(Chu) Tao Sheng stands out in history as a unique and preeminent thinker whose paradigmatic, original ideas paved the way for the advent of Chinese Buddhism, The Universality of Buddha nature, which Tao-Sheng Championed at the cost of excommunication, was to become a cornerstone of the Chinese Buddhist ideology. This book presents a comprehensive study of the only complete document by Tao-Sheng still in existence. The work was composed toward the end of Tao-Sheng’s life (in 432), a product of his mature scholarship, presumably incorporating the doctrines pronounced earlier. The aim of this study are twofold: (1) to prepare a faithfull, undistorted translation of the commentary in its entirety, in order to provide a basis and vantage point for further study and understanding of Tao-Sheng; and (2) to attempt to illuminate Tao-Sheng’s system of religious knowledge by examining the commentary in conjunction with other doctrines and writings, and thus to evaluate Tao-Sheng’s contribution to implanting (or transplanting) the alien religious system in Chinese soil. Of course, the two objectives are not to be seen as separate tasks; they are closely bound up with one another.
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