Practice · SīlaVolume FourPart I · Pāli RootsPaper 2 of 30

Ariyakanta-sīla as the Fourth Sotāpattiyaṅga

中文主題：聖戒成就與四預流支

Author: Shi Huijing 釋慧鏡

Date: Spring 2026

Version: 2.0

ID: SILA-P02

Abstract

This paper argues that the fourth factor of stream-entry (sotāpattiyaṅga) — accomplishment in the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones (ariyakanta-sīla) — plays a different grammatical role from the first three within the canonical four-limb formulas, and that this asymmetry is the canon's own way of marking what sort of stream-entry-mark the noble ones' ethical conduct is. The argument enters through Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 935 (T0099 fascicle 33, Guṇabhadra trans., Liu-Song dynasty), where two Sakyan disciples — Sāḷha holding a three-factor view, Mahānāma a four-factor view — bring an unresolved doctrinal dispute to the Buddha. The Buddha rules: four. The rejected alternative is the textual antithesis of "ethical conduct is a factor of stream-entry"; for the Buddha to set it down by name is evidence heavier than any catechistic refrain. This adjudication anchors a verb-pairing observation across SN 55.22, AN 5.32, and the SĀ 935 cluster: the first three limbs take aveccappasāda or pasanna (confidence in an object), while the fourth takes samannāgato or paripūrakārī (the practitioner is endowed with, or fulfills, an attribute). Section III places the eight-virtue Pāli formula of ariyakanta-sīla alongside Guṇabhadra's eight-virtue Chinese rendering, with the explicit caveat that the mid-list 1-to-1 mapping is not transparent. Section VI closes with the heedless-dweller chain at SN 55.40, where the seventh of the eight virtues — aparāmaṭṭha, "not grasped at" — does the gating work that allows the forward chain of AN 11.1 (no-regret → joy → rapture) to start at all.

I. Problem Setting

When Western readers ask "who counts as a stream-enterer?", the answers most readily available are abhidharmic (one who has abandoned the three fetters), popular (one who has secured the five precepts), or psychological (one for whom the lower rebirths are structurally closed). Each is true but partial. This paper takes a fourth path through the question — the four-limb structure of the sotāpattiyaṅga itself, anchored in a moment in the canon where the Buddha is required to adjudicate the question by name.

The stream-enterer (sotāpanna · 須陀洹) is canonically identified, in both the Pāli Theravāda corpus and the Chinese Āgama corpus, by four marks: experiential confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones. These four together are the four factors of stream-entry (sotāpattiyaṅga · sotāpatti, "entering the stream," + aṅga, "limb")¹. The first three are uniform in their grammatical handling: each is the predicate "to be endowed with experiential confidence in X" (X-loc + aveccappasāda or pasanna), where X is a confidence-object. The fourth handles its predicate differently. The Pāli reads ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti — "is endowed with the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones" — or, in the parallel formula of AN 5.32, ariyakantesu sīlesu paripūrakārī — "one who fulfills the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones." No separate noun for the quality of confidence is inserted between practitioner and object; the ethical conduct is itself what the practitioner is endowed with, or fulfills. This is not a stylistic preference. The asymmetry is consistent enough across the textual cluster to count as a structural signal: the fourth limb names a practitioner-attribute, not a fourth confidence-object².

The grammatical detail has not been pressed in modern Western Pāli scholarship as a sustained question. Bhikkhu Bodhi's introduction to the SN 55 vagga (The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, 2000) distinguishes two senses of the four-limb formula — the definitional sense for those already in the stream (the four-fold mark of identity, including accomplishment in ethical conduct), and the preliminary sense (the four conditions for entering the stream: association with good persons, hearing the true Dharma, careful attention, and practice in accordance with the Dharma) — and notes that the ariyakanta-sīla of the definitional sense carries the character of an inalienable possession, distinct in kind from the ordinary virtue that worldlings may hold and lose. Rupert Gethin (The Foundations of Buddhism, 1998; The Buddhist Path to Awakening, 1992/2001) frames ethical conduct within a character-ethics paradigm: ethical conduct as a cultivated disposition rather than rule-compliance, with the abandonment of the third fetter (sīlabbata-parāmāsa, attachment to rules and observances) at stream-entry as the negative correlate of the new positive disposition of ariya-sīla. Bhikkhu Anālayo (A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, 2011; Saṃyukta-āgama Studies, 2015) supplies the methodological frame within which Pāli and Chinese textual material can be read jointly as pre-sectarian, when both traditions converge on a single structural claim. All three contributions are real; what has not yet received a sustained reading is the Chinese-side material itself — the disputation structure preserved in the Saṃyuktāgama and the eight-virtue rendering supplied by the fifth-century Liu-Song translator Guṇabhadra. These are central, not auxiliary.

This paper enters the question through Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 935 (T0099 fascicle 33; Guṇabhadra trans., Liu-Song dynasty). The sūtra records an unresolved dispute between two Sakyan lay disciples concerning the constituents of stream-entry. Sāḷha (Chinese 釋氏沙陀) holds that the stream-enterer is one accomplished in three factors — the three experiential confidences only, omitting accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct. Mahānāma (Chinese 釋氏摩訶男) holds the four-factor position — the three confidences plus accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct. Unable to convince one another, the two go to the Buddha. The Buddha rules in favor of four: "experiential confidence in the Buddha; experiential confidence in the Dharma and the Saṅgha; accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct. Receive and hold this thus" (CBETA T02 p.0239c).

The doctrinal weight of this passage exceeds that of any single catechistic refrain. A catechistic refrain witnesses the steady circulation of a teaching; an adjudication forces the teaching to be stated explicitly against a named contrary view. The view the Buddha here sets down — Sāḷha's three-factor position — is the textual antithesis of "ethical conduct is a factor of stream-entry"; for the canon to record that the Buddha overruled it by name is for the canon to register the contrary position by name, and so to mark the four-factor position as canon's own.

The paper proceeds on this textual foundation. Section II unfolds the Chinese-side material (SĀ 935 in full, the sekha frame of SĀ 934, Guṇabhadra's eight-virtue rendering of sīlānussati from fascicle 33, the catechistic refrains scattered through fascicle 37, and the Pāli leaning-tree image at SN 55.22). Section III draws out the cross-corpus verb-pairing pattern and distinguishes the sotāpattiyaṅga category from the puññābhisanda category. Section IV opens a measured dialogue with Bodhi, Gethin, and Anālayo. Section V offers four middle-way corrections to predictable misreadings. Section VI closes with the heedless-dweller chain of SN 55.40 alongside the first three links of the AN 11.1 forward chain.

II. Textual Evidence

This section opens with the Chinese-side material — the disputation of SĀ 935 as primary anchor, the sekha frame of SĀ 934, the eight-virtue rendering of sīlānussati from fascicle 33, and the catechistic refrains of fascicle 37 — and closes with the Pāli parallel at SN 55.22. The companion paper P01 opened from the Pāli side with the four-fold structure of sīla in the Visuddhimagga; the present paper opens from the Chinese side, so that the two papers together hold a balanced methodological foundation for the SĪLA volume.

II.1 SĀ 935: The Dispute and the Buddha's Adjudication

The disputational structure of Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 935 is the primary anchor of this paper³. The Sakyan Sāḷha and the Sakyan Mahānāma fall into dispute over the number of factors constituting the stream-enterer:

The Sakyan named Sāḷha said to the Sakyan Mahānāma: "How many factors does the Blessed One say a stream-enterer is accomplished in?" Mahānāma answered: "The Blessed One says the stream-enterer is accomplished in four factors. Which four? Experiential confidence in the Buddha; experiential confidence in the Dharma and the Saṅgha; and accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct — these are the four in which a stream-enterer is accomplished." The Sakyan Sāḷha said to the Sakyan Mahānāma: "Do not say so!… The stream-enterer is accomplished in three factors. Which three? Experiential confidence in the Buddha, experiential confidence in the Dharma, experiential confidence in the Saṅgha."

Unable to reach agreement, the two go to the Buddha. The Buddha settles the matter:

The Buddha said to Mahānāma: "Therefore, know that the stream-enterer is accomplished in four factors: experiential confidence in the Buddha; experiential confidence in the Dharma and the Saṅgha; accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct. Receive and hold this thus."

(— T0099 fascicle 33, sūtra 935 · CBETA T02 p.0239b–c · Guṇabhadra [Liu-Song] trans.; English rendering by the present author against the CBETA Electronic Tripiṭaka 2024 edition)

The doctrinal weight of this passage lies in its disputational architecture. The view the Buddha here overrules — Sāḷha's three-factor position — is the explicit textual antithesis of "the noble ethical conduct is a factor of stream-entry." For that view to be set down by name in the canon is for the contrary position to be canonically affirmed by name. In a tradition where catechistic refrains can sometimes be read as inherited doxology — the stable repetition of a teaching across many occasions — the dialectical structure of SĀ 935 forces the teaching to be stated as a contested claim that the Buddha explicitly resolves. The evidentiary weight here is heavier than any single catechistic refrain⁴.

II.2 SĀ 934: Ethical Conduct within the Sekha Frame

The adjacent sūtra, SĀ 934, supplies the sekha / asekha framework — "trainees" (those at the stages of stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner) and "those beyond training" (the arahants) — under which ethical conduct, concentration, wisdom, and liberation are mapped as four parallel limbs:

Mahānāma! The trainee has ethical conduct, and the one beyond training also has ethical conduct; the trainee has concentration, and the one beyond training also has concentration; the trainee has wisdom, and the one beyond training also has wisdom; the trainee has liberation, and the one beyond training also has liberation.

(— T0099 fascicle 33, sūtra 934 · CBETA T02 p.0238c–0239b · Guṇabhadra trans.)

Two doctrinal points follow. First, ethical conduct is the foundational limb of the sekha structure: the stream-enterer is not someone who has transcended the need for ethical conduct but someone who has stabilized it as the trainee's first limb, shared in form (though not in degree) with the once-returner, non-returner, and the one beyond training. Second, the four-limb structure of ethical conduct, concentration, wisdom, and liberation runs parallel to the threefold training (tisso sikkhā — sīla, samādhi, paññā) with liberation added as a fourth, in alignment with parallel structures in the Aṅguttara Nikāya⁵. This frame is the sekha-layer background against which the verb-pairing argument of section III is set.

II.3 The Eight-Virtue Rendering in Sīlānussati (Fascicle 30)

"Accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct," in the Chinese Āgama, is not only the fourth-limb name within the sotāpattiyaṅga formula; it is also the eight-virtue list within the recollection of ethical conduct (sīlānussati). The fascicle-30 sīlānussati passage gives Guṇabhadra's eight-virtue rendering in full:

A noble disciple recollects their own pure ethical conduct — ethical conduct unbroken, ethical conduct without lack, ethical conduct unstained, ethical conduct unmottled, ethical conduct not taken by others, ethical conduct well-guarded, ethical conduct praised by the bright, ethical conduct in which the wise do not weary. When a noble disciple recollects ethical conduct in this way, no greed, ill-will, or delusion arises; suffused by the recollection of ethical conduct, they ascend toward nirvāṇa.

(— T0099 fascicle 33, SĀ 931 · CBETA T02 p.0238a · Guṇabhadra [Liu-Song] trans.)

These eight items — unbroken / without lack / unstained / unmottled / not taken by others / well-guarded / praised by the bright / wise-not-weary — correspond, in number and in placement, to the eight stock Pāli items of ariyakanta-sīla: akhaṇḍa / acchidda / asabala / akammāsa / bhujissa / viññūpasattha / aparāmaṭṭha / samādhi-saṁvattanika (the cross-tradition mapping is the subject of section III.2 and carries an explicit caveat there). One grammatical feature of Guṇabhadra's rendering merits early notice: each of the eight items is rendered as "X 戒" — that is, an attribute predicated of ethical conduct, never a confidence-relation toward ethical conduct. The verb-pairing of "ethical conduct as practitioner-attribute" surfaces on the Chinese side already in the eight-virtue list, well before the Pāli verb-pairing argument of section III.

II.4 The "Four Inalienable Confidences" Catechistic Refrain in Fascicle 37

The phrase "inalienable confidence" (aveccappasāda; Chinese 不壞淨, literally "indestructible purity") recurs throughout fascicle 37 of the Saṃyuktāgama in catechistic exchanges with lay disciples and dying disciples. The stock formula is uniform: experiential confidence in the Buddha, experiential confidence in the Dharma, experiential confidence in the Saṅgha, accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct, often followed by the prediction of non-return (anāgāmiphala) or by an introduction to the practice of the five joyful subjects of recollection. The circulation of this refrain across multiple suttas of fascicle 37 establishes that the four-fold structure is not an isolated occurrence on the Chinese side but a stable catechistic frame⁶. The Chinese rendering "inalienable confidence" (avecca, "having seen through" + pasāda, "purifying confidence" — "confidence that cannot be destroyed") tracks the Pāli etymology more literally than several modern English renderings — Bodhi's "confirmed confidence" and Sujato's "experiential confidence" carry alternative emphases — and the stability of the Chinese rendering across the fascicle-37 cluster constitutes cross-traditional witness to the four-limb structure.

II.5 SN 55.22 Dutiyamahānāmasutta: The Leaning-Tree Image

The Pāli parallel for the four-limb structure is set out at SN 55.22 Dutiyamahānāmasutta. The Buddha responds to Mahānāma's anxiety — should he die in a sudden mishap, where will he be reborn? — by speaking of the four limbs as a slant, slope, and inclination toward extinguishment:

Pāli (Mahāsaṅgīti edition):

Catūhi kho, mahānāma, dhammehi samannāgato ariyasāvako nibbāna-ninno hoti nibbāna-poṇo nibbāna-pabbhāro. Katamehi catūhi? Idha, mahānāma, ariyasāvako buddhe aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti…pe… dhamme…pe… saṅghe…pe… ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti akhaṇḍehi…pe… samādhi-saṁvattanikehi.

English (Bhikkhu Sujato · SuttaCentral CC0):

A noble disciple who has four things slants, slopes, and inclines towards extinguishment. What four? It's when a noble disciple has experiential confidence in the Buddha … the teaching … the Saṅgha … And they have the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones … leading to immersion.

The leaning-tree image follows:

Suppose there was a tree that slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. If it was cut off at the root where would it fall? In the same way, a noble disciple who has four things slants, slopes, and inclines towards extinguishment.

(— SN 55.22 §3 · PTS SN v 371; English: Sujato CC0)

The doctrinal force of this sutta is twofold. First, the triad nibbāna-ninna / nibbāna-poṇa / nibbāna-pabbhāra (slants, slopes, inclines toward extinguishment) is directional: the noble disciple endowed with the four is not statically holding a credentialed position but is in motion toward nirvāṇa. The four-limb structure describes a state with vectorial character, not an entry-record. Second, the leaning-tree image carries force at the level of structural integration: the direction in which the tree falls is the resultant of all that leans it in that direction; any limb absent or weak affects the inclination. The image carries a textual hint of integrative force, but pressing the image into a claim of a "mutually-constitutive faculty structure" would be over-development; the present paper opts instead, in section III, for the more modest grammatical argument the verb-pairing supports⁷.

These five strata of Chinese and Pāli textual evidence — the disputation of SĀ 935, the sekha frame of SĀ 934, the eight-virtue rendering of fascicle 33, the catechistic refrains of fascicle 37, and the leaning-tree image of SN 55.22 — together establish the cross-corpus textual foundation for the argument that follows.

III. The Central Argument

This section proceeds in four parts: (III.1) the verb-pairing structure of "accomplishment" / "endowed with," with SĀ 935 and SN 55.22 read together; (III.2) the eight-virtue Chinese-Pāli parallel with the mapping caveat; (III.3) the conceptual distinction between sotāpattiyaṅga and puññābhisanda; (III.4) the cross-corpus stability of the verb-pairing and its modest doctrinal upshot.

III.1 "Accomplishment" / "Endowed With": The Attribute Structure

The four-limb formula at SĀ 935 reads, in Guṇabhadra's Chinese, "experiential confidence in the Buddha; experiential confidence in the Dharma, in the Saṅgha; accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct." The first three limbs share a structure: object + experiential confidence. The objects are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha; the predicate is the experiential confidence directed toward each. The fourth limb is structurally different: no object-of-confidence slot, no predicate of confidence-directed-toward. The structure is ethical conduct + accomplishment, where the practitioner is the implicit subject and the noble ethical conduct is the attribute the practitioner is endowed with.

This Chinese-side grammar is mirrored exactly in the Pāli of SN 55.22 (cited at §II.5 above):

Idha, mahānāma, ariyasāvako buddhe aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti…pe… dhamme…pe… saṅghe…pe… ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti…

For the first three (Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha), the structure is X-loc + aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti — "is endowed with experiential confidence in X." Aveccappasāda is the quality of confidence; samannāgato is the verbal predicate "endowed with"; X is the object. For ethical conduct, the structure is ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti — "is endowed with the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones." No separate quality-of-confidence noun is inserted between ariyasāvaka (noble disciple) and sīla; sīla is itself the attribute the practitioner is endowed with.

The same verb-asymmetry surfaces in sharper form at AN 5.32 Cundīsutta:

Pāli (Mahāsaṅgīti):

Yāvatā, cundi, sīlāni, ariyakantāni sīlāni tesaṁ aggamakkhāyati, yadidaṁ— akhaṇḍāni acchiddāni asabalāni akammāsāni bhujissāni viññuppasatthāni aparāmaṭṭhāni samādhi-saṁvattanikāni. Ye kho, cundi, ariyakantesu sīlesu paripūrakārino, agge te paripūrakārino.

English (Sujato CC0):

The ethical conduct loved by the noble ones is said to be the best of all ethics. It is intact, impeccable, spotless, and unmarred, liberating, praised by sensible people, not mistaken, and leading to immersion. Those who fulfill the ethics loved by the noble ones fulfill the best.

(— AN 5.32 §4 · PTS AN iii 35)

In this sutta, the predicate paired with the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha (earlier in the same sutta) is pasanna — "one who is confident in" — its object completed by agga, "the foremost": those who are confident in the foremost are themselves foremost in confidence. The predicate paired with the noble ones' ethical conduct, by contrast, is paripūrakārī — "one who fulfills" — its result-clause running in parallel: those who fulfill the foremost (ethical conduct) are themselves foremost in fulfilling. The first three predicates take a confidence-object and are completed by the foremost-ness of that object; the fourth takes ethical conduct directly and is completed by the foremost-ness of the practitioner's fulfilling.

The two sides converge. The Chinese 聖戒成就 ("accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct," SĀ 935) and the Pāli ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti (SN 55.22) / ariyakantesu sīlesu paripūrakārī (AN 5.32) are not coincidental phrasings within a single textual tradition; they are a shared verb-pairing pattern across the Pāli Theravāda corpus and the Saṃyuktāgama corpus, traditions whose convergence on a single structural form points to a pre-sectarian common heritage. The fourth limb is paired with a different predicate from the first three: not "is endowed with confidence in an object," but "is endowed with / fulfills an attribute."

III.2 The Eight-Virtue Parallel: Guṇabhadra and the Pāli Stock Formula

"Accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct" was shown in §II.3 to unfold, in the Chinese-side sīlānussati passage, into Guṇabhadra's eight-virtue rendering: unbroken / without lack / unstained / unmottled / not taken by others / well-guarded / praised by the bright / wise-not-weary. The Pāli counterpart is the stock eight-virtue formula of ariyakanta-sīla: akhaṇḍa / acchidda / asabala / akammāsa / bhujissa / viññūpasattha / aparāmaṭṭha / samādhi-saṁvattanika.

The eight Pāli items appear most often in peyyāla abbreviation across the SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta (the formula opens "akhaṇḍehi …pe… samādhi-saṁvattanikehi"). One sutta, SN 55.31 Paṭhamapuññābhisandasutta, gives the full eight in Sujato's CC0 English unfolding:

Furthermore, a noble disciple's ethical conduct is loved by the noble ones, unbroken, impeccable, spotless, and unmarred, liberating, praised by sensible people, not mistaken, and leading to immersion.

(— SN 55.31 · Sujato CC0)

The two eight-item lists are aligned in the table below. One caveat must be issued first: the 1-to-1 mapping between Guṇabhadra's eight Chinese items and the Pāli eight is not transparent. Mid-list, several items (the assignment of bhujissa / aparāmaṭṭha to 不他取戒 / 善護戒, and of samādhi-saṁvattanika to 智者不厭戒) admit more than one defensible correspondence, and modern scholars differ in their readings. The table below is a provisional alignment by semantic adjacency, intended as working scaffolding rather than a definitive lexicographic claim — the close study of which assignment is best is a Vinaya-philological project of its own.

Pāli (SN 55 / AN 5.32)	Literal sense	Guṇabhadra (T0099 fasc. 30)	Modern scholarly gloss
akhaṇḍa	not broken	不壞戒 (unbroken)	unbroken / intact
acchidda	without hole	不缺戒 (without lack)	impeccable / without lack
asabala	without spot	不污戒 (unstained)	spotless
akammāsa	without blemish	不雜戒 (unmottled)	unmarred / unmottled
bhujissa	freeing (lit. "from slavery")	不他取戒 (not taken by others)	liberating / freely held
viññūpasattha	praised by the wise	明者稱譽戒 (praised by the bright)	praised by sensible people
aparāmaṭṭha	not grasped at	善護戒 (well-guarded)	not grasped at
samādhi-saṁvattanika	leading to immersion	智者不厭戒 (wise-not-weary)	leading to immersion

(— Pāli per SN 55.31 §5 · PTS SN v 391; Chinese per T0099 fascicle 30)

The "modern scholarly gloss" column reflects readings adopted, in part or in whole, by Sujato (CC0) and Bodhi (in The Connected Discourses); these glosses tilt toward literal transparency and stand alongside, not against, Guṇabhadra's older translation idiom. The present paper, where it cites the eight items by name in §§III.3 and V, uses Guṇabhadra's order with the literal gloss in brackets, on the understanding that the cross-tradition correspondence is between the functions the two lists discharge in their respective texts — each is a structural unfolding of the qualities of the noble ones' ethical conduct — rather than between particular Pāli and Chinese lexical items.

On the internal structure of the eight items, Visuddhimagga chapter VII §4 (Sīlānussati-niddesa, "Exposition of the Recollection of Ethical Conduct") develops each item in turn with a series of images — the cloth torn at the edge for akhaṇḍa, the cloth pierced in the middle for acchidda, the spotted cow for asabala, the speckled cow for akammāsa; the remaining four are developed functionally (the unenslavedness of bhujissa, the wise ones' praise of viññūpasattha, the unsuspectedness of aparāmaṭṭha, the conduciveness to concentration of samādhi-saṁvattanika). The pattern that emerges is a 4 + 4 grouping: the four negations of forms of damage to ethical conduct followed by the four positive functions of ethical conduct⁷. This paper paraphrases the Visuddhimagga only; its Pāli base text (GRETIL CC-BY-SA) and Ñāṇamoli's English translation (BPS Pariyatti edition) are not directly quoted.

III.3 Sotāpattiyaṅga and Puññābhisanda: A Necessary Distinction

A recurring misreading must be cleared at this point. In SN 55.31 / 55.32 / 55.33, three adjacent suttas of the Sotāpatti-saṃyutta, the fourth position of the formula rotates: SN 55.31 has the noble ethical conduct (ariyakanta-sīla), SN 55.32 has relinquishment (cāga), SN 55.33 has wisdom (paññā). On the face of it, this rotation could be taken to mean that "the fourth factor of stream-entry, in the earliest Pāli textual layer, is not fixed as ethical conduct." This reading conflates two distinct categories: the four factors of stream-entry (sotāpattiyaṅga, the structural constituents of the stream-enterer) and the four overflowings of merit (puññābhisanda, the categories of merit the stream-enterer generates).

SN 55.31 / 55.32 / 55.33 are all titled Puññābhisandasutta — "The Discourse on the Overflowings of Merit." Each opens with the frame "Mendicants, there are these four overflowings of merit … What four?" and closes each item with the marker "this is the Nth overflowing of merit." The first three items in all three suttas are fixed at experiential confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, and in the Saṅgha; only the fourth rotates among ethical conduct, relinquishment, and wisdom. Each of these three suttas presents a different fourth category of "overflowing of merit," not a different fourth-factor-of-stream-entry.

The four-factor formula proper — the sotāpattiyaṅga — is set out in the main suttas of the cluster: SN 55.21 Paṭhamamahānāmasutta through SN 55.30 and the others in this group, with the four-fold structure of three confidences + the noble ones' ethical conduct, and the Chinese-side parallel at SĀ 935. This four-fold formula is fixed at four items across Pāli and Chinese, with no fourth-position rotation⁸.

The distinction can be summarized:

Category	Content	Textual example
Four factors of stream-entry (sotāpattiyaṅga)	The structural constituents of the stream-enterer: fixed at four (three confidences + noble ethical conduct)	SN 55.22; T0099 fascicle 33 sūtra 935
Four overflowings of merit (puññābhisanda)	The categories of merit a stream-enterer generates: the first three fixed as the three confidences; the fourth rotating among ethical conduct, relinquishment, and wisdom	SN 55.31 / 55.32 / 55.33

SĀ 935's adjudication is an explicit ruling on the first category (the four-fold constituents of stream-entry); the rotation in SN 55.31–33 belongs to the second category (the four overflowings of merit). The two categories are non-conflicting. The misreading "the early texts left the fourth factor open" collapses the second category onto the first, and a reading that holds the two apart dissolves the difficulty.

III.4 Cross-Corpus Stability of the Verb-Pairing, and Its Modest Upshot

The grammatical observation of §III.1 can be tabulated to show its cross-corpus stability:

Textual cluster	Predicate paired with the first three (Buddha / Dharma / Saṅgha)	Predicate paired with the fourth (noble ethical conduct)
SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta	X-loc + aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti (endowed with experiential confidence in X)	ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgato hoti (endowed with the noble ethical conduct)
AN 5.32 Cundīsutta	X-loc + pasanna (one confident in X)	ariyakantesu sīlesu paripūrakārī (one who fulfills the noble ethical conduct)
T0099 fascicle 33 sūtra 935	於 X 不壞淨 (experiential confidence in X — confidence structure)	聖戒成就 (accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct — attribute structure)

The verb-pairing is uniform across two traditions and three textual clusters. The first three limbs take "confidence directed toward an object," with the object being the Buddha, the Dharma, or the Saṅgha. The fourth limb takes "endowed with / fulfilling an attribute," with the attribute being the noble ethical conduct itself — no separate confidence-toward-it slot.

The modest doctrinal upshot can be stated as follows. The fourth limb plays a different grammatical role within the four-limb structure from the first three. The first three limbs name confidence-relations toward three external objects; the fourth names an attribute possessed by the practitioner. The four-fold formula is not "four parallel confidence-relations toward four parallel objects"; it is "three confidence-relations toward three objects, plus one attribute possessed by the practitioner."

An honest caveat is required. This grammatical observation has not been treated as a sustained question in modern Western Pāli scholarship. Bodhi's SN / AN translation notes and introductions mark the commentarial character of the noble ethical conduct (see §IV.1) but do not press the cross-corpus verb-pairing into an explicit thesis; Anālayo's Pāli–Āgama comparative method provides textual-historical grounding for the pre-sectarian stability of the four-limb formula but does not develop the verb-pairing into a separate argument. The present paper makes the grammatical observation explicit as a thesis, but the doctrinal weight of that thesis is suggestive: enough to make the intuitive reading of the four limbs as "four parallel confidence-relations" salutary to question, but not enough on its own to bear stronger metaphysical claims (such as "ethical conduct is the ontological foundation of stream-entry"). Readers are asked to receive the argument within this measured register.

A related boundary case: SĀ 936 records the lay disciple Sarakāni (百手釋氏 in Guṇabhadra's rendering) — a Sakyan known for drinking, who broke the precept against intoxicants — receiving the Buddha's predication of stream-entry after taking up pure ethical conduct at the time of his death⁹. The case suggests that "accomplishment" in the sotāpatti-structure may admit a critical-moment dimension (the taking up of ethical conduct at a decisive juncture) rather than requiring lifelong perfection throughout. It does not destabilize the four-limb structure of the thesis, but it reveals a textual locus for the word "accomplishment" that warrants its own Vinaya-historical inquiry; it is set aside here as a boundary case.

This completes the positive argument. Section IV opens the dialogue with contemporary scholarship; section V offers four middle-way corrections; section VI closes the paper with the heedless-dweller chain at SN 55.40 alongside the AN 11.1 forward sequence.

IV. Dialogue with Contemporary Scholarship

Three contemporary scholars are this paper's principal interlocutors: Bhikkhu Bodhi, Rupert Gethin, and Bhikkhu Anālayo. Each contributes a framework that this paper accepts; each leaves an opening that the verb-pairing observation of section III is positioned to fill.

IV.1 Bodhi: The Two-Senses Distinction, Extended

In the introduction to the SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta in The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (2000), and again in the AN 5.32 / AN 11.1 notes of The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (2012), Bhikkhu Bodhi distinguishes two senses of the four-limb formula. The first is definitional: the four marks (buddhe / dhamme / saṅghe aveccappasāda + the noble ones' ethical conduct) by which one already in the stream is identified — these are the structural constituents of the stream-enterer. The second is preliminary: the four conditions for entering the stream — association with good persons, hearing the true Dharma, careful attention (yoniso manasikāra), and practice in accordance with the Dharma (dhammānudhamma-paṭipatti). For the phrase ariyakanta-sīla in the definitional sense, Bodhi's translation reads "the virtues dear to the noble ones," and his note frames this ethical conduct as the inalienable possession of the stream-enterer, qualitatively distinct from the merely cultivated ethical conduct of the worldling. On AN 5.32 specifically, Bodhi reads the noble ethical conduct as integral to the formula rather than a separable item; on AN 11.1, he reads ethical conduct as the foundational link of the causal chain — basis, not entry-fee.

Accepted. This paper inherits Bodhi's two-senses distinction in full. The definitional track (which includes the noble ethical conduct and its eight-virtue unfolding) is the present paper's main scene; the preliminary track (the four pre-stream conditions) is acknowledged but not developed here.

Modest extension. Bodhi's notes mark the commentarial-layer character of "accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct" — as inalienable possession — but they do not develop the verb-pairing asymmetry between the fourth limb and the first three into a sustained argument. The verb-pairing observation of section III can be received as a textual-grammatical complement to Bodhi's two-senses distinction: the inalienability Bodhi marks at the doctrinal level (the noble ethical conduct as not subject to relapse, in contrast to the worldling's ethical conduct) is reflected at the grammatical level in the structure "the practitioner is endowed with this attribute" (not "the practitioner has confidence in this object"). The two characterizations support one another.

IV.2 Gethin: The Character-Ethics Frame

In The Foundations of Buddhism (1998), and in the chapter on the five faculties (pañca-indriya) in The Buddhist Path to Awakening (1992/2001), Rupert Gethin develops a character-ethics framing of ethical conduct in early Buddhism: ethical conduct as a cultivated disposition rather than rule-compliance, with its ground in the steady formation of character rather than in the additive accumulation of individual acts of good conduct. Gethin also notes that the third fetter dropped at stream-entry — sīlabbata-parāmāsa, attachment to rules and observances — has, as its positive correlate, the new ariya-sīla of the stream-enterer: an ethical conduct released from instrumental, ritual, or merit-transactional uses, now resting on a disposition free of grasping at reified rule-units.

Accepted. This paper inherits Gethin's character-ethics frame in full, and extends his analysis of the indriya as a stable disposition (from the chapter on the five faculties) to the fourth factor of stream-entry. If ethical conduct at stream-entry is a settled disposition, then its appearance in the four-limb formula as "an attribute possessed by the practitioner" (the verb-pairing observation of section III) is the very grammatical signature one would expect a settled disposition to carry.

Modest extension. Gethin's account is developed in the register of cultivation — how ethical conduct is shaped on the path toward stream-entry. The standing of ethical conduct after stream-entry, as a component within the four-fold structural definition of the stream-enterer, is not Gethin's main scene. The textual observation in section III supplies a textual-side foundation for that further step: the ariyakanta qualifier joined to the predicate "endowed with" / "fulfills" shows the canon already treating the stream-enterer's ethical conduct as an independently structured attribute, not merely the continuation of a path-formed disposition.

IV.3 Anālayo: The Pāli–Āgama Comparative Method

Bhikkhu Anālayo's A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya (2011) and Saṃyukta-āgama Studies (2015) establish a methodological framework: when a doctrinal proposition is attested in the Pāli canon and in at least one Chinese Āgama translation (the Saṃyuktāgama, the Madhyamāgama, the Ekottarāgama) with structural consistency, the proposition can be traced to a stratum prior to the sectarian division of early Buddhism — that is, to a pre-sectarian common heritage. This is one of the principal philological criteria in modern scholarship for identifying early Buddhist material.

For the four-limb structure of stream-entry, Anālayo's comparative work shows convergence between Pāli SN 55 and the Chinese Saṃyuktāgama fascicle 33: the four-fold formula (three experiential confidences + accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct) is attested in both traditions in structurally consistent form. This cross-traditional convergence places the four-limb structure outside any single school's editorial decision, within the pre-sectarian common heritage.

Accepted. The strongest inheritance from Anālayo, for this paper, is the philological confirmation of pre-sectarian standing: the four-limb formula is attested in Pāli SN 55 and in Chinese Saṃyuktāgama fascicle 33 with structural consistency, and so traces to a stratum prior to sectarian division. This methodological frame underwrites the joint Pāli + Chinese reading of section II.

Modest extension. Anālayo's comparative work centers on the textual layer — the convergence of the formula itself across traditions. The verb-pairing observation of section III is a finer-grained textual observation that lies in the same philological register, and inherits the same pre-sectarian standing: the cross-corpus consistency of the "endowed with / fulfills" predicate paired with the noble ethical conduct, distinct from the "confidence in" predicate paired with the first three limbs, is itself a pre-sectarian textual feature, and the modest grammatical claim it supports inherits the same philological warrant.

IV.4 The Phenomenology of Ethical Conduct: The First Three Links of AN 11.1

The dialogue with the three interlocutors converges on a question of mechanism: how does ethical conduct, as the fourth limb, operate within the practitioner's inner experience? The Pāli answer is anchored in Aṅguttara Nikāya 11.1 Kimatthiyasutta. The present paper restricts itself to the first three links; the full eleven-link chain is the scene of P07, the aggregate of ethical conduct (sīla-khandha) the scene of P08, and the sīla-to-samādhi handoff the scene of P24.

Pāli (Mahāsaṅgīti):

"Kimatthiyāni, bhante, kusalāni sīlāni kimānisaṁsānī"ti? "Avippaṭisāratthāni kho, ānanda, kusalāni sīlāni avippaṭisārānisaṁsānī"ti. "Avippaṭisāro kho, ānanda, pāmojjattho pāmojjānisaṁso". "Pāmojjaṁ kho, ānanda, pītatthaṁ pītānisaṁsaṁ".

English (Sujato CC0):

"Sir, what is the goal and benefit of skillful ethics?" "Ānanda, having no regrets is the goal and benefit of skillful ethics." "Joy is the goal and benefit of having no regrets." "Rapture is the goal and benefit of joy."

(— AN 11.1 §§1–4 · PTS AN V 1)

The Chinese parallel is the Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 10, Heyi-jing (T0026), quoted in the companion paper P01 §VI and not repeated here: the same chain in the form "what is the meaning of ethical conduct? Non-regret is the meaning of ethical conduct …"

The Buddha's double-formula attha / ānisaṁsa — "goal" / "benefit" — in this exchange forecloses two misreadings. First, ethical conduct is not "an external admission-condition for stream-entry": its attha (goal) is internal — avippaṭisāra, non-regret — not directed toward an external admission. Second, ethical conduct is not "a deposit of merit for future-life karmic accounting": its ānisaṁsa (benefit) is a present-moment psychological state — non-regret, then joy — not directed toward a future-life merit-transaction¹⁰.

The first three links — skillful ethical conduct (kusalāni sīlāni) → non-regret (avippaṭisāra) → joy (pāmojja) — set out the phenomenal trace that ethical conduct leaves within the noble disciple's inner experience: the immediate present-moment fruit is the stable inner state of non-regret, which opens into the affective trajectory of joy. The doctrinal point: a detached rule-compliance would not generate non-regret as its present-moment fruit; the noble ethical conduct of the four-limb formula does, because that conduct is the practitioner's own attribute, continuous with their settled disposition. The phenomenal chain of AN 11.1 is the inner counterpart of the grammatical structure of section III: an attribute possessed produces a phenomenal trace; a confidence-toward-an-object does not produce that specific trace in the same form.

V. Middle-Way Corrections

This paper's argument is open to four predictable misreadings; each is set out and corrected here.

Misreading 1. Guṇabhadra's eight items and the Pāli eight stock items of ariyakanta-sīla form a transparent 1-to-1 correspondence.

Middle-way correction. The two lists share their number (eight) and their structural position (the unfolding of the qualities of the noble ones' ethical conduct), but a transparent 1-to-1 mapping is not warranted by the textual evidence. Mid-list, the assignment of bhujissa / aparāmaṭṭha to 不他取戒 / 善護戒, and of samādhi-saṁvattanika to 智者不厭戒, admits more than one defensible reading. The table in §III.2 is explicitly provisional, by semantic adjacency, awaiting a Vinaya-philological study of its own. This paper's argument does not depend on the 1-to-1 mapping; it depends on the functional convergence — both lists discharge the same role within their respective texts (the unfolding of the qualities of ariyakanta-sīla), which is sufficient for the verb-pairing argument.

Misreading 2. Bhikkhu Sujato's rendering of aparāmaṭṭha as "not mistaken" gives the core meaning of the term.

Middle-way correction. The literal sense of aparāmaṭṭha is "not grasped at" / "not seized upon" (a- negation + parā- "toward another" + √mas "to touch / grasp"); Bhikkhu Bodhi's rendering in his SN / AN translations as "not adhered to" is closer to the etymological core. Sujato's "not mistaken" is a fluent contextual translation, but it loses the affective-cognitive dimension of "grasping at." This dimension matters: at SN 55.40 (cited at §VI below), the noble disciple who is santuṭṭha (content) with the noble ethical conduct is the one who has parāmaṭṭha (grasped at) it; the "grasping at the noble ethical conduct" is the textual marker of "endowed with the four limbs yet pamādavihārī (dwelling negligently)"¹¹. Sujato's "not mistaken" can stand as a contextual gloss where the affective dimension is not at stake; in §VI it is at stake.

Misreading 3. The recollection of ethical conduct (sīlānussati) necessarily reaches absorption-concentration (appanā-samādhi).

Middle-way correction. Visuddhimagga chapter VII §4 (the Sīlānussati-niddesa) concludes that the recollection of ethical conduct reaches access-concentration (upacāra-samādhi) only, not absorption-concentration (appanā-samādhi). The reason is structural: the qualities of the noble ethical conduct are rich enough (the eight items each carry a reflective sub-object) that the mind remains reflectively engaged across the meditation rather than settling into single-pointed absorption¹². This ceiling is a constitutive feature of the practice, not a defect. The recollection of ethical conduct is the main scene of P03 (forthcoming), where the operation of ethical conduct as an "internally verifiable meditation object" will be developed.

Misreading 4. The SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta is a discourse cluster for the male monastic saṅgha.

Middle-way correction. SN 55.39 Kāḷigodhasutta presents the Sakyan laywoman Kāḷigodhā (sākiyānī) self-declaring her possession of the four limbs (buddhe / dhamme / saṅghe aveccappasāda + ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgatā), with the Buddha confirming her attainment of the fruit of stream-entry on the spot: "Lābhā te, godhe… Sotāpattiphalaṁ tayā, godhe, byākatan"¹³. SN 55.39 is the canon's own evidence that the structure is gender-balanced and lay-monastic-balanced; the noble ones' ethical conduct is not a bhikkhu-level discipline broadcast for monks alone. The eight-virtue structure of ariyakanta-sīla is, by SN 55.39, accessible to the lay disciple.

VI. Conclusion

The companion paper P01, at the close of its §VI, cited the closing line of the eleven-link chain of Aṅguttara Nikāya 11.1 — kusalāni sīlāni anupubbena aggāya parentī, "skillful ethics gradually lead up to the highest" (Sujato CC0) — and developed the forward direction of the chain. The present paper closes by reading SN 55.40 Nandiyasakkasutta — the heedless-dweller chain — as the mirror reverse of that forward sequence, isolating the condition under which the chain fails to start.

Pāli (Mahāsaṅgīti):

So tehi ariyakantehi sīlehi santuṭṭho na uttari vāyamati divā pavivekāya rattiṁ paṭisallānāya. Tassa evaṁ pamattassa viharato pāmojjaṁ na hoti. Pāmojje asati, pīti na hoti.

English (Sujato CC0):

They're content with that ethical conduct loved by the noble ones, and don't make a further effort for solitude by day or retreat by night. When they live negligently, there's no joy. When there's no joy, there's no rapture.

(— SN 55.40 §4 · PTS SN v 397)

The noble disciple endowed with the four limbs but santuṭṭha — "content" — with the noble ethical conduct fails to make further effort, dwells negligently, and the forward chain does not start: pāmojjaṁ na hoti (joy does not arise), pāmojje asati, pīti na hoti (with joy absent, no rapture arises)¹⁴. The "content" here carries a negative valence — settling for what one has attained, ceasing to press further — and is the textual realization of parāmaṭṭha, "grasped at": the noble disciple has grasped onto the ethical conduct as a completed possession. Read alongside the forward chain of AN 11.1, SN 55.40 supplies the gating condition: when the seventh of the eight virtues of ariyakanta-sīla — aparāmaṭṭha, "not grasped at" — is missing, the forward chain stalls at its first link. The seventh virtue is not a throwaway item in the eight-virtue list; it is the gating condition for whether the four-limb structure unfolds into the inner phenomenal sequence at all.

The argument of the paper can now be closed in four points.

(1) The fourth factor of stream-entry is accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct; this structural fact is attested in both the Pāli SN 55 cluster and the Chinese SĀ 935. The Chinese-side disputation at SĀ 935 is the canonical adjudication: the Buddha overrules Sāḷha's three-factor view by name.

(2) The fourth limb is grammatically distinct from the first three across the formula's cross-corpus instances. The first three take "endowed with confidence in an object" (aveccappasāda / pasanna); the fourth takes "endowed with / fulfilling an attribute" (samannāgato / paripūrakārī / Chinese 成就). The verb-pairing is stable across SN 55, AN 5.32, and SĀ 935.

(3) This grammatical observation suggests that the fourth limb plays a different role from the first three within the four-limb structure. The doctrinal weight is suggestive: enough to make the intuitive reading of the four limbs as "four parallel confidences" salutary to question, but not enough on its own to support stronger metaphysical claims.

(4) The eight-virtue formula of ariyakanta-sīla (the Pāli akhaṇḍa through samādhi-saṁvattanika, and Guṇabhadra's eight-item Chinese rendering) is attested in both traditions, though the 1-to-1 mapping is not transparent. The Visuddhimagga's exposition suggests a 4 + 4 grouping: the four negations of forms of damage to ethical conduct, followed by the four positive functions of ethical conduct.

The paper points forward in three directions. P03 will take sīlānussati as its main scene, developing ethical conduct as an internally verifiable meditation object. P07 will take the threefold training (tisso sikkhā) and the full eleven links of AN 11.1 as its main scene, developing the unfolding sequence sīla → samādhi → paññā. P24 will take the four pure injunctions of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra as its main scene, developing the Mahāyāna canonical handoff from ethical conduct to concentration. The present paper opens these directions; it does not enter them.

References

I. Primary Buddhist Sources

Pāli Canon (Mahāsaṅgīti edition · SuttaCentral)

SN 55.21 Paṭhamamahānāmasutta · PTS SN v 369
SN 55.22 Dutiyamahānāmasutta · PTS SN v 371
SN 55.31 Paṭhamapuññābhisandasutta · PTS SN v 391
SN 55.32 Dutiyapuññābhisandasutta · PTS SN v 391–392
SN 55.33 Tatiyapuññābhisandasutta · PTS SN v 391–392
SN 55.39 Kāḷigodhasutta · PTS SN v 395
SN 55.40 Nandiyasakkasutta · PTS SN v 396–397
AN 5.32 Cundīsutta · PTS AN iii 35
AN 11.1 Kimatthiyasutta · PTS AN V 1 (cited in P01 and echoed here)
English translations: Bhikkhu Sujato, Saṃyutta Nikāya and Aṅguttara Nikāya (SuttaCentral, CC0).

Chinese Āgama (CBETA · T02 No. 0099 · Guṇabhadra, Liu-Song dynasty trans.)

Saṃyukta-āgama fascicle 33 sūtra 934 (the sekha / asekha frame of ethical conduct–concentration–wisdom–liberation) · CBETA T02 p.0238c–0239b
Saṃyukta-āgama fascicle 33 sūtra 935 (the Sāḷha–Mahānāma three-factor / four-factor dispute and the Buddha's adjudication) · CBETA T02 p.0239b–c
Saṃyukta-āgama fascicle 33 sūtra 936 (the seven-fold ariya-puggala taxonomy and the case of the Sakyan Sarakāni) · CBETA T02 p.0239c–0240b
Saṃyukta-āgama fascicle 33 (SĀ 931, the sīlānussati eight-virtue passage) · CBETA T02 p.0238a
Saṃyukta-āgama fascicle 37 (catechistic "four inalienable confidences" formulary, dispersed across the fascicle)
Madhyama-āgama fascicle 10 Heyi-jing (the Chinese parallel to AN 11.1; cited in P01) · T0026 · T 01 p.485

Commentary · Visuddhimagga (paraphrased only · no verbatim quotation)

Visuddhimagga chapter VII §4 Sīlānussati-niddesa (Exposition of the Recollection of Ethical Conduct) · PTS 221–222 · GRETIL CC-BY-SA Pāli edition with; Ñāṇamoli English translation (BPS Pariyatti edition) in copyright. Paraphrased only.
Visuddhimagga chapter VII §7 Cha-anussati-samāpana · PTS 227–228; not cited directly in the present paper.

II. Modern Scholarship

Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.). 2000. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. (Introduction to SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta; translator's notes. Specific pagination pending physical-text consultation.)
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.). 2012. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. (Translator's notes on AN 5.32 Cundīsutta and AN 11.1 Kimatthiyasutta. Specific pagination pending physical-text consultation.)
Gethin, Rupert. 1998. The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapters 7–8.
Gethin, Rupert. 1992/2001. The Buddhist Path to Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiyā Dhammā. Leiden: E. J. Brill / Oxford: Oneworld. Chapter 4 (pañca-indriya) and Chapter 6 (the path).
Anālayo, Bhikkhu. 2011. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya. Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation.
Anālayo, Bhikkhu. 2015. Saṃyukta-āgama Studies. Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation.
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.). 1956/2010. The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Kandy / Onalaska: BPS Pariyatti Edition. (Paraphrased only in the present paper.)
Harvey, Peter. 2000. An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Auxiliary reference; not a principal interlocutor.)

III. Index of Sources

Source	Sections cited	Use
SN 55.22 Dutiyamahānāmasutta	§II.5 / §III.1	Leaning-tree image; Pāli verb-pairing for the four limbs
SN 55.31 Paṭhamapuññābhisandasutta	§III.2	Sujato CC0 English unfolding of the eight-virtue formula
SN 55.32 / SN 55.33	§III.3 / §V correction 1	The rotating fourth puññābhisanda triad (set apart from sotāpattiyaṅga)
SN 55.39 Kāḷigodhasutta	§V correction 4	Kāḷigodhā's self-declaration and the Buddha's confirmation
SN 55.40 Nandiyasakkasutta	§VI	The mirror-reverse pamāda chain
AN 5.32 Cundīsutta	§III.1 / §III.2 / §III.4	Eight-virtue formula in full (not in peyyāla) + agga / paripūrakārī verb-pairing
AN 11.1 Kimatthiyasutta	§IV.4 / §VI	First three phenomenal links + anupubbena closing line (cited in P01)
T0099 fascicle 33 sūtra 934	§II.2	Sekha / asekha frame of ethical conduct–concentration–wisdom–liberation
T0099 fascicle 33 sūtra 935	§II.1 / §III.1 / §III.4	Sāḷha–Mahānāma dispute and the Buddha's adjudication (Chinese-side opening; cross-volume polyphony anchor)
T0099 fascicle 33 sūtra 936	§III.4 footnote	The Sakyan Sarakāni boundary case
T0099 fascicle 37	§II.4	The catechistic "four inalienable confidences" formulary
T0099 fascicle 33	§II.3 / §III.2	Guṇabhadra's eight-virtue rendering of sīlānussati
T0026 fascicle 10 Heyi-jing	§VI cross-paper carryover	AN 11.1's Chinese parallel (cited in P01)
Visuddhimagga ch. VII §4	§III.2 / §V corrections 2 + 3	Paraphrase of the eight-item 4 + 4 structure + sīlānussati upacāra-samādhi ceiling

Cross-References

Antecedent

P01 What Sīla Actually Means §VI — citing AN 11.1's closing line "kusalāni sīlāni anupubbena aggāya parentī" ("skillful ethics gradually lead up to the highest"). The present paper §VI echoes that closing and adds the mirror-reverse SN 55.40 chain.

Subsequent

P03 Sīlānussati — the recollection-of-ethical-conduct upacāra-samādhi ceiling (this paper §V correction 3) is the background for P03's full development of the meditation operation.
P07 (the threefold training and the full AN 11.1 chain) — this paper §IV.4 covers only the first three links of AN 11.1; P07 will develop the unfolding of the threefold training (tisso sikkhā — sīla / samādhi / paññā) and the full eleven-link chain.
P08 (sīla-khandha and sīla-gandha) — this paper surfaces the aggregate of ethical conduct (sīla-khandha) as background only; P08 takes it as main scene.
P24 (the four pure injunctions of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra) — this paper §VI surfaces the phenomenal hinge between ethical conduct and concentration; P24 will develop the Mahāyāna canonical handoff in the Śūraṅgama.

Cross-Volume

DĀNA P02 Cāga as a Faculty of Stream-Entry — Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 935 is also discussed in DĀNA Volume 2. DĀNA reads the Chinese-side rendering as evidence of the Pāli sīla / cāga dual track being collapsed to a sīla-only formulation; SILA P02 reads the same passage as the explicit canonical adjudication of the noble ones' ethical conduct as the fourth limb. The two readings stand without conflict; for the parallel articulation see DĀNA P02 § cāga-saṁpadā. The first footnote of the present paper's §II.1 (³) is the SĪLA volume's first instance of the cross-volume polyphony footnote convention.

Volume Programmatic Relation

The present paper is the second piece of Part I (Pāli Roots) of Volume 4 (SĪLA). It builds on P01's establishment of the three-axis distinction (sīla / saṃvara / vinaya) by entering more deeply into one specific instance — accomplishment in the noble ones' ethical conduct as a structural constituent of stream-entry. Subsequent papers of Part I will continue within the Pāli-Theravāda + Chinese-Āgama foundation; subsequent parts of the volume will turn to the Vinaya systems, the precept-substance discourse of East Asian Buddhism, the threefold pure precepts of the Mahāyāna, the vows of Bhaiṣajyaguru, and the sign-less precepts of the prajñāpāramitā tradition.

Footnotes

Sotāpattiyaṅga — Pāli sotāpatti, "entering the stream," + aṅga, "limb" or "factor." The standard Chinese rendering of the term is 預流支; the standard transliteration of sotāpanna is 須陀洹 (per Guṇabhadra at SĀ 935). The present paper uses "factor of stream-entry" as the predominant English rendering, with "limb of stream-entry" as occasional variation, consistent with the spectrum used by Bodhi and Anālayo. ↩
The doctrinal unfolding of this grammatical observation is the work of section III.4. The claim of this paper is restricted to the observation that the fourth limb's verb-pairing is grammatically distinct from the first three; the paper does not assert stronger metaphysical claims (such as "ethical conduct is the ontological foundation of stream-entry"). ↩
The Saṃyuktāgama sūtra 935 passage is also the codified anchor in DĀNA Volume 2 for the "Chinese-side softening of the cāga track." DĀNA P02 reads the same passage as evidence that the Pāli dual track (sīla / cāga) has been collapsed to the sīla-only track on the Chinese side; SĪLA P02 reads the same passage as the canonical adjudication that ethical conduct is the fourth limb. The two readings discharge complementary doctrinal roles within their respective volumes — see DĀNA P02 §cāga-saṁpadā for the parallel articulation. This footnote is the first activation of the cross-volume polyphony footnote mechanism in the SĪLA volume. ↩ ↩²
The "four-factor vs three-factor" disputation in SĀ 935 is the most direct sotāpattiyaṅga adjudication structure preserved in the extant Chinese Āgama. Its evidentiary weight exceeds that of any single catechistic refrain (such as the dispersed "four inalienable confidences" formulary of fascicle 37) precisely because of the difference in textual genre: a catechistic refrain witnesses a teaching's stable circulation, whereas a disputation forces a teaching to be stated explicitly against a named contrary view. The position overruled here — Sāḷha's three-factor view — is the textual antithesis of "noble ethical conduct is a factor of stream-entry"; that the canon records the Buddha overruling it by name reverses into canonical affirmation by name of the four-factor view as settled doctrine of the early community, not a later commentarial overlay. ↩
Fascicle 33 of the Saṃyuktāgama (SĀ 931, CBETA T02 p.0238a) is the explicit unfolding-in-full of Guṇabhadra's eight-virtue rendering of ariyakanta-sīla within the recollection-of-ethical-conduct (sīlānussati) passage. Each of the eight items is rendered with the structure "X 戒" — an attribute predicated of ethical conduct (ethical conduct unbroken, ethical conduct without lack, etc.) — in contrast to the "experiential confidence in X" (不壞淨) confidence-relation structure paired with the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. This grammatical feature already surfaces on the Chinese side here in fascicle 33, well before the cross-corpus verb-pairing argument of section III makes it explicit. ↩
The "four inalienable confidences" catechistic formulary in fascicle 37 of the Saṃyuktāgama appears across multiple instructional sūtras addressed to lay disciples or to the terminally ill, in the fixed structure "experiential confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Saṅgha, accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct," typically followed either by the prediction of the fruit of non-return (anāgāmiphala) or by an introduction to the practice of the five joyful subjects of recollection. This dispersed circulation establishes the four-limb structure as a stable catechistic frame across multiple sūtras of the fascicle, not an isolated occurrence. The present paper does not undertake a sūtra-by-sūtra enumeration of each instance; it indicates the dispersed presence as background evidence for section II. A rigorous corpus-linguistic study of the Saṃyuktāgama's catechistic formularies awaits its own specialized treatment. ↩
Visuddhimagga chapter VII §4 (Sīlānussati-niddesa, "Exposition of the Recollection of Ethical Conduct") is the commentarial-layer treatment of the eight-item list. The present paper paraphrases the Visuddhimagga throughout; its Pāli base text (GRETIL CC-BY-SA, with) and Ñāṇamoli's English translation (BPS Pariyatti edition, in copyright) are not quoted directly. Buddhaghosa develops each item in turn through a system of images — the cloth torn at the edge for akhaṇḍa, the cloth pierced in the middle for acchidda, the spotted cow for asabala, the speckled cow for akammāsa; the remaining four items receive functional development (the unenslavedness of bhujissa, the wise's praise of viññūpasattha, the unsuspectedness of aparāmaṭṭha, the conduciveness to concentration of samādhi-saṁvattanika). The overall structure that emerges is a 4 + 4 grouping: the four negations of forms of damage to ethical conduct, followed by the four positive functions of ethical conduct. ↩ ↩²
SN 55.31 Paṭhamapuññābhisandasutta has, as its fourth overflowing of merit, the noble ethical conduct (with the eight items akhaṇḍa … samādhi-saṁvattanika in full unfolding); SN 55.32 Dutiyapuññābhisandasutta has cāga (relinquishment); SN 55.33 Tatiyapuññābhisandasutta has paññā (wisdom, in the form of the udayatthagāminī paññā, "wisdom that comprehends arising and passing"). All three sūtras share fixed first three items — buddhe / dhamme / saṅghe aveccappasāda — and rotate only the fourth among ethical conduct, relinquishment, and wisdom. This rotation belongs to the category "four overflowings of merit" (puññābhisanda), an enumeration of the kinds of merit the stream-enterer generates; it is distinct from the category "four factors of stream-entry" (sotāpattiyaṅga), which structures the constituents of the stream-enterer's identity. The latter is fixed at four (three confidences + ethical conduct) across both SN 55.21–30 and SĀ 935, without rotation. ↩
Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 936 records the Sakyan layman Sarakāni (百手釋氏 in Guṇabhadra's rendering) — a disciple known for drinking who had broken the precept against intoxicants — taking up pure ethical conduct in the time before his death and receiving the Buddha's prediction of stream-entry after his passing (CBETA T02 p.0239c–0240b). The case suggests that "accomplishment" (成就) in the sotāpatti structure may admit a critical-moment dimension (the taking-up of ethical conduct at a decisive juncture, such as the approach of death) rather than requiring throughout-lifetime perfection. The case does not destabilize the four-limb structure of the present paper's thesis, but it marks an internal textual locus for the verb "accomplishment" that calls for its own Vinaya-historical inquiry; it is set aside here as a boundary case. ↩
The double-formula "kim-atthiyāni... kim-ānisaṁsānī" that Ānanda uses to introduce his question in AN 11.1 is a didactic device of the Pāli canon: attha (purpose, telos) and ānisaṁsa (benefit, present-moment fruit / phenomenal trace) appear together so as to foreclose two misreadings — (1) the telos-only reading, in which ethical conduct is treated as the instrumental means to some external end (typically, admission to some external state); (2) the ānisaṁsa-only reading, in which ethical conduct is treated as a deposit accumulating future-life merit. The double-formula's doctrinal payoff: the telos of ethical conduct is internal (avippaṭisāra, non-regret); its ānisaṁsa is present-moment (pāmojja, joy); neither external admission nor future deposit. The present paper restricts itself to the first three links; the remaining links four through eleven are developed in P07; the closing line "kusalāni sīlāni anupubbena aggāya parentī" ("skillful ethics gradually lead up to the highest") was cited in the companion paper P01 §VI, and is echoed here without further development. ↩
The literal sense of aparāmaṭṭha is "not grasped at" / "not seized upon" — a- (negation) + parā- ("toward another") + √mas ("to touch / to grasp"). Bhikkhu Bodhi in his SN / AN translations renders it as "not adhered to," which preserves the literal sense more closely. Bhikkhu Sujato's "not mistaken" is a fluent contextual translation but loses the affective-cognitive register of "grasping at." The Visuddhimagga's gloss in chapter VII §4 supplies two complementary readings: (1) the practitioner's own not-grasping at the ethical conduct (not seizing on it as a completed possession); (2) the practitioner's ethical conduct not being susceptible to external accusation (not being "taken hold of" by any reproach). The first of these is the reading textually realized at SN 55.40: the noble disciple who is santuṭṭha (content) with the noble ethical conduct is the one who has parāmaṭṭha (grasped at) it, and the forward phenomenal chain consequently stalls. ↩
Visuddhimagga chapter VII §4 concludes its exposition of the recollection of ethical conduct by noting that this practice reaches only access-concentration (upacāra-samādhi), not absorption-concentration (appanā-samādhi). The reason is structural: the qualities of the noble ones' ethical conduct are rich enough (the eight items each carry a reflective sub-object) that the practitioner's mind remains reflectively engaged across the meditation rather than settling into single-pointed absorption. This ceiling is a constitutive feature of the practice, not a defect; the multiplicity of reflective sub-objects preserves an attentive-reflective state rather than allowing the single-pointed absorption stage. The recollection of ethical conduct is the main scene of P03, where this point will be developed at length. ↩
SN 55.39 Kāḷigodhasutta (PTS SN v 395) records the Sakyan laywoman Kāḷigodhā (sākiyānī) self-declaring that the four factors of stream-entry are present in her — experiential confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Saṅgha, and being endowed with the noble ones' ethical conduct (ariyakantehi sīlehi samannāgatā) — to which the Buddha responds with explicit confirmation of her attainment of the fruit of stream-entry: "Lābhā te, godhe… Sotāpattiphalaṁ tayā, godhe, byākatan" — "Fortunate are you, Godhā; you have well declared the fruit of stream-entry." This sutta is explicit textual evidence that the noble ones' ethical conduct is not exclusively a male-monastic attainment, and reinforces the gender-balanced and lay-monastic-balanced doctrinal scope of the SN 55 cluster. ↩
SN 55.40 Nandiyasakkasutta (PTS SN v 396–397): the noble disciple endowed with the noble ones' ethical conduct who is santuṭṭha (content) with that ethical conduct → pamādavihārī (dwells negligently) → pāmojjaṁ na hoti (joy does not arise) → pīti na hoti (rapture does not arise). This descending chain is the mirror reverse of the forward chain of AN 11.1's first three links (ethical conduct → non-regret → joy → rapture); the two chains read together constitute the doctrinal pivot of the present paper's section VI: whether the four-limb structure unfolds into the inner phenomenal sequence at all depends on the practitioner's not grasping at the noble ones' ethical conduct (aparāmaṭṭha). ↩

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