大智度論 四念處品Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

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 the treatise gives its own title as 「大智度論釋四念處品第十九」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Nineteenth"〔T25 0402c14〕. The whole chapter in fact lies within the single Fascicle 48 and does not cross fascicles. It has been divided into two reader units, and the cutting point〔T25 0406a15〕falls on the natural seam between the closing sentence of Treatise ① and the opening sentence of Sūtra ②. Unlike the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna", whose cut happens to coincide with a physical fascicle boundary, the cut in this chapter is purely a boundary of length for the reader, tied to the transition between sections within the sūtra and the treatise themselves.

The chapter's framework of sūtra and treatise is two Sūtra sections and two Treatise sections in succession—Sūtra ①〔T25 0402c18〕, Treatise ①〔T25 0403c04〕, Sūtra ②〔T25 0406a15〕, Treatise ②〔T25 0408b01〕—neither a single Sūtra section with a single Treatise section, nor spanning fascicles. Unit One, "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness": Sūtra ① begins at〔T25 0402c18〕with 「佛告須菩提」 tr. "the Buddha told Subhūti"; the Buddha establishes the four foundations of mindfulness as the bodhisattva's Mahāyāna, unfolds the twelve kinds of contemplation of the foundation of mindfulness of the body (walking, standing, sitting, and lying down; the in-and-out breath; contemplating the four great elements; the impurity of the thirty-six things; the nine perceptions of the corpse, down to the white bones like a conch shell), and briefly raises the three foundations of mindfulness of feeling, mind, and dharmas. Treatise ① begins at〔T25 0403c04〕with 「問曰：四念處中有種種觀」 tr. "Question: within the four foundations of mindfulness there are various kinds of contemplation"; with ten questions and ten answers it explains the name and meaning of the four foundations of mindfulness, the distinction between inner and outer, contemplation following the body and not giving rise to the notion of a body, diligent vigour with a single mind, the removal of worldly covetousness and grief, and other items, and it closes with a transition on the mutual inclusion of the thirty-seven limbs of the path, ending at the closing sentence of Treatise ①〔T25 0406a13〕, 「是諸法後皆用無所得故」 tr. "all these dharmas afterwards all employ 'because there is nothing to be attained'." Unit Two, "The Limbs of the Path and the Syllable-Gates": Sūtra ② begins at〔T25 0406a15〕, continuing the close of the nine perceptions of the foundation of mindfulness of the body (after many years the colour is like a dove's; it merges with the earth); it sums up the three foundations of mindfulness of feeling, mind, and dharmas, and then lists the remaining limbs of the path—the four right efforts, the four divisions of the bases of supernormal power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven limbs of awakening, the eight limbs of the noble path, the three samādhi, the eleven knowledges, the three faculties, the ten recollections, the various meditative absorptions, the ten powers of the Buddha, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, and the eighteen unshared dharmas—and it closes with the forty-two syllable-gates of entry and the twenty merits, ending at the closing sentence of Sūtra ②〔T25 0408a28〕, 「是陀羅尼門、阿字門等，是名菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍」 tr. "these dhāraṇī-gates, the gate of the syllable a, and the rest—these are called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna." Treatise ② begins at〔T25 0408b01〕with 「釋曰」 tr. "Explanation:"; it explains the meaning of 「字等、語等」 tr. "the sameness of syllables, the sameness of speech", explains the forty-two syllables one by one with glosses in the language of Qin attached, and further sets up questions and answers to explain the twenty merits, closing with the final sentence of the whole chapter〔T25 0409c14〕, 「如是等種種分別，是名『菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍』」 tr. "all such distinctions as these are called 'the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna'."

The inscriptions at the head of a fascicle vary with the division into fascicles. This chapter is the first chapter of Fascicle 48: after the chapter title 「大智度論釋四念處品第十九」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Nineteenth" come the author and translator inscriptions 「龍樹菩薩造」 tr. "composed by the bodhisattva Nāgārjuna"〔T25 0402c16〕 and 「後秦龜茲國三藏鳩摩羅什譯」 tr. "translated by Kumārajīva, Tripiṭaka master of the kingdom of Kucha, of the Later Qin"〔T25 0402c17〕, in accord with the convention that a unit which crosses into or opens a fascicle carries the inscriptions at the fascicle head. Unit Two〔T25 0406a15〕 lies in the middle of Fascicle 48, continuing on from the preceding sūtra text, and has neither chapter title nor author and translator inscriptions. This is exactly the reverse of the distribution of inscriptions in the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna" (there Unit One is the second chapter within Fascicle 46 and has no inscriptions, while Unit Two is the head of Fascicle 47 and has them); in both chapters the presence or absence of the inscriptions depends on the unit's position within the physical fascicle, and each is structurally correct in its own right.

The chapter name has, among the transmitted texts, a layer of alternative naming that must be distinguished first. The Taishō base text of this treatise titles it 「四念處品」 tr. "Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness"; the Ming edition appends the note 「經作廣乘品」 tr. "the sūtra has 'Chapter on the Broad Vehicle'"; the Palace edition titles it outright 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle"; and the Ishiyama text reports its own chapter number as the eighteenth and its own fascicle number as fifty (chapter number minus one, fascicle number plus two). The sūtra explained, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra translated by Kumārajīva of the Later Qin, at the same position titles it 「廣乘品第十九」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle, the Nineteenth"〔T08 0253b17〕, and within the container of that chapter title there is a separate Khitan-edition note marking that in the Khitan edition this chapter is the Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (T08 0253b18 Khitan-edition interlinear note). The two works both come from Kumārajīva's hand, and the two readings, 'Four Foundations of Mindfulness' and 'Broad Vehicle', each leave within the other's text collation variants that point to each other, forming a closed loop of two-way mutual attestation (details in Sections IV and VIII; this is the second instance of cross-attestation of chapter titles among the chapters in which this treatise explains the Larger Sūtra, the first being the two readings 'Mahāyāna' and 'Asking about the Vehicle' in the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna"). In this section and in the reader-facing main text below, the chapter is uniformly called "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness", following this treatise's own title; the other names are recorded without judgement.

The collation of this chapter has two special configurations that must be noted first; both are detailed in Section VIII, and this section first marks that they exist. First, the Palace edition survives for this fascicle (Fascicle 48, the whole of Chapter 19) and can be collated item by item—exactly the reverse of the first half of the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna" (Fascicle 46), where the Palace edition is absent for the whole fascicle; the previous chapter's judgement that the Palace edition is missing must not be carried over. Second, the double-track displacement of the Ishiyama text—chapter number minus one and fascicle number plus two—is fully confirmed at the starting point of the chapter title (a fourth consecutive confirmation), but at the close at the end of the fascicle two unresolved anomalies appear (the Ishiyama text reads the fascicle number as fifteen, and reads the chapter number as 'eight chapters ended', lacking a 'ten'). This section records them honestly as unresolved points of doubt and does not force them into the existing displacement framework.

II. Terms Examined

The four foundations of mindfulness (first of the thirty-seven limbs of the path; one of the chapter's lifelines). This is what the chapter's name rests on. The sūtra takes the four foundations of mindfulness as the first of the bodhisattva's Mahāyāna, saying 「所謂四念處」 tr. "namely, the four foundations of mindfulness"〔T25 0402c18〕; it opens the four foundations of body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, unfolds twelve kinds of contemplation under the foundation of mindfulness of the body, and ties each to 「循身觀，亦無身覺，以不可得故」 tr. "contemplating following the body, yet also without the notion of a body, because it is unfindable." The treatise-author distinguishes its name and meaning: asked why it says 「念處」 tr. "foundation of mindfulness" and not 「智處」 tr. "foundation of knowledge", he answers 「初習行時，未及有智；念為初門」 tr. "when one first practises, one has not yet come to have knowledge; mindfulness is the first gate"〔T25 0405c03〕, and he points out its real substance, saying 「四念處實體是智慧」 tr. "the real substance of the four foundations of mindfulness is wisdom"〔T25 0405c04〕—mindfulness is the gate of first entry, while its real substance is wisdom; contemplating the inner and outer body is itself wisdom, and mindfulness holds wisdom within its object and does not let it scatter, hence the name 「念處」 tr. "foundation of mindfulness." The treatise further explains that 「循身觀」 tr. "contemplating following the body"〔T25 0404a11〕 means searching along and observing its impurity, and that 「不生身覺」 tr. "not giving rise to the notion of a body"〔T25 0404a15〕 means not grasping the marks of the body's oneness or difference and so giving rise to idle discourse.

The thirty-seven limbs of the path (encompassed by the four foundations of mindfulness; the divisions of wisdom, vigour, and concentration). The four foundations of mindfulness are the first of the thirty-seven limbs of the path; the other limbs of the path all take the four foundations of mindfulness as their substance, each with its own predominance. The treatise-author makes their divisions clear, saying 「四正勤、四如意足，雖各各別位，皆在四念處中」 tr. "the four right efforts and the four bases of supernormal power, though each has its own separate position, are all within the four foundations of mindfulness"〔T25 0405b28〕, and further judges their predominance, saying 「慧多故，名『四念處』；精進多故，名『四正勤』；定多故，名『四如意足』」 tr. "because wisdom predominates, they are called 'the four foundations of mindfulness'; because vigour predominates, they are called 'the four right efforts'; because concentration predominates, they are called 'the four bases of supernormal power'"〔T25 0405b29〕—in the four foundations of mindfulness wisdom predominates, in the four right efforts vigour predominates, in the four bases of supernormal power concentration predominates: one and the same substance of the limbs of the path, named according to the dharma that is dominant. Unit Two, in the form of the Sūtra, lists one by one by name the numbered dharmas of the limbs of the path—the four right efforts up to the eight limbs of the noble path, the three samādhi, the eleven knowledges, the three faculties, and the ten recollections—each crowned with 「以不可得故」 tr. "because it is unfindable" and returned to the Mahāyāna.

The forty-two syllable-gates of entry (dhāraṇī; the lifeline of Unit Two). This is the backbone of Unit Two, and also one of the passages with the largest number of characters in the whole chapter. The sūtra first establishes 「字等、語等諸字入門」 tr. "the gates of entry into all syllables, the sameness of syllables and the sameness of speech"〔T25 0407c10〕 and sets out the forty-two syllable-gates one by one, beginning with 「阿字門，一切法初不生故」 tr. "the gate of the syllable a, because all dharmas are from the first unarisen"〔T25 0407c11〕 and ending with 「過荼無字可得」 tr. "beyond ḍha there is no syllable to be obtained"〔T25 0408a13〕, forty-two gates in all, each establishing its meaning by unfindability (for example, the syllable a, that all dharmas are from the first unarisen; the syllable ra, that all dharmas are free of defilement). The treatise-author explains why, saying 「四十二字是一切字根本」 tr. "the forty-two syllables are the root of all syllables"〔T25 0408b12〕, and establishes how syllable, speech, name, and meaning arise from one another, saying 「因字有語，因語有名，因名有義」 tr. "from syllables there is speech, from speech there are names, from names there is meaning"〔T25 0408b12〕—if the bodhisattva hears a single syllable, then following its meaning he penetrates the real mark of all dharmas. The treatise further explains the forty-two syllables one by one, with glosses in the language of Qin attached (ādi, in the language of Qin 'beginning'; anutpāda, in the language of Qin 'not arising'; and so on).

'Because it is unfindable' (the seal by which prajñā gathers in the limbs of the path; running through the whole chapter). In this chapter the twelve contemplations of the foundation of mindfulness of the body, each item of the thirty-seven limbs of the path in Unit Two, the forty-two syllable-gates of entry, and even the twenty merits all take 「以不可得故」 tr. "because it is unfindable" as their closing stroke. This is not a phrase added separately from outside the limbs of the path; rather, prajñā's seal of nothing to be attained is set on all the limbs of the path and syllable-gates, so that the contemplation following the body in the four foundations of mindfulness is 「亦無身覺」 tr. "also without the notion of a body", and so that the cultivation of the limbs of the path does not cling to agent and object. It is the common seal of all the numbered dharmas of this chapter, and also the pivot on which they return to prajñā (see Section V).

III. Similes and Stories

The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa is renowned for its similes. The lifeline of this chapter's teaching lies in the several similes the sūtra itself sets up for the foundation of mindfulness of the body, and in the linked similes the treatise-author unfolds when explaining the four foundations of mindfulness and the twenty merits. All are tied to contemplating the body as impure, and to gathering practice with wisdom without clinging.

First, the three similes of the sūtra itself for the foundation of mindfulness of the body (Unit One, sūtra). To make clear the knowing of the long and short in-and-out breath, the sūtra sets up the simile of the turner, saying 「譬如旋師，若旋師弟子，繩長知長，繩短知短」 tr. "just as a turner, or a turner's apprentice, when the cord is long knows it is long, and when the cord is short knows it is short"〔T25 0403a08〕—as one who works a potter's turning wheel is perfectly clear about the length of the cord, so the bodhisattva knows the length of the in-and-out breath. To make clear the analysis of the body into the four great elements, the treatise explains the sūtra's simile of the cattle-butcher, saying 「『牛』即是行者身，『屠兒』即是行者，『刀』是利智慧」 tr. "'the ox' is the practitioner's body, 'the butcher' is the practitioner, 'the knife' is sharp wisdom"〔T25 0404b25〕—with the knife of sharp wisdom one divides the body into the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, as the butcher divides the ox into four parts, and there is no ox besides. To make clear the impurity of the thirty-six things, the treatise explains the sūtra's simile of the granary, saying 「穀倉是身，農夫是行者」 tr. "the granary is the body, the farmer is the practitioner"〔T25 0404c08〕—as a clear-eyed farmer who opens the granary at once distinguishes rice, hemp, millet, and grain, so the practitioner who opens the granary of the body with the wisdom eye at once knows that it is full of impurity.

Second, the similes of vigour in the treatise's explanation of the four foundations of mindfulness (Unit One, treatise). Explaining 「勤精進一心」 tr. "diligent vigour with a single mind", it sets up the simile of drilling the fire-stick to seek fire, saying 「譬如攢燧求火，一心勤著，不休不息，乃可得火」 tr. "just as in drilling the fire-stick to seek fire, one applies oneself diligently with a single mind, without pause and without rest, and only then can one obtain fire"〔T25 0404a26〕—drilling wood to take fire succeeds only with a single mind that does not rest; the difficulty of leaving one's own body and leaving one's own mind cannot be overcome without diligent vigour with a single mind. Explaining 「除世間貪憂」 tr. "removing worldly covetousness and grief", it sets up the simile of splitting bamboo, saying 「猶如破竹，初節既破，餘節皆去」 tr. "just like splitting bamboo: once the first joint is split, the remaining joints all go"〔T25 0404a28〕—when covetousness is removed, the five hindrances all go, as when the first joint of the bamboo is split and the remaining joints all give way before the blade. Explaining the falseness of worldly pleasure, it sets up the simile of fine food mixed with poison, saying 「譬如美食雜毒，食雖香美，毒則害人」 tr. "just like fine food mixed with poison: though the food is fragrant and delicious, the poison harms a person"〔T25 0405a28〕—worldly pleasure is like fine food mixed with poison; it is taken as pleasure only because for a while it screens off suffering, and beyond measure it gives rise to limitless suffering.

Third, the story-simile of the bodhisattva who does not grasp nirvāṇa (Unit One, treatise). The treatise-author, explaining why the bodhisattva cultivates the thirty-seven limbs yet does not grasp nirvāṇa, unfolds the simile of binding a raft in a dream at the seventh abode-stage, saying 「如人夢中縛栰渡河，中流而覺」 tr. "like a person who in a dream binds a raft to cross a river and wakes in midstream"〔T25 0405c27〕—the bodhisattva who reaches the seventh abode-stage, contemplating outwardly that all dharmas are empty and inwardly that there is no self, is like a person who in a dream binds a raft to cross a river and wakes in midstream; thinking 「我空自疲苦，無河無栰」 tr. "I have wearied and pained myself for nothing; there is no river and no raft", he wishes to extinguish his own inverted mind. At that moment 「十方佛伸手摩頭」 tr. "the Buddhas of the ten directions stretch out their hands and stroke his head"〔T25 0406a01〕, urging him not to give rise to regret, to remember his original vow, and to teach and transform beings with this dharma of emptiness. This linked story is the key point at which the bodhisattva path of this chapter differs from the śrāvaka's grasping of realisation (see Section V). The simile of splitting bamboo appears again in Unit Two, where the treatise explains 「得陀羅尼」 tr. "attaining dhāraṇī" among the twenty merits, saying 「譬如破竹，初節既破，餘者皆易」 tr. "just like splitting bamboo: once the first joint is split, the rest are all easy"〔T25 0409b13〕—when the syllable-dhāraṇī is attained, all the dhāraṇīs are attained of themselves; it works by the same mechanism as the bamboo simile for 「除貪憂」 tr. "removing covetousness and grief" in Unit One, but is put to a different use.

IV. The Sūtra Passage Explained

The Sūtra sections cited by this treatise correspond item by item with Chapter 19, "The Broad Vehicle", of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra translated by Kumārajīva of the Later Qin. Below they are aligned word for word, to prove that what the treatise explains is indeed the sūtra text of this version; at the places where its two Treatise sections are inserted, one sees especially that the backbone of this chapter's doctrine lies in the treatise.

First group: the closed loop of two-way mutual attestation of the alternative chapter names (the pivot of this chapter's Section IV; each of the two transmissions points to the other; the second instance in the series). The Taishō base text of this treatise〔T25 0402c14〕 titles it 「大智度論釋四念處品第十九」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Nineteenth", and its Ming-edition variant note reads 「經作廣乘品」 tr. "the sūtra has 'Chapter on the Broad Vehicle'"—the Ming edition itself marks 「經作廣乘品」 tr. "the sūtra has 'Chapter on the Broad Vehicle'", pointing directly to the title of the sūtra explained; its Palace edition goes further and titles it outright 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle" (the chapter number still the nineteenth; only the chapter name abandons 「四念處」 tr. "the four foundations of mindfulness" and follows 「廣乘」 tr. "the broad vehicle"). The Taishō base text of the sūtra explained, T223〔T08 0253b17〕, titles it 「廣乘品第十九」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle, the Nineteenth", and within the container of that chapter title there is a separate Khitan-edition note, 「丹本名為四念處品」 tr. "the Khitan edition names it 'Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness'" (T08 0253b18 Khitan-edition interlinear note)—a Khitan variant within T223 itself, pointing directly to this treatise's title. Thus in these two works, both from Kumārajīva, the two readings 'Four Foundations of Mindfulness' and 'Broad Vehicle' each leave within the other's text a cross-reference at the level of collation witnesses, forming a closed loop that is cross-textual, two-way, and mutually attesting (this is the second instance of cross-attestation of chapter titles at the level of collation witnesses among the chapters in which this treatise explains the Larger Sūtra, of the same type as the two readings 'Mahāyāna' and 'Asking about the Vehicle' in the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna"). The Ishiyama text, for its part, titles it 「品第十八…卷五十」 tr. "Chapter Eighteen … Fascicle Fifty" (chapter number minus one; see Section VIII).

Second group: the general heading of the four foundations of mindfulness is almost wholly identical word for word. This treatise's〔T25 0402c18〕 「菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍，所謂四念處」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna, namely, the four foundations of mindfulness" and T223's〔T08 0253b19〕 「菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍，所謂四念處」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna, namely, the four foundations of mindfulness" correspond word for word (the punctuation too being almost wholly identical). Below them, the twelve kinds of contemplation of the foundation of mindfulness of the body (walking, standing, sitting, and lying down; the in-and-out breath; contemplating the four great elements; the thirty-six things; the nine perceptions) also correspond item by item in the two texts, except that at the start of contemplating following the body within the inner body T223 uses a plain declarative sentence, while this treatise uses the interrogative form 「云何內身中循身觀」 tr. "how does one, within the inner body, contemplate following the body?"—a difference at the level of narration, while the content still corresponds.

Third group: the close of the nine perceptions and the sentence summing up feeling, mind, and dharmas—confirming that the unit cut is, in T223 too, a division within the sūtra text itself. The opening sentence of this treatise's Sūtra ②〔T25 0406a15〕, 「見是棄死人骨在地，歲久，其色如鴿」 tr. "seeing the bones of this discarded dead person on the ground, after many years their colour like a dove's", and T223 at the same place〔T08 0254b09〕, 「歲久，其色如鴿，腐朽爛壞，與土共合」 tr. "after many years their colour like a dove's, rotting, decaying, and breaking down, merging with the earth", are nearly identical word for word. In the sentence below that sums up the three foundations, this treatise's〔T25 0406a20〕 「受念處、心念處、法念處亦應如是廣說」 tr. "the foundation of mindfulness of feeling, the foundation of mindfulness of mind, and the foundation of mindfulness of dharmas should likewise be explained at length in this way" and T223's〔T08 0254b13〕 「外身、內外身亦如是，受念處、心念處、法念處亦應如是廣說」 tr. "the outer body and the inner-and-outer body are likewise so; the foundation of mindfulness of feeling, the foundation of mindfulness of mind, and the foundation of mindfulness of dharmas should likewise be explained at length in this way" correspond word for word. Thus the cutting point between this treatise's two reader units (the start of Sūtra ②, tied to the close of the nine perceptions of the foundation of mindfulness of the body) is, in T223 too, the natural division in the sūtra text itself where the nine perceptions end and the listing of the limbs of the path begins; it is not a cut devised by this treatise on its own account—the unit cut agrees with the transition between sections inherent in the sūtra text.

Fourth group: both Treatise sections are insertions unique to this treatise. This chapter has two Treatise explanations—Treatise ①〔T25 0403c04–0406a13〕 (ten questions and ten answers explaining the name and meaning of the four foundations of mindfulness, inner and outer, contemplating following the body, diligent vigour, and the removal of covetousness and grief, together with the transition to the thirty-seven limbs) and Treatise ②〔T25 0408b01–0409c14〕 (explaining 「字等、語等」 tr. "the sameness of syllables, the sameness of speech", explaining the forty-two syllables one by one with the language of Qin attached, and explaining the twenty merits by question and answer)—and neither has any correspondence at all in T223. The full extent of T223's "The Broad Vehicle" coincides exactly with the union of this treatise's two Sūtra sections (at the places corresponding to Treatise ① and Treatise ② it has no treatise explanation, and simply runs on through the sections of the sūtra text itself), and both Treatise sections fall wholly outside the bounds of T223's chapter. Of the two, Treatise ② by its length (including the explanation of the names of the forty-two syllables one by one with glosses in the language of Qin, and the explanation of the twenty merits one by one) is the largest single inserted section known among the chapters in which this treatise explains the Larger Sūtra, and Treatise ① comes next—of the same type as the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna" (whose two Treatise sections are likewise both insertions unique to this treatise, while its sūtra sections all correspond to continuous, unbroken stretches of T223).

(The literal variants across transmissions and within this treatise itself—the two graphs for 'effort' in the four right efforts, the two graphs for 'obstruction' in the four unobstructed knowledges, 'the faculty of one who knows' and 'the faculty of the wise' among the three faculties, 'recollection of cessation' and 'recollection of the good' among the ten recollections, and the inconsistency, at eight places, of the characters used for the forty-two syllables between the sūtra's list of names and the treatise's explanation within this treatise itself—are all assigned to Section VIII, where each is recorded with its distribution among the transmissions, without deciding on anyone's behalf.)

V. The Prajñā Eye

The eye of this chapter lies here: the four foundations of mindfulness are the first of the thirty-seven limbs of the path; all the limbs of the path and the syllable-gates are the bodhisattva's Mahāyāna; and their cultivation, each and every one, takes 「以不可得故」 tr. "because it is unfindable" as its seal, and they return together to prajñā's nothing to be attained.

First, mindfulness is the first gate, while the real substance is wisdom. Although the four foundations of mindfulness are named by 「念」 tr. "mindfulness", the treatise-author makes clear their real substance, saying 「四念處實體是智慧」 tr. "the real substance of the four foundations of mindfulness is wisdom"〔T25 0405c04〕, and the reason 「念」 tr. "mindfulness" is set up is that 「初習行時，未及有智；念為初門」 tr. "when one first practises, one has not yet come to have knowledge; mindfulness is the first gate"〔T25 0405c03〕—mindfulness is the skilful means of first entry, and wisdom is its real substance; among the thirty-seven limbs of the path, wisdom, vigour, and concentration each have their predominance, yet they are one and the same substance of the limbs of the path〔T25 0405b28〕. Thus the contemplation cultivated in this chapter is not merely fixing mindfulness on the marks of body, feeling, mind, and dharmas; it is contemplating with wisdom their impurity, impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self, so that in contemplating following the body there is 「亦無身覺，以不可得故」 tr. "also no notion of a body, because it is unfindable."

Second, the bodhisattva cultivates the limbs of the path yet does not grasp nirvāṇa—the pivot at which this chapter differs from the śrāvakas. In the śrāvaka dharma, contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness, one obtains the fruits of heat, the summit, acceptance, and the highest worldly dharma, on up to the four fruits; the bodhisattva, within this contemplation, 「不忘本願，不捨大悲」 tr. "does not forget the original vow and does not abandon great compassion", and though he cultivates the thirty-seven limbs he does not grasp nirvāṇa. The treatise-author explains why he does not grasp it, saying 「本願牢故，大悲心深入故」 tr. "because the original vow is firm, because the mind of great compassion has entered deeply"〔T25 0405c24〕, and makes this clear with the simile of binding a raft in a dream at the seventh abode-stage: when the bodhisattva wakes in midstream and wishes to extinguish his own inverted mind, 「十方佛伸手摩頭」 tr. "the Buddhas of the ten directions stretch out their hands and stroke his head"〔T25 0406a01〕, urging him to remember his original vow and to teach and transform beings with the dharma of emptiness. So with one and the same four foundations of mindfulness, the śrāvaka takes them up to realise cessation, and the bodhisattva practises them to liberate beings; the dividing line lies precisely in the original vow and great compassion gathered in by prajñā.

Third, the forty-two syllable-gates return to ultimate emptiness, which is prajñā. The syllable-gates are established thus: from syllables there is speech, from speech there are names, from names there is meaning〔T25 0408b12〕; yet when the bodhisattva analyses and breaks apart the syllables, speech is empty, names are empty, and meaning is empty, and the treatise-author makes clear where this returns, saying 「得畢竟空，即是般若波羅蜜」 tr. "attaining ultimate emptiness is precisely prajñāpāramitā"〔T25 0409b10〕. The forty-two syllables begin with the syllable a, 「一切法初不生故」 tr. "because all dharmas are from the first unarisen"〔T25 0407c11〕, and end with 「過荼無字可得」 tr. "beyond ḍha there is no syllable to be obtained"〔T25 0408a13〕, each establishing its meaning by 「不可得」 tr. "unfindable", which is precisely another gate onto the real mark of all dharmas. Thus the thirty-seven limbs of the path, the forty-two syllable-gates, and all the various numbered dharmas take 「以不可得故」 tr. "because it is unfindable" as their final word and return together to prajñā: 「如是等種種分別，是名『菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍』」 tr. "all such distinctions as these are called 'the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna'"〔T25 0409c14〕—this is where the prajñā eye of this chapter comes to rest.

VI. Divergent Readings of the Masters

This section records the ancient masters who cite or explain this chapter, and the correspondence between what they comment on or cite and this chapter; it does not judge the interpretations of the various masters. The network of ancient masters for this chapter: Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra comments directly on the text passage by passage, with substantive content for both reader units, and is especially detailed on the syllable-gate passage; the surviving fragmentary fascicles of Huiying's Commentary have nothing for this chapter, the whole chapter falling in a physical gap among the commentary's fascicles; Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises is of the type that cites for doctrinal proof, and has no direct citation of this chapter, only one citation restating the limbs of the path from the neighbouring chapter "Setting Out".

Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra (X24n0451) comments on this chapter at a length of about a page and a half, with substantive commentary for both reader units, its coverage more even than for the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna" (where Unit Two, the hundred and eight samādhi, is passed over in a single sentence); in this chapter the syllable-gate passage is, on the contrary, especially detailed. First, the chapter title and the chapter heading at the head of the fascicle both follow the name of the T223 base text. The passage-by-passage commentary gives the chapter title as 「廣乘品第十九」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle, the Nineteenth"〔X24 0247a23〕 and notes on its own account 「文句一二如此，疏皆無異也」 tr. "the wording of the first and the second is like this; the commentary treats them without any difference"—Jizang is aware that the content of this chapter falls into two passages, and declares that his commentary treats the two passages no differently. Throughout he calls this chapter 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle", in agreement with the title of the T223 base text, not this treatise's 「四念處品」 tr. "Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness." Second, Unit One (the four foundations of mindfulness) has a substantive outline. Jizang gives passage-by-passage commentary with real content on the distinction of the inner and outer body (one's own body, wife and children, and wealth as inner and outer; the five faculties, the eye and so on, as the inner body), on the system of the thirty-seven limbs of the path (saying 「三十七道品門」 tr. "the gates of the thirty-seven limbs of the path" and also raising the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, and so on〔X24 0247c07〕), on the eighteen unshared dharmas item by item, and on the distinction between the nine marks and the ten perceptions, echoing the definition of the inner and outer body in Treatise ① and the listing of the limbs of the path in Sūtra ②. Third, Unit Two (the syllable-gates) is commented on in especially great detail. At the start of the forty-two syllable-gates Jizang says 「四十二字辨大乘一切名」 tr. "the forty-two syllables distinguish all the names of the Great Vehicle"〔X24 0248a02〕; he distinguishes the relation between the syllable-dhāraṇī and the five hundred dhāraṇīs, and establishes the doctrinal chain of syllable, speech, name, and meaning, saying 「因字有語，因語有名，因名有義」 tr. "from syllables there is speech, from speech there are names, from names there is meaning"〔X24 0248a14〕 (in doctrine consonant with Treatise ②〔T25 0408b12〕), and further makes clear the meaning of 「字等、語等」 tr. "the sameness of syllables, the sameness of speech"〔X24 0248b01〕. Thus Jizang's coverage of this chapter has substantive commentary for both units, and on the syllable-gate passage it is, on the contrary, more detailed than at the corresponding place in the preceding chapter.

Huiying's Commentary (X46n0791) has zero hits for passage-by-passage commentary on this chapter; the whole chapter falls in a physical gap among the surviving fragmentary fascicles. This section searched the whole of Huiying's commentary and found no container of a chapter name for passage-by-passage commentary on this chapter. On checking, after the close of Fascicle 17 of the commentary〔X46 0875c19〕 the next surviving fascicle jumps directly to Fascicle 21 of the commentary; Fascicles 18, 19, and 20 of the commentary (covering Fascicle 48 of the treatise, in which this chapter lies) are all lost, and this chapter falls entirely within this gap. This zero hit, like that of the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna", is a continued confirmation of this known range of missing fascicles. Distinguishing a trap of identical names (recorded in this section): Fascicle 17 of Huiying's commentary (before the gap) does contain a passage substantively discussing the doctrine of the forty-two-syllable dhāraṇī, saying 「四十二字亦入一阿字」 tr. "the forty-two syllables also enter the single syllable a" and so on〔X46 0866b18〕; but on checking the treatise passage this commentary explains, it is in fact the forty-two-syllable passage first briefly raised within the vast treatise explanation of Chapter 1, the Introduction, of this treatise (near Fascicle 25 of the treatise), not the syllable-gate passage of this Chapter 19. The same doctrine of this treatise (the forty-two-syllable dhāraṇī) appears in more than one place in the whole book (first raised briefly in Chapter 1, the Introduction, and only unfolded in detail in this Chapter 19); if one does not check the range of fascicles and chapters being commented on, one may easily mistake Huiying's commentary on a passage of Chapter 1 for a commentary on this chapter. This section has checked and excluded this trap of identical names, noting that Huiying does indeed discuss the doctrine of the forty-two syllables, but not as passage-by-passage commentary on this Chapter 19, and it maintains the honest conclusion of zero hits.

Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises (X46n0784) is a systematic doctrinal treatise, not a passage-by-passage commentary, and has no direct citation of this chapter. This section searched it throughout and found only one citation from a neighbouring chapter: Junzheng cites 「故大品經第五卷發趣品最末云：菩薩摩訶薩行六波羅蜜、四念處乃至十八不共法」 tr. "hence the very end of the chapter 'Setting Out' in the fifth fascicle of the Larger Sūtra says: the bodhisattva-mahāsattva practises the six perfections, the four foundations of mindfulness, up to the eighteen unshared dharmas"〔X46 0573a06〕—this plainly marks 「發趣品」 tr. "Chapter on Setting Out" (Chapter 20 of T223, the chapter after this one), and what it cites is the summarising restatement in "Setting Out" of a set of limbs of the path, the six perfections, the four foundations of mindfulness, up to the eighteen unshared dharmas. It belongs to the same doctrinal lineage as the detailed listing in Sūtra ② of this Chapter 19 (the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, up to the eighteen unshared dharmas, unfolded one by one), but it is not the same textual source. Moreover, Junzheng calls it the fifth fascicle, whereas on checking the T223 sūtra text, "Setting Out" in fact begins at the opening of Fascicle 6; the fascicle number does not match, and this section has not been able to clear this up (perhaps Junzheng relied on a different division into fascicles); it is recorded without judgement. Thus Junzheng has no direct word-for-word citation of this chapter (whether under the name 「四念處品」 tr. "Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness" or 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle"), only one citation restating the limbs of the path from the neighbouring "Setting Out"; this is an honest record of zero direct hits.

(Appended distinction: guarding against identical names.) The works of the Tiantai line (Zhiyi and others) that take 「四念處」 tr. "the four foundations of mindfulness" as their title treat the four foundations of mindfulness as the outline of cultivating contemplation; they share the name and are very numerous, but all are Tiantai's own school's expositions of contemplative practice, not passage-by-passage commentaries on Chapter 19 of this treatise; they share the name and have no bearing on it. This section distinguishes them as not being ancient-master commentaries on this chapter, recording this to prevent confusion, without entering into judgement or interpretation.

VII. Cross-reading and Further Resonances

This chapter's backbone is twofold—the four foundations of mindfulness as the first of the thirty-seven limbs of the path, and the return of all the limbs of the path and syllable-gates together to prajñā's nothing to be attained—and both are taken up in the treatise's own text before and after and by the ancient masters.

First, the treatise's internal self-references. The treatise-author, explaining the numbered dharmas of the limbs of the path in this chapter, repeatedly marks their source himself, passing over them with 「如先說」 tr. "as explained before" and 「如初品中說」 tr. "as explained in the first chapter" and pointing back to earlier chapters. Explaining ānāpāna, he says 「安那般那義，如先說」 tr. "the meaning of ānāpāna is as explained before"〔T25 0404b14〕; explaining the general meaning of the thirty-seven limbs, he says 「三十七品論議，如先說」 tr. "the discussion of the thirty-seven limbs is as explained before"〔T25 0405c22〕; explaining the three samādhi, the eleven knowledges, the three outflow-free faculties, and so on, he says 「復次，三三昧、十一智、三無漏根…如先說」 tr. "furthermore, the three samādhi, the eleven knowledges, the three outflow-free faculties … are as explained before"〔T25 0406a09〕; explaining the ten powers of the Buddha, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, and the eighteen unshared dharmas, he says 「…如初品中說」 tr. "… as explained in the first chapter"〔T25 0406a11〕; and in Treatise ②, explaining the meaning of the five aggregates and so on among the twenty merits, he likewise says 「五眾等義如先說」 tr. "the meaning of the five aggregates and so on is as explained before"〔T25 0409b21〕. Thus the broad meaning of the numbered dharmas of the limbs of the path in this chapter is tied by the treatise-author himself to the extended explanations in the first chapter of this treatise and in the preceding text; the explicit statements of these cross-readings are all set up by the treatise-author himself.

Second, the meaning of the substance and function of the Mahāyāna is taken up by the chapters before and after and by the ancient masters. This chapter's sentence pattern 「四念處…是名菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍」 tr. "the four foundations of mindfulness … these are called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna" directly continues the formula for listing the substance of the vehicle in the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna", 「六波羅蜜是菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍」 tr. "the six perfections are the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna"—the preceding chapter lists the six perfections, the eighteen emptinesses, and the hundred and eight samādhi as the substance of the vehicle, and this chapter goes on to list the thirty-seven limbs of the path and the forty-two syllable-gates as the vehicle, in one continuous succession of 「所謂…是名菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍」 tr. "namely … these are called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's Mahāyāna." As for its transmission onward: the doctrine of the forty-two syllable-gates of this chapter is taken up directly and commented on by Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra with 「四十二字辨大乘一切名」 tr. "the forty-two syllables distinguish all the names of the Great Vehicle"〔X24 0248a02〕, his commentary being, on the contrary, especially detailed; the series of limbs of the path in this chapter's Sūtra ② belongs to the same lineage as the restatement of the limbs of the path from "Setting Out" cited in Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises〔X46 0573a06〕 (its citation recorded without judgement). The loss of Huiying's commentary for this chapter (Section VI) is one break, in the surviving texts, in the chain by which this doctrine was handed down, and it is honestly noted alongside. These further resonances lie in the continuity of the line of meaning, and what each master takes up follows his own doctrinal aim; this section records their succession and does not fix a reading on anyone's behalf, and the sources tied to them are all found, word for word, in Sections V and VI.

VIII. Witnesses and Editions

Of this chapter's collation, the points that may bear on the meaning of the scripture are selected as follows; variant readings are preserved side by side, while the main text continues to follow the reading of the current base text. This chapter falls wholly within the single Fascicle 48 (not crossing fascicles), and has two special configurations that must be noted first—the Palace edition survives for this fascicle and can be collated (exactly the reverse of the first half of the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna", Fascicle 46, where the Palace edition is absent for the whole fascicle), and the double-track displacement of the Ishiyama text, chapter number minus one and fascicle number plus two (fully confirmed at the starting point of the chapter title, while unresolved anomalies appear at the close at the end of the fascicle); the two matters are detailed in the final paragraphs of this section.

0402c14 (chapter title; two-way mutual attestation of the two transmissions): 大智度論釋四念處品第十九【大】｜釋四念處品第十九經作廣乘品【明】｜第十九品釋廣乘品【宮】｜釋第十八品【聖】｜摩訶般若波羅蜜品第十八四念處品卷五十【石】 (note0402020)—within this treatise's line, the Taishō base text titles it 「四念處品」 tr. "Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness"; the Ming edition appends the note 「經作廣乘品」 tr. "the sūtra has 'Chapter on the Broad Vehicle'" (pointing directly to the title of the sūtra explained); the Palace edition titles it outright 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle" (the chapter number still the nineteenth; only the chapter name abandons 「四念處」 tr. "the four foundations of mindfulness" and follows 「廣乘」 tr. "the broad vehicle", in agreement with the sūtra explained, T223, whose base text titles itself 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle"); the Shōgozō reads 「釋第十八品」 tr. "Commentary on the Eighteenth Chapter" (a chapter number one less than the Taishō); and the Ishiyama text titles it 「品第十八…卷五十」 tr. "Chapter Eighteen … Fascicle Fifty" (chapter number one less, fascicle number two more; see the final paragraphs of this section). This forms a two-way contrast with the chapter title of the sūtra explained, T223—the Taishō base text of T223 titles it 「廣乘品第十九」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle, the Nineteenth"〔T08 0253b17〕, and within the container of that chapter title the Khitan-edition note reads 「丹本名為四念處品」 tr. "the Khitan edition names it 'Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness'" (T08 0253b18 Khitan-edition interlinear note) (pointing directly to this treatise's title). Thus the variants within each of the two works each point to the other's reading, forming a closed loop of two-way mutual attestation (see Section IV). The main text follows the base text's 「四念處品」 tr. "Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness."

0409c16 (end-of-fascicle colophon; the Palace edition omits an appended phrase): 釋第十九品【大】｜〔－〕【宮】 (note0409030)—in the closing colophon of Fascicle 48, 「大智度論卷第四十八釋第十九品」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Fascicle Forty-eight, Commentary on the Nineteenth Chapter", the four characters 「釋第十九品」 tr. "Commentary on the Nineteenth Chapter" are omitted in the Palace edition. This is consistent with the Palace edition's logic of titling the chapter outright 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle" (its chapter name being self-sufficient, it does not further append the Taishō's chapter title); it is not an absence. The main text follows the base text.

0409c16 (end of fascicle; anomaly in the Ishiyama fascicle number at the close; unresolved): 四十八【大】｜十五【石】 (note0409029)—the fascicle numeral in the end-of-fascicle colophon 「卷第四十八」 tr. "Fascicle Forty-eight" reads 「十五」 tr. "fifteen" in the Ishiyama text. This reading does not agree with the 「卷五十」 tr. "Fascicle Fifty" that the Ishiyama text itself reports at the starting point of the chapter title in the same fascicle (fascicle number plus two) (for one and the same Fascicle 48, the Ishiyama text reads 「五十」 tr. "fifty" at the opening title and 「十五」 tr. "fifteen" at the end of the fascicle: the Ishiyama text's fascicle coordinates at the two places contradict each other). This section has not been able to determine the cause (whether 「五十」 tr. "fifty" and 「十五」 tr. "fifteen" are an inversion in transcription or in carving, there being no side evidence to rely on, it does not force a determination); it records this honestly as an unresolved anomaly, does not force it into the existing displacement framework, and leaves it for later re-checking against a more complete copy of the Ishiyama scriptures. The main text follows the base text's 「四十八」 tr. "forty-eight."

0409c16 (end of fascicle; the Ishiyama chapter number at the close; the Shōgozō's minus one agrees / the Ishiyama text lacks the character 'ten'): 十九品【大】｜十八品【聖】｜八品竟【石】 (note0409031)—for the chapter number in 「釋第十九品」 tr. "Commentary on the Nineteenth Chapter" at the end of the fascicle, the Shōgozō reads 「十八品」 tr. "Eighteenth Chapter" (chapter number minus one, in the same direction as its chapter title 「釋第十八品」 tr. "Commentary on the Eighteenth Chapter"); the Ishiyama text reads 「八品竟」 tr. "Eighth Chapter ended", lacking, compared with the Taishō's 「十九品」 tr. "Nineteenth Chapter", the one character 「十」 tr. "ten." The main text follows the base text's 「十九品」 tr. "Nineteenth Chapter."

0406a21 (the four right efforts; variant graphs for 'effort'): 勤【T25n1509】｜懃【T08n0223】—in Sūtra ②'s 「所謂四正勤」 tr. "namely, the four right efforts", the 「勤」 tr. "effort" appears in the sūtra explained, T223, at the same place as 「四正懃」 tr. "the four right efforts" (written with the variant graph)〔T08 0254b12〕. Both characters mean diligence; they are graphic variants in the usage of the same translator's two works, not a doctrinal divergence, and are recorded without judgement. The main text follows this treatise's base text's 「勤」 tr. "effort."

0407b23 (the four unobstructed knowledges; variant graphs for 'obstruction'): 礙【T25n1509】｜閡【T08n0223】—in Sūtra ②'s 「四無礙智」 tr. "the four unobstructed knowledges", the 「礙」 tr. "obstruction" is written throughout T223 as 「閡」 tr. "obstruction" (variant graph) (unobstructed as to meaning, unobstructed as to dharma, unobstructed as to expression, unobstructed as to eloquence)〔T08 0255c20, in the vicinity〕; this is a graphic difference consistent across the two works, not an isolated misprint, and is recorded without judgement. The main text follows this treatise's base text's 「礙」 tr. "obstruction."

0406c09 (the third of the three faculties; 'the faculty of one who knows' / 'the faculty of the wise'): 知者根【T25n1509】｜智者根【T08n0223】—for the third of the three faculties, this treatise reads 「知者根」 tr. "the faculty of one who knows", and T223 reads 「智者根」 tr. "the faculty of the wise"〔T08 0255a05〕. 「知者」 tr. "one who knows" (the stage beyond training, of one who has already known) and 「智者」 tr. "the wise" refer doctrinally to the same stage beyond training; which is the original translation is not decided, and it is recorded without judgement. The main text follows this treatise's base text's 「知者根」 tr. "the faculty of one who knows."

0406c25 (the seventh of the ten recollections; 'recollection of cessation' / 'recollection of the good'; three-way confirmation): 滅【T25n1509】｜善【T08n0223 底本】／滅【T08n0223 聖本】 (T08 note0255003)—for the seventh of the ten recollections, this treatise reads 「念滅」 tr. "recollection of cessation", the Taishō base text of the sūtra explained, T223, reads 「念善」 tr. "recollection of the good", and T223's Shōgozō variant reads precisely 「念滅」 tr. "recollection of cessation" (T08 note0255003 「善【大】，滅【聖】」 tr. "'good' in the Taishō; 'cessation' in the Shōgozō"). Thus this treatise's base text and T223's Shōgozō, two witnesses, both read 「滅」 tr. "cessation", and only the base text on which the Taishō T223 relies reads 「善」 tr. "the good"; 「念滅」 tr. "recollection of cessation" is the recollection of stillness and cessation, a common item in the tradition of the ten recollections. Following its discipline, this section records the three-way distribution and does not decide on anyone's behalf; the main text follows this treatise's base text's 「念滅」 tr. "recollection of cessation."

From 0407c11 (the sūtra's list of names) / from 0408b14 (the treatise's explanation) (the forty-two syllable-gates; the characters used at eight places differ between the two layers of sūtra and treatise; differences between the sūtra layer and the treatise layer within this treatise, T25n1509, itself, checked character by character and recorded without conjectural emendation): for the forty-two syllable-gates of entry, the sūtra first lists the names (「阿字門，一切法初不生故」 tr. "the gate of the syllable a, because all dharmas are from the first unarisen" and so on), and the treatise then explains the names one by one with glosses in the language of Qin attached (for example, 「若聞羅字，即隨義知一切法離垢相」 tr. "if one hears the syllable ra, then following its meaning one knows the mark of all dharmas as free of defilement", with the further note 「羅闍，秦言垢」 tr. "rajas, in the language of Qin 'defilement'"). Comparing by position in the order of the syllables, the sūtra's list of names and the treatise's explanation differ in the characters used at eight places—first, the sūtra's seventeenth has 「磨」 tr. "the seventeenth syllable (sūtra graph)"〔0407c23〕 and the treatise has 「摩」 tr. "the seventeenth syllable (treatise graph)"〔0408c07〕; second, the sūtra's nineteenth has 「他」 tr. "the nineteenth syllable (sūtra graph)"〔0407c24〕 and the treatise has 「陀」 tr. "the nineteenth syllable (treatise graph)"〔0408c09〕; third, the sūtra's twenty-first has 「簸」 tr. "the twenty-first syllable (single graph)"〔0407c26〕 and the treatise has 「濕波」 tr. "the twenty-first syllable (two graphs)"〔0408c12〕; fourth, the sūtra's twenty-eighth has 「拖」 tr. "the twenty-eighth syllable (sūtra graph)"〔0408a01〕 and the treatise has 「他」 tr. "the twenty-eighth syllable (treatise graph)"〔0408c21〕; fifth, the sūtra's thirty-first has 「魔」 tr. "the thirty-first syllable (single graph)"〔0408a04〕 and the treatise has 「濕尛」 tr. "the thirty-first syllable (two graphs)"〔0408c25〕; sixth, the sūtra's thirty-fifth has 「咃」 tr. "the thirty-fifth syllable (sūtra graph)"〔0408a07〕 and the treatise has 「他」 tr. "the thirty-fifth syllable (treatise graph)"〔0409a05〕; seventh, the sūtra's forty-first has 「咤」 tr. "the forty-first syllable (sūtra graph)"〔0408a11〕 and the treatise has 「吒」 tr. "the forty-first syllable (treatise graph)"〔0409a12〕; eighth, the sūtra's forty-second has 「荼」 tr. "the forty-second syllable (sūtra graph)"〔0408a12〕 and the treatise has 「茶」 tr. "the forty-second syllable (treatise graph)"〔0409a14〕. Of these, the twenty-first (single graph in the sūtra, two graphs in the treatise) and the thirty-first (likewise) are a difference between a single character and a compound syllable: the treatise, with the compound syllables 「濕波」 tr. "the twenty-first syllable (two graphs)" and 「濕尛」 tr. "the thirty-first syllable (two graphs)", annotates their actual reading in detail (the sound of a consonant cluster), while the sūtra records them briefly with a single character; the two are not in contradiction, but are two forms, brief record and detailed annotation, of the same Sanskrit sound. The remaining six places are drifts between characters close in sound or similar in shape. These eight places are all differences of wording between the sūtra layer and the treatise layer within this treatise itself, neither variants across transmissions nor errors of search; they are recorded to preserve the facts, without conjectural emendation on anyone's behalf.

0407c26／0408c12 (the graph of the twenty-first syllable; collateral collation evidence): for the character 「簸」 tr. "the twenty-first syllable (single graph)" in the sūtra's list of names, the Song, Palace, and Shōgozō editions read the variant form 「𤿺」 tr. "the same graph in a variant form" (note0407032 「簸【大】下同，𤿺【宋】【宮】【聖】下同」 tr. "the standard form in the Taishō, likewise below; the variant form in the Song, Palace, and Shōgozō, likewise below"); in the treatise's sentence 「濕簸字無義，故不釋」 tr. "the syllable of the twenty-first gate has no meaning, and therefore it is not explained", the 「簸」 tr. "second graph of that syllable, as the Taishō writes it" is read as 「波」 tr. "second graph of that syllable, as the other editions write it" in all six editions, the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, Shōgozō, and Ishiyama (note0408042 「簸【大】，波【宋】【元】【明】【宮】【聖】【石】」 tr. "the one graph in the Taishō; the other graph in the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, Shōgozō, and Ishiyama texts")—most transmitted texts read at this place in the treatise 「濕波」 tr. "the twenty-first syllable (two graphs)", not the 「濕簸」 tr. "the twenty-first syllable (two graphs, Taishō form)" unique to the Taishō, which makes the difference of characters between the two layers, sūtra (single graph) and treatise (two graphs), all the more evident. Recorded without judgement; the main text follows the base text.

0408c25 (the graph of the thirty-first syllable; collateral collation evidence): in the treatise's 「濕尛」 tr. "the thirty-first syllable (two graphs)", the 「尛」 tr. "second graph of that syllable, as the Taishō writes it" is read as 「麼」 tr. "second graph of that syllable, as the other editions write it" in the four editions, the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace (note0408051 「尛【大】下同，麼【宋】【元】【明】【宮】下同」 tr. "the one graph in the Taishō, likewise below; the other graph in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace, likewise below")—of the same type as the twenty-first (single graph in the sūtra, two graphs in the treatise), this compound-syllable character of the thirty-first (likewise single graph in the sūtra, two graphs in the treatise) also has a variant reading in most transmitted texts at the treatise layer; the two cases appear side by side, further proving that the difference in characters between the sūtra layer and the treatise layer is not an isolated case. The 「魔」 tr. "the thirty-first syllable (single graph)" in the sūtra's list of names〔0408a04〕 has no collation note at that place. Recorded without judgement; the main text follows the base text's 「尛」 tr. "second graph of that syllable, as the Taishō writes it."

The two special configurations of this chapter's single fascicle are recorded together as follows. First, the Palace edition survives for this fascicle (Fascicle 48, the whole of Chapter 19) and can be collated. This section checked item by item the collation notes for the whole of Fascicle 48 (two hundred and forty-three in all) and found no statement that the Palace edition is missing for this fascicle; moreover, ninety-nine of them explicitly list the Palace edition as a witness (including the Palace edition's own variant readings, such as titling the chapter outright 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle"〔note0402020〕 and omitting 「釋第十九品」 tr. "Commentary on the Nineteenth Chapter" at the end of the fascicle〔note0409030〕), confirming that the Palace edition can be collated word by word for Fascicle 48 and is not absent. Because the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna", spans Fascicles 46 and 47, half of it falls into the Palace gap and half does not; this chapter falls wholly within the single Fascicle 48, and the Palace edition survives throughout—this boundary must be noted clearly, and the previous chapter's judgement that the Palace edition is missing must not be carried over. Second, the Ishiyama text's double-track displacement of chapter number minus one and fascicle number plus two is fully confirmed at the starting point of the chapter title, while unresolved anomalies appear at the close at the end of the fascicle. At the starting point of the chapter title〔0402c14〕 the Ishiyama text reports itself as 「摩訶般若波羅蜜品第十八…卷五十」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā Chapter, the Eighteenth … Fascicle Fifty"—the chapter number eighteen is one less than the Taishō's nineteenth, and the fascicle number fifty is two more than the Taishō's forty-eight, agreeing with the pattern of chapter number minus one and fascicle number plus two already seen in the preceding Chapter 18, "Mahāyāna", and in the two chapters before that (Chapters 16 and 17), and giving a fourth consecutive confirmation. But at the close at the end of the fascicle〔0409c16 nearby〕 two of the Ishiyama text's coordinates do not wholly fit this pattern: the fascicle number in the Ishiyama text is fifteen (note0409029, not fifty), and the chapter number in the Ishiyama text is 'eighth chapter ended' (note0409031, lacking a 'ten'). This section honestly records both anomalies side by side, neither forcing them into the existing displacement nor avoiding them, and leaves them for later re-checking against a more complete copy of the Ishiyama scriptures. This is the first data point at which the existing double-track displacement pattern of the Ishiyama text meets an incomplete fit at the closing end.

The remaining collation notes for this whole chapter, apart from the chapter-title notes and the items listed above, are mostly technical variants—additions or omissions of particles, loan characters of the same sound or similar shape, fuller or briefer transcriptions—and item-by-item checking found no change at the doctrinal level, so they are not set out one by one but only passed over statistically. The base text of this chapter is the whole chapter in Fascicle 48 of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa〔T25 0402c14–0409c15〕, the end point of the range being taken at the heading of the next chapter, Chapter 20, "Setting Out" (0409c23), not included. The collation text for the sūtra explained is Chapter 19, "The Broad Vehicle", of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra (T08n0223; the chapter title in the Taishō base text reads 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle", and the Khitan edition notes 「四念處品」 tr. "Chapter on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness"). The collation text for the ancient-master commentary is Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra (X24n0451; a substantive outline for both reader units, especially detailed on the syllable-gate passage, following the name 「廣乘品」 tr. "Chapter on the Broad Vehicle"); there are in addition Huiying's Commentary (X46n0791; its passage-by-passage commentary on this chapter is lost in the gap of Fascicles 18 to 20 of the commentary's fragmentary fascicles, and there is a trap of identical names, the syllable-gate passage of Chapter 1, the Introduction, which must be distinguished) and Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises (X46n0784; no direct citation of this chapter, only one citation restating the limbs of the path from the neighbouring "Setting Out"). 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. The full collation notes for this chapter are preserved in detail in the working base text; this list transcribes only the principal items that bear on the wording of this chapter's core doctrine, and does not extend into judgements of the relative merit of the editions.