Chapter 2 · Nāgārjuna and the Treasury — the Middle Way in Its Own Words

Part One · Sources and Formation

The sūtras are spoken by the Buddha, but whose words are the treatises? Why, when reading prajñā, should one read the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra?

This chapter introduces the treatise on which this book relies most deeply. The hundred-fascicle Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra was composed by the bodhisattva Nāgārjuna and translated by Kumārajīva. It is a passage-by-passage explanation of the Larger Prajñāpāramitā and the largest encyclopedia of prajñā in the Chinese Buddhist canon. This chapter will not extract its doctrines—the doctrines are read directly, chapter by chapter, in Part Two. It does one thing only: it lets the treatise explain itself—why it was composed, on what basis it interprets scripture, and what it calls prajñā.

1 · A Question at the Opening

How does a hundred-fascicle treatise begin? With a question:

「For what causes and conditions did the Buddha teach the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra? The dharmas of the buddhas are not spoken of their own accord for no matter or for some minor cause and condition, just as Mount Sumeru, king of mountains, does not move for no matter or for some minor cause and condition. What great causes and conditions are present now for the Buddha to teach the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra?」 〔《大智度論》卷一·緣起義釋論第一·T25n1509 0057c23（單元起 0057c05）·待譯〕

Notice how it begins. The treatise master starts not from what he intends to say, but from 『why the Buddha spoke』. For a treatise that explains scripture, the foremost question is why the Buddha taught it. Mount Sumeru does not move for a small matter; the Buddha does not speak for some minor cause and condition. The whole first fascicle answers this question: a succession of 「Furthermore … therefore this sūtra was taught」 counts out, one by one, the conditions for the Buddha's teaching of prajñā. The occasion for composing the treatise is thus laid over the occasion for teaching the sūtra.

2 · The Four Siddhāntas — the Treatise's Own Method of Interpreting Scripture

As the enumeration deepens, the treatise master reveals his hermeneutic. The Buddha teaches all dharmas through four 「siddhāntas」—four standpoints through which beings are brought to accomplishment:

「Furthermore, because the Buddha wished to teach the character of the siddhānta of ultimate truth, he taught this Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra. There are four siddhāntas: first, the worldly siddhānta; second, the individually adapted siddhānta; third, the remedial siddhānta; and fourth, the siddhānta of ultimate truth. Within the four siddhāntas, all twelve divisions of scripture and the eighty-four thousand Dharma treasuries are true, without contradiction.」 〔同卷·T25n1509 0059b17·待譯〕

This is the methodological foundation of the whole treatise. 「All twelve divisions of scripture and the eighty-four thousand Dharma treasuries are true, without contradiction」—apparent divergences among the teachings are not a matter of one being right and another wrong, but of different siddhāntas. Some teachings rely on what the world commonly accepts; some respond to an individual's capacities; some remedy a particular disorder; some directly reveal ultimate truth. The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra is taught precisely for the 「siddhānta of ultimate truth」:

「Passages such as these teach the siddhānta of ultimate truth throughout the sūtras. This meaning is extremely profound, difficult to see and difficult to understand. Because the Buddha wished to teach this meaning, he taught the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra.」 〔同卷·待譯〕

This self-conscious method is the basis on which one treatise dares to explain the whole canon. The Tiantai tradition later adopted the four siddhāntas as a general rule of scriptural interpretation; its source is this fascicle.

3 · The Meaning of Prajñā and the Treasury

What does the title 「Great Wisdom, Crossing Over」 mean? Explaining the title, the treatise master says that 「mahā」 in the language of Qin means great, 「prajñā」 means wisdom, and 「pāramitā」 means reaching the other shore〔T25n1509 卷十八 0191a04·待譯〕. Great Wisdom, Crossing Over is mahāprajñāpāramitā—the great wisdom that reaches the other shore. Elsewhere the treatise names prajñā in words of particular solemnity:

「True prajñā-pāramitā is called the mother of the buddhas of the three times and can reveal the true reality of all dharmas. This prajñā-pāramitā comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; sought in any place, it cannot be attained. It is like an illusion, an echo, or the moon in water: when seen, it is already lost. Out of compassion, the noble ones speak with many different names of this one-marked prajñā-pāramitā, the treasury of the buddhas' wisdom. Your words are gravely mistaken!」 〔《大智度論》卷十一·T25n1509 0093a 段·待譯〕

「Mother of the buddhas of the three times」—all buddhas of past, present, and future are born from prajñā. 「Treasury of the buddhas' wisdom」—when this book calls the treatise a 「treasury」, the name is not our invention but the treatise's own. At the same time, this sentence fully states the treasury's character. Prajñā 「comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; sought in any place, it cannot be attained」; only out of compassion do the noble ones 「speak of it with many different names」. A hundred fascicles of extensive explanation speak of something that cannot be found. This tension runs through the treatise and through Part Two of this book.

As coordinates for entering this vast treasury, this book uses fifteen topics—true reality, the eighteen emptinesses, ultimate emptiness, the two truths, the six perfections, the three wisdoms, the three samādhis, the ten similes, the ten grounds, the four siddhāntas, acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, and others. Each is tied to its fascicle and page-column location. Later chapters draw upon them as needed rather than emptying the treasury all at once here.

4 · The Middle Way in Its Own Words — How This Book Reads the Treatise

One last thing must be made clear: the eye with which this book reads the treatise. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra is one of the foundational treatises of the Madhyamaka tradition, an extensive unfolding of Nāgārjuna's two truths, ultimate emptiness, and true reality. The Chinese Three-Treatise and Tiantai traditions both receive it as scriptural proof. This book reads it within its own framework—the two truths, ultimate emptiness, true reality, and the correct contemplation of prajñā—and does not import another school's criteria. The treatise states its own school in its own words; this book transmits rather than composes and lets the treatise speak for itself.

Return to the opening questions. Whose words are a treatise? The words of someone who pursued 『why the Buddha taught prajñā』 to the end. As an answer to how scripture becomes learning, this treatise is the greatest work produced outside China—and China's own answer is found in the Chang'an translation hall, the road of the next chapter. The direct reading of the two truths and the three wisdoms waits for chapters six and seven.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏