“The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch” is the most essential and the only one classical book of Buddist texts in China. The author of this book was Master Hui-Neng(638-713), Zen, in Tang Dynasty. There are many versions on the “The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch”; therefore, it caused the upsurging of exploring the versions and the history of Zen in China and also foreign countries as well.However, due to the literatures are so rare and the original version is lost, we only can trace back its original contents by those existing different versions of “ The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch” to explore Six Patriarch’s thoughts and the meanings of the different versions’ additions and deletions. Now researcher will compare five main versions nowadays and put “ The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch” into three parts to explore the differentiation of each version.First of all, the process of Hui-Neng gaining the truth of Zen.Sencondly, Hui-Neng delivered the truth of Zen for the people in Da-Fan temple.Thirdly, The Q/A of Hui-Neng and his students and his wills before he died. The study mainly focused on exploring the different versions of “The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch” and the changing processes of their contents, by doing so, to discover the texts and thoughts and take the essential records of Zen, Light recorded, and epitaph for references to inspire the evolution of “The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch”.
