The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti was an important Buddhist canon of Mahayana which has profound Buddhistic doctrine. The thoughts expressed in the teaching were capable of catching the trend of the time, and its contents have shown a literary, artistic, and dramatic style that made it a favorable and popular Sutra among people of all walks. The points to be discussed in this thesis are divided into three major items: 1) The interpretation and annotation of The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: which will describe the interpretation of Sutras into Chinese from East Han to Tang dynasties, then make a comparison of the contents among the three existing Chinese interpretation versions, and finally make a brief introduction to the annotation version and the annotator of The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti; 2) The fundamental thinking of The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti. This thesis has focused on three basic ways of thinking, i.e. Pure mind pure land, Non-biding to stand all dharma, and To enter the only way, etc, to analyze and investigate; 3) The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti and the scholars of Six dynasties and Tang dynasty: The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti has great influenced on those scholars since it was translated into Chinese. This thesis has taken Chih-tun and Hsieh Ling-Yun of the Six dynasties and Li Pai, Du Fu, Wang Wei and Pai Chu-I of Tang dynasty as example to analyze their literary works so as to investigate their influence on Chinese scholars. To modern people, The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti not only guides people with an “empty view” to set free from the secular world and avoid being persistent, but also encourage people to save and help all living things. It is not only a book of Buddhism, but also a canon for people of all walks to upgrade themselves.
