「番僧」和「蕃僧」是中國佛教史上頗具深蘊的兩個關鍵詞。番僧與蕃僧群體在佛法傳承層面往往扮演著使者的角色，此已為各類史籍所證明。不過時人常將「番僧」和「蕃僧」視若同義詞，遂致理解史事時疑竇叢生。本文以「番」、「蕃」所係詞彙之分析作為鋪墊，進而探索「番僧」與「蕃僧」的精微內蘊，冀望由此廓清這兩個詞語的歷史本真。論述含納「西番」、「蕃將」、「胡僧」、「梵僧」、「西僧」等稱謂，隨之點出外來文化對於語言建構的意義。

West monks (番僧) and foreign monks (蕃僧) are two keywords with deep implicitness in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Many of the west monks and foreign monks have taken the messengers’ role in Dharma transmission that has been verified by a variety of historical records. Nonetheless some scholars regard west monks and foreign monks as synonyms so that it is impossible for others to understand exactly the relevant meanings in the materials. This thesis aims at an analysis of the lexicon based on west (番) and foreign (蕃) in order to clear the implications and even the truth of the two words in historical context. The arguments also refer to other keywords such as western Tibeto-Burman peoples (西番), tribal generals (蕃將), exotic monks (胡僧), pure monks (梵僧) and western monks (西僧) before interpreting the significance which alien culture contributed to the linguistic construction.