地藏菩薩本願經 地獄名號品

This chapter has no story in it, and almost no reasoning. It calls out names.

Samantabhadra asks Kṣitigarbha to speak the names of the hells. Kṣitigarbha consents, and then, beginning from that mountain in the east of Jambudvīpa that is black and deep, with no light of sun or moon, he calls them out one after another.

The Name That Was Called Twice

First two great hells: Utmost Uninterrupted, and Great Avīci. Then twenty-two of the form there is a further hell called — Four-Cornered, Flying Blades, Fire Arrows, Crushing Mountains, Piercing Spears, Iron Carts, Iron Bed, Iron Ox, Iron Garments, A Thousand Blades, Iron Donkey, Molten Copper, Embracing the Pillar, Flowing Fire, Ploughing the Tongue, Chopping the Head, Burning Feet, Devouring the Eyes, Iron Pellets, Contention, Iron Axe, Much Anger.

The calling done, one line is said: within the Iron Ring there are hells such as these, and their number is without limit.

Then the form of the sentence changes, and twenty-two more are called: Wailing, Tongue-Pulling, Dung and Urine, Copper Locks, Fire Elephants, Fire Dogs, Fire Horses, Fire Oxen, Fire Mountains, Fire Stones, Fire Beds, Fire Beams, Fire Hawks, Sawing the Teeth, Flaying the Skin, Drinking Blood, Burning Hands, Burning Feet, Inverted Thorns, Fire Houses, Iron Houses, Fire Wolves.

The calling done, it is said: the names within them are each and all different.

Burning Feet occurs once in each of the two strings. The sūtra does not say why it should be called twice.

The Power of Karma Is Very Great

The names all called, the sūtra takes only three clauses to say where this whole stretch of country comes from: the power of karma is very great — it can match Sumeru, it can outgo the vast sea in depth, it can obstruct the holy path.

A comparison in height, a comparison in depth, and then a third thing. The first two are still things that can be measured. The third is not.

Then comes a line of exhortation: therefore let beings not make light of small evil, thinking it carries no guilt; after death there is requital, and it is undergone down to the finest hair.

And then a line that is the coldest in the chapter: father and son are the closest of kin, yet at the parting of the ways each goes his own; and though they should meet, not one is willing to undergo it in the other's stead.

Four Things

At the last the sūtra gathers the whole stretch of hells into four things: there is nothing that is not copper, iron, stone, or fire. These four things are called forth by the karmic acts of beings.

The blades, wheels, crossbows, saws, cauldrons, pillars, garments, beds, pellets, and axes of the several hundred characters before this come to four materials only; and not one of them has been issued by anyone else. The sūtra says: called forth by the karmic acts of beings.

The One Who Knew Already

Samantabhadra, who listens to this whole passage, had said at the outset: I have long known the requital of the three evil destinies.

What he wants is not to know. He wants Kṣitigarbha to say it aloud before the assembly, so that the beings of ages to come, in the last age of the Dharma, who do every kind of evil, may hear you speak and be turned toward the Buddha.

The one who asks knows already, and the one who answers knows that he knows already. This question and this answer are spoken for a third kind of person.

And when Kṣitigarbha has called out forty-six names and told fourteen kinds of thing, he says that even this is only a brief telling: were it explained at large, kalpas would run out before it was done.

Śikṣānanda’s translation, made under the Tang, of the chapter “The Names of the Hells” in The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Taishō T13n0412, the fifth chapter of Fascicle One, from the title of the chapter down to “were it explained at large, kalpas would run out before it was done.” The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔1 · The title of the chapter〕（0781c26）The Names of the Hells, Chapter Five.

〔2 · Samantabhadra asks that the names of the hells be spoken〕（0781c27）At that time Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-mahāsattva said to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: “Benevolent one! I pray that for the fourfold host of devas and nāgas (the devas, the nāgas, and the two other kinds who make up the four classes of hearers in the assembly), and for all beings of ages to come and of the present age, you will speak of the places where the beings of the Sahā world and of Jambudvīpa who are guilty and suffering undergo their requital — the names of the hells, and the matter of their evil requital and the rest — so that the beings of the last age of the Dharma in ages to come may know that these are the fruits of their deeds.”

〔3 · Kṣitigarbha, upheld by the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power, consents to speak〕（0782a02）Kṣitigarbha answered: “Benevolent one! Today, upheld by the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power and by the strength of the great being (an honorific for Samantabhadra), I shall speak in brief of the names of the hells and of the matter of the requital of guilt and of evil.

〔4 · The place of the hells shown in sum · the Iron Ring Mountains〕（0782a03）Benevolent one, in the east of Jambudvīpa there is a mountain called the Iron Ring (in Sanskrit cakra, rendered by sense as Wheel Mountain; the ring is precisely the sense of a wheel). That mountain is black and deep, and has no light of sun or moon.

〔5 · The two great hells that are the principals〕（0782a05）There is a great hell called Utmost Uninterrupted. There is also a hell named Great Avīci (a- has the sense of no, and -vīci the sense of screening off, some giving it as saving — taken together, no screening off and no saving).

〔6 · The twenty-two names of the retinue hells〕（0782a06）There is a further hell called Four-Cornered (four walls of iron, with fire and iron raining down from above). There is a further hell called Flying Blades (that is, the hell of the blade-wheels; the blade-wheels come down out of the air one after another like drops of rain). There is a further hell called Fire Arrows (one trip of the mechanism beneath the iron bed, and ten thousand koṭis of iron crossbows loose their bolts together). There is a further hell called Crushing Mountains (two mountains close upon each other of themselves, like a millstone). There is a further hell called Piercing Spears (the spear is a lance, a long pike; the whole way is spread with sword-blades on the ground, and to walk over it is to be bored and pierced at every step). There is a further hell called Iron Carts. There is a further hell called Iron Bed. There is a further hell called Iron Ox. There is a further hell called Iron Garments (garments of iron heated red drop out of the air and wrap themselves about the skin and flesh). There is a further hell called A Thousand Blades (upon the great sword-bed a hundred koṭis of sword-blades, and every blade gives out fire). There is a further hell called Iron Donkey. There is a further hell called Molten Copper (molten, that is, made to run; molten copper is poured into the mouth). There is a further hell called Embracing the Pillar (a pillar of copper heated red, which the guilty are made to embrace). There is a further hell called Flowing Fire. There is a further hell called Ploughing the Tongue (the tongue is drawn out and an ox is set to plough it). There is a further hell called Chopping the Head (to chop is to cut to pieces; his head is cut to pieces). There is a further hell called Burning Feet (seen from without it looks like a level stretch of open ground, but it is hot ash; set one foot down on it and the skin and flesh are at once destroyed). There is a further hell called Devouring the Eyes (to devour is to eat; birds with beaks of iron peck out and eat both eyes of the guilty). There is a further hell called Iron Pellets. There is a further hell called Contention. There is a further hell called Iron Axe (the fu is an axe). There is a further hell called Much Anger.”

〔7 · The number of the hells is without limit〕（0782a17）Kṣitigarbha said: “Benevolent one! Within the Iron Ring Mountains there are hells such as these, and their number is without limit.

〔8 · Twenty-two hells whose names are different〕（0782a18）There are besides the Hell of Wailing, the Hell of Tongue-Pulling, the Hell of Dung and Urine, the Hell of Copper Locks, the Hell of Fire Elephants, the Hell of Fire Dogs, the Hell of Fire Horses, the Hell of Fire Oxen, the Hell of Fire Mountains, the Hell of Fire Stones, the Hell of Fire Beds, the Hell of Fire Beams (a beam is a roof-beam; the beams and pillars of iron are every one of them fire, and one is either hung from a beam and burned or pressed under it and burned), the Hell of Fire Hawks, the Hell of Sawing the Teeth, the Hell of Flaying the Skin, the Hell of Drinking Blood, the Hell of Burning Hands, the Hell of Burning Feet (this one shares its name with the one above but is not of the same tier: that one is hot ash, while this one is the portion in which, within a burning that scorches the whole body, the hands and feet alone are burned), the Hell of Inverted Thorns (trees of iron whose thorns grow downward, and as one is drawn up and down the thorns turn about with the motion), the Hell of Fire Houses, the Hell of Iron Houses, the Hell of Fire Wolves.

〔9 · Each has smaller hells within it again〕（0782a23）Within hells such as these there are again, each and all, many smaller hells — one or two, three or four, on up to a hundred thousand. And the names within them are each and all different.”

〔10 · Karma calls them forth thus〕（0782a25）Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva: “Benevolent one! All these are the beings of southern Jambudvīpa who do evil, and karma has called them forth to be as they are.

〔11 · The power of karma is very great〕（0782a27）The power of karma is very great: it can match Sumeru, it can outgo the great sea in depth, it can obstruct the holy path.

〔12 · Make no light of small evil · none is willing to undergo it in another’s stead〕（0782a28）Therefore let beings not make light of small evil and think that it carries no guilt; after death there is requital, and it is undergone down to the finest hair. Father and son are the closest of kin, yet at the parting of the ways each goes his own; and though they should meet, not one is willing to undergo it in the other’s stead.

〔13 · He asks that these words be heard a while〕（0782b01）Today, upheld by the Buddha’s awesome power, I speak in brief of the matter of the requital of guilt in the hells. I pray only that the benevolent one will hear these words a while.”

〔14 · Samantabhadra answers · that they may be turned toward the Buddha〕（0782b03）Samantabhadra answered: “I have long known the requital of the three evil destinies. I look to hear the benevolent one speak of it only so that the beings of ages to come, in the last age of the Dharma, who do every kind of evil, may hear the benevolent one speak and be turned toward the Buddha.”

〔15 · The requital of guilt in the hells, fourteen things〕（0782b05）Kṣitigarbha said: “Benevolent one! The requital of guilt in the hells — the matter of it is as follows. There are hells where the tongue of the guilty is taken and an ox is set to plough it. There are hells where the heart of the guilty is taken and a yakṣa eats it. There are hells where a cauldron of soup is brought to the boil and the bodies of the guilty are cooked in it. There are hells where a pillar of copper is heated red and the guilty are made to embrace it. There are hells where many fires are set burning and run the guilty down and drive them on (to run down is to chase and to follow after). There are hells where there is nothing from end to end but cold ice. There are hells where there is nothing but dung and urine without limit. There are hells where nothing flies but iron 𨪏鏫 (a spiked implement of the caltrop kind, which of old was buried at the four corners of a camp on campaign to wound those who came upon it). There are hells where fire-spears are massed in numbers (of one kind with the Piercing Spears above, save that there is fire besides). There are hells where nothing is done but the striking of chest and back. There are hells where nothing is burned but the hands and feet. There are hells where iron serpents coil and knot about one. There are hells where iron dogs drive one to and fro. There are hells where all alike are made to ride iron mules.

〔16 · The four materials of the implements of suffering〕（0782b14）Benevolent one, of requitals such as these — in each and every hell there are a hundred thousand kinds of implement belonging to the paths of karma, and there is not one that is not copper, or iron, or stone, or fire. These four things are called forth by the karmic acts of beings.

〔17 · Thus much is said in brief〕（0782b16）Were the matter of the requital of guilt in the hells and the rest to be spoken of at large, there would be in each and every hell a hundred thousand kinds of bitter torment besides — how much more when the hells are so many. Today, upheld by the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power and prompted by the benevolent one’s asking, I have spoken in brief thus much. Were it explained at large, kalpas would run out before it was done.”

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. He judges this chapter to be the passage 「示業報差別，二。初、品題」—“showing the differences in the requital of karma, in two: first, the title of the chapter.” 〔X21n0384 0700b06〕, and says that the reason this question comes in at this place is that it is 「次於業緣業感之後而問地獄業報差別之相」—“after karmic conditions and karmic impulsion, next to ask about the aspects of the differences in the requital of karma in the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0700b13〕 — the two chapters before speak of karmic conditions and of karmic impulsion; this chapter speaks of what the place that karmic impulsion produces looks like. Within the chapter he divides with great fineness, and the most important cut of all is the one that separates the forty-odd names of hells from beneath the two great hells and sets them under a heading of their own. Where that cut falls will be said below. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

Why the Hells Are Spoken of First, and Not Emptiness

This chapter is almost all of it names. Forty-six names of hells are called out in a row, and fourteen kinds of punishment besides, with only a short stretch of exhortation set between them. A sūtra that speaks throughout of a bodhisattva’s original vows turns all at once into an inventory.

The reading handed down answers here, first, a question that lies further back: why not speak of emptiness straight out?

「夫空無所有，無相無願，是道之要慧，不可為新學人說」—“emptiness, in which nothing is possessed, and signlessness and wishlessness, are the essential wisdom of the Path, and may not be spoken of to one newly come to learn.” 〔X21n0384 0700c21〕 — emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness are the essential wisdom of the Path, and yet they cannot be spoken to one just come in at the door. The reason is stated very concretely: 「聞無所有，便曠其心，不復修戒」—“hearing that nothing is possessed, he empties out his mind and cultivates the precepts no more.” 〔X21n0384 0700c22〕 Hearing that all things possess nothing, the mind goes hollow and the precepts go uncultivated; and then comes the question: if all is empty, what is there left to be done? That doubt is not an unfamiliar one.

And so a good friend has another order for teaching one newly come to learn: 「夫善知識欲教新學，漸語魔事，令護魔因緣，生死罪苦，五道分明，令信罪福，事事了了，乃可語道」—“a good friend who would teach one newly come to learn speaks by degrees of the affairs of Māra, so that he may guard against the conditions of Māra; and of the guilt and suffering of birth and death; and of the five destinies made plain, so that he may believe in guilt and in blessing; and when matter after matter is clear, only then may the Path be spoken of.” 〔X21n0384 0700c23〕 First the affairs of Māra, then the guilt and suffering of birth and death, then the five destinies set out plainly so that one believes in guilt and blessing; and when matter after matter is understood, only then is there any speaking of the Path.

This chapter is that stretch of the work in which “the five destinies are made plain.” It does not argue; it calls out place-names. And why it should call them out so, the sūtra has already said for itself in the words of the request: 「使未來世末法眾生，知是果報」—“so that the beings of the last age of the Dharma in ages to come may know that these are the fruits of their deeds.” 〔T13n0412 0782a01〕

The One Who Asks Knew Already

It is Samantabhadra who asks.

The thing is a little strange in itself. The two great beings stand next to each other in virtue and in station; how should Samantabhadra not know the names of the hells? The reading handed down breaks this open: 「以地藏分身冥界，教化泥犁，當眾發明，誰不信受，故特興問耳」—“because Kṣitigarbha divides his body into the dark realms and teaches and transforms in the niraya, if he sets it forth before the assembly, who will not believe and accept it? And so the question is raised expressly.” 〔X21n0384 0700c02〕 Kṣitigarbha is the one who divides his body into the dark realms and does the teaching on the ground itself; one and the same sentence, spoken by him before the assembly, is what the hearers believe. And so this question is not asked for the asker’s own sake.

The sūtra writes this out more plainly further on. Kṣitigarbha asks him to listen a while, and Samantabhadra answers: 「吾已久知三惡道報」—“I have long known the requital of the three evil destinies.” 〔T13n0412 0782b03〕 — I knew it long ago. What he wants is 「令後世末法一切惡行眾生，聞仁者說，使令歸佛」—“that the beings of later ages, in the last age of the Dharma, who do every kind of evil, may hear the benevolent one speak and be turned toward the Buddha.” 〔T13n0412 0782b04〕

The one who asks knew already, and the one who answers knows that he knows. This question and this answer are spoken for a third kind of person to hear.

A Mountain with No Sun or Moon

The answer begins from a mountain. In the east of Jambudvīpa there is a mountain called the Iron Ring, and 「其山黑邃，無日月光」—“that mountain is black and deep, and has no light of sun or moon.” 〔T13n0412 0782a04〕

This is not the mountain’s first appearance in the sūtra. The sea of karma the brahmin woman came to in the first chapter, the ghost king Poisonless says, is the first of the seas on the western side of the Great Iron Ring Mountains; what is spoken of here is the eastern side of that same mountain. The sūtra does not set up a new stove; it walks on from where it was.

And the two characters for black and deep have a source. The commentator of old cites the chapter on the hells in the Sūtra of the Record of the World in the Dīrgha Āgama: between two rings of great adamantine mountains, 「二山中間窈窈冥冥，日月神天有大威力，不能以光照及於彼」—“between the two mountains it is dim upon dim and dark upon dark, and the divine gods of sun and moon, for all their great awesome power, cannot reach it with their light.” 〔T01n0001 0121c03〕 — it is not that sun and moon are not bright; it is that the light cannot get in. And so the commentator glosses that character: 「邃，深遠也。黑而且䆳，闇之極者矣」—“deep means far and distant. Black and deep besides: this is darkness at its very utmost.” 〔X21n0384 0701a21〕

First a place is set up that sun and moon cannot reach, and only then are names called out inside it. That is the order in which this chapter frames its view.

Two Names, One Place

Once inside the mountain, the sūtra first calls out two great hells: 「有大地獄，號極無間。又有地獄，名大阿鼻」—“there is a great hell called Utmost Uninterrupted. There is also a hell named Great Avīci.” 〔T13n0412 0782a05〕

And here is the trouble. Uninterrupted is a Chinese word and Avīci a Sanskrit sound, and of old the two were mostly taken for two names of one thing; yet this sūtra sets them side by side, and puts the character for “utmost” on top of Uninterrupted besides.

The reading handed down does not settle this question for the sūtra; on the contrary, it begins by admitting that it cannot be settled: 「無間、阿鼻二大地獄，或合或離，自古難定」—“the two great hells, Uninterrupted and Avīci, are now joined and now divided; from of old it has been hard to fix.” 〔X21n0384 0701b05〕 It then sets out the evidence on both sides: 「準長阿含及觀佛三昧經，合為一獄」—“following the Dīrgha Āgama and the Sūtra of the Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha, they are joined into one hell.” 〔X21n0384 0701b05〕; 「此經與楞嚴為二獄」—“this sūtra and the Śūraṅgama make them two hells.” 〔X21n0384 0701b07〕 There is ground for joining them and ground for dividing them. At the last he sets the cause down to the transmission: 「此經出不同譯師各異，致使二獄離合不同」—“this sūtra came forth from different translators, each of them differing, and so the dividing and joining of the two hells is not one.” 〔X21n0384 0701b09〕

And then he gives a simile: 「私謂譬如二姓，共居一宅，一門出入，各有眷屬」—“my own thought is that it is like two families of different surname dwelling together in one house, going in and out by one gate, each with its own kin.” 〔X21n0384 0701b10〕 Two households in one courtyard, going by one gate, each with its own relations. To one looking on from outside it will do to say one, and it will do to say two — 「同出一門，何妨說一；既是二姓，何妨說二」—“since they go out by one gate, what harm in saying one? and since they are two surnames, what harm in saying two?” 〔X21n0384 0701b11〕

Where the ancient worthy says plainly that it is hard to fix, it is hard to fix. The sūtra’s text is read by its own characters: two names stand side by side; and why they stand side by side the sūtra does not say.

Where the Cut Falls

What comes next is twenty-two of 「復有地獄，名曰」 — there is a further hell called.

In reading this long string, the mistake most easily made is to read them as twenty-two great hells standing shoulder to shoulder with Utmost Uninterrupted and Great Avīci. The reading handed down settles the matter before the names are called at all: 「是則下之四角、飛刀等，皆阿鼻之眷屬也」—“thus Four-Cornered, Flying Blades, and the rest below are all of them the retinue of Avīci.” 〔X21n0384 0701b23〕 That company below — Four-Cornered, Flying Blades, and the rest — is the retinue of Avīci. And he adds a line of rare weight: 「則下文以眷屬立科，千古定論，後賢不可不知」—“the text below is therefore given its heading as retinue: a settled conclusion for a thousand ages, which those who come after must not fail to know.” 〔X21n0384 0701c02〕

The ground for it is no guess. The Sūtra of the Sea of Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha, as cited, says 「阿鼻地獄，縱廣八千由旬，七重銕城，七層鐵網，刀林劍林等，各各七重」—“the Avīci Hell is eight thousand yojanas across and along, with seven rings of iron wall, seven layers of iron net, and forests of knives and forests of swords, each of them sevenfold.” 〔X21n0384 0701b21〕, and further that 「各有十八寒氷等獄」—“each has eighteen hells of cold ice and the like.” 〔X21n0384 0701b23〕 — a great hell comes with a whole set of attached hells of its own to begin with. And so those names below are things within that set.

The sūtra’s own text leaves a mark as well. The commentator points it out: 「皆言復有者，乃阿鼻大獄之眷屬也。其類甚多，故以二字點之」—“that all of them say ‘there is a further’ means that they are the retinue of the great hell Avīci. Their kinds are very many, and so they are marked with these two characters.” 〔X21n0384 0701c13〕 — the two characters for “there is a further” are that mark. Only when there is one more within the same set does it say “there is a further.”

With that one cut the terrain of this chapter changes: not forty-six hells standing side by side, but two great hells with a great stretch of retinue about them.

Three Ways of Saying It

Looked at after the cut, the sentence-forms in which the sūtra calls out its names are in fact three, and none of them trespasses on another.

The first is 「復有地獄，名曰」 such-and-such — there is a further hell called such-and-such — twenty-two of them. These are the retinue, spoken of following upon the great hells. The calling done, the sūtra says: 「鐵圍之內，有如是等地獄，其數無限」—“within the Iron Ring there are hells such as these, and their number is without limit.” 〔T13n0412 0782a17〕 — the number cannot be told to the end.

The second is “there are besides the hell of such-and-such,” and these too are twenty-two: Wailing, Tongue-Pulling, Dung and Urine, Copper Locks, Fire Elephants, Fire Dogs, Fire Horses, Fire Oxen, Fire Mountains, Fire Stones, Fire Beds, Fire Beams, Fire Hawks, Sawing the Teeth, Flaying the Skin, Drinking Blood, Burning Hands, Burning Feet, Inverted Thorns, Fire Houses, Iron Houses, Fire Wolves. The form of the sentence has changed, and what is said has changed with it — the passage above spoke of a number without limit, and this one speaks of names that differ. The calling done, the sūtra says: 「其中各各復有諸小地獄，或一或二，或三或四，乃至百千」—“within them there are again, each and all, many smaller hells — one or two, three or four, on up to a hundred thousand.” 〔T13n0412 0782a24〕, and 「其中名號，各各不同」—“the names within them are each and all different.” 〔T13n0412 0782a25〕

The third takes neither “there is a further” nor “there are besides,” but 「或有地獄」, there are hells where — fourteen sentences, one thing to a sentence: the tongue of the guilty taken and an ox set to plough it; the heart of the guilty taken and a yakṣa eating it; the body cooked in a boiling cauldron; a pillar of copper heated red and embraced; fires set burning that run the guilty down; nothing from end to end but cold ice; nothing but dung and urine without limit; nothing flying but iron 𨪏鏫; fire-spears massed in numbers; nothing done but the striking of chest and back; nothing burned but the hands and feet; iron serpents coiling and knotting; iron dogs driving to and fro; all alike made to ride iron mules. Not one of these fourteen sentences is a name. They do not call out the name of a hell; they call out only what happens there.

Three ways of saying it, answering to the three questions of this chapter: how many the hells are, what the hells are called, and what is done inside them.

There is one name that appears in two of the ways of saying: Burning Feet. In the first series it is 「復有地獄，名曰燒脚」—“there is a further hell called Burning Feet.” 〔T13n0412 0782a14〕; in the second it is 「燒脚地獄」—“the Hell of Burning Feet.” 〔T13n0412 0782a22〕 The reading handed down glosses the two places separately, and glosses them differently. At the first it cites the Lokaprajñapti Abhidharma Treatise and says that this is a place of hot ash — 「罪人從大地獄出」—“the guilty come out of the great hell.” 〔X21n0384 0702c13〕, and see outside a stretch that is 「如平坦空地。見相起心，我應往彼」—“like level open ground. Seeing the look of it a thought arises: I should go over there.” 〔X21n0384 0702c13〕; one foot set down and the skin and flesh are at once destroyed, and as the foot is lifted, 「隨其舉脚，皮肉還復」—“as he lifts his foot, the skin and flesh come back again.” 〔X21n0384 0702c15〕 At the second it is put under the scorching of the eight hot hells: 「燒手、燒脚一類之事，八熱獄第六燒炙，第七大燒炙」—“burning the hands and burning the feet are matters of one kind: the sixth of the eight hot hells is Scorching and the seventh Great Scorching.” 〔X21n0384 0704a21〕 — those scorch the whole body, while here 「今從別業，但燒手脚」—“here it follows a particular karma, and only the hands and feet are burned.” 〔X21n0384 0704a22〕: the hands and the feet only, and no more.

One and the same name: in the one place, hot ash walked into by mistake; in the other, the one portion left out of a burning of the whole body. The sūtra calls it out twice, and that is not repetition.

It Can Match Sumeru

The names all called, the sūtra turns a page of its own.

「此者皆是南閻浮提行惡眾生，業感如是」—“all these are the beings of southern Jambudvīpa who do evil, and karma has called them forth to be as they are.” 〔T13n0412 0782a26〕 — that whole stretch of terrain above is what karmic impulsion has called forth. Then come the three weightiest clauses in the chapter: 「業力甚大，能敵須彌，能深巨海，能障聖道」—“the power of karma is very great: it can match Sumeru, it can outgo the great sea in depth, it can obstruct the holy path.” 〔T13n0412 0782a27〕

The reading handed down matches the three clauses across word for word: 「以須彌之高廣，能抵敵之；溟壑之汪洋，能濬深之；聖道之虗通，能障礙之」—“the height and breadth of Sumeru it can stand against; the vastness of the ocean gulf it can dredge deeper; the empty openness of the holy path it can obstruct.” 〔X21n0384 0704c11〕 The first two clauses compare in height and in depth; the third changes kind — the first two are things that can be measured, and the holy path is not. Here the commentator divides one layer further: 「有漏業能障三乘聖道，無漏業能障佛性中道」—“contaminated karma can obstruct the holy path of the three vehicles; uncontaminated karma can obstruct the middle way of the buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0704c14〕

And for where karma comes from, the commentator cites a judgment of Tiantai: 「招果為因，亦名為業。十法界業，起自於心；但使有心，諸業具足」—“what draws down a fruit is a cause, and it is also named karma. The karma of the ten dharma-realms arises from the mind; let there be a mind, and every karma is complete.” 〔X21n0384 0704c07〕 The karma of all ten dharma-realms arises from the mind; let there be a mind, and every kind of karma is there entire. And further down, more bluntly still: 「心取地獄，心取餓鬼，心取畜生，心取人天」—“the mind takes the hells, the mind takes the hungry ghosts, the mind takes the animals, the mind takes gods and humans.” 〔X21n0384 0704c09〕

Sumeru for all its height and the great sea for all its depth are pressed down under a single thought arising in the mind.

The Parting of the Ways

And so the sūtra sets down a word of exhortation: 「是故眾生莫輕小惡，以為無罪，死後有報，纖毫受之」—“therefore let beings not make light of small evil and think that it carries no guilt; after death there is requital, and it is undergone down to the finest hair.” 〔T13n0412 0782a28〕

This sentence has an earlier source in the canon. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: 「莫輕小惡，以為無殃，水渧雖微，漸盈大器」—“make no light of small evil, thinking it brings no calamity; the water-drop is slight, and yet by degrees it fills a great vessel.” 〔T12n0375 0693c25〕 — a drop of water is small, and slowly it fills a great vessel all the same. Following this sense the commentator adds two clauses: 「良以纖芥之惡，歷劫不亡；毫釐之善，積世長存」—“truly, an evil the size of a mustard-seed does not perish through kalpas; a good of a hair’s breadth is stored up and lasts through ages.” 〔X21n0384 0705a03〕

And then the sūtra says the coldest sentence in the chapter: 「父子至親，岐路各別，縱然相逢，無肯代受」—“father and son are the closest of kin, yet at the parting of the ways each goes his own; and though they should meet, not one is willing to undergo it in the other’s stead.” 〔T13n0412 0782a29〕

The reading handed down takes this sentence apart and speaks of it without any softening: 「然父修善，而子作惡，則父生天，而子墮苦，途路既岐，遭逢難必」—“but if the father cultivates good and the son does evil, then the father is born in the heavens and the son falls into suffering; the roads having parted, a meeting is not to be counted on.” 〔X21n0384 0705a06〕; and even if they truly should meet, 「縱使偶遇，父安肯以天堂之樂，易子地獄之苦乎」—“even should they chance to meet, how would a father be willing to trade the bliss of the heavens for his son’s suffering in the hells?” 〔X21n0384 0705a07〕 — would a father trade the bliss of heaven for his son’s suffering in hell? And with the son good and the father evil it is the same the other way about. The Sūtra of Rāṣṭrapāla, as cited, puts it more absolutely still: 「善惡隨人，如影隨身。人生獨生，死亦獨死」—“good and evil follow a person as the shadow follows the body. A person is born alone, and dies alone as well.” 〔X21n0384 0705a09〕

In the first chapter the brahmin woman sold her house to make an offering and got her mother out, and with her all the people of that hell on that day besides. Here it is said that father and son meet and neither is willing to undergo it in the other’s stead. The two do not conflict: what saved there was the offering and the Buddha’s power, not the blood tie. The blood tie parts at the fork in the road.

Copper, Iron, Stone, Fire

The fourteen sentences of punishment told, the sūtra makes a summation and gathers the implements of the whole chapter into four things: 「無非是銅，是鐵，是石，是火。此四種物，眾業行感」—“there is nothing that is not copper, iron, stone, or fire. These four things are called forth by the karmic acts of beings.” 〔T13n0412 0782b15〕

This gathering-up matters. The several hundred characters before it wrote of blades, wheels, crossbows, saws, cauldrons, pillars, garments, beds, pellets, and axes — and gathered up they come to four materials only, and all of them called forth by karmic acts. Following upon this the commentator says: 「器者，即眾生日用之器皿」—“an implement is precisely a vessel of beings’ daily use.” 〔X21n0384 0706a10〕; 「今銅、銕、石、火，乃地獄苦具，皆罪人業行所感，非天與人授也」—“now copper, iron, stone, and fire are the instruments of suffering in the hells, and all of them are called forth by the karmic acts of the guilty; they are not handed down by heaven or given by anyone.” 〔X21n0384 0706a11〕 They are issued by no one.

Further down the commentator cites a treatise and states it more fully still: 「如地獄中，無地獄主。而地獄眾生，依自然業，見地獄主，與種種苦」—“in the hells there is no lord of the hells; rather, the beings of the hells, by reason of their own karma working of itself, see a lord of the hells and are given sufferings of every kind.” 〔X21n0384 0706a15〕 — in the hells there is no lord of the hells; it is the beings who undergo the suffering who, on their own karma, see a lord of the hells. And he cites besides: 「我說地獄諸苦事，實無惡趣可來往；刀杖鉾矟眾苦具，亦無有能造作者」—“I speak of the sufferings of the hells, and yet there is truly no evil destiny to come and go in; of the knives and staves and spears and lances, the many instruments of suffering, there is likewise no one able to make them.” 〔X21n0384 0706a20〕

And yet the commentator does not stop here. He adds a clause after it that draws the words back: 「然而心外雖無地獄，惡業成時，強自妄見」—“and yet, though outside the mind there is no hell, when evil karma comes to completion one perforce sees it falsely of oneself.” 〔X21n0384 0706a19〕 Outside the mind there is no hell; and when evil karma comes to completion, one perforce brings it into false view of oneself.

That there is no master is not the same as that there is no such place. Set side by side the two clauses look contrary, and neither the sūtra nor the commentator mediates between them. And this is exactly why the chapter must call out forty-six names first and speak of there being no lord of the hells afterward — reverse the order and it becomes the kind of emptiness that was said above 「不可為新學人說」—“may not be spoken of to one newly come to learn.” 〔X21n0384 0700c21〕

The Three Paths Are Also the Three Virtues

At this point the three chapters on the hells are done. Karmic conditions, karmic impulsion, and the names: one chapter says why one falls, one says how it is undergone once one has fallen, and one says what the place where the suffering is undergone is called.

Of old the three chapters were taken together and given one name: 「上自業緣、業感以及此品，名為三道，亦名三障」—“from karmic conditions and karmic impulsion above down to this chapter, they are named the three paths, and named the three obstructions as well.” 〔X21n0383 0648b16〕 Delusion gives rise to karma, karma calls forth suffering, and suffering gives rise to delusion again — three things biting into one ring, and this is called the three paths; and they obstruct the dharma-body, prajñā, and liberation, and so are also called the three obstructions.

And then comes this line: 「欲開三道、三障為三德耳」—“the wish is simply to open the three paths and the three obstructions into the three virtues.” 〔X21n0383 0648b17〕

These three chapters are spoken in order that the three paths and the three obstructions may be opened into the three virtues.

To open is not to exchange. The question and answer of the Great Calming and Contemplation, cited of old, puts it minutely: if the three obstructions are opened through to the utmost, the three paths should be opened through to the utmost as well, because these three that are cultivated evil are, in their very substance, those three that are the nature’s good — 「修從性成」, what is cultivated is accomplished out of the nature. And so the verdict is: 「當知三道體之即真常樂我淨」—“know that the three paths, taken in their substance, are precisely the true permanence, bliss, self, and purity.” 〔X21n0383 0648b22〕, not two and not different from the three virtues — 「所以苦道即法身，煩惱即般若，結業即解脫」—“and so the path of suffering is precisely the dharma-body, affliction is precisely prajñā, and the karma that knots is precisely liberation.” 〔X21n0383 0648b23〕

The path of suffering is the dharma-body. Not that suffering, once undergone to the end, turns into the dharma-body; the path of suffering in its very substance is that.

Only when this line is set after forty-odd names of hells does its weight appear. Iron Bed, Iron Ox, Molten Copper, Ploughing the Tongue have just been counted through, one name after another, and what has gathered in the reader’s mind is fear. And what is gathered up here is not fear, but this: that substance which undergoes the suffering and the dharma-body are not two.

Of old the consequence of not opening them was stated as well: 「若不開之，則佛之知見，永埋四趣，長沒人天」—“if they are not opened, then the buddha’s knowledge and vision is buried forever in the four destinies and sunk for good among gods and humans.” 〔X21n0383 0648c01〕

Unopened, the buddha’s knowledge and vision stays buried forever in the four evil destinies. Read these three chapters as no more than an inventory of karmic requital, and that inventory buries the buddha’s knowledge and vision along with it.

And the road the sūtra is to walk next starts from here as well. It was said of old: 「上文業緣等三品已開三道成三德」—“the three chapters above, karmic conditions and the rest, have already opened the three paths and made them the three virtues.” 〔X21n0383 0648c04〕, and all by the inconceivable awesome spiritual power of Kṣitigarbha; and only therefore does the Tathāgata set forth his praise expressly before the host of gods and humans — the reason the next chapter, on the Tathāgata’s praise, comes when it does is that these three chapters have already opened what was to be opened.

Three chapters speak of the hells, and at the end of the speaking the three virtues are opened out, and only then does the Buddha open his mouth in praise. That is how the order joins.

Transmission — A Qing Outline and Commentary, and the Twenty-Odd Books Behind It

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment of the chapter as 「示業報差別」—“showing the differences in the requital of karma.” 〔X21n0384 0700b06〕; the marking of the retinue by the two characters for “there is a further”; the 「千古定論」—“settled conclusion for a thousand ages.” 〔X21n0384 0701c02〕 that Four-Cornered and Flying Blades are the retinue of Avīci; the difficulty of fixing Uninterrupted and Avīci, with the simile of two surnames dwelling in one house; the separate glossing of Burning Feet in its two places; and the word-by-word matching of the three clauses on the power of karma.

This chapter is the most densely cited stretch of the whole work. To gloss one name of a hell he will often change to another sūtra: for Four-Cornered he cites the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma and the Lokaprajñapti Abhidharma Treatise; for Flying Blades and Fire Arrows, Embracing the Pillar, and A Thousand Blades, the Sūtra of the Sea of Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha; for Crushing Mountains, Flowing Fire, and Chopping the Head, the Treatise on the Three Measures of Dharma; for Iron Carts and Iron Bed, the Śūraṅgama; for Iron Garments, Piercing Spears, Flaying the Skin, and Inverted Thorns, the Lokaprajñapti Abhidharma Treatise; for Fire Dogs, Fire Mountains and Fire Stones, Sawing the Teeth, Fire Houses and Iron Houses, and Fire Wolves, the Sūtra of the Arising of Worlds and the Sūtra of the Storied Charcoal; for Fire Elephants and the iron mules, two accounts of the bhikṣu Saṃgharakṣa; for Iron Axe and Wailing, the Dīrgha Āgama; for the tongue taken and ploughed by an ox, the Sūtra of the Eight Masters; for Dung and Urine, the Sūtra of the Hells; for the passage on the power of karma, the Tiantai Great Calming and Contemplation and the Words and Phrases of the Golden Light; for the passage of exhortation, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, the Sūtra of the Samādhi of Nothing Whatever, the Sūtra of Rāṣṭrapāla, and the Sūtra of the Four Self-Encroachments; for the passage on the instruments of suffering, the Guangji, the Treatise on Consciousness-Only, and the Definitive Vinaya. More than twenty books, ranged around forty-six names.

Citation so dense as this says something in itself: these names of hells have, in this sūtra, a name and no account — one name to a sentence, and the sentence over and gone. To know what lies beneath that sentence one must go and look in other sūtras. He sets what he finds back into its place, and the sūtra’s text turns from an inventory back into a stretch of country.

Nor is he merely carrying things over. Glossing Iron Carts he notes as he goes: 「案賢愚經，釋迦始起慈心，正在此獄」—“according to the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, it was in this very hell that Śākya first raised the mind of kindness.” 〔X21n0384 0702b01〕 — where Śākyamuni first aroused the mind of kindness was in the hell of the fiery cart. Glossing Iron Garments he cites the words of an ancient worthy: 「現見袈裟離體，將來銕褋纏身」—“seen now, the kāṣāya parted from the body; hereafter, cloth of iron wound about the body.” 〔X21n0384 0702b12〕 Glossing the two hells Contention and Much Anger, he judges the two to have one cause — 「諍論起於貪嫉，以貪嫉故遂多瞋恚」—“contention arises out of greed and envy, and it is by greed and envy that wrath then becomes much.” 〔X21n0384 0703a07〕 — and cites the words of a sūtra in exhortation: 「汝等莫於根本空中鬬諍，人身尚不可得，何況值佛」—“do not contend within what is fundamentally empty; a human body is hard enough to obtain, how much more the meeting with a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0703a14〕; 「今既墮地獄，悔恨晚矣」—“now that one has fallen into the hells, regret comes too late.” 〔X21n0384 0703a15〕

And when he has finished glossing the chapter he uses the comparison of a painter: 「眾生業力，不可思議。葢由心業畫師，自業畫作業果地分」—“the power of beings’ karma is inconceivable. It is because the karma of the mind is a painter that one’s own karma paints out the ground of one’s own karmic fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0706b12〕 — the karma of the mind is the painter, and one’s own karma paints out one’s own ground of fruit. Not one thing that is painted on comes from outside: 「秪由眾生，昔時觸境生著、起愛，今觸境，穢惡、受苦」—“it is only that beings, meeting with objects in former times, gave rise to attachment and to craving; and now, meeting with objects, they meet foulness and evil and undergo suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0706b14〕

This eye and the sūtra’s own gathering-up agree. The sūtra says of those four things only that 「無非是銅，是鐵，是石，是火」—“there is nothing that is not copper, iron, stone, or fire.” 〔T13n0412 0782b15〕; and as to who set them there, the sūtra points nowhere outside — it says 「眾業行感」—“called forth by the karmic acts of beings.” 〔T13n0412 0782b16〕

And Kṣitigarbha’s last sentence is bound to no mirror at all. He has called out forty-six names and told fourteen kinds of thing, and then says that even this is only a brief telling: 「若廣解說，窮劫不盡」—“were it explained at large, kalpas would run out before it was done.” 〔T13n0412 0782b18〕