慧遠是中文人過渡到佛教徒的典型思想家，在中國佛教史上佔有重要的地位。他的因果報討思想不僅切合時代的課題，而且深刻和剴切，對發揚佛教功不可沒。事實上，中國傳統思想已有相類似的因果報討概念。慧遠將之改造並與佛教教義融合， 提出特殊的「三報」觀，主張善惡行為的果報應需要有一個承受者，故慧遠必須論證神不滅以解決這個問題。是以本文先論述慧遠的神不滅思想，進而論析其因果報應思想，最後則對其思想作一檢討和評價。

Hui-yuan was a typical thinker in respect of a Chinese scholar transformed to a Buddhist. He played an important role in the history of Chinese Buddhism. His thought of causation and retribution was not only accord with the subject-matter of his times but also profound and heartily. It had a great merit in the development of Buddhism. Actually, there were similar concepts of causation and retribution in Chinese traditional thought. He reconstructed it and mixed it with the Buddhism in order to propose the “three periods of retribution” which held that the retribution of human being’s good and evil deeds would extend to the next life, the early and late of the good and evil retributions were related to the fast and slow of the sympathy of the “shen”. The “three periods of retribution” wanted a “receiver”, he had to prove that the “shen” is immortal. So my thesis tries to expound this issue in the first place, then analyzes his thought of causation and retribution detailly, and examines and estimates all of them at last.