佛教傳入之前，中國傳統的命論是以儒家的天命觀最具 有影響力。按照天命觀的解釋，天命是整個社會政治及倫理生活的 基礎，人類社會存在的合法性基礎即在於天命。天命決定人間的一 切，具有著賞善罰惡的政治一倫理功能，這是最為簡單的對於天命 觀的描述。但是理想化的天命觀與社會事實之間的截然差異，必然 會讓人對於命運本身產生質疑，而以儒家為代表的中國傳統思想並 未能給這樣的衝突以非常完滿的解釋。佛教的傳入，恰恰在這個方 面給中國傳統的命論以非常直接的挑戰。按照佛教的解釋，這一切 的根由即在於業的作用，人類的命運會以何種形式具體呈現出來， 則完全取決於個人的業。業報的理論，在很大程度上可以彌補傳統 天命論解釋的不足。通過因果報應的觀念，人類的行為及其生活的 事實可以得到非常令人滿意的解釋，李師政的〈通命篇〉就是非常 明顯的從佛教的角度對於傳統的命運觀提出質疑和挑戰，從中我們 可以很清楚地看到佛教觀念對於傳統命論的改造。

Before Buddhism spread into China, the most influential Chinese concept on fate is advocated by Confucianism, it is the concept of Destiny (Tian Ming,天命).According to the Confucianism, Destiny is the political-ethical foundation of the human society, and it also act as the only legal basis of human beings. Say in brief, Destiny determines anything for human society, and it also has a political -ethical function for blessing the good and publishing the evil. But such explanation of fate is just a ideal thought, the reality is quite different from this. Just as we have often seen, good persons always have bad rewards while bad persons may always live a good life. Such difference between Destiny and reality lead people to question about the Confucianism concept of Destiny. Meanwhile, Confucianism couldn’t give a perfect explanation for this till the time. While the entrance of Buddhism did give an answer to such questions, it was no doubt a serious challenge to the traditional Chinese concept on fate.