梁武帝的〈立神明成佛義記〉是魏晉南北朝形神論爭末期的重要專論，但它卻未能得到學界應有的重視。筆者首先對此文進行分析，指出：梁武帝以「心」或「神明」為人人皆有的佛性，這是就心性立論，並非指靈魂而言。他認為，「無明」並不離「神明」而有，它們乃是同一個「心」的染淨二種面 向。現實世界的一切生滅現象，只是此「無明」之「用」；但作為「體」之「心」則是永恆不變的。他用體用關係將「心」與現實世界結合起來，解釋了生死輪迴。梁武帝與范縝一樣，運用體用範疇完成了形神一元的理論；而且，他與沈績引入了佛教「不即不離」的論述模式，在「體用」概念的深化與運用上更勝過范縝一籌。就此而言，他們可能在體用的概念演進史上佔有關鍵性的地位，並且達到了形神之爭理論成就上的最高峰。而梁武帝以佛性說代替神不滅說，乃因如來藏本被視為生死輪迴的依據，而且神不滅的提出本來也具有作為人成佛依據的用意。因此，以佛性思想代替神不滅說乃是合情合理之發展，梁武帝的〈立神明成佛義記〉正象徵著此一轉向的發生。而它與《大乘起信論》在思想型態與成書年代上都十分相近，這暗示了兩者之間可能有關，〈立神明成佛義記〉更可能在中國佛教心性思想發展史上有重要的意義。

Despite being an important work of the Six Dynasty period written specif­ically to discuss the question of body and spirit (形神 xingshen), the Lishenming chengfo yiji 立神明成佛義記 by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty 梁武帝 has not been given much attention by scholars. Here we attempt to analyze this work and show the following: 1.The mind (心 xin)or shenming (神明) seen by Emperor Wu as being the Buddha-nature (buddhadhātu) possessed by all people should not be understand in terms of something like a spirit or soul but rather as referring to mind essence (心性 xinxing). He holds that avidyā does not exist independently of shenming and that they are two different aspects - one polluted, the other pure - of the mind. A11coming into and passing out of being in the world are a function (用 yung) of the mind, while substance (體 ti) of the mind itself is immutable. In other words, he uses the substance-function dichotomy to link the mind with the real world and explain samsāra. 2. As with Fan Zhen 范縝 and his Shenmielun 神滅論, Emperor Wu employs the substance-function distinction to develop a theory of the unity of body and spirit. In addition, both Emperor Wu and Shen Ji 沈績, with his use of the Buddhist notion of bujibuli 不即不離, are improvements over Fan Zhen in terms of strengthening and employing the notion of substance-function. As such, these two could have played a critical role in the history of the development of the substance-function paradigm. Indeed, it could be said that Emperor Wu and Fan Zhen achieved the highest level of theoretical success in the body-spirit debate. 3. Emperor Wu substituted the notion of “Buddha-nature” for the earlier “eternalspirit” because of the tathāgatagarbha notion that the Buddha-nature is the origin of the manifestation of all aspects of existence. In a similar vein, the notion of the “eternal spirit” was put forward earlier with a view to providing a basis for the realization of Buddhahood. As such, it was an understandable and reasonable development for the “Buddha-nature” to replace the “eternal spirit,” a transition that is fully represented by Emperor Wu’s work. This work also closely corresponds to the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana both in terms of its mode of thought and their date of completion, a fact that suggests that there may be some connection between the two and further that the Lishenming chengfo yiji may have played an important role in the development of substance-function thought in Chinese Buddhism.