Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/80863

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/jfhhs.16.15

The Yiqiejingyinyi 一切経音義is the oldest Buddhist dictionary that exists in China. In the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzang 玄奘brought many Buddhist scriptures from India to China. To translate these Buddhist texts, a “translation place 訳場” was set up in Changʼan 長安, and intellectuals were selected from among the monks, including XuanYing 玄応. Xuan Ying was conscious of the fact that there are many difficult words in the Buddhist scriptures, and thus composed dictionaries for those texts whilst translating. This dictionary was called Yiqiejingyinyi, which has approximately 400,000 characters in a total of 25 volumes, taken from more than 400 Buddhist scriptures and having more than 8,000 entries. It was introduced to Japan in the Nara period and was widely transcribed. At present the Yiqiejingyinyi retains only printed editions in China, while in Japan it retains many manuscripts. In addition, the Dunhuang and Turfan manuscripts of this dictionary are preserved in the British Library and the French National Library.