The Characteristics of the Chinese Buddhist Concept of Self

Abstract

In this final chapter, I aim to show that the idea of an imperishable soul became theorized in a more sophisticated way by Chinese Buddhists after the fifth century, while the expressions reflecting that idea started to disappear gradually in the works of the major translators from the time of Samghadeva and Kumārajīva, i.e., around the last decade of the fourth century and the first decade of the fifth century.