A Review of Studies of Medieval Buddhist Law Literature

The language of the medieval Buddhist law literature has an important position in the study of Chinese history. However, the academic circle has attached much less importance to it than to the language of the sutra literature. The cur- rent relevant studies mainly focus on the early Chinese translation of the Buddhist law, rarely on the classic works studying the Buddhist law in Tang and Song Dynasties. Further, they pay inadequate attention to the localization of the language in these Buddhist works. The existing studies largely incline to the interpretation of words instead of grammar. In addition, the tack- ling of the language in such literature is simplified and lacks of consideration of“heterogeneous factors”.