The history of the Madhyamaka, one of the two main Indian Mahayana Buddhist philosophical traditions, began around the second century AD with the appearance of the writings of Nagarjuna and Nagarjuna's followers. Several of these writings were transmitted to China in the first decade of the fifth century, and had exerted a considerable influence on the development of Chinese Buddhist thought.

This book examines the three stages of development of Chinese Madhyamaka, focusing attention on the different ways the representative figures of each stage applied basic Madhyamaka principles to deal with the central Buddhist doctrinal issues of their age.

The chief aim of this book is to locate an ideological nucleus and to trace a general pattern of transformation, by referring to which the precise significance of the key theoretical elements and the exact relationship between the main doctrinal aspects of a broad Buddhist intellectual trend can be clearly demonstrated and accurately defined.