When Buddhism first arrived in China, the translation of Buddhist scriptures was made by monks through the way of "Ko-yi" or matching concepts, they "attached the enumeration or conditions of Buddhism to those of other texts, and arranged them into doctrines for teaching people. "But soon they discarded the way of "Ko-yi" for it is nothing but an expedient measure and results in "misunderstanding of meaning. "
However，if we check the development of the Buddhism carefully，we can find that the idea described above is not the truth. Even the masters of the seven early Buddhist Schools in Southern and Northern Dynasties, and all the patriarches, in Tang Dynasty，they always applied this method to explain Buddhism. The other texts what they attached to be similar to the "pre-judice" or "pre-understanding" of contemporary hermeneutics. The pre-judice could be revised at any time，but it is impossible for their understanding without pre-judice. It is true that the method of "Ko-yi" is necessary for their understanding and introducing what is Buddhism.
Therefore，this article will study the legitimacy and necessity of the methodology of "Ko-yi." Firstly，the phenomena of matching concepts and its respondance is explained. Secondary，it can be found that this method is still in use for the development of Buddhism. Finally，I will find out the contemporary significance of matching concepts from the view-point of hermeneutic theory. By the way，there is no strict difference between "contemporary" and "history" here，they are only used for the convenience of discussion.
