{"id":685,"date":"2013-05-25T19:50:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-25T17:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/?p=685"},"modified":"2013-08-18T23:47:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T23:47:56","slug":"the-orthography-of-sien-tchan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/the-orthography-of-sien-tchan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Orthography of Sien-Tchan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the \u201cChinese section\u201d of the Book of Dzyan (see SD I, 136-139), in stanza 6, \u015blokas 1 and 2 we find the term SIEN-TCHAN<\/strong>, in \u015bloka 2 spelled TSIEN-TCHAN, and on page 32 alternatively spelled as SIEN-TCHANG. According to HPB the term refers to \u201cour universe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Locations and spellings in the SD:<\/p>\n

I, 32 SIEN-TCHANG
\nI, 32 TSIEN-TCHAN
\nI, 136 SIEN-TCHAN (our Universe)
\nI, 137 Sien-Tchan
\nI, 138 SIEN-TCHAN
\nI, 139 Sien-Tchan (the “Universe”)<\/p>\n

In SD III, 393, cf. CW XIV, 408 we have the spelling Sien-chan, as David and Nancy Reigle noticed in Blavatsky\u2019s Secret Books<\/em>, in p. 64n1. In this same article, entitled An Unpublished Discourse of Buddha<\/em>, in a note on the same page, Sien-Chan seems to be identified with Nam-Kha, which is Tibetan for sky, heaven:<\/em><\/p>\n

* The Universe of Brahm\u00e2 (Sien-Chan; Nam-Kha) is Universal Illusion, or our phenomenal world.<\/em><\/p>\n

In SD I, 23 we have another spelling, in the \u201cnight of Sun-chan\u201d, which seems to refer to the night of Brahm\u00e2 (SD I, 41), the night of the universe, which is pralaya, see also the post and comments here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the W\u00fcrzburg pre-version of the SD we find still another spelling, \u201csien-tchen (one universe)\u201d. (e.g. SD Adyar Ed 1993 vol. III, p. 518)<\/p>\n

In The Early Teachings of the Masters<\/em> ed. by Jinarajadasa we also find the spelling Sien-chan, representing the Tibetan word sems can, as the \u201canimated universe\u201d. In the version of this text in Cosmological Notes<\/em> we find the spelling Sem chan. Sems can is \u201canimated\u201d, or \u201canimated beings\u201d, \u201csentient beings\u201d, literally meaning something like \u201chaving a mind\u201d. It corresponds to the Sanskrit term sattva.<\/p>\n

Summing up: we have here already eight different spellings of Sien-Tchan, and most of these look like Chinese words. However, the only spelling which seems to shed some light on this, having a corresponding meaning, is a Tibetan word.<\/p>\n

In the Boris de Zirkoff edition of the SD, the spelling of Sien-Tchan is interpreted as Hsien-chan, adding a ninth spelling to our collection. De Zirkoff interpreted this term as Chinese, and converted it to the Wade-Giles standard, apparently without explicit justification. Still, his idea on this might be right, while the connection with Tibetan sems can is wrong.<\/p>\n

De Zirkoff\u2019s spelling hsien chan corresponds to p\u012bny\u012bn spelling xian zhan. Modern dictionaries do not seem to include any words with this combination of syllables, or in fact any other clues, which does not give us any reason to abandon the Tibetan interpretation as \u201csems can\u201d, however unlikely this interpretation may seem at first sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the \u201cChinese section\u201d of the Book of Dzyan (see SD I, 136-139), in stanza 6, \u015blokas 1 and 2 we find the term SIEN-TCHAN, in \u015bloka 2 spelled TSIEN-TCHAN, and on page 32 alternatively spelled as SIEN-TCHANG. According to HPB the term refers to \u201cour universe\u201d. Locations and spellings in the SD: I, 32 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,50,34,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-of-dzyan","category-brahma","category-cosmogenesis","category-sien-tchan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}