| Abstract |
When Buddhism was introduced into China, similar thoughts and concepts in Chinese tradition were utilized to avoid both the conflicts and barriers of thoughts in different cultures, to reach a convenient verbal communication, and to make it easier to be accepted. Zhuangzi is the most frequently quoted and the most influential among the sorces of Chinese thought utilized to interprent Buddhism. Thus, the contemporaries of the Song Dynasty held that Buddhist thought originated with Zhuabgzi. Buddhistic study generally refers to both the elucidatoin and development of the fundamental doctriners since the founding of Buddihism by Siddhartha Gautama. The theory that "Buddhist thought originated with Zhuangzi" easily causes a misunderstanding that it was Zhuangzi who has influenced Siddhartha Gautama. Therefore, it is necessary to deve into this kind of problem in case we would fall prey to anachronism. This paper begins with the semanttic analysis of the connotations of both key terms "Buddhistic study" and "sorces" in order to ascertain what the topic of this paper refers to; then it proceeds with the analysis of the contents of this terms, along with theif merits and demerits. In order to explicate the related problems arousing from the aforementioned theory in the Song Dynasty, I shall attempt to locate the motivation behind this kind of theory throuth semantic reasoning. |
