宗教傳記作爲一種宗教人物的生命書寫，歷經了實用、批判與詮釋三種不同的閱讀策略階段，凸顯出宗教傳記書寫的建構性和時代性。本文則是在此基礎上，進一步地分析劉薩荷的成道過程，如何經由三種不同的史筆敘述(narrative)，將其複雜的生命歷史，切割、實體化爲遊冥、遊方與遊化等三段具有宗教修辭的遊歷經驗，一如地圖學的呈現手法，將各種複雜的地理現象轉化爲有限的、可管理的參照架構；也即是透過王琰、慧皎與道宣三人對於劉薩荷的多重書寫，探究四至五世紀一個目不識丁的僧人成聖的生命歷程，如何經其遊冥、遊方與遊化的靈跡傳播開來？又如何被不同的記、傳作者經過有意識的選擇、敘述而再現？其中涉及了中古佛教信仰傳播中胡、漢的交涉問題；佛教在民間與僧團間傳播與接受的複雜關係；以及記、傳、錄等不同紀錄間互文關係的探討。事實上，也唯有比較劉薩荷這三重生命軌跡的詮釋，才能洞見中古佛教中實包涵了各不相同的認知地圖，分析究竟什麼新興的主導因素(emerging dominant)，左右了其敘述視點與敘述策略的變化，以致其生命地圖的重製，從而還原出劉薩荷較完整的生命樣態。

For religionists, methods of reading religious biographies, as a kind of life writing have three different phases: practical, critical and interpretive. The three phases show us the constructive nature of these writings and their epochal character. Based on this understanding, this essay analyzes the process whereby Liu Sahe became a saintmonk. With three different historical narratives, the texts' religious rhetoric parses and transforms his complicated experience into three religiously meaningful parts of his travel-traveling through hells, visiting sites for penance, and wandering about preaching. Such a practice resembles that of cartography where complex geographical features are converted into limited and controllable references. Investigating various accounts of Liu Sahe's life by Wang Yan (454?-520), Hui Jiao (497-554) and Dao Xuan (596-667), this essay explores how an illiterate monk in the 4(superscript th)-5(superscript th) centuries became a saint and spread miracles, and how the authors intentionally chose the account (ji 記), biographical writing (zhuan 傳), and record (lu 錄) styles to describe and represent his life. This approach moreover involves issues of the communication between the Hu 胡 (foreigners) and the native Han 漢 people in medieval Buddhism, the spread and acceptance of Buddhism in lay and monastic groups, and the intertextuality between the different mediums of ji 記, zhuan 傳, and lu 錄. In fact, only by comparing the three interpretations of Liu Sahe's life can we see that medieval Buddhism contains various cognitive maps. We are thus also able to analyze the emerging dominants affecting the visions and modes of the descriptions that remap Liu's life. Finally, we may restore a more complete picture of Liu Sahe's life.