本文初稿曾於國立政治大學華人文化主體性研究中心主辦之 2018 年台灣印度學工作坊發表，感謝越建東教授及與會大眾寶貴回饋。修訂稿蒙二位審查委員提供改善建議，讓筆者獲益良多，一併致上誠摯謝意。 作者係香港大學佛學研究中心博士，Junior Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities。
Why early Buddhist texts present highly consistency, but at the same time, they contain many variations? To answer this question, this paper provides a theory of textual templates and variables. The textual templates maintain the uniformity required for communal recitations; they function as a memory aid, an editorial tool, and a mechanism for oral transmission of early Buddhist texts. On the other hand, the variables contribute to the variety of early Buddhist texts. The change of variables is the main difference observed between one text and another. This study focuses on those suttas in the Pāli Nikāyas which include the fixed expressions for the Buddha’s enlightenment announcement as a case study. Then, a comparative study between the Pāli suttas and their parallel texts in the Chinese Āgamas is also done. Both the Pāli texts and the Chinese texts apply the fi xed expressions and the textual templates associated with the Buddha’s announcement of his enlightenment. Comparatively, the compliers of the Pāli Nikāyas use them more systematically than those of the Chinese Āgamas do. Junior Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities. In these texts, one significant theme is the three turning of the four noble truths emphasised in various parallels of the Turning of the Dhamma Wheel Sutta. Besides, most of these suttas are affi liated with the teaching on the triad of gratifi cation, danger and escape, and the teaching that combines the triad with the four noble truths. The application of textual templates and variables is an effi cient and critical method to study early Buddhist texts. It can tell that some are in the same templates but different from their variables, and some are with the same variable, though in different templates. In this way, full or partial parallel texts can be easily detected from hundreds of texts in different Buddhist traditions and languages, which is crucial for comparative studies of early Buddhist texts.
