A Study Of The Lost "Zhong Lun Shu" That Died In The Middle Ages

This article takes the Middle-Age commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra,cited by the Japanese monk An Cheng in the Commentary of Madhyamika-sastra,as the research object.Through text analysis,it clarifies the methods and features of the commentary style and thought inheritance in these commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra.And then it summarizes the interpretation history of the Madhyamika-sastra text in China and further clarify the development of the Chinese Three-Treatise school.The study of commentary on the classics is an important part of Chinese Buddhism.After the translation of Madhyamika-sastra to China,from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties,the tradition of commenting and disseminating of Madhyamika-sastra has never interrupted.The history of commentary of Madhyamika-sastra well embodies the process of the spread and acceptance of Buddhist classics in China.This article is divided into two parts: research and collation.The collation is mainly of the fragments of the commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra cited in the Commentary of Madhyamika-sastra which appended as appendix to help readers understand the structure of the commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra from the overall structure.The research part includes:1.Discuss the literature value,predecessor research,methods and ideas of these lost the commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra.2.Combining the historical materials of the monks,summarize the life stories of Tan Ying,Zhi Lin,Falang,Tan Chen,Daozhuang and even Shuo Master and Yuan Kang,and explain their commentary background.3.Focusing on the style of content and writing,make an overview of these commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra.4.Taking the commentary style as an entry point,analyze the manifestation and evolution of commentary styles which commonly used in ancient Buddhist scriptures and aslo appeared in these commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra.And then summarize the historical evolution of the commentary styles of these commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra.5.Summarize the school-defining thoughts appeared in these commentary books of Madhyamika-sastra.And analyze the evolution trends of the Hinayana and Mahayana,the school and sectarian consciousness of the Madhyamika-sastra commentators in the process from Guanhe and Sheshan school to the Three-Treatise school,then finnally conclude the formation of Three-Treatise school thoughts which reflected in these commentary books.