This paper aims at disclosing the characteristics of some scholars’ understanding of Buddhism in Wei-jin era. Especially, this paper took notice of some scholars (玄學家 xuanxuejia) who did not belong to Buddhist priests. The reason to analyze these scholars’ statements is that they show a transformed Chinese Buddhist idea more obviously in comparison to the ideas of the professional Buddhist priests of later period.
This transformation was caused by their traditional way of thinking, that is, Taoist way of thinking. However, it is important to acknowledge that there has been two types of Taoist ways of thinking, that is, the pre-Qin Taoist and the Neo-Taoist way of thinking. Because the Neo-Taoism gave a great influence directly on the formation of early Chinese Buddhist ideas. The difference between the former and the latter is that the latter regarded the Tao as an ultimate something that brings forth everything in this world, while the former would not localize the Tao as an simple substance. Among Neo-Taoists in this period, Wang-pi understood the Tao as an fundamental nothingness (本無). It is really problematic that this kind of understanding is apt to lose the philosophical insight of the pre-Qin Taoist regarding the Tao as a paradoxical oneness or dynamic(chaotic) undivided One.
Some Neo-Taoists in 3-4 AD. who had not enough knowledge about Buddhism had to understand it through their traditional Taoist perspective. The problem is that their way of understanding of Buddhism was mainly based on Wang-pi’s Neo-Taoism (玄學 xuanxue) aforementioned.
This paper examined the text Hongmingji (弘明集) in order to find the Chinese people’s way of understanding of Buddhism when they began to understand it theoretically. Through analyzing the statements related to the concepts of ‘mysterious mental activities or soul (神)’, ‘metempsychosis (輪廻)’, ‘emptiness (空)’, ‘nirvana (涅槃)’, we could find the fact that they transformed those concepts into traditional Taoist or Neo-Taoist sense of concepts. That is, they created the concept of ‘shen (神)’ as an imperishable mind having no material form. They also understood the Indian Buddhist concept of ‘sa s ra (輪廻)’ based on the theory of dependent arising (緣起說) as the concept established by a simple cause and effect theory. The concept of nya (空) was understood as an absolute or ultimate nothingness which is similar to Wang-pi’s fundamental nothingness (本無). And the concept of ‘nirvana (涅槃)’ was also understood as the status of a tranquil or unmoved mind that was passively and negatively defined.