In addition to presenting an annotated translation of the Inquiry into the Origin of Man (Yuan-jen lun) by the noted Hua-yen and Ch'an scholar Keui-feng Tsung-mi (780-841), the present thesis also includes a historical study, which discusses the significance of this essay within the context of Buddhist hermeneutics and Chinese intellectual history. By comparing Tsung-mi's fivefold classification of the Buddha's teachings with the earlier classification scheme devised by Fa-tsang (643-712), it explores some of the underlying doctrinal tensions within the Hua-yen tradition, as well as highlighting some of the more important changes that had taken place in the Chinese Buddhist world in the almost century and a half that separated the work of these two figures.
