Cultural Encounter: A Preliminary Study On The Spread Of Indian Samkhya Philosophy In China From The Eastern Jin Dynasty To The Early Tang Dynast

This dissertation explores the reception of the Indian philosophy of Sā(?)khya in China during the period from the Eastern Jin to the early Tang dynasty.It focuses on Gau(?)apāda’s Sā(?)khyakārikābhā(?)ya and on the Jīn qīshí lùn 金七十论(*Suvar(?)asaptati)translated by Paramārtha.As one of the “(?)a(?)dar?ana” of orthodox philosophy and one of the most ancient and once most influential schools in ancient India,although the Sā(?)khya ideas can be traced back to the Vedic period in India,it was not until the Eastern Jin dynasty that it was brought to China with the translation of Buddhist scriptures and as an object of Buddhist criticism.While Paramārtha was invited by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty to come to China via the Maritime Silk Road with his translation of Jīn qīshí lùn,which marked the complete introduction of the Sā(?)khya theory into China.The dissertation will begin with an overview of the content and development of the Sā(?)khya in India,introduce the political,economic and cultural backgrounds of China and India at the time of Paramārtha’s arrival,and compare and analyse the Sā(?)khyakārikābhā(?)ya with the Jīn qīshí lùn,while exploring the acceptance status and its reasons of the Sā(?)khya ideas in Chinese Buddhist scriptures,as with the Mahāprajnāpāramitā?āstra and the Bai Lun Shu,before and after Paramārtha’s arrival in China.Considering that non-Buddhist philosophy has been a relatively neglected object in studies on Sino-Indian cultural exchange,the author hopes to enrich the non-Buddhist connotations of this Sino-Indian cultural encounter through a study of the reception of Indian Sā(?)khya philosophy in ancient China.