大智度論 句義品Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · The Meaning of the Phrase

I. Structural Placement

Within the sequence in which the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa comments on the Larger Sūtra, this chapter belongs to the section of the Commentary on the Remaining Chapters and falls in the final portion of Fascicle 44. The treatise gives its own title as 「大智度論釋句義品第十二」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth"〔T25 0379b13〕, and it comments on the whole of the Larger Sūtra's Chapter 12, "The Meaning of the Phrase"〔T08 0241c10〕.

The situation of this chapter's name stands in precise contrast to that of the preceding Chapter 11, "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", where four names stand side by side: there the treatise, the sūtra, the ancient masters, and the variant translation each title the chapter differently according to what they rely on (The Illusory Person Makes Nothing / Training in Illusion / Illusion / The Simile of Illusion), whereas here the chapter name is uniform. The core of the treatise's title, 「句義品第十二」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth", is word for word the same as the title of the sūtra explained〔T08 0241c10〕, 「摩訶般若波羅蜜經句義品第十二」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth", differing only in the prefixed title-words (this is the common pattern of every chapter). Of the three lines of ancient masters who cite and explain this chapter, Jizang, Jingying Huiyuan, and Junzheng all call it directly 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase". Although Huiying's section heading within the fascicle reads 「釋義品第十二」 tr. "Chapter on Explaining the Meaning, the Twelfth", his commentary itself states 「今就句義以明菩薩，故此名為句義品」 tr. "now the bodhisattva is made clear by way of the meaning of the phrase; therefore this is named the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase"〔X46n0791 0872c07〕; he still recognises the chapter's proper name as the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, and his 「釋義品」 tr. "Chapter on Explaining the Meaning" is an abbreviation in the section heading, not a separately established variant name. Only the collation of the base text preserves the Ishiyama line, which titles it directly 「句義無礙品」 tr. "Chapter on the Unobstructed Meaning of the Phrase", a descriptive manuscript variant name (see Section VIII for details). Thus the chapter name returns to the single 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase" across the four lines of treatise, sūtra, and ancient masters, while the Ishiyama text's 「句義無礙品」 tr. "Chapter on the Unobstructed Meaning of the Phrase" is a variant reading of a separate copy within the manuscript transmission; it is recorded without judgement. This section and the reader-facing text below continue to follow the treatise's title and call the chapter "The Meaning of the Phrase".

The ancient masters further determine the chapter's arc-position in the sequence of the whole sūtra, and their determinations are independent and yet in agreement: both take this chapter as the head of a new division, following the preceding stage of 「三解脫門三品」 tr. "the three chapters on the three gates of liberation" (Chapter 9, "Gathering and Dispersal", the gate of emptiness; Chapter 10, "Marks and Practice", the gate of signlessness; Chapter 11, "Training in Illusion", the gate of non-action; see Section VI of the two preceding chapters). Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra judges this chapter to be the head of the 「秤歎門」 tr. "gate of praise", heading it in general terms: 「復為三品，就三解脫門為菩薩說般若，次從句義至會宗，十三品秤歎門為菩薩說般若」 tr. "further, there are three chapters in which prajñā is taught to the bodhisattva by way of the three gates of liberation; next, from 'The Meaning of the Phrase' to 'Converging on the Tenet', thirteen chapters in which prajñā is taught to the bodhisattva by way of the gate of praise"〔X24n0451 0234a03〕—the preceding three chapters proceed by way of the three gates of liberation, and the thirteen chapters from this one (The Meaning of the Phrase) to "Converging on the Tenet" teach prajñā by way of the gate of praise (praising the person and extolling the Dharma). Jizang further judges the turning point from the distinction between 「字」 tr. "the word" and 「字義」 tr. "the meaning of the word", saying 「今此去，佛因菩薩字義門說般若」 tr. "from here on, the Buddha teaches prajñā by way of the gate of the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva'"〔X24n0451 0240b03〕—the preceding three chapters speak by way of the bodhisattva's 「字」 tr. "word" (the gate of the word), while this chapter and those following speak by way of the bodhisattva's 「字義」 tr. "meaning of the word" (the gate of the meaning of the word). Huiying's Commentary judges this chapter to be the head of the division on 「人大」 tr. "the greatness of the person", saying 「第二、從句義品已下去，至縛解品，是就人大」 tr. "second: from the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase onward, up to the Chapter on Bondage and Release, the teaching is by way of the greatness of the person"〔X46n0791 0864a04〕—from this chapter to the Chapter on Bondage and Release, the teaching concerns the person who practises prajñā (the great person). The two masters' wording differs (the gate of praise / the greatness of the person), yet both take the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase as the starting point of a new division; their word-for-word determinations are given in Section VI. This independent determination by the ancient masters corresponds exactly to the question that the treatise sets itself in Treatise ①, 「上來佛與須菩提種種因緣破菩薩字，今何以問『菩薩句義』？」 tr. "up to this point the Buddha and Subhūti have, through various causes and conditions, refuted the word 'bodhisattva'; why now ask about ‘the meaning of the phrase bodhisattva’?"〔T25 0380b04〕—the treatise's own explanation turns from 「破菩薩字」 tr. "refuting the word 'bodhisattva'" to 「問菩薩句義」 tr. "asking about the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'", and the ancient masters judge this as 「字門→字義門」 tr. "the gate of the word → the gate of the meaning of the word"; the treatise-author's own linkage and the ancient masters' determination confirm each other.

This chapter follows Chapter 11, "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing" (which begins at the head of Fascicle 44), and Chapter 12, "The Meaning of the Phrase", is the next chapter after it; but it continues the preceding chapter in the middle portion of Fascicle 44 and does not begin a new fascicle. Hence after the chapter title there is no colophon of composition and translation, 「龍樹菩薩造」 tr. "composed by the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna" and 「鳩摩羅什奉詔譯」 tr. "translated by Kumārajīva by imperial decree" (in contrast to the preceding "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", which stands at the head of a fascicle and carries the colophon; the pattern is the same as Chapter 10, "Modes of Practice"). The whole chapter falls within Fascicle 44, beginning at the chapter title〔T25 0379b13〕and ending at the fascicle-end title 「大智度論卷第四十四」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Fascicle Forty-four"〔T25 0382b05〕—this chapter is the last chapter of Fascicle 44, and Fascicle 44 closes at the end of this chapter, so the chapter contains the fascicle-end title (in contrast to "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", which does not contain the fascicle-end title; the pattern is the same as "Modes of Practice", which contains a fascicle end).

In both sūtra and treatise this chapter is of middling size within a single fascicle. Its structure is four large blocks alternating two Sūtra and two Treatise sections: Sūtra ① begins at〔T25 0379b14〕, Treatise ① at〔T25 0380b04〕, Sūtra ② at〔T25 0381a09〕, and Treatise ② at〔T25 0381c10〕. Within each large block the matter unfolds further through question and answer, simile, and item-by-item enumeration. Unlike the preceding "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", with its three Sūtra and three Treatise sections, in this chapter sūtra and treatise alternate twice. In Sūtra ① (from〔T25 0379b14〕) Subhūti asks 「云何為菩薩句義」 tr. "what is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'?", and the Buddha answers in sum 「無句義是菩薩句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'"; then with fourteen similes—the bird flying through space; the dream; illusion, mirage, echo, and reflection; suchness, dharma-nature, and dharma-mark; the five aggregates of the illusory person; the fruit-virtues of the Tathāgata; the conditioned and the unconditioned; non-arising and non-ceasing; the pure meaning of the four foundations of mindfulness; the self not to be found in purity; the sunrise; the kalpa-conflagration; the Buddha's precepts; and the Buddha's light—he declares again and again that 「菩薩句義無所有亦如是」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is likewise without anything at all", closing with 「是阿耨多羅三藐三菩提、菩薩、菩薩句義，是一切法皆不合、不散，無色、無形、無對，一相，所謂無相」 tr. "this anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, the bodhisattva, and the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'—all these dharmas are neither combined nor dispersed, without form, without shape, without resistance, of one mark, namely the signless"〔T25 0380a29〕. Treatise ① (from〔T25 0380b04〕) first asks why Subhūti, having refuted the word 'bodhisattva', asks further about the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva', and answers that the word 'bodhisattva' is ultimately empty and merely a provisional name; next it sets out the etymological gloss of the single name 「菩薩」 tr. "bodhisattva" (bodhi-sattva; pada, in the language of Qin, phrase); further it sets out the simile of washing a stinking dead dog to make clear the purity of self, and the simile of the sun, moon, and pearls not appearing in the Buddha's light to make clear that the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' does not appear once it enters the light of prajñā; and it concludes, 「當學一切法不取相，無所得故」 tr. "one should train in all dharmas without grasping at marks, because there is nothing to be attained"〔T25 0381a08〕. In Sūtra ② (from〔T25 0381a09〕) Subhūti asks 「何等是一切法」 tr. "what are all dharmas?", and the Buddha lists the ten headings in pairs—good and not good, recorded and unrecorded, worldly and world-transcending, with outflows and without outflows, conditioned and unconditioned, shared and unshared—and defines them item by item, closing with 「是名菩薩義」 tr. "this is called the meaning of 'bodhisattva'"〔T25 0381c10〕. Treatise ② (from〔T25 0381c10〕) sets forth the order of questioning, first coarse and then fine, explains item by item the meaning of worldly and world-transcending dharmas, and finally distinguishes the conditioned from the unconditioned (form is suchness, yet the conditioned and the unconditioned are clearly separate), returning to 「菩薩住是無障礙法中不動，以不二入法門，入一切法不動故」 tr. "the bodhisattva abides unmoving in this unobstructed dharma, because, by the Dharma-gate of entering non-duality, he enters all dharmas unmoving"〔T25 0382b03〕.

II. Terms Examined

The meaning of the phrase (the name that is the chapter's lifeblood). This is what the chapter's name is tied to. Sūtra ① opens with Subhūti's question, 「云何為菩薩句義」 tr. "what is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'?", and the Buddha answers in sum, 「無句義是菩薩句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'"〔T25 0379b15〕. What is called 「句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase" is the meaning that a phrase expresses; 「菩薩句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'" is the meaning that the single name 'bodhisattva' expresses. Treatise ① explains the Sanskrit for 「句」 tr. "phrase", saying 「天竺言『波陀』，秦言句。是波陀有種種義，如後譬喻中說」 tr. "in India one says ‘pada’; in the language of Qin, phrase. This pada has various meanings, as will be explained in the similes below"〔T25 0380c09〕—the Indian word for 「句」 tr. "phrase" is transcribed as 「波陀」 tr. "pada" (pada), and this is precisely the source, in the chapter title 「句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase", of the character 「句」 tr. "phrase". Thus the single name 「句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase" encompasses both the gloss, below, on the meaning of the word in the single name 「菩薩」 tr. "bodhisattva", and the fourteen similes of the no-meaning-of-the-phrase of all dharmas.

The meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' (no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva': the proposition of the whole chapter). This is the chapter's title-bearing proposition. The Buddha answers Subhūti's question in sum: 「無句義是菩薩句義。何以故？阿耨多羅三藐三菩提中無有義處，亦無我」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'. Why? In anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi there is no place of meaning, and there is also no self"〔T25 0379b15〕—the bodhisattva's 「句義」 tr. "meaning of the phrase" lies precisely in 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase", because in anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi there is no fixed place of meaning and also no self, and so the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' too is ultimately without anything at all. Treatise ① restates this meaning, saying 「無句義是菩薩句義；阿耨多羅三藐三菩提無處所，亦無我無名」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'; anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi has no location, and there is also no self and no name"〔T25 0380b21〕, and further states the reason: 「於是中無依止處即是法空，無我名者，無得道者」 tr. "that there is no place of reliance within it is the emptiness of dharmas; 'no self and no name' means there is no one who attains the path"〔T25 0380b22〕—no place of reliance is the emptiness of all dharmas, and no self and no name means there is no real person who attains the path. Thus the single sentence 「無句義是菩薩句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'" does not say that the bodhisattva has no meaning to be spoken of; it says that its meaning lies precisely in ultimate emptiness, in being without anything at all, in having no reliance. This is the lifeblood of the whole chapter.

Bodhisattva (bodhisattva: the gloss on the meaning of the word). Treatise ① explains the etymology of the single name 「菩薩」 tr. "bodhisattva", and this is the most detailed lexical study in the chapter. It first sets out the general rule, 「天竺語法，眾字和合成語，眾語和合成句」 tr. "in the grammar of India, many syllables come together to form a word, and many words come together to form a phrase"〔T25 0380b29〕—many syllables come together and form a word; many words come together and form a phrase. Next it makes this clear by the example of syllables: 「菩」 tr. "bo" is one syllable and 「提」 tr. "dhi" is one syllable, and the two syllables come together and 「名為『菩提』，秦言無上智慧」 tr. "are called ‘bodhi’, in the language of Qin unsurpassed wisdom"〔T25 0380c02〕; 「『薩埵』，或名眾生，或是大心。為無上智慧故，出大心，名為『菩提薩埵』」 tr. "‘Sattva’ is either called beings or is the great mind. Because one brings forth the great mind for the sake of unsurpassed wisdom, one is called ‘bodhisattva’"〔T25 0380c03〕—「菩提」 tr. "bodhi" renders unsurpassed wisdom; 「薩埵」 tr. "sattva" renders either beings or the great mind; the two together make 「菩提薩埵」 tr. "bodhisattva", meaning one who brings forth the great mind in seeking unsurpassed wisdom and who vows to lead beings to practise the unsurpassed path. Treatise ① further points out that what the chapter aims to speak of is this 「義」 tr. "meaning", saying 「『菩提』一語，『薩埵』一語，二語和合故名為『義』」 tr. "‘bodhi’ is one word and ‘sattva’ is one word; because the two words come together, it is called ‘meaning’"〔T25 0380c07〕—what the chapter speaks of is precisely the whole sense formed by the coming together of the two words 「菩提」 tr. "bodhi" and 「薩埵」 tr. "sattva", not merely the surface layer of names, words, and phrases.

No meaning of the phrase (ultimate emptiness; without anything at all; without fixed meaning). This is why the chapter title's 「句義」 tr. "meaning of the phrase" returns to 「無」 tr. "no". Treatise ① explains that all dharmas have no fixed meaning, saying 「如、法性、法相、實際等句，無有定義」 tr. "phrases such as suchness, dharma-nature, dharma-mark, and the limit of reality have no fixed meaning"〔T25 0380c19〕; and it makes this clear in general by means of similes, saying 「此譬喻中多以譬喻明義」 tr. "in these similes, the meaning is mostly made clear by means of similes"〔T25 0380c15〕, while what all the similes reveal is that everything is 「虛誑無實」 tr. "false and without reality". Thus 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase" does not deny everything; it rules out that all dharmas have a fixed place of meaning that can be grasped. Only because there is no fixed meaning, no reliance, and nothing to be attained is it 「菩薩句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'"; this is the precise aim of the chapter's proposition 「無句義是菩薩句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'".

III. Similes and Stories

The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa is renowned for its similes, and in this chapter the similes are above all the backbone of the whole—Sūtra ① declares again and again with fourteen similes that 「菩薩句義無所有」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is without anything at all", and Treatise ① further sets out similes such as washing a stinking dead dog, and the sun, moon, and pearls not appearing in the Buddha's light, to make clear the purity of self and the non-appearing of the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'. Treatise ① itself states why it sets out similes so widely: 「眾生聽受種種不同，有好義者，有好譬喻者」 tr. "the ways in which beings listen and receive differ in many ways: some like meanings, and some like similes"〔T25 0380c12〕—the Dharma is taught in accord with capacity, and so, besides explanation by meaning, it is made clear by simile.

The fourteen similes of Sūtra ① all use the 「無」 tr. "no" of the thing compared to reveal that the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is without anything at all, and their closing phrase is uniformly 「菩薩句義無所有亦如是」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is likewise without anything at all". The first simile, the bird flying through space, is the most famous in the whole chapter: 「譬如鳥飛虛空無有足跡，菩薩句義無所有亦如是」 tr. "just as a bird flying through space leaves no footprints, the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is likewise without anything at all"〔T25 0379b17〕—a bird flies through the long sky and there is no trace to be found; this likens the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva', moving among all dharmas without any place of reliance or attachment (Treatise ① restates this simile, saying 「譬如鳥飛虛空無有足跡；菩薩句義亦如是，行諸法虛空中無依止著處」 tr. "just as a bird flying through space leaves no footprints, so too the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' moves in the space of all dharmas without any place of reliance or attachment"〔T25 0380b26〕). Next, dream, illusion, mirage, echo, reflection, and what the Buddha conjures are six joined similes for falsity: 「譬如夢中所見無處所」 tr. "just as what is seen in a dream has no location"〔T25 0379b19〕, 「譬如幻無有實義，如焰、如響、如影、如佛所化無有實義」 tr. "just as an illusion has no real meaning, and as a mirage, an echo, a reflection, or what the Buddha conjures has no real meaning"〔T25 0379b20〕—all can be seen and heard yet have no real substance, likening the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva', which can only be heard by the ear and is false and without reality.

Next, the line of suchness and the two levels of the illusory person and the Tathāgata make clear that there is no meaning. It says 「譬如如、法性、法相、法位、實際無有義」 tr. "just as suchness, dharma-nature, dharma-mark, dharma-position, and the limit of reality have no meaning"〔T25 0379b22〕—phrases such as suchness and dharma-nature have in substance no fixed meaning. Further, the level of the illusory person and the level of the Tathāgata are set side by side, and this is the doctrinal summit of the chapter's similes: it says 「譬如幻人色無有義，幻人受、想、行、識無有義」 tr. "just as the form of an illusory person has no meaning, and the feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness of an illusory person have no meaning"〔T25 0379b24〕—the five aggregates of the illusory person, down to the eighteen unshared dharmas, have no meaning; and further it says 「如多陀阿伽度、阿羅訶、三藐三佛陀色無有義，是色無有故」 tr. "as the form of the tathāgata, arhat, samyaksaṃbuddha has no meaning, because this form does not exist"〔T25 0379c06〕—the five aggregates at the Tathāgata's stage of fruition, down to all the Buddha-dharmas, likewise have no meaning. The illusory person, empty from the first, and the fruit-virtues of the Tathāgata are the same 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase"; the meaning of no-meaning-of-the-phrase runs through ordinary beings and sages alike without distinction.

Next, similes of the conditioned and unconditioned not containing each other, of non-arising and non-ceasing, of the pure meaning of dharmas, and of the purity of self extend this. It says 「如有為性中無無為性義，無為性中無有為性義」 tr. "as in the nature of the conditioned there is no meaning of the nature of the unconditioned, and in the nature of the unconditioned there is no meaning of the nature of the conditioned"〔T25 0379c20〕—the conditioned and the unconditioned do not contain each other (this simile foreshadows the distinction between the conditioned and the unconditioned at the end of Treatise ②); it says 「如不生不滅義無處所」 tr. "as the meaning of non-arising and non-ceasing has no location"〔T25 0379c23〕, 「如四念處淨義畢竟不可得」 tr. "as the pure meaning of the four foundations of mindfulness is ultimately not to be found"〔T25 0380a07〕, and 「如淨中我不可得，我無所有故」 tr. "as in purity the self is not to be found, because the self is without anything at all"〔T25 0380a12〕—non-arising and non-ceasing, the pure meaning of the four foundations of mindfulness, and the purity of self all have no location to be found.

Finally, four similes—sunrise, the kalpa-conflagration, the Buddha's precepts, and the Buddha's light—make clear that 「有此則無彼」 tr. "when this is present, that is absent". It says 「譬如日出時無有黑闇」 tr. "just as when the sun rises there is no darkness"〔T25 0380a15〕, 「譬如劫燒時無一切物」 tr. "just as when the kalpa burns there is nothing at all"〔T25 0380a17〕, 「佛戒中無破戒」 tr. "in the Buddha's precepts there is no breaking of precepts"〔T25 0380a19〕, and 「譬如佛光中日月光不現」 tr. "just as in the Buddha's light the light of sun and moon does not appear"〔T25 0380a25〕—when the sun rises darkness is absent; when the kalpa burns things are absent; in the Buddha's precepts there is no breaking of precepts; in the Buddha's light the light of the sun, the moon, and the gods does not appear. All use the appearing of one dharma and the absence of another to liken the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva', which, entering prajñā, is without anything at all.

Treatise ① further sets out two similes to aid the explanation. The first, the simile of washing a stinking dead dog, makes clear that in the highest meaning there is neither pure nor impure: 「種種求覓我相不可得，是名我淨；第一義中，無淨無不淨。譬如洗臭死狗，乃至皮毛、血肉、骨髓都盡；是時，非狗非猪，不得言淨，不得言不淨」 tr. "searching in every way, the mark of a self is not to be found: this is called the purity of self. In the highest meaning there is neither pure nor impure. It is like washing a stinking dead dog until skin and hair, blood and flesh, bone and marrow are all gone; at that time it is neither dog nor pig, and one cannot call it pure, nor can one call it impure"〔T25 0380c26〕—wash a stinking dead dog until skin, hair, blood, flesh, bone, and marrow are all gone, and it is neither dog nor pig, and neither pure nor impure can be said of it; this likens how, when one seeks the mark of a self with the empty wisdom of no-self and it is not to be found, there is neither a self nor no self. The second, taking up the Buddha's-light simile of Sūtra ①, makes it clear with the sun, moon, stars, and pearls: 「如日月、星宿、真珠等，諸天、鬼神、龍王光，於佛光中則不現，從大福德神通力生故」 tr. "as the light of the sun and moon, the stars and constellations, pearls, and so on, and of the gods, ghosts and spirits, and dragon kings does not appear in the Buddha's light, because that light is born of the power of great merit and supernormal powers"〔T25 0381a04〕—the light of the gods, ghosts and spirits, and dragon kings does not appear in the Buddha's light of great merit and supernormal power; this likens how the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva', entering the light of the wisdom of prajñāpāramitā, does not appear. Treatise ① finally sums up the teaching use of all the similes: 「因是譬喻，教諸菩薩，當學一切法不取相，無所得故」 tr. "by means of these similes it teaches the bodhisattvas that they should train in all dharmas without grasping at marks, because there is nothing to be attained"〔T25 0381a07〕.

IV. The Sūtra Passage Explained

The Sūtra sections cited by this treatise follow, item by item, Chapter 12, "The Meaning of the Phrase"〔T08 0241c10–0243b09〕, of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra translated by Kumārajīva of the Later Qin. Below they are set against each other word for word, to prove that what the treatise explains is indeed this sūtra text. The places where the two Treatise sections are inserted show especially that the doctrinal backbone of this chapter lies in the treatise and not in the sūtra; and the comparison at both insertion points yields zero hits, an instance of sūtra and treatise being cleanly layered in the comparison with the sūtra explained.

First group, the chapter title. This treatise's〔T25 0379b13〕「大智度論釋句義品第十二」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth" and T223's〔T08 0241c10〕「摩訶般若波羅蜜經句義品第十二」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth" have the same core chapter name, 「句義品第十二」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth", word for word, differing only in the prefixed title-words (see Sections I and VIII for details); this is recorded without judgement.

Second group, the opening of Sūtra ①. This treatise's〔T25 0379b14〕「爾時，須菩提白佛言：『世尊！云何為菩薩句義？』」 tr. "At that time Subhūti said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! What is the meaning of the phrase bodhisattva?’" and T223's〔T08 0241c11〕「爾時須菩提白佛言：『世尊！云何為菩薩句義？』」 tr. "At that time Subhūti said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! What is the meaning of the phrase bodhisattva?’" follow each other word for word, differing only in whether there is a comma after 「爾時」 tr. "at that time", which belongs to the editorial layer.

Third group, a slight difference of wording in the simile of the bird flying through space. This treatise's〔T25 0379b17〕「譬如鳥飛虛空無有足跡，菩薩句義無所有亦如是」 tr. "just as a bird flying through space leaves no footprints, the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is likewise without anything at all" and T223's〔T08 0241c15〕「譬如鳥飛虛空無有跡，菩薩句義無所有亦如是」 tr. "just as a bird flying through space leaves no trace, the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is likewise without anything at all"—this treatise reads 「無有足跡」 tr. "leaves no footprints" and T223 reads 「無有跡」 tr. "leaves no trace", one more character, 「足」 tr. "foot"; there is no doctrinal difference (both say that a bird flying through the long sky leaves no trace to be found), and this is recorded without judgement.

Fourth group, the closing sentence of Sūtra ①. This treatise〔T25 0380a29〕closes with 「一相，所謂無相」 tr. "of one mark, namely the signless", followed by 「如是，須菩提！菩薩摩訶薩一切法無礙相中應當學，亦應當知」 tr. "thus, Subhūti, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should train in, and should also know, the unobstructed mark of all dharmas"; T223's〔T08 0242c03〕「一相所謂無相。如是，須菩提！菩薩摩訶薩一切法無閡相中，應當學亦應當知」 tr. "of one mark, namely the signless. Thus, Subhūti, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should train in, and should also know, the unobstructed mark of all dharmas" follows word for word, differing only in the presence or absence of commas, in the variant character forms for 'obstruction' 「礙」 tr. "obstruction" and 「閡」 tr. "obstruction (variant form)", and in the punctuation layer. This is the first firm proof of the layering of sūtra and treatise: after this closing sentence T223 continues directly, with zero gap, into the next section (corresponding to this treatise's opening of Sūtra ②, 「須菩提白佛言」 tr. "Subhūti said to the Buddha"), whereas this treatise inserts between these two sections the whole of Treatise ①〔T25 0380b04–0381a07〕(question and answer, the gloss on the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva', the gloss on pada as phrase, the simile of washing a stinking dead dog, and so on), and T223 has not a single character at the corresponding place.

Fifth group, the opening of Sūtra ②. This treatise's〔T25 0381a09〕「何等是一切法？云何一切法中無礙相應學、應知」 tr. "What are all dharmas? How should one train in and know the unobstructed mark among all dharmas?" and T223's〔T08 0242c06〕「何等是一切法？云何一切法中無閡相應學應知」 tr. "What are all dharmas? How should one train in and know the unobstructed mark among all dharmas?" follow each other word for word (differing in the variant forms 「礙」 tr. "obstruction" and 「閡」 tr. "obstruction (variant form)" and in the presence or absence of a comma), continuing the fourth group—confirming that T223 has zero gap between 「一相所謂無相」 tr. "of one mark, namely the signless" and 「何等是一切法」 tr. "what are all dharmas?", while this treatise inserts the whole of Treatise ① here.

Sixth group, a slight difference of translation terms in the enumeration of worldly wholesome dharmas. This treatise's〔T25 0381a16〕「孝順父母，供養沙門、婆羅門，敬事尊長；布施福處，持戒福處，修定福處」 tr. "being filial and obedient to father and mother, making offerings to śramaṇas and brahmins, respectfully serving elders; the field of merit of giving, the field of merit of keeping the precepts, the field of merit of cultivating concentration" and T223's〔T08 0242c13〕「孝順父母，供養沙門婆羅門，敬事尊長，布施福處、持戒福處、修禪福處」 tr. "being filial and obedient to father and mother, making offerings to śramaṇas and brahmins, respectfully serving elders, the field of merit of giving, the field of merit of keeping the precepts, the field of merit of cultivating meditation"—this treatise reads 「修定福處」 tr. "the field of merit of cultivating concentration" and T223 reads 「修禪福處」 tr. "the field of merit of cultivating meditation", a difference between the translation terms 'meditation' and 'concentration' (both refer to the field of merit of cultivating the four meditations and the like); in the punctuation layer there is also a difference between enumeration commas and ordinary commas; this is recorded without judgement.

Seventh group, the sentence on the first meditation among the nine successive absorptions of world-transcending dharmas. This treatise's〔T25 0381b14〕「離欲離惡不善法，有覺有觀，離生喜樂入初禪」 tr. "separated from desire and separated from evil, unwholesome dharmas, with initial and sustained thought, with joy and bliss born of separation, one enters the first meditation" and T223's〔T08 0243a11〕「離欲離惡不善法，有覺有觀，離生喜樂，入初禪」 tr. "separated from desire and separated from evil, unwholesome dharmas, with initial and sustained thought, with joy and bliss born of separation, one enters the first meditation" follow each other word for word, differing only in whether there is a pause after 「離生喜樂」 tr. "joy and bliss born of separation", which belongs to the editorial layer.

Eighth group, a variant in the translation convention for the definition of conditioned dharmas. This treatise's〔T25 0381c01〕「若法生、住、滅，欲界、色界、無色界，五眾乃至意觸因緣生受」 tr. "dharmas that arise, abide, and cease—the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm, the five aggregates, down to the feeling arising with mind-contact as condition" and T223's〔T08 0243a28〕「若法生住滅，欲界、色界、無色界，五蔭乃至意觸因緣生受」 tr. "dharmas that arise, abide, and cease—the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm, the five aggregates (coverings), down to the feeling arising with mind-contact as condition"—this treatise reads 「五眾」 tr. "the five aggregates (groups)" and T223 reads 「五蔭」 tr. "the five aggregates (coverings)" (both characters refer to the five aggregates; this is a systematic slight difference in character usage between Kumārajīva's sūtra translation and the treatise's citations, of the same type as in the comparisons for the preceding "Modes of Practice" and "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing"); in the punctuation layer there is also a difference in the presence or absence of enumeration commas; this is recorded without judgement.

Ninth group, the key to the comparison with the sūtra explained in this chapter—the two Treatise sections have no counterpart whatever in the sūtra, and the two findings agree. The two Treatise sections of this treatise (Treatise ① from〔T25 0380b04〕, Treatise ② from〔T25 0381c10〕) are both inserted between or after adjacent sūtra sections, and T223 has not a single character at each corresponding place. The closing sentence of Sūtra ②, this treatise's〔T25 0381c10〕「是名菩薩義」 tr. "this is called the meaning of 'bodhisattva'", and T223's〔T08 0243b08〕「是名菩薩義」 tr. "this is called the meaning of 'bodhisattva'" are wholly identical word for word; but after this sentence T223 turns directly to the next chapter, the "Vajra" chapter, whereas this treatise only then inserts the whole of Treatise ②〔T25 0381c10–0382b04〕(the questioning first coarse and then fine, the item-by-item explanation of worldly and world-transcending dharmas, the distinction between the conditioned and the unconditioned, and so on), followed by the fascicle-end title〔T25 0382b05〕. Thus the chapter's two Sūtra sections ① and ② join end to end in T223 to form the complete, continuous sūtra text of the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, whose boundaries〔T08 0241c10–0243b09〕coincide exactly with the union of this treatise's two Sūtra sections; the two Treatise sections fall entirely outside T223's chapter boundaries—Treatise ① is inserted between Sūtra ① and Sūtra ② (a mid-section insertion; T223 continues directly with zero gap), and Treatise ② is inserted after the closing sentence of Sūtra ② (an end insertion; T223 has already turned to the next chapter). The explanatory framework of this chapter—the gloss on pada as phrase, the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva', the washing of the stinking dead dog, the distinction between the conditioned and the unconditioned—is all found in the treatise's explanation and not in the sūtra text explained. Three examples unique to the treatise's explanation will make this clear: the gloss on pada, 「天竺言『波陀』，秦言句」 tr. "in India one says ‘pada’; in the language of Qin, phrase"〔T25 0380c09〕; the simile of washing a stinking dead dog, 「譬如洗臭死狗」 tr. "it is like washing a stinking dead dog"〔T25 0380c28〕; and the distinction between the conditioned and the unconditioned, 「色如，色不離如，如不離色；色是有為，云何是無為」 tr. "form is suchness; form is not apart from suchness, and suchness is not apart from form; form is conditioned—how can it be unconditioned?"〔T25 0382a21〕. At these three places T223 has no counterpart whatever in the layer of the sūtra text.

V. The Prajñā Eye

The eye of this chapter lies in using 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase" to make clear that the bodhisattva is ultimately empty and to return to nothing to be attained. The proposition of the whole chapter arises from a single question of Subhūti's—what is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'? The Buddha does not answer with a meaning that exists; he answers instead with 「無」 tr. "no", saying 「無句義是菩薩句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'"〔T25 0379b15〕, and the reason is that 「阿耨多羅三藐三菩提中無有義處，亦無我」 tr. "in anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi there is no place of meaning, and there is also no self"〔T25 0379b16〕—in the unsurpassed awakening that is sought there is no fixed place of meaning and no self, and so the meaning of the phrase for the bodhisattva who seeks it is likewise without anything at all. Thus the 「無」 tr. "no" of the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' does not deny the bodhisattva's practice; it rules out its having a fixed meaning that can be grasped.

The first meaning: revealing the "no" through similes, running through ordinary beings and sages. Sūtra ① declares again and again with fourteen similes that 「菩薩句義無所有」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is without anything at all", from the tracelessness of the bird flying through space and the unreality of dream, illusion, mirage, echo, and reflection, to the no-meaning of the illusory person's five aggregates and the no-meaning of the Tathāgata's fruit-virtues, making clear that the meaning of this 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase" reaches up to the Tathāgata's stage of fruition and down through the falsity of the illusory person, ordinary beings and sages being one suchness. Treatise ① restates the simile of the bird's flight and returns to 「行諸法虛空中無依止著處」 tr. "moving in the space of all dharmas without any place of reliance or attachment"〔T25 0380b27〕—the bodhisattva moves among all dharmas as a bird moves through space, without a single place on which to rely or to which to attach; this is why its meaning of the phrase is "no".

The second meaning: speaking of the meaning precisely in the emptiness of names and words. Treatise ① turns from 「破菩薩字」 tr. "refuting the word 'bodhisattva'" to 「問菩薩句義」 tr. "asking about the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'", yet its answer still returns to emptiness—the word 'bodhisattva' 「從本已來畢竟空，但五眾中數假名菩薩」 tr. "from the very beginning has been ultimately empty; it is only a provisional name, 'bodhisattva', counted among the five aggregates"〔T25 0380b06〕, and its etymological gloss (bodhi, unsurpassed wisdom; sattva, the great mind) is likewise only 「二語和合故名為『義』」 tr. "because the two words come together, it is called ‘meaning’"〔T25 0380c07〕; words, phrases, and names are all one matter and 「無所在」 tr. "are nowhere to be found". Thus, although this chapter speaks at length of the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva', what it speaks of is precisely that this meaning is unfixed, without reliance, and nothing to be attained; and so Treatise ① concludes with 「當學一切法不取相，無所得故」 tr. "one should train in all dharmas without grasping at marks, because there is nothing to be attained"〔T25 0381a08〕.

The third meaning: unobstructed in all dharmas and unmoving. Sūtra ② lists the ten headings in pairs, from good and not good to shared and unshared, and defines each one, not in order to establish the real existence of dharmas, but so that the bodhisattva 「於是自相空法中不應著，不動故」 tr. "should not be attached to these dharmas empty of specific marks, because he is unmoving"〔T25 0381c08〕. Treatise ② distinguishes the conditioned from the unconditioned, making clear that form and suchness are not apart and yet the conditioned and the unconditioned are clearly separate; the key to their separation lies in the difference between 「凡夫肉眼憶想分別色」 tr. "the form that ordinary beings, with the fleshly eye, recollect, imagine, and discriminate" and 「聖人心所知色實相如涅槃」 tr. "the real mark of form known by the minds of sages, which is like nirvāṇa"〔T25 0382a24〕; and it finally returns to 「菩薩分別知此諸法各各相，是法皆從因緣和合生故無性，無性故自性空」 tr. "the bodhisattva discerns and knows the several marks of these dharmas; these dharmas all arise from the coming together of causes and conditions and are therefore without nature, and being without nature they are empty of own-nature"〔T25 0382b01〕, abiding in the unobstructed dharma and entering all dharmas unmoving through non-duality. Thus this chapter runs in a single line from the proposition of no-meaning-of-the-phrase, through the fourteen similes revealing the "no" and the emptiness of the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva', to the definition of all dharmas and remaining unmoving; and where it comes to rest is solely the prajñā eye of using 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase" to make clear ultimate emptiness, and practising prajñā with a mind for which there is nothing to be attained.

VI. Divergent Readings of the Masters

This section records the ancient masters who cite and explain this chapter—what they comment on and what they cite, and how it corresponds to this chapter—without judging each master's interpretation. The network of ancient masters for this chapter: Jizang and Huiying comment on it passage by passage (one commenting on the sūtra, one on the treatise), while Jingying Huiyuan's Compendium of Mahāyāna Doctrines and Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises each have citations; in contrast to the preceding "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", where Junzheng has zero hits, Junzheng appears four times for this chapter. A discussion of identically named texts is attached in the last paragraph.

Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra (X24n0451) directly explains the sūtra sections. Its table of contents lists 「幻學品第十一句義品第十二」 tr. "Chapter on Training in Illusion, the Eleventh; Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase, the Twelfth"〔X24n0451 0195a16〕, and the chapter name in its passage-by-passage commentary is, as in this treatise and this sūtra, 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase". He judges the chapter's arc-position in two ways. First, he judges this chapter to be the head of the 「秤歎門」 tr. "gate of praise", heading it in general terms: 「復為三品，就三解脫門為菩薩說般若，次從句義至會宗，十三品秤歎門為菩薩說般若」 tr. "further, there are three chapters in which prajñā is taught to the bodhisattva by way of the three gates of liberation; next, from 'The Meaning of the Phrase' to 'Converging on the Tenet', thirteen chapters in which prajñā is taught to the bodhisattva by way of the gate of praise"〔X24n0451 0234a03〕; his passage-by-passage commentary further states 「今此第二十三品就秤歎門說般若」 tr. "now this twenty-third chapter teaches prajñā by way of the gate of praise"〔X24n0451 0240c11〕 and 「今第二明歎人美法」 tr. "now the second makes clear the praising of the person and the extolling of the Dharma"〔X24n0451 0240c13〕 (「歎人美法」 tr. "praising the person and extolling the Dharma" means praising the person who practises and the Dharma that is practised; 「第二十三品」 tr. "the twenty-third chapter" is a chapter-number marker in Jizang's own text, differing from the Twelfth Chapter numbering of the Taishō and this treatise—perhaps he has a separate system of cumulative counting; it is transcribed word for word without conjectural alteration, and recorded without judgement). Second, he judges this chapter to be the head of the 「字義門」 tr. "gate of the meaning of the word", saying 「今此去，佛因菩薩字義門說般若」 tr. "from here on, the Buddha teaches prajñā by way of the gate of the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva'"〔X24n0451 0240b03〕—the preceding three chapters speak by way of the bodhisattva's 「字」 tr. "word", and this chapter and those following speak by way of the bodhisattva's 「字義」 tr. "meaning of the word". Jizang further cites two groups of ancient masters to discuss whether 「無句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase" and 「句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase" belong to the real or the worldly: 「地論人云：前段是真修，後段緣修」 tr. "the Daśabhūmika masters say: the former section is true cultivation, the latter section conditioned cultivation"〔X24n0451 0241a04〕, and 「此古人云：前是真，後是俗諦。然文前後，其意只是一句明義，無句義、句義也」 tr. "these ancients say: the former is the real, the latter is the worldly truth. Yet though the text has a former and a latter part, its intent is only a single phrase making the meaning clear: no meaning of the phrase, and the meaning of the phrase"〔X24n0451 0241a05〕 (these are the two views, of the Daśabhūmika masters and of the ancients, cited by Jizang; they are recorded without judgement). He cites this treatise's gloss on pada directly, marking it with 「論云」 tr. "the treatise says": 「論云：外國名波陀，此云句」 tr. "the treatise says: in the foreign country it is called pada; here it is called phrase"〔X24n0451 0241a14〕—what he cites corresponds in content to this treatise's 「天竺言『波陀』，秦言句」 tr. "in India one says ‘pada’; in the language of Qin, phrase"〔T25 0380c09〕, but in wording 「外國」 tr. "the foreign country" stands for 「天竺」 tr. "India" and 「此云」 tr. "here it is called" stands for 「秦言」 tr. "in the language of Qin"; this is Jizang's restatement and transcription, not a word-for-word copy. For his division of the series of similes in Sūtra ①, he says 「此中八譬」 tr. "here there are eight similes"〔X24n0451 0241b19〕—Jizang divides them as eight similes, a coarser grain of classification than the fourteen similes enumerated in Section III of this apparatus (perhaps combining the level of the illusory person with that of the Tathāgata, and combining the joined similes of the sunrise, the kalpa-conflagration, and the Buddha's precepts); the two grains stand side by side and are recorded without judgement.

Huiying's Commentary, Fascicle 17 (X46n0791), directly explains the treatise sections; his commentary originally had twenty-four fascicles, of which only fragmentary fascicles now survive. The first sentence of his passage-by-passage commentary states the chapter's arc-position and proper name: 「第十二品者，即是命說分中□□□大分，就菩薩大人以明波若」 tr. "the twelfth chapter is, within the division of the commissioned exposition, the □□□ great division, making prajñā clear by way of the bodhisattva, the great person"〔X46n0791 0872c03〕; he further says 「就此分中復有二分，此初一品明菩薩義，次摩訶薩品明摩訶薩義」 tr. "within this division there are again two parts: this first chapter makes clear the meaning of 'bodhisattva', and the next, the Chapter on the Mahāsattva, makes clear the meaning of 'mahāsattva'"〔X46n0791 0872c06〕—this chapter makes clear the meaning of 'bodhisattva', and the next chapter (Chapter 13, "Mahāsattva") makes clear the meaning of 'mahāsattva'. He states this chapter's proper name, saying 「今就句義以明菩薩，故此名為句義品」 tr. "now the bodhisattva is made clear by way of the meaning of the phrase; therefore this is named the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase"〔X46n0791 0872c07〕—although the section heading within the fascicle reads 「釋義品第十二」 tr. "Chapter on Explaining the Meaning, the Twelfth", he himself clearly recognises the chapter's name as the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase. In the general outline of an earlier passage he independently proposes a fourfold structure, whose second part begins with the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase: 「第二、從句義品已下去，至縛解品，是就人大。就於波若，已知大法，故名為大人」 tr. "second: from the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase onward, up to the Chapter on Bondage and Release, the teaching is by way of the greatness of the person. With regard to prajñā, one has already known the great Dharma, and therefore one is called a great person"〔X46n0791 0864a04〕—this, like Jizang's framework of the 「秤歎門」 tr. "gate of praise", takes the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase as the starting point of a new division, with each master's wording independent (Huiying's 「人大」 tr. "greatness of the person", Jizang's 「秤歎門」 tr. "gate of praise"), forming a double independent confirmation.

Jingying Huiyuan's Compendium of Mahāyāna Doctrines (T44n1851) cites the gloss on syllables and phrases in Treatise ① of this chapter, marking it with the book title and chapter name: 「又大智論句義品云。天竺語法。眾字成語。眾語成句」 tr. "further, the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa says: in the grammar of India, many syllables form a word, and many words form a phrase"〔T44n1851 0468c04〕—what he cites corresponds to this treatise's 「天竺語法，眾字和合成語，眾語和合成句」 tr. "in the grammar of India, many syllables come together to form a word, and many words come together to form a phrase"〔T25 0380b29〕; Huiyuan's citation is abridged (omitting 「和合」 tr. "come together" in each of two places, four characters in all), while his indication of book title and chapter name is correct; it is an abridged citation rather than a complete word-for-word one, and is recorded without judgement.

Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises (X46n0784) cites this chapter four times, each time marking it with 「大品經句義品云」 tr. "the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Larger Sūtra says", and all are paraphrases rather than word-for-word citations. Three of them cite the simile of the bird flying through space and the proposition of no-meaning-of-the-phrase: the first, 「大品經？句義品云：如鳥飛空，跡不可尋」 tr. "the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Larger Sūtra? says: as a bird flies through space, its traces cannot be found"〔X46n0784 0578c03〕; the second, 「無句義為句義，猶如鳥飛虗空，虗空之鳥跡」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is taken as the meaning of the phrase, just as a bird flies through space—the bird's traces in space"〔X46n0784 0588a21〕; the third, 「如鳥飛空，無蹤迹、不可尋、無處所」 tr. "as a bird flies through space, without tracks, not to be found, without location"〔X46n0784 0635c12〕—all are idiomatised restatements of this treatise's simile of the bird flying through space, 「譬如鳥飛虛空無有足跡」 tr. "just as a bird flying through space leaves no footprints"〔T25 0379b17〕, and of the proposition 「無句義是菩薩句義」 tr. "no meaning of the phrase is the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'"〔T25 0379b15〕 (「為」 tr. "is taken as" standing for 「是」 tr. "is", 「跡不可尋」 tr. "its traces cannot be found" standing for 「無有足跡」 tr. "leaves no footprints", and so on). One cites the definition of conditioned dharmas in Sūtra ② of this chapter: 「大品經句義品云：一切種智有為也」 tr. "the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Larger Sūtra says: omniscience of all kinds is conditioned"〔X46n0784 0656a09〕—corresponding to the passage on conditioned dharmas in Sūtra ② of this chapter, 「四念處乃至十八不共法及一切智，是名有為法」 tr. "the four foundations of mindfulness, down to the eighteen unshared dharmas and omniscience—these are called conditioned dharmas"〔T25 0381c02〕; Junzheng blends 「一切種智」 tr. "omniscience of all kinds" from the passage in Sūtra ② on dharmas with and without outflows with 「一切智」 tr. "omniscience" from the passage on conditioned dharmas, and generalises them; this is his own distilled restatement, and is recorded without judgement.

Further, concerning differences in this chapter's name, there are many identically named items that do not cite this chapter; they are noted here to prevent confusion. First, the collation of the base text preserves the Ishiyama line, which titles the chapter directly 「句義無礙品」 tr. "Chapter on the Unobstructed Meaning of the Phrase" (see Section VIII for details); this is a manuscript variant name of the same sūtra and treatise, not a separate sūtra or treatise. Second, the two characters 「句義」 tr. "meaning of the phrase" (padārtha) are a common technical term of logic and consciousness-only, referring broadly to the categories that words express; they are widely found in unrelated contexts such as the Treatise on Entering the True Principle of Logic and the Treatise on the Establishment of Consciousness-Only, the bare-word hits across the whole collection exceed six hundred, none of them citations of this chapter, and they are not forcibly attached to it. Third, in the various assemblies of Xuanzang's Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and in Dānapāla's variant translation, no corresponding passage independently named 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase" is found at the same position (unlike the preceding "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", for which Xuanzang's line has a parallel 「幻喻品」 tr. "Chapter on the Simile of Illusion"); this is because the Chinese translation traditions for dividing the chapters of the Larger Sūtra do not correspond one to one; this is recorded without judgement.

VII. Cross-reading and Further Resonances

This chapter's backbone has three parts, all of which were taken up by the prajñā line and by later commentaries.

The first: the taking up of the arc-position of the division of the whole sūtra—the ancient masters take this chapter as the head of a new division following 「三解脫門三品」 tr. "the three chapters on the three gates of liberation". This determination of division was made independently and in agreement by commentators of the two Sui-period lines, the Three Treatises and the Daśabhūmika: Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra judges it to be the head of the 「秤歎門」 tr. "gate of praise" (the thirteen chapters from "The Meaning of the Phrase" to "Converging on the Tenet")〔X24n0451 0234a03〕, and further judges its turning point from 「字門→字義門」 tr. "the gate of the word → the gate of the meaning of the word"〔X24n0451 0240b03〕; Huiying's Commentary judges it to be the head of the division on 「人大」 tr. "the greatness of the person" (from the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase to the Chapter on Bondage and Release)〔X46n0791 0864a04〕. The two masters' wording differs, yet both take the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase as the starting point of a new division; and this determination corresponds exactly to the question the treatise sets itself in Treatise ①, 「上來佛與須菩提種種因緣破菩薩字，今何以問『菩薩句義』？」 tr. "up to this point the Buddha and Subhūti have, through various causes and conditions, refuted the word 'bodhisattva'; why now ask about ‘the meaning of the phrase bodhisattva’?"〔T25 0380b04〕—the treatise-author himself links the turn from 「破菩薩字」 tr. "refuting the word 'bodhisattva'" to 「問菩薩句義」 tr. "asking about the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'", and the ancient masters judge it as a turn from the 「字門」 tr. "gate of the word" to the 「字義門」 tr. "gate of the meaning of the word". This section records the lineage without fixing a reading on anyone's behalf; all the sources linked here are given word for word in Section VI.

The second: the taking up of the gloss on the meaning of the word 'bodhisattva' (pada, in the language of Qin, phrase)—Treatise ① of this chapter sets out the gloss on syllables and phrases, 「天竺語法，眾字和合成語，眾語和合成句」 tr. "in the grammar of India, many syllables come together to form a word, and many words come together to form a phrase"〔T25 0380b29〕 and ‘pada is, in the language of Qin, phrase’〔T25 0380c10〕, which later commentators cite. Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra marks and cites it directly with 「論云」 tr. "the treatise says": 「論云：外國名波陀，此云句」 tr. "the treatise says: in the foreign country it is called pada; here it is called phrase"〔X24n0451 0241a14〕; Jingying Huiyuan's Compendium of Mahāyāna Doctrines marks it with 「大智論句義品云」 tr. "the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa says" and cites it in abridged form: 「又大智論句義品云。天竺語法。眾字成語。眾語成句」 tr. "further, the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa says: in the grammar of India, many syllables form a word, and many words form a phrase"〔T44n1851 0468c04〕. Both masters cite this chapter's gloss on syllables and phrases to explain the meaning of 「字」 tr. "syllable" and 「句」 tr. "phrase"—one in a commentary following the sūtra, one in a citation in a doctrinal compendium—with differences of restatement and abridgement in their wording. This section records the lineage without fixing a reading on anyone's behalf.

The third: the taking up of the simile of the bird flying through space—the first simile of Sūtra ① of this chapter, 「譬如鳥飛虛空無有足跡，菩薩句義無所有亦如是」 tr. "just as a bird flying through space leaves no footprints, the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva' is likewise without anything at all"〔T25 0379b17〕, is the most famous simile in the whole chapter. Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises restates it three times with 「大品經句義品云」 tr. "the Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase of the Larger Sūtra says"〔X46n0784 0578c03〕〔X46n0784 0588a21〕〔X46n0784 0635c12〕, and once more cites this chapter's definition of conditioned dharmas〔X46n0784 0656a09〕. All four of Junzheng's citations are paraphrases rather than word-for-word; they represent the taking up of this chapter's simile of the bird flying through space and of the meaning of the conditioned into the later commentary on the Four Treatises. This section records the lineage without fixing a reading on anyone's behalf; all the sources linked here are given word for word in Section VI.

With respect to the sequence of this treatise itself, the chapter has an explicit internal cross-reference, linked by the treatise-author himself and not by later comparison. At the end of Treatise ②, distinguishing the conditioned from the unconditioned, its question 「色如，色不離如，如不離色；色是有為，云何是無為」 tr. "form is suchness; form is not apart from suchness, and suchness is not apart from form; form is conditioned—how can it be unconditioned?"〔T25 0382a21〕 takes up precisely the foreshadowing in the similes of Sūtra ①, 「如有為性中無無為性義，無為性中無有為性義」 tr. "as in the nature of the conditioned there is no meaning of the nature of the unconditioned, and in the nature of the unconditioned there is no meaning of the nature of the conditioned"〔T25 0379c20〕—Sūtra ① sets up by simile the foreshadowing that the conditioned and the unconditioned do not contain each other, and Treatise ②, in the final round of question and answer, declares their distinction (the difference between form as recollected, imagined, and discriminated by ordinary beings, and the real mark of form known by the minds of sages). This resonance lies in the joining of the vein of meaning; this section records the lineage without fixing a reading on anyone's behalf.

VIII. Witnesses and Editions

Of the collation of this chapter, the items that may bear on the meaning of the sūtra are selected below; variant readings are preserved side by side, while the main text continues to follow the reading of the current base text.

0379b13 (chapter title): 大智度論釋句義品第十二【大】｜釋句義品第十二【明】｜釋第十二品【聖】｜摩訶般若波羅蜜品第十二句義無礙品【石】—the chapter title in four witnesses side by side. The Taishō, Ming, and Shōgozō witnesses all maintain the core wording 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase" (differing only in added or omitted prefixes), while the Ishiyama line alone titles it directly 「句義無礙品」 tr. "Chapter on the Unobstructed Meaning of the Phrase", appending after 「句義」 tr. "meaning of the phrase" the two characters 「無礙」 tr. "unobstructed" (perhaps connected with this chapter's sūtra text 「云何一切法中無礙相應學、應知」 tr. "how should one train in and know the unobstructed mark among all dharmas?"〔T25 0381a09〕, with its 「無礙」 tr. "unobstructed"); this is the third, descriptive, manuscript variant name of this chapter (see Sections I and VI for details). In contrast to the preceding "The Illusory Person Makes Nothing", with its different names on four sides—treatise, sūtra, ancient masters, and variant translation—this chapter's name returns in every line to 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase", save for this single separate title of the Ishiyama text, which is recorded without judgement. The main text follows the base text's 「句義品」 tr. "Chapter on the Meaning of the Phrase".

0380b01: 菩薩句義【大】｜亦復如【宮】｜菩薩義【宋】【元】【明】—this falls, in the closing sentence of Sūtra ①, 「是阿耨多羅三藐三菩提、菩薩、菩薩句義」 tr. "this anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, the bodhisattva, and the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'", on the core term 「菩薩句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'" (Section II; Section IV, fourth group). The base text, the Shōgozō, and the Ishiyama text read 「菩薩句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'"; the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions abbreviate it to 「菩薩義」 tr. "the meaning of 'bodhisattva'" (one character fewer, 「句」 tr. "phrase"); the Palace edition reads 「亦復如」 tr. "is also likewise" (apparently a lacuna or a different reading). This reflects the tension of abbreviation between 「句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase" and 「義」 tr. "meaning" in the manuscript transmission; it is recorded without judgement, for the translator's reference. The main text follows the base text's 「菩薩句義」 tr. "the meaning of the phrase 'bodhisattva'".

0382a18: 漏【CB】｜為【大】—the sentence 「三界繫，乃至四念處，乃至十八不共法，雖為〔漏〕法，以作法故，是為有為法」 tr. "what is bound to the three realms, down to the four foundations of mindfulness, down to the eighteen unshared dharmas—though these are dharmas [without outflows], because they are made dharmas, they are conditioned dharmas". The Taishō base text originally reads 「為」 tr. "are" (「雖為為法」 tr. "though these are are dharmas", repeating the character 「為」 tr. "are", which makes no sense), and CBETA emends it directly to 「漏」 tr. "outflows" (「雖是無漏法，以其屬造作之法故仍歸有為法」 tr. "though they are dharmas without outflows, because they belong to made dharmas they still return to conditioned dharmas"), which agrees with the doctrinal framework of with outflows, without outflows, and conditioned in the context above and below. This is a direct internal emendation of the Taishō base text by the CBETA editorial team, not a variant among the historical manuscripts of the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, Shōgozō, and Ishiyama witnesses; it is the only such case among the eighty-nine collation notes of this chapter, and is marked specially to distinguish the nature of the collation; it is recorded without judgement. The main text follows the CBETA emended reading 「漏」 tr. "outflows".

The base text of this chapter is Fascicle 44 of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa〔T25 0379b13–0382b08〕. This chapter is the last chapter of Fascicle 44, and Fascicle 44 closes at the end of this chapter, so the chapter contains the fascicle-end title 「大智度論卷第四十四」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Fascicle Forty-four"〔T25 0382b05〕. The collation text for the sūtra explained is Chapter 12, "The Meaning of the Phrase", of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra〔T08 0241c10–0243b09〕. The collation texts for the ancient-master commentaries are Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra (X24n0451, sūtra-explanation section) and Fascicle 17 of Huiying's Commentary (X46n0791, treatise-explanation section), with the separate citations of Jingying Huiyuan's Compendium of Mahāyāna Doctrines (T44n1851) and Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises (X46n0784). Variant notes follow the Taishō collation, covering differences between the Taishō base text and the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace editions, the Shōgozō, and the Ishiyama text, as well as CBETA's direct emendation. The collation notes for the whole chapter number eighty-nine in all, preserved in detail at the end of the working base text; this list transcribes only the principal items bearing on the core doctrinal wording of this chapter, and does not extend to judging the relative merit of the witnesses.