Buddhist Bilingual Dictionaries and the Vogue of Study of Foreign Languages during Sui-Tang Period

Sui and Tang Dynasties were the most important period of translation of Buddhist canons and movement of study Buddhism to India and Central Asia. In order to understand complicated Buddhism and study foreign knowledge, people had first to learn Indian Sanskrit or other ethnic languages in western regions. As a result, Buddhist and non-Buddhist scholars began to write or edit various kinds of rudimental books and imperative reference books, for example, Buddhist dictionaries, Sanskrit-Chinese wordbooks, interpretation of pronunciations and meanings in Buddhist canon. This paper discusses the vogue of study and use of foreign languages in Tang Dynasty. The author makes an effort to analyze the various causes in its formation why Sanskrit-Chinese wordbooks and Buddhist dictionaries were fashionable in that age.