A Study On The Numerals Of Translated Buddhist Sutra In East Han Dynasty

The Numeral occupies an important position in the Chinese vocabulary.As a kind of special Chinese research material,Chinese Translated Buddhist Sutra also enjoys great research value.Now,scholars have paid much more attention to the Numerals of the Translated Buddhist Sutra in East Han Dynasty,but the analyses are not that comprehensive and specific.This paper deals with the Numerals in Translated Buddhist Sutra in East Han Dynasty,makes an exhibition of the specific views and generalizes the features of the Numerals in the sutras through quantitative analysis and qualitative discussion.The paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter one is a brief introduction of the research valve,research method and research materials.We also discuss the language research of the Translated Buddhist Sutra in East Han Dynasty and the Numeral research of Chinese.With the measure of the linguistic corpus as well as the quantitative analysis and qualitative discussion,we analyze the 31 translated Buddhist Sutras in East Han Dynasty,aim to show the whole view of the Numeral system directly and the whole view of language indirectly of the sutras.In addition,we intended to enrich the research achievements of the Chinese Translated Buddhist Sutra by studying the materials effectively.Chapter two gives a systematic view of the Cardinal Number.In tis part,we have a respective discussion of the Coefficient Words and Digit words.We mainly discuss the "yi","er" of the Coefficient Words and the structures and the numeral functions of the Digit words.As a typical word of the Coefficient Words,the syntactic functions of "yi" are also mentioned in the chapter.Chapter three offers specific descriptions of the Ordinal and Multiple.In the translated Buddhist Sutras in East Han Dynasty,some kinds of Cardinal Number can be used as Ordinal,"di" plus Cardinal Number is the other expression.There are also two main ways to express Multiple,one is the "bei" plus Cardinal Number,the other is expressed by "bei" directly.The syntactic functions of the Ordinal and Multiple are also discussed in the chapter too.In Chapter four,we analyze the Approximate Number and Fraction of the Numerals in the sutras.We find that some digit words,compound digit words and coefficient-digit compound words can be used as Approximate Number.And "shu" and "ruogan" are two ways to emphasize Approximate Number.We only find one expression of Fraction,that is"ban".The syntactic functions of the Approximate Number and Fraction have been generalized at the end of the chapter.Chapter five concentrates much on the features of the Numerals in the sutras.We find the three dominant features are "the abundance of Large Number","multiple expressions of Large Number" and "greatly promoted structure ability".The digit word "yi",some compound digit words and coefficient-digit compound words are the main expressions of the Large Number.What's more,"wushu","wuyangshu","bukeji","bukeshu","bukeji(suan)","bukefuji","asengqi" and "henghe(bian)sha" are the special expressions of the Large Number.We can see "greatly promoted structure ability" of the Numerals by some numeral-noun structures,such as "wuli","sicheng","qijueyi" and "sanqiandaqianshijie".