阿彌陀佛淨土的信仰，出現在印度佛教史上，應是紀元前後的時候。其經緯，是因釋迦世尊涅槃後，以佛塔為追思的地方，而形成了崇拜佛陀的佛塔信仰，之後，由此逐漸浮現見佛的思想。因此，約在孔雀王朝阿育王在位（紀元前268∼232年），或至遲到紀元前二世紀時，由四聖諦苦集滅道的道諦，即八正道，也就是所謂古仙人道的教義，產生了過去七佛的觀念。接著紀元前二世紀末葉，未來彌勒佛的概念也成立了，自此至西曆紀元的時候，現在賢劫的觀念也出現了。原本在原始佛教的時代，是一時一世界無二佛的，但現在賢劫的觀念出現後，現在此娑婆世界雖是無佛存在，但十方世界有無數的現在佛，則被肯定。因此在此娑婆世界無佛之世，欲求覺悟，遂發展出二種成佛之道。此二種，即（一）、信仰現在十方諸佛；（二）、獲得般若波羅蜜。前者以阿彌陀佛為現在十方諸佛的代表之一，後者則發展成見法者見我的法身佛見佛的般若思想。如此這兩股思想、信仰在紀元120年至150年間結合在一起，形成《般舟三昧經》〈行品〉的形態，而且在《無量壽經》中，也蘊含了般若中觀的思想。如此的思想信仰，在支婁迦讖等西北印度僧侶、佛教信徒，因西北印度貴霜王朝胡為色迦王的毀佛，而往東遷移，來到洛陽。由於如此的因緣，般若系統及彌陀淨土教的經典，可以說同時傳入了洛陽，也因此漢人知識份子，即漢儒接觸到了如此的思想信仰。從東晉慧遠大師於東晉安帝元興元年（紀元402）7月28日，與劉遺民等一百二十三位名賢高僧，於廬山之陰般若臺精舍阿彌陀佛像前，依據《般舟三昧經》結社修念佛三昧起，至清朝彭際清、魏源、楊仁山諸居士等的時代為止，阿彌陀佛的淨土教，對他們，即漢人的知識份子的心靈，應有相當的滋潤作用，也就是說在他們的內心世界裡，阿彌陀佛的淨土思想，應具有相當的影響力。

　　　　　The Amitaabha Pure Land faith appeared most likely in the first century B.C. After the Lod Buddha passed into parinirvana, stupa became the place of remembrance and thus the stupa faith of worshipping the Buddha was formed. Later on, the thought of seeing the Buddha emerged gradually. During the reign of King A`soka of Maurya Dynasty or at latest the second century B.C., the concept of the past seven Buddhas was created out of the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, one of the Four Noble Truths, i.e. the truth of suffering, the truth of the causes of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering. The truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is the Eightfold Noble Path or the so-called the teaching of the ancient yogi's path. At the end of the second century B.C., the concept of the future Maitreya Buddha was also formed. Until the first century C.E., the concept of the present bhadra kalpa appeared. In the time of Primitive Buddhism, the concept is one time, one world, and one Buddha. But, now the concept of the present bhadra kalpa asserted the existence of numerous present Buddhas in the worlds of ten directions despite the non-existence of the Buddha in this Sahaa world. So, if one wants to seek for enlightenment in the age of no Buddha in this Sahaa world, there are two ways: 1. To have faith in the present Buddhas of ten directions, and 2. To obtain praj~naa paaramitaa. In the first way, Amitaabha Buddha is one of the representatives of the present Buddhas of ten directions. In the second way, the praj~naa thought that dharmakaaya Buddha means seeing the Buddha was developed out of the concept that seeing the dharma means seeing the Buddha. These two streams of thought and faith merged in the period between 120A.D and 150A.D, and developed into the style of the Chapter of Practice in Pratyutpanna-samaadhi Suutra. In the meantime, the Sukhaavatii-vyuuha Suutra also contained the thought of Praj~naa Maadhyamika. Such thought and faith were carried to Loyang of China by Loka.sema and other northwestern sa^ngha and Buddhists of northwestern India because of the incident of destroying Buddhism by King Huvishka of Kushan Dynasty. As a result, the sutras of both praj~naa thought and Amitaabha pure land Buddhism were introduced into Loyang at the same time. Thus, the Chinese intellectuals got in touch with such thought and faith. Since Master Hui-yuan, Liu Yi-min and other monks and lay people of Eastern Tsin Dynasty followed the Pratyutpanna-samaadhi Suutra to establish a society to practise the samaadhi of recollecting the Buddha in front of the statue of Amitaabha Buddha at Praj~naa Plateau in the north side of Mt. Lu-shan on the 28th day of the 7th month of 402C.E until the time of Peng Jiqing, Wei Yuan, Yang Renshan and other lay people of Ch'ing Dynasty, the Amitaabha pure land Buddhism might exert considerable function of enrichment or impact upon the minds of Chinese Literati. This paper aims to understand the inner world of the Chinese Literati by investigating following topics: 1. The thought of praj~naa and Hwa-yen in the sutras and commentaries of Amitaabha pure land Buddhism. 2. The "reverting mind" into pure land of Masters Hui-yuan and Tan Luan. 3. The Amitaabha pure land faith of Chinese Literati such as Wang Rixiu, Peng Jiqing and Wei Yuan.