This article re-examines the formation of early Dilun Buddhism in Luoyang era Northern Wei China by foregrounding the role of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Ch. Da banniepan jing). While previous scholarship has emphasized Yogācāra-related texts such as the Daśabhūmika-śāstra (Ch. Shidi jing lun), this study argues that the Da banniepan jing constituted an important component of the intellectual and exegetical environment within which early Dilun thought emerged. Drawing on prosopographical evidence, this article examines the recurrent presence of the Da banniepan jing among early Dilun-associated figures and situates it within the broader intellectual environment of early Dilun Buddhism. It further proposes that Nirvāṇa-related doctrinal concepts may have provided one important conceptual framework through which the graded bodhisattva path was interpreted: the concept of universal Buddha-nature renders progressive cultivation intelligible as the gradual actualization of an inherent potential. The study also situates this doctrinal convergence within the broader hermeneutical culture of Northern Buddhism, characterized by text-centered exegesis, and traces several layers of interaction among court patronage, monastic scholarship, and lay devotion in which Nirvāṇa-related learning remained visible. On this basis, the formation of early Dilun Buddhism is associated with a Northern scholastic culture in which Nirvāṇa-related learning constituted an important intellectual layer.
Zijie Li (Sat,) studied this question.