the form of the Law, he is called the "responsive body" [應身;yīngshēn].[36] This text further contrasts the True Body with the "transformation body" [化身;huàshēn orbiànhuàshēn, used fornirmāṇa-kāya] and the "trace body" [跡身;jishen], in the sense that all teachings are traces of truth.[37]
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Early Buddhist translators chose Chinese變化;biànhuà as the equivalent for Sanskritnirmāṇa "transformation; supernatural manifestation; reincarnation".
Charles Muller'sDigital Dictionary of Buddhism[38] definesbiànhuà as basically meaning "transformation of things", and distinguishes four senses:
Monier Monier-Williams'sSanskrit-English Dictionary[39] translatesnirmāṇaनिर्माण as "measuring, measure, reach, extent", "forming, making, creating", "(Buddhist literature) transformation", "essence, essential/best part of anything" (sāra), and "unconformity, impropriety, unbecomingness" (asamañjasa).
The common Buddhist term變化身;biànhuàshēn or化身;huàshēn; "transformation-body; manifested-body" (translatingnirmāṇakāya) refers to one of the三身;sanshen (trikāya) "three bodies [of a buddha]" doctrine, along with the法身;fǎshēn; 'dharma-body', 'truth-body' (dharmakāya), and報身;bàoshēn; 'reward-body', 'bliss-body' (saṃbhogakāyaसंभोगकाय). Contexts describing Buddhas manifesting as animals and humans use the related terms變化人;bianhuaren; "magically manifested human body" (nirmita),變化土;bianhuatu; "transformation land where the inhabitants reincarnate" (nirmāṇa-kṣetraनिर्माण क्षेत्र), and *變化生;bianhuasheng; "birth by transformation; miraculous materialization" (upapādukaउपपादुका) .
Besides變化;biànhuà, Buddhist translators used other Chinesebiàn compounds for Sanskrit words dealing with supernatural manifestations.[40] This semantic complex includes變現;bianxian (with "appearance") translating bothvikurvaṇaविकुर्वणा "manifestation through transformation" andprātihāryaप्रातिहार्य "miraculous"; and神變;shenbian (with "god; divine") translatingprātihārya "supernatural/miraculous powers; magical feats" andvikurvana "manifestation; transformation".
Victor Mair traced the historical semantics of Chinesebian before and after the (c. 2nd-3rd century) introduction of Buddhism, when it started being used as to translate Sanskritnirmāṇa meaning "discontinuity or break with reality (illusion)".[41] The pre-Buddhist concept of Chinesebiàn referred to "change (from one state to another)", through which one thing becomes another thing. The post-Buddhist concept extendedbian to mean "strange" in the sense of "transformation from nothing to something; magically creative power to conjure". The early "strange incident; supernatural transformation" sense ofbiàn became popular during the earlyTang dynasty period, for instance, the (c. 668)Fayuan Zhulin "Pearl Grove in the Garden of the Dharma" usedbiànhuà "[miraculous] transformation" to describe strange incidents.
TheNeo-Confucian philosopherZhu Xi's interpretations of theChinese classics, which scholars and officials from the 12th to 19th centuries considered to be canonical, differentiated between two types of "change": sudden, transformationalbian and gradual, evolutionaryhuà.
For instance, Zhu explained an ambiguousYijing statement within the繫辭傳;Xici zhuan; "Commentary on the Appended Phrases", "That which transforms things and fits them together is called change [化而裁之謂之變]; that which stimulates them and sets them in motion is called continuity",[42] with a lunar analogy: "[The progression] from the first day to the thirtieth day [of a lunar month] ishuà (transformation). Having reached this thirtieth day, concluded and made one month, the next day belongs to the next month. This ispien (change)."[43] This "change" distinction also applied to lines in theYijinghexagrams, which are either unbroken, solidYang lines or broken, openYin ones: "Pien is from a yin [line] to a yang [line]. [It] changes suddenly. Therefore, it is called "change" (pien). [The change] from yin to yang naturally grows to become sudden. This is called change. From yang to yin, it gradually goes on vanishing and wearing out."[44]
Zhu Xi used thebiàn/huà distinction to explain a difficult passage in theDoctrine of the Mean – "When moved, it is change; when changed, it is transformed [動則變，變則化]" – "When changed, its old conventions have already been altered, but there still are traces. When transformed, they have completely vanished and transformed, and there are no longer any traces."[45]
Biànhuà continues to be alinguistically productive word, as evident in Chinese technical neoloigisms likebianhuali; "paradigm",變化球;bianhuaqiu; "breaking ball",變化語;bianhuayu; "inflective language", and變化盲視;bianhuamangshi; "change blindness".
Footnotes
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