This study about the Northern School’s teaching is based on Chan master’s ‘RecordedSayings’ and Treatises from Dunhuang manuscripts which are Wu Fangbian Men, Dunwu Zhenzong Yaolun, the long manuscripts of Xiuxin Yaolun, Guanxin Lun, and Yuanming Lun. In the pass these texts were treated as the Northern School’s literatures, but according to the philosophy of Chan Buddhism, especially in the theories of mind and the way of practice, we will find that the five texts have obvious difference. Some of them in the theories of mind have Chan Buddhism’s tradition, and others don’t. Therefore the goal of this essay is trying to clarify the difference, divide these texts into main literatures and controversial literatures, and explain it.
