The Logical Core Meaning Of Sa(?)kh(?)ra In Early Buddhism

This paper deals with the concept "sankhara" in "pancakkhandha","paticcasamuppada",and "tilakkhana",within the context of Early Buddhism;and tries to analyse why the same signifier "sankhara" could be used in the above-mentioned three categories,with seemingly different connotations.Based on the researches done by foreign scholars,this paper delves into the Pali Canon pertaining to this subject,and finally get to the logical core meaning of sankhara--"to volitionally form" or "to volitionally coordinate" or "to volitionally constitute".It is because this core meaning haven't been explicitly mentioned in the Agama or Nikaya,so here we could only call it "logical core meaning";it is obtained through thoroughly analysis of the Buddhist scriptures,and could universally and effectively be applied to those seemingly different "sankharas" in those three different categories.After all those analysis,we could now get a better understanding of the concept"sankhara" in early Buddhist philosophy,as well as a deeper insight and apprehension of the pillars,like "paticcasamuppada" and "cattari Ariyasaccani",of Buddhism.According to the bibliographic retrieval,Buddhism study in Chinese language pays almost exclusively attention to the Mahayana Buddhism,it is therefore worthwhile to do some investigation about the concepts and philosophy of the earlier Buddhism,which will no doubt give us a more comprehensive digest of what the Buddha taught.