A Study On Comparative Sentences Of Buddhist Sutra Translated In Medieval Chinese

Buddhism has developed rapidly in China since the Eastern Han Dynasty,and it has also led to the production and dissemination of Chinese translations of Buddhist Sutra(hereinafter referred to as Chinese Sutra).With its high degree of colloquialization and rich documentation,medieval Chinese Sutra is an important source of corpus for the study of medieval Chinese.Comparison is a ubiquitous behavior in human cognitive activities,and the category of comparison is an important content in human language,which is reflected in language as comparative sentences.Since Ma Shi Wen Tong(马氏文通),the study of comparative sentences has been deepened and great progress has been made.This paper makes an exhaustive search of the comparative sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra,based on seven highly colloquial Chinese sutras in medieval times,such as the Xiu Xing Ben Qi Jing(修行本起经)and Zhong Ben Qi Jing(中本起经).The paper takes the comparison mark as a grip to make a comprehensive description from the aspects of comparison items,comparison points,and comparison results,aiming to outline more clearly the overall outline of comparative sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra.This paper consists of six parts:The introduction part firstly expounds the subjects of the study and the sources of the corpus,then reviews the research situation of comparative sentences,especially comparative sentences in medieval times,and clearly presents the research objectives and methods.The first chapter discusses the equal comparison sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra.Based on a comprehensive description,this chapter provides an exhaustive count of the sentences and marks of the equal comparison sentences.Among them,the yu(于)and ru/ruo/si(如/若/似)sentences are inherited from ancient times,while the yu(与)sentences and X+ru+Y+A(X+如+Y+A)format in the ru(如)sentences are new to this period.The second chapter discusses the unequal comparative sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra.According to the nature of the predicate,this chapter divides the unequal comparative sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra into two categories:adjective predicate sentences and verb predicate sentences,including yu(于)and bu ru(不如)sentences,among which the yu(于)sentences are the most common.The third chapter discusses the extremely comparative sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra.The usage frequency of mo(莫)sentences,which were prevalent in ancient times,began to decline in medieval Chinese Sutra,while the zui(最)sentences gradually became dominant.According to whether the comparison point is vague or not,the comparison function of the extremely comparative sentences can be divided into narrow sense and broad sense.The wei wen(未闻)sentences generally belong to the broad extremely comparative sentences because the comparative points are too vague,while the wu bi(无比)sentences belong to another one if the comparative points appear in the comparative items.The fourth chapter focuses on the characteristics of comparative sentences in medieval Chinese Sutra.Firstly,it combs the syntactic,semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the comparative sentences of medieval Chinese Sutra from three aspects:comparative items,comparative points and comparative results.Secondly,a systematic comparative analysis is made between the comparative sentences of medieval Chinese Sutra,ancient Chinese literature,and medieval Chinese literature,so as to highlight the language characteristics of medieval Chinese Sutra.The conclusion part summarizes the basic cognition about the comparative sentences of medieval Chinese Sutra,and points out the shortcomings of the paper and the direction of future efforts.