漢譯律藏有關畜生的律制規範

Animal is one of the so-called six classes of beings in Buddhism. Animals co-exist with people in the world, monks and nuns are no exception. Both Buddhist teaching and monastic discipline concern about how to deal with animals. Since Buddhism is widely spread across various places and Buddhist scriptures are numerous, no single view of animals can represent different Buddhist traditions. Based on the Chinese translation of Buddhist Vinayas, this preliminary study discusses a number of related issues, such as the meanings and categories of animals, disciplinary rules on animals and their rationale behind, the similarities and differences of rules concerned among various Chinese Vinayas etc. All in all, Buddhist view on animals reflects the spirit of the middle way of Buddhist teaching and deserves deepen research in the future.