On the Cultural Value of The Origins of Buddhism

As Buddhist masterpiece widely spread in the Ming Dynasty of China but almost forgotten over the past hundreds of years, The Origins of Buddhism records the difficulties and setbacks in the introduction of Buddhism from the East into China and expounds Buddhist nature and doctrine. Starting from Buddhism itself, furthermore, the book makes its supreme effort to bring Confucianism and Taoism into the Buddhist system and places emphasis on the effects of the Buddhist culture on the traditional Chinese culture. The research on the book is of great significance not only for proper understanding of the Buddhist history of China and the extreme hardship and difficulty different generations of Buddhist monks went through in spreading their religion, but for studying the cultural value of Buddhism.