妙法蓮華經文句 譬喻品 · 別譬（見火・捨几用車）
我們很容易相信，只要把危險講清楚，別人自然會照做。房子著火，就大聲說有火；對方還不動，就把後果說得更可怕。話已經說到這裡，還能有什麼不明白？
火宅裡的孩子卻不是如此。火已從四面燒起，苦已逼近身體，他們仍然嬉戲；父親就在眼前，他們也看見父親，卻只是東西奔走，偶爾抬頭看祂而已。
問題不只在有沒有聽見，而在所聞之事有沒有成為自己的『出心』。不知道火，當然不會怕；即使聽見有火，若心仍全在遊戲，也可能只把警告當成一個聲音。
長者最初想到自己的身手有力，可以直接用衣裓、几、案把孩子帶出。祂有神通可以荷負，也有智慧可以提拔；所要給的法，從略說、中說到廣說都不欠缺。可是，力量充足，不等於對方已有承受這種救法的根機。
宅只有一門。智者特別說，理與教本來寬廣，並不是真的狹窄；『狹小』說的是孩子不能由此自通。門一直開著，路也並未消失，但留戀遊戲的人還沒有把它當成出口。
於是長者先勸，又誡；勸不受，誡也不受。祂沒有因此站在門外責怪孩子，也沒有用自己的正確證明孩子不可救。祂改問：這些孩子先前喜歡什麼？什麼能讓他們真的朝門口移動？
三車由此出現。羊車、鹿車、牛車不是把大火說成沒有，也不是把出宅改成另一個方向。它們順著孩子先前所好，使原本不因危險而動的腳，終於能為適合心願之物而勇銳、推排、馳走，爭相出門。
這裡的慈悲，不只是知道正確出口，也包括不固守第一次救人的方法。孩子不動，長者便再思惟；勸門不通，便用誡門；兩者都不能使人出去，便施設能被接受的方便。目的始終沒有改變：讓火中的人真正離開火宅。
而這一切，又從一個『雖』字開始。長者雖已安隱得出，卻因諸子仍在火中而驚怖。自己的安全沒有結束祂的憂念；正因知道門外是什麼，祂更不能把仍在宅內的人留給大火。
下次我們確信自己已把道理說得夠清楚時，也許可以再問：對方是沒有聽見，還是尚未有一顆願意出去的心？我是在反覆證明火真的很熱，還是在尋找一條能使人起身的路？
真正的方便，不是讓真實遷就遊戲，而是使沉迷遊戲的人終於肯穿過真實的門。
The fire is plainly already burning, so why do the children still refuse to leave? We readily believe that if we explain danger clearly, others will naturally act. If a house is on fire, we shout that there is a fire; if they still do not move, we describe the consequences more frighteningly. Once so much has been said, what could remain unclear?
Yet the children in the burning house are not like this. Fire has arisen on all four sides and suffering presses close to their bodies, but they continue to play. Their father is before them and they see him, yet they merely run east and west, occasionally looking up at him.
The problem is not only whether they have heard, but whether what they heard has become their own “intention to leave.” One who does not know there is a fire naturally feels no fear. Even after hearing of it, someone whose mind remains wholly absorbed in play may receive the warning as nothing more than a sound.
The elder first thinks that his body and hands are strong enough to bring the children directly out with a robe-fold, stool, or table. He has supernormal power to bear them and wisdom to lift them. Nothing is lacking in the Dharma he would give, whether taught briefly, at medium length, or extensively. Yet possessing ample power does not mean that the other person already has the capacity to receive this means of rescue.
The house has only a single gateway. Zhizhe specifically says that principle and teaching are originally broad and are not truly narrow. “Narrow and small” means that the children cannot pass through by themselves. The gateway remains open and the road has not vanished, but those attached to their place of play have not yet taken it as an exit.
The elder therefore first exhorts and then admonishes. The children accept neither exhortation nor admonition. He does not stand outside the gateway blaming them, nor use his own correctness to prove that they cannot be saved. He asks instead: What did these children enjoy before? What can actually move them toward the gateway?
The three carts appear from this question. The goat cart, deer cart, and ox cart do not deny the great fire or redirect escape from the house toward somewhere else. They accord with what the children previously enjoyed, so that feet unmoved by danger at last become keen and courageous for objects suited to their wishes, pressing one another forward, racing, and vying to get out.
Compassion here means more than knowing the correct exit. It also means not clinging to the first method of rescue. When the children do not move, the elder reflects again. When the gateway of exhortation does not get through, he uses the gateway of admonition. When neither enables them to leave, he establishes a skillful means they can receive. The purpose never changes: to make those in the fire actually leave the burning house.
All of this begins with a single word: “although.” Although the elder has already emerged peacefully and securely, he is alarmed and afraid because his children remain in the fire. His own safety does not end his concern. Precisely because he knows what lies outside the gateway, he cannot abandon those still in the house to the great fire.
The next time we are certain that we have explained a principle clearly enough, we might ask again: Has the other person not heard, or do they not yet possess a mind willing to leave? Am I repeatedly proving that fire is truly hot, or am I seeking a road that can move someone to rise?
True skillful means does not make reality accommodate play. It enables those absorbed in play finally to pass through the gateway of reality.
隋天台智者大師說《妙法蓮華經文句》〔灌頂法師私記・唐天寶戊子朗和尚條倫治定本・卷端序＝鏡中沙門神逈述〕· 大正藏 T34n1718〔起 T34 0067b07〕。段/行首〔T34 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨（換頁一枚）。
〔T34 0067b07〕妙法蓮華經文句卷第五下 天台智者大師說 從「長者見是大火」下，是第二，別譬也。別更為四：初、長者見火譬，譬上佛見五濁，四行偈為本；二、捨机用車譬，譬上釋迦為五濁寢大施小始坐道場，十七行半偈為本；三、等賜諸子大車譬，譬上釋迦示真實相，我見佛子等志求佛道者，六行偈為本；四、長者無虛妄譬，譬上我為諸法王，二行半偈為本。就初見火，其文有四，其意但三：一、明能見；二、明所見；三、明驚怖；四、廣前所見。但成三意，「長者見」標出能見，譬上我以佛眼觀見也；「是大火從四面起」者，標出所見，譬上所見六道眾生也；「即大驚怖」，譬上為是眾生故而起大悲心也。「而諸子等於火宅內」下，廣第二所見之火也，還是釋成驚怖之義。身、受、心、法，即宅之四邊，從此四邊，起淨、樂等四倒，八苦之火眾苦皆集，若知身不淨、苦、無常，即煩惱火滅。舊有三解：一云四大為四面，六識並託其中；二即四生；三云四倒。依下文，以生、老、病、死為四邊也。「即大驚怖」者，念其退大善故驚，憂其將起重惡故怖；驚即對慈，念其無樂；怖即對悲，憂其有苦。「我雖能於此所燒之門安隱得出」者，即是釋成驚怖慈悲之義，雖是未盡之辭，明佛以智慧力能尋正教見所詮諦，不為五濁、八苦所危故名「安」，四倒暴風所不能動故名「隱」，蕭然累外故名「得出」。而眾生不爾，為火所燒，如來慈悲猶為憂火所熾，故言「雖」也。經言所燒之門者，今問：「教為門者，此教為燒？為不燒？」救云：「教門不燒，佛教為門，能通所燒之人，所通之人被燒，名能通門名燒，如門內人死，名門為衰，門實不衰。」 又問：「若爾，教是常住，非有為法；若不爾，何故不燒？」今解：「不爾。夫門有件有空，非件無以標門，非空無以通致，件可灰燼，空不可燒。教有能詮、所詮，若非詮辯無以為教，若非所詮何以得出？詮辯可是無常，所詮非復無常，得教下所詮故，名安隱得出；能詮磨滅故，言所燒之門。不從所燒之門，何由安隱得出？藉於言教契於所詮，《大經》云：『因無常故而果是常』，如此釋者，如經於所燒之門也。若小乘無常教門，此從所燒門出；若大乘常住教門，文字即解脫者，此教即理，體達燒無燒而安隱得出。若就如來權智，即是從所燒門出；若就實智，體於所燒安隱得出，故先作衣裓几案出之不得，後以無常出之，即此意也。」 「樂著嬉戲」，著見名嬉，著愛名戲；又耽湎四見名嬉，唐喪其功名戲，著愛亦爾；耽湎五塵名嬉，空無所獲名戲，空生徒死而無厭離，如彼兒戲。「不覺不知」者，都不言有火名不覺，不解火是熱法名不知，既不知火熱，不畏傷身，名不驚，不慮斷命故不怖，眾生全不覺五陰、八苦，不知四倒、三毒，既不識惑云何憂慮？惑侵法身傷於慧命，如是不覺於苦、不知於集、不驚傷道、不怖失滅，以不聞四諦教則無聞慧名不覺，不得思慧名不知；不得見解名不覺，不得思惟解名不知。見諦即驚悟，思惟即厭怖。又不覺現在苦，不知未來苦，故下文云「現受眾苦，後受地獄等苦」即此義。「逼身」者，五識也；心者，意識，心王也。身為八苦所逼而心不厭惱也。亦云曾種大乘功德，是法身智慧為體，體為四倒所逼，而不知不覺。「心不厭患」者，不厭無常之苦，不患煩惱之集也。「無求出意」者，不修道求滅也。今謂火宅本譬五濁，嬉譬見濁，戲譬煩惱濁，不覺不知、不驚不怖譬眾生濁，火來逼身苦痛切已譬命濁，心不厭患無求出意譬劫濁，此與五濁相當〔云云〕。 〔T34 0068a19〕從「是長者作是思惟」下，是第二，捨几用車譬，譬上寢大施小，上六行半，明大擬不得；後十一行，用小擬得。上不得有三：一、思大擬宜；二、無機；三、息化。今譬為二：初、用勸門擬宜；二、用誡門擬宜。就勸、誡各三：一、擬宜；二、不受；三、放捨。勸門三者：一、從「長者作是思惟身手有力」下，譬上念用大化於三七日中思惟如此事；二、從「復更思惟」下，明子不受，譬上無機眾生諸根鈍云何而可度；三、從「或當墮落為火所燒」下，即是放捨善誘，譬上無機息化我寧不說法，疾入於涅槃也。「長者作是思惟」下，譬上三七日思惟也。「身手」等者，引下合譬云「但以神力及智慧力」以釋此譬，身譬神通荷負，手譬智慧提拔，依三昧斷德則有神通，依智慧智德則有說法，智斷之力能成法身，此之智斷還從勸、誡兩門入，勸即為人悉檀，誡即對治悉檀，此二悉檀，為第一義悉檀而作方便。如來初欲勸門擬宜眾生令眾善奉行成就十力無畏一切種智，而眾生不堪；次欲以誡門擬宜令諸惡莫作證大涅槃，眾生不堪無機息化，故知念用大乘，秖是勸、誡兩悉檀，神通、智斷耳，故上文云「定慧力莊嚴以此度眾生」即其義也。前歎長者，其年衰邁即譬智斷，智斷即是身手力也。「衣裓几案」者，三藏法師云，衣裓是外國盛花之器，貢上貴人用此貯之。舊云：「衣襟譬大乘因，几案譬大乘果，初擬大乘因果，是則無機也。」舊又云：「此物譬大乘戒、定、慧，初七思惟所得法，此如用衣裓；二七思惟眾生根緣，如用几；三七思惟樹地恩，如用案。」云此義出《阿含經》。今取合譬文，若我但以神力及智慧力，讚如來知見、力、無所畏者，眾生不能以此得度。神力即是身，慧力即是手，如前說，知見譬衣裓，無畏譬几，十力譬案，如來以神通，發動此三法，以智慧宣說此三法無機息化。衣裓几案等，略、中、廣之異耳。略說名如來知見，知即一切種智，見即佛眼，名略義玄，譬如衣裓一足而多含。處中說，即名四無所畏，用對四諦如几，於法小廣，於物小安隱。或作廣說名為十力，橫豎該括，如案多足則無傾覆也，於法則廣物則大安，於三七日中思惟，欲作如此廣略佛法，而眾生不堪，故言衣裓几案也。 「復更思惟」下，第二，明子不受，譬上無機。「惟有一門而復狹小」，門義如上說。今更明通別。別者，「一」謂一理，一道清淨；「門」謂正教，通於所通；「小」謂不容斷常七方便等。教理寬博則非狹小，眾生不能以此理教自通，將談無機，故言狹小耳。通者，理純無雜故言「一」，即理能通故言「門」，微妙難知故言「狹小」。教者，十方諦求更無餘乘，唯一佛乘故言「一」，此教能通故言「門」，此教微妙凡夫不知出處，是不知權，不知入處，是不知實；二乘因聞少知出要，永不知入；菩薩雖自知出，亦不知入，奪七方便皆不知入出，上文云：「若我讚佛乘，眾生沒在苦。」不能以教自通，將談無機故言「狹小」。行者圓因自行，行大直道無留難故，故名為「一」，善行菩薩道，直至道場故名為「門」，妙行難行方便無機，故言「狹小」耳。舊解：人天小善故云「幼稚」，無大乘善名「未有所識」。今明二萬佛所教無上道，大乘善根微弱名「幼稚」，若聞大乘能生謗毀，名「未有所識」也。「戀著戲處」者，前明善弱，此明惡強，即是因時深著見愛，果時深著依正，欲界著六塵，色界著禪味，無色界著定，上文云：「眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲」，不堪聞大乘也。「或當墮落為火所燒」，指此二句名放捨善誘也。墮落有二：一者、幼稚，憶本戲處故墮落，二都無識，執物不堅故墮落，譬著五欲墮在三途；二者、善弱無識，謗毀大乘墮落三途也。 〔T34 0069a03〕從「為說怖畏」下，第二對治門三者：一、擬宜對治。誡怖令出，對治之相如《大品》中說，四念是摩訶衍，以不可得故，異於小乘也；既著戲處故說怖事，令得免五濁火燒。五陰舍宜應捨離，若久住著必斷善根，故云「無令為火之所燒害」。從「父雖憐愍」下，即是子不受誡也。「不驚不畏」者，不生聞思如上說，不識八苦、五濁能燒善根，如不知火；不識陰界入法是諸苦器，如不識舍；不知喪失法身之由，如不知何者為失。從「但東西走戲視父而已」，指此二句為放捨苦言也，皆背明向闇如「東西」，生死往還速疾如「馳走」，於中起見愛如「戲」也，雖用大擬不從大教，故言「視父而已」。從「長者即作是念，此舍已為大火所燒」下，即是第二用車譬，譬上「尋念過去佛所行方便力」十一行偈。上文有四，今譬亦四：一者、擬宜三車譬，譬上「尋念過去佛亦作三乘化」也；二者、父知先心所好譬，譬上「作是思惟時十方佛皆現」；三者、歎三車譬，譬上「正施三乘，思惟是事已即趣波羅柰」也；四者、適子所願譬，譬上「受行悟入是名轉法輪」也。大乘化功為父命，眾生大善為子命，大善若盡即子命斷，子命斷則化功亦廢即父命斷。前言「苦痛切已」猶是未死，今云「必為所焚」即有死義也。上文於所燒之門安隱得出，今云「若不時出必為所燒」，此義云何？前得出者，即是法身出；今言若不時出，即是應身同疾，眾生有善與應身時出，眾生善斷不與應身時出，即是俱為所焚也。今欲應身擬宜，令其時出也。從「我今當設方便」，欲設權也。 從「知子先心」下，第二，明有得度之機也。其昔曾習小，是知先心性欲不同，是知各有所好；又知眾生昔曾習大，習大未濃是為大弱，厭老病死故以小接，是為小強，如身子六心中退，本曾習大名知先心，中厭老死名「各有所好」。 從「而告之言」下，第三，是歎三車希有譬，譬上正轉法輪也。此即為三：謂勸、示、證。「玩好希有」下，即是勸轉；「如此種種」下，即是示轉；「汝等於此火宅宜速出來，皆當與汝」，即是證轉也。 從「爾時諸子聞父所說」下，第四，適子所願譬，譬上受行悟入。前偈本略，今譬事廣，廣明修因至果。依六句解釋：一、「適願」者，機教相稱，此即聞慧也。「勇銳」者即是思慧，思心動慮，思慧方便也。「互相推排」者，推四真理排伏見惑，邪正未決名為互相，此入修慧屬煖頂位也。「競」者，競取勝理也，此是忍法位競取勝理，初觀三十二諦競趣真道，後縮觀趣苦法忍也。「共」者，是世第一法位，同觀一諦，與苦法忍四觀不別也。「馳走」者，入見道十五心，速疾見理，譬上「便有涅槃音」，見道之中分得涅槃也。「爭出」者，思惟道也，爭出三界成無學果，斷思惟盡方出火宅，即譬上偈「及以阿羅漢法僧差別名」也。觀心解者，中道正觀直觀實相，心法相稱名適所願。境無邊故，觀亦無邊名勇。境研心利名銳。心境相研，名互相推排。心王心數緣境速疾，名競共馳走。遍歷一切陰界入等無非實相，名為出火宅也〔云云〕。
The canonical text stands in Chinese only. This edition renders the essence, the plain reading, the exposition and the apparatus into English — never the sūtra itself. Switch to 漢讀本 or 並行雙語 above to read it.
一、長者見火：四段文字，三層意思
從長者看見這場大火以下，是第二部分的別譬。別譬再分四項。第一是長者見火譬，用來譬喻佛看見五濁的情形，以經中四行偈為根本。第二是捨棄几案而改用車乘的譬喻，用來譬喻釋迦佛面對五濁眾生，暫停直接施予大法，轉而施設小法；它以佛初坐道場以後的十七行半偈為根本。第三是平等賜給諸子大車的譬喻，用來譬喻釋迦佛顯示真實之相，以佛看見志求佛道的佛子等六行偈為根本。第四是長者所說並不虛妄的譬喻，用來譬喻佛自明為諸法之王，以二行半偈為根本。
先就第一項見火來說，經文可分四段，意思卻只有三層：第一，說明能看見的人；第二，說明所看見的境況；第三，說明見後所生的驚怖；第四，再廣說前面所看見的境況。第四段只是展開第二層，所以合起來仍是三層意思。
『長者見』標出能看見的人，譬喻前偈所說佛以佛眼觀見。『這場大火從四面而起』標出所看見的境況，譬喻佛眼所見的六道眾生。『立即大為驚怖』譬喻佛為這些眾生而生起大悲心。從諸子仍在火宅之內以下，是廣說第二層所見之火，同時也回過來說明長者為何驚怖。
二、宅之四邊與苦火所起
身、受、心、法就是宅的四邊。從這四邊生起把不淨看成清淨、把苦看成樂等四種顛倒，八苦之火與種種苦便一齊聚集。若能知道身是不淨、是苦、是無常，煩惱之火便會止息。
古來對『四面』有三種解釋。第一種說，四大是四面，六識都依託在其中。第二種說，四生就是四面。第三種說，以四倒為四面。智者依下文的字面，取生、老、病、死為宅的四邊。
經文說長者立即大為驚怖，是說祂想到眾生將退失先前的大善，所以驚；又憂慮眾生將要生起重惡，所以怖。驚與慈相對，因為念及眾生沒有安樂；怖與悲相對，因為憂念眾生正有苦患。
三、已經出門，為何仍然驚怖
『我雖然能從這扇正被火燒的門安穩出去』，是進一步說明長者的驚怖與慈悲。句中的『雖然』表示話意尚未說完。佛依智慧之力，能循著正教看見教下所詮的真諦，不受五濁與八苦危害，所以名為『安』；不被四倒的暴風吹動，所以名為『隱』；超然離開種種繫累，所以名為『得出』。
眾生卻不是如此，仍被火燒。如來因慈悲眾生，自己的憂念也像火一般熾盛，所以經文特別說『我雖然能夠出去』。意思是：祂雖已出離，並不因此捨棄仍在火中的眾生。
四、所燒之門：燒的是什麼
經文說『正被火燒的門』，於是有人問：如果教是門，這個教門本身被燒，還是不被燒？
有人為此解救說：教門本身不燒。佛教如門，能使正在受燒的人通過；由於門所通達的人被燒，連帶把能通的門稱作被燒。這就像門內的人死了，便說那一家門衰敗，其實門本身並沒有衰敗。
本論接著追問：若是如此，教便是常住，不是有為之法；如果並非常住，為什麼又不被燒？
智者的解釋是：不能這樣說。門有實質的構件，也有中間的空處。沒有構件，便無從標示這是一扇門；沒有空處，也不能使人通過。門的構件可以燒成灰燼，門的空處卻無從被燒。教也有能夠詮說的言辭和言辭所詮的義理。若沒有詮說辨明的言辭，便無所謂教；若沒有教下所詮的義理，人又憑什麼出去？
能夠詮說辨明的言辭可以是無常的，所詮的義理卻不再是這種無常。人因教而契會教下所詮，所以稱為安穩得出；能詮的言辭會磨滅，所以又稱它為所燒之門。不經由這扇所燒之門，又從何安穩得出？正是藉言教而契會所詮。本論因此引《大經》所傳的話，說由無常之因而得常果，用來解釋經文何以說從所燒之門出去。
若就小乘的無常教門說，是從被燒的門出去。若就大乘常住教門說，文字本身即解脫，教就是理；通達所謂燒本來沒有可燒，便安穩得出。若就如來的權智說，是從所燒之門出去；若就實智說，則是通達所燒而安穩得出。因此，先前想用衣裓、几、案把孩子帶出而不能成功，後來改以無常之教引他們出離，正有這一層意思。
五、嬉戲而不知火
『樂著嬉戲』可以分字解釋：執著見解名為『嬉』，執著貪愛名為『戲』。也可以說，沉湎於四種見解名為嬉，白白喪失所修的功德名為戲；執著於愛也是如此。又可說，沉湎於五塵名為嬉，到頭來空無所得名為戲。眾生徒然出生、徒然死亡，卻始終沒有厭離，就像孩子沉迷遊戲。
『不覺不知』也分兩層：全然不說有火，名為不覺；不了解火是一種灼熱之法，名為不知。既不知道火熱，便不怕身體受傷，所以名為不驚；也不顧慮生命斷絕，所以名為不怖。
眾生全然不覺察五陰與八苦，不知道四倒與三毒；既不認識自己的迷惑，又怎會生起憂慮？迷惑侵害法身、損傷慧命，所以，不覺對應不覺苦，不知對應不知集，不驚對應不驚於道受損，不怖對應不怕失去滅。沒有聽聞四諦之教，便沒有聞慧，名為不覺；沒有思惟之慧，名為不知。不能生起見解，名為不覺；不能生起思惟之解，名為不知。見諦時便驚醒，經過思惟便生厭怖。
又可從現在與未來說：不覺察現在之苦，不知道未來之苦。所以下文說，現在承受種種苦，後來還要受地獄等苦，正是這個意思。
經文的『火來逼身』，其中身指前五識；經文接著說心，其中的心指第六意識，也就是心王。身被八苦逼迫，心卻不厭惱。另有一說，眾生過去曾種大乘功德，以法身智慧為體；這個體被四倒逼迫，眾生仍不知不覺。
『心不厭患』，是不厭離無常之苦，也不以煩惱之集為患。『沒有求出的心意』，是不修習道以求證滅。
本論最後把整段火宅逐項配回五濁：火宅本身譬喻五濁；嬉譬喻見濁，戲譬喻煩惱濁；不覺不知、不驚不怖譬喻眾生濁；火逼其身、苦痛切己譬喻命濁；心不厭患、沒有求出之意譬喻劫濁。經中各句與五濁一一相應。〔以下從略〕
六、捨几用車：勸、誡兩門各有三段
從長者心中思惟以下，是第二項捨几用車譬，譬喻前面所說暫停直接施予大法而轉施小法。上文前六行半偈說以大法擬宜而不能成功，後十一行偈說轉用小法擬宜而能成功。
先前『大擬不得』有三段：第一，思量用大法是否適宜；第二，眾生沒有能受的根機；第三，停止這種教化。現在譬喻又分兩門：先用勸門嘗試擬宜，再用誡門嘗試擬宜。勸、誡兩門各有三段：擬宜、不受、放捨。
勸門的第一段，從長者思惟自己身手有力以下，譬喻佛在三個七日中思量是否用大法教化。第二段，從長者再次思惟以下，說孩子不能接受，譬喻眾生沒有相應根機；他們諸根遲鈍，如何可以度脫？第三段，從孩子或將墮落、被火所燒以下，是放下原先善巧誘導的方法，譬喻見眾生無機而停止這種教化，寧可暫不說法，迅速進入涅槃。
長者思惟身手有力，譬喻三個七日中的思惟。本論以後文合譬的『但以神力及智慧力』來解釋：身譬喻神通能荷負眾生，手譬喻智慧能提拔眾生。依三昧所成的斷德而有神通，依智慧所成的智德而能說法；智與斷的力量能成就法身，而這兩種力量又由勸、誡兩門進入。
勸是為人悉檀，誡是對治悉檀；這兩種悉檀都是為第一義悉檀施設方便。如來起初想用勸門擬宜，使眾生奉行種種善，成就十力、無畏與一切種智，眾生卻不能承受。接著想以誡門擬宜，使眾生不作諸惡，證得大涅槃，眾生仍不能承受。既無根機，便停止這種教化。
因此，所謂想用大乘教化，在這一段只從勸、誡兩種悉檀及神通、智斷來說。前文所引定慧之力莊嚴、以此度眾生，正是此義。前面讚歎長者年歲衰邁，也用來譬喻智斷；智斷就是這裡所說的身手之力。
七、衣裓、几、案的諸說
對衣裓、几、案，本論先記數說。有一位三藏法師說，衣裓是外國盛花的器具，進奉貴人時便用它貯花；本論原處沒有記下祂的姓名。
舊說又把衣襟譬喻大乘之因，把几案譬喻大乘之果；最初以大乘因果擬宜眾生，而眾生沒有相應根機。
另一個舊說把這三件物品譬喻大乘的戒、定、慧：第一個七日思惟所得之法，如同使用衣裓；第二個七日思惟眾生的根性與因緣，如同使用几；第三個七日思惟樹地之恩，如同使用案。這個舊說自稱此義出自《阿含經》。
智者現在取後文合譬來解釋。後文說，若只用神力與智慧力，為眾生讚說如來知見、力與無所畏，眾生不能因此得度。神力就是譬中的身，智慧力就是譬中的手，和前面相同。知見譬喻衣裓，無畏譬喻几，十力譬喻案。如來以神通發動這三種法，再以智慧宣說這三種法；眾生沒有根機，祂便停止這種教化。
衣裓、几、案的差別，在本論所取的解釋中，只是略說、中等說與廣說的不同。略說名為如來知見：知是一切種智，見是佛眼。名稱簡略而義理幽深，譬如衣裓只有一足，卻能盛納很多東西。中等說名為四無所畏，用它對應四諦，如同几；對法義說稍廣一些，作為器物也稍為安穩。廣說名為十力，橫向、豎向都能統攝，如同案有多足而不會傾覆；在法義上範圍廣，在器物上也寬大安穩。佛在三個七日中思惟，原想如此以廣、中、略的佛法教化，眾生卻不能承受，所以譬中說衣裓、几、案。
八、一門狹小與孩子墮落
從長者再次思惟以下，是勸門第二段，說孩子不能接受，譬喻眾生沒有相應根機。經文說宅只有一門，而且狹小；門的一般意思如前，這裡再分別釋與通釋。
別釋是把三個字分開說。『一』指唯一之理、一道清淨；『門』指正教，可以通向它所通達之處；『小』指這一門不容斷、常兩種見解及七種方便等雜入。教與理本來寬廣，並不真正狹小；只是眾生不能憑這個理、這個教使自己通達，將要表明他們沒有根機，所以稱為狹小。
通釋先從理說：理純一無雜，所以稱一；理本身能通，所以稱門；理微妙難知，所以稱狹小。
再從教說：遍向十方審實尋求，更沒有別的乘，唯有一佛乘，所以稱一；這個教能使人通達，所以稱門；這個教微妙，凡夫不知道從哪裡出去，是不知權，也不知道從哪裡進入，是不知實。二乘人因為聽聞少分，只知道出離的要道，永遠不知道如何進入；菩薩雖自己知道出離，也不知道進入。若從嚴格一面說，七種方便都不知道如何出入。前文說，若只讚歎佛乘，眾生反會沉沒在苦中；他們不能憑這個教自得通達，正要說明沒有根機，所以稱為狹小。
又從行說：圓滿之因自行於廣大直道，沒有滯留障難，所以稱一；善行菩薩道，直接到達道場，所以稱門；這種妙行難以實行，眾生沒有相應方便根機，所以稱為狹小。
古解認為，人、天的小善所以名為幼稚，沒有大乘善所以名為未有所識。本論現在說，眾生曾受二萬佛教導無上之道，只是大乘善根微弱，所以名為幼稚；如果聽聞大乘反而會生起誹謗毀壞，所以名為未有所識。
『留戀執著遊戲之處』，前句先說善弱，這一句轉說惡強。眾生在因中深深執著見與愛，在果上深深執著所依的身心與所處環境：欲界執著六塵，色界執著禪定的滋味，無色界執著定境。正如前文所說，眾生諸根遲鈍，貪著快樂，被愚癡蒙蔽，所以不能承受大乘。
經文說孩子或將墮落、被火所燒，這兩句便是放下原先善巧誘導。墮落有兩重意思。第一重就孩子的情形說：幼稚的孩子因回想原來遊戲之處而墮落；全然無識的孩子因不能牢牢抓住物品而墮落，譬喻眾生執著五欲而墮入三途。第二重就根機說：眾生善根微弱、沒有識別能力，因誹謗毀壞大乘而墮入三途。
九、以怖畏相誡，孩子仍不接受
從為孩子說怖畏之事以下，是第二個對治門，也有三段。第一是以對治法擬宜：長者說明可怕之事，告誡孩子趕快出去。對治的相狀如《大品》所說，四念就是摩訶衍，因為不可得，所以不同於小乘。孩子既執著遊戲之處，長者便說明可怕之事，使他們免受五濁之火焚燒。
五陰之舍本來應當捨離；若長久安住而執著它，必會斷失善根，所以長者告誡，不要讓火燒害你們。
從父親雖然憐愍以下，是孩子不接受告誡。『不驚不畏』，是說不能生起前面所說的聞慧、思慧。他們不認識八苦、五濁能燒毀善根，就像不知道什麼是火；不認識陰、界、入等法是容受諸苦的器具，就像不知道什麼是舍；不知道法身如何喪失，就像不知道何者為失。
從孩子只在東西兩邊奔走遊戲、看著父親而已這兩句，是放下苦切勸告。背離光明、走向黑暗，如同東西奔走；在生死中迅速往還，如同馳走；在其中生起見與愛，如同遊戲。雖已用大法擬宜，他們仍不依從大教，所以只是看著父親而已。
十、改設三車與父子之命
從長者又想，這間房舍已被大火所燒以下，進入第二項用車譬，譬喻前偈尋念過去諸佛所行方便力的十一行。前面的法說有四段，現在譬喻也有四段。
第一，擬宜三車，譬喻尋念過去佛也以三乘教化。第二，父親知道孩子先前心中所好，譬喻作這番思惟時十方佛都出現。第三，讚歎三車，譬喻正式施行三乘，也就是思惟以後前往波羅柰。第四，所說正適合孩子心願，譬喻受持、實行、領悟、契入，名為轉法輪。
大乘教化之功是父親的命，眾生的大善是孩子的命。眾生的大善若窮盡，孩子的命便斷；孩子的命既斷，佛的教化之功也失去作用，父親的命也就斷了。前面只說火逼其身、苦痛切己，仍是尚未死亡；現在說必被焚燒，便有死亡之義。
前文說長者已從所燒之門安穩得出，現在又說若不及時出去，必會被燒，兩者怎麼相通？前面所說得出，是法身已出；現在所說若不及時出去，是應身與眾生一同承受危急。眾生還有善根，應身便與他們同時出去；眾生的善根斷絕，不能與應身同時出去，便成為父子都被焚燒。現在正要用應身擬宜，使眾生及時出離。因此，從長者說自己現在應當施設方便以下，便是將要設權。
十一、父知先心：大弱而小強
從父親知道孩子先前心中所好以下，是第二段，說明眾生已有可以得度的根機。眾生過去曾經修習小法，所以父親知道他們先前的心，也知道各人的性情欲樂彼此不同，各有所好。
父親又知道眾生過去曾修習大法，只是修習尚未深厚，所以大善微弱；他們厭離老、病、死，故可先用小法接引，所以小善較強。就像舍利弗在第六心中退轉：祂本來曾修習大法，所以稱為知道先心；中途厭離老病死，所以稱為各有所好。
十二、讚歎三車：勸、示、證
從父親告訴孩子以下，是第三段讚歎三車稀有，譬喻正式轉法輪。這一段分成勸、示、證三項。
從玩好之物稀有難得以下，是勸轉，勸孩子取車。從如此種種羊車、鹿車、牛車以下，是示轉，把三種車指示出來。從你們應當趕快離開火宅、我都會給你們以下，是證轉，以父親的承諾證成所說不虛。
十三、適子所願：六句由因至果
從諸子聽見父親所說以下，是第四段，所說正適合孩子心願，譬喻受持、實行、領悟、契入。前面的偈頌只略說，現在譬事展開較廣，詳細說明從修因直到得果。本論依六句解釋。
『適合心願』，是眾生的根機與所聞教法彼此相稱，這就是聞慧。
『勇而且銳』，是思慧。思心開始活動、考慮，便是思慧的方便。
『彼此推排』，是以四種真理推求、排伏見惑。邪與正還沒有決定，所以稱為彼此相推；這時已進入修慧，屬於煖位、頂位。
『競』是競相取得殊勝真理。這是忍法位競取勝理：起初觀三十二諦，競相趨向真道；後來再收縮所觀，趨向苦法忍。
『共』是世第一法位，大家共同觀一諦；它與苦法忍的四種觀法沒有差別。
『馳走』是進入見道的十五心，迅速見理，譬喻前偈所說便有涅槃之音；在見道中，已分得涅槃。
『爭出』是思惟道，努力出離三界而成就無學果；思惑斷盡，才真正走出火宅，譬喻前偈所說阿羅漢、法、僧已有差別之名。
本論最後又作觀心解。以中道正觀直接觀照實相，心與法彼此相稱，名為適合所願。所觀境界無邊，能觀之觀也無邊，名為勇；境界受研察，心便銳利，名為銳。心與境彼此研磨，名為互相推排。心王、心數迅速攀緣境界，名為競共馳走。遍歷一切陰、界、入等，無一不是實相，名為走出火宅。〔以下從略〕
I. The Elder Sees the Fire: Four Passages, Three Meanings
Beginning with the elder seeing this great fire is the second part, the specific parables. The specific parables further divide into four elements. First is the parable of the elder seeing the fire, illustrating the Buddha's vision of the five turbidities and based on four lines of scripture verse. Second is the parable of setting aside the stool and table and using the carts, illustrating how Śākyamuni Buddha, faced with beings of the five turbidities, suspends the direct bestowal of the Great Dharma and establishes the Lesser Dharma instead; it is based on the seventeen and a half lines of verse following the Buddha's first sitting at the place of awakening. Third is the parable of equally bestowing the great cart upon the children, illustrating Śākyamuni Buddha's revelation of the real and based on the six lines of verse in which the Buddha sees buddha-children aspiring to the buddha path. Fourth is the parable of the elder's not speaking falsely, illustrating the Buddha's declaration that he is king of all dharmas and based on two and a half lines of verse.
Taking the first element, seeing the fire, the scriptural text divides into four passages but has only three meanings: first, identifying the one who sees; second, identifying what is seen; third, identifying the alarm and fear that arise upon seeing; fourth, further explaining what was seen above. Because the fourth passage only unfolds the second meaning, together they still form three meanings.
“The elder sees” identifies the one who sees and illustrates the preceding verse in which the Buddha sees with the buddha-eye. “This great fire arises on all four sides” identifies what is seen and illustrates the living beings of the six paths seen by the buddha-eye. “He is immediately greatly alarmed and afraid” illustrates the Buddha's arising of great compassion for these beings. Beginning with the children still being inside the burning house explains more broadly the fire in the second meaning and also looks back to explain why the elder is alarmed and afraid.
II. The Four Sides of the House and the Arising of the Fire of Suffering
Body, sensation, mind, and dharmas are the four sides of the house. From these sides arise the four inversions, such as taking the impure as pure and suffering as pleasure; the fire of the eight sufferings and the various other sufferings then gather together. If one can know that the body is impure, suffering, and impermanent, the fire of affliction will cease.
There are three ancient explanations of “four sides.” The first says that the four great elements are the four sides and the six consciousnesses all depend upon them. The second says that the four modes of birth are the four sides. The third takes the four inversions as the four sides. Following the wording below, Zhizhe takes birth, old age, illness, and death as the house's four sides.
When the scripture says that the elder is immediately greatly alarmed and afraid, it means that he is alarmed at the thought that living beings will retreat from their former great goodness and afraid because he worries that they will produce grave evil. Alarm corresponds to loving-kindness because he considers living beings' lack of happiness; fear corresponds to compassion because he is concerned that they suffer.
III. Having Already Left through the Gateway, Why Is He Still Alarmed and Afraid?
“Although I can emerge safely through this gateway now being burned by the fire” further explains the elder's alarm, fear, loving-kindness, and compassion. “Although” shows that the sentence's meaning is not yet complete. Through the power of wisdom, the Buddha can follow correct teaching and see the true truth expressed by that teaching. Because he is not endangered by the five turbidities and eight sufferings, this is called “peace”; because he is not moved by the violent winds of the four inversions, this is called “security”; because he stands freely apart from all entanglements, this is called “emergence.”
Living beings are not like this and continue to be burned by the fire. Because the Tathāgata has loving-kindness and compassion for them, his concern blazes like a fire, and so the scripture specifically says, “Although I can emerge.” It means that although he has left, he does not thereby abandon the living beings who remain in the fire.
IV. The Gateway Being Burned: What Is Burning?
The scripture speaks of “the gateway now being burned by the fire,” prompting someone to ask: if teaching is the gateway, is this gateway of teaching itself burned or not?
Someone offers this rescue-explanation: the gateway of teaching itself does not burn. The Buddha's teaching is like a gateway that enables those being burned to pass through. Because the people to whom the gateway gives passage are burned, the gateway that gives passage is derivatively called burned. It is like saying that a household has declined when the people inside its gateway die, although the gateway itself has not declined.
The root treatise then presses the question: if so, teaching would be permanent and not conditioned. If it is not permanent, why is it not burned?
Zhizhe explains that this cannot be said. A gateway has material components and an open space in its middle. Without components, nothing marks it as a gateway; without an opening, it cannot let anyone pass. The components can burn to ashes, while the open space cannot be burned. Teaching likewise has words capable of expressing and a meaning expressed by those words. Without words that express and distinguish, there would be no teaching; without meaning expressed beneath the teaching, by what could anyone leave?
Words capable of expressing and distinguishing can be impermanent, while the meaning expressed is no longer impermanent in that way. People meet what is expressed through teaching and are therefore said to emerge peacefully and securely. The words that express wear away, and so it is also called the gateway being burned. If not through this gateway being burned, from where could one emerge peacefully and securely? It is precisely by means of verbal teaching that one meets what is expressed. The root treatise therefore cites a statement transmitted as coming from the Great Scripture: an impermanent cause produces a permanent fruit. This explains why the scripture says one emerges through the gateway being burned.
In terms of the Lesser Vehicle's gateway of the teaching of impermanence, one emerges through a gateway being burned. In terms of the Great Vehicle's gateway of the teaching of permanence, words themselves are liberation and teaching is principle; comprehending that there is originally nothing that can burn in so-called burning, one emerges peacefully and securely. In terms of the Tathāgata's provisional wisdom, one emerges through the gateway being burned; in terms of real wisdom, one comprehends what is burned and emerges peacefully and securely. This is the meaning in the initial failed attempt to carry the children out with a robe-fold, stool, and table and in the later use of the teaching of impermanence to lead them out.
V. Playing without Knowing the Fire
“Attached to playfulness and play” can be explained word by word: attachment to views is named “playfulness,” while attachment to craving is named “play.” It can also mean that immersion in the four kinds of views is playfulness and the vain loss of cultivated merit is play; attachment to craving is likewise. Or immersion in the five sensory objects may be named playfulness and ultimately obtaining nothing named play. Living beings are born and die in vain but never become disenchanted, like children absorbed in games.
“Not awakening and not knowing” likewise has two levels. Not saying at all that a fire exists is named not awakening; not understanding that fire is something hot is named not knowing. Because they do not know its heat, they do not fear bodily injury and are therefore not alarmed; because they do not consider that life may be severed, they are not afraid.
Living beings do not awaken at all to the five aggregates and eight sufferings, nor do they know the four inversions and three poisons. If they do not recognize their own delusion, how could they become concerned? Delusion harms the Dharma body and damages the life of wisdom. Not awakening therefore corresponds to not awakening to suffering, not knowing to not knowing origination, not being alarmed to not being alarmed at damage to the path, and not being afraid to not fearing the loss of cessation. Without hearing the teaching of the four truths there is no wisdom from hearing, and this is named not awakening; without wisdom from reflection, this is named not knowing. Inability to produce understanding through seeing is named not awakening; inability to produce understanding through cultivation is named not knowing. When one sees the truths one awakens in alarm, and after cultivation one becomes disenchanted and afraid.
This can also be explained in terms of present and future: not awakening to present suffering and not knowing future suffering. The later statement that they undergo many sufferings now and afterward will undergo the sufferings of hell and so forth has precisely this meaning.
In the scriptural phrase “fire comes and presses upon the body,” body indicates the first five consciousnesses. The scripture next speaks of mind, where mind indicates the sixth consciousness, the mind-king. The body is pressed by the eight sufferings, but the mind is neither disenchanted nor distressed. Another explanation says that living beings planted Great-Vehicle merit in the past, taking Dharma-body wisdom as their substance; although that substance is pressed by the four inversions, living beings remain neither awakened nor knowing.
“The mind is neither disenchanted nor distressed” means not becoming disenchanted with the suffering of impermanence or treating the origination of afflictions as a distress. “Having no intention to seek escape” means not cultivating the path in order to realize cessation.
Finally, the root treatise correlates the whole burning-house passage item by item with the five turbidities. The burning house itself illustrates the five turbidities. Playfulness illustrates the turbidity of views; play, the turbidity of afflictions. Not awakening or knowing and not being alarmed or afraid illustrate the turbidity of living beings. Fire pressing upon their bodies and pain cutting into them illustrate the turbidity of life. The mind's not being disenchanted or distressed and the absence of an intention to escape illustrate the turbidity of the eon. Every sentence in the scripture corresponds to the five turbidities. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕
VI. Setting Aside the Stool and Using the Carts: Three Stages Each in the Gateways of Exhortation and Admonition
Beginning with the elder's reflection is the second element, the parable of setting aside the stool and using the carts. It illustrates the preceding suspension of the direct bestowal of the Great Dharma and the turn to bestowing the Lesser Dharma. The first six and a half lines of verse above describe assessing the suitability of the Great Dharma without success; the later eleven lines describe assessing the suitability of the Lesser Dharma with success.
The earlier “great assessment unsuccessful” has three stages: first, considering whether using the Great Dharma is suitable; second, living beings lacking the capacity to receive it; third, suspending that transformation. The parable now further divides into two gateways: first attempting an assessment through exhortation, then attempting one through admonition. Each has the three stages of assessing suitability, nonacceptance, and relinquishment.
The first stage in the gateway of exhortation begins with the elder's thought that his body and hands are strong and illustrates the Buddha's consideration during the three periods of seven days of whether to transform beings through the Great Dharma. The second begins with the elder's further reflection and says that the children cannot receive it, illustrating that living beings lack the corresponding capacity: with faculties so dull, how can they be liberated? The third begins with the possibility that the children will fall and be burned by fire. It is relinquishing the original method of skillful inducement and illustrates seeing that living beings lack the capacity and suspending this transformation, preferring temporarily not to teach the Dharma and swiftly enter nirvāṇa.
The elder's thought that his body and hands are strong illustrates the reflection during the three periods of seven days. The root treatise explains it through the phrase “only through the powers of supernormal ability and wisdom” from the later correlation: the body illustrates supernormal power capable of bearing living beings, and the hands illustrate wisdom capable of lifting them. Supernormal ability comes from the virtue of severance accomplished through samādhi, while the virtue of wisdom accomplished through wisdom enables teaching the Dharma. The powers of wisdom and severance accomplish the Dharma body, and these two powers enter through the gateways of exhortation and admonition.
Exhortation is the individual siddhānta, while admonition is the counteractive siddhānta. Both are skillful means established for the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. The Tathāgata first wishes to assess suitability through exhortation, causing living beings to practice every kind of good and accomplish the ten powers, fearlessnesses, and wisdom of all modes, but they cannot receive it. He next wishes to assess suitability through admonition, causing them to avoid every evil and realize great nirvāṇa, but they still cannot receive it. Because they lack the capacity, he suspends this transformation.
Thus the intention to transform through the Great Vehicle is discussed in this passage only through the two siddhāntas of exhortation and admonition and through supernormal power, wisdom, and severance. The previously cited powers of concentration and wisdom adorning one, through which living beings are liberated, have precisely this meaning. The earlier praise of the elder as advanced in years likewise illustrated wisdom and severance. Wisdom and severance are the strength of body and hands described here.
VII. Various Explanations of the Robe-Fold, Stool, and Table
The root treatise first records several explanations of the robe-fold, stool, and table. A Tripiṭaka master says that a robe-fold is a foreign vessel for holding flowers, used to contain them when presenting them to an eminent person. The root treatise does not record his name here.
Another old explanation takes the robe front to illustrate the cause of the Great Vehicle and the stool and table to illustrate its fruit. At first the Great-Vehicle cause and fruit are assessed as suitable for living beings, but they lack the corresponding capacity.
Another old explanation takes these three objects to illustrate Great-Vehicle moral discipline, concentration, and wisdom. Contemplating the Dharma attained during the first seven days is like using the robe-fold; contemplating living beings' faculties and conditions during the second seven days is like using the stool; contemplating the kindness of the tree and ground during the third seven days is like using the table. This old explanation claims that the meaning comes from an Āgama.
Zhizhe now explains them by taking the later correlation. The later text says that if the Tathāgata used only the powers of supernormal ability and wisdom to praise his knowledge and vision, powers, and fearlessnesses for living beings, they could not thereby be liberated. Supernormal power is the body in the parable and wisdom-power the hands, as above. Knowledge and vision illustrate the robe-fold, fearlessnesses illustrate the stool, and the ten powers illustrate the table. The Tathāgata activates these three Dharmas through supernormal power and proclaims them through wisdom. Because living beings lack the capacity, he suspends this transformation.
In the explanation adopted by the root treatise, the difference among the robe-fold, stool, and table is only the difference among brief, intermediate, and extensive teaching. The brief teaching is named the Tathāgata's knowledge and vision: knowledge is wisdom of all modes and vision the buddha-eye. The name is brief but its meaning profound, like a robe-fold with only one support that can hold many things. The intermediate teaching is named the four fearlessnesses and correlates them with the four truths, like a stool. Its doctrinal meaning is somewhat broader and the object somewhat steadier. The extensive teaching is named the ten powers and encompasses both horizontally and vertically, like a table with many legs that does not overturn. Its doctrinal range is broad, and as an object it is broad and stable. During the three periods of seven days, the Buddha considered transforming living beings with the extensive, intermediate, and brief Buddha Dharma in this way, but they could not receive it; hence the parable speaks of robe-fold, stool, and table.
VIII. The Single Gateway Is Narrow and Small, and the Children May Fall
Beginning with the elder's further reflection is the second stage of the gateway of exhortation. It says that the children cannot receive and illustrates living beings' lack of the corresponding capacity. The scripture says that the house has only a single gateway and that it is narrow and small. The gateway's general meaning is as above; here both a specific and a general explanation are given.
The specific explanation treats each of the three words separately. “Single” indicates the sole principle and one pure path. “Gateway” indicates the correct teaching that can provide passage to what it accesses. “Small” means that the gateway does not admit the mixing-in of views of annihilation and permanence, the seven skillful means, and the rest. Teaching and principle are originally broad and are not truly narrow and small. It is only that living beings cannot use this principle and teaching to make themselves pass through. Because the passage is about to show their lack of capacity, it calls the gateway narrow and small.
The general explanation first speaks in terms of principle. Principle is purely one and unmixed and is therefore called single; principle itself provides passage and is therefore called gateway; principle is subtle and difficult to know and is therefore called narrow and small.
Next it speaks in terms of teaching. When one searches throughout the ten directions in truth, there is no other vehicle, only the one buddha vehicle, and it is therefore called single. This teaching enables passage and is therefore called gateway. Because the teaching is subtle, ordinary people know neither from where to leave—the provisional—nor where to enter—the real. Because people of the two vehicles have heard only a small portion, they know the essential road of escape but never know how to enter. Although bodhisattvas themselves know how to leave, they do not know how to enter. Strictly speaking, none of the seven skillful means knows how to leave or enter. The preceding passage says that if the buddha vehicle alone were praised, living beings would instead sink in suffering. Their inability to pass through by themselves through this teaching is precisely meant to show their lack of capacity, and so it is called narrow and small.
It further speaks in terms of practice. The complete cause travels by itself on the broad direct path without delay or obstruction and is therefore called single. Skillfully practicing the bodhisattva path leads directly to the place of awakening and is therefore called gateway. Because this wondrous practice is difficult to practice and living beings lack the corresponding skillful capacity, it is called narrow and small.
An old explanation holds that the minor goodness of humans and devas is called immaturity and the absence of Great-Vehicle goodness called having no knowledge. The root treatise now says that living beings received instruction in the unsurpassed path from twenty thousand buddhas, but their Great-Vehicle roots of goodness are weak, and so they are called immature. If hearing the Great Vehicle instead produces slander and destruction, they are called those with no knowledge.
“Clinging with attachment to the place of play” follows the preceding statement of weak goodness by turning to strong evil. In cause, living beings are deeply attached to views and craving; in result, deeply attached to the body and mind on which they depend and the environment in which they dwell. In the desire realm they are attached to the six sensory objects, in the form realm to the flavor of meditative concentration, and in the formless realm to the objects of concentration. As the earlier text says, living beings' faculties are dull, they are attached to pleasure and blinded by delusion, and therefore cannot receive the Great Vehicle.
When the scripture says that the children may fall and be burned by fire, these two clauses relinquish the original skillful inducement. Falling has two meanings. First, in terms of the children's condition, immature children fall because they remember their former place of play, while utterly unknowing children fall because they cannot firmly grasp an object. This illustrates living beings' attachment to the five desires and descent into the three evil destinies. Second, in terms of capacity, living beings with weak roots of goodness and no discernment fall into the three evil destinies because they slander and destroy the Great Vehicle.
IX. Admonished with Fearful Matters, the Children Still Do Not Accept
Beginning with speaking to the children of fearful matters is the second, counteractive gateway, which likewise has three stages. The first is assessing suitability through a counteractive Dharma: the elder describes the frightening matter and admonishes the children to leave quickly. The character of counteraction is as the Great Prajñā says: the four foundations of mindfulness are themselves the Mahāyāna and, because they are unobtainable, differ from the Lesser Vehicle. Since the children cling to the place of play, the elder explains fearful matters so that they will not be burned by the fire of the five turbidities.
The house of the five aggregates should originally be abandoned. If one dwells in and clings to it for long, roots of goodness will certainly be severed. The elder therefore admonishes them not to let the fire burn and harm them.
Beginning with the father's loving pity is the children's nonacceptance of the admonition. “Neither alarmed nor afraid” means that the wisdom from hearing and reflection described above cannot arise. They do not recognize that the eight sufferings and five turbidities can burn away roots of goodness, just as they do not know what fire is. They do not recognize that the aggregates, elements, sense fields, and other Dharmas are vessels that receive the various sufferings, just as they do not know what a house is. They do not know how the Dharma body can be lost, just as they do not know what loss is.
The two clauses saying that the children merely run east and west at play and look at their father relinquish the urgent and painful exhortation. Turning away from light and moving toward darkness is like running east and west. Swiftly coming and going in birth-and-death is like racing. Producing views and craving therein is like playing. Although the Great Dharma has already been assessed as suitable, they do not follow the Great Teaching and therefore merely look at their father.
X. Establishing the Three Carts Instead and the Lives of Father and Children
Beginning with the elder's further thought that this house has already been burned by a great fire enters the parable of using the carts, illustrating the eleven lines in the preceding verse on recalling the power of skillful means practiced by past buddhas. The preceding Dharma-teaching had four passages, and the present parable likewise has four.
First is assessing the suitability of the three carts, illustrating the recollection that past buddhas too transformed through the three vehicles. Second, the father knows what his children previously enjoyed, illustrating the appearance of buddhas throughout the ten directions while he reflects. Third is praising the three carts, illustrating the actual application of the three vehicles, namely proceeding to Vārāṇasī after reflection. Fourth, what he says precisely suits the children's wishes, illustrating accepting, practicing, awakening, and entering, which is named turning the Dharma-wheel.
The work of Great-Vehicle transformation is the father's life, while living beings' great goodness is the children's life. If living beings' great goodness is exhausted, the children's life is severed. Once their life is severed, the Buddha's work of transformation likewise loses its function and the father's life is severed. The preceding text said only that fire pressed upon their bodies and pain cut into them, meaning they had not yet died. To say now that they will certainly be burned carries the meaning of death.
The preceding passage says that the elder has emerged safely through the gateway being burned, while the present passage says that if they do not leave in time they will certainly be burned. How do the two agree? The preceding emergence is the Dharma body's emergence. The present warning that they must leave in time concerns the response-body undergoing danger together with living beings. While living beings retain roots of goodness, the response-body emerges together with them. If their roots of goodness are severed and they cannot emerge together with the response-body, father and children are both burned. The present intention is precisely to use the response-body to assess what is suitable so that living beings leave in time. Thus, beginning with the elder's saying that he must now establish a skillful means is the impending establishment of the provisional.
XI. The Father Knows Their Former Minds: The Great Is Weak and the Lesser Strong
Beginning with the father's knowing what the children formerly enjoyed is the second passage and explains that living beings already possess a capacity through which they can be liberated. Living beings practiced the Lesser Dharma in the past, and so the father knows their former minds and knows that each person's nature and desires differ and have their own preference.
The father also knows that living beings practiced the Great Dharma in the past, but their practice was not yet deep and their great goodness is therefore weak. Because they are disenchanted with old age, illness, and death, they can first be drawn in through the Lesser Dharma, and their lesser goodness is therefore stronger. It is like Śāriputra's retreat at the sixth mind: because he had originally practiced the Great Dharma, this is called knowing the former mind; because he became disenchanted with old age, illness, and death midway, this is called each having what one enjoys.
XII. Praising the Three Carts: Exhortation, Demonstration, and Confirmation
Beginning with the father's address to the children is the third passage, praising the rarity of the three carts and illustrating the actual turning of the Dharma-wheel. It divides into exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation.
Beginning with the playthings being rare and difficult to obtain is the exhortation-turning, exhorting the children to take the carts. Beginning with the various goat carts, deer carts, and ox carts is the demonstration-turning, showing the three carts. Beginning with “you should quickly leave the burning house, and I will give them all to you” is the confirmation-turning, the father's promise confirming that his words are not false.
XIII. Suited to the Children's Wishes: Six Phrases from Cause to Fruit
Beginning with the children's hearing what their father says is the fourth passage: what is said precisely suits their wishes and illustrates accepting, practicing, awakening, and entering. The preceding verse stated this only briefly, while the events of the parable now unfold more broadly and explain in detail the movement from cultivating the cause through attaining the fruit. The root treatise explains it through six phrases.
“Suited to their wishes” means that living beings' capacities and the teaching heard correspond. This is wisdom through hearing.
“Courageous and keen” is wisdom through reflection. The reflective mind beginning to operate and consider is the skillful preparation for wisdom through reflection.
“Pressing one another forward” means using the four truths to investigate and subdue delusions of views. Because wrong and right have not yet been decided, it is called mutually pressing; at this point one has entered wisdom through cultivation and belongs to the stages of warmth and summit.
“Vying” is vying to obtain the superior principle. This is the stage of patience vying to obtain that principle: at first one contemplates the thirty-two truths and vies to approach the true path; afterward one contracts what is contemplated and approaches patience with the Dharma of suffering.
“Together” is the stage of the foremost worldly dharma, where everyone jointly contemplates a single truth. Its four modes of contemplation do not differ from those of patience with the Dharma of suffering.
“Racing” is the fifteen minds entering the path of seeing, swiftly seeing principle and illustrating the verse's statement that the sound of nirvāṇa then exists. Within the path of seeing, one has already received a share of nirvāṇa.
“Vying to get out” is the path of cultivation: striving to leave the three realms and accomplishing the fruit beyond training. Only when delusions of thought are exhausted does one truly leave the burning house, illustrating the verse's statement that arhat, Dharma, and Saṅgha have acquired distinct names.
Finally, the root treatise gives an explanation through contemplating the mind. Directly contemplating the true mark through correct contemplation of the middle path, mind and Dharma correspond and this is named suited to the wish. The contemplated object is boundless and the contemplation that contemplates it likewise boundless, named courage. When the object is examined the mind becomes sharp, named keenness. Mind and object mutually examine one another, named pressing one another forward. The mind-king and mental factors rapidly engage objects, named vying and racing together. Traversing all aggregates, elements, sense fields, and the rest and finding none that is not the true mark is named leaving the burning house. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕
火宅譬最動人的地方，不只是宅中有火，而是長者已經看見，孩子卻仍在遊戲；長者已經出去，卻不能把自己的安穩當作事情的終點。本論從『見』一路寫到『出』：先看見眾生的苦，再問教門能否通出，繼而試用身手、衣裓、几案，最後才順著孩子先前所好施設三車。整段所問的，其實都是同一件事：已知出路的人，如何使不知道危險的人也肯走出來？
一、火從四面起，先說誰的眼
經文一開頭便說長者見火。本論因此先分能見、所見、驚怖，又以第四段廣說所見。所見的火雖是中心，能見之眼卻不可略去：如果沒有人真正看見，火只是一幅景象；正因長者看得明白，眾子的嬉戲才顯出迫切，長者的驚怖也才有根據。
所見之宅，以身、受、心、法為四邊。顛倒從這四邊生起，八苦之火隨之聚集。古來對四面另有四大、四生、四倒三種解釋，本論不把它們混成一說，而依下文取生、老、病、死。這一取法使『四面起火』不只是在四方同時冒煙，而是整個生命從生至死都已在火勢中。
可是長者的反應不是先責怪孩子。祂因眾生退失大善而驚，因眾生將起重惡而怖；驚對慈，是念他們沒有安樂，怖對悲，是憂他們正受苦痛。『看見』因此立刻成為慈悲：不是遠遠辨認一個危險，而是所見之苦已進入能見者的心。
二、既已安隱得出，為何還說『雖』
長者說自己雖能從所燒之門安隱得出。本論分別解釋安、隱、出：不受五濁八苦危害為安，不被四倒暴風吹動為隱，超然離開繫累為出。照理說，既已如此，似乎可以不再憂懼；但經文偏偏加上一個『雖』字。
這個『雖』字留下了尚未說完的慈悲。長者能出，諸子不能出；長者的安穩不能替代諸子的安穩。如來雖不再被火危害，見眾生被火所燒，憂念仍然熾盛。因此，出離並沒有把祂和宅中之人隔開，反而使祂更清楚地知道火勢，也更不能放下火中的人。
這裡的驚怖不是自己怕受傷。若只是自身危急，出了門便應止息；現在長者已出而驚怖不止，正表明慈悲所憂的是他人的無樂與有苦。先見、後驚、再思救出，便成為後文一切方便的根源。
三、所燒之門，究竟燒得了什麼
孩子必須從門出去，經文卻稱它為所燒之門。若門譬喻教，問題便出現了：教到底被燒，還是不被燒？
有人說，教門本身不燒，只因門所通的人被燒，連帶稱門被燒。這個回答仍留下疑問：若教不燒，豈不是把教說成常住？若教並非常住，又為何不燒？
本論於是從門自身回答。門有構件，也有空處；構件標示門，空處使人通行。構件可以化成灰燼，空處卻沒有可燒之物。教也如此：有能詮的言辭，也有所詮的義理。沒有言辭，義理無由被指示；沒有所詮，言辭也不能使人出去。言辭會磨滅，所以門可稱被燒；眾生又正是藉這些言辭契會所詮，所以仍能由這扇門安隱得出。
如此一來，『燒』與『出』不是互相取消。門若全不可燒，經文的火勢便失去著落；門若全被燒盡，眾生又無路可通。本論以門的構件與空處，保存兩邊：言教有生滅，卻能使人契理。再從權智說，是從所燒門出；從實智說，是通達所燒而安隱得出。後文先用衣裓、几案而不得，轉以無常之教引出，也由這一問答預先開出。
四、孩子不是沒有看見父親
火已逼身，孩子為何仍不出去？本論沒有用一句『愚癡』便草草帶過，而把嬉、戲、不覺、不知、不驚、不怖逐字展開。
嬉可以是執著見解，戲可以是執著貪愛；也可以是沉湎其中而白白失去功德，或沉湎五塵而終究一無所得。孩子不是偶然分心，而是在一場徒生徒死、仍不厭離的遊戲中。這種樂著使他根本不說有火，名為不覺；也不了解火的熱性，名為不知。既不知熱，便不怕傷身；既不慮斷命，便不怖畏。
本論再把這種不知分到苦、集、道、滅：不覺苦，不知集，不驚道受損，不怖滅失去。又以沒有聞慧、思慧，沒有見解、思惟之解說明；再從現在、未來說，不覺現在苦，不知後來苦。『不知』因此不是資料不足，而是聞、思、見、修都沒有啟動。
火來逼身時，五識已接觸苦境；心王卻仍不厭惱。身體已在受苦，心仍留戀遊戲，這正是火宅最尖銳的錯位。本論最後把嬉、戲、不覺不知、逼身、無求出意逐一配回五濁，使四面之火不只是一個總喻，而在孩子的見、愛、身命與不求出中處處可見。
五、身手有力，為何仍救不出
第二譬開始時，長者先想到自己的身手有力，可以用衣裓、几、案帶孩子出去。本論由後文合譬回釋：身是神通的荷負，手是智慧的提拔；勸門使眾善奉行，誡門使諸惡莫作。勸與誡各有擬宜、不受、放捨三段，所以『不得』不是長者沒有力量，而是孩子沒有承受這一救法的根機。
衣裓、几、案又有多種傳解。本論先照錄盛花之器、大乘因果、戒定慧與三個七日等說，然後明白說出自己所取：依合譬把知見配衣裓、無畏配几、十力配案，並說三者只是略、中、廣的不同。略而義玄，中而稍廣，廣則橫豎統攝；如來以神通發動，以智慧宣說，所要給予的並不欠缺，欠缺的是能接受的人。
這也說明為何本論只從勸、誡兩門談這次嘗試。勸與誡都是為第一義施設的方便，但當眾生既不受勸，也不受誡，繼續加重同一方式，仍不能把他們帶出。長者沒有把『我身手有力』變成對孩子的責備，而是回過頭重新思量：這些孩子究竟能由什麼而動？
六、門並不狹，狹的是不能自通
長者再次思惟，宅只有一門，而且狹小。本論隨即說，教與理本來寬博，並非真的狹窄；之所以稱狹小，是眾生不能以此理教使自己通達。問題不在出口缺少容量，而在孩子沒有走這條路的能力。
別釋把一、門、小分開：一是唯一之理、一道清淨，門是能通的正教，小是不容斷常及諸方便雜入。通釋則沿理、教、行三路展開。從理說，純一故一，能通故門，微妙難知故狹小。從教說，沒有餘乘故一，能使人通故門；凡夫不知權實的出入，二乘、菩薩所知也各有未盡，故顯狹小。從行說，直道無礙故一，直至道場故門，妙行難行而無機，故狹小。
所以，一門狹小不是把真理說成只容少數人通過，而是在描寫當時眾生的無機。幼稚也不是全無善根；本論說他們曾受二萬佛教導，只是大善微弱。與善弱相對的是惡強：因中深著見愛，果上深著依正，在三界各有所戀。門一直在那裡，孩子卻因戀著戲處而可能墮落。
七、為何怖畏不動，三車反能動
勸門不能使孩子出宅，長者又以怖畏之事告誡。祂說明火、舍與失，催促他們疾出；孩子卻不驚不畏，不知火、不知舍、不知何者為失，只在東西奔走遊戲，看著父親而已。這裡最值得注意的是，他們並非沒有看見父親，也不是沒有聽見話語；他們是聽而不受，所聞之事沒有成為自己的出心。
到此，長者才改設三車。本論把用車分成四段：先擬宜三車，再知孩子先心所好，繼而讚歎三車，最後所說適合其願。關鍵不只是外面忽然多了三件玩具，而是父親知道眾生昔日所習：曾習小，所以性欲各有所好；也曾習大，只是大善未濃。大弱而小強，便先以小法接引。
這個轉折沒有否定前面的慈悲、智慧、神通，也沒有說火已不危險。正因父親仍憂父子之命，才不固守第一次救法。眾生的大善若盡，子命斷；教化之功隨之失用，父命也斷。法身雖已出，應身仍與眾生同疾，因此必須在善根尚未斷時施設方便，使他們及時出去。
讚歎三車又依經序分為勸、示、證：先說玩好稀有以勸，次列種種車以示，再承諾皆當給與以證。從危險本身看，孩子早就應出；從孩子現前的欲樂看，直到所說適合其願，腳步才真正動起來。方便不隱瞞火，而是使不因火而動的人，終於能朝門外移動。
八、從適願到爭出
孩子聽見珍玩，因為適合心願，便勇銳、推排、競共馳走，爭出火宅。本論明定依六句解釋，從聞慧、思慧、修慧，一直說到見道、思惟道與無學果。這不是把孩子一陣奔跑只當成情緒高昂，而是把每一個動詞讀成由聞法至出離的進程。
適願是機教相稱，聞慧由此生起；勇銳是思慧開始運作。互相推排，是以四種真理推求並排伏見惑，進入煖、頂。競取勝理是忍法，共觀一諦是世第一法。馳走是見道十五心迅速見理，已分得涅槃；爭出則是思惟道，斷盡思惑而成無學，才真正出離火宅。經文連續的動作，在本論筆下成為由因至果的次第。
最後的觀心解並未另造一座火宅，而是把同一串動詞收回心境。心與法相稱為適願，境無邊而觀亦無邊為勇，境研心利為銳，心境相研為推排，心王心數緣境迅疾為競共馳走。當一切陰、界、入都被直觀為實相，便名出火宅。前面長者費盡思量要使孩子通過的一門，到這裡落在能觀之心與所觀之境相應之處。
文句記之眼
湛然先把本論的四文三意釘牢。《文句記》說：「即能見、所見、驚入，對下譬文仍有四也。」〔T34n1719 0249b24〕第四段只是廣所見，不能因此把三意改成四意；能見、所見、驚怖仍是義脈的三個主節。
對長者已出而仍驚，《記》抓住一個往返：「長者先已安隱得出，雖安而驚、雖出須入」〔0261b06〕。這使本論的『雖』更清楚：安穩是長者自證，入火是慈悲應物，二者並行，不是先出以後又被火逼回。
所燒之門的問答，《記》明判前一救說尚未通，並以門楗與門空收束本論正解：「小教無常義同被燒猶如門楗，理非無常猶如門空，燒與安隱二義俱成。」〔0261b28–0261c01〕因此，門被燒與由門得出，不是兩套互斥的答案，而是能詮、所詮各得其位。
在嬉戲與不覺不知處，《記》把本論的層次辨得更細：先依凡情說，再依修學位次說，最後依現在、未來說〔0262a05–0262a27〕；又指出五識先對境，至第六識再加分別〔0262b13〕。這些是鏡文對本論排列的疏通，不應無署名搬入正文，卻能幫助讀者看見同一句如何逐層展開。
衣裓、几、案的諸說，《記》先分能施的身手與所施的三物，再評古說。它認為因果一解不是全無道理，只是缺少施化的相狀〔0262c15〕；對自稱出《阿含經》的戒定慧說，則質疑不應以小釋大〔0262c17〕。這是湛然的取捨，不是智者原文已明說的判詞。
勸、誡兩門之外，《記》另問為何未說世界悉檀，回答隨眾生所樂各別、聞法歡喜也可由世界義說〔0262c09–0262c11〕。這一補充只屬鏡釋；本論在此明列的仍是為人、對治二悉檀為第一義作方便，正文不因後釋而補成另一套配表。
到一門狹小，《記》明確區分逐字的別釋與理、教、行各具一門狹小的通釋〔0263a11–0263a21〕，又用『善弱、惡強』扣緊幼稚與戲處〔0263b15–0263b17〕。門的狹小因此始終落在無機，而不是理教本身窄促。
父子俱焚的難題，《記》以法身、應身分判：「若法應相對，理須常住法身已出，今論應身物機受化」〔0263c24〕。它又批評只說感應同時，雖能解釋俱出，卻不能兼顧俱燒〔0264a04〕。這一鏡眼保住本論兩句相反字面的雙重著力。
末段六句，《記》將賢位合四、見修合二〔0264a26〕，同時留下見道十五心與十六心的部別差異：「有云：十六心仍在見道。部別不同。」〔0264b07〕。這項異議不改本論的十五心說，也不改六句分母；它只提醒讀者，智者在此依自己的位次語言讀『馳走』，古來另有不同判法。
What most moves us in the parable of the burning house is not merely that the house is on fire, but that the elder has already seen it while the children continue to play, and that he has already emerged yet cannot treat his own security as the end of the matter. The root treatise proceeds from “seeing” all the way to “leaving”: it first sees living beings' suffering, then asks whether the gateway of teaching can provide passage out, next attempts to use body and hands, robe-fold, stool, and table, and only at the end establishes the three carts in accord with what the children previously enjoyed. The whole passage is asking one question: How can one who knows the way out make those who do not know the danger willing to leave?
I. When Fire Arises on All Four Sides, Whose Eye Is Explained First?
The scripture opens by saying that the elder sees the fire. The root treatise therefore first distinguishes the one who sees, what is seen, and alarm and fear, then uses a fourth passage to explain what is seen more broadly. Although the fire seen is central, the eye that sees cannot be omitted. If no one truly saw, the fire would be only a scene. Precisely because the elder sees clearly, the children's play becomes urgent and his alarm and fear acquire their basis.
The house seen takes body, sensation, mind, and dharmas as its four sides. Inversions arise from these four sides, and the fire of the eight sufferings gathers with them. Three ancient explanations instead take the four sides as the four great elements, four modes of birth, or four inversions. The root treatise does not blend them into one account, but follows the later text and takes birth, old age, illness, and death. This reading makes “fire arising on all four sides” more than smoke appearing simultaneously in four directions: the whole of life, from birth to death, is already within the fire.
The elder's first response, however, is not to blame the children. He is alarmed because living beings will retreat from their former great goodness and afraid because they are about to produce grave evil. Alarm corresponds to loving-kindness, the thought that they are without happiness; fear corresponds to compassion, concern that they are suffering. “Seeing” thus immediately becomes loving-kindness and compassion. It is not recognizing danger from afar, but allowing the suffering seen to enter the mind of the one who sees.
II. Having Emerged Peacefully and Securely, Why Does He Still Say “Although”?
The elder says that he can emerge peacefully and securely through the gateway being burned. The root treatise explains peace, security, and emergence separately: not being endangered by the five turbidities and eight sufferings is peace; not being moved by the violent winds of the four inversions is security; standing free beyond entanglements is emergence. It would seem that once this has been accomplished, he need no longer worry or fear, yet the scripture deliberately adds “although.”
This “although” preserves a compassion whose sentence has not yet been completed. The elder can emerge, but the children cannot; his security cannot substitute for theirs. Although fire can no longer harm the Tathāgata, when he sees living beings burned by it, his concern still blazes. Liberation therefore does not separate him from those in the house. It makes him know the fire more clearly and leaves him still less able to abandon those within it.
The alarm and fear here are not fear for his own injury. If only he himself were in danger, leaving through the gateway should end them. That the elder has emerged yet remains alarmed and afraid shows that compassion is concerned with others' lack of happiness and presence of suffering. First seeing, then becoming alarmed, then considering rescue becomes the source of every skillful means that follows.
III. What Can Actually Burn in the Gateway Being Burned?
The children must leave through the gateway, yet the scripture calls it the gateway being burned. If the gateway illustrates teaching, a question arises: Is the teaching itself burned or not?
Someone says that the gateway of teaching itself does not burn, but because the people to whom it gives passage are burned, the gateway is derivatively called burned. This reply leaves another question: if the teaching does not burn, does that not make it permanent? If it is not permanent, why does it not burn?
The root treatise therefore answers through the gateway itself. A gateway has structural components and an open space. The components mark it as a gateway, while the opening enables passage. The components can become ashes, but the open space contains nothing that can burn. Teaching is the same: it has words that express and meaning that is expressed. Without words, the meaning has no means of being indicated; without meaning expressed, words cannot enable anyone to leave. Words wear away, so the gateway can be called burned. Yet living beings meet the meaning expressed precisely through these words, so they can still emerge peacefully and securely through this gateway.
In this way, “burning” and “emerging” do not cancel each other. If the gateway were wholly incombustible, the scripture's fire would have nothing on which to take hold. If it burned away entirely, living beings would have no passage. Through the gateway's components and opening, the root treatise preserves both sides: verbal teaching arises and ceases, yet enables beings to meet principle. In terms of provisional wisdom, one emerges through the gateway being burned; in terms of real wisdom, one comprehends what is burned and emerges peacefully and securely. The later attempt to use a robe-fold, stool, and table fails before the children are led out through the teaching of impermanence; this question and answer already opens that turn in advance.
IV. It Is Not That the Children Fail to See Their Father
The fire already presses upon their bodies, so why do the children not leave? The root treatise does not dismiss the matter with a single word, “delusion,” but unfolds one by one playfulness, play, not awakening, not knowing, not being alarmed, and not being afraid.
Playfulness may be attachment to views and play attachment to craving. They may also mean being immersed and thereby losing merit in vain, or being immersed in the five sensory objects and ultimately gaining nothing. The children are not momentarily distracted; they are within a game in which they are born and die in vain yet never become disenchanted. This attachment to play makes them not even say that a fire exists, called not awakening, and not understand the fire's nature as heat, called not knowing. Because they do not know the heat, they do not fear bodily harm; because they do not consider the severing of life, they are not afraid.
The root treatise further distributes this lack of knowledge across suffering, origination, path, and cessation: they do not awaken to suffering, know origination, become alarmed at damage to the path, or fear the loss of cessation. It also explains this through the absence of wisdom from hearing and reflection and the absence of understanding through seeing and cultivation; then, in terms of present and future, they do not awaken to present suffering or know later suffering. “Not knowing” is therefore not a lack of information, but the failure of hearing, reflection, seeing, and cultivation to begin.
When fire presses upon their bodies, the five consciousnesses have already contacted painful objects, but the mind-king remains neither disenchanted nor distressed. The body already suffers while the mind remains attached to play: this is the burning house's sharpest dislocation. Finally, the root treatise correlates playfulness, play, not awakening and not knowing, the pressure on the body, and the absence of an intention to leave with the five turbidities one by one. Fire on all four sides thus remains more than a general image; it becomes visible throughout the children's views, craving, body and life, and lack of an intention to leave.
V. If His Body and Hands Are Strong, Why Can He Still Not Rescue Them?
At the beginning of the second parable, the elder first thinks that his body and hands are strong enough to bring the children out with a robe-fold, stool, or table. The root treatise looks back from the later correlation: the body is the bearing power of supernormal ability, while the hands are the lifting power of wisdom; the gateway of exhortation causes every good to be practiced, while the gateway of admonition causes every evil to be avoided. Exhortation and admonition each have the three stages of assessing suitability, nonacceptance, and relinquishment. Failure therefore does not mean that the elder lacks strength, but that the children lack the capacity to receive this means of rescue.
The robe-fold, stool, and table also have many transmitted explanations. The root treatise first records accounts of a vessel for holding flowers, Great-Vehicle cause and effect, moral discipline, concentration, and wisdom, and the three periods of seven days. It then states clearly what it adopts: following the correlation, it matches knowledge and vision with the robe-fold, fearlessness with the stool, and ten powers with the table, and says that the three differ only as brief, intermediate, and extensive. The brief has profound meaning, the intermediate is somewhat broader, and the extensive encompasses both horizontally and vertically. The Tathāgata activates them through supernormal power and proclaims them through wisdom. What he would give is not deficient; what is lacking is someone able to receive it.
This also explains why the root treatise discusses this attempt only through the gateways of exhortation and admonition. Both are skillful means established for the ultimate meaning, but when living beings accept neither exhortation nor admonition, further intensifying the same method still cannot bring them out. The elder does not turn “my body and hands are strong” into a reproach of the children. He turns back and considers anew: What can actually move these children?
VI. The Gateway Is Not Narrow; What Is Narrow Is Their Inability to Pass through by Themselves
The elder reflects again that the house has only a single gateway and that it is narrow and small. The root treatise immediately says that teaching and principle are originally broad and are not truly narrow. It is called narrow and small because living beings cannot use this principle and teaching to give themselves passage. The problem is not insufficient capacity in the exit, but the children's inability to travel this road.
The specific explanation separates single, gateway, and small. Single is the sole principle and single pure path; gateway is the correct teaching that gives passage; small means that views of annihilation and permanence and the various skillful means cannot be mixed into it. The general explanation unfolds along the three routes of principle, teaching, and practice. In terms of principle, it is single because purely one, a gateway because it gives passage, and narrow and small because subtle and difficult to know. In terms of teaching, it is single because there is no other vehicle and a gateway because it enables passage. Ordinary people do not know the exit and entry of provisional and real, while the two vehicles and bodhisattvas each have what they do not yet fully know, revealing its narrowness and smallness. In terms of practice, it is single because the direct path is unobstructed, a gateway because it leads straight to the place of awakening, and narrow and small because the wondrous practice is difficult and beings lack the capacity for it.
Thus the single gateway being narrow and small does not mean that truth permits only a few people to pass. It describes living beings' lack of capacity at that time. Nor does immaturity mean the total absence of roots of goodness. The root treatise says that they received instruction from twenty thousand buddhas, but their great goodness is weak. Opposed to weak goodness is strong evil: in cause they are deeply attached to views and craving, in effect deeply attached to dependent and primary recompense, with a distinct object of attachment in each of the three realms. The gateway remains there, but the children may fall because they cling to their place of play.
VII. Why Does Fear Not Move Them, While the Three Carts Do?
When the gateway of exhortation cannot make the children leave the house, the elder admonishes them with fearful matters. He explains fire, house, and loss and urges them to leave quickly. Yet the children are neither alarmed nor afraid; they know neither fire nor house nor what loss means, but run east and west at play, merely looking at their father. Most significant is that they do see their father and have heard the words. They hear but do not accept; what they hear has not become their own intention to leave.
Only then does the elder establish the three carts instead. The root treatise divides using the carts into four passages: first assessing the suitability of the three carts, then knowing what the children previously enjoyed, next praising the three carts, and finally speaking in a way suited to their wishes. The crucial point is not merely that three playthings suddenly appear outside, but that the father knows what living beings practiced in the past. They practiced the Lesser, and so their natures and desires each have their own preference; they also practiced the Great, but their great goodness is not yet strong. Because the Great is weak and the Lesser strong, he first draws them in through the Lesser Dharma.
This turn does not deny the preceding compassion, wisdom, or supernormal power, nor does it say the fire is no longer dangerous. Precisely because the father remains concerned for the lives of father and children, he does not cling to his first means of rescue. If living beings' great goodness is exhausted, the children's life is severed; when the work of transformation thereby loses its function, the father's life too is severed. Although the Dharma body has already emerged, the response-body still shares living beings' affliction. A skillful means must therefore be established before their roots of goodness are severed, enabling them to leave in time.
Praise of the three carts further divides according to the scriptural order into exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation. First the elder says that the playthings are rare, by way of exhortation; next he lists the various carts, by way of demonstration; then he promises to give them all, by way of confirmation. Viewed from the danger itself, the children should have left long before. Viewed from their present desires and enjoyments, their feet truly begin to move only when what is said suits their wishes. Skillful means does not conceal the fire; it enables those whom fire does not move finally to move toward the outside of the gateway.
VIII. From Suiting Their Wishes to Vying to Get Out
The children hear of the precious playthings and, because they suit their wishes, become keen and courageous, press one another forward, race together, and vie to leave the burning house. The root treatise explicitly explains this through six phrases, proceeding from wisdom born of hearing, reflection, and cultivation through the path of seeing, the path of cultivation, and the fruit beyond training. It does not treat the children's burst of running as mere emotional excitement, but reads every verb as a stage in the movement from hearing the Dharma to liberation.
Suiting their wishes is the correspondence of capacity and teaching, from which wisdom through hearing arises. Being keen and courageous is wisdom through reflection beginning to operate. Pressing one another forward means using the four truths to investigate and subdue delusions of views, entering the stages of warmth and summit. Vying to obtain the superior principle is the stage of patience, while jointly contemplating a single truth is the foremost worldly dharma. Racing is the fifteen minds of the path of seeing swiftly seeing principle and thereby receiving a share of nirvāṇa. Vying to get out is the path of cultivation, exhausting delusions of thought and attaining the fruit beyond training; only then do they truly leave the burning house. The scripture's continuous movement becomes in the root treatise a sequence from cause to fruit.
The final explanation through contemplating the mind does not create another burning house, but brings the same sequence of verbs back to mind and object. Mind corresponding with Dharma is suiting the wish; the object being boundless and contemplation likewise boundless is courage; the object sharpening the mind through examination is keenness; mind and object mutually examining each other is pressing forward; the mind-king and mental factors rapidly engaging the object is racing together. When all aggregates, elements, and sense fields are directly contemplated as the true mark, this is called leaving the burning house. The single gateway through which the elder has labored to make the children pass now rests where contemplating mind and contemplated object correspond.
Through the Eye of the Wenjuji
Zhanran first fixes the root treatise's four passages and three meanings. The Wenjuji says: “They are the one who sees, what is seen, and becoming alarmed and entering the house; when set against the parable text below there are still four”〔T34n1719 0249b24〕. The fourth passage merely explains what is seen more broadly and cannot turn the three meanings into four. The one who sees, what is seen, and alarm and fear remain the three principal joints of the meaning.
Concerning the elder having already emerged yet remaining alarmed, the Record catches a movement out and back: “The elder had already emerged peacefully and securely; though secure, he is alarmed, and though emerged, he must enter”〔0261b06〕. This makes the root treatise's “although” clearer: security is the elder's own realization, while entering the fire is compassion responding to beings. The two proceed together; he is not driven back by the fire after first escaping it.
In the question and answer on the gateway being burned, the Record expressly judges that the preceding rescue-explanation still does not get through and concludes the root treatise's proper explanation through the gateway's frame and open space: “The Lesser Teaching's meaning of impermanence shares in being burned, like the gateway's frame; principle is not impermanent, like the gateway's open space. The two meanings of burning and peaceful security are both established”〔0261b28–0261c01〕. The gateway's burning and emerging through it are therefore not mutually exclusive answers. That which expresses and that which is expressed each obtain their proper place.
At playfulness and not awakening or knowing, the Record distinguishes the root treatise's levels more finely: it first speaks according to ordinary feeling, then according to stages of training, and finally according to present and future〔0262a05–0262a27〕. It also points out that the five consciousnesses first encounter objects and the sixth consciousness then adds discrimination〔0262b13〕. These clarify the root treatise's arrangement at the mirror level and should not be moved anonymously into the root text, but they help the reader see how a single sentence unfolds level by level.
For the various explanations of robe-fold, stool, and table, the Record first distinguishes the body and hands that can bestow from the three objects bestowed, then evaluates the old explanations. It holds that the explanation through cause and effect is not wholly without reason, but lacks the marks of bestowing transformation〔0262c15〕. It questions the account of moral discipline, concentration, and wisdom that claims to come from an Āgama, since the Lesser should not explain the Great〔0262c17〕. This is Zhanran's adjudication, not a judgment already stated expressly in Zhizhe's root text.
Beyond the gateways of exhortation and admonition, the Record separately asks why the siddhānta of the world is not mentioned. It answers that beings' differing enjoyments and their joy on hearing the Dharma can also be explained through the world's meaning〔0262c09–0262c11〕. This supplement belongs only to the mirror explanation. The root treatise still expressly lists here the siddhāntas for each person and of counteraction as skillful means for the ultimate meaning; its body is not supplemented with another correspondence table on account of the later gloss.
At the single gateway being narrow and small, the Record clearly distinguishes the specific word-by-word explanation from the general explanation in which principle, teaching, and practice each possess single, gateway, and narrow and small〔0263a11–0263a21〕. It further joins immaturity and the place of play through “weak goodness, strong evil”〔0263b15–0263b17〕. The gateway's narrowness thus always rests in the absence of capacity, not in principle or teaching itself being constricted.
For the difficulty of father and children both being burned, the Record distinguishes Dharma body and response-body: “If Dharma body and response-body are contrasted, the permanently abiding Dharma body has already emerged; the present discussion concerns the response-body undergoing transformation in accord with beings' capacities”〔0263c24〕. It further criticizes an explanation solely through simultaneous stimulus and response: although it can explain their emerging together, it cannot also account for their being burned together〔0264a04〕. This mirror perspective preserves the double force of the root treatise's two apparently contrary statements.
For the final six phrases, the Record gathers the four stages of worthies and the two of seeing and cultivation〔0264a26〕, while preserving a difference among schools concerning the fifteen and sixteen minds of the path of seeing: “Some say that the sixteenth mind still remains in the path of seeing. The schools differ”〔0264b07〕. This objection changes neither the root treatise's statement of fifteen minds nor the denominator of six phrases. It only reminds readers that Zhizhe reads “racing” here in the language of his own stages, while ancient traditions also made a different classification.
考據Apparatus
本單元進入火宅別譬的前半。智者先總標見火、捨几用車、等賜大車、長者不虛四支，再詳釋前二支：長者既見火，如何驚怖而仍安隱得出；諸子既不受衣裓、几、案之救，長者又如何轉以三車引令出宅。考據以下嚴守本論所立科次，根經與古疏所傳異文並錄，不以今本文字覆寫古疏，也不以鏡中判釋倒灌成本論原說。
一、科判定位
嚴格域為 T34n1718〔0067b07–0069c04〕，卷題起於〔0067b07〕，作者行起於〔0067b09〕，義科正文自『從長者見是大火下』〔0067b10〕起，止於「名為出火宅也〔云云〕」〔0069c03–0069c04〕。同在〔0069c04〕開頭的下一句已轉入等賜大車，依逐字半開邊界不納入本單元。本域正文實測三千一百九十四個漢字。
本論先列別譬四支：見火四行偈、捨机用車十七行半偈、等賜大車六行偈、長者無虛二行半偈〔0067b10–0067b16〕。本單元只展開前二支，但總標既在域內，四支的根經偈本均須回錨。依正文問答與轉折，可分十三節：
| 次第 | 行域 | 本論內容 |
|---|---|---|
| 一 | 0067b10–0067b22 | 別譬四支總標；見火有四文而成能見、所見、驚怖三意 |
| 二 | 0067b23–0067b28 | 身、受、心、法為宅四邊；四倒、八苦；四面舊有三解而今依生、老、病、死 |
| 三 | 0067b28–0067c07 | 驚、怖分對慈、悲；佛安隱得出而仍為眾生憂火所熾 |
| 四 | 0067c07–0067c25 | 所燒之門兩問；門之件、空與教之能詮、所詮；權智、實智再釋 |
| 五 | 0067c26–0068a19 | 嬉、戲與不覺、不知、不驚、不怖逐字展開；四諦、五識心王及五濁配譬 |
| 六 | 0068a19–0068b15 | 捨几用車總科；勸、誡二門各有擬宜、不受、放捨；身、手配神力、智慧力 |
| 七 | 0068b15–0068c04 | 衣裓、几、案諸說；本論取合譬文，判作知見、無畏、十力之略、中、廣 |
| 八 | 0068c04–0069a03 | 子不受：一門狹小的別、通二釋，理、教、行三途；幼稚、戲處與墮落二義 |
| 九 | 0069a03–0069a17 | 誡門擬宜、子不受、放捨；火、舍、失與東西馳走逐一配釋 |
| 十 | 0069a17–0069b05 | 用車四科；父命、子命；法身得出與應身同疾問答；設方便 |
| 十一 | 0069b05–0069b10 | 父知先心：昔習小、昔習大，大弱小強及六心中退 |
| 十二 | 0069b10–0069b14 | 歎三車依經序判為勸、示、證 |
| 十三 | 0069b14–0069c04 | 適子所願六句，從聞、思、修至見道、思惟道、無學果，末作觀心解 |
二、成立與傳本
卷端神逈序記此書為灌頂法師私記，又記唐天寶戊子朗和尚條倫治定；本單元卷題後仍署「天台智者大師說」〔T34n1718 0067b09〕。因此義說歸智者，文字傳錄歸灌頂及後世治定。現行大正本只提供大正底本與甲本校異，不足以重建條倫以前的全部傳承；以下只誌現存證據，不將每一異字判為先後。
本域有四組正文校異、一枚卷次附註、兩枚行內夾註。正文另有「捨机」〔0067b12〕與後文「捨几」〔0068a20〕並存。這些皆按磁碟字面保留，不先行整一。
三、所帖經文與所引
（一）根經本版回錨
根經取本倉已封印的 canon/tiantai/fahua/treatise/03_piyu/03_piyu_source.md 為本版基準，並回查 T09n0262 電子本文。與本相直接相接的經域自「長者見是大火」〔T09n0262 0012b19〕起，至「爭出火宅」〔0012c13〕止；同在〔0012c13〕續起的「是時長者見諸子等」已屬下一相。
見火一段〔T09n0262 0012b19–0012b23〕：
長者見是大火從四面起，即大驚怖，而作是念：『我雖能於此所燒之門安隱得出，而諸子等，於火宅內樂著嬉戲，不覺不知、不驚不怖，火來逼身，苦痛切己，心不厭患，無求出意。』
衣裓、机案、誡怖與子不受〔T09n0262 0012b23–0012c04〕：
「舍利弗！是長者作是思惟：『我身手有力，當以衣裓、若以机案，從舍出之。』復更思惟：『是舍唯有一門，而復狹小。諸子幼稚，未有所識，戀著戲處，或當墮落，為火所燒。我當為說怖畏之事，此舍已燒，宜時疾出，無令為火之所燒害。』作是念已，如所思惟，具告諸子，汝等速出。父雖憐愍、善言誘喻，而諸子等樂著嬉戲，不肯信受，不驚不畏，了無出心；亦復不知何者是火？何者為舍？云何為失？但東西走戲，視父而已。」
三車方便至出宅〔T09n0262 0012c04–0012c13〕：
「爾時長者即作是念：『此舍已為大火所燒，我及諸子若不時出，必為所焚。我今當設方便，令諸子等得免斯害。』父知諸子先心各有所好種種珍玩奇異之物，情必樂著，而告之言：『汝等所可玩好，希有難得，汝若不取，後必憂悔。如此種種羊車、鹿車、牛車，今在門外，可以遊戲。汝等於此火宅、宜速出來，隨汝所欲，皆當與汝。』爾時諸子聞父所說珍玩之物，適其願故，心各勇銳，互相推排，競共馳走，爭出火宅。」
（二）四支譬本偈
見火四行，經本為八個偈行〔T09n0262 0009b25–0009c03〕：
舍利弗當知！我以佛眼觀，
見六道眾生，貧窮無福慧，
入生死嶮道，相續苦不斷，
深著於五欲，如犛牛愛尾，
以貪愛自蔽，盲瞑無所見。
不求大勢佛，及與斷苦法，
深入諸邪見，以苦欲捨苦，
為是眾生故，而起大悲心。
大擬不得六行半，經本為十三個偈行〔T09n0262 0009c04–0009c16〕：
我始坐道場，觀樹亦經行，
於三七日中，思惟如是事，
我所得智慧，微妙最第一。
眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲，
如斯之等類，云何而可度？
爾時諸梵王，及諸天帝釋、
護世四天王，及大自在天，
并餘諸天眾，眷屬百千萬，
恭敬合掌禮，請我轉法輪。
我即自思惟：『若但讚佛乘，
眾生沒在苦，不能信是法；
破法不信故，墜於三惡道。
我寧不說法，疾入於涅槃。
用小擬得十一行，經本為二十二個偈行〔T09n0262 0009c17–0010a09〕：
尋念過去佛，所行方便力，
我今所得道，亦應說三乘。』
作是思惟時，十方佛皆現，
梵音慰喻我：『善哉釋迦文！
第一之導師，得是無上法，
隨諸一切佛，而用方便力。
我等亦皆得，最妙第一法，
為諸眾生類、分別說三乘。
少智樂小法，不自信作佛，
是故以方便，分別說諸果。
雖復說三乘，但為教菩薩。』
舍利弗當知！我聞聖師子，
深淨微妙音，喜稱南無佛。
復作如是念：『我出濁惡世，
如諸佛所說，我亦隨順行。』
思惟是事已，即趣波羅柰。
諸法寂滅相，不可以言宣，
以方便力故，為五比丘說。
是名轉法輪，便有涅槃音，
及以阿羅漢，法僧差別名。
從久遠劫來，讚示涅槃法，
生死苦永盡，我常如是說。
等賜大車六行，經本為十二個偈行〔T09n0262 0010a10–0010a21〕：
舍利弗當知！我見佛子等，
志求佛道者，無量千萬億，
咸以恭敬心，皆來至佛所，
曾從諸佛聞，方便所說法。
我即作是念：『如來所以出，
為說佛慧故，今正是其時。』
舍利弗當知！鈍根小智人、
著相憍慢者，不能信是法。
今我喜無畏，於諸菩薩中，
正直捨方便，但說無上道。
菩薩聞是法，疑網皆已除，
千二百羅漢，悉亦當作佛。
長者無虛二行半，經本為五個偈行〔T09n0262 0010b04–0010b08〕：
汝等勿有疑，我為諸法王，
普告諸大眾，但以一乘道，
教化諸菩薩，無聲聞弟子。
汝等舍利弗，聲聞及菩薩，
當知是妙法，諸佛之祕要。
（三）本論所帖短句與今本字面
| T1718 所帖或科語 | T09n0262 今本 | 字面關係 |
|---|---|---|
我以佛眼觀見〔T34n1718 0067b19〕 | 我以佛眼觀，見六道眾生〔T09n0262 0009b25–0009b26〕 | 本論連讀偈行停頓兩側 |
所見六道眾生〔0067b20–0067b21〕 | 見六道眾生〔0009b26〕 | 核心字面相同 |
為是眾生故而起大悲心〔0067b21–0067b22〕 | 為是眾生故，而起大悲心。〔0009c03〕 | 句讀不同，字序相同 |
現受眾苦，後受地獄等苦〔0068a10〕 | 現受眾苦，後受地獄、畜生、餓鬼之苦〔0013a21〕 | 本論以「等」收攝今本列舉 |
定慧力莊嚴以此度眾生〔0068b12–0068b13〕 | 定慧力莊嚴，以此度眾生。〔0008a24〕 | 字面相同，句讀不同 |
若我讚佛乘，眾生沒在苦〔0068c17〕 | 若但讚佛乘，眾生沒在苦〔0009c13–0009c14〕 | 本論作「若我」，今本作「若但」 |
眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲〔0068c27–0068c28〕 | 眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲〔0009c07〕 | 字面相同 |
尋念過去佛所行方便力〔0069a18–0069a19〕 | 尋念過去佛，所行方便力〔0009c17〕 | 偈行停頓不同 |
尋念過去佛亦作三乘化〔0069a20–0069a21〕 | 尋念過去佛，所行方便力，我今所得道，亦應說三乘〔0009c17–0009c18〕 | 本論是科判轉述，不是今本連續原句 |
作是思惟時十方佛皆現〔0069a21–0069a22〕 | 作是思惟時，十方佛皆現〔0009c19〕 | 句讀不同，字序相同 |
思惟是事已即趣波羅柰〔0069a23〕 | 思惟是事已，即趣波羅柰。〔0010a03〕 | 句讀不同，字序相同 |
受行悟入是名轉法輪〔0069a24〕 | 是名轉法輪，便有涅槃音〔0010a06〕 | 「受行悟入」是本論科語 |
便有涅槃音〔0069b25〕 | 便有涅槃音〔0010a06〕 | 字面相同 |
及以阿羅漢法僧差別名〔0069b27–0069b28〕 | 及以阿羅漢，法僧差別名。〔0010a07〕 | 句讀不同，字序相同 |
（四）合譬回照與三車
本論兩次明言取下文合譬〔0068b02–0068b03、0068b21〕，故以下依本論自己指定的後文核對，不將疏家配釋冒充根經原句。
| 本論用語 | 根經後文今本 | 關係 |
|---|---|---|
但以神力及智慧力〔T34n1718 0068b02–0068b03〕 | 若我但以神力及智慧力，捨於方便，為諸眾生讚如來知見、力無所畏者，眾生不能以是得度。〔T09n0262 0013a29–0013b02〕 | 本論據此配身、手及衣裓、几、案 |
知見譬衣裓，無畏譬几，十力譬案〔0068b24〕 | 今本只並列 如來知見、力無所畏〔0013b01–0013b02〕 | 三物分配是本論解釋 |
| 三車 | 為說三乘——聲聞、辟支佛、佛乘〔0013b09〕 | 今本先列三乘 |
| 羊車 | 是名聲聞乘，如彼諸子為求羊車出於火宅〔0013b20–0013b21〕 | 根經自合 |
| 鹿車 | 是名辟支佛乘，如彼諸子為求鹿車出於火宅〔0013b23–0013b24〕 | 根經自合 |
| 牛車 | 是名大乘，菩薩求此乘故，名為摩訶薩，如彼諸子為求牛車、出於火宅。〔0013b27–0013b29〕 | 根經此處稱大乘、摩訶薩 |
（五）《大經》所傳句與今本
本論傳「《大經》云：『因無常故而果是常』」〔T34n1718 0067c19〕。今本 T12n0374 作：
譬如世間從因生法，有因則有果，無因則無果。因無常故，果亦無常。〔T12n0374 0505a13–0505a15〕
若使涅槃從因生者，因無常故，果亦無常；而是涅槃不從因生，體非是果，是故為常。〔0505a16–0505a18〕
平行本 T12n0375 同見「因無常故，果亦無常。」〔0748c27〕及「而是涅槃不從因生，體非是果，是故為常。」〔0749a01–0749a02〕。本論八字命題與今本長句並錄，不判孰正，也不用今本改寫所傳引文。
（六）《大品》所傳句與今本
本論作「如《大品》中說，四念是摩訶衍，以不可得故，異於小乘也」〔T34n1718 0069a05–0069a06〕。今本 T08n0223 明見：
佛告須菩提：「菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍，所謂四念處。」〔T08n0223 0253b19–0253b20〕
其下身、受、心、法觀均以不可得為限〔0253b20–0253b25〕，又作「四念處不異摩訶衍，摩訶衍不異四念處，四念處、摩訶衍無二無別。」〔0267a13–0267a15〕。今本可對出四念處、摩訶衍與不可得三項；「異於小乘也」仍只記作本論在此的判語。
（七）《阿含經》來源聲稱
本論所錄舊說為：
舊又云：「此物譬大乘戒、定、慧，初七思惟所得法，此如用衣裓；二七思惟眾生根緣，如用几；三七思惟樹地恩，如用案。」云此義出《阿含經》。〔T34n1718 0068b18–0068b21〕
本論未給經名、卷品或譯者；鏡文也只重述此說自稱出《阿含經》〔T34n1719 0262c17〕。T01、T02 今本未鎖得足以承擔三支整組的唯一段落，故本項只誌『本論錄有來源聲稱，今本未唯一定位』，不補造 T 號。
（八）無題署古說與古德平行
本論只記「三藏法師云，衣裓是外國盛花之器，貢上貴人用此貯之。」〔T34n1718 0068b15〕，沒有姓名。T37n1760 古疏另見「衣裓，古釋云：衣襟也。真諦云：外國盛華器也。」〔T37n1760 0354c15–0354c16〕；此處只作古德平行，不將平行中的姓名靜默補回本論。
本論又記「如身子六心中退」〔T34n1718 0069b09〕，並未標經名。其來源線索由鏡文說「準《瓔珞》意」〔T34n1719 0264a08–0264a09〕；今本 T24n1485 見「從初一住至第六住中」〔1014c02〕、「自此七住以前名為退分。」〔1014c04–1014c05〕，並記舍利弗等欲入第七住而遇惡因緣退〔1014c08–1014c11〕。這一溯源明屬鏡釋，不倒寫成本論明引。
四、文句記釋要〔鏡〕
鏡文的直接釋域自「身受」等者，倒所依也〔T34n1719 0260c17〕起，至本單元觀心解後的「今在三藏」〔0264b20〕；下一句〔0264b21〕已轉後相。另有較前的科判橋段〔0248b12–0249c05〕。下表只取骨幹，判語均明署《記》：
| 本論節點 | 《文句記》對位與釋要 |
|---|---|
| 見火四文三意〔0067b16〕 | 《記》說能見、所見、驚入是三，對譬文仍呈四段〔0249b22–0249b24〕 |
| 身受心法、四倒八苦〔0067b23〕 | 《記》判身受等為倒所依、四倒為倒相、八苦為倒果〔0260c17–0260c26〕 |
| 驚怖與慈悲〔0067b28〕 | 《記》說長者大悲小應與退大之心同時而起，無樂、有苦之義兼大小〔0261a28–0261b01〕 |
| 安隱得出〔0067c01〕 | 《記》以長者雖已得出而須再入，說明慈悲入火之由〔0261b04–0261b12〕 |
| 所燒之門〔0067c07〕 | 《記》判救說仍未通，正解具譬、合，門楗可燒而門空不可燒〔0261b15–0261c02〕 |
| 嬉戲、不覺不知〔0067c26〕 | 《記》先分字、再合字釋嬉戲，又把不覺不知四句依凡位、位次、三世分判〔0261c20–0262a27〕 |
| 五濁配火〔0068a15〕 | 《記》說此處正是廣前所見之火，故只須依濁名配譬〔0262b17–0262b24〕 |
| 身手與衣裓几案〔0068b02〕 | 《記》先分能施、所施；能所俱廢故稱不得，再評兩家舊解，後釋本論所取〔0262b25–0263a10〕 |
| 一門狹小〔0068c05〕 | 《記》明別釋逐字分一、門、狹小，通釋則理、教、行各具三義〔0263a11–0263b12〕 |
| 幼稚與戲處〔0068c21〕 | 《記》取本論「大善未生」之解，又以善弱、惡強相對〔0263b15–0263b17〕 |
| 誡門與東西走戲〔0069a03〕 | 《記》以能所俱不可得說對治，又以東西配苦集、馳走配往還〔0263b23–0263c08〕 |
| 得出與俱焚〔0069a28〕 | 《記》分法身常住已出、應身隨物機受化，並駁只得俱出而失俱燒之說〔0263c20–0264a04〕 |
| 先心所好〔0069b05〕 | 《記》說有小機故以小接，並以厭苦、是治二義解小強；六心退則準《瓔珞》〔0264a05–0264a09〕 |
| 勸示證與六句〔0069b12〕 | 《記》說勸、示之序隨經而立，又把六句合為賢四、見修二〔0264a23–0264b06〕 |
| 觀心解〔0069b28〕 | 《記》指出心境相研與王、數發觀，並明本處位次所屬〔0264b09–0264b19〕 |
五、諸家異釋
本論在本域自錄的異解標記均依出現次序列於下表；一說內含三家者仍保留三項，不合併成一個泛稱。
| 說者或標記 | 所傳內容 | 本論取向 |
|---|---|---|
| 舊有三解之一 | 「一云四大為四面，六識並託其中」〔T34n1718 0067b26〕 | 本論轉依下文，以生、老、病、死為四邊〔0067b27〕 |
| 舊有三解之二 | 「二即四生」〔0067b27〕 | 同上 |
| 舊有三解之三 | 「三云四倒。」〔0067b27〕 | 同上 |
| 救云 | 「教門不燒，佛教為門，能通所燒之人，所通之人被燒，名能通門名燒，如門內人死，名門為衰，門實不衰。」〔0067c09–0067c11〕 | 本論再問而另作件、空及能詮、所詮之解〔0067c11–0067c20〕 |
| 亦云 | 「曾種大乘功德，是法身智慧為體，體為四倒所逼，而不知不覺。」〔0068a12–0068a14〕 | 並錄；本論下文另以五濁逐配火宅諸句 |
| 三藏法師云 | 「衣裓是外國盛花之器，貢上貴人用此貯之。」〔0068b15〕 | 本論不題姓名；後依合譬另釋三物 |
| 舊云 | 「衣襟譬大乘因，几案譬大乘果，初擬大乘因果，是則無機也。」〔0068b16–0068b18〕 | 本論後取合譬文 |
| 舊又云 | 「此物譬大乘戒、定、慧，初七思惟所得法，此如用衣裓；二七思惟眾生根緣，如用几；三七思惟樹地恩，如用案。」〔0068b18–0068b20〕 | 所稱《阿含經》今本未唯一定位；本論後取合譬文 |
| 舊解 | 人天小善故云「幼稚」，無大乘善名「未有所識」。〔0068c21–0068c22〕 | 本論改以二萬佛所教之大善微弱與聞大能生謗毀釋二詞〔0068c22–0068c23〕 |
六、術語
| 名相 | 本論在本相的界定 |
|---|---|
| 四邊 | 先錄四大、四生、四倒三解，正文依下文取生、老、病、死〔0067b26–0067b27〕 |
| 驚、怖 | 驚是念退大善而對慈、念其無樂；怖是憂起重惡而對悲、憂其有苦〔0067b28–0067b29〕 |
| 安、隱、出 | 不為五濁八苦所危名安，不為四倒所動名隱，蕭然累外名得出〔0067c03–0067c05〕 |
| 件、空 | 件標示門而可灰燼，空使人通過而不可燒；譬能詮可磨滅、所詮非復無常〔0067c12–0067c18〕 |
| 嬉、戲 | 先以著見、著愛分釋，又以耽湎而唐喪其功、空無所獲合釋〔0067c26–0067c29〕 |
| 身、手 | 身譬神通荷負，手譬智慧提拔；由合譬的神力、智慧力回釋〔0068b02–0068b04〕 |
| 衣裓、几、案 | 本論所取依次為知見、無畏、十力，並判略、中、廣；不是根經自行明列的配當〔0068b21–0068c03〕 |
| 一門狹小 | 別釋逐字分一、門、小；通釋則由理、教、行三途各明一、門、狹小〔0068c05–0068c20〕 |
| 墮落 | 一是幼稚憶戲、無識執物不堅而墮；二是善弱無識、謗毀大乘而墮〔0068c28–0069a02〕 |
| 用車四科 | 擬宜三車、父知先心、歎三車、適子所願，依次對所行方便、十方佛現、趣波羅柰、轉法輪〔0069a17–0069a24〕 |
| 勸、示、證 | 玩好希有為勸，如此種種為示，宜速出來皆當與汝為證〔0069b10–0069b14〕 |
| 適願六句 | 適願、勇銳、互相推排、競、共、馳走、爭出依原文分成六句解；本論明言六句，不因字面可拆七項而改數〔0069b16–0069b27〕 |
七、譬喻・互讀・承衍
本相的譬喻推進有清楚的層次。先是長者在宅外看見火起，所見不是靜止景物，而是眾苦聚集、諸子仍嬉戲的危急場面。其次，長者嘗試以身手和衣裓、几、案直接救出；本論把這一嘗試配回神通、智慧與知見、無畏、十力。再其次，孩子既不受勸告，也不受怖畏之誡，長者才轉設三車。三車在譬段只是父親順其先心所好的方便，聲聞、辟支佛、佛乘的法義配合要到根經合譬段才由經文明說〔T09n0262 0013b09〕，不可倒灌成譬段中諸子已知的法說。
「一門」同時承擔宅門、教門與通達之義；「所燒之門」則藉門件與門空，拉開可磨滅的言詮和由之契入的所詮。到末段，動勢由「視父而已」轉成「競共馳走，爭出火宅」：同一群孩子不是因危險本身忽然生信，而是所聞之物適合其先心所好。本論因此把六句逐步配到聞、思、修、見道、思惟道與無學果，再以觀心解收回當下心境相研。
八、校本定位
（一）正文校異
| 校異 | 首字實位 | 說明 |
|---|---|---|
| 名【大】／為【甲】 | 0067c27 | 「著見名嬉」的「名」 |
| 秖【大】＊／只【甲】＊ | 0068b11 | 「秖是勸、誡兩悉檀」；大正校注以星號標示對應字 |
| 設權【大】／權設【甲】 | 0069b04 | 校異原字串跨〔0069b04–0069b05〕換行，起錨仍取「設」前最近行標〔0069b04〕 |
| 第【大】／甲本缺 | 0069b05 | 甲本校勘讀項為零字空讀，不補作文字 |
秖【大】＊／只【甲】＊ 的星號屬 corresp 型：後文另一處同組字形以對應校記回指本組。該後見不在本單元嚴格域內，故此處說明星號機制，而不將域外對應字另算成本相第五組異文。
（二）卷次附註、行內夾註與字形
卷題附近另有「不分卷【甲】」的附註，錨在〔0067b10；校勘資料附註號 0067005〕；它是版式／卷次說明，不是正文 <app>，故不列為第五組文字異讀。
行內兩枚 <note place="inline"> 均依本版體例轉作方括式夾註：一為「此與五濁相當〔云云〕」〔T34n1718 0068a19〕，一為「名為出火宅也〔云云〕」〔0069c03–0069c04〕。本相 T1718 正文與相應 T1719 直接釋域均未見需另製字形表的缺字圖像。
正文總標作「捨机用車」〔0067b12〕，進入第二譬時作「捨几用車」〔0068a20〕；根經今本作「衣裓、若以机案」〔T09n0262 0012b24〕。三處各守磁碟字面，不先統一「机／几」。
（三）頁錨體例
本版原典在每一新頁只顯示一枚頁錨：〔T34 0067b07〕、〔T34 0068a19〕、〔T34 0069a03〕。考據為使引句可逐字反查，採引句首字之前最近的大正藏行標作實位，故會細分為〔0067b10〕、〔0068b24〕、〔0069b05〕等；跨行引文的範圍起點亦取首字實位，不以欄首、前句或標名行代替。
This unit enters the first half of the specific parables of the burning house. Zhiyi first gives the four branches—seeing the fire, setting aside the stool and using the carts, equally bestowing the great cart, and the elder not being false—then explains the first two in detail: once the elder has seen the fire, how can he be alarmed and afraid while still having emerged peacefully and securely? Once the children have refused rescue by robe-fold, stool, and table, how does the elder turn to the three carts and draw them out of the house? The apparatus below strictly follows the outline established by the root treatise. It records the root scripture and the readings transmitted by the ancient commentary without overwriting them with the wording of the present text, and it does not pour the mirror's adjudications backward into the root treatise as though they were its own statements.
I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement
The strict domain is T34n1718〔0067b07–0069c04〕. The fascicle title begins at〔0067b07〕, the attribution line at〔0067b09〕, and the doctrinal-outline body at “From ‘the elder sees this great fire’”〔0067b10〕; the domain ends with 「名為出火宅也〔云云〕」 tr. “This is called emerging from the burning house [and so forth]”〔0069c03–0069c04〕. The next sentence, which begins on the same physical line〔0069c04〕, has already turned to the equal bestowal of the great cart and is excluded under the exact half-open boundary. The body of this domain contains a measured 3,194 Han characters.
The root treatise first lists the four branches of the specific parable: the four lines of verse on seeing the fire, the seventeen and a half lines on setting aside the table and using the carts, the six lines on equally bestowing the great cart, and the two and a half lines on the elder's not being false〔0067b10–0067b16〕. This unit unfolds only the first two branches, but because the general heading lies within the domain, all four root-scripture verse passages must be anchored. Following the questions, answers, and turns in the body, the unit divides into thirteen sections:
| No. | Domain | Content in the Root Treatise |
|---|---|---|
| I | 0067b10–0067b22 | General heading of the four specific parables; seeing the fire has four textual passages that form three meanings: the one who sees, what is seen, and alarm and fear. |
| II | 0067b23–0067b28 | Body, sensation, mind, and dharmas as the house's four sides; four inversions and eight sufferings; three old explanations of the four sides, while the present explanation follows birth, old age, illness, and death. |
| III | 0067b28–0067c07 | Alarm and fear correlated respectively with loving-kindness and compassion; the Buddha has emerged peacefully and securely, yet his concern for beings is still intensified by the fire. |
| IV | 0067c07–0067c25 | Two questions about the gateway being burned; the gateway's structural components and open space, and a teaching's words that express and meaning expressed; a second explanation through provisional and real wisdom. |
| V | 0067c26–0068a19 | Playfulness, play, not awakening, not knowing, not being alarmed, and not being afraid unfolded word by word; the four truths, the five consciousnesses, the mind-king, and the five turbidities correlated with the parable. |
| VI | 0068a19–0068b15 | General outline of setting aside the stool and using the carts; the gateways of exhortation and admonition each comprise assessment of suitability, nonacceptance, and relinquishment; body and hands correspond to supernormal power and the power of wisdom. |
| VII | 0068b15–0068c04 | Various explanations of robe-fold, stool, and table; the root treatise adopts the text of the later correlation and judges them to be brief, intermediate, and extensive forms of knowledge and vision, fearlessness, and the ten powers. |
| VIII | 0068c04–0069a03 | The children do not accept: specific and general explanations of the single narrow gateway along the three routes of principle, teaching, and practice; two meanings of immaturity, the place of play, and falling. |
| IX | 0069a03–0069a17 | Assessment of suitability, the children's nonacceptance, and relinquishment in the gateway of admonition; fire, house, loss, and running east and west are correlated one by one. |
| X | 0069a17–0069b05 | Four passages on using the carts; the father's life and the children's lives; question and answer on the Dharma body having emerged while the response-body shares their affliction; establishment of skillful means. |
| XI | 0069b05–0069b10 | The father knows their prior inclinations: previous practice of the Lesser and of the Great, the Great being weak and the Lesser strong, and retreat at the sixth mind. |
| XII | 0069b10–0069b14 | The praise of the three carts is judged according to the scriptural order as exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation. |
| XIII | 0069b14–0069c04 | The six phrases on suiting the children's wishes, proceeding from wisdom through hearing, reflection, and cultivation to the path of seeing, path of cultivation, and fruit beyond training, and ending with an explanation through contemplating the mind. |
II. Formation and Transmission
Shenjiong's preface at the head of the fascicle records that this work was Guanding's private record and that in the wuxu year of the Tang Tianbao era Master Lang arranged and established its order; after the fascicle title this unit still bears the attribution 「天台智者大師說」 tr. “taught by Tiantai Great Master Zhizhe”〔T34n1718 0067b09〕. The doctrinal exposition is therefore attributed to Zhizhe, while its written transmission belongs to Guanding and later recension. The present Taishō text supplies only its base reading and variants from witness A, which is insufficient to reconstruct the full transmission before that recension. The evidence that survives is recorded below without judging every variant to be earlier or later.
This domain contains four groups of textual variants, one fascicle-number note, and two inline notes. Its body also contains 「捨机」 tr. “setting aside the table”〔0067b12〕 and, later, 「捨几」 tr. “setting aside the stool”〔0068a20〕. All are preserved according to the exact forms on disk and are not normalized in advance.
III. Sutra Passages Explained and Works Cited
1. Anchoring the Root Scripture for This Edition
The root scripture follows this repository's sealed canon/tiantai/fahua/treatise/03_piyu/03_piyu_source.md as the edition baseline and is checked against the electronic text of T09n0262. The directly corresponding scriptural domain begins with 「長者見是大火」 tr. “the elder sees this great fire”〔T09n0262 0012b19〕 and ends with 「爭出火宅」 tr. “vie to escape the burning house”〔0012c13〕. The continuation 「是時長者見諸子等」 tr. “At that time the elder saw that the children” on the same line〔0012c13〕 already belongs to the next aspect.
The passage on seeing the fire〔T09n0262 0012b19–0012b23〕:
長者見是大火從四面起，即大驚怖，而作是念：『我雖能於此所燒之門安隱得出，而諸子等，於火宅內樂著嬉戲，不覺不知、不驚不怖，火來逼身，苦痛切己，心不厭患，無求出意。』tr. “The elder saw this great fire arising on all four sides and was greatly alarmed and afraid. He thought: ‘Although I have been able to emerge peacefully and securely through this gateway being burned, the children remain in the burning house, delighting in and attached to their play. They do not awaken or know; they are neither alarmed nor afraid. The fire comes and presses upon their bodies, and painful suffering cuts into them, yet their minds feel no disenchantment or distress and they have no intention of seeking a way out.’”
The robe-fold, stool and table, admonition by fear, and the children's nonacceptance〔T09n0262 0012b23–0012c04〕:
「舍利弗！是長者作是思惟：『我身手有力，當以衣裓、若以机案，從舍出之。』復更思惟：『是舍唯有一門，而復狹小。諸子幼稚，未有所識，戀著戲處，或當墮落，為火所燒。我當為說怖畏之事，此舍已燒，宜時疾出，無令為火之所燒害。』作是念已，如所思惟，具告諸子，汝等速出。父雖憐愍、善言誘喻，而諸子等樂著嬉戲，不肯信受，不驚不畏，了無出心；亦復不知何者是火？何者為舍？云何為失？但東西走戲，視父而已。」 tr. “Śāriputra! The elder thought: ‘My body and hands are strong. I should take them out of the house by means of a robe-fold, or by means of a stool or table.’ He thought again: ‘This house has only one gateway, and it is narrow and small. The children are immature and know nothing yet; attached to their place of play, they may fall and be burned by the fire. I should explain fearful matters to them. This house is already burning; they should swiftly come out at once and not let the fire burn and harm them.’ Having thought this, he told the children fully what he had considered: ‘All of you, come out quickly!’ Although the father pitied them and used gentle words to induce and explain, the children delighted in and were attached to their play. They refused to believe or accept, were neither alarmed nor afraid, and had no intention at all of leaving. Nor did they know what fire was, what the house was, or what loss meant. They merely ran east and west at play and looked at their father.”
The skillful means of the three carts through leaving the house〔T09n0262 0012c04–0012c13〕:
「爾時長者即作是念：『此舍已為大火所燒，我及諸子若不時出，必為所焚。我今當設方便，令諸子等得免斯害。』父知諸子先心各有所好種種珍玩奇異之物，情必樂著，而告之言：『汝等所可玩好，希有難得，汝若不取，後必憂悔。如此種種羊車、鹿車、牛車，今在門外，可以遊戲。汝等於此火宅、宜速出來，隨汝所欲，皆當與汝。』爾時諸子聞父所說珍玩之物，適其願故，心各勇銳，互相推排，競共馳走，爭出火宅。」 tr. “At that time the elder immediately thought: ‘This house is already being burned by a great fire. If my children and I do not leave in time, we will certainly be consumed. I must now establish a skillful means so that the children can escape this harm.’ The father knew that the children's prior inclinations each favored various precious, delightful, and extraordinary playthings to which their feelings would certainly be attached, and he told them: ‘The things you would enjoy playing with are rare and hard to obtain. If you do not take them, you will surely regret it later. These various goat carts, deer carts, and ox carts are now outside the gateway and can be used for play. All of you should swiftly come out of this burning house. Whatever you wish for, I will give you.’ At that time the children heard the father speak of these precious playthings. Because they suited their wishes, their minds each became keen and courageous; pressing one another forward, they raced together and vied to escape the burning house.”
2. The Verse Sources for the Four Branches
The four lines on seeing the fire comprise eight verse lines in the root scripture〔T09n0262 0009b25–0009c03〕:
舍利弗當知！我以佛眼觀，tr. “Śāriputra, know this! With the buddha-eye I contemplate,”
見六道眾生，貧窮無福慧，tr. “seeing living beings of the six paths, poor and without merit or wisdom,”
入生死嶮道，相續苦不斷，tr. “entering the perilous road of birth and death, where suffering continues without end,”
深著於五欲，如犛牛愛尾，tr. “deeply attached to the five desires, like a yak cherishing its tail,”
以貪愛自蔽，盲瞑無所見。tr. “concealing themselves through craving and attachment, blind and seeing nothing.”
不求大勢佛，及與斷苦法，tr. “They do not seek the Buddha of great power or the Dharma that ends suffering,”
深入諸邪見，以苦欲捨苦，tr. “but enter deeply into wrong views, seeking through suffering to abandon suffering.”
為是眾生故，而起大悲心。tr. “For the sake of these living beings, I arouse the mind of great compassion.”
The six and a half lines on the unsuccessful assessment of suitability for the Great comprise thirteen verse lines in the root scripture〔T09n0262 0009c04–0009c16〕:
我始坐道場，觀樹亦經行，tr. “When I first sat at the place of awakening, I contemplated the tree and also walked in meditation.”
於三七日中，思惟如是事，tr. “For three periods of seven days I considered this matter:”
我所得智慧，微妙最第一。tr. “The wisdom I attained is subtle, wondrous, and foremost.”
眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲，tr. “Living beings' faculties are dull; attached to pleasure, they are blinded by delusion.”
如斯之等類，云何而可度？tr. “How can beings of this kind be brought across?”
爾時諸梵王，及諸天帝釋、tr. “At that time the Brahmā kings, together with Śakra among the devas,”
護世四天王，及大自在天，tr. “the four heavenly kings who protect the world, and Maheśvara,”
并餘諸天眾，眷屬百千萬，tr. “with the remaining hosts of devas and retinues in their hundreds of thousands and millions,”
恭敬合掌禮，請我轉法輪。tr. “reverently joined their palms, paid homage, and requested me to turn the Dharma wheel.”
我即自思惟：『若但讚佛乘，tr. “I then reflected: ‘If I only praise the Buddha Vehicle,”
眾生沒在苦，不能信是法；tr. “living beings, submerged in suffering, will be unable to believe this Dharma.”
破法不信故，墜於三惡道。tr. “Because they reject the Dharma and do not believe, they will fall into the three evil paths.”
我寧不說法，疾入於涅槃。tr. “I would rather not teach the Dharma, but swiftly enter nirvāṇa.”
The eleven lines on the successful assessment of suitability through the Lesser comprise twenty-two verse lines in the root scripture〔T09n0262 0009c17–0010a09〕:
尋念過去佛，所行方便力，tr. “I then recalled the skillful means practiced by the buddhas of the past.”
我今所得道，亦應說三乘。』tr. “For the path I have now attained, I too should teach the three vehicles.’”
作是思惟時，十方佛皆現，tr. “As I formed this thought, the buddhas of the ten directions all appeared.”
梵音慰喻我：『善哉釋迦文！tr. “With Brahmā voices they consoled and instructed me: ‘Excellent, Śākyamuni!”
第一之導師，得是無上法，tr. “Foremost guide, you have attained this unsurpassed Dharma.”
隨諸一切佛，而用方便力。tr. “Following all the buddhas, employ the power of skillful means.”
我等亦皆得，最妙第一法，tr. “We too have all attained the most wondrous, foremost Dharma,”
為諸眾生類、分別說三乘。tr. “yet for the classes of living beings we separately teach three vehicles.”
少智樂小法，不自信作佛，tr. “Those of little wisdom delight in lesser dharmas and do not believe that they themselves will become buddhas.”
是故以方便，分別說諸果。tr. “Therefore, through skillful means, we separately teach the various fruits.”
雖復說三乘，但為教菩薩。』tr. “Although we teach three vehicles, it is only to instruct bodhisattvas.’”
舍利弗當知！我聞聖師子，tr. “Śāriputra, know this! When I heard the sacred lions'”
深淨微妙音，喜稱南無佛。tr. “profound, pure, subtle, and wondrous voices, I rejoiced and acclaimed, ‘Homage to the buddhas!’”
復作如是念：『我出濁惡世，tr. “I again formed this thought: ‘I have appeared in a turbid and evil age.”
如諸佛所說，我亦隨順行。』tr. “As the buddhas have said, I too will follow and practice.’”
思惟是事已，即趣波羅柰。tr. “Having considered this matter, I immediately went to Vārāṇasī.”
諸法寂滅相，不可以言宣，tr. “The quiescent and extinct mark of all dharmas cannot be proclaimed in words,”
以方便力故，為五比丘說。tr. “but through the power of skillful means I taught the five bhikṣus.”
是名轉法輪，便有涅槃音，tr. “This is called turning the Dharma wheel; then there was the sound of nirvāṇa,”
及以阿羅漢，法僧差別名。tr. “along with the distinct designations arhat, Dharma, and Saṅgha.”
從久遠劫來，讚示涅槃法，tr. “Since distant past kalpas I have praised and demonstrated the Dharma of nirvāṇa,”
生死苦永盡，我常如是說。tr. “whereby the suffering of birth and death is forever ended. I have always taught in this way.”
The six lines on equally bestowing the great cart comprise twelve verse lines in the root scripture〔T09n0262 0010a10–0010a21〕:
舍利弗當知！我見佛子等，tr. “Śāriputra, know this! I see the buddha-children,”
志求佛道者，無量千萬億，tr. “those resolved to seek the buddha path, in countless thousands, millions, and billions.”
咸以恭敬心，皆來至佛所，tr. “All with reverent minds come into the Buddha's presence,”
曾從諸佛聞，方便所說法。tr. “having formerly heard from the buddhas the Dharma taught through skillful means.”
我即作是念：『如來所以出，tr. “I then formed this thought: ‘The reason the Tathāgata appears”
為說佛慧故，今正是其時。』tr. “is to teach buddha-wisdom; now is precisely the time.’”
舍利弗當知！鈍根小智人、tr. “Śāriputra, know this! Those with dull faculties and little wisdom,”
著相憍慢者，不能信是法。tr. “attached to marks and arrogant, cannot believe this Dharma.”
今我喜無畏，於諸菩薩中，tr. “Now I am joyful and fearless; among the bodhisattvas”
正直捨方便，但說無上道。tr. “I straightforwardly set aside skillful means and teach only the unsurpassed path.”
菩薩聞是法，疑網皆已除，tr. “When bodhisattvas hear this Dharma, their nets of doubt are all removed,”
千二百羅漢，悉亦當作佛。tr. “and the twelve hundred arhats will likewise all become buddhas.”
The two and a half lines on the elder not being false comprise five verse lines in the root scripture〔T09n0262 0010b04–0010b08〕:
汝等勿有疑，我為諸法王，tr. “Do not harbor doubts. I am the king of all dharmas.”
普告諸大眾，但以一乘道，tr. “I universally tell the great assembly: only through the path of the one vehicle”
教化諸菩薩，無聲聞弟子。tr. “do I teach and transform the bodhisattvas; there are no śrāvaka disciples.”
汝等舍利弗，聲聞及菩薩，tr. “All of you, Śāriputra, śrāvakas and bodhisattvas,”
當知是妙法，諸佛之祕要。tr. “should know that this Wondrous Dharma is the secret essential of the buddhas.”
3. Short Passages Quoted by the Root Treatise and the Wording of the Present Text
| Passage Quoted or Used as an Outline Phrase in T1718 | Present T09n0262 Text | Verbal Relation |
|---|---|---|
我以佛眼觀見 tr. “With the buddha-eye I contemplate and see”〔T34n1718 0067b19〕 | 我以佛眼觀，見六道眾生 tr. “With the buddha-eye I contemplate and see living beings of the six paths”〔T09n0262 0009b25–0009b26〕 | The root treatise reads continuously across the verse-line punctuation. |
所見六道眾生 tr. “What is seen: living beings of the six paths”〔0067b20–0067b21〕 | 見六道眾生 tr. “seeing living beings of the six paths”〔0009b26〕 | The core wording is the same. |
為是眾生故而起大悲心 tr. “For the sake of these living beings, I arouse the mind of great compassion”〔0067b21–0067b22〕 | 為是眾生故，而起大悲心。 tr. “For the sake of these living beings, I arouse the mind of great compassion”〔0009c03〕 | The punctuation differs; the word order is the same. |
現受眾苦，後受地獄等苦 tr. “They undergo many sufferings now and later undergo the sufferings of the hells and so forth”〔0068a10〕 | 現受眾苦，後受地獄、畜生、餓鬼之苦 tr. “They undergo many sufferings now and later undergo the sufferings of hell beings, animals, and hungry ghosts”〔0013a21〕 | The root treatise uses 「等」 tr. “and so forth” to gather the present text's list. |
定慧力莊嚴以此度眾生 tr. “Adorned with the powers of concentration and wisdom, through these I bring living beings across”〔0068b12–0068b13〕 | 定慧力莊嚴，以此度眾生。 tr. “Adorned with the powers of concentration and wisdom, through these I bring living beings across”〔0008a24〕 | The wording is the same; the punctuation differs. |
若我讚佛乘，眾生沒在苦 tr. “If I praise the Buddha Vehicle, living beings will be submerged in suffering”〔0068c17〕 | 若但讚佛乘，眾生沒在苦 tr. “If I only praise the Buddha Vehicle, living beings will be submerged in suffering”〔0009c13–0009c14〕 | The root treatise reads 「若我」 tr. “if I”; the present text reads 「若但」 tr. “if only.” |
眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲 tr. “Living beings' faculties are dull; attached to pleasure, they are blinded by delusion”〔0068c27–0068c28〕 | 眾生諸根鈍，著樂癡所盲 tr. “Living beings' faculties are dull; attached to pleasure, they are blinded by delusion”〔0009c07〕 | The wording is the same. |
尋念過去佛所行方便力 tr. “I then recalled the skillful means practiced by the buddhas of the past”〔0069a18–0069a19〕 | 尋念過去佛，所行方便力 tr. “I then recalled the skillful means practiced by the buddhas of the past”〔0009c17〕 | The verse-line punctuation differs. |
尋念過去佛亦作三乘化 tr. “I then recalled that the buddhas of the past likewise transformed through three vehicles”〔0069a20–0069a21〕 | 尋念過去佛，所行方便力，我今所得道，亦應說三乘 tr. “I then recalled the skillful means practiced by the buddhas of the past: for the path I have now attained, I too should teach the three vehicles”〔0009c17–0009c18〕 | The root treatise is an outline paraphrase, not a continuous sentence in the present text. |
作是思惟時十方佛皆現 tr. “As I formed this thought, the buddhas of the ten directions all appeared”〔0069a21–0069a22〕 | 作是思惟時，十方佛皆現 tr. “As I formed this thought, the buddhas of the ten directions all appeared”〔0009c19〕 | The punctuation differs; the word order is the same. |
思惟是事已即趣波羅柰 tr. “Having considered this matter, I immediately went to Vārāṇasī”〔0069a23〕 | 思惟是事已，即趣波羅柰。 tr. “Having considered this matter, I immediately went to Vārāṇasī”〔0010a03〕 | The punctuation differs; the word order is the same. |
受行悟入是名轉法輪 tr. “Acceptance, practice, awakening, and entry: this is called turning the Dharma wheel”〔0069a24〕 | 是名轉法輪，便有涅槃音 tr. “This is called turning the Dharma wheel; then there was the sound of nirvāṇa”〔0010a06〕 | 「受行悟入」 tr. “acceptance, practice, awakening, and entry” is outline language of the root treatise. |
便有涅槃音 tr. “Then there was the sound of nirvāṇa”〔0069b25〕 | 便有涅槃音 tr. “Then there was the sound of nirvāṇa”〔0010a06〕 | The wording is the same. |
及以阿羅漢法僧差別名 tr. “Along with the distinct designations arhat, Dharma, and Saṅgha”〔0069b27–0069b28〕 | 及以阿羅漢，法僧差別名。 tr. “Along with the distinct designations arhat, Dharma, and Saṅgha”〔0010a07〕 | The punctuation differs; the word order is the same. |
4. Looking Back to the Correlation and the Three Carts
The root treatise twice expressly says that it adopts the later correlation〔0068b02–0068b03, 0068b21〕. The following comparison therefore checks the later passage specifically designated by the root treatise and does not present a commentator's correlations as though they were sentences of the root scripture.
| Root-Treatise Language | Present Text of the Later Root-Scripture Passage | Relation |
|---|---|---|
但以神力及智慧力 tr. “only by means of supernormal power and the power of wisdom”〔T34n1718 0068b02–0068b03〕 | 若我但以神力及智慧力，捨於方便，為諸眾生讚如來知見、力無所畏者，眾生不能以是得度。 tr. “If I were only to use supernormal power and the power of wisdom, setting aside skillful means, and praise to living beings the Tathāgata's knowledge and vision, powers, and fearlessnesses, living beings could not thereby attain deliverance”〔T09n0262 0013a29–0013b02〕 | On this basis, the root treatise correlates body and hands, and robe-fold, stool, and table. |
知見譬衣裓，無畏譬几，十力譬案 tr. “knowledge and vision illustrate the robe-fold, fearlessness illustrates the stool, and the ten powers illustrate the table”〔0068b24〕 | The present text only places 如來知見、力無所畏 tr. “the Tathāgata's knowledge and vision, powers, and fearlessnesses” side by side〔0013b01–0013b02〕. | The distribution among the three objects is the root treatise's explanation. |
| The three carts | 為說三乘——聲聞、辟支佛、佛乘 tr. “teach the three vehicles—the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and Buddha Vehicles”〔0013b09〕 | The present text first lists the three vehicles. |
| Goat cart | 是名聲聞乘，如彼諸子為求羊車出於火宅 tr. “This is called the Śrāvaka Vehicle, like those children who left the burning house to seek the goat cart”〔0013b20–0013b21〕 | The root scripture itself supplies the correlation. |
| Deer cart | 是名辟支佛乘，如彼諸子為求鹿車出於火宅 tr. “This is called the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, like those children who left the burning house to seek the deer cart”〔0013b23–0013b24〕 | The root scripture itself supplies the correlation. |
| Ox cart | 是名大乘，菩薩求此乘故，名為摩訶薩，如彼諸子為求牛車、出於火宅。 tr. “This is called the Great Vehicle. Because bodhisattvas seek this vehicle, they are called mahāsattvas, like those children who left the burning house to seek the ox cart”〔0013b27–0013b29〕 | Here the root scripture calls it the Great Vehicle and speaks of the mahāsattva. |
5. The Passage Transmitted as the Great Scripture and the Present Text
The root treatise transmits 「《大經》云：『因無常故而果是常』」 tr. “The Great Scripture says: ‘Because the cause is impermanent, the result is permanent’”〔T34n1718 0067c19〕. The present T12n0374 reads:
譬如世間從因生法，有因則有果，無因則無果。因無常故，果亦無常。tr. “It is like dharmas in the world that arise from causes: when there is a cause, there is a result; when there is no cause, there is no result. Because the cause is impermanent, the result is likewise impermanent”〔T12n0374 0505a13–0505a15〕.
若使涅槃從因生者，因無常故，果亦無常；而是涅槃不從因生，體非是果，是故為常。tr. “If nirvāṇa arose from a cause, then because the cause is impermanent the result would likewise be impermanent. But this nirvāṇa does not arise from a cause; in essence it is not a result, and therefore it is permanent”〔0505a16–0505a18〕.
The parallel T12n0375 likewise contains 「因無常故，果亦無常。」 tr. “Because the cause is impermanent, the result is likewise impermanent”〔0748c27〕 and 「而是涅槃不從因生，體非是果，是故為常。」 tr. “But this nirvāṇa does not arise from a cause; in essence it is not a result, and therefore it is permanent”〔0749a01–0749a02〕. The root treatise's eight-character proposition and the longer sentences of the present text are recorded side by side without adjudication; the transmitted quotation is not rewritten from the present text.
6. The Passage Transmitted as the Great Prajñā and the Present Text
The root treatise reads 「如《大品》中說，四念是摩訶衍，以不可得故，異於小乘也」 tr. “As explained in the Great Prajñā, the four foundations of mindfulness are the Mahāyāna; because they are unobtainable, they differ from the Lesser Vehicle”〔T34n1718 0069a05–0069a06〕. The present T08n0223 clearly contains:
佛告須菩提：「菩薩摩訶薩摩訶衍，所謂四念處。」 tr. “The Buddha told Subhūti: ‘The Mahāyāna of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva means the four foundations of mindfulness’”〔T08n0223 0253b19–0253b20〕.
The following contemplations of body, sensation, mind, and dharmas are each limited by unobtainability〔0253b20–0253b25〕, and the text further reads 「四念處不異摩訶衍，摩訶衍不異四念處，四念處、摩訶衍無二無別。」 tr. “The four foundations of mindfulness do not differ from the Mahāyāna, and the Mahāyāna does not differ from the four foundations of mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness and the Mahāyāna are not two and are not distinct”〔0267a13–0267a15〕. The present text supplies all three elements—the four foundations of mindfulness, the Mahāyāna, and unobtainability—while 「異於小乘也」 tr. “they differ from the Lesser Vehicle” remains recorded only as the root treatise's judgment here.
7. The Claimed Āgama Source
The old explanation recorded by the root treatise is:
舊又云：「此物譬大乘戒、定、慧，初七思惟所得法，此如用衣裓；二七思惟眾生根緣，如用几；三七思惟樹地恩，如用案。」 tr. “An old explanation further says: ‘These objects illustrate the Great Vehicle's moral discipline, concentration, and wisdom. During the first seven days he contemplated the Dharma attained, like using the robe-fold; during the second seven days he contemplated the faculties and conditions of living beings, like using the stool; during the third seven days he contemplated the kindness of the tree and ground, like using the table.’”云此義出《阿含經》。tr. “It says that this meaning comes from an Āgama scripture”〔T34n1718 0068b18–0068b21〕.
The root treatise provides no scripture title, fascicle, chapter, or translator. The mirror only repeats that this explanation claims to come from an Āgama scripture〔T34n1719 0262c17〕. No unique passage in the present T01 or T02 has been located that can sustain all three branches as a set. This entry therefore records only that the root treatise preserves a source claim whose present textual locus has not been uniquely identified; it does not invent a T number.
8. Unattributed Old Explanations and Ancient Parallels
The root treatise records only 「三藏法師云，衣裓是外國盛花之器，貢上貴人用此貯之。」 tr. “A Tripiṭaka master says that the robe-fold is a foreign vessel for holding flowers, used to store them when presenting them to a person of rank”〔T34n1718 0068b15〕, without giving a name. An ancient commentary at T37n1760 separately reads 「衣裓，古釋云：衣襟也。真諦云：外國盛華器也。」 tr. “Concerning the robe-fold, an old explanation says it is a fold of the robe; Paramārtha says it is a foreign vessel for holding flowers”〔T37n1760 0354c15–0354c16〕. This is recorded only as an ancient parallel; the name supplied by the parallel is not silently inserted into the root treatise.
The root treatise also records 「如身子六心中退」 tr. “as when Śāriputra retreated at the sixth mind”〔T34n1718 0069b09〕, without identifying a scripture. The source lead comes from the mirror's statement 「準《瓔珞》意」 tr. “according to the meaning of the Yingluo”〔T34n1719 0264a08–0264a09〕. The present T24n1485 has 「從初一住至第六住中」 tr. “from the first abode through the sixth abode”〔1014c02〕 and 「自此七住以前名為退分。」 tr. “before this seventh abode is called the portion subject to retreat”〔1014c04–1014c05〕, and it records that Śāriputra and others, intending to enter the seventh abode, encountered adverse conditions and retreated〔1014c08–1014c11〕. This tracing of the source expressly belongs to the mirror's explanation and is not written backward as an explicit citation in the root treatise.
IV. Essential Explanations from the Wenjuji [the Mirror]
The mirror's directly corresponding interpretive domain begins with 「身受」 tr. “‘body and sensation’ and so forth” as the bases on which the inversions depend〔T34n1719 0260c17〕 and ends, after the present unit's explanation through contemplating the mind, with 「今在三藏」 tr. “here it lies in the Tripiṭaka Teaching”〔0264b20〕. The next sentence〔0264b21〕 has already turned to the following aspect. There is also an earlier bridge in the doctrinal outline〔0248b12–0249c05〕. The table selects only the essential joints, and every adjudication is expressly attributed to the Record:
| Root-Treatise Node | Corresponding Passage and Essential Explanation in the Fahua Wenjuji |
|---|---|
| The four passages and three meanings of seeing the fire〔0067b16〕 | The Record says that the one who sees, what is seen, and becoming alarmed and entering the house are three, while there are still four passages when set against the parable text〔0249b22–0249b24〕. |
| Body, sensation, mind, and dharmas; four inversions and eight sufferings〔0067b23〕 | The Record judges body, sensation, and the rest to be the bases of the inversions, the four inversions to be their characteristics, and the eight sufferings to be their results〔0260c17–0260c26〕. |
| Alarm and fear with loving-kindness and compassion〔0067b28〕 | The Record says that the elder's great compassion, Lesser response, and the mind that has retreated from the Great arise at the same time; the meanings of lacking happiness and having suffering include both Great and Lesser〔0261a28–0261b01〕. |
| Emerging peacefully and securely〔0067c01〕 | The Record explains that although the elder has already emerged, he must enter again, thereby clarifying why loving-kindness and compassion enter the fire〔0261b04–0261b12〕. |
| The gateway being burned〔0067c07〕 | The Record judges that the rescue-explanation still does not get through. The correct explanation contains both parable and correlation: the gateway's frame can burn, but its open space cannot〔0261b15–0261c02〕. |
| Playfulness, play, not awakening, and not knowing〔0067c26〕 | The Record first explains playfulness and play separately and then together, and it analyzes the four phrases on not awakening and not knowing according to ordinary stages, stages of training, and the three times〔0261c20–0262a27〕. |
| Correlating the five turbidities with fire〔0068a15〕 | The Record says that this passage extensively explains the fire seen earlier, so it need only correlate the parable according to the names of the turbidities〔0262b17–0262b24〕. |
| Body and hands; robe-fold, stool, and table〔0068b02〕 | The Record first distinguishes what can bestow from what is bestowed. Because both are set aside, it is called unsuccessful. It then evaluates two old explanations before explaining what the root treatise adopts〔0262b25–0263a10〕. |
| The single narrow gateway〔0068c05〕 | The Record says that the specific explanation distinguishes single, gateway, and narrow and small word by word, while in the general explanation principle, teaching, and practice each have all three meanings〔0263a11–0263b12〕. |
| Immaturity and the place of play〔0068c21〕 | The Record adopts the root treatise's explanation 「大善未生」 tr. “great goodness has not yet arisen” and further contrasts weak goodness with strong evil〔0263b15–0263b17〕. |
| The gateway of admonition and running east and west at play〔0069a03〕 | The Record explains counteraction through both contemplator and contemplated being unobtainable, then correlates east and west with suffering and origination and running with going and returning〔0263b23–0263c08〕. |
| Emerging and being burned together〔0069a28〕 | The Record distinguishes the permanently abiding Dharma body, which has emerged, from the response-body that accords with beings' capacities and undergoes transformation, and rejects an explanation that can account only for their emerging together but not for their being burned together〔0263c20–0264a04〕. |
| Prior inclinations〔0069b05〕 | The Record says that because there is a Lesser capacity, beings are received through the Lesser; it also explains the Lesser being strong through the two meanings of aversion to suffering and counteraction, while the retreat at the sixth mind follows the Yingluo〔0264a05–0264a09〕. |
| Exhortation, demonstration, confirmation, and the six phrases〔0069b12〕 | The Record says that the order of exhortation and demonstration follows the scripture and gathers the six phrases into the four stages of worthies and the two paths of seeing and cultivation〔0264a23–0264b06〕. |
| Explanation through contemplating the mind〔0069b28〕 | The Record identifies the mutual examination of mind and object and the contemplative activity of mind-king and mental factors, and clarifies the stages to which this passage belongs〔0264b09–0264b19〕. |
V. Explanations of Various Masters
All markers of alternative explanation that the root treatise itself records in this domain are listed below in their order of appearance. When a single notice contains three explanations, all three remain separately visible and are not collapsed into one generic attribution.
| Speaker or Marker | Transmitted Explanation | Root Treatise's Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| First of three old explanations | 「一云四大為四面，六識並託其中」 tr. “One says that the four great elements are the four sides and that the six consciousnesses all depend on what lies within them”〔T34n1718 0067b26〕. | The root treatise instead follows the later passage, taking birth, old age, illness, and death as the four sides〔0067b27〕. |
| Second of three old explanations | 「二即四生」 tr. “The second takes them as the four modes of birth”〔0067b27〕. | Same as above. |
| Third of three old explanations | 「三云四倒。」 tr. “The third says they are the four inversions”〔0067b27〕. | Same as above. |
| A rescue says | 「教門不燒，佛教為門，能通所燒之人，所通之人被燒，名能通門名燒，如門內人死，名門為衰，門實不衰。」 tr. “The gateway of teaching does not burn. The Buddha's teaching is the gateway that enables the person being burned to pass through. Because the person given passage is burned, the gateway that enables passage is called burned, just as when a person inside a gateway dies the gateway is said to decline, though the gateway itself does not decline”〔0067c09–0067c11〕. | The root treatise questions this again and gives another explanation through the structural components and open space and through words that express and meaning expressed〔0067c11–0067c20〕. |
| It is also said | 「曾種大乘功德，是法身智慧為體，體為四倒所逼，而不知不覺。」 tr. “Having formerly planted qualities of the Great Vehicle, they take the wisdom of the Dharma body as their essence; this essence is pressed by the four inversions, and they neither know nor awaken”〔0068a12–0068a14〕. | Recorded alongside the other explanation; below, the root treatise separately correlates the phrases of the burning house with the five turbidities one by one. |
| A Tripiṭaka master says | 「衣裓是外國盛花之器，貢上貴人用此貯之。」 tr. “The robe-fold is a foreign vessel for holding flowers, used to store them when presenting them to a person of rank”〔0068b15〕. | The root treatise does not name the speaker; it later explains the three objects otherwise, following the correlation. |
| An old explanation says | 「衣襟譬大乘因，几案譬大乘果，初擬大乘因果，是則無機也。」 tr. “The robe-fold illustrates the cause of the Great Vehicle, while the stool and table illustrate its result. At first he assessed the suitability of Great-Vehicle cause and result, but there was no capacity for them”〔0068b16–0068b18〕. | The root treatise later adopts the text of the correlation. |
| An old explanation further says | 「此物譬大乘戒、定、慧，初七思惟所得法，此如用衣裓；二七思惟眾生根緣，如用几；三七思惟樹地恩，如用案。」 tr. “These objects illustrate the Great Vehicle's moral discipline, concentration, and wisdom. During the first seven days he contemplated the Dharma attained, like using the robe-fold; during the second seven days he contemplated the faculties and conditions of living beings, like using the stool; during the third seven days he contemplated the kindness of the tree and ground, like using the table”〔0068b18–0068b20〕. | The claimed Āgama source has not been uniquely identified in the present text; the root treatise later adopts the text of the correlation. |
| An old explanation | Human and heavenly lesser goodness is called 「幼稚」 tr. “immaturity,” while lacking Great-Vehicle goodness is called 「未有所識」 tr. “not yet knowing anything”〔0068c21–0068c22〕. | The root treatise instead explains the two terms through the weakness of the great goodness taught under twenty thousand buddhas and the capacity to slander the Great when hearing it〔0068c22–0068c23〕. |
VI. Terminology
| Term | Definition in This Aspect of the Root Treatise |
|---|---|
| Four sides | After first recording three explanations through the four great elements, four modes of birth, and four inversions, the body follows the later passage and takes birth, old age, illness, and death〔0067b26–0067b27〕. |
| Alarm and fear | Alarm means recalling the retreat from great goodness and corresponds to loving-kindness and to awareness of beings' lack of happiness; fear means concern that grave evil will arise and corresponds to compassion and concern over their suffering〔0067b28–0067b29〕. |
| Peaceful, secure, emerged | Not being endangered by the five turbidities and eight sufferings is peaceful; not being moved by the four inversions is secure; standing freely beyond encumbrances is having emerged〔0067c03–0067c05〕. |
| Structural components and open space | The components mark a gateway and can turn to ashes; the open space allows passage and cannot burn. They illustrate that words that express can be effaced, while the meaning expressed is no longer impermanent〔0067c12–0067c18〕. |
| Playfulness and play | They are first explained separately as attachment to views and attachment to craving, then together as indulgence that wastes one's merit in vain and leaves one empty-handed〔0067c26–0067c29〕. |
| Body and hands | The body illustrates the bearing power of supernormal ability, while the hands illustrate the lifting power of wisdom; they are explained retrospectively through supernormal power and the power of wisdom in the correlation〔0068b02–0068b04〕. |
| Robe-fold, stool, and table | What the root treatise adopts is, in order, knowledge and vision, fearlessness, and the ten powers, judged as brief, intermediate, and extensive. The root scripture itself does not explicitly assign the three objects in this way〔0068b21–0068c03〕. |
| The single narrow gateway | The specific explanation separates single, gateway, and small word by word; in the general explanation the three routes of principle, teaching, and practice each clarify single, gateway, and narrow and small〔0068c05–0068c20〕. |
| Falling | First, immature children absorbed in play have no knowledge and do not hold objects firmly, so they fall; second, because goodness is weak and they lack knowledge, they slander the Great Vehicle and fall〔0068c28–0069a02〕. |
| Four passages on using the carts | Assessing the suitability of the three carts, the father knowing the children's prior inclinations, praising the three carts, and suiting the children's wishes correspond in order to practicing skillful means, the buddhas of the ten directions appearing, going to Vārāṇasī, and turning the Dharma wheel〔0069a17–0069a24〕. |
| Exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation | The rarity of the playthings is exhortation; the various kinds of carts are demonstration; urging the children to leave quickly and promising to give each what they want is confirmation〔0069b10–0069b14〕. |
| Six phrases suiting their wishes | Suiting their wishes, keen and courageous, pressing one another forward, vying, together, racing, and vying to emerge are explained under the six phrases declared by the source. Their number is not altered merely because the wording can be divided into seven lexical items〔0069b16–0069b27〕. |
VII. Similes · Cross-Reading · Carrying Forward
The movement of the parable in this aspect has a clear sequence. First the elder, outside the house, sees fire arising within it. What he sees is not a static scene, but an emergency in which many sufferings gather while the children continue to play. Next he attempts to rescue them directly with his body and hands and with a robe-fold, stool, and table; the root treatise correlates this attempt with supernormal power, wisdom, knowledge and vision, fearlessness, and the ten powers. Next, when the children accept neither exhortation nor the admonition of fearful matters, the elder turns to establishing the three carts. Within the parable passage the three carts are only the father's skillful means suited to the children's prior inclinations. The correlations with the Dharma meanings of the Śrāvaka, Pratyekabuddha, and Buddha Vehicles are explicitly supplied by the root scripture only in the later correlation passage〔T09n0262 0013b09〕; they must not be poured backward into the parable as though the children already knew this Dharma exposition.
「一門」 tr. “the single gateway” simultaneously bears the meanings of the house's gateway, the gateway of teaching, and passage. Through the gateway's structural components and open space, 「所燒之門」 tr. “the gateway being burned” distinguishes verbal expressions that can be effaced from the meaning expressed into which they give entry. At the end of the unit, the movement changes from 「視父而已」 tr. “merely looking at their father” to 「競共馳走，爭出火宅」 tr. “racing together and vying to escape the burning house.” The same children do not suddenly gain faith from the danger itself; rather, what they hear now suits their prior inclinations. The root treatise therefore correlates the six phrases step by step with hearing, reflection, cultivation, the path of seeing, the path of cultivation, and the fruit beyond training, before returning through the explanation of contemplating the mind to the immediate mutual examination of mind and object.
VIII. Placement of the Editions
1. Textual Variants in the Body
| Variant | Exact Locus of First Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 名【Taishō】／為【A】 | 0067c27 | The phrase 「著見名嬉」 tr. “attachment to views is called playfulness” uses 「名」 tr. “is called.” |
| 秖【Taishō】＊／只【A】＊ | 0068b11 | The first character of 「秖是勸、誡兩悉檀」 tr. “these are only the two siddhāntas of exhortation and admonition”; the Taishō note marks the corresponding graphs with asterisks. |
| 設權【Taishō】／權設【A】 | 0069b04 | The variant's source string crosses the line break at〔0069b04–0069b05〕; the anchor still takes the nearest line marker before 「設」 tr. “establish,” its first character〔0069b04〕. |
| 第【Taishō】／absent in A | 0069b05 | Witness A's collated reading is an empty zero-character reading; no wording is supplied. |
The asterisks in 秖【大】＊／只【甲】＊ belong to the corresp type: another occurrence of the same graph group later in the text points back to this group through a corresponding note. That later occurrence falls outside this unit's strict domain, so the mechanism is explained here without counting the out-of-domain occurrence as a fifth variant group in this aspect.
2. Fascicle Note, Inline Notes, and Graph Forms
Near the fascicle title there is also the note 「不分卷【甲】」 tr. “not divided into fascicles in witness A,” anchored at〔0067b10; collational-note identifier 0067005〕. It is a layout and fascicle-number note rather than a body <app>, and therefore is not listed as a fifth textual variant.
Both <note place="inline"> notes are rendered as bracketed inline notes according to this edition's conventions: 「此與五濁相當〔云云〕」 tr. “This corresponds to the five turbidities [and so forth]”〔T34n1718 0068a19〕 and 「名為出火宅也〔云云〕」 tr. “This is called emerging from the burning house [and so forth]”〔0069c03–0069c04〕. Neither the T1718 body in this aspect nor the directly corresponding T1719 interpretive domain contains a missing-character image that requires a separate gaiji table.
The general heading in the body reads 「捨机用車」 tr. “setting aside the table and using the carts”〔0067b12〕, while the opening of the second parable reads 「捨几用車」 tr. “setting aside the stool and using the carts”〔0068a20〕; the present root scripture has 「衣裓、若以机案」 tr. “by means of a robe-fold, or by means of a stool or table”〔T09n0262 0012b24〕. Each layer retains the exact form on disk and does not first unify 「机／几」 tr. “the respective graphs for table and stool.”
3. Page-Anchor Convention
The root-text edition displays only one page anchor at the beginning of each new page:〔T34 0067b07〕,〔T34 0068a19〕, and〔T34 0069a03〕. To permit byte-exact checking of every cited phrase, the apparatus uses the nearest Taishō line marker preceding the first character of the quotation as its exact locus, thereby giving such fine-grained anchors as〔0067b10〕,〔0068b24〕, and〔0069b05〕. The beginning of a cross-line quotation likewise follows the exact position of its first character rather than substituting the column head, preceding sentence, or line containing the label.