大乘起信論The Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle

I. Choose an Entry Point First

A quarter of an hour only — read the Opening Essentials, then the Essentials of unit 02. The axis of the treatise lies in the sentence “What is spoken of as dharma means the mind of sentient beings” 〔T32 0575c21〕.

To understand the one mind and its two aspects — 02 → 03 → 04. First see how dharma and meaning are set up; then read the aspect of mind as suchness and the aspect of mind as arising and ceasing.

To understand how delusion and awakening unfold — 04 → 05 → 06 → 07. Begin with the ālaya consciousness, awakening, and non-awakening; continue through the five mentations, the six defiled minds, and the perfuming of the four dharmas.

To understand how the Tathāgata-womb is dharma-body and function — 08 → 09. The former sets out substance and qualities; the latter sets out the response body, the reward body, and entry from arising and ceasing into suchness.

To enter practice directly — 11 → 12 → 13 → 14 → 15. Arousing the mind, the four kinds of faith, the five gates of practice, calming and contemplation, the samādhi of suchness, the surpassing expedient, and the benefit of practice all lie along this route.

To see how the treatise prevents its own misreading — read 10. The five forms of the view of a self in persons and the view of a self in dharmas are not imported opponents; they are deviations that can arise in the act of reading the teaching itself.

To walk the whole way through — begin with 00 and follow the units in order. Read Zhikai’s preface first, then enter the treatise through its homage stanzas.

II. Four Thematic Routes

One, the route of the one mind. 02 sets up the mind of sentient beings → 03 opens its two aspects → 04 sets up the ālaya consciousness and awakening → 08 identifies the Tathāgata-womb with the dharma-body → 09 enters suchness from arising and ceasing. The angle of observation changes; another mind is never substituted.

Two, the route of delusion and awakening. 04, the four stages of initial awakening → 05, the three subtle and six coarse marks → 06, the five mentations and six defiled minds → 07, the mutual perfuming of defilement and purity. The route shows how non-awakening becomes subtle, becomes coarse, and continues into karma, and how a return remains possible.

Three, the route of practice. 11, three kinds of arousing the mind and four expedients → 12, the four kinds of faith and the five gates of practice → 13, calming and contemplation practiced together → 14, the surpassing expedient for the fainthearted → 15, exhortation and dedication. What has been understood becomes a road that can be walked.

Four, the route between the opening and closing stanzas. Unit 01 begins by entrusting life to those who fill the ten directions 〔T32 0575b08〕; unit 15 closes by speaking the profound and vast meaning of all buddhas 〔T32 0583a22〕. The first pays homage before speech; the second limits its own account to the author’s share and dedicates the merit. Everything between them is the treatise’s saying.

III. How to Use the Five Layers

A suggested order: Plain Reading → Essentials → Exposition → Apparatus. The Source-Text can be returned to at any moment. Where terms gather densely, consult the Glossary and then return to the passage.

IV. How to Read the Preface and the Two Stanzas

Unit 00 is a preface composed by Zhikai, not a passage authored by Aśvaghoṣa. It records why the treatise came to be translated and transmitted, and the position from which its preface writer looked upon that event. It shows how the treatise came into Chinese, but its words must not be assigned to the author of the treatise.

The homage stanzas of unit 01 and the dedication stanza of unit 15 are the treatise’s own beginning and end. The former establishes the objects of homage and the vow to compose; the latter dedicates the merit of what has been spoken according to one’s share to the entire realm of sentient beings. Read together, they disclose the posture of the whole work: homage first, dedication last, and no explanation between them severed from either.

I. Base Text and Collation Text

The base text is the Taishō T32n1666, attributed to the Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa and translated by Paramārtha, in one fascicle. The collation text is T32n1667, translated by Śikṣānanda, in two fascicles.

Not one character of the base text is altered. The 131 variant readings recorded in the collation notes at the end of the fascicle are identified item by item in the ninth topic of the Apparatus. They are never used to emend the Source-Text.

II. The Cutting into Units

The fascicle is cut into sixteen units according to the five parts named in the treatise, the closure of its questions and answers, and the boundaries of its doctrinal passages. Every Source-Text unit carries its opening locus; the sixteen units in sequence restore the fascicle used by this edition.

The Preface is made unit 00 because its heading attributes it to Zhikai, a monk of Yangzhou 〔T32 0575a05〕. It is Zhikai’s preface and does not belong to Aśvaghoṣa’s treatise. The treatise itself begins in unit 01 with the title, attribution, and homage stanzas.

III. The Division of Labor among the Five Layers

Source-Text — the T32n1666 base text word for word, with page, register, and line loci. No graphic form is changed and no variant is substituted.

Plain Reading — a sentence-by-sentence rendering into modern language that covers every word. The cadence of the homage and dedication stanzas is preserved.

Apparatus — nine topics: ① doctrinal-outline placement ② alternate-recension collation ③ scriptural and treatise basis ④ exegesis of the passage ⑤ divergent commentarial readings ⑥ terms ⑦ similes and rhetoric ⑧ citation and carrying forward ⑨ placement among the recensions. Where a topic genuinely has no material, the absence is stated rather than silently omitted.

Exposition — the Dharma spoken to a listener. Its doctrine rests on the treatise, scripture, and the ancient commentaries, with each point open to checking in the Apparatus. The body unfolds the passage itself; the closing section, “Carrying Forward,” then presents the readings of Fazang and Wonhyo.

Essentials — a separate line of entry into the passage, not a compression of the Exposition’s table of contents. It names no commentator and quotes only the treatise itself.

IV. Discipline of Quotation Marks

「」 = verbatim quotation: punctuation as in the work quoted, with inner marks and inline notes preserved.

『』 = the translator’s own present-day phrasing, used to gather up a word or meaning and never to impersonate a quotation.

Every verbatim quotation carries a page locus. The locus is the line boundary nearest before the first character quoted; it is not reconstructed from memory.

V. Later Collective Names

Expressions such as the three greatnesses, the four mirrors, the three subtle marks, the six coarse marks, the five mentations, and the four kinds of faith are later collective names used to gather up numbered lists. The treatise gives the numbered statements and their individual items, but does not necessarily use the collective expression.

This edition may use those collective names in prose, but never places them in quotation marks as though they were the treatise’s own wording.

VI. Graphic Forms and Fascicle-Head Attribution

The graphic form used by the base recension in the name rendered the ālaya consciousness is preserved and is not normalized to the form used by the alternate recension. A second witness and Śikṣānanda’s recension preserve two other forms. Each belongs to its own text, and their coexistence is evidence.

Whenever the translator attribution of T32n1667 is reproduced in Chinese, it is copied from the fascicle head character for character: it names the Great Zhou, not the Tang, and retains the full-width space after the word meaning “by imperial command.”

VII. Why Two Aspects but Five Gates

The two divisions opened within the one mind are inseparable sides of the same mind. They are therefore rendered the two aspects: the aspect of mind as suchness and the aspect of mind as arising and ceasing.

The five divisions of practice are five ways of practice — giving, the precepts, forbearance, vigor, and calming and contemplation — and are therefore rendered the five gates of practice. The same Chinese word is rendered aspect in the first setting and gate in the second because its work in the sentence differs.

VIII. The English Sister Text

Every layer has an English sister text. The Plain Reading, Exposition, and Essentials are English throughout and do not lean on Chinese characters. Verbatim Chinese remains only in the Apparatus. The Glossary and Bibliography may display Chinese terms and titles because bilingual comparison is their function.

American spelling is used. Terms remain uniform across the edition: the four kinds of faith, the five gates of practice, and the mind of sentient beings are not replaced by shorter expressions belonging to different contexts.

IX. Doctrine and Honesty

Authoritative citation is limited to the treatise, scripture, and the ancient masters. Fazang’s Record of the Meaning serves as the line-by-line mirror; Wonhyo’s Commentary supplies the structural mirror. Where they differ, both are recorded and neither is forced.

Differences among ancient catalogs are reported from the ancient records only. Where passage-by-passage collation remains incomplete, the limit is stated; where the old sources do not answer, a modern answer is not made to appear ancient.

Author of the Treatise — the Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa

The fascicle-head attribution of Paramārtha’s recension names the Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa as the author 〔T32 0575b08〕. This edition follows that attribution.

Ancient catalogs differ over parts of the record of the treatise’s translation and attribution. This edition reports their explicit statements and does not adjudicate among them; no modern scholarship is cited to produce a conclusion of authenticity.

Translator of the Base Chinese Text — Paramārtha

The fascicle head attributes the translation to Paramārtha, Tripiṭaka master of Western India, under the Liang 〔T32 0575b08〕.

This edition takes Paramārtha’s one-fascicle T32n1666 as its base. The Source-Text preserves its graphic forms and wording; neither Śikṣānanda’s recension nor the collation notes are used to rewrite it.

The graphic form of the name rendered the ālaya consciousness belongs to this recension and is preserved. The forms in another witness and in Śikṣānanda’s recension are recorded beside it where the texts are collated.

Author of the Preface — Zhikai

The heading of the Preface attributes it to Zhikai, a monk of Yangzhou 〔T32 0575a05〕.

Zhikai is neither the author of the treatise nor its translator. His preface records Paramārtha’s journey, the translation at Jianxing Monastery in Hengzhou, and the people who transmitted and wrote down the text. The present edition makes it unit 00 so that the preface writer’s voice is not confused with the author’s.

Translator of the Collation Recension — Śikṣānanda

T32n1667, in two fascicles, is attributed at its head to Śikṣānanda, Tripiṭaka master of Khotan, under the Great Zhou, translating by imperial command.

This edition uses it as the collation recension and never as a replacement for Paramārtha’s. The stanzas, names of divisions, consciousness names, and fullness of passages differ in places. Where the passages have been collated, both stand together; where the collation is not yet complete, the limit is stated.

Principal Line-by-Line Mirror — Fazang

Fazang’s Record of the Meaning of the Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle, T44n1846, is the principal line-by-line mirror of this edition. Its ten introductory topics first place the treatise as a whole; its final topic then enters sequential explanation. The Apparatus draws upon its outlines, citations, term explanations, and close exegesis.

Principal Structural Mirror — Wonhyo

Wonhyo’s Commentary on the Awakening of Faith, T44n1844, is the structural mirror. It does not chiefly reproduce each sentence of the treatise; its strength lies in the divisions of the whole and the relations among its passages. This edition sets its reading beside Fazang’s and does not force their differences into agreement.

I. The Base Treatise and the Collation Recension

II. The Two Mirrors of Carrying Forward

III. How the Four Works Are Used

T32n1666 supplies every word of the Source-Text. T32n1667 appears in the second topic of the Apparatus as the alternate recension for collation. Where the two differ, both are recorded and neither text is used to rewrite the other.

T44n1846 supplies the principal line of close reading: doctrinal outline, phrases quoted from the treatise, term explanations, and sequential exegesis. T44n1844 principally supplies the threefold and fivefold structures of the whole and the placement of its passages. Agreement illuminates; difference is set side by side without adjudication.

IV. The Bounds of the Bibliography

The bibliography lists the reader text, the collation text, and the two ancient mirrors only. Questions of attribution are reported from explicit ancient catalog statements; modern scholarship is not cited. Indic terms are taken as the ancient masters transmitted them and are not reconstructed from a modern critical edition.

I. The Sixteen Units and Their Page Loci

II. The Fixed Files in Every Unit

treatise/{NN}_{slug}/
  {NN}_{slug}_source.md          Source-Text (the base text word for word)
  {NN}_{slug}_baihua_zh.md   ·_en.md   Plain Reading
  {NN}_{slug}_apparatus_zh.md ·_en.md   Apparatus (nine topics)
  {NN}_{slug}_yishu_zh.md    ·_en.md   Exposition
  {NN}_{slug}_xinyao_zh.md   ·_en.md   Essentials

III. Quick Reference to the Five Parts

IV. Quick Reference to the Nine Topics of the Apparatus

V. Three Routes of Cross-Reading

• The one mind and its two aspects: 02 → 03 → 04 → 09
• Awakening, non-awakening, and perfuming: 04 → 05 → 06 → 07
• Arousing the mind and practicing: 11 → 12 → 13 → 14 → 15

I. Colophon

Translated and annotated by Shi Huijing 釋慧鏡.

The signature at the foot of each layer takes the form *Shi Huijing · 指月 · The Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle · {unit} · {layer} · {season} {year}*.

II. Citation

In citing this edition, give the layer and the unit:

Shi Huijing, The Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle: A Translation with Annotation (Zhiyue), unit 02, “The Part on Setting Up the Meaning” · Exposition.

In citing a source that this edition quotes, cite the original work by its canon number and page locus; there is no need to go through this edition:

Fazang, Record of the Meaning of the Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle, T44n1846, 0250b14.

III. Note on the Edition

This is v1.0, sealed by Shi Huijing upon a holistic reading, summer 2026. Sixteen units are present in five corresponding Chinese and English layers — Source-Text, Plain Reading, Apparatus, Exposition, and Essentials — together with nine pieces of front matter in each language.

The base text is the Taishō T32n1666. The Source-Text units in sequence restore the one-fascicle text used by this edition. Śikṣānanda’s T32n1667 serves only as the collation recension and is never substituted into the base.

IV. Principle of Revision

Wherever a graphic form is found not to agree with the base text, a quotation not to preserve the punctuation of its source, or a page locus to be wrong, the correction is made and recorded. Variant recensions and ancient commentaries are set side by side; revision is not used as a pretext for adjudicating doctrine on the translator’s behalf.

Shi Huijing · 指月 · The Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle · Colophon · Summer 2026