Abstract
The Visuddhimagga was written by Buddhaghosa in the fifth century. Previous studies have already clarified that Buddhaghosa imitated the Vimuttimagga (『解脱道論』: jie tuo dao lun) to write the Visuddhimagga. By analyzing his editorial method, however, we can see that Buddhaghosa not only copied the Vimuttimagga, but also introduced the concept of "three kinds of full-understanding," and, on the basis of this structure, selected or changed the contents of the Vimuttimagga in order to compile the treatise on "the development of wisdom" in the Visuddhimagga. Therefore, while the observation of "the four noble truths" plays a most important role in the practice for wisdom in the Vimuttimagga, the observation of "impermanence, suffering, and no self" or "emptiness" is most important in the Visuddhimagga. As a result, the new way of practice for wisdom composed by Buddhaghosa came to be the orthodox practice and the basic way of thinking in the Theravada Buddhism that prevailed in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
