在學界對早期中國佛教禪修史的研究中，《釋禪波羅蜜次第法門》(以下簡稱《次第禪門》)是一耜極具參考價值但卻常被忽略之資料。雖然太虛大師很早就指出《次第禪門》為集漢末至魏晉南北朝禪法之大成者，然而對於《次第禪門》之體系性研究，目前為數仍不多。因此在本文中，我將詳細分析智者大師的第一部著作：《次第禪門》中之架構及體系。 智者大師在《次第禪門》中對「四禪」之詳細討應，不但顯出六世紀後期天台早禪修之特性，而具在《次第禪門》中，智者大師常論述其當代禪師對於各種禪修法門之不同 意見，因此《次第禪門》為研究早期天台止觀史及中國早期禪修史之珍貴史料。

Approximately one hundred years ago, the importance of the Shi Chanboluomi cidi famen as a comprehensive manual of the practice of Buddhist meditation in early Chinese Buddhism and already been pointed out by Master Taixu. However, few scholars paid serous attention to this text and even fewer attempted a systemic analysis of this text. Therefore, in this paper, I would like to analyze the basic framework and the concepts that serve as the most essential frame of reference in Zhyii’s first work, the Shi Chanboluomi cidi famen. “Foure Dhyānas” is the most crucial and fundamental framework to which each and every meditation practice is tied to in the Shi Chanboluomi cidi famen. This clearly shows the most distinguished feature of the sixth century meditation practice in China. Furthermore, in this text, Zhiyi made plenty of references and discussions about the meditation techniques and views of other meditiation meters of his tie. Therefore, a detailed study of this text will provide a new perspective of the development of meditation in early stages of Chinese Buddhism.