Buddhist kepan and literary theory of the early Tang Dynasty

Abstract

The term kepan y裄$ means to divide a text into chapters and paragraphs. By explicating the context of Buddhist kepan and its influence on the explanation of Confucian classics, this paper tries to demonstrate how wide and profound this influence was on literary criticism in three aspects: literary criticism, fluency and coherence of writing, and relationships between the authors of literary theories and Buddhism in the early Tang Dynasty.