The Research Of An Shigao’s Neologisms Integrated Into Chinese Lexicon

As the first one who translated the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese language, not only did An Shigao open the door for Chinese language to contact with foreign language through translation on a large scale, but his works significantly influenced the later translation of Buddhist scriptures. The translations of An Shigao brought a host of neologisms into Chinese vocabulary. When we study the vocabulary of Buddhist scriptures, there will be some noteworthy issues about how these neologisms adapted the phonetic system and grammar construction of Chinese language, and how they evolved after being translated.This paper, with 4 chapters, has given the preliminary analysis for the neologisms from the reliable scriptures of An Shigao. The first chapter "introduction" introduces the origin of selecting the topic, the concept and object to be studied, the research status quo, and the research methods. The second chapter "the overview of neologisms from An Shigao’s scriptures" discusses the neologisms as two main groups:the loanwords and the newly-coined words. The third chapter "the different stages of integration" analyzes the different acceptance of neologisms in Chinese lexicon. The fourth chapter "the results of neologisms integrated into Chinese lexicon" discusses the evolution of these neologisms. The last chapter summarizes this article. This article has analyzed the origination and property of neologisms in An Shigao’s scriptures, and described the different levels and times of the acceptance of the neologisms in Chinese lexicon, and the sematic/functional evolution of the neologisms. Meanwhile, this paper also tries to make interpretation for some difficult words and phrases in An Shigao’s translated Buddhist scriptures.