Bianwen has always been a key area of research into Dunhuang literature. To date, however, much controversy still surrounds the nomenclature of bianwen and the origin of bian in bianwen and bianxiang in the academia. This thesis discusses these issues and proposes ways to solve related problems. To the author, bian has its etymological origin in China. It is not a foreign term. While there is continuitybetween the concept of bianwen in the early and the latter period, they are different from each other and therefore should not be treated as the same concept.