(silk string)
(Nylon string)
This is a Ming dynasty version which is the most interesting version to me, and it took me a while to accept the melody from the bottom of my heart.
According to the footnote of Se Kong Jue from the Ming dynasty Qin Handbook, Tai Yin Xi Sheng 太音希聲, this piece was composed by Chen Da-bin 陳大斌 who might have lived around the early 17th century. Chen played the guqin for 50 years and published the qin handbook [Tai Yin Xi Sheng] during the Tianqi 天啓 period (1621-1627) under some friends' financial help.
Composer's footnote: The Heart Sutra. Simple words, deep meaning, which can brighten the mind and find one's own true nature. Once the true nature has been found, one can enter the way. If one can actually practice the way, one's character is settled and one's life can be protected. I chant it often and now compose it with the qin. Hoping to convey the lyrics into music, and the soundless meaning into melody, and share this music tablature to a few friends selflessly.
所彈乃根據杜大鵬演奏,善元音演唱之版本 A modern version based on Du Dapeng's playing, Shan Yuanying's singing.
根據陳長林先生打的以六正五之齋琴學秘譜, 清 光緒元年(1875)收錄 Based on Mr. Chen Changlin's dapu of the Yi Liu Zheng Wu Zhi Zhai Qinpu (1875).
Heart Sutra in Chinese and English (two versions of translation)
觀自在菩薩，
RP (Red Pine 2004): The Noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.
EC (Edward Conze 1904-1979): Homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy!
行深般若波羅蜜多時，
RP: While practicing the deep, practice of Prajnaparamita.
EC: Avalokita, the holy lord and bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the wisdom which has gone beyond.
照見五蘊皆空，度一切苦厄。
RP: Looked upon the five skandhas, and seeing they were empty of self-existence
EC: He looked down from on high, he beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own being they were empty.
舍利子，色不異空，空不異色；色即是空，空即是色。
RP: Said, Here, Shariputra, Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Emptiness is not separate from form, form is not separate from emptiness. Whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form.
EC: Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; what ever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form;
受、想、行、識，亦復如是。
RP: The same holds for sensation and perception, memory and consciousness.
EC: the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.
舍利子，是諸法空相，
RP: Here, Shariputra, all dharmas are defined by emptiness.
EC: Here, O Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness
不生不滅，不垢不淨，不增不減，
RP: Not birth or destruction, purity or defilement, completeness or deficiency.
EC: They are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.
是故空中無色，無受、想、行、識；無眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意；
RP: Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no memory and no consciousness. No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body and no mind.
EC: Therefore, O Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; no eye, ear nose, tongue, body mind;
無色、聲、香、味、觸、法；無眼界，乃至無意識界；
RP: No shape, no sound, no smell, no taste, no feeling and no thought; no element of perception, from eye to conceptual consciousness;
EC: No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind. no sight=organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element;
無無明，亦無無明盡；乃至無老死，亦無老死盡。
RP: No causal link, from ignorance to old age and death; and no end of causal link, from ignorance to old age and death.
EC: There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death.
無苦、集、滅、道，無智亦無得。
RP: No suffering, no source, no relief, no path. No knowledge, no attainment and no non-attainment.
EC: There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and no non-attainment.
以無所得故，菩提薩埵，依般若波羅蜜多故，
RP: Therefore, Shariputra, without attainment. Bodhisattvas take refuge in Prajnaparamita.
EC: Therefore, O Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainmentness that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings.
心無罣礙，無罣礙故，無有恐怖，遠離顛倒夢想，究竟涅槃。
RP: And live without walls of the mind, without walls of the mind and thus without fears. They see through delusions and finally nirvana.
EC: In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to nirvana.
三世諸佛，依般若波羅蜜多故，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
RP: All buddhas past, present and future, also take refuge in prajnaparamita, and realize unexcelled, perfect enlightenment.
EC: All those who appear as buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment because they have relied on the perfection of wisdom.
故知般若波羅蜜多，是大神咒，是大明咒，是無上咒，是無等等咒，
RP: You should therefore know the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great magic, the unexcelled mantra, the mantra equal to the unequalled.
EC: Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell,
能除一切苦，真實不虛。
RP:Which heals all suffering and is true, not false.
EC: allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong?
故說般若波羅蜜多咒，即說咒曰：“揭諦、揭諦，波羅揭諦，波羅僧揭諦，菩提薩婆訶。”
RP: Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no memory and no consciousness. No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body and no mind.
EC: Therefore, O Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; no eye, ear nose, tongue, body mind;
無色、聲、香、味、觸、法；無眼界，乃至無意識界；
RP: No shape, no sound, no smell, no taste, no feeling and no thought; no element of perception, from eye to conceptual consciousness;
EC: No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind. no sight=organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element;
無無明，亦無無明盡；乃至無老死，亦無老死盡。
RP: No causal link, from ignorance to old age and death; and no end of causal link, from ignorance to old age and death.
EC: There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death.
無苦、集、滅、道，無智亦無得。
RP: No suffering, no source, no relief, no path. No knowledge, no attainment and no non-attainment.
EC: There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and no non-attainment.
以無所得故，菩提薩埵，依般若波羅蜜多故，
RP: Therefore, Shariputra, without attainment. Bodhisattvas take refuge in Prajnaparamita.
EC: Therefore, O Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainmentness that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings.
心無罣礙，無罣礙故，無有恐怖，遠離顛倒夢想，究竟涅槃。
RP: And live without walls of the mind, without walls of the mind and thus without fears. They see through delusions and finally nirvana.
EC: In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to nirvana.
三世諸佛，依般若波羅蜜多故，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
RP: All buddhas past, present and future, also take refuge in prajnaparamita, and realize unexcelled, perfect enlightenment.
EC: All those who appear as buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment because they have relied on the perfection of wisdom.
故知般若波羅蜜多，是大神咒，是大明咒，是無上咒，是無等等咒，
RP: You should therefore know the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great magic, the unexcelled mantra, the mantra equal to the unequalled.
EC: Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell,
能除一切苦，真實不虛。
RP:Which heals all suffering and is true, not false.
EC: allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong?
故說般若波羅蜜多咒，即說咒曰：“揭諦、揭諦，波羅揭諦，波羅僧揭諦，菩提薩婆訶。”
RP: The mantra in prajnaparamita spoken thus, 'Gate Gate, Paragate, Parasanagate, Bodhi Svaha'
EC: By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this: Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail! This completes the heart of perfect wisdom.
— 玄奘法師译，般若波羅蜜多心經
Xuan Zang's version of Prajna-paramita-hridaya Sutra (649)
Meaning of the title
Xuan Zang's version of Prajna-paramita-hridaya Sutra (649)
Meaning of the title
Prajna-paramita-hridaya Sutra 般若波羅蜜多心經
般若 prajna means "wisdom" "befor" (pra 般) "to know" (jna 若)
波羅蜜多 paramita means "perfection" or "beyond" (para 波羅) "gone" (ita 多/陰性詞) --> "what has gone beyond, " or "what is transcendent, " or "what (or she who) leads us to the other shore" 到達彼岸, 完滿完成
Prajna-paramita means "perfection of wisdom", and the personified Goddess of Wisdom.
Hridaya means the heart, the core, the essence.
