僧官制度始於北魏拓跋珪（371-409，386-409在位）命法果為道人統，是中國佛教的特色，不見於其他佛教傳統。本文藉著重新標點《魏書．釋老志》及相關佛教文獻，並在草原文明與漢文明交會的脈絡中，重構僧曹從北魏立國的不存在到滅亡前興盛的狀態。首先，反對贊寧（919-1001）對中國僧官起源的看法；並指出法果「天子即如來」之言是他逢迎之說。此說的天子係指草原文化的可汗，而非漢文化的皇帝。然而，文成帝（440-465，452-465在位）的復佛把道人統正常化，並建立僧曹（監福曹）大興福業。而後，孝文帝（467-499，471-499在位）改興福曹為昭玄曹，揖助僧祇戶與浮圖戶，不但確保僧曹經濟與勞動力的來源，也使昭玄曹支配全國的僧團。然而政府協助僧團揀選與剃度僧侶之舉，破壞了原印度佛教僧團的自主性。洛陽時期的北魏佛教是在僧團與皇權互倚的架構中進行，皇帝有權干預戒律，但官僚無力阻止僧團的濫權。此矛盾出在僧曹是皇帝私屬的機構，不是官僚體制的一環。北齊對北魏僧曹作了體制性與戒律的改革，然而北魏的僧官體制終究留給後日中國佛教永遠的印記。

The official institution of the Sangha office—through which emperors appointed monks to supervise monastic matters for the empire —was characteristic of Chinese Buddhist tradition. This institution, which had no doctrinal foundation in Indian Buddhism, started with an accidental appointment of Chinese monk, Faguo, as Chief of priests, by non-Buddhist nomadic ruler Tuoba Gui 拓跋珪in 398 to facilitate pacifying conquered Buddhists. With Faguo’s assertion “present Son of Heaven as Tathāgata,” priests bowed down to the ruler. Subsequently, Buddhism still suffered from a devastating suppression from 445 to 453 until finally, with the support of succeeding rulers, it became the dominant faith throughout the empire, but at the expense of giving up its autonomy to the newly established Sangha office (initially called jianfucao 監福曹, later renamed zhaoxuancao 昭玄曹). The paper is aimed to reconstruct the development of the Sangha office from its inception to preeminence in the Northern Wei, through a close reading and re-punctuating of primary historical and Buddhist sources, in light of the cultural and political interaction of pastoral Xianbei nomads and agricultural Han Chinese. The study refutes Zanning’s view that the establishment of Sangha office was an absorption of Indian monastery management into the existing Chinese bureaucratic system. Additionally, the study reveals that “Son of Heaven” in Faguo’s use referred to the nomadic ruler, the qaghan 可 汗, rather than to the Chinese huangdi 皇帝. No permanent office had been assigned to supervise monastic matters before faithful Emperor Wencheng’s restoration of the Buddhist faith in 453. During this restoration, the emperor’s unprecedented extensive religious works—building temples, erecting stupas, making Buddha’s images, engraving steles etc. —made it necessary to establish the Sangha office to facilitate the effort. Moreover, provided with monetary and manpower resources by Emperor Xiaowen, the Sangha office grew increasingly busy, powerful, and well-endowed. All these worldly powers and concerns, however, made the priests become less concerned with the Vinaya and abusive of their powers. Increased imperial stringency in selecting and ordaining Buddhist priests did not reduce the abuses of the Sangha office. The accepted explanation is that the Sangha office served as emperor’s personal religious carrier, directed through his ordinances, not an administrative agency, supervised by Administrative Chief Shangshuling 尚 書令. The Sangha office was instituted outside the normal bureaucracy and its regulatory protocols. Such “absorption” of Buddhism under the political ruler resulted in a peculiar scenario at the end of the Northern Wei in 534, which coincided with the apogee of the Sangha office. The imperial dedication to the Buddhist faith in the Northern Wei not only deeply affected the contemporary economic and political infrastructure but also left a rich legacy for the later dynasties to cope with; one of them was the institution of the Sangha office, which was unique among Buddhist traditions of the world.