“Unrecognizing the reflection” is one of the topics found in Buddhist fables. It describes the most common mistakes when the story character takes one’s own reflection as other people, or takes other people’s image as oneself. Such mistakes often make people act like a lunatic. This kind of humorous and interesting theme has been for long used by the Buddhists as a metaphor to associate with fundamental doctrines in Buddhism. With the translation of Buddhist scriptures into China, it has also ungone numerous changes found in the chronicle of jokes and folktales across generations. This article aims to explore the spread and transmission of Buddhist fables’ theme “unrecognizing the reflection,” to see how it evolves and develops through oral to writing medium and other different ways over the course of time and in different areas.
