Based On The Study Of Foreign Words In The "Buddhist Land Sutra" Surveyed By Van Gogh

Upon its introduction into China along the Silk Road,Buddhism began to exert multiple effects on the Han society in the Eastern Han Dynasty,and with that came Chinese translation of Buddhist sutras.Due to the huge difference in socio-cultural context between India and China,lots of Buddhist concepts and doctrines were hard to translate into Chinese words and phrases,so loanword emerged at the right moment.The use of this concept poses a new challenge to the academia : from an etymological perspective,are the generally recognized loanwords really derived from Buddhist sutras.In giant Chinese reference books there are many documentary proofs concerning the loanwords generated in the Late Han Dynasty and Wei and Jin Dynasties,but do they represent the earliest usage? All such issues need researching and investigating,so it is of great significance to carry out a Chinese study based on a Sanskrit-Chinese comparative analysis.Through a special study of Bodhisattva-bh?mi,this paper describes and analyzes the loanwords in it by dividing them into three categories : transliterated word,semi-transliterated word and loan-translated word,and discusses these words,including the time of their first use,and the difference in acceptance level,in the hope of identifying the words not treated as loanwords in the academic circles but perceived as loanwords according to the Sanskrit dictionary,and the words treated as loanwords in the academic circles but actually not according to the Sanskrit dictionary.Then this paper analyzes the loan-translated words in the sutra in order to convincingly demonstrate that loan-translated words should be considered as loanwords.In addition,the paper points out the homomorphic free-translated words that cannot be identified without Sanskrit equivalent.Compared with the broad sea of scriptures,a sutra just contains much fewer loanwords,but we still expect to improve the academic research of this sutra with our pygmy effort by analyzing and picking out the loanwords in this sutra,so as to inspire more researchers to study this sutra,the medieval Chinese and Buddhism from different perspectives with enthusiasm.This paper falls into 5 chapters:Chapter 1: Introduction.This chapter is divided into eight parts and makes a brief introduction to the reason of topic selection,the research actuality of the loanwords in Chinese Buddhist texts,the author of Bodhisattva-bh?mi and the publishing year,thecontent of Bodhisattva-bh?mi and the publishing year,the research method and word segmentation standard adopted in this paper and as well as the definition of foreign words and the "Buddha to hold" in the introduction of foreign words.Chapter 2: Transliterated word: the words are arranged by the phonetic sequence of Chinese equivalents,and each word is followed by the Sanskrit equivalent and paraphrase.If the same Sanskrit word appears as different declensions in this translation,the declensions will be put behind,followed by the Sanskrit equivalent of each declension,as well as comparative examples and grammar analysis,and finally the usage of the transliterated word in different ages is illustrated.Chapter 3 : Semi-transliterated word : transliterated words are studied on classification.The categories include:(1)transliteration + free-translated class name;(2)transliterated class name + free translation :(3)free-translated class name +transliteration;(4)free translation + transliterated class name;(5)free translation +transliteration + free-translated class name.There are subcategories under each category,and behind each word there is its Sanskrit equivalent,and paraphrase,as well as the Sanskrit equivalent of each declension,the comparative examples and grammar analysis.Finally,The earliest usage in Buddhist texts is set out,and then the usage of this word in the Later Mediaeval Times or Ming and Qing Dynasties is displayed.Chapter 4 : Loan-translated word : Each word is followed by the Sanskrit equivalent.If the same Sanskrit word appears as different declensions in this translation,the declensions will be set out behind the word,followed by the corresponding examples and grammar analysis,and then the usage of this word in the Later Mediaeval Times.The results of research on loanwords by Sanskrit-Chinese comparative analysis and new findings are summed up at the end of this paper,so is the deficiency and something worth further researching.