Abstract:

The intellectual history of annotations to Vimalakirti-Nivdesa Sutra since the middle ancient times shows that the Sutra exerted extensive and profound influence on the study of sutras in the middle ancient China and the activities of annotation and learning of the Sutra also reached its prime at that time. A great number of annotations of high quality had been created by various schools, including the schools in the Guanzhong area represented by Kumarajiva, SENG Zao, SENG Chao and ZHU Dao sheng,the Earth and Perturbation Theories, the School of the Three Sutras, the Tiantai School and the Dharmalaksana School. This thesis examines the formation and development of different schools of the annotations to Vimalakirti-Nivdesa Sutra in the middle ancient times in order to clarify the intellectual contexts of the annotations of these different schools, and consequently make a new judgment on the relationship between the author of Dunhuang version of Vimalakirti -Nivdesa Sutra(T2771) and the Northern Perturbation School represented by TAN Qian.