《祖庭事苑》為北宋睦庵善卿（活躍於1088–1108 年間）所著，共八卷，為中國最早之禪宗辭書，全書係針對雲門文偃（864–949）、雪竇重顯（950–1052）等其他禪師之十八種語錄或著作的內容，以辭書的形式，共匯集了二千四百餘條目，校勘這些典籍文中訛誤之字形，牒釋深難之語義、字音，並揭示條目之典據事緣，因此，《祖庭事苑》可作為現代人閱讀這些禪宗典籍之輔助。但是，由於《祖庭事苑》成書之時間，距今亦已有約九百年之時空、語文和文化差異，若不以現代研究之方法處理，對現代讀者而言，在閱讀及使用《祖庭事苑》時，著實有很大的困難。本論文為筆者《祖庭事苑》完整計畫之先行基礎研究，文中包括《祖庭事苑》作者生平與寫作動機之探討、作序者與初次開版者新的發現和各版本於日本的演變，並以其卷一所牒釋的第一部禪宗典籍—《雲門錄》為例，分析《祖庭事苑》條目之體例。《祖庭事苑》之體例與目前頗受佛教漢語研究學者所注意的玄應（活躍於 645–656 年間）與慧琳（生於737 年）的《經音義》之類的釋文體例相似，詞條可包含詞目、正形、注音、釋義、引證和案語六項內容。筆者希望透過本論文的呈現，奠定將來深入探討《祖庭事苑》所牒釋之禪宗典籍的基礎，發揮其輔助解讀禪宗典籍的特殊貢獻。此外，筆者亦希望在經過以現代學術方式整理和分析《祖庭事苑》的內容之後，能提供從事中國語言文字或唐宋代文化現象等研究之學者新的研究材料。

The Collections of Topics from the Garden of the Patriarchs (Zuting shiyuan 祖庭事苑) is an eight-fascicle reference work compiled by Muan Shanqing 睦庵善卿 (active 1088-1108) during the Northern Song. Its format resembles that of a dictionary, although entries are arranged by source material. It contains more than 2,400 entries of difficult terms used in eighteen Chen texts, including Records of Yunmen (Yunmen lu 雲門錄) and Xuedou's Verses on Old Cases (Xuedou songgu 雪竇頌古). Thus, it is an excellent supplement for understanding those Chan texts. Nontheless, the Zuting shiyuan itself needs to be studied because it was compiled almost 900 years ago.Serving as the foundation for a larger project, this papaer is a general study of the Zuting shiyuan. It examines the author's life and motivation, the structure of the text, the circumstances under which this text was first published, and the development of its various versions in Japan. This paper primarily analyzes the text's principles of organization and methodology, using entries from the first text it annotates, the Yunmen lu. In the Zuting shiyuan, each entry may contain six types of information: the entry term itself, correction of incorrect characters, pronunciation, explanation of the meaning, quotation as proof, and the author's personal note. However, not every entry contains all six items.Based on this general study, the author will continue to work on each Chan text annotated in the Zuting shiyuan. It is the author's hope that the Zuting shiyuan may be effectively used as a supplement for understanding Chan texts, and its contributions be fully valued. Furthermore, the author also hopes that a systematic study of the Zuting shiyuan will provide new material for the studies of Chinese linguistics and culture in the Tang and Song dynasties.