As one of the representatives of the literature school of Gongan in the late Ming dynasty, Yuan Hongdao's thought on the Buddhism had influenced not merely his Buddhist contemporaries, but also impacted upon the development of Buddhist ideology to some degrees in the later era. Among all the writings of Yuan Hongdao, the ten-fascicle Western Coordinate Theory was the only work specializing in the Pure Land ideology, of which the first fascicle—"Chatumen" had noticeably focused on the researching of Pure Land Practice. Basing on this Pure Land ideology in the "Chatumen" of the Western Coordinate Theory, I want to delve into the inheritance and innovation of Yuan Hongdao's Pure Land thought. As shown in his work—Coral Grove, Yuan Hongdao explained that the Western Coordinate Theory aims to reveal the meaning of Chan by means of Pure Land, because some people who value Chan practice always ignore Pure Land while the others who practice Pure Land despise Chan practice. Hence the coordinate commentating is requested. In other words, Yuan Hongdao attempted to harmonize the bias of the practitioners of Chan and Pure Land. To sum up, Yuan Hongdao stressed the practice of western Pure Land and aimed to deal with the issue of Chan practice. Just as what Yuan Zhongdao, Yuan Hongdao's younger brother, had said: "There are more and more people talking about wonderful enlightenment, but most of them do not practice." Thus the publication of the Western Coordinate Theory is right to reflect the epochal value of Yuan Hongdao’s Pure Land thought. The ten kinds of Pure Land theory discussed in "Chatumen" is based on Huayan Elder－Li Tongxuan's Huayanjing Coordinate Theory, though certain canonical exegesis was also employed by Yuan Hongdao to contrast it. And Yuan Hongdao had uniquely focused on the western Pure Land to complement his innovative explanation of the ten kinds of Pure Land. In the course of explaining the ten kinds of Pure Land, Yuan Hongdao identified the western Pure Land as the final destination. And eventually, it successfully transcended Li Tongxuan's achievement in "The Ten Pure Land" theory's interpretation of "expedient" or "real" proposition. The tenth Pure Land was named "The Incredible Pure Land of Delivering All Sentient Beings in the Ten Directions" under Yuan Hongdao's explanation; it was also the final footnote of the western Pure Land. As the "Incredible" was explained, Yuan Hongdao applied it to promote the Western Pure Land as the most incredible Pure Land.
