The groundbreaking comparative study of Shi, Yinshun (1988) in relation to the Chapter of the One-fold in the Benshi (本事) , Itivuttaka, Ekottarika Āgama (增壹阿含) and Aṅguttara Nikāya are the inspiration of my study. The comparative study of these four materials has created a new prospect in the studies of early Buddhist thought. Following the methodology of Yinshun, this thesis is a study on the Chapter of the Two-fold in the Benshi, by comparing early discourses which contain parallel contents, for instance, the four Āgamas, the five Nikāyas, Vinayas and early Chinese translations of independent sutras. By the comparative approach, this thesis aims to provide a comprehensive view in relation to the Chapter of the Two-fold in the Benshi in term of its content and doctrinal presentation, at the same time to gain a better understanding of the Benshi and to facilitate the exposure to the early Buddhist thought. In this thesis, twenty-nine discourses of the Chapter of the Two-fold have been studied comparatively within the discourse parallels. Except for the known fact derived from the Itivuttaka, this thesis made some new findings. Furthermore, by comparing the parallel content to the Chapter of the Two-fold, the result has shown a quite different picture from Yinshun’s comparative study of the Chapter of the One-fold (1988) which uses the numerical items as the study criteria. There are thirteen discourse parallels between the Benshi Chapter of the Two-fold and the Aṅguttara Nikāya. This number of correlation is higher than the three correspondences to the Ekottarika Āgama. Futhermore, my study has shown that the main part of the Benshi and other discourses which are compiled under numerical scheme seems to be transmitted and preserved not only as numerical items, but also contains full discourses, or excerption of a discourse which contains numerical items.
