Abstract

As one of the earliest Indian Mahāyāna scriptures，the Lotus Sūtra has deeply influenced the development of Buddhism in East Asia. Among all ideas and contents in this scripture，one would never miss“parables”as one of the most attractive essences. It involves a complicated hermeneutical process to receive and understand these parables in a culture totally different from India. To delve into this very process underwent in Chinese society，this book focuses on various materials from the Six Dynasties to the Tang，seeking to reconstruct the complexity and multiplicity within.

The book begins with tracing the parables of the Lotus Sūtra back to their Indian origin，including the normal way to conceptualize and understand“parables”in India during time，and the cultural context and sources from which those parables were derived. This observation works as background information and a good parallel to Chinese hermeneutical works（Chapter 1）. And then the hermeneutical history of the parables in China is discussed from perspectives of their translation，doctrinal interpretation，and their application in local religious life.

Starting from the issue of the basic structure of recognition where“parable”as a way of teaching is located，Chapter 2 focuses on the very process within which the hermeneutical structure“Three Rounds of Teaching”in Chinese hermeneutical tradition were evolved from a repeated phrase“causes，examples and words”，which was actually an intentional outcome of formalization of phrasing in Kumārajīva's translation. Chapter 3 sees how the relationship between different parables is understood in scholastic commentaries. To seek the continuous and identical intelligibility among parables，two plans are seen in history：one is the schema of“Seven Parables”or“Ten Superiority”which was firstly raised by the Saddharmapuṇdalīka-upadeṣa，and was totally received and utilized in the exegesis by Kui-ji；and the other way is to construct the part-to-part counter-relationship between parables under the structural principle of“Three Rounds of Teachings”. All these structural hermeneutical constructions terminate with the interpretation of single parable（Chapter 4）. Using the“Parable of Burning House”as an example，this book discusses how a parable is actually interpreted under all those structural principles settled above. It could be observed that the interplay between“dharma”and“parable”in the commentaries，which is determined by the principle of“Three Rounds of Teachings”，becomes an indispensable mechanism in the exploration of the“deep meaning”of the sūtra，as well as in the production of new understandings and meanings of parables.

A wider context other than exegeses witnessed the understanding and application of the parables. Chapter 5 scrutinizes the application of parables of the Lotus Sūtra in inscriptions of donors，which are records of local religious practice to generate merit. Through this kind of material，one could observe the way through which ideas from the scripture gradually get penetrated into local people's religious life and contribute to their common sense about“Buddhism”. Rather than receive such knowledge passively，members in local society actively utilize and reform the rendering of parables，which shows different approaches to parables from doctrinal commentaries.

Chapter 6 discusses the representation of parables in scriptural tableaux，mainly those remained in murals of Dunhuang. As a totally different way to convey information compared to verbal media，these tableaux show another line of logic which is mainly dominated by visuality to solve problems in the representation and interpretation of the parables.

Chinese Buddhism is stratified in nature，and the pictures of its canons in Chinese society could be dynamic and various. By comparing different materials produced in different contexts and religious practice by different groups，the case of the reception and interpretation of the parables of the Lotus Sūtra could serve as a worthy exemplar through which one could see how Buddhist scriptures were gradually received by various distinctive groups of people in history and the richness and complexity within this very process.

Key Words： the Lotus Sūtra；parables；doctrinal commentaries；inscriptions of donors；scriptural tableaux