妙法蓮華經文句 化城喻品 · 譬說結緣（開・合）
你已走了三百由旬，前面還有二百。腳下是險道，身邊的人都說走不動了。這時，導師在前方化出一座城，告訴大家：不要怕，也不要退；城就在這裡，可以進去休息。
你進城了，真的免離一段惡道，也真的得到安隱。等到疲倦消退，導師卻把城滅去，告訴你：寶處已近，剛才那座城只是為了讓你止息。
你會不會覺得受騙？
化城譬最鋒利的一問就在這裡。城不是寶所，卻也不是毫無作用的幻影。沒有它，疲極的人可能轉身退回；一直留著它，休息的人又會把已度想當成真正到達。導師既不否認你的疲倦，也不把疲倦批准成永遠停步的理由。
所以，方便的慈悲不只在『給你一座城』，也在『知道何時滅城』。前一刻，祂使暫時的安穩足以承接你；後一刻，祂使暫時的安穩不至於遮住寶所。作城與滅城看似相反，其實都在守護同一件事：讓你繼續走。
我們常以為，修行的危險只是不肯開始。化城譬提醒的另一種危險，是把一次止息、一次離苦、一次安穩，悄悄改名為終點。已得的並非虛無；只是仍未盡辦。
當你聽見「此城非實」時，不必否定曾在城中得到的休息。真正要放下的，是那個『我已經到了』的想。城一滅，所得沒有被抹去；只是道路重新出現在眼前。
而導師仍在。
You have already traveled three hundred yojanas, with two hundred still ahead. Beneath your feet is a dangerous road, and everyone beside you says they can go no farther. At this moment, the guide conjures a city in front of you and tells everyone: do not be afraid, and do not turn back. The city is right here; you can enter and rest.
You enter the city. You truly escape one stretch of the evil road, and you truly gain peace and security. But once your weariness has passed, the guide makes the city disappear and tells you: the place of jewels is near; that city just now was only for your rest.
Would you feel deceived?
The sharpest question in the parable of the conjured city lies here. The city is not the place of jewels, yet neither is it a phantom without any effect. Without it, those exhausted by the journey might turn around and go back; if it remained forever, those who had rested would mistake the thought of having crossed over for genuine arrival. The guide neither denies your weariness nor approves it as a reason to stop forever.
Thus, the compassion of skillful means lies not only in “giving you a city,” but also in “knowing when to make the city disappear.” At the earlier moment, He lets temporary security be enough to receive and support you; at the later moment, He keeps that temporary security from concealing the place of jewels. Conjuring and extinguishing the city appear opposed, yet both protect the same thing: your continuing to walk.
We often imagine that the only danger in practice is refusing to begin. The parable of the conjured city reminds us of another danger: quietly renaming one respite, one escape from suffering, or one period of security as the destination. What has been attained is not nothing; it simply is not yet the whole task.
When you hear “this city is not real,” you need not deny the rest you once gained within it. What must truly be released is the thought “I have arrived.” When the city disappears, what you attained has not been erased; the road has simply reappeared before you.
And the guide is still there.
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 0100b19〕。段/行首〔T34 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨（換頁一枚）。
〔T34 0100b19〕「譬如五百」下，第二譬者，有開、有合。開譬為二：第一、導師譬，譬上覆講共結大緣，即擬〈火宅〉之總譬、〈方便〉之略頌也；第二、將導譬，譬上中間相遇今還說《法華》也，若中間相逢從我聞法皆為三菩提者，不為此人設譬；若中間相逢于今有住聲聞地者，正為此人設第二譬也，即擬〈火宅〉之別譬、〈方便〉之廣頌。 就初導師譬，其文有五，即擬〈火宅〉總譬、〈方便〉略頌中之六意也。一、五百由旬譬。譬上未度之眾樂著諸有輪迴處所，即擬〈火宅〉中其家廣大三界無安、〈方便品〉安隱對不安隱處之意也。二、險難惡道譬。譬上未度之眾煩惱垢重，於如來智慧難信難解，即擬〈火宅〉中火起、〈方便品〉安隱對不安隱之法也。三、若有多眾譬，正譬上百千萬億種皆生疑惑不解之眾生也，即擬〈火宅〉中三十子五百人、〈方便〉中知眾生性欲意也。四、欲過此道至珍寶處譬，舊不取，今取此譬譬上覆講《法華》，擬〈草喻〉中一味雨、〈火宅〉中唯有一門、〈方便品〉宣示佛道意也。五者、一導師譬，譬上第十六王子也，即〈藥草〉中密雲、〈火宅〉中長者、〈方便〉中我今亦如是意也。 問： 此中作譬，那不作父子相失、長者驚入火宅、不虛等名耶？ 答： 凡作譬名，各逐義便，上取機感有無，故言父子相失、父子相見；若取感應始赴機，故言驚入火宅；此中明將導眾人世世相值，那得言相失？先久結緣那得言始應？為此義故，不作相失、驚入名耳，而其意則通。 問： 何故不作不虛譬？ 答： 上來已二十二番開權顯實，其義已彰不虛。本欲勸信，下根信在不久，故不須也。 「五百由旬」者，基師：三界結惑為三百，七地所斷習氣為四百，八地已上所斷無明為五百。今謂非正別義，又非三乘通義。又有家云，流來生死、變易生死、中間生死、分段生死，但取三種開為五百，不取流來；流來是有識之初、反源之始，故不說之。有人難此云，《勝鬘》云「因五果二」，果二者謂分段、變易；因五者謂五住。語果既別開流來與中間，語因亦應更廣五住。無據不可用。《大論》明肉身菩薩即分段，法身菩薩謂變易。又云，阿羅漢捨三界報身受法性身，故知生死二耳。有人云，三百喻三界，四百喻七地，二國中間難過，五百喻八地已上。難者言，四百喻七地，則應三百喻六地，六地與二乘齊功，二乘極久唯六十劫、或百劫，菩薩至六地時，二十二大僧祇，二乘於佛道紆迴不應得齊。今謂此非別義亦非通義。有人言，三界為三百，七住及二乘為四百，七住已上為五百，如《大經》云「初果八萬劫至菩提心處」，如三根人至此處即領解，五種人至此處名度五百也，此取極鈍故云八萬劫到，利人不必爾，如佛世得四果者，聞《法華》皆發心，何必八萬劫？難云，經明度三百由旬立二地，豈是度三人也？若五人並發菩提心名度五百者，乃大經之一意，明五人發心離於五位，非此中意。此中明三百是權度在化城，五百至寶所名實度，廢化城進寶所，若五人皆度皆進，失化城譬意。有人云，三界為三百，聲聞為四百，緣覺地為五百，凡夫三界障，二乘涅槃障，亦是有空二見。《華嚴》藥樹不生深水火坑，火坑即三界，深水即二乘，三界是二乘之牢獄，二乘是菩薩之牢獄，又是福智二邊，不能自行不能化他。《大品》明四百由旬，合二乘為一百，《法華》開為五百。《大品》明菩薩度凡聖二地，未明二乘是權，闕化城之意，既未論化城，亦未明寶所。答：《大品》已顯實故辨寶所，未開權不明化城。下文云「為止息故說二涅槃」，此令度三百由旬也。「汝所住地近於佛慧」，此令出二百由旬也。文既分明，無勞惑也。又明二乘，六義同、十義別，同出三界、同盡無生、同斷正使、同得有餘無餘、同得一切智、同名小乘，所以合為一化城。別開十義：行因久近，六十劫、百劫故；根利鈍；從師獨悟無悲鹿羊；有相無相；觀略廣；能說得四果法，不能說法得煖法；在佛世不在佛世；頓證漸證；多現通少說法，聲聞不定。火宅三車今為二百，三根同為火宅所燒，三根求出故三車；佛道長遠，二乘是惡道，故二百須離。佛乘非障，但明二百，何故約凡開三、約聖開二？此引進之言耳。所度猶少、未度猶多，若爾未成了義。佛道雖長如萬里行，但五百是難、餘者則易。問：二百是二乘難，三界是凡夫難，菩薩有難不？菩薩不以火宅為難，不應求車而出。既求車出，何不為二百所障〔云云〕？《大論》六十六云「險道是世間，一百由旬是欲界，二百色界，三百無色界，四百是二乘。」又倒出數，一百是二乘道，二百是無色，三百是色界，四百是欲界。此經明五百由旬即菩薩道，若過五百即入佛道〔云云〕。人師及經論異出，如前。今依此經判之。三界果報處為三百，有餘國處為四百，實報國處為五百。下文合譬云知諸生死，生死即是處所明矣。但佛旨難知，更須廣解。見惑為一百，五下分為二百，五上分為三百，塵沙為四百，無明為五百，下文合譬云煩惱險難惡道義相扶也。入空觀能過三百，入假觀能過四百，入中觀能過五百，下文合譬云善知險道通塞之相，即雙知因果二種五百義相扶也。二，「險難惡道」者，譬生死因果也，分段、變易此即果險難也，見思五住即因險難也，由此因果故言惡道也。「無人」者，道有二種：一、曠絕有人可依，二、無人可依。譬生死中有涅槃、煩惱中有菩提，雖復曠絕則有人可依。若生死煩惱無涅槃菩提，藥中無病、病中無藥，此則曠絕無人可依也。三，「若有多眾」者，此譬王子所化未度之眾也。四，「欲過此險道」，求至種覺，故言「至珍寶處」也。五，「有一導師」者，即第十六王子也。眼耳清淨曰「聰」，意清淨曰「利」，總而言之即六根清淨也。智即一心三智也，「明」即具足五眼也。又三明為「明」，十力為「達」。 〔T34 0101c15〕「將導眾人」下，是第二，將導譬，此與〈火宅〉、〈方便〉別譬廣頌意同也。就此文為三：一、所將人眾譬。譬本結緣未得度者，本緣不失，而為導師所將，同上〈火宅〉長者見火驚怖、〈方便品〉見五濁而起大悲心。二、中路懈退譬。譬上中間相值退大乘心即以小接，與〈火宅〉中不用身手而歎三車希有、〈方便品〉息大乘化念用方便意也。三、「爾時導師知此人眾」下，滅化引至寶所譬。譬上還為說《法華經》，便集菩薩及聲聞眾為說此經，即與〈火宅〉賜一大車、〈方便〉中但說無上道意同也。分文竟。次釋文，初「所將人眾」者，通是結緣之眾也；若別論者，昔得大益被將已竟，未得大益正是所將；若約五百人三十子中，未得開悟之人也。「中路懈退」者，即是第二譬。文為二：一、退大，二、接小。退大擬上息一，接小擬上施三。退大，文為三：一、「中路懈退」，即擬上無大機。二、「白導師言」擬上不受勸誡，「我等疲極」即是不受勸門，「而復怖畏」即不受誡門。三、「不能復進」者，即擬上息化也。分文竟。次釋者，初、「中路」者，非是半途名中路，但以發心為始、至佛為終，此兩楹間而起退意故名中路。第二、「白導師言」者，自有通途慈悲導師，如文云「有一導師將導眾人」者是也；自有結緣導師，如文云「所將人眾白導師言」是也；自有權智導師，如文云「導師多諸方便」者是也；自有實智導師，如文云「導師知此人眾」是也。今言「白導師」者，正白結緣之導師也，以其退大則大滅、接小則小生，一生一滅感於法身，呼此為「白」。王子知其退大，即是聞其所白。善根微弱、無明所翳，故言「疲極」。憚生死名為「怖畏」。第三、「不能復進前路猶遠」者，見思、塵沙、無明難可卒斷也，然用小乘接之，不令頓還本處亦有進義。「導師多方便」下，第二，即以小接也。上〈火宅〉、〈方便〉開三乘法皆有四意，此中具足。初，多方便譬擬宜。「而作是念」下，第二，傷其失寶譬，知有小無大也。次「作是念已」下，第三，化作城譬，正用方便。「是時疲極之眾」下，第四，入城譬，三乘悟入也。上兩意如文，作化城譬自復為二：先、作化，後、說化。「以方便力」下，正作化；「告眾言」下，正說化。上車譬云，吾為汝等造作此車。今城是有，故須先作。說化城譬擬上勸、示、證也。「汝等勿怖莫得退還」者，勸轉，令前進入城也。「今是大城」乃至「隨意所作」者，是示轉，示城可住也。「若入是城快得安樂」，是證轉，讚城安隱也。「前至寶所亦可得去」者，三藏教中未論前進。一說云，明三乘教時語言，若發大乘求佛者亦善，如其不能但作二乘亦好，例如《勝鬘》云「三乘初業不愚於法」，自知應得作佛，但厭憚不堪，故取永滅耳。若爾成別教。又說云，但令入化城竟，然後更復前進，《大品》、《淨名》中悉有其意。此即別接通意耳。但於今佛未開顯之前，不得彰灼而有此語，若論宿世應有是言。何者？既知退意，王子教化言，汝等若畏生死，且取涅槃消息，然後更行大道，亦可隨意；亦如今人欲學大乘而畏怖生死欲起退心，有人勸言汝且斷煩惱證羅漢，然後更取大道亦可得也。今現在一代化道未周，不得忽有此語，若開權顯實即得說之，如《涅槃》中諸取羅漢者，皆是其義也。「大歡喜」即聞慧，「未曾有」即煖位，「免惡道」即頂位，「快安隱」即忍位，「前入城」即見諦位，「已度想」即無學位，此與〈火宅〉適子願勇銳推排出宅同也。生已度想如得盡智，安隱想如得無生智；又具智德如已度，證斷德如安隱也。有人說寶所者，三界二乘若過即至佛道，佛道是寶所。《大經》有三文：一、至菩提心，二、至菩提，三、至大涅槃門。若至菩提心，必至菩提及涅槃。引此三文者，至菩提心謂至因，菩提、涅槃謂至果。果中有智、斷，菩提是智、涅槃是斷。具說始終、具說智斷，故說三文也。然過五百有三義：一免惡道、二得好路、三是寶所。菩提心謂度惡道，菩提行如平坦路，三得佛道如至寶所，下文云「今為汝說實汝所得非真」，此明度五百惡道也；「為佛一切智當發大精進」，謂行菩提好道也；「汝證一切智十力等佛法」，謂得佛道也。何故要須度五百？二乘度三百，菩薩度四百，佛乘度五百也。 〔T34 0102c08〕「爾時導師知此」下，第三，滅化引至寶所。此中有二：一、知息已，二、向寶所。「既得止息無復疲倦」者，譬上涅槃時到，眾又清淨、免難，大機發也。「即滅化城」引向寶所，譬上正說《法華》示真實相。寶所有二義：若用究竟，則以極果為寶所，上文云「唯佛與佛乃能究竟諸法實相」也；若分入，即以初發心住為寶所，故上文云「無上寶聚不求自得」，又云「得佛法分」，佛子所應得者皆已得之。《大經》云「須陀洹者八萬劫到」，到初發菩提心處也，此取鈍根任運用八萬十千等至；若如三藏中四果，不經少時皆得入大，豈須八萬之與十千耶〔云云〕。 「寶處在近，向者大城我所化作」，即舉廢權譬，以帖顯實譬也。上云「如來智慧難信難解，是諸人等應以是法漸入佛慧」，擬方便中云「我令脫苦縛逮得涅槃」者，佛以方便力示以三乘教也。 舊問： 車城皆譬無生智，車何故無？城何故有？而車三城一、車動城靜？ 答： 長者道門外有車，有隔故諸子不見，可得假設門外有車，車實無也；城在逈地不得假設，故城是有也。就理教者，執三教取理，則三教皆得理，此即有義如城也；將理取教，理既唯一，此教即無三家之果，即車義據無也。車三城一者，諸人同息一處，所以城一也；車就三人，三人所樂不同故三。理教者，三家盡無生不異，如城；三人正使雖同盡，而習氣有盡不盡，有傍得知見，有不得者，故用此莊嚴盡無生，此義不同如三車。三家盡無生智，明因盡果亡，此處是極，如城靜；盡無生智運入無餘，如車動也。難〔云云〕。今明約眾生心，車、城俱有；約佛智明，亦有亦無。權智所明為有，如城；實智所明為無，如車〔云云〕。化城正意為退大取小人，傍為發軫學小人。上二周正意，為發軫學小人，傍為退大人也。三車通今昔，化城正是引教意，未道是化也。 〔T34 0103a15〕問： 化為三車，與化城何異？ 答： 三車為說法輪作譬，化城為神通輪作譬。又車約聲作譬，諸子聞而不見；城為色作譬。問：城與二使云何？使能指示，如教詮理；城為息患，教動而城靜。教即四諦、十二緣有異；城是二智入無餘不異。教通因果；城車但在果。教通有為無為；城車但在無為。權智謂車是無，名教施設故；實智謂車是有，無離文字說解脫故。權智照城為有，引眾生故；實智照城是無，偏真非實故。權智照車是三，逗三緣故；實智照車是一，俱會一乘故。權智照城為一，是偏真故；實智照城為三，如來藏故。權智照城為靜，是灰斷故；實智照城為動，滅此化故。權智照車為運，運入無餘故；實智照車為靜，不動不出故。作如此釋豈與舊同？舊秖在小乘中作義。 問： 凡五處開三顯一，為有何異？ 答： 通論無異，別論有差。〈方便品〉約教開三顯一，文云「如來但以一佛乘故，為眾生說法，無二亦無三」也。〈火宅〉約行開三顯一，車是運義，運則譬行，文云「各乘大車遊於四方，嬉戲快樂」也。〈信解〉中約人開三顯一，結會傭作之人即是長者之兒，「我等昔來真是佛子」也。〈藥草喻〉中，約差別無差別明權實，不的去取，但明眾生不知，佛令其知。若七種差別即知權，同依一理無差別即知實。差別無差別，無差別而差別，令知此意耳，終不說言無一有一，此約自行權實二智隨自意語，故佛能知而眾生不知也。亦是通前通後，知不知明權實也。今化城正約理開三顯一，寶所化城，皆是小大兩理，破除二乘化理，顯於寶所真實一理也。下去五百領解舉珠為譬，亦是約理也。 「諸比丘如來」下，第二，合譬，先正合，後舉譬帖合，而不次第。「如來亦復如是」下，初，合第五導師譬。「今為汝等」下，第二，合第三多諸人眾譬。「知諸生死煩惱惡道險難」下，第三，合第二險惡道譬。「長遠」二字，第四，合第一五百由旬譬。「應去應度」者，第五，合聰慧明達，亦是合第四欲過險道至珍寶處也。「若眾生但聞」下，合第二將導譬。譬本有三，今亦合三：「若眾生」合第一所將人眾也；「但聞一佛乘」者，合第二退大接小譬；「若眾生住於二地」下，合第三滅化將至寶所譬也。第二譬本有退大、接小，今具合之。上退大有三意，「但聞一佛乘」者，合上中路懈退，無機意也；「不欲見佛不欲聞法」，合上白導師，不受誡勸也；「便作是念」者，合上不能前進，息化意也。「佛知是心」下，合上小接退。譬本有四，今合但三：「佛知是心」合上導師多方便，擬宜意也；「怯弱下劣」者，合上此等可愍，知有小機也；「而於中道為止息故」下，合第三現作化城，眾人入城譬也；「而於中道說二涅槃」者，三界惑盡，塵沙、無明未破，於此兩楹判有餘、無餘涅槃，亦是聲聞、緣覺涅槃。又分段已盡、變易未除，二死之間判為有餘、無餘，故言中道〔云云〕。「若眾生住於二地」下，合第三將至寶所。上文有二，今合亦二：「若眾生住於二地」，此合知止息已；「如來爾時即便為說」下，此合將向寶所。「如彼導師」下，第二，牒譬帖合，牒接退譬來合施三，牒滅化譬來合顯一，如文〔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、這一譬為誰而說
從經文「譬如五百由旬」以下，是第二段譬說。這一譬有兩部分：先把譬喻展開，後把譬喻和佛所說的法一一會合。
展開譬喻又分兩段。第一是導師譬，用來譬喻十六王子後來再為往昔所化的人講說，使大家共同結下大乘因緣；這相當於〈火宅喻品〉的總譬和〈方便品〉的略頌。第二是將導譬，用來譬喻往昔結緣的人在中間世再次相遇，如今又聽說《法華經》；這相當於〈火宅喻品〉的別譬和〈方便品〉的廣頌。
中間再相遇的人有兩類。若他從佛聞法後都已走向菩提，就不必特別為他設第二譬；若他雖曾相遇，直到今天還住在聲聞地，第二譬正是為這一類人而設。
二、導師譬的五個部分
第一段導師譬共有五項，用來對照〈火宅喻品〉總譬和〈方便品〉略頌中的六層意思。
第一是五百由旬。它譬喻尚未得度的人貪著種種生存狀態，在輪迴所依的處所流轉；相當於〈火宅喻品〉所說房宅廣大、三界不安，也相當於〈方便品〉以安隱反顯不安隱處的意思。
第二是險難惡道。它譬喻尚未得度的人煩惱垢重，對如來智慧難信難解；相當於火宅中忽然起火，也相當於〈方便品〉以安隱反顯不安隱之法。
第三是許多同行者。它正譬喻百千萬億種眾生都生疑惑、不能了解；相當於火宅中的三十子與五百人，也相當於〈方便品〉所說佛知道眾生的性情和欲樂。
第四是想越過這條路，到達珍寶所在。舊解不立這一項，智者今取此譬，用來譬喻佛再次講說《法華經》；相當於〈藥草喻品〉的一味雨、火宅的唯一出口，以及〈方便品〉宣示佛道的意思。
第五是一位導師。這譬喻第十六位王子；相當於〈藥草喻品〉的密雲、火宅中的長者，以及〈方便品〉所說佛如今也是這樣。
有人問：這裡既然設譬，為什麼不立父子失散、長者驚入火宅和不虛等名稱？
回答是：譬名都隨當處最便於顯義的一面而立。若著眼於眾生的根機和佛的感應有沒有相遇，便說父子相失、父子相見；若著眼於佛的應化才開始赴機，便說驚入火宅。可是這裡所說的導師與眾人世世相逢，怎能說是失散？他們久遠以前已結下因緣，怎能說應化今天才開始？因此不另立相失、驚入的譬名，但那些意思仍可相通。
又問：為什麼不立不虛譬？
回答是：在此以前，開權顯實已經說過二十二番，不虛之義已很清楚。設不虛譬原是為了勸人相信，而下根人的信心不久就會生起，所以這裡不必再立。
三、五百由旬的諸說與本論所依
關於五百由旬，基師主張：三界的結使煩惱是三百，七地所斷的習氣是四百，八地以上所斷的無明是五百。智者認為，這既不是正確的別義，也不是三乘共通之義。
又有一家列流來生死、變易生死、中間生死、分段生死四種，只取其中三種再開成五百，不取流來生死；理由是流來生死是有識的開始，也是返本還源的起點，所以不說。有人反難：依《勝鬘經》所說，因有五種，果有兩種；兩種果是分段、變易，五種因是五住煩惱。若談果時可以把流來和中間另行分開，談因時也應在五住以外再廣立，卻沒有根據，所以這一說不能採用。《大智度論》說肉身菩薩屬分段，法身菩薩屬變易；又說阿羅漢捨三界報身而受法性身。由此可知，生死只有分段、變易兩種。
又有人主張：三百譬喻三界，四百譬喻七地；兩國之間難以度過；五百譬喻八地以上。反難的人說：若四百譬喻七地，三百便應譬喻六地。六地和二乘功德相齊，而二乘修行最久也只有六十劫或百劫；菩薩到六地卻已經歷二十二大僧祇劫。二乘在佛道上迂迴，不應和六地菩薩相齊。智者認為，這也不是別義，更不是通義。
又有人說：三界是三百，七住與二乘是四百，七住以上是五百。正如《大般涅槃經》說，初果人經八萬劫到菩提心處；法華三種根機的人在這裡領解，五種人到這裡，便叫度過五百由旬。這是取最鈍根的人，所以說八萬劫；利根人不必如此。佛在世時，已有證四果者一聽《法華經》便發心，何必都等八萬劫？
對此又有三重反難。第一，經文明明說，走過三百由旬後施設二地，怎會是走過三種人？第二，若說五種人共同發菩提心就是度過五百，那只是《大般涅槃經》的一層意思：五種人發心，離開原有五個位置，並不是此處的意思。第三，這裡的三百是權宜之度，仍在化城；五百才到寶所，才是真實之度。經意要廢去化城，再向寶所前進；若五種人都已度過、都已前進，反而失去化城譬的本意。
又有人說：三界是三百，聲聞是四百，緣覺地是五百。凡夫受三界障礙，二乘受涅槃障礙，這也可以說是有見、空見兩種障礙。《華嚴經》說藥樹不生在深水、火坑；火坑譬三界，深水譬二乘。三界是二乘的牢獄，二乘又是菩薩的牢獄；這也可說是福、智兩邊：一邊不能自行，一邊不能化他。《大品般若》只說四百由旬，把二乘合為一百；《法華經》則開成五百。《大品般若》說菩薩越過凡、聖兩地，尚未顯明二乘是權宜，所以缺少化城的意思；既未談化城，也沒有顯明寶所。
本論回答：其實《大品般若》已顯真實，所以辨明寶所；只是尚未開權，所以不說化城。本品下文說，為了使人中途止息而說兩種涅槃，這是要他越過三百由旬；又說他所住之地已接近佛慧，這是要他再走出二百由旬。經文既已分明，不必再生迷惑。
聲聞、緣覺兩乘有六點相同、十點不同。六同是：同樣出離三界，同樣得到盡智和無生智，同樣斷除正使，同樣得到有餘、無餘涅槃，同樣得到一切智，同樣名為小乘；所以兩乘合為一座化城。
十種差別是：第一，修因時間有長有短，或六十劫、或百劫；第二，根有利鈍；第三，從師聞法與獨自覺悟有別，其中又帶無悲與鹿、羊的對舉；第四，所緣有相、無相不同；第五，觀法有略、廣不同；第六，一種能說四果法，一種不能說法而使人得煖法；第七，一種在佛世出現，一種不在佛世出現；第八，一種頓證，一種漸證；第九，多現神通與少說法有別；第十，聲聞的情況不定。原文的省略和對舉並不完全整齊，這十項依原有停頓讀，不另拆成十一項。
火宅譬說三車，到了這裡卻合成二百由旬。那是因為三種根機同被火宅所燒，也同求出宅，所以說三車；從佛道長遠來看，二乘本身又成為必須離開的惡道，所以說還有二百要過。有人追問：佛乘並非障礙，為何只說二百？為何對凡夫開成三百，對聖者只開成二百？回答是，這只是引導前進的話。若說已度的少、未度的多，那還不是究竟明了之說。佛道雖像萬里路那樣長，真正難過的是這五百，其餘便較容易。
又問：二百是二乘人的難處，三界是凡夫的難處，菩薩有沒有難處？菩薩若不以火宅為難，就不應求車出宅；既然也求車出宅，為什麼又不受二百由旬所障〔云云〕？
《大智度論》卷六十六先按順序說：險道是世間，一百由旬是欲界，二百是色界，三百是無色界，四百是二乘。接著又倒數：一百是二乘道，二百是無色界，三百是色界，四百是欲界。本經則說五百由旬就是菩薩道；越過五百，便進入佛道〔云云〕。可見人師和經論所出的解釋各不相同，前文已經列明。
智者現在依本經作三組判釋。
第一組約處所說：三界果報所在是三百，有餘國土是四百，實報國土是五百。後面的合譬說佛知道種種生死，生死就是果報所依的處所。但佛意難知，還要再從其他方面廣說。
第二組約煩惱說：見惑是一百，五下分結是二百，五上分結是三百，塵沙惑是四百，無明惑是五百。合譬說煩惱是險難惡道，正可和這一組互相扶成。
第三組約觀法說：入空觀能過三百，入假觀能過四百，入中觀能過五百。合譬說導師善知險道的通塞之相，正是同時知道因、果兩種五百，彼此也可相互扶成。
接著逐一解釋五譬。所謂險難惡道，是譬喻生死的因和果。分段生死、變易生死是果上的險難；見思惑與五住煩惱是因上的險難。正因有這些因果，才叫惡道。
所謂無人，有兩種道路：一種雖然曠遠隔絕，仍有人可以依靠；另一種則無人可依。若說生死中有涅槃、煩惱中有菩提，雖然道路曠絕，仍有人可依；若說生死煩惱中全無涅槃菩提，就像藥裡沒有病、病裡沒有藥，那才是曠絕而無人可依。
所謂許多同行者，是譬喻十六王子所化而尚未得度的眾人。想越過險道，是為了求得一切種智，所以說到珍寶處。唯一的導師就是第十六王子。眼、耳清淨叫聰，意根清淨叫利；合起來說，就是六根清淨。智是一心三智；明是具足五眼，也可把三明叫作明；達是十力。
四、將導譬：所將、退大與接小
從經文「將導眾人」以下，是第二段將導譬，和〈火宅喻品〉、〈方便品〉別譬廣頌的意思相同。全文分三科。
第一是所將人眾譬，譬喻本來已結緣卻還沒有得度的人。原有因緣沒有失去，所以仍由導師帶領；相當於火宅長者見火驚怖，也相當於佛見五濁而起大悲心。
第二是中路懈退譬，譬喻往昔結緣的人在中間世相遇時退失大乘心，佛便用小乘接引；相當於火宅中不用身手救出諸子、改歎三車希有，也相當於〈方便品〉停止大乘教化而思惟使用方便。
第三從導師知道眾人已得止息開始，是滅去化城、引向寶所之譬，譬喻佛今天又說《法華經》，集合菩薩和聲聞大眾而為他們說法；相當於火宅中等賜一大車，也相當於〈方便品〉只說無上道。
以上分科完畢，以下解釋正文。
所將人眾，通說都是往昔結緣的大眾；分別來說，昔日已得大益的人已被帶領完畢，未得大益的人才是現在正被帶領者。若用火宅中的五百人、三十子來說，就是其中還沒有開悟的人。
中路懈退這一科又分退大、接小兩段。退大對應停止一乘教化，接小對應施設三乘。退大有三項：第一，中路懈退，對應沒有大乘根機；第二，向導師稟白，對應不接受勸、誡。其中疲倦至極是不接受勸進，心中怖畏是不接受誡止；第三，不能再前進，對應停止教化。
這裡的中路並不是路程走到一半。以發心為開始，以成佛為終點，只要在這兩端之間生起退心，就叫中路懈退。
向導師稟白所說的導師有四種名稱。一般慈悲引導眾人的，叫通途導師；曾和這群人結緣的，叫結緣導師；運用權智施設方便的，叫權智導師；知道眾人已休息、將再引向寶所的，叫實智導師。此處向導師稟白，正是向結緣導師稟白。
眾人一旦退失大心，大乘根機便隱沒；佛若以小法接引，小乘根機便生起。一生一滅，感動法身，所以叫作稟白。王子知道他們退大，就是聽到他們所稟。善根微弱、受無明遮蔽，所以叫疲極；畏憚生死，所以叫怖畏。不能再進、前路仍遠，是說見思、塵沙、無明難以立刻斷盡；但佛用小乘接引，不讓他們一下退回原處，因此仍有前進之義。
從導師有許多方便以下，是第二段以小法接引。〈火宅喻品〉、〈方便品〉開出三乘都有四層意思，這裡四層也都具足：第一，導師多有方便，是衡量何法合宜；第二，導師想到眾人可憐，是痛惜他們將失大寶；第三，導師起念以後化作一城，是正式運用方便；第四，疲極的大眾進入城中，是三乘人悟入。
化作城又分兩段：先把城化現出來，後向眾人說明化城。以方便力化城，是正式作化；開口告訴大眾，是正式說化。火宅譬說長者替諸子造車；這裡的城在眾人眼前是有，所以先須化作，再向他們說明。
說化城又對應勸、示、證三轉。叫大家不要恐怖、不要退回，是勸他們繼續向前進城；說眼前有一座大城，直到可以隨意安住，是把可止息處指示出來；說進城後便能得到安樂，是用城中安隱作證明。
五、前至寶所、入城與三種到達
經文又說，若願再向前到寶所，也可以去。依三藏教本來沒有再向前進的說法，於是本論記下兩種解釋。
一說認為，宣說三乘教時，可以告訴眾生：若能發大乘心求佛果，固然很好；若目前不能，先作二乘人也好。正如《勝鬘經》說，三乘初學者對法並不愚昧，自己知道終究應當成佛，只因畏難、不能承擔，才取永滅。若照這樣說，便成了別教之義。
又一說認為，只要先使眾人進入化城，入城以後再令他們繼續前進；《大品般若》《維摩詰經》都有這一層意思。這便是以別義接通義。
然而，釋迦佛一代教化還沒有開顯以前，不能明白顯著地這樣說。若論往昔結緣時，應該可以有這樣的話：王子既知道眾人生退心，便可教他們，若畏懼生死，可以先取涅槃休息，然後再走大道，也可隨意。就像今天有人想學大乘，卻因害怕生死而想退轉，旁人勸他：『你暫且斷煩惱、證阿羅漢，然後再求大道，也還來得及。』這只是本論所舉的勸說例子。就釋迦佛現在的一代教化來說，教化尚未完成時不能忽然這樣說；到了開權顯實時，才可以明說。《大般涅槃經》中那些取阿羅漢果的人，也屬這一層意思。
疲極眾人聽見化城而大歡喜，配聞慧；歎未曾有，配煖位；說自己免離惡道，配頂位；覺得安隱，配忍位；向前進入化城，配見諦位；生起已經得度之想，配無學位。這和火宅中諸子適合各自心願，勇猛銳利地互相推排、爭出火宅相同。
生起已度想，好比得到盡智；生起安隱想，好比得到無生智。又可說，具足智德如同已度，證得斷德如同安隱。
有人說：越過三界和二乘便到佛道，佛道就是寶所。《大般涅槃經》有三種文字：一是到菩提心，二是到菩提，三是到大涅槃門。若已到菩提心，必定會到菩提和涅槃。引三種文字，是因為到菩提心說的是到達因位，菩提和涅槃說的是到達果位；果中又有智、斷二德，菩提屬智，涅槃屬斷。三文合起來，既具說始終，也具說智斷。
越過五百又有三義：第一，免離惡道；第二，得到好走的道路；第三，到達寶所。菩提心如同度過惡道，菩提行如同走上平坦路，成就佛道如同到達寶所。本品偈文說，佛如今要告訴他們真實，他們所得的並非真滅，這是說度過五百惡道；又勸他們為求佛的一切智而發大精進，這是說行於菩提好道；又說他們將證一切智、十力等佛法，這是說得到佛道。為什麼一定要度過五百？因為二乘度三百，菩薩度四百，佛乘度五百。
六、滅化引向寶所
從導師知道眾人已經止息以下，是第三段滅去化城、引向寶所。這又分兩項：第一，知道眾人已休息；第二，把他們引向寶所。
眾人已得止息、不再疲倦，譬喻佛知道說涅槃的時機已到，大眾也已清淨、免離障難，大乘根機重新發起。隨即滅去化城、引向寶所，譬喻佛正式說《法華經》，開示真實相。
寶所有兩義。若就究竟而說，以最終佛果為寶所，所以前文說唯佛與佛才能究竟諸法實相。若就分證而說，以初發心住所入為寶所，所以前文說無上寶聚不求自得，又說已得佛法的一分；佛子應得的，都已得到。《大般涅槃經》說須陀洹八萬劫到，是到初發菩提心之處。這是取鈍根人任運經八萬劫、十千劫等才到；若像三藏教中的四果人，不必經多少時間便都能入大，何須一定經八萬或十千劫〔云云〕？
經文說寶處已近，先前的大城是導師所化作。這是舉廢權譬，來貼合顯實譬。前文又說如來智慧難信難解，這些人應以此法漸入佛慧；相當於〈方便品〉說佛以方便力，用三乘教使眾生脫離苦縛而得到涅槃。
七、車與城的三問
舊解先問：車、城都譬喻無生智，為什麼車是無、城是有？為什麼車有三、城只有一？為什麼車會動、城卻靜止？
舊答第一問說：長者只說門外有車，因隔著門，諸子看不見，所以可以假設門外有車，實際並沒有車；化城卻在遙遠空地，不能只靠口說假設，必須真正在眾人眼前化現，所以說城是有。若從理與教來說，執三教而取理，三教都可契理，這是有義，如城；用唯一之理反看三教，理既只有一，三家所得的教果便無自性，這是車無之義。
第二問，車三而城一，是因眾人同在一處休息，所以城一；三種人所愛樂不同，所以車三。若從理、教說，三家同得盡智、無生智，沒有差別，如同一城；雖然三種人的正使同樣斷盡，習氣卻有盡、有未盡，傍得知見也有能得、不能得，因此用這些差別莊嚴盡智、無生智，便像三車各異。
第三問，三家以盡智、無生智明因盡果亡，已到究竟之處，所以像城靜止；盡智、無生智又能運人進入無餘涅槃，所以像車運行。對這些舊答，本論另留下問難〔云云〕。
智者現在改從眾生心與佛智來說。就眾生心看，車、城都有；就佛智看，又可說有，也可說無。權智所明的是有，如城；實智所明的是無，如車〔云云〕。
化城正是為退失大心、轉取小果的人而設，旁兼為起初便學小乘的人而設。前面兩周說法的正意則是為起初學小乘的人，旁兼退大的人。三車通於昔日施教和今日重述；化城正顯引導施教的用意，在當初施設時還沒有明說它只是化作。
又問：化出三車與化出一城有什麼不同？
回答是：三車譬喻說法輪，化城譬喻神通輪。車又從聲音設譬，諸子只聽見而沒有看見；城則從形色設譬。
又問：化城和兩位使者怎樣相比？使者能指示方向，如同教法詮顯道理；城能讓人止息患難，所以教法有運動之用，城則顯靜止。教法有四諦、十二因緣的差別；城所表示的兩種智慧進入無餘，沒有差別。教法通於因與果，城、車只在果上；教法通於有為、無為，城、車只在無為。
若依權智，車是無，因為只是名言教法的施設；若依實智，車是有，因為離不開文字而說解脫。權智照見城為有，因為要引導眾生；實智照見城為無，因為偏真並非真實。權智照見車為三，因為要適應三種因緣；實智照見車為一，因為三者同會一乘。權智照見城為一，因為它表示偏真；實智照見城為三，因為其中含有如來藏義。權智照見城為靜，因為表示灰斷；實智照見城為動，因為還要滅除此化。權智照見車有運行之義，因為運人進入無餘；實智照見車為靜，因為不動也不出。
作這樣的解釋，怎會和舊解相同？舊解只在小乘中立義。
八、五處與合譬
有人問：全經有五處開三顯一，它們有什麼差別？
回答是：通說並無不同，分別來說各有側重。〈方便品〉約教開三顯一，說如來只因一佛乘而為眾生說法，本無二、三。〈火宅喻品〉約行開三顯一；車有運載之義，所以譬喻行，經文說眾人乘大車遊於四方，嬉戲快樂。〈信解品〉約人開三顯一，把受雇作工的人會歸為長者親子，所以眾人領解自己從來真是佛子。
〈藥草喻品〉約差別、無差別來明權實，不直接說要去掉哪一邊、取得哪一邊，只說眾生不知，佛使他們知道。知道七種差別，就是知道權；知道一切同依一理、沒有差別，就是知道實。既差別又無差別，既無差別又有差別，是要眾生知道這一層意思，並不最後說某個一是無、某個一是有。這是就佛自行的權實二智、隨自意語而說，所以佛能知，眾生不知；也可通前通後，以知、不知明權實。
如今化城譬正約理開三顯一。寶所與化城分別表示大、小兩理；破除二乘的化理，顯出寶所真實一理。下一品五百弟子領解，舉衣珠為譬，也是約理而說。
從佛告諸比丘以下，是第二大段合譬。先正面會合，後再牒舉譬喻來貼合，而且次序不依開譬原序。
正合先有五項。第一，如來也是這樣，合第五導師譬。第二，佛說如今為你們作大導師，合第三許多同行者譬。第三，佛知生死煩惱惡道險難，合第二險惡道譬。第四，長遠二字合第一五百由旬譬。第五，應當離去、應當度過，合導師的聰慧明達，也合第四想越過險道、到珍寶處。
再合將導譬。開譬原有三科，這裡也合三科：眾生合所將人眾；只聽一佛乘便退怯，合退大接小；眾生住在二地以下，合滅去化城、引到寶所。
退大原有三項，現在逐項會合。只聽一佛乘，合中路懈退、沒有大乘根機；不想見佛、不想聞法，合向導師稟白、不接受勸誡；心中起念佛道長遠，合不能再前進、停止教化。
從佛知道這種心開始，是合以小法接引。譬中原有四項，合文只合三項。佛知道這種心，合導師多有方便，是衡量所宜；眾生怯弱下劣，合導師憐愍他們，是知道小乘根機已生；為使眾生在中途止息而施設以下，合現作化城和眾人入城兩項。
所謂在中途說兩種涅槃，一說是三界惑已盡，塵沙、無明尚未破，在這兩端之間判有餘、無餘兩種涅槃；又可說是聲聞、緣覺兩種涅槃；又可說分段生死已盡、變易生死未除，在兩種生死之間判有餘、無餘，所以叫作中道〔云云〕。
從眾生住在二地以下，是合第三科將到寶所。開譬有兩項，合譬也有兩項：眾生住在二地，合導師知道眾人已經止息；如來隨即再為他們說法，合把他們引向寶所。
最後再牒舉譬喻貼合法義：牒舉接引退怯者的譬，來合佛施設三乘；牒舉滅去化城的譬，來合佛顯示一乘。其餘依經文可知〔云云〕。
I. For Whom Is This Parable Taught?
From the scriptural words “it is like a road five hundred yojanas long” onward comes the second passage, establishing the connection by parable. This parable has two parts: first opening out the parable, and then applying each part of the parable to the Dharma taught by the Buddha.
Opening out the parable itself has two passages. The first is the parable of the guide, which illustrates how the sixteen princes later taught once more those whom they had transformed in the past, so that all formed a Great-Vehicle connection together. It corresponds to the general parable in the “Parable of the Burning House” chapter and the brief verse in the “Skillful Means” chapter. The second is the parable of leading the travelers, which illustrates how those who had formed a connection in the past met the princes again in intervening lives and now once more hear the Lotus Sutra. It corresponds to the specific parable in the “Parable of the Burning House” chapter and the expanded verse in the “Skillful Means” chapter.
Those encountered again in the intervening period are of two kinds. If, after hearing the Dharma from a buddha, they all proceed toward awakening, there is no need to establish the second parable especially for them. If, despite having encountered the teaching, they still abide today at the stage of śrāvakas, the second parable is established precisely for this class.
II. Five Parts of the Guide Parable
The first passage, the parable of the guide, has five items. They correspond to the six levels of meaning in the general parable of the “Parable of the Burning House” chapter and the brief verse of the “Skillful Means” chapter.
First are the five hundred yojanas. They illustrate how people not yet delivered are attached to various states of existence and wander through the places upon which cyclic existence depends. This corresponds to the vast house and the insecurity of the three realms in the “Parable of the Burning House” chapter, and also to how the “Skillful Means” chapter uses peace and security to disclose by contrast a place without peace and security.
Second is the dangerous, difficult, evil road. It illustrates how people not yet delivered are heavily defiled by afflictions and find the Tathāgata’s wisdom difficult to believe and understand. This corresponds to the fire suddenly starting in the burning house, and also to how the “Skillful Means” chapter uses peace and security to disclose by contrast a Dharma without peace and security.
Third are the many traveling companions. They directly illustrate the hundreds of thousands of millions and billions of kinds of living beings who all give rise to doubt and cannot understand. This corresponds to the thirty children and five hundred people in the burning house, and also to the “Skillful Means” chapter’s statement that the Buddha knows living beings’ natures, dispositions, and desires.
Fourth is the wish to cross this road and reach the place of precious jewels. Old explanations did not establish this item, but Zhiyi now takes up the parable to illustrate the Buddha’s renewed teaching of the Lotus Sutra. It corresponds to the one-flavored rain in the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” chapter, the single exit from the burning house, and the “Skillful Means” chapter’s proclamation of the Buddha Way.
Fifth is the sole guide. He illustrates the sixteenth prince and corresponds to the dense cloud in the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” chapter, the elder in the burning house, and the “Skillful Means” chapter’s statement that the Buddha now does likewise.
Someone asks: since a parable is established here, why are no names established corresponding to the separation of father and sons, the elder’s alarmed entry into the burning house, or freedom from falsehood?
The answer is that the names of parables are established according to whichever aspect most readily reveals the meaning at that point. When attention is given to whether living beings’ capacities and the Buddha’s response encounter one another, one speaks of father and sons losing one another and father and sons meeting. When attention is given to the Buddha’s responsive transformation first going forth to meet capacities, one speaks of His alarmed entry into the burning house. Here, however, the guide and the travelers meet life after life, so how could one say that they are separated? They formed a connection in the distant past, so how could one say that the responsive transformation begins only today? Separate names for separation and alarmed entry are therefore not established, although those meanings remain mutually accessible.
Another question asks why no parable of freedom from falsehood is established.
The answer is that before this point, opening the provisional to reveal the real has already been taught in twenty-two instances, and the meaning of freedom from falsehood is already very clear. The parable of freedom from falsehood was established to encourage faith, and faith among people of lower faculties will soon arise. It therefore need not be established again here.
III. Explanations of the Five Hundred Yojanas and What the Root Treatise Follows
Regarding the five hundred yojanas, Master Ji maintains that the fetters and afflictions of the three realms make three hundred, the habitual tendencies severed on the seventh ground make four hundred, and the ignorance severed on the eighth ground and above makes five hundred. Zhiyi holds that this is neither a correct meaning of the Distinct Teaching nor a meaning shared by the three vehicles.
Another school lists four kinds of birth and death: flowing-arrival birth and death, intermediate birth and death, transformational birth and death, and fragmentary birth and death. It takes three of these and opens them into five hundred, excluding flowing-arrival birth and death because that is the beginning of consciousness and also the starting point for returning to the source. An objector replies that according to the Śrīmālā Sutra, there are five kinds of cause and two kinds of result. The two results are fragmentary and transformational birth and death, while the five causes are the afflictions of the five abodes. If flowing arrival and the intermediate may be separately opened when discussing results, then further categories beyond the five abodes should likewise be established when discussing causes; there is no basis for doing so, and this position therefore cannot be adopted. The Great Treatise says that bodhisattvas in bodies of flesh undergo fragmentary birth and death while bodhisattvas with Dharma bodies undergo transformational birth and death; it also says that arhats relinquish recompense bodies in the three realms and receive bodies of Dharma-nature. This shows that birth and death are of only two kinds: fragmentary and transformational.
Another position holds that three hundred illustrates the three realms, four hundred the seventh ground—which is difficult to cross like the space between two countries—and five hundred the eighth ground and above. An objector says that if four hundred illustrates the seventh ground, then three hundred should illustrate the sixth. The merits of the sixth ground equal those of the two vehicles, yet practitioners of the two vehicles train for no more than sixty or one hundred eons, while bodhisattvas have already passed through twenty-two great incalculable eons upon reaching the sixth ground. Since the two vehicles take a circuitous route on the Buddha Way, they should not be equated with bodhisattvas on the sixth ground. Zhiyi holds that this is neither a meaning of the Distinct Teaching nor a meaning of the Shared Teaching.
Another position says that the three realms make three hundred, the seven abodes together with the two vehicles make four hundred, and the stages above the seven abodes make five hundred. As the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra says, a stream-enterer reaches the place of the mind of awakening after eighty thousand eons. When the people of the three capacities in the Lotus gain understanding here and the five kinds of person arrive here, this is called crossing five hundred yojanas. Eighty thousand eons are stated by taking people of the dullest faculties; those of keen faculties do not necessarily require this. In the Buddha’s lifetime, people who had already realized the four fruits aroused aspiration as soon as they heard the Lotus Sutra. Why would all have to wait eighty thousand eons?
Three further objections are raised against this position. First, the scripture plainly says that two grounds are established after three hundred yojanas have been crossed, so how could this mean crossing beyond three kinds of person? Second, to say that the five kinds of person together arouse the aspiration for awakening and thereby cross five hundred is only one meaning in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra: the five kinds of person arouse aspiration and leave their former five positions. That is not the meaning here. Third, the three hundred here is a provisional crossing and remains within the conjured city; only at five hundred does one reach the place of jewels, the real crossing. The scripture intends to abolish the conjured city and advance again toward the place of jewels. If all five kinds of person have already crossed and advanced, the basic meaning of the conjured-city parable is instead lost.
Another position says that the three realms make three hundred, the śrāvaka ground makes four hundred, and the pratyekabuddha ground makes five hundred. Ordinary beings are obstructed by the three realms, while the two vehicles are obstructed by nirvāṇa; these may also be called the two obstructions of viewing existence and viewing emptiness. The Avataṃsaka Sutra says that the medicine tree does not grow in deep water or a fire pit: the fire pit illustrates the three realms and deep water the two vehicles. The three realms are a prison for the two vehicles, while the two vehicles are in turn a prison for bodhisattvas. These may also be called the two sides of merit and wisdom: on one side one cannot practice for oneself, and on the other one cannot transform others. The Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra speaks only of four hundred yojanas, combining the two vehicles into one hundred; the Lotus Sutra opens them into five hundred. The Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra says that bodhisattvas cross beyond the grounds of ordinary and noble beings, but it has not yet revealed that the two vehicles are provisional and therefore lacks the meaning of the conjured city. Since it does not discuss the conjured city, neither does it reveal the place of jewels.
The root treatise answers that the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra has in fact revealed the real and therefore distinguishes the place of jewels; it simply has not yet opened the provisional and therefore does not speak of the conjured city. Later in this chapter, two kinds of nirvāṇa are taught to give people rest midway, which means that they have crossed three hundred yojanas; it also says that the grounds where they abide are already near the Buddha’s wisdom, which means that they must go onward through another two hundred yojanas. Since the scriptural text is already clear, there is no need to remain confused.
Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas have six similarities and ten differences. The six similarities are that both leave the three realms, both attain the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising, both sever the direct agents of affliction, both attain nirvāṇa with and without remainder, both attain knowledge of all, and both are called the Lesser Vehicle. The two vehicles are therefore combined into one conjured city.
The ten differences are these: first, the time spent cultivating causes is longer or shorter, being either sixty or one hundred eons; second, faculties are keen or dull; third, hearing the Dharma from a teacher differs from awakening alone, together with the contrast between lack of compassion and deer and sheep; fourth, objects of cognition have marks or are without marks; fifth, methods of contemplation are brief or extensive; sixth, one can teach the Dharma of the four fruits while the other cannot teach the Dharma but can enable people to attain the stage of warmth; seventh, one appears during a buddha’s lifetime while the other does not; eighth, one realizes suddenly while the other realizes gradually; ninth, frequently manifesting supernormal powers differs from seldom teaching the Dharma; and tenth, the situation of śrāvakas is not fixed. The omissions and paired expressions in the original are not completely regular; these ten items follow the original pauses and are not split into eleven.
The burning-house parable speaks of three carriages, yet here they are combined into two hundred yojanas. This is because the three kinds of capacity are alike burned by the house and alike seek to leave it, and therefore three carriages are taught. Viewed against the long distance of the Buddha Way, however, the two vehicles themselves become an evil road that must be left behind, and therefore another two hundred remains to be crossed. Someone presses the question: the Buddha Vehicle is not an obstruction, so why are only two hundred mentioned? Why are ordinary beings assigned three hundred but noble ones only two hundred? The answer is that this is merely speech that leads people onward. If one says that little has been crossed and much remains, that is still not an ultimate and fully explicit statement. Although the Buddha Way is as long as a road of ten thousand miles, these five hundred are what is truly difficult to cross; the remainder is comparatively easy.
Another question asks: two hundred are difficulties for people of the two vehicles, and the three realms are difficulties for ordinary beings; do bodhisattvas have any difficulties? If bodhisattvas did not regard the burning house as difficult, they should not seek carriages to leave it. Since they too seek carriages to leave the house, why are they not obstructed by the two hundred yojanas? 〔And so forth.〕
Fascicle Sixty-Six of the Great Treatise first explains in forward order: the dangerous road is the world; one hundred yojanas are the desire realm, two hundred the form realm, three hundred the formless realm, and four hundred the two vehicles. It then counts in reverse: one hundred are the paths of the two vehicles, two hundred the formless realm, three hundred the form realm, and four hundred the desire realm. The present scripture says that the five hundred yojanas are the bodhisattva path; after crossing the five hundred, one enters the Buddha Way. 〔And so forth.〕 The explanations produced by individual masters and by scriptures and treatises thus differ from one another, as the preceding discussion has already shown.
Zhiyi now makes three groups of interpretations based on the present scripture.
The first group is explained in terms of places: the place of recompense in the three realms makes three hundred, a land with remainder makes four hundred, and the land of true recompense makes five hundred. The subsequent application says that the Buddha knows the various kinds of birth and death, and birth and death is the place upon which recompense depends. Yet the Buddha’s intent is difficult to know, and the subject must be discussed more broadly from other perspectives.
The second group is explained in terms of afflictions: the delusions of views make one hundred, the five lower fetters two hundred, the five higher fetters three hundred, dust-and-sand delusions four hundred, and the delusion of ignorance five hundred. The application says that afflictions are the dangerous, difficult, evil road, which directly supports this group.
The third group is explained in terms of contemplative methods: entering contemplation of emptiness crosses three hundred, entering contemplation of the provisional crosses four hundred, and entering contemplation of the Middle crosses five hundred. The application says that the guide thoroughly knows where the dangerous road is open or obstructed. This means knowing at once both the five hundred of cause and the five hundred of result, and the two passages likewise support one another.
The five elements of the parable are then explained one by one. The dangerous, difficult, evil road illustrates the causes and effects of birth and death. Fragmentary birth and death and transformational birth and death are dangers on the side of effect; the delusions of views and thought and the afflictions of the five abodes are dangers on the side of cause. These causes and effects are why it is called an evil road.
Being without people involves two kinds of road. One is vast, remote, and cut off, yet still has people upon whom one may rely; the other has no one upon whom one may rely. If nirvāṇa is said to exist within birth and death and awakening within afflictions, then although the road is vast and cut off, people upon whom one may rely still remain. If birth and death and afflictions are said to contain no nirvāṇa or awakening at all, it is like medicine containing no illness and illness containing no medicine; only this is vast isolation without anyone upon whom to rely.
The many traveling companions illustrate the people transformed by the sixteen princes who have not yet been delivered. They wish to cross the dangerous road in order to seek knowledge of all modes, and it is therefore said that they travel to the place of jewels. The sole guide is the sixteenth prince. Purity of the eye and ear faculties is called intelligence; purity of the mental faculty is called keen discernment; together these mean purity of the six faculties. Wisdom is the threefold wisdom in a single mind. Clarity means possessing the five eyes, and may also designate the three knowledges. Thorough comprehension means the ten powers.
IV. Parable of Leading: Those Led, Retreat from the Great, and Reception through the Lesser
From the scriptural words “leading the assembly” onward comes the second passage, the parable of leading the travelers. Its meaning is the same as the specific parable and expanded verse in the “Parable of the Burning House” and “Skillful Means” chapters. The complete passage has three divisions.
First is the parable of the people being led. It illustrates those who originally formed a connection but have not yet been delivered. Because the original connection has not been lost, they continue to be led by the guide. This corresponds to the elder of the burning house seeing the fire and becoming alarmed and afraid, and also to the Buddha seeing the five turbidities and arousing great compassion.
Second is the parable of weariness and retreat midway. It illustrates how those who formed a connection in the past lose the Great-Vehicle aspiration when they meet again in intervening lives, whereupon the Buddha receives them through the Lesser Vehicle. This corresponds to the elder not rescuing the children with his own body and arms, but instead praising the rarity of the three carriages; it also corresponds to the “Skillful Means” chapter’s ceasing Great-Vehicle transformation and considering the use of skillful means.
Third, beginning with the guide’s knowledge that the travelers have rested, is the parable of extinguishing the conjured city and leading them toward the place of jewels. It illustrates the Buddha’s teaching the Lotus Sutra again today, gathering the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas and teaching them the Dharma. This corresponds to equally bestowing the single great carriage in the burning-house parable and to the “Skillful Means” chapter’s teaching only the unsurpassed Way.
This completes the outline; the text itself is explained below.
Those being led are, in general, the whole assembly that formed a connection in the past. More specifically, those who gained the great benefit in the past have already been led to completion, while those who did not gain the great benefit are those now being led. In terms of the five hundred people and thirty children in the burning house, these are the ones among them who have not yet awakened.
The division on weariness and retreat midway has two passages: retreat from the Great and reception through the Lesser. Retreat from the Great corresponds to ceasing transformation through the One Vehicle, while reception through the Lesser corresponds to establishing the three vehicles. Retreat from the Great has three items. First, weariness and retreat midway corresponds to the absence of Great-Vehicle capacity. Second, reporting to the guide corresponds to not accepting exhortation or admonition: being utterly exhausted means not accepting exhortation to advance, while fear in the mind means not accepting admonition against stopping. Third, being unable to proceed farther corresponds to ceasing transformation through teaching.
“Midway” here does not mean that half the distance has been traveled. If arousing aspiration is the beginning and attaining buddhahood the endpoint, then any thought of retreat arising between these two ends is called weariness and retreat midway.
The guide to whom the travelers report has four names. One who guides living beings through compassion in a general way is called the universal guide. One who once formed a connection with this group is called the guide who forms connections. One who employs provisional wisdom to establish skillful means is called the guide of provisional wisdom. One who knows that the travelers have rested and will lead them once more toward the place of jewels is called the guide of real wisdom. Here the travelers report specifically to the guide who formed the connection.
Once the travelers lose the Great-Vehicle aspiration, their Great-Vehicle capacity disappears; when the Buddha receives them through a lesser teaching, their Lesser-Vehicle capacity arises. This cessation and arising affect the Dharma body and are therefore called reporting. The prince’s knowledge that they have retreated from the Great is His hearing what they report. Because their wholesome roots are weak and obscured by ignorance, they are called utterly exhausted; because they dread birth and death, they are called afraid. Being unable to continue while the road ahead remains distant means that the delusions of views and thought, dust-and-sand delusions, and ignorance are difficult to sever all at once. Yet the Buddha receives them through the Lesser Vehicle and does not let them fall all the way back to their original place; this still has the meaning of advance.
From the guide’s possession of many skillful means onward comes the second passage, reception through a lesser teaching. The opening of the three vehicles in the “Parable of the Burning House” and “Skillful Means” chapters each has four levels of meaning, and all four are present here. First, the guide’s many skillful means mean assessing which Dharma is appropriate. Second, his thought that the travelers are pitiable means grieving that they will lose the great jewels. Third, conjuring a city after forming this thought is the formal employment of skillful means. Fourth, the utterly exhausted assembly entering the city means that people of the three vehicles awaken and enter.
Conjuring the city itself has two passages: first manifesting the city through conjuration, and then explaining the conjured city to the travelers. Conjuring it through the power of skillful means is the formal act of conjuration; speaking to the assembly is the formal explanation of the conjuration. In the burning-house parable, the elder constructs carriages for the children. Here the city exists before the travelers’ eyes, so it must first be conjured and then explained to them.
The explanation of the conjured city in turn corresponds to the three turnings of exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation. Telling everyone not to be afraid and not to turn back exhorts them to continue forward and enter the city. Saying that a great city lies before them, where they may stop and do as they wish, demonstrates the place where they may rest. Saying that they can attain peace and happiness upon entering the city confirms this by means of the security within it.
V. Going Onward to the Place of Jewels, Entering the City, and Three Kinds of Arrival
The scripture further says that if they wish to go onward to the place of jewels, they may do so. Because the Tripiṭaka Teaching originally contains no statement about advancing again, the root treatise records two explanations.
One explanation holds that when the teaching of the three vehicles is proclaimed, living beings may be told: if you can arouse the Great-Vehicle aspiration and seek the fruit of buddhahood, that is certainly good; if you cannot do so for the present, first becoming a person of the two vehicles is also good. As the Śrīmālā Sutra says, beginners in the three vehicles are not ignorant of the Dharma and know for themselves that they ultimately should become buddhas; only because they fear the difficulty and cannot bear it do they take up permanent extinction. Under this explanation, the meaning becomes that of the Distinct Teaching.
Another explanation holds that the travelers are first enabled to enter the conjured city and are then made to advance again after entering it. The Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra and the Vimalakīrti Sutra both contain this meaning. This uses the meaning of the Distinct Teaching to receive that of the Shared Teaching.
Before Śākyamuni Buddha’s lifetime of teaching had opened and revealed the provisional, however, this could not be stated clearly and explicitly. In the past, when the connection was formed, words like these could presumably have been spoken: once the princes knew that the travelers had given rise to the thought of retreat, they could teach them that if they feared birth and death, they might first take nirvāṇa as a place of rest and then walk the great road, as they wished. This is like someone today who wants to study the Great Vehicle but, fearing birth and death, thinks of retreating. Another person exhorts him, “For the time being, sever your afflictions and realize arhatship; afterward, you can still seek the great Way.” This is merely an illustrative exhortation given by the root treatise. In Śākyamuni Buddha’s present lifetime of teaching, such a statement cannot suddenly be made while the transformation is still unfinished; it may be stated openly only when the provisional is opened to reveal the real. Those who take the fruit of arhatship in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra also belong to this meaning.
When the utterly exhausted travelers hear of the conjured city, their great joy corresponds to wisdom from hearing; praising what they have never experienced corresponds to the stage of warmth; saying they have escaped the evil road corresponds to the summit stage; feeling secure corresponds to the stage of patience; going forward and entering the conjured city corresponds to the stage of seeing the truths; and giving rise to the thought that they have crossed over corresponds to the stage of no-more-learning. This is the same as the children in the burning house finding the carriages suited to their wishes and fiercely and keenly pushing one another aside as they compete to leave the house.
Giving rise to the thought of having crossed over is like attaining the knowledge of exhaustion; giving rise to the thought of security is like attaining the knowledge of nonarising. It may also be said that completeness of the virtue of wisdom is like having crossed over, while realization of the virtue of severance is like security.
Someone says that after crossing beyond the three realms and the two vehicles one reaches the Buddha Way, which is the place of jewels. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra has three formulations: arriving at the mind of awakening, arriving at awakening, and arriving at the gate of great nirvāṇa. One who has reached the mind of awakening will certainly reach awakening and nirvāṇa. The three formulations are cited because arrival at the mind of awakening describes arrival at the stage of cause, while awakening and nirvāṇa describe arrival at the stage of result. The result in turn includes the two virtues of wisdom and severance: awakening belongs to wisdom and nirvāṇa to severance. Taken together, the three formulations state both beginning and end and both wisdom and severance.
Crossing five hundred also has three meanings: first, escaping the evil road; second, attaining a road that is easy to travel; and third, reaching the place of jewels. The mind of awakening is like crossing beyond the evil road, the practice of awakening is like walking a level road, and accomplishment of the Buddha Way is like reaching the place of jewels. The verse in this chapter says that the Buddha now wishes to tell them the truth and that what they attained was not real extinction; this means crossing beyond the five hundred yojanas of the evil road. It also exhorts them to arouse great diligence for the sake of seeking the Buddha’s knowledge of all, which means practicing on the good road of awakening. It further says that they will realize knowledge of all, the ten powers, and the other Buddha-dharmas, which means attaining the Buddha Way. Why must five hundred be crossed? Because the two vehicles cross three hundred, bodhisattvas cross four hundred, and the Buddha Vehicle crosses five hundred.
VI. Extinguishing the Conjuration and Leading toward the Place of Jewels
From the guide’s knowledge that the travelers have rested onward comes the third passage, extinguishing the conjured city and leading them toward the place of jewels. It has two items: first, knowing that the travelers have rested; and second, leading them toward the place of jewels.
The travelers’ having rested and no longer being weary illustrates the Buddha’s knowledge that the time for teaching nirvāṇa has arrived, that the assembly has become pure and escaped its obstructions and difficulties, and that its Great-Vehicle capacity has arisen again. His immediately extinguishing the conjured city and leading them toward the place of jewels illustrates the Buddha’s formal teaching of the Lotus Sutra and revelation of the real mark.
The place of jewels has two meanings. In the ultimate sense, the final fruit of buddhahood is the place of jewels; hence the preceding text says that only a buddha together with a buddha can exhaustively comprehend the true mark of all dharmas. In the sense of partial realization, what is entered at the first abode of initial resolve is the place of jewels; hence the preceding text says that the unsurpassed cluster of jewels is obtained without being sought, that one portion of the Buddha-Dharma has already been attained, and that all a child of the Buddha should obtain has already been obtained. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra says that a stream-enterer arrives after eighty thousand eons, meaning arrival at the place where the mind of awakening is first aroused. This takes people of dull faculties who naturally pass through eighty thousand eons, ten thousand eons, and so forth before arriving. People who have attained the four fruits in the Tripiṭaka Teaching can all enter the Great without necessarily passing through a set period of time, so why must they invariably pass through eighty thousand or ten thousand eons? 〔And so forth.〕
The scripture says that the place of jewels is already near and that the great city seen before was conjured by the guide. This states the parable for abolishing the provisional in order to apply the parable for revealing the real. The preceding text also says that the Tathāgata’s wisdom is difficult to believe and understand and that these people should gradually enter the Buddha’s wisdom through this Dharma. This corresponds to the “Skillful Means” chapter’s statement that through the power of skillful means the Buddha uses the teaching of the three vehicles to release living beings from the bonds of suffering and enable them to attain nirvāṇa.
VII. Three Questions about the Carriages and City
An old explanation first asks: if the carriages and city both illustrate the knowledge of nonarising, why do the carriages not exist while the city does? Why are there three carriages but only one city? Why do the carriages move while the city remains still?
The old answer to the first question says that the elder only states that carriages exist outside the gate. Because the gate stands between them and the children cannot see the carriages, their existence outside the gate can be posited even though there are no actual carriages. The conjured city, however, stands in a distant open place and cannot be posited by speech alone; it must actually be conjured before the travelers’ eyes, and the city is therefore said to exist. In terms of principle and teaching, grasping principle through the three teachings means that all three teachings can accord with principle, which is the meaning of existence, like the city. Looking back at the three teachings from the single principle, since principle is only one, the teaching-fruits attained by the three groups lack intrinsic nature. This is the meaning that the carriages do not exist.
For the second question, the carriages are three while the city is one because all the travelers rest in a single place, so the city is one, whereas the three kinds of person delight in different things, so the carriages are three. In terms of principle and teaching, all three groups attain the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising without difference, like the one city. Although the three kinds of person equally exhaust the direct agents of affliction, their habitual tendencies may or may not be exhausted, and they may or may not obtain incidental knowledges and views. Adorning the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising with these differences makes them like the three distinct carriages.
For the third question, the three groups clarify through the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising that cause has been exhausted and result has disappeared. They have reached the ultimate place, and this is like the city remaining still. Yet the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising can also convey people into remainderless nirvāṇa, and this is like the carriages moving. The root treatise preserves further objections to these old answers. 〔And so forth.〕
Zhiyi now explains instead in terms of living beings’ minds and the Buddha’s wisdom. From the perspective of living beings’ minds, both carriages and city exist. From the perspective of the Buddha’s wisdom, they may be said to exist and also not to exist. What provisional wisdom clarifies exists, like the city; what real wisdom clarifies does not exist, like the carriages. 〔And so forth.〕
The conjured city is established directly for those who retreat from the Great aspiration and turn to the lesser fruit, while also including those who studied the Lesser Vehicle from the beginning. The principal intention of the preceding two cycles of teaching was directed to those who studied the Lesser Vehicle from the beginning, while also including those who retreated from the Great. The three carriages apply both to teaching in the past and to its retelling today. The conjured city directly reveals the intention of guidance through the teaching; when it was first established, it was not yet explicitly stated that the city was only conjured.
Another question asks: what is the difference between conjuring three carriages and conjuring one city?
The answer is that the three carriages illustrate the wheel of teaching, while the conjured city illustrates the wheel of supernormal power. The carriages also take their parable from sound, for the children only hear of them and do not see them; the city takes its parable from visible form.
Another question asks how the conjured city compares with the two messengers. Messengers can indicate a direction, like a teaching that expresses principle; a city lets people rest from danger, so teaching has the function of motion while the city displays stillness. Teaching has the distinctions of the four truths and twelve links of dependent origination; the two kinds of wisdom represented by the city enter remainderless nirvāṇa without difference. Teaching applies to both cause and result, while city and carriage apply only to result. Teaching applies to both conditioned and unconditioned dharmas, while city and carriage apply only to the unconditioned.
According to provisional wisdom, the carriages do not exist because they are only establishments of verbal teaching; according to real wisdom, the carriages exist because liberation is taught without departing from written words. Provisional wisdom sees the city as existing because living beings must be guided; real wisdom sees the city as nonexistent because the partial truth is not real. Provisional wisdom sees the carriages as three because it accords with three kinds of conditions; real wisdom sees the carriages as one because all three converge in the One Vehicle. Provisional wisdom sees the city as one because it represents the partial truth; real wisdom sees the city as three because it contains the meaning of the tathāgata-garbha. Provisional wisdom sees the city as still because it represents the extinction of body and cognition; real wisdom sees the city as moving because this conjuration must still be extinguished. Provisional wisdom sees the carriages as having the meaning of movement because they convey people into remainderless nirvāṇa; real wisdom sees the carriages as still because they neither move nor emerge.
How could an explanation like this be the same as the old one? The old explanation establishes its meaning only within the Lesser Vehicle.
VIII. Five Passages and the Application of the Parable
Someone asks: the complete scripture has five passages of opening the three to reveal the one. How do they differ?
The answer is that they do not differ when discussed generally, but each has its emphasis when distinguished. The “Skillful Means” chapter opens the three to reveal the one in terms of teaching, saying that the Tathāgata teaches living beings only because of the One Buddha Vehicle and that there are originally neither two nor three. The “Parable of the Burning House” chapter opens the three to reveal the one in terms of practice: because carriages have the meaning of carrying, they illustrate practice, and the scripture says that everyone rides the great carriage, travels in the four directions, and plays in joy. The “Faith and Understanding” chapter opens the three to reveal the one in terms of persons, gathering hired laborers back into the elder’s own children; the assembly therefore understands that they have always truly been children of the Buddha.
The “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” chapter clarifies the provisional and real in terms of difference and nondifference. It does not directly say that one side should be removed and the other adopted; it says only that living beings do not know and the Buddha enables them to know. Knowing the seven differences means knowing the provisional; knowing that all equally depend upon the one principle without difference means knowing the real. Difference is also nondifference, and nondifference also contains difference. Living beings are to know this meaning; the chapter does not finally say that a particular one is nonexistent and another particular one existent. This is spoken in terms of the Buddha’s own practice of the two wisdoms, provisional and real, and is speech following His own intent. The Buddha can know, while living beings do not know. It may also connect both with the preceding and following passages, clarifying the provisional and real through knowing and not knowing.
The parable of the conjured city now directly opens the three to reveal the one in terms of principle. The place of jewels and the conjured city respectively represent the principles of the great and lesser teachings: the conjured principle of the two vehicles is broken through, revealing the single real principle of the place of jewels. In the next chapter, when the five hundred disciples express their understanding through the parable of the jewel sewn into a garment, they likewise speak in terms of principle.
From the Buddha’s address to the bhikṣus onward comes the second major passage, applying the parable. First comes the direct application; afterward, the parable is restated and applied. The sequence does not follow the original order in which the parable was opened.
The direct application first has five items. First, “the Tathāgata is also like this” applies the fifth item, the guide. Second, the Buddha’s statement that He is now a great guide for them applies the third item, the many traveling companions. Third, the Buddha’s knowing that the evil road of birth, death, and afflictions is dangerous and difficult applies the second item, the dangerous, evil road. Fourth, the word “long and distant” applies the first item, the five hundred yojanas. Fifth, “should leave” and “should cross beyond” apply the guide’s intelligence, keen discernment, clarity, and thorough comprehension, and also the fourth item, the wish to cross the dangerous road and reach the place of jewels.
The parable of leading the travelers is then applied. The opened parable originally has three divisions, and the application likewise applies three: living beings applies the people being led; retreat and fear upon hearing only the One Buddha Vehicle applies retreat from the Great and reception through the Lesser; and living beings’ abiding in the two grounds onward applies extinguishing the conjured city and leading them to the place of jewels.
Retreat from the Great originally has three items, and each is now applied. Merely hearing the One Buddha Vehicle applies weariness and retreat midway and the absence of Great-Vehicle capacity. Not wishing to see the Buddha or hear the Dharma applies reporting to the guide and not accepting exhortation or admonition. Thinking that the Buddha Way is long and distant applies being unable to proceed farther and the cessation of transformation through teaching.
Beginning with the Buddha’s knowledge of this thought comes the application of reception through the lesser teaching. The parable originally has four items, while the application applies only three. The Buddha’s knowledge of this thought applies the guide’s many skillful means, or assessment of what is appropriate. Living beings’ timidity and inferiority applies the guide’s compassion for them, or His knowledge that Lesser-Vehicle capacity has arisen. Establishing a means for living beings to rest midway onward applies both manifesting the conjured city and the travelers’ entry into it.
As for teaching two kinds of nirvāṇa midway, one explanation says that the afflictions of the three realms have been exhausted while dust-and-sand delusions and ignorance have not yet been broken through, and nirvāṇa with remainder and without remainder are distinguished between these two ends. It may also mean the two nirvāṇas of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. It may further mean that fragmentary birth and death has been exhausted while transformational birth and death has not yet been removed, and nirvāṇa with and without remainder are distinguished between these two kinds of birth and death. It is therefore called the middle of the road. 〔And so forth.〕
From living beings’ abiding in the two grounds onward comes the application of the third division, leading them to the place of jewels. The opened parable has two items, and the application likewise has two: living beings’ abiding in the two grounds applies the guide’s knowledge that the travelers have rested; the Tathāgata’s immediately teaching them again applies His leading them toward the place of jewels.
Finally, the parable is restated and attached to its Dharma-meaning: restating the parable of receiving those who retreat and fear applies the Buddha’s establishment of the three vehicles; restating the parable of extinguishing the conjured city applies the Buddha’s revelation of the One Vehicle. The remainder may be understood from the scriptural text. 〔And so forth.〕
化城譬最動人的地方，不是導師憑空造出一座城，而是祂知道何時必須造城，也知道何時必須滅城。眾人真的疲倦，真的恐懼，真的走不動；若只告訴他們寶所殊勝，遠處的珍寶反而會成為退轉的理由。可是若把暫時的安穩說成終點，他們又永遠到不了寶所。因此，整段譬喻始終在兩件事之間用力：不能讓疲者絕望，也不能讓止息成為自滿。
一、第二譬究竟為誰而設？
本論一開始便分清兩種人。往昔與王子結緣後，若一路從所聞之法走向菩提，便不必為他另設這一譬；若經過中間世的相逢，到了今日仍住聲聞地，化城譬正為此人而說。
所以，譬中的眾人不是從未見過導師的陌生人。他們和導師已有久遠因緣，曾被帶領，也仍在被帶領。正因如此，本論回答了為何此處不另立相失、驚入之名：世世相值，不能說全然相失；久已結緣，也不能說今日才初次感應。譬名雖不沿用，相關意思仍然相通。
不虛譬也不再另立。此前開權顯實已反覆彰明，這裡的任務不是重新證明佛語不虛，而是接住下根人將生的信心。由此可見，本論選擇譬名，不求把其他諸品的名稱都搬來，而是看眼前這一段最需要顯出什麼。
二、五百由旬為何不能只讀成一張里程表？
導師譬先列五項：五百由旬是長遠處所，險難惡道是生死因果，多眾是尚未得度的人，欲至珍寶處是他們所求，唯一導師是第十六王子。五項合起來，才有一幅完整景象：有人要走，有路要過，有險要離，有目的地要到，也有知道通塞的人帶路。
其中最繁複的是五百由旬。本論先保存多家解釋，再逐一指出其不相應處。有的把三百、四百、五百配三界、七地、八地以上；有的從多種生死開合立數；有的把七住、二乘放在一起；有的把三界、聲聞、緣覺依次配入。每一說都試圖回答同一個問題：從生死到佛道，哪一段是三百，哪一段又是尚待越過的二百？
本論的反難不只問名目是否漂亮，而問它能不能保住經文的動作。化城設在過三百由旬之處；入城是權宜止息，滅城後還要前進。若一種解釋使五類人都已度盡、都已前進，便失去先入化城、後到寶所的譬意。若把二乘和某一菩薩位簡單說成齊等，又要面對修行劫數與進路不同的問題。數目不能脫離眾人的進退而獨立存在。
列完異說後，本論才說今依本經，從三個方向解五百。約處所，三界果報處為三百，有餘國處為四百，實報國處為五百；約煩惱，見惑、五下分、五上分、塵沙、無明依次是一百至五百；約觀法，入空能過三百，入假能過四百，入中能過五百。
三組不是彼此爭奪唯一答案。處所組接回佛知種種生死，煩惱組接回煩惱險難惡道，觀法組接回善知險道通塞。它們分別回答走在何處、受何所障、如何能過。也因此，第一組與第三組沒有列出一百、二百時，不應為追求外形整齊而擅自補齊。
本論又把道路分成兩種。若說生死中有涅槃、煩惱中有菩提，道路雖曠遠，仍有可依之人；若把生死煩惱說成全無涅槃菩提，就像藥中沒有病、病中沒有藥，那才真正是曠絕無人。這一辨析使險道不等於絕路：難行是真的，可通也是真的。
三、中路不是路程的一半
眾人在中路懈退，本論特別提醒，中路不是五百由旬的正中央。以發心為開始、成佛為終點，只要在這兩端之間生起退意，都叫中路。這樣一來，疲倦也不只是身體走累；善根微弱、無明遮蔽，所以覺得疲極，畏憚生死，所以生起怖畏，見思、塵沙、無明難以立刻斷除，所以覺得前路遙遠。
退大有三個動作：中路懈退，是大乘根機不現；向導師稟白，是不受勸進與誡止；不能再前進，是教化暫時止息。這三項依次把退心從根機、言語帶到行動，不可只概括成一句害怕修行。
本論隨後列通途慈悲、結緣、權智、實智四種導師義。此刻眾人所稟白的是結緣導師：因久遠因緣未失，他們退大時，王子便知道其所白。大乘根機隱沒，小乘根機將生，一滅一生而感於法身，故名為白。導師不是等到眾人把完整理由說完才知其心；根機的轉變本身就是所白。
更重要的是，佛以小法接引並非讓人倒退回起點。眾人雖不能頓時向佛果前進，卻也沒有被放任退還本處。小法在此仍有進義：它保住尚能走的一步，使退轉沒有變成全盤失落。
四、化城是怎樣被造出來的？
接小有四層。導師多有方便，是先衡量眾人所能接受；祂想到眾人將失珍寶，是傷惜其退失；起念後化作一城，是正式施設方便；疲極眾人進城，是三乘悟入。前兩層在導師之知，後兩層讓止息成為眾人可見、可入的處所。
作化和說化又有先後。導師先以方便力化城，再告訴眾人眼前有城。只有說而沒有城，止息處便無所依；只有城而不說，眾人也不知道為何可入。因此，本論接著用勸、示、證三層展開導師的話。
先勸：不要恐怖，也不要退回。再示：眼前已有大城，可以停留，可以隨意安頓。再證：入城便能安樂。這三層沒有抹去前路的艱難，而是逐步把人從退還轉向可行：先止住退步，再指出去處，最後使他相信進一步確有安穩。
經文還說，若能再往寶所，也可以去。本論保存兩種異解，又各自限定其義。一說主張，說三乘時也可允許眾生先取二乘、以後求佛，本論指出如此便成另一種教義；又一說主張入城後再進，並舉兩部經有其意，本論判為以別義接通義。接著所舉先證羅漢、再求大道，只是用來說明的勸語，不是第三家新說。
本論最後依宿世與釋迦一代教化分別：往昔王子既知退意，可以勸人先取止息，然後再行大道；但在今日開顯以前，不能明白說化城終須捨去。施設尚在發生時，先要使人能入；到了開權顯實，才可明說它不是寶所。
五、入城以後，為何不能停在已度想？
眾人入城的次第很細。大歡喜配聞慧，歎未曾有配煖位，免離惡道配頂位，得到安隱配忍位，前入化城配見諦，生已度想配無學。已度想又如盡智，安隱想又如無生智；從德用說，已度配智德，安隱配斷德。
這些配釋表明，化城中的安穩並非虛假到一無所得。眾人確實免離一段惡道，也確實得到止息；問題只在把這一段所得認作全部。已度想是入城後真實生起的想，卻不是導師對全程的判斷。
本論再用三種到達說明寶所：到菩提心是到因，到菩提與大涅槃是到果；果中菩提屬智，涅槃屬斷。又說越過五百有三義：免惡道、得好路、到寶所。菩提心像免離惡道，菩提行像走上平坦路，成就佛道才像到達珍寶所在。免難、得路、到達三者相連，卻不能互相取代。
寶所本身又有兩義。若就究竟說，是最終佛果；若就分入說，是初發心住所入。兩義都出自本論，不必替它們強行決定只可取一。無論依哪一義，化城都不是寶所：一處使人暫息，一處標明前進所向。
所以，導師知道眾人不再疲倦時，立即滅城。這不是奪走已得的安穩，而是解除把安穩誤作終點的條件。化城若永遠矗立，方便便遮住真實；化城一滅，原先的止息才完成它的作用，眾人也能重新看見寶處已近。
六、車與城，究竟是有還是無？
舊解提出三問：同譬無生智，為何車無城有？為何車三城一？為何車動城靜？舊答分別從門內門外、眾人所樂、盡智無生智的運作來說。本論沒有把舊答直接收入自己的結論，而另從眾生心與佛智重開問題。
就眾生心說，車、城俱有，因為眾生確實循此得出、得息；就佛智說，則可說有，也可說無。權智所明為有，如城；實智所明為無，如車。後文又交叉說明：車可以因適應三種根機而三，也可因同會一乘而一；城可以因偏真而一，也可從如來藏義說三；城可以因灰斷而靜，也可因終須滅除而動；車可以因運入無餘而動，也可因不動不出而靜。
因此，有無、三一、動靜都不是貼在物件上的固定標籤。它們隨權實所照、隨教化作用而轉。這正是本論說今釋不同於舊釋之處：若只把車、城鎖在小乘果位裡，就看不見佛為何施設，也看不見佛為何廢除。
本論又辨三車與化城：三車譬說法輪，化城譬神通輪；車從聲音設譬，諸子聞而未見，城從形色設譬。再往下，教與城、因果與果、有為與無為、聲與色，一組組互辨。這不是要選一個永遠不變的定義，而是防止把譬喻的一面當成全部。
七、合譬為何故意不照原序？
五處開三顯一，通說沒有不同，分說則各有所主：〈方便品〉約教，〈火宅喻品〉約行，〈信解品〉約人，〈藥草喻品〉從差別、無差別明權實，化城譬則正約理，以化城、寶所顯小大兩理。每一處都保留本品自己的文相，不能把一處的主題倒入另一處，說成經文原已如此配定。
到了合譬，本論先說正合，再牒譬帖合，而且明言次序不同。導師、多眾、險道、長遠、應去應度，並不照開譬的一至五重新排列。這個不次第不是錯亂，而是合文從如來能導、眾生所導、生死所度一路說下來。
將導三科也逐一回合。只聞一佛乘便退怯，合中路懈退；不欲見佛聞法，合不受勸誡；自念佛道長遠，合不能前進。佛知其心，合多方便與知小機；為中途止息而施設，合化城與入城。開譬接小原列四項，合文只收成三項，本論明白指出這個數目，不能為求對稱再補一項。
說二涅槃，本論列出三種讀法：有餘與無餘，聲聞與緣覺，以及分段已盡而變易未除。三種都在說一段已過、一段未過的止息位置。眾生住在二地，合導師知其已息；如來隨即再說，合導師引向寶所。最後牒接退之譬以合施三，牒滅城之譬以合顯一。
至此，譬喻的開與合才共同完成。開譬讓人看見疲倦、退還、化城與寶所；合譬才把這些形象接回如來施教。若提前把合譬的法義倒入開譬，會把故事尚在展開的層次抹平；若只留故事而不讀合譬，又會看不見化城為何必須消失。
文句記之眼
湛然先把本論沒有另立相失、驚入之名再推一步。他說三品雖各舉一邊，仍可由隨逐、驚入、相見、相失看見彼此關聯；結語是「各舉一邊大旨無別」〔T34n1719 0299a11〕。這一說只補足讀法，不改成本論已逐項明列四名，兩層分明，各守其位。
對本論所說此前已有二十二番開權顯實，《文句記》給出實數：五佛章長行、偈頌各五，共十番；〈譬喻品〉、〈信解品〉、〈藥草喻品〉各有開合長行偈頌，各四番，合為十、四、四、四〔0299a17–0299a22〕。這個計數屬鏡文展開，正文只守本論的二十二番。
五百由旬諸說中，湛然把本論未署名的「有家」繫於攝大乘師，又明說後面的反難正是難此一家〔0299b15–0299b21〕。人名繫屬只在鏡中成立，不能回填成本論原署。更重要的是，《記》明判「今依」以下方是正釋〔0300c13〕，從而把諸家異出與本論的處所、煩惱、觀門三組分界釘牢。
本論列通途、結緣、權智、實智四種導師義，湛然用一句收束：「四從時異，人秖是一並是王子，從始至今」〔0301a05〕。鏡文由此提醒，四名是同一引導在不同時用的顯現，不是四個互不相干的人物。
對作化、說化，《記》展為意、口、身三輪：化作一城先屬意輪，告眾屬口輪，而說必不離身輪〔0301a10–0301a13〕。這一層可幫助讀者看見化城不只是一句安慰，而是知機、現身、說法同時運作；但三輪之名仍須明署湛然，不能無署名寫回本論白話。
對「前至寶所」，《記》依次分出本論正釋、一說與又說，並說後文所舉今人勸語不是正文正意，只是針對退大者作一往說明〔0301a15–0301b05〕。這一分辨很要緊：它既保留兩家異解，也阻止一句生活化例子被誤立為第三家。至於《大品》《淨名》《涅槃》，湛然只展其義向；沒有受本論逐字約束的經句，仍不能由鏡文反造新引。
寶所二義，《記》沒有替本論刪去一邊，而說寶渚、菩提、涅槃之名都通，所以可以有兩釋〔0301b21–0301b24〕。車城三問方面，湛然先逐支反難舊答，再展本論今明，尤其補出「約能設教故俱有，約所證理故俱無」等成對讀法〔0302a24–0302a27〕。這使有無不再是互斥答案，而是能教、所證不同所照。
最後，湛然說五處各有一往所主，卻仍不可把任何一處定死〔0302b26–0302b29〕；合譬的二涅槃則分約惑、約智、約生死三讀〔0302c02–0302c04〕。鏡文在此所做的，不是另造一套化城，而是不斷把固定化的讀法重新打開：城可以真實止息，卻不能被執為真實終點。
What is most moving in the parable of the conjured city is not that the guide creates a city out of nothing, but that He knows when the city must be created and when it must be made to disappear. The travelers are truly weary, truly afraid, and truly unable to continue. If they were told only of the excellence of the place of jewels, the distant treasure would instead become a reason to retreat. But if temporary security were called the destination, they would never reach the place of jewels. The entire parable therefore exerts its force between two imperatives: those who are weary must not be allowed to despair, and respite must not be allowed to become complacency.
I. For Whom Is the Second Parable Established?
At the outset, the root treatise clearly distinguishes two kinds of people. If, after forming a connection with the princes in the past, someone proceeds all the way from the Dharma heard toward awakening, there is no need to establish this parable separately for that person. If, after encounters in intervening lives, someone still abides today at the stage of a śrāvaka, the parable of the conjured city is taught precisely for this person.
Thus, the people in the parable are not strangers who have never seen the guide. They have a connection with him from the distant past, have been led before, and are still being led. For this very reason, the root treatise answers why it does not separately establish names corresponding to separation and alarmed entry here: since they encountered one another life after life, one cannot say they were wholly separated; since the connection had long been formed, one also cannot say that response and capacity first met today. Although the names of the parables are not reused, the corresponding meanings remain connected.
Nor is the parable of freedom from falsehood established again. Opening the provisional to reveal the real has already been repeatedly made clear; the task here is not to prove anew that the Buddha’s words are not false, but to receive and sustain the faith about to arise in people of lower faculties. This shows that when the root treatise selects the names of parables, it does not seek to move every name from other chapters into this one; it asks what this particular passage most needs to reveal.
II. Why Can the Five Hundred Yojanas Not Be Read Merely as a Mileage Chart?
The parable of the guide first lists five items: the five hundred yojanas are the long and distant place; the dangerous, evil road is the causes and effects of birth and death; the many people are those not yet delivered; the wish to cross this road and reach the place of jewels is what they seek; and the sole guide is the sixteenth prince. Only when the five are joined does the full scene appear: there are people who must walk, a road to cross, dangers to escape, a destination to reach, and someone who knows where the road is open or blocked and can lead them.
The five hundred yojanas receive the most intricate treatment. The root treatise first preserves the explanations of several masters and then points out, one by one, where they fail to correspond. Some correlate three hundred, four hundred, and five hundred with the three realms, the seventh ground, and the eighth ground and above; some establish the number by opening and combining several kinds of birth and death; some place the seven abodes and the two vehicles together; and some successively correlate the three realms, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas. Every explanation tries to answer the same question: between birth and death and the Buddha Way, which stretch is the first three hundred, and which is the remaining two hundred still to be crossed?
The root treatise’s objections ask not merely whether the categories look elegant, but whether they preserve the action of the scripture. The conjured city is established after three hundred yojanas have been crossed; entering it is a provisional respite, and after the city is made to disappear there must be further advance. If an explanation makes all five kinds of people already fully cross and all proceed onward, it loses the parable’s meaning of first entering the conjured city and later reaching the place of jewels. If it simply equates the two vehicles with a particular bodhisattva stage, it must also confront the different eons and courses of their practice. The numbers cannot exist independently of the travelers’ advance and retreat.
Only after listing the divergent explanations does the root treatise say, “now, relying upon this scripture,” and explain the five hundred in three ways. In terms of places, the place of recompense in the three realms is three hundred, a land with remainder is four hundred, and the land of true recompense is five hundred. In terms of afflictions, the delusions of views, the five lower fetters, the five higher fetters, dust-and-sand delusions, and ignorance correspond successively to one hundred through five hundred. In terms of contemplative methods, entering contemplation of emptiness crosses three hundred, entering contemplation of the provisional crosses four hundred, and entering contemplation of the Middle crosses five hundred.
The three groups do not compete to be the sole answer. The group concerning places connects back to the Buddha’s knowing the various forms of birth and death; the group concerning afflictions connects to the dangerous, evil road of afflictions; and the group concerning contemplation connects to knowing where the dangerous road is open or blocked. They respectively answer where one is walking, what obstructs one, and how one can cross. Therefore, when the first and third groups do not list one hundred and two hundred, those numbers may not be added merely to make the external form symmetrical.
The root treatise further divides roads into two kinds. If one says that nirvāṇa exists within birth and death and awakening within afflictions, then although the road is vast and distant, people able to rely upon it remain. If birth and death and afflictions are said to contain no nirvāṇa or awakening at all, it is like medicine containing no illness and illness containing no medicine; only then is the road truly desolate and devoid of people. This distinction means that a dangerous road is not a dead end: its difficulty is real, and so is its passability.
III. “Midway” Does Not Mean Half the Distance
When the travelers grow weary and retreat midway, the root treatise specifically warns that “midway” does not mean the exact center of five hundred yojanas. If arousing the aspiration is the beginning and buddhahood the end, any thought of retreat arising between these two endpoints is called midway. Weariness is therefore not merely physical fatigue. Wholesome roots are weak and ignorance obscures, so they feel utterly exhausted; they dread birth and death, so fear arises; and because the delusions of views and thought, dust-and-sand delusions, and ignorance cannot be severed at once, the road ahead seems distant.
Retreat from the Great Vehicle has three actions: growing weary and retreating midway means that the Great-Vehicle capacity no longer manifests; reporting to the guide means not accepting exhortation to advance or admonition against stopping; and being unable to proceed farther means that transformation through teaching temporarily ceases. In sequence, these three take the mind of retreat from capacity through speech into action; they cannot be summarized merely as fear of practice.
The root treatise then lists four meanings of “guide”: the universal meaning, the guide who forms connections, provisional wisdom, and real wisdom. At this moment, the travelers report to the guide who formed the connection. Because their connection from the distant past has not been lost, when they retreat from the Great, the prince knows what they report. Their Great-Vehicle capacity disappears and the Lesser-Vehicle capacity is about to arise; one ceases and the other arises, affecting the Dharma-body, and this is called reporting. The guide need not wait until the travelers have stated their entire reason before knowing their minds; the change in capacity is itself what is reported.
More importantly, the Buddha’s guidance through a lesser teaching does not send anyone backward to the starting point. Although the travelers cannot immediately advance toward the fruit of buddhahood, neither are they abandoned to return to their original place. Here the lesser teaching still has the meaning of advance: it preserves the one step they are still able to take and keeps retreat from becoming total loss.
IV. How Is the Conjured City Created?
Receiving them through the lesser teaching has four levels. The guide’s many skillful means first assess what the travelers can receive; his thought that they are about to lose the jewels expresses sorrow over their retreat and loss; after forming this thought, he conjures a city, formally establishing the skillful means; and the utterly exhausted travelers enter the city, corresponding to realization and entry in the three vehicles. The first two levels lie in the guide’s knowledge, while the latter two make respite into a place the travelers can see and enter.
Conjuring the city and speaking of the city also have an order. The guide first uses the power of skillful means to conjure the city and then tells the travelers that a city stands before them. If there were only the words but no city, respite would have nowhere to rest; if there were only the city but no explanation, the travelers would not know why they could enter. The root treatise therefore unfolds the guide’s speech through exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation.
First comes exhortation: do not be afraid and do not turn back. Next comes demonstration: a great city already stands before you, where you may stop and settle as you wish. Then comes confirmation: by entering the city you can attain peace and happiness. These three levels do not erase the difficulty of the road ahead, but gradually turn a person from retreat toward what can be done: first stopping the backward step, then indicating a place to go, and finally enabling confidence that further progress truly offers security.
The scripture also says that those able to go onward to the place of jewels may do so. The root treatise preserves two divergent explanations and then limits each meaning. One explanation holds that when teaching the three vehicles, beings may also be permitted to take up the two vehicles first and seek buddhahood later; the root treatise points out that this would become another kind of teaching. Another holds that they first enter the city and afterward advance again, citing two scriptures as containing this meaning; the root treatise judges this to be using the meaning of the Distinct Teaching to receive the Shared Teaching. The subsequent exhortation to first realize arhatship and then seek the great Way is only an illustrative exhortation, not a new explanation by a third master.
The root treatise finally distinguishes the former lives from Śākyamuni’s present lifetime of teaching. In the past, since the princes knew the thought of retreat, they could exhort people to take respite first and then practice the great Way. But today, before the provisional has been opened and disclosed, it cannot be stated explicitly that the conjured city must ultimately be relinquished. While the establishment is still occurring, people must first be enabled to enter; only when the provisional is opened to reveal the real can it be said plainly that the city is not the place of jewels.
V. After Entering the City, Why Can One Not Remain in the Thought of Having Crossed Over?
The sequence in which the travelers enter the city is very precise. Great joy corresponds to wisdom from hearing; praising what they had never known corresponds to the stage of warmth; escaping the evil road corresponds to the summit stage; attaining peace and security corresponds to the stage of patience; previously entering the conjured city corresponds to seeing the truths; and giving rise to the thought of having crossed over corresponds to no-more-learning. The thought of having crossed over is also like the knowledge of exhaustion, while the thought of security is like knowledge of nonarising. In terms of virtuous function, having crossed over corresponds to the virtue of wisdom and security to the virtue of severance.
These correlations show that the security within the conjured city is not so false that nothing has been attained. The travelers truly escape one stretch of the evil road and truly attain respite; the problem lies only in mistaking what has been attained in this stretch for the whole. The thought of having crossed over genuinely arises after entering the city, but it is not the guide’s judgment of the entire journey.
The root treatise further uses three kinds of arrival to explain the place of jewels: arrival at the mind of awakening is arrival at the cause, while arrival at awakening and great nirvāṇa is arrival at the result; within the result, awakening belongs to wisdom and nirvāṇa to severance. It also says that crossing five hundred has three meanings: escaping the evil road, attaining a good road, and reaching the place of jewels. The mind of awakening is like escaping the evil road, the practice of awakening like walking a level road, and accomplishment of the Buddha Way alone like arriving at the place of jewels. Escaping danger, gaining the road, and arriving are connected, but cannot substitute for one another.
The place of jewels itself has two meanings. In the ultimate sense it is the final fruit of buddhahood; in the sense of partial entry it is what is entered at the first abode of initial resolve. Both meanings come from the root treatise, and there is no need to force a decision that only one can be accepted. On either meaning, the conjured city is not the place of jewels: one place lets people rest temporarily, while the other marks the direction in which they must proceed.
Therefore, as soon as the guide knows the travelers are no longer weary, he makes the city disappear. This does not deprive them of the security already attained, but removes the condition under which they could mistake security for the destination. If the conjured city stood forever, the skillful means would conceal the real; when it disappears, the prior respite completes its function and the travelers can once more see that the place of jewels is near.
VI. Do the Carriages and the City Exist or Not?
An old explanation poses three questions: if both serve as parables for the wisdom of nonarising, why do the carriages not exist while the city does? Why are there three carriages but one city? Why do the carriages move while the city remains still? The old answer treats them respectively through outside and inside the gate, what different people delight in, and the functions of the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising. The root treatise does not directly absorb the old answer into its own conclusion, but reopens the questions in terms of the minds of living beings and the Buddha’s wisdom.
In terms of the minds of living beings, the carriages and city both exist, because beings genuinely rely upon them to emerge and rest. In terms of the Buddha’s wisdom, they may be said both to exist and not to exist. What provisional wisdom clarifies exists, like the city; what real wisdom clarifies does not exist, like the carriages. The later passage gives further crossed explanations: the carriages can be three because they accord with three kinds of capacity, yet one because they are gathered into the One Vehicle; the city can be one because it is the partial truth, yet three when explained through the meaning of the tathāgata-garbha; the city can be still because body and cognition have been extinguished, yet moving because it must ultimately be removed; and the carriages can move because they convey beings into remainderless nirvāṇa, yet be still because they neither move nor emerge.
Thus, existence and nonexistence, three and one, movement and stillness are not fixed labels attached to objects. They shift according to what provisional and real wisdom illuminate and according to their function in transformation. This is why the root treatise says that its present explanation differs from the old one: if carriages and city are locked solely within the fruit-stage of the Lesser Vehicle, one cannot see why the Buddha establishes them or why He abolishes them.
The root treatise further distinguishes the three carriages from the conjured city: the three carriages are a parable for the wheel of teaching, while the conjured city is a parable for the wheel of supernormal power; the carriages take sound as the source of the parable, for the children hear of them without seeing them, while the city takes visible form as its source. It then continues by distinguishing teaching and city, cause and result from result alone, conditioned and unconditioned, sound and form, group after group. The aim is not to choose one definition that never changes, but to prevent one face of a parable from being mistaken for the whole.
VII. Why Does the Application Deliberately Depart from the Original Sequence?
The five places of opening the three to reveal the one do not differ when spoken of generally, yet each has a particular emphasis when distinguished: the “Skillful Means” chapter focuses on teaching, the “Parable” chapter on practice, the “Faith and Understanding” chapter on persons, the “Medicinal Herbs” chapter clarifies provisional and real through difference and nondifference, and the parable of the conjured city focuses directly on principle, using the city and place of jewels to reveal the two principles of the lesser and great teachings. Each passage preserves the textual form of its own chapter; the emphasis of one cannot be backfilled into another as though the scripture had already assigned it that way.
When the application arrives, the root treatise first gives the direct application and then restates the parable in order to attach each correspondence, expressly saying that the sequence differs. Guide, many travelers, dangerous road, long distance, and those who should go and be delivered are not rearranged to repeat items one through five from the opening parable. This departure from sequence is not disorder: the application proceeds from the Tathāgata as the one able to guide, to living beings as those guided, and then to birth and death as what must be crossed.
The three divisions of leading the travelers are also applied one by one. Retreat and fear upon hearing only the One Buddha Vehicle correspond to weariness and retreat midway; not wishing to see the Buddha or hear the Dharma corresponds to rejecting exhortation and admonition; thinking that the Buddha Way is distant corresponds to being unable to continue. The Buddha’s knowing their minds corresponds to His many skillful means and His knowledge of their lesser capacity; establishing an expedient for respite along the way corresponds to conjuring the city and entering it. The opening parable originally lists four items under reception through the lesser teaching, while the application gathers them into only three; the root treatise expressly states this number, and no fourth item may be added merely for symmetry.
For the two nirvāṇas, the root treatise lists three readings: nirvāṇa with remainder and without remainder; śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; and the exhaustion of fragmentary birth and death while transformational birth and death has not yet been removed. All three describe a position of respite in which one stretch has been crossed and another has not. Living beings’ abiding in the two grounds corresponds to the guide knowing they have rested; the Tathāgata’s immediately teaching again corresponds to the guide leading them toward the place of jewels. Finally, the parable of receiving those who retreated is restated to correspond with establishing the three, and the parable of extinguishing the city is restated to correspond with revealing the one.
Only here are the opening and application of the parable completed together. The opening lets one see weariness, retreat, the conjured city, and the place of jewels; the application reconnects these images with the Tathāgata’s teaching. If the Dharma-meaning of the application is backfilled prematurely into the opening, the stages through which the story is still unfolding are flattened; if the story alone is retained without reading the application, one cannot see why the conjured city must disappear.
Through the Eye of the Wenjuji
Zhanran first carries further the root treatise’s failure to establish separate names corresponding to separation and alarmed entry. He says that although the three chapters each present one side, their relations can still be seen through following, alarmed entry, meeting, and separation; he concludes, “each presents one side, while their main purport does not differ”〔T34n1719 0299a11〕. This only supplements a way of reading; it does not turn into a claim that the root treatise itself explicitly listed all four names. The two layers remain clear and each keeps its place.
For the root treatise’s statement that opening the provisional to reveal the real had previously occurred twenty-two times, the Wenjuji supplies the actual count: the prose and verse of the five-buddha section each contain five, making ten; the “Parable,” “Faith and Understanding,” and “Medicinal Herbs” chapters each have opening and application in both prose and verse, making four apiece, for a total of ten, four, four, and four〔0299a17–0299a22〕. This calculation is an elaboration in the Mirror; the main text retains only the root treatise’s twenty-two.
Among the explanations of the five hundred yojanas, Zhanran associates the root treatise’s unnamed “one school” with the masters of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and expressly says that the following objection is directed against this very school〔0299b15–0299b21〕. The personal attribution is established only in the Mirror and cannot be backfilled into the attribution of the root treatise. More importantly, the Wenjuji judges explicitly that only from “now, relying upon” onward comes the correct explanation〔0300c13〕, fixing the boundary between the divergent accounts of various masters and the root treatise’s three groups of place, affliction, and contemplation.
The root treatise lists four meanings of guide—the universal way, formation of connection, provisional wisdom, and real wisdom—and Zhanran gathers them in one sentence: “the four differ according to time; the person is only one, and all are the prince, from beginning to the present”〔0301a05〕. The Mirror thus reminds us that the four names are manifestations of one guidance at different times, not four unrelated persons.
Regarding conjuring and speaking of the city, the Wenjuji unfolds the three wheels of mind, speech, and body: first conjuring a city belongs to the wheel of mind, telling the travelers belongs to the wheel of speech, and speech necessarily operates together with the wheel of body〔0301a10–0301a13〕. This helps the reader see that the conjured city is not merely a word of consolation, but the simultaneous work of knowing capacities, manifesting bodily action, and teaching the Dharma. Yet the names of the three wheels must remain expressly attributed to Zhanran and cannot be written back unattributed into the root treatise’s vernacular layer.
On “go onward to the place of jewels,” the Wenjuji distinguishes in sequence the root treatise’s correct explanation, “one explanation,” and “another explanation,” and says that the later illustrative exhortation by a person of the present is not the main meaning of the text, but merely a preliminary explanation directed at those who retreated from the Great〔0301a15–0301b05〕. This distinction matters: it preserves the two divergent explanations while preventing one everyday example from being mistakenly established as a third school. As for the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Sutra, and the Nirvāṇa Sutra, Zhanran only unfolds the direction of their meaning; where no scriptural sentence is bound verbatim by the root treatise, the Mirror still cannot be used to manufacture a new quotation.
The Wenjuji does not delete either of the root treatise’s two meanings of the place of jewels, but says that the names jeweled islet, awakening, and nirvāṇa are all broadly applicable, and therefore two explanations are possible〔0301b21–0301b24〕. Regarding the three questions about carriages and city, Zhanran first objects to each branch of the old answer and then unfolds the present explanation of the root treatise, especially supplementing such paired readings as “in terms of the ability to establish a teaching, both exist; in terms of the principle realized, both do not exist”〔0302a24–0302a27〕. Existence and nonexistence thereby cease to be mutually exclusive answers and become what is differently illuminated by the ability to teach and the realization attained.
Finally, Zhanran says that each of the five passages has its own provisional emphasis, yet none may be fixed absolutely〔0302b26–0302b29〕. He then gives three readings of the two nirvāṇas in the application: in terms of affliction, wisdom, and birth and death〔0302c02–0302c04〕. What the Mirror does here is not create another conjured city, but repeatedly reopen readings that have become fixed: the city can provide real respite, yet it cannot be grasped as the real destination.
考據Apparatus
本單元釋〈化城喻品〉的譬說結緣，先開譬，再合譬。開譬又分導師、將導兩段；導師段先列五譬，廣辨五百由旬；將導段依所將、中路懈退、滅化引至寶所三科展開。合譬明言不按開譬次第回合。所帖根經以同品化城長行為主，又上接十六王子所化眾，下涉同經諸品及《勝鬘經》《大智度論》《大般涅槃經》《華嚴經》《大品般若》等。凡疏引與今本文字有異，兩邊並錄，不以今本改古疏。
一、科判定位
本單元位於迹門〈化城喻品〉結緣段，前承法說結緣，後接偈頌。嚴格域為 T34n1718〔0100b19–0103c17〕，共四千六百七十二個漢字。首句在〔0100b19〕同一行中從「譬如五百」起；該行此前「令破蔽免難，後說一也」仍屬前相。末句為「如文〔云云〕」〔0103c17〕；下一行「第二，偈頌」〔0103c18〕已開後相。
本論自立的次第如下：
| 次第 | 行域 | 本論內容 |
|---|---|---|
| 一 | 0100b19–0100b26 | 第二譬總分開、合；開譬總分導師、將導 |
| 二 | 0100b26–0100c11 | 導師譬五項：五百由旬、險難惡道、多眾、欲至寶所、一導師 |
| 三 | 0100c12–0100c20 | 相失、驚入與不虛兩重問答 |
| 四 | 0100c20–0101c15 | 五百由旬諸家異解、問難及本論「今依此經」三組正釋 |
| 五 | 0101c15–0101c29 | 將導譬總分三科；先釋所將人眾 |
| 六 | 0102a01–0102c08 | 中路懈退：退大三項、接小四項、三轉、入城與寶所異解 |
| 七 | 0102c08–0103b18 | 知息、滅化、寶所二義、車城三問及五處開三顯一 |
| 八 | 0103b19–0103c17 | 合譬：先正合，後牒譬帖合；明言「不次第」 |
《法華文句記》的對位域自「若中間」至「第二譬也」〔T34n1719 0298c24〕起，止於「如文」下「云云」者，令引文耳〔0302c06–0302c07〕。下一句已轉偈頌。鏡文沒有重新抄列開譬五項，卻在後文逐段回釋本論的異解、三組正釋、將導與合譬；故本單元的正文分科仍以 T34n1718 自科為準。
二、成立與傳本
卷端神逈序記「迺是灌頂法師私記，合二十卷」〔T34n1718 0001a23〕，現行半卷卷題則署「天台智者大師說」。因此，義說歸智者，筆錄層次歸灌頂；唐天寶戊子朗和尚條倫治定一事，依序文自述誌錄。序文又說治定時「方始條倫」，且「非苟求同異輒有增減」〔0001a25 起〕；沒有另一完整序次可供逐字對勘，故不據此推定本單元某一讀法必屬哪一傳錄階段。
本域有十三組大正校異：十一組為大正本與甲本對舉，二組為校訂字與大正原讀對舉；另有七枚行間夾註，皆作〔云云〕。這些材料顯示現行字面仍保留傳本歧異與節略記號，卻不足以重建治定以前的完整譜系。
三、所帖經文與所引
（一）根經主域
根經先回錨本倉《妙法蓮華經》封印本 07_huachengyu_source.md。本單元實際依賴的主域有五段：十六王子所化眾、機熟集眾、五百由旬化城譬、如來合譬，以及本論明引的「今為汝說實」四句。以下五段俱錄，不以抽句代替化城開、合兩段。
第一段，十六王子所化眾、住聲聞地與漸入佛道：
諸比丘！我等為沙彌時，各各教化無量百千萬億恒河沙等眾生，從我聞法，為阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。此諸眾生，于今有住聲聞地者，我常教化阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。是諸人等，應以是法漸入佛道。所以者何？如來智慧，難信難解。爾時所化無量恒河沙等眾生者，汝等諸比丘，及我滅度後未來世中聲聞弟子是也。我滅度後，復有弟子不聞是經，不知不覺菩薩所行，自於所得功德生滅度想，當入涅槃。我於餘國作佛，更有異名。是人雖生滅度之想入於涅槃，而於彼土求佛智慧，得聞是經，唯以佛乘而得滅度，更無餘乘，除諸如來方便說法。〔T09n0262 0025c07–0025c20；封印本第一百五十行〕
第二段，機熟、集眾與方便說涅槃：
諸比丘！若如來自知涅槃時到，眾又清淨、信解堅固、了達空法、深入禪定，便集諸菩薩及聲聞眾，為說是經。世間無有二乘而得滅度，唯一佛乘得滅度耳。比丘當知！如來方便，深入眾生之性，知其志樂小法，深著五欲，為是等故說於涅槃。是人若聞，則便信受。〔T09n0262 0025c20–0025c26；封印本第一百五十一行〕
第三段，五百由旬化城開譬：
譬如五百由旬險難惡道，曠絕無人、怖畏之處。若有多眾，欲過此道至珍寶處。有一導師，聰慧明達，善知險道通塞之相，將導眾人欲過此難。所將人眾中路懈退，白導師言：『我等疲極，而復怖畏，不能復進；前路猶遠，今欲退還。』導師多諸方便而作是念：『此等可愍，云何捨大珍寶而欲退還？』作是念已，以方便力，於險道中過三百由旬，化作一城，告眾人言：『汝等勿怖，莫得退還。今此大城，可於中止，隨意所作。若入是城，快得安隱。若能前至寶所，亦可得去。』是時疲極之眾，心大歡喜，歎未曾有：『我等今者免斯惡道，快得安隱。』於是眾人前入化城，生已度想、生安隱想。爾時導師，知此人眾既得止息，無復疲惓。即滅化城，語眾人言：『汝等去來，寶處在近。向者大城，我所化作，為止息耳。』〔T09n0262 0025c26–0026a13；封印本第一百五十二行〕
第四段，如來合譬：
諸比丘！如來亦復如是，今為汝等作大導師，知諸生死煩惱惡道險難長遠，應去應度。若眾生但聞一佛乘者，則不欲見佛，不欲親近，便作是念：『佛道長遠，久受懃苦乃可得成。』佛知是心怯弱下劣，以方便力，而於中道為止息故，說二涅槃。若眾生住於二地，如來爾時即便為說：『汝等所作未辦，汝所住地，近於佛慧，當觀察籌量所得涅槃非真實也。但是如來方便之力，於一佛乘分別說三。』如彼導師，為止息故，化作大城。既知息已，而告之言：『寶處在近，此城非實，我化作耳。』爾時世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言：〔T09n0262 0026a13–0026a25；合譬止 0026a24；封印本第一百五十三行〕
第五段，本論明引四句：
今為汝說實，汝所得非滅，
為佛一切智，當發大精進。
汝證一切智，十力等佛法，
具三十二相，乃是真實滅。〔T09n0262 0027b03–0027b06；封印本第二百四十七至二百五十行〕
（二）化城開譬逐節帖合
| 根經逐字 | 根經行錨 | 本論所帖 | 本論行錨 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「譬如五百由旬險難惡道」〔T09n0262 0025c26〕 | 0025c26 | 五百由旬、險難惡道 | 0100b28；0100c01 |
| 「若有多眾，欲過此道至珍寶處」〔T09n0262 0025c27〕 | 0025c27 | 若有多眾、欲過此道至珍寶處 | 0100c04；0100c07 |
| 「有一導師，聰慧明達，善知險道通塞之相」〔T09n0262 0025c28〕 | 0025c28 | 一導師、聰利智明達 | 0100c09；0101c12–0101c15 |
| 「將導眾人欲過此難」〔T09n0262 0025c29〕 | 0025c29 | 第二、將導譬 | 0100b22；0101c15 |
| 根經逐字 | 根經行錨 | 本論分文與釋文 | 本論行錨 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「所將人眾中路懈退」〔T09n0262 0025c29〕 | 0025c29 | 所將人眾譬、中路懈退譬 | 0101c17–0101c20 |
| 「我等疲極，而復怖畏，不能復進；前路猶遠」〔T09n0262 0026a01〕 | 0026a01 | 不受勸、不受誡、息化 | 0102a03–0102a06 |
| 「導師多諸方便而作是念」〔T09n0262 0026a02〕 | 0026a02 | 多方便擬宜、傷其失寶 | 0102a20–0102a23 |
| 「作是念已，以方便力，於險道中過三百由旬，化作一城」〔T09n0262 0026a04〕 | 0026a04 | 作化城、正用方便 | 0102a23–0102a27 |
| 「汝等勿怖，莫得退還」〔T09n0262 0026a05〕 | 0026a05 | 勸轉 | 0102a29–0102b01 |
| 「今此大城，可於中止，隨意所作」〔T09n0262 0026a06〕 | 0026a06 | 示轉；本論引作「今是大城」 | 0102b01–0102b02 |
| 「若入是城，快得安隱」〔T09n0262 0026a07〕 | 0026a07 | 證轉；本論引作「快得安樂」 | 0102b02–0102b03 |
| 「若能前至寶所，亦可得去」〔T09n0262 0026a07〕 | 0026a07 | 本論錄一說、又說兩解 | 0102b03–0102b18 |
| 「心大歡喜，歎未曾有」〔T09n0262 0026a08〕 | 0026a08 | 聞慧、煖位 | 0102b19 |
| 「免斯惡道，快得安隱」〔T09n0262 0026a09〕 | 0026a09 | 頂位、忍位 | 0102b19–0102b20 |
| 「前入化城，生已度想、生安隱想」〔T09n0262 0026a10〕 | 0026a10 | 見諦、無學；智德、斷德 | 0102b20–0102b24 |
| 「知此人眾既得止息，無復疲惓」〔T09n0262 0026a11〕 | 0026a11 | 知息已；本論引作「疲倦」 | 0102c08–0102c11 |
| 「即滅化城」〔T09n0262 0026a11〕 | 0026a11 | 滅化引向寶所 | 0102c11–0102c12 |
| 「寶處在近。向者大城，我所化作，為止息耳」〔T09n0262 0026a12〕 | 0026a12 | 舉廢權譬、帖顯實譬 | 0102c21–0102c24 |
（三）合譬逐項
| 根經逐字 | 根經行錨 | 本論所合 | 本論行錨 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「如來亦復如是」〔T09n0262 0026a13〕 | 0026a13 | 第五導師譬 | 0103b20–0103b21 |
| 「今為汝等作大導師」〔T09n0262 0026a14〕 | 0026a14 | 第三多諸人眾譬 | 0103b21–0103b22 |
| 「知諸生死煩惱惡道險難」〔T09n0262 0026a14〕 | 0026a14 | 第二險惡道譬 | 0103b22–0103b23 |
| 「長遠」〔T09n0262 0026a15〕 | 0026a15 | 第一五百由旬譬 | 0103b23–0103b24 |
| 「應去應度」〔T09n0262 0026a15〕 | 0026a15 | 聰慧明達兼欲過至寶所 | 0103b24–0103b25 |
| 「若眾生但聞一佛乘者」〔T09n0262 0026a15〕 | 0026a15 | 所將、退大接小的入口 | 0103b25–0103c02 |
| 「不欲見佛，不欲親近」〔T09n0262 0026a16〕 | 0026a16 | 本論引作「不欲見佛不欲聞法」 | 0103c02–0103c03 |
| 「便作是念」〔T09n0262 0026a16〕 | 0026a16 | 不能前進、息化 | 0103c03–0103c04 |
| 「佛知是心怯弱下劣」〔T09n0262 0026a17〕 | 0026a17 | 多方便、知小機 | 0103c04–0103c07 |
| 「而於中道為止息故，說二涅槃」〔T09n0262 0026a18〕 | 0026a18 | 現作化城、眾人入城 | 0103c07–0103c12 |
| 「若眾生住於二地」〔T09n0262 0026a19〕 | 0026a19 | 知止息已 | 0103c13–0103c15 |
| 「如來爾時即便為說」〔T09n0262 0026a19〕 | 0026a19 | 將向寶所 | 0103c15–0103c16 |
| 「如彼導師，為止息故，化作大城」〔T09n0262 0026a23〕 | 0026a23 | 牒接退譬，合施三 | 0103c16–0103c17 |
| 「寶處在近，此城非實，我化作耳」〔T09n0262 0026a24〕 | 0026a24 | 牒滅化譬，合顯一 | 0103c16–0103c17 |
（四）《法華經》內部明引與傳述差
| 用途 | 本論字面及行錨 | T09n0262 今本文字及行錨 | 並錄 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 中間所化 | 「從我聞法皆為三菩提」〔T34n1718 0100b23〕 | 「從我聞法，為阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」〔T09n0262 0025c08〕 | 本論縮稱 |
| 住聲聞地 | 「于今有住聲聞地者」〔T34n1718 0100b24〕 | 「此諸眾生，于今有住聲聞地者」〔T09n0262 0025c09〕 | 字面可對 |
| 漸入 | 「是諸人等應以是法漸入佛慧」〔T34n1718 0102c23〕 | 「是諸人等，應以是法漸入佛道」〔T09n0262 0025c10〕 | 佛慧、佛道並錄 |
| 所得 | 「今為汝說實汝所得非真」〔T34n1718 0102c04〕 | 「今為汝說實，汝所得非滅」〔T09n0262 0027b03〕 | 非真、非滅並錄 |
| 寶所究竟 | 「唯佛與佛乃能究竟諸法實相」〔T34n1718 0102c14〕 | 「唯佛與佛乃能究盡諸法實相」〔T09n0262 0005c10〕 | 究竟、究盡並錄 |
| 初發心住 | 「無上寶聚不求自得」〔T34n1718 0102c15〕 | 「無上寶聚，不求自得」〔T09n0262 0017c13〕 | 本論省逗號 |
| 佛子所得 | 「得佛法分」〔T34n1718 0102c16〕 | 「得佛法分」〔T09n0262 0010c14〕 | 字面可對 |
| 方便示三 | 「我令脫苦縛逮得涅槃」〔T34n1718 0102c24〕 | 「我令脫苦縛，逮得涅槃者」〔T09n0262 0006a25〕 | 今本多逗號與者 |
| 約教 | 「如來但以一佛乘故，為眾生說法，無二亦無三」〔T34n1718 0103b04〕 | 「如來但以一佛乘故，為眾生說法，無有餘乘，若二、若三」〔T09n0262 0007b02〕 | 傳述字面不同 |
| 約行 | 「各乘大車遊於四方，嬉戲快樂」〔T34n1718 0103b06〕 | 「乘是寶車，遊於四方，嬉戲快樂」〔T09n0262 0014c18〕 | 各乘大車、乘是寶車並錄 |
| 約人 | 「我等昔來真是佛子」〔T34n1718 0103b09〕 | 「我等昔來真是佛子」〔T09n0262 0017c04〕 | 字面可對 |
（五）導師五譬所帖的品間經句
| 本論所指 | T09n0262 今本逐字 | 行錨 |
|---|---|---|
| 其家廣大、唯有一門 | 「其家廣大，唯有一門」〔T09n0262 0012b15〕 | 0012b15 |
| 三界無安 | 「三界無安，猶如火宅」〔T09n0262 0014c22〕 | 0014c22 |
| 唯有一門 | 「是舍唯有一門，而復狹小」〔T09n0262 0012b25〕 | 0012b25 |
| 知眾生性欲 | 「我以智慧力，知眾生性欲」〔T09n0262 0009b23〕 | 0009b23 |
| 密雲 | 「密雲彌布，遍覆三千大千世界」〔T09n0262 0019a29〕 | 0019a29 |
| 我今亦如是 | 「今我亦如是，安隱眾生故」〔T09n0262 0009b21〕 | 0009b21 |
這六處是本論的品間擬配，不因詞語相近另添對應。
（六）其餘明示品間互文
| 本論明點及行錨 | T09n0262 今本文字或勘定 | 行錨 |
|---|---|---|
| 〈火宅〉總譬、別譬；〈方便〉略頌、廣頌〔0100b20–0100b26〕 | 結構範圍語，沒有一條等同四個標籤的今本連句 | — |
| 〈方便品〉安隱對不安隱處、法〔0100c01–0100c04〕 | 今本有「今我亦如是，安隱眾生故」〔T09n0262 0009b21〕；完整字串「不安隱」未見 | 0009b21 |
| 〈火宅〉中火起〔0100c03〕 | 「周匝俱時歘然火起」〔T09n0262 0012b17〕 | 0012b17 |
| 〈火宅〉中三十子、五百人〔0100c06〕 | 「若十、二十，或至三十」〔T09n0262 0012b18〕與「一百、二百乃至五百人」〔0012b15〕分見兩處 | 0012b18；0012b15 |
| 〈草喻〉中一味雨〔0100c08〕 | 「如一味雨」〔T09n0262 0020b03〕；另有「以一味雨」〔0020b19〕 | 0020b03；0020b19 |
| 〈方便品〉宣示佛道〔0100c09〕 | 「以種種法門，宣示於佛道」〔T09n0262 0009b22〕 | 0009b22 |
| 〈火宅〉中長者〔0100c10–0100c11〕 | 全譬以長者為主，單一名詞不能唯一鎖定一行 | — |
| 父子相失、父子相見、驚入火宅、不虛〔0100c12–0100c20〕 | 前二與不虛是本論提稱；驚入火宅可逐字回錨 | 0014b08 |
| 〈火宅〉長者見火驚怖〔0101c19〕 | 「長者見是大火從四面起，即大驚怖」〔T09n0262 0012b19〕 | 0012b19 |
| 〈方便品〉見五濁而起大悲心〔0101c19–0101c20〕 | 「諸佛出於五濁惡世」〔T09n0262 0007b23〕與「為是眾生故，而起大悲心」〔0009c03〕分見兩處 | 0007b23；0009c03 |
| 〈火宅〉不用身手而歎三車希有〔0101c21–0101c22〕 | 「雖復身手有力而不用之」〔T09n0262 0013b05〕；三車另列於〔0014b20〕 | 0013b05；0014b20 |
| 〈方便品〉息大乘化而念用方便〔0101c21–0101c22〕 | 本論對施三進程的義攝，沒有同形今本連句 | — |
| 〈火宅〉賜一大車；〈方便〉但說無上道〔0101c24–0101c26〕 | 「各賜諸子等一大車」〔T09n0262 0012c18〕；「但說無上道」〔0010a19〕 | 0012c18；0010a19 |
| 上車譬吾為汝等造車〔0102a27–0102a28〕 | 「吾為汝等，造作此車」〔T09n0262 0014b22〕 | 0014b22 |
| 〈火宅〉適子願、勇銳、推排、出宅〔0102b21–0102b22〕 | 「適其願故，心各勇銳，互相推排，競共馳走，爭出火宅」〔T09n0262 0012c12〕 | 0012c12 |
| 下去五百領解舉珠為譬〔0103b18〕 | 「以無價寶珠繫其衣裏」〔T09n0262 0029a07〕；本論預指下一品 | 0029a07 |
無唯一逐句者，只保留本論的結構方向，不憑關鍵詞補造行錨。
（七）《勝鬘師子吼一乘大方便方廣經》
本論傳「因五果二」，並解果二為分段、變易，因五為五住〔T34n1718 0100c26–0100c28〕。T12n0353 今本不見「因五果二」連句，而分見：
有二種死。何等為二？謂：分段死、不思議變易死。〔T12n0353 0219c20–0219c21〕
住地有四種。何等為四？謂：見一處住地、欲愛住地、色愛住地、有愛住地。〔T12n0353 0220a03–0220a04〕
世尊！心不相應無始無明住地。〔T12n0353 0220a05–0220a06〕
故並錄為本論的五因二果撮述與今本四住加無明住、二死，不把撮述冒作今本逐字。
本論又引「三乘初業不愚於法」〔T34n1718 0102b06〕；今本作：
三乘初業，不愚於法。〔T12n0353 0222a29〕
本論如何用此句解「前至寶所」，仍是疏家的解釋，不倒寫成《勝鬘經》自說。
（八）《大智度論》
本論傳肉身菩薩、法身菩薩與阿羅漢捨三界報身受法性身，用以說分段、變易二生死〔T34n1718 0100c29–0101a02〕。今本可直接並錄：
「如佛」者，法性身，住阿鞞跋致，得無生法忍，乃至十地。〔T25n1509 0471b02–0471b03〕
「次佛」者，肉身菩薩能說般若波羅蜜及其正義。〔T25n1509 0471b04–0471b05〕
得阿羅漢時，三界諸漏因緣盡，更不復生三界。〔T25n1509 0714a10–0714a11〕
若阿羅漢往淨佛國土受法性身〔T25n1509 0714a16〕
今本這四處未連續出現「分段、變易」，也沒有「捨三界報身」連句，故守兩邊原字。
本論另傳《大論》卷六十六的四百由旬兩說。今本先順出：
「若人欲過險道」：「險道」者即是世間。「百由旬」者是欲界，「二百由旬」者是色界，「三百由旬」者是無色界，「四百由旬」者是聲聞、辟支佛道。〔T25n1509 0526b05–0526b08〕
又倒出：
復次，「四百由旬」是欲界，「三百由旬」是色界，「二百由旬」是無色界，「百由旬」是聲聞、辟支佛。〔T25n1509 0526b08–0526b10〕
本論的順出、倒出〔T34n1718 0101b18–0101b22〕與此可對，不把兩序合成一序。
（九）《大般涅槃經》
本論說《大經》有三文：至菩提心、至菩提、至大涅槃門〔T34n1718 0102b25–0102b26〕。三處今本如下：
| 本論撮稱 | T12n0374 今本逐字 | 行錨 |
|---|---|---|
| 至菩提 | 「是人未來過八萬劫，便當得成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」〔T12n0374 0431c18〕 | 0431c18 |
| 至大涅槃 | 「不到者名大涅槃」〔T12n0374 0491b26〕；後列「須陀洹者八萬劫到，斯陀含者六萬劫到，阿那含者四萬劫到，阿羅漢者二萬劫到，辟支佛者十千劫到」〔0491c01〕 | 0491b26；0491c01 |
| 至菩提心 | 「須陀洹果亦復不定，不決定故，經八萬劫，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」〔T12n0374 0494b01〕 | 0494b01 |
本論另引「須陀洹者八萬劫到」〔T34n1718 0102c17〕，與今本〔T12n0374 0491c01〕字面相接；隨後「到初發菩提心處」是本論解釋，不是該經句本身。
（十）六十卷《大方廣佛華嚴經》
本論傳「藥樹不生深水火坑」，並續作三界、二乘配判〔T34n1718 0101a22–0101a23〕。今本譬體為：
此藥王樹一切諸處，皆悉生長，唯除二處，所謂地獄深阬及水輪中不得生長〔T09n0278 0623b07–0623b08〕
法合為：
如來智慧大藥王樹，唯除二處不得生長，所謂：聲聞、緣覺、涅槃、地獄、深阬及諸犯戒、邪見、貪著、非法器等〔T09n0278 0623b25–0623b28〕
「深水火坑」是本論撮述；今本作「地獄深阬及水輪中」。本論所作配判仍留在疏層。
（十一）《摩訶般若波羅蜜經》
本論傳「《大品》明四百由旬，合二乘為一百」〔T34n1718 0101a25〕。今本作：
譬如人欲過百由旬若二百三百四百由旬曠野嶮道〔T08n0223 0315a16–0315a17〕
今本只列百、二百、三百、四百；「合二乘為一百」是本論的傳述，不冒作經文。
（十二）只有方向、沒有唯一逐句的三處
| 本論字面及行錨 | 勘定 |
|---|---|
| 《大品》《淨名》中悉有其意〔0102b09–0102b10〕 | 本論沒有引號內逐字，也沒有指定章句；只保留兩經的方向，不補造唯一經句 |
| 如《涅槃》中諸取羅漢者皆是其義〔0102b18–0102b19〕 | 沒有逐字引句；只誌本論所指方向 |
| 人師及經論異出，如前〔0101b23〕 | 收束前列諸家與經論，不另造一部新來源 |
四、文句記釋要〔鏡〕
下表所列皆為湛然《法華文句記》的鏡釋，不倒作智者原說。
| 本論節點 | 《文句記》釋要 |
|---|---|
| 兩種中間〔0100b22–0100b26〕 | 分作為菩提者、住聲聞者各二意〔T34n1719 0298c25–0298c27〕 |
| 相失、驚入〔0100c12–0100c18〕 | 說隨逐由驚入、驚入故相見、相見由相失；是鏡面連結，不是本論明列〔0299a09–0299a12〕 |
| 二十二番〔0100c18–0100c20〕 | 釋成五佛章十番，譬喻、信解、藥草各四番，共二十二番〔0299a17–0299a22〕 |
| 有家與反難〔0100c23–0100c29〕 | 把「有家」繫於攝大乘師，並說「有人難」是難向攝師〔0299b15–0299b21〕 |
| 今依三組〔0101b23–0101c03〕 | 明判「今依」以下方是正釋，三組為處所、煩惱、觀門〔0300c13–0300c14〕 |
| 四導師〔0102a08–0102a16〕 | 通途、結緣、權智、實智是一位王子依時用而立四名〔0301a01–0301a06〕 |
| 作化、說化〔0102a26–0102a27〕 | 展為意輪、口輪，又說身輪不離〔0301a10–0301a13〕 |
| 前至寶所兩解〔0102b03–0102b18〕 | 分出本論正釋與一說、又說兩家異解；並明「有人勸言」只是現今例句〔0301a15–0301b05〕 |
| 寶所二義〔0102c12–0102c18〕 | 說寶渚、菩提、涅槃名稱皆通，故可有兩釋〔0301b21–0301b24〕 |
| 車城三問〔0102c25–0103b02〕 | 逐支反難舊答，再展本論今明的有無、三一、動靜〔0301c12–0302a28〕 |
| 五處〔0103b02–0103b18〕 | 說逐處一往雖各有所主，每處仍須具四一；此為鏡釋〔0302b26–0302b29〕 |
| 合譬二涅槃〔0103c07–0103c12〕 | 把本論三釋分為約惑、約智、約生死，又列中道的多組對說〔0302c02–0302c06〕 |
《記》另把本論所錄三智、五眼、三明、十力繫於釋慧明〔0300c22–0300c23〕；人名只見鏡文，故不補進本論正文。鏡文所見「行因六百劫」及其改作六十、百劫的建議〔0300a25–0300a26〕，也不反灌當前 T1718 已見的「六十劫、百劫」。
五、諸家異釋
本論自錄異解、反難與舊問甚多，逐條如下；本論已明署「今謂」「今依」「今明」者，依原有分際並錄。
（一）導師五譬的舊取捨
舊說不取「欲過此道至珍寶處」一譬；本論明言今取，用以譬覆講《法華》〔T34n1718 0100c07–0100c08〕。
（二）五百由旬諸說
| 說者 | 所說 | 本論所錄的後續 |
|---|---|---|
| 基師 | 三界結惑為三百，七地所斷習氣為四百，八地以上所斷無明為五百〔0100c21–0100c22〕 | 「今謂非正別義，又非三乘通義」〔0100c22〕 |
| 有家 | 流來、變易、中間、分段四種生死中不取流來，再把其餘開為五百〔0100c23–0100c26〕 | 有人以《勝鬘》五因二果反難，收「無據不可用」〔0100c29〕 |
| 有人云 | 三百喻三界，四百喻七地，五百喻八地以上〔0101a02–0101a04〕 | 難者以六地、二乘劫數反難；本論收「此非別義亦非通義」〔0101a08〕 |
| 有人言 | 三界為三百，七住及二乘為四百，七住以上為五百〔0101a08–0101a10〕 | 先難經過三百立二地不是度三人，再難五人發心只是《大經》一意，末說若五人皆進便失化城譬意〔0101a14–0101a20〕 |
| 有人云 | 三界為三百，聲聞為四百，緣覺地為五百；又以三界、二乘為兩障或有空二見〔0101a20–0101a22〕 | 續引《華嚴》藥樹與《大品》四百由旬〔0101a22–0101a26〕 |
列諸說後，本論明署「今依此經判之」，自立三組：
| 組別 | 本論所立 | 行錨 |
|---|---|---|
| 處所 | 三界果報處為三百，有餘國處為四百，實報國處為五百 | 0101b23–0101b25 |
| 煩惱 | 見惑一百、五下分二百、五上分三百、塵沙四百、無明五百 | 0101b27–0101b28 |
| 觀門 | 入空能過三百、入假能過四百、入中能過五百 | 0101b29–0101c01 |
三組又分別接回知諸生死、煩惱險難惡道、善知險道通塞〔0101b25–0101c03〕；不能把三組壓成一條配當，也不能為求整齊替第一、第三組補出一百、二百。
（三）「前至寶所亦可得去」兩說
一說認為說三乘時也容許發大乘求佛；若不能，先作二乘亦可，並引《勝鬘》三乘初業。疏家判「若爾成別教」〔0102b08〕。又說主張先入化城，然後再前進，並指《大品》《淨名》有其意；疏家判「此即別接通意耳」〔0102b10〕。其後「有人勸言汝且斷煩惱證羅漢，然後更取大道亦可得也」〔0102b15〕是本論所舉勸說例句，不另算第三家。
（四）寶所一說
有人說，越過三界與二乘即至佛道，佛道就是寶所〔0102b24–0102b25〕。本論繼引《大經》至菩提心、至菩提、至大涅槃門三文，又自立過五百三義：免惡道、得好路、至寶所；分別以菩提心、菩提行、佛道相配〔0102b25–0102c03〕。末以二乘度三百、菩薩度四百、佛乘度五百收束〔0102c07–0102c08〕。
（五）車城舊問與今明
舊問有三支：車、城都譬無生智，何以車無城有、車三城一、車動城靜〔0102c25–0102c26〕。舊答先由門外車可假設而城須造作，再由理、教說有無；又以三人所樂不同、同息一處答三一，以因盡果亡、盡無生智運入無餘答動靜〔0102c27–0103a10〕。
本論另立今明：就眾生心說，車城俱有；就佛智說，亦有亦無；權智所明為有如城，實智所明為無如車〔0103a10–0103a12〕。後文再依權、實智列有無、三一、動靜，結語為「作如此釋豈與舊同？舊秖在小乘中作義」〔0103b01〕。舊答與今明不可合成一個無主語答案。
六、術語
| 詞語 | 本單元義位 |
|---|---|
| 開譬、合譬 | 先展譬中各項，再以法回合；合譬明言不依原次第 |
| 導師五譬 | 五百由旬、險難惡道、多眾、欲至寶所、一導師；五項不可併縮 |
| 相失、驚入 | 本論以世世相值、久已結緣說不另立其名，收於「而其意則通」〔0100c18〕 |
| 五百由旬 | 本論「今依」分處所、煩惱、觀門三組；各組自有序列 |
| 險難惡道 | 譬生死因果；本論分果的分段、變易與因的見思、五住〔0101c03–0101c04〕 |
| 無人 | 一義為曠絕而有人可依，一義為無人可依〔0101c05–0101c10〕 |
| 聰、利、智、明、達 | 依次釋眼耳清淨、意清淨、一心三智、五眼或三明、十力〔0101c12–0101c15〕 |
| 中路 | 從發心為始到佛果為終，兩楹之間生退意，並非路程正半〔0102a06–0102a08〕 |
| 四導師 | 通途慈悲、結緣、權智、實智；同一王子依時用立名〔0102a08–0102a16〕 |
| 退大三項 | 無大機、不受勸誡、息化〔0102a01–0102a06〕 |
| 接小四項 | 多方便、傷其失寶、化作城、眾人入城〔0102a20–0102a25〕 |
| 作化、說化 | 方便力屬作化，告眾言屬說化〔0102a26–0102a27〕 |
| 勸、示、證 | 勿怖莫退為勸；今是大城至隨意所作為示；入城安樂為證〔0102a29–0102b03〕 |
| 入城六位 | 大歡喜、未曾有、免惡道、得安隱、前入城、已度想，依次配聞、煖、頂、忍、見諦、無學〔0102b19–0102b21〕 |
| 智德、斷德 | 已度想又配智德，安隱想又配斷德〔0102b22–0102b24〕 |
| 寶所二義 | 究竟用是極果，分入用是初發心住〔0102c12–0102c18〕 |
| 化城正、傍 | 正為退大取小者，傍為起初學小者〔0103a12–0103a14〕 |
| 三車、化城 | 本論先以說法輪、神通輪與聲、色互辨，後又列教、果、有為無為、權實等對說〔0103a15–0103b01〕 |
| 五處 | 方便約教、火宅約行、信解約人、藥草約差別無差別、化城約理〔0103b02–0103b18〕 |
| 二涅槃、二地 | 本論並列有餘、無餘，聲聞、緣覺，以及兩種生死之間的解釋〔0103c09–0103c12〕 |
七、譬喻・互讀・承衍
化城譬的空間不能壓成一張固定里程表。根經先說長遠險道、眾人中途疲退、導師暫作一城；本論辨五百由旬時，先忠實保存諸家配法，再以處所、煩惱、觀門三組說明「五百」可從不同所指展開。三組數目不齊處正是本論原貌，不能為圖表整齊而補項。
開譬與合譬也不能互倒。開譬先消導師、道路、眾人、寶所等譬中形象；直到合譬，根經才明說如來是大導師、生死煩惱是險道、二涅槃是中途止息。本論又特別說合譬「不次第」〔0103b19–0103b20〕，所以讀法的關鍵不在把兩段排成相同表格，而在看同一引導如何依眾人的進退而作、滅一城。
與〈火宅喻品〉互讀，三車與化城都處理中途施設，卻各有本品文相；本論因而用車、城三問檢查有無、三一、動靜，最後不讓舊答留在單一小乘義中。與〈信解品〉、〈藥草喻品〉互讀，五處開三顯一各有主題，不因後一處重說便抹去前四處。與本品前段互讀，十六王子昔日結緣、今日住聲聞地者，正是譬說所要接回的人。
本單元承衍到下一段偈頌時，長行已立開、合兩大段，並完成所將、退大接小、滅化向寶所的次第。偈頌重宣須回到這一骨架，不另造一套化城譬序。
八、校本定位
本域十三組校記如下。正文依大正本可見字；異讀並列，不判優劣。
| 次第 | 行錨 | 大正本所見 | 異讀 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 一 | 0100b29 | 輪【校訂】【宮本同】 | 論【大正原讀】 |
| 二 | 0100c05 | 生【大】 | 甲本缺 |
| 三 | 0100c11 | 我今【大】 | 今我【甲】 |
| 四 | 0101b06 | 十劫【大】 | 甲本缺 |
| 五 | 0102b03 | 樂【大】 | 隱【甲】 |
| 六 | 0102b06 | 二【大】 | 三【甲】 |
| 七 | 0102b21 | 子【大】 | 甲本缺 |
| 八 | 0102c14 | 竟【大】 | 盡【甲】 |
| 九 | 0102c24 | 我【大】 | 甲本缺 |
| 十 | 0103a19 | 詮【大】 | 論【甲】 |
| 十一 | 0103b02 | 秖【大】 | 只【甲】 |
| 十二 | 0103b09 | 昔【校訂】 | 音【大正原讀】 |
| 十三 | 0103b18 | 譬【大】 | 喻【甲】 |
其中十一組是大、甲對舉，兩組是校訂與大正原讀對舉；四個空讀只記甲本缺。嚴格域內沒有星號對應型，沒有不能回接對舉的單邊校註，也沒有首末若干字的省略型。
七枚行間夾註皆須保留為〔云云〕：何不為二百所障〔0101b17–0101b18〕、若過五百即入佛道〔0101b22–0101b23〕、豈須八萬之與十千耶〔0102c20〕、難〔0103a10〕、實智所明為無如車〔0103a11–0103a12〕、故言中道〔0103c12〕、如文〔0103c17〕。〔云云〕只標原文節略，不代作者補成未見論證。
本域沒有以缺字圖形標記的字。頁行錨一律取引文首字前最近的大正藏行標；跨行引文只在起首標一錨，範圍以首末行表示。校記行錨取該異文所在行，不拿前句、經名或科標所在行替代。
This unit explains the establishment of the connection by parable in the “Parable of the Conjured City” chapter, first opening the parable and then applying it. Opening the parable is further divided into the guide and leading the travelers. The guide passage first lists five elements of the parable and extensively discusses the five hundred yojanas; the passage on leading unfolds through those led, weariness and retreat midway, and extinguishing the conjuration and leading them to the place of jewels. The application expressly does not follow the sequence of the opened parable. The attached root-scripture passages center on the prose conjured-city parable in the same chapter, while connecting upward to the living beings transformed by the sixteen princes and extending across other chapters of the same scripture and the Śrīmālā Sutra, Great Treatise, Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra, Avataṃsaka Sutra, Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, and other works. Where the wording cited by the commentary differs from the received text, both sides are recorded; the ancient commentary is not altered to match the received text.
I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement
This unit lies in the connection-forming passage of the “Parable of the Conjured City” chapter within the Trace Gate. It follows the establishment of the connection in prose and is followed by verse. The strict domain is T34n1718〔0100b19–0103c17〕, comprising 4,672 Han characters. Its first sentence begins at 「譬如五百」 tr. “it is like five hundred” on the same 〔0100b19〕 line; the preceding words 「令破蔽免難，後說一也」 tr. “enabling them to break through obscuration and escape danger, and afterward teaching one” on that line still belong to the preceding unit. The final sentence is 「如文〔云云〕」 tr. “as in the text [and so forth]”〔0103c17〕; 「第二，偈頌」 tr. “second, the verse” on the next line〔0103c18〕 has already opened the following unit.
The sequence established by the root treatise itself is as follows:
| Sequence | Line Domain | Content of the Root Treatise |
|---|---|---|
| I | 0100b19–0100b26 | General division of the second, the parable, into opening and application; general division of the opened parable into guide and leading |
| II | 0100b26–0100c11 | Five elements of the guide parable: five hundred yojanas, dangerous evil road, many travelers, wish to reach the place of jewels, and one guide |
| III | 0100c12–0100c20 | Two questions and answers concerning separation, alarmed entry, and freedom from falsehood |
| IV | 0100c20–0101c15 | Various masters’ divergent explanations of the five hundred yojanas, objections to them, and the root treatise’s three groups of correct interpretations beginning 「今依此經」 tr. “now relying upon this scripture” |
| V | 0101c15–0101c29 | General division of the parable of leading into three sections; first, explanation of the people being led |
| VI | 0102a01–0102c08 | Weariness and retreat midway: three items of retreat from the Great, four items of reception through the Lesser, three turnings, entry into the city, and divergent explanations of the place of jewels |
| VII | 0102c08–0103b18 | Knowing the travelers have rested, extinguishing the conjuration, two meanings of the place of jewels, three questions on carriages and city, and five passages of opening the three to reveal the one |
| VIII | 0103b19–0103c17 | Application of the parable: first direct application, then restating the parable and attaching the application; expressly marked 「不次第」 tr. “not in sequence” |
The corresponding domain in the Fahua Wenjuji begins with the discussion from 「若中間」 tr. “as for the intervening period” through 「第二譬也」 tr. “this is the second, the parable”〔T34n1719 0298c24〕 and ends with its explanation that beneath 「如文」 tr. “as in the text,” the 「云云」 tr. “and so forth” means that the scriptural passage should be cited〔0302c06–0302c07〕. The next sentence has already turned to the verse. The Mirror does not copy out the five elements of the opened parable anew, but later explains in sequence the root treatise’s divergent interpretations, three correct groups, leading, and application. The division of the body in this unit therefore continues to follow the root treatise’s own divisions in T34n1718.
II. Formation and Transmission
The preface by Shenjiong at the beginning of the fascicle records that this text 「迺是灌頂法師私記，合二十卷」 tr. “was privately recorded by Dharma Master Guanding and comprised twenty fascicles”〔T34n1718 0001a23〕, while the received half-fascicle title reads 「天台智者大師說」 tr. “taught by the Tiantai Master Zhiyi.” The doctrinal exposition therefore belongs to Zhiyi and the layer of recording to Guanding; the account of Master Lang’s ordering and settlement in the wuxu year of Tianbao in the Tang is registered according to the preface’s own report. The preface further says that in settling the text it 「方始條倫」 tr. “only then was put into ordered sequence” and that 「非苟求同異輒有增減」 tr. “differences were not sought frivolously, nor were additions or omissions made rashly”〔from 0001a25〕. There is no second complete sequence available for word-by-word collation, so these statements are not used to determine that a particular reading in this unit must belong to a particular stage of transmission or recording.
This domain has thirteen groups of Taishō variants: eleven juxtapose the Taishō text and witness A, while two juxtapose an editorially corrected graph and the original Taishō reading. It also has seven interlinear annotations, all reading 〔云云〕 tr. “[and so forth].” These materials show that the received wording still preserves textual divergence and marks of abbreviation, but are insufficient for reconstructing a complete genealogy before the text was settled.
III. Sutra Passages Explained and Works Cited
1. Principal Root-Scripture Domain
The root scripture is first anchored back to the repository’s sealed Lotus Sutra file 07_huachengyu_source.md. This unit actually relies upon five principal passages: the assembly transformed by the sixteen princes, the maturation of capacities and gathering of the assembly, the opened parable of the conjured city over five hundred yojanas, the Tathāgata’s application of the parable, and the four lines explicitly cited by the root treatise beginning 「今為汝說實」 tr. “now I will tell you the truth.” All five passages are recorded below; isolated phrases are not substituted for the opened and applied portions of the conjured-city parable.
The first passage concerns the assembly transformed by the sixteen princes, those abiding at the śrāvaka stage, and gradual entry into the Buddha Way:
諸比丘！我等為沙彌時，各各教化無量百千萬億恒河沙等眾生，從我聞法，為阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。此諸眾生，于今有住聲聞地者，我常教化阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。是諸人等，應以是法漸入佛道。所以者何？如來智慧，難信難解。爾時所化無量恒河沙等眾生者，汝等諸比丘，及我滅度後未來世中聲聞弟子是也。我滅度後，復有弟子不聞是經，不知不覺菩薩所行，自於所得功德生滅度想，當入涅槃。我於餘國作佛，更有異名。是人雖生滅度之想入於涅槃，而於彼土求佛智慧，得聞是經，唯以佛乘而得滅度，更無餘乘，除諸如來方便說法。 — tr. “Bhikṣus, when we were novices, each of us transformed immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of living beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. They heard the Dharma from me for the sake of unsurpassed complete awakening. Among these living beings are some who now abide at the stage of śrāvakas. I constantly teach and transform them through unsurpassed complete awakening. Through this Dharma, these people should gradually enter the Buddha Way. Why is this? The Tathāgata’s wisdom is difficult to believe and difficult to understand. The immeasurable living beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges whom I transformed at that time are you bhikṣus, as well as my śrāvaka disciples in future ages after my extinction. After my extinction, there will also be disciples who do not hear this scripture, who neither know nor awaken to the practice of bodhisattvas. Regarding the qualities they themselves have attained, they will conceive the thought of extinction and will be about to enter nirvāṇa. I will become a buddha in another land under a different name. Although these people conceive the thought of extinction and enter nirvāṇa, in that land they will seek buddha-wisdom and come to hear this scripture. Only through the Buddha Vehicle may extinction be attained; there is no other vehicle, apart from the Dharma taught through the skillful means of the tathāgatas.”〔T09n0262 0025c07–0025c20; sealed source line 150〕
The second passage concerns matured capacities, gathering the assembly, and teaching nirvāṇa through skillful means:
諸比丘！若如來自知涅槃時到，眾又清淨、信解堅固、了達空法、深入禪定，便集諸菩薩及聲聞眾，為說是經。世間無有二乘而得滅度，唯一佛乘得滅度耳。比丘當知！如來方便，深入眾生之性，知其志樂小法，深著五欲，為是等故說於涅槃。是人若聞，則便信受。 — tr. “Bhikṣus, when a tathāgata himself knows that the time of his nirvāṇa has arrived, and when the assembly is pure, firm in faith and understanding, thoroughly comprehends the Dharma of emptiness, and has entered deeply into meditative concentration, he gathers the bodhisattvas and the śrāvaka assembly and teaches them this scripture. In the world, there are no two vehicles by which extinction may be attained; only through the One Buddha Vehicle may extinction be attained. Bhikṣus, you should understand! The Tathāgata’s skillful means penetrate deeply into the natures of living beings. He knows that their aspirations delight in lesser teachings and that they are deeply attached to the five desires. For the sake of such people, he teaches nirvāṇa. When they hear of it, they are then able to believe and accept it.”〔T09n0262 0025c20–0025c26; sealed source line 151〕
The third passage is the opened parable of the conjured city over five hundred yojanas:
譬如五百由旬險難惡道，曠絕無人、怖畏之處。若有多眾，欲過此道至珍寶處。有一導師，聰慧明達，善知險道通塞之相，將導眾人欲過此難。所將人眾中路懈退，白導師言：『我等疲極，而復怖畏，不能復進；前路猶遠，今欲退還。』導師多諸方便而作是念：『此等可愍，云何捨大珍寶而欲退還？』作是念已，以方便力，於險道中過三百由旬，化作一城，告眾人言：『汝等勿怖，莫得退還。今此大城，可於中止，隨意所作。若入是城，快得安隱。若能前至寶所，亦可得去。』是時疲極之眾，心大歡喜，歎未曾有：『我等今者免斯惡道，快得安隱。』於是眾人前入化城，生已度想、生安隱想。爾時導師，知此人眾既得止息，無復疲惓。即滅化城，語眾人言：『汝等去來，寶處在近。向者大城，我所化作，為止息耳。』 — tr. “It is like a dangerous, difficult, evil road five hundred yojanas long, desolate and without people, a place of fear. A great assembly wishes to cross this road and reach a place of precious jewels. There is a guide, intelligent, discerning, clear, and comprehending, who thoroughly knows where the dangerous road is open or obstructed and leads the assembly through this difficulty. Midway, those he leads become weary and retreat. They tell the guide: ‘We are utterly exhausted and also afraid. We cannot go farther; the road ahead is still distant, and now we wish to turn back.’ The guide possesses many skillful means and thinks: ‘These people are pitiable. Why would they abandon great precious jewels and turn back?’ Having thought this, through the power of skillful means he conjures a city more than three hundred yojanas along the dangerous road and tells them: ‘Do not be afraid and do not turn back. You may stop within this great city and do as you wish. If you enter this city, you will quickly attain peace. If you can proceed to the place of jewels, you may also go on.’ The exhausted assembly then rejoices greatly and exclaims at what it has never experienced: ‘We have now escaped this evil road and quickly attained peace.’ The people enter the conjured city and form the thought that they have crossed over and the thought that they are at peace. The guide knows that they have rested and are no longer weary. He immediately makes the conjured city disappear and tells them: ‘Come, all of you; the place of jewels is near. The great city just now was conjured by me only to give you rest.’”〔T09n0262 0025c26–0026a13; sealed source line 152〕
The fourth passage is the Tathāgata’s application of the parable:
諸比丘！如來亦復如是，今為汝等作大導師，知諸生死煩惱惡道險難長遠，應去應度。若眾生但聞一佛乘者，則不欲見佛，不欲親近，便作是念：『佛道長遠，久受懃苦乃可得成。』佛知是心怯弱下劣，以方便力，而於中道為止息故，說二涅槃。若眾生住於二地，如來爾時即便為說：『汝等所作未辦，汝所住地，近於佛慧，當觀察籌量所得涅槃非真實也。但是如來方便之力，於一佛乘分別說三。』如彼導師，為止息故，化作大城。既知息已，而告之言：『寶處在近，此城非實，我化作耳。』爾時世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言： — tr. “Bhikṣus, the Tathāgata is also like this. I now act as a great guide for you, knowing that the evil road of birth, death, and afflictions is dangerous, difficult, long, and distant, and that it should be left and crossed beyond. If living beings hear only of the One Buddha Vehicle, they will not wish to see or draw near the Buddha and will think: ‘The Buddha Way is long and distant; it can be accomplished only after long endurance of diligent hardship.’ The Buddha knows that their minds are timid, weak, and inferior. Through the power of skillful means, He therefore teaches two kinds of nirvāṇa to give them rest midway. If living beings abide in these two grounds, the Tathāgata immediately teaches them: ‘What you had to do is not yet finished. The ground where you abide is near the Buddha’s wisdom. You should observe and consider that the nirvāṇa you have attained is not real. It is only through the power of the Tathāgata’s skillful means that three are distinguished and taught within the One Buddha Vehicle.’ He is like the guide who conjures a great city to give the travelers rest. After knowing that they have rested, he tells them: ‘The place of jewels is near. This city is not real; I merely conjured it.’ At that time, wishing to restate this meaning, the World-Honored One spoke in verse.”〔T09n0262 0026a13–0026a25; the application ends at 0026a24; sealed source line 153〕
The fifth passage comprises the four lines explicitly cited by the root treatise:
今為汝說實，汝所得非滅， — tr. “Now I will tell you the truth: what you have attained is not extinction.”
為佛一切智，當發大精進。 — tr. “For the sake of the Buddha’s knowledge of all, you should arouse great diligence.”
汝證一切智，十力等佛法， — tr. “You will realize knowledge of all, the ten powers, and other Buddha-dharmas,”
具三十二相，乃是真實滅。 — tr. “and possess the thirty-two marks: only this is real extinction.”〔T09n0262 0027b03–0027b06; sealed source lines 247–250〕
2. Phrase-by-Phrase Correspondence for the Opened Conjured-City Parable
| Verbatim Root Scripture | Root-Scripture Line | Root Treatise’s Correspondence | Root-Treatise Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「譬如五百由旬險難惡道」 tr. “it is like a dangerous, difficult, evil road five hundred yojanas long”〔T09n0262 0025c26〕 | 0025c26 | Five hundred yojanas; dangerous, difficult, evil road | 0100b28; 0100c01 |
| 「若有多眾，欲過此道至珍寶處」 tr. “if a great assembly wishes to cross this road and reach a place of precious jewels”〔T09n0262 0025c27〕 | 0025c27 | A great assembly; wishes to cross this road and reach a place of precious jewels | 0100c04; 0100c07 |
| 「有一導師，聰慧明達，善知險道通塞之相」 tr. “there is one guide, intelligent, discerning, clear, and comprehending, who thoroughly knows where the dangerous road is open or obstructed”〔T09n0262 0025c28〕 | 0025c28 | One guide; intelligent, keen, wise, clear, and comprehending | 0100c09; 0101c12–0101c15 |
| 「將導眾人欲過此難」 tr. “leading the assembly that wishes to cross this difficulty”〔T09n0262 0025c29〕 | 0025c29 | Second, the parable of leading | 0100b22; 0101c15 |
| Verbatim Root Scripture | Root-Scripture Line | Root Treatise’s Division and Explanation | Root-Treatise Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「所將人眾中路懈退」 tr. “the people being led grow weary and retreat midway”〔T09n0262 0025c29〕 | 0025c29 | Parable of the people being led; parable of weariness and retreat midway | 0101c17–0101c20 |
| 「我等疲極，而復怖畏，不能復進；前路猶遠」 tr. “we are utterly exhausted and also afraid; we cannot go farther, and the road ahead is still distant”〔T09n0262 0026a01〕 | 0026a01 | Not accepting exhortation; not accepting admonition; ceasing transformation | 0102a03–0102a06 |
| 「導師多諸方便而作是念」 tr. “the guide possesses many skillful means and forms this thought”〔T09n0262 0026a02〕 | 0026a02 | Many skillful means assessing what is appropriate; grieving that they will lose the jewels | 0102a20–0102a23 |
| 「作是念已，以方便力，於險道中過三百由旬，化作一城」 tr. “having formed this thought, through the power of skillful means he conjures a city more than three hundred yojanas along the dangerous road”〔T09n0262 0026a04〕 | 0026a04 | Conjuring the city; formal use of skillful means | 0102a23–0102a27 |
| 「汝等勿怖，莫得退還」 tr. “do not be afraid and do not turn back”〔T09n0262 0026a05〕 | 0026a05 | Turning through exhortation | 0102a29–0102b01 |
| 「今此大城，可於中止，隨意所作」 tr. “you may stop within this great city and do as you wish”〔T09n0262 0026a06〕 | 0026a06 | Turning through demonstration; the root treatise cites 「今是大城」 tr. “now this is a great city” | 0102b01–0102b02 |
| 「若入是城，快得安隱」 tr. “if you enter this city, you will quickly attain peace”〔T09n0262 0026a07〕 | 0026a07 | Turning through confirmation; the root treatise cites 「快得安樂」 tr. “quickly attain peace and happiness” | 0102b02–0102b03 |
| 「若能前至寶所，亦可得去」 tr. “if you can proceed to the place of jewels, you may also go on”〔T09n0262 0026a07〕 | 0026a07 | The root treatise records two divergent explanations, one marked “one explanation” and one “another explanation” | 0102b03–0102b18 |
| 「心大歡喜，歎未曾有」 tr. “their minds rejoice greatly, and they praise what they have never experienced”〔T09n0262 0026a08〕 | 0026a08 | Wisdom from hearing; stage of warmth | 0102b19 |
| 「免斯惡道，快得安隱」 tr. “escaping this evil road and quickly attaining peace”〔T09n0262 0026a09〕 | 0026a09 | Summit stage; stage of patience | 0102b19–0102b20 |
| 「前入化城，生已度想、生安隱想」 tr. “going forward and entering the conjured city, they form the thought that they have crossed over and the thought that they are secure”〔T09n0262 0026a10〕 | 0026a10 | Seeing the truths; no-more-learning; virtue of wisdom; virtue of severance | 0102b20–0102b24 |
| 「知此人眾既得止息，無復疲惓」 tr. “knowing that the assembly has rested and is no longer weary”〔T09n0262 0026a11〕 | 0026a11 | Knowing they have rested; the root treatise cites 「疲倦」 tr. “weary” | 0102c08–0102c11 |
| 「即滅化城」 tr. “immediately making the conjured city disappear”〔T09n0262 0026a11〕 | 0026a11 | Extinguishing the conjuration and leading toward the place of jewels | 0102c11–0102c12 |
| 「寶處在近。向者大城，我所化作，為止息耳」 tr. “the place of jewels is near; the great city just now was conjured by me only to give you rest”〔T09n0262 0026a12〕 | 0026a12 | Citing the parable for abolishing the provisional and attaching it to the parable for revealing the real | 0102c21–0102c24 |
3. Item-by-Item Application of the Parable
| Verbatim Root Scripture | Root-Scripture Line | Root Treatise’s Application | Root-Treatise Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「如來亦復如是」 tr. “the Tathāgata is also like this”〔T09n0262 0026a13〕 | 0026a13 | Fifth, the parable of the guide | 0103b20–0103b21 |
| 「今為汝等作大導師」 tr. “I now act as a great guide for all of you”〔T09n0262 0026a14〕 | 0026a14 | Third, the parable of the many people | 0103b21–0103b22 |
| 「知諸生死煩惱惡道險難」 tr. “knowing that the evil road of birth, death, and afflictions is dangerous and difficult”〔T09n0262 0026a14〕 | 0026a14 | Second, the parable of the dangerous, evil road | 0103b22–0103b23 |
| 「長遠」 tr. “long and distant”〔T09n0262 0026a15〕 | 0026a15 | First, the parable of the five hundred yojanas | 0103b23–0103b24 |
| 「應去應度」 tr. “should be left and crossed beyond”〔T09n0262 0026a15〕 | 0026a15 | Intelligent, discerning, clear, and comprehending, together with the wish to cross and reach the place of jewels | 0103b24–0103b25 |
| 「若眾生但聞一佛乘者」 tr. “if living beings hear only of the One Buddha Vehicle”〔T09n0262 0026a15〕 | 0026a15 | Entry into those led and retreat from the Great and reception through the Lesser | 0103b25–0103c02 |
| 「不欲見佛，不欲親近」 tr. “they will not wish to see the Buddha or draw near”〔T09n0262 0026a16〕 | 0026a16 | The root treatise cites 「不欲見佛不欲聞法」 tr. “not wishing to see the Buddha or hear the Dharma” | 0103c02–0103c03 |
| 「便作是念」 tr. “they then form this thought”〔T09n0262 0026a16〕 | 0026a16 | Inability to advance; cessation of transformation | 0103c03–0103c04 |
| 「佛知是心怯弱下劣」 tr. “the Buddha knows that their minds are timid, weak, and inferior”〔T09n0262 0026a17〕 | 0026a17 | Many skillful means; knowing the Lesser-Vehicle capacity | 0103c04–0103c07 |
| 「而於中道為止息故，說二涅槃」 tr. “teaching two kinds of nirvāṇa to give them rest midway”〔T09n0262 0026a18〕 | 0026a18 | Manifesting the conjured city; the travelers entering the city | 0103c07–0103c12 |
| 「若眾生住於二地」 tr. “if living beings abide in the two grounds”〔T09n0262 0026a19〕 | 0026a19 | Knowing they have rested | 0103c13–0103c15 |
| 「如來爾時即便為說」 tr. “the Tathāgata then immediately teaches them”〔T09n0262 0026a19〕 | 0026a19 | Leading toward the place of jewels | 0103c15–0103c16 |
| 「如彼導師，為止息故，化作大城」 tr. “like the guide who conjures a great city to give them rest”〔T09n0262 0026a23〕 | 0026a23 | Restating the parable of receiving those who retreat; applying the establishment of the three | 0103c16–0103c17 |
| 「寶處在近，此城非實，我化作耳」 tr. “the place of jewels is near; this city is not real; I merely conjured it”〔T09n0262 0026a24〕 | 0026a24 | Restating the parable of extinguishing the conjuration; applying the revelation of the one | 0103c16–0103c17 |
4. Explicit Internal Citations and Differences in Transmission within the Lotus Sutra
| Use | Root-Treatise Wording and Line | Received T09n0262 Wording and Line | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transformation in the intervening period | 「從我聞法皆為三菩提」 tr. “hearing the Dharma from me, all are directed toward complete awakening”〔T34n1718 0100b23〕 | 「從我聞法，為阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. “hearing the Dharma from me, for the sake of unsurpassed complete awakening”〔T09n0262 0025c08〕 | Root treatise’s abbreviated designation |
| Abiding at the śrāvaka stage | 「于今有住聲聞地者」 tr. “there are those who now abide at the śrāvaka stage”〔T34n1718 0100b24〕 | 「此諸眾生，于今有住聲聞地者」 tr. “among these living beings are those who now abide at the śrāvaka stage”〔T09n0262 0025c09〕 | Wording corresponds |
| Gradual entry | 「是諸人等應以是法漸入佛慧」 tr. “through this Dharma these people should gradually enter the Buddha’s wisdom”〔T34n1718 0102c23〕 | 「是諸人等，應以是法漸入佛道」 tr. “through this Dharma these people should gradually enter the Buddha Way”〔T09n0262 0025c10〕 | Both “Buddha’s wisdom” and “Buddha Way” are recorded |
| What was attained | 「今為汝說實汝所得非真」 tr. “now I tell you the truth: what you attained is not real”〔T34n1718 0102c04〕 | 「今為汝說實，汝所得非滅」 tr. “now I tell you the truth: what you attained is not extinction”〔T09n0262 0027b03〕 | Both “not real” and “not extinction” are recorded |
| Ultimate place of jewels | 「唯佛與佛乃能究竟諸法實相」 tr. “only a buddha together with a buddha can ultimately comprehend the true mark of all dharmas”〔T34n1718 0102c14〕 | 「唯佛與佛乃能究盡諸法實相」 tr. “only a buddha together with a buddha can exhaustively comprehend the true mark of all dharmas”〔T09n0262 0005c10〕 | Both “ultimately” and “exhaustively” are recorded |
| First abode of initial resolve | 「無上寶聚不求自得」 tr. “the unsurpassed cluster of jewels is obtained without being sought”〔T34n1718 0102c15〕 | 「無上寶聚，不求自得」 tr. “the unsurpassed cluster of jewels is obtained without being sought”〔T09n0262 0017c13〕 | The root treatise omits a comma |
| What a child of the Buddha attains | 「得佛法分」 tr. “attaining a portion of the Buddha-Dharma”〔T34n1718 0102c16〕 | 「得佛法分」 tr. “attaining a portion of the Buddha-Dharma”〔T09n0262 0010c14〕 | Wording corresponds |
| Demonstrating three through skillful means | 「我令脫苦縛逮得涅槃」 tr. “I cause them to escape the bonds of suffering and reach nirvāṇa”〔T34n1718 0102c24〕 | 「我令脫苦縛，逮得涅槃者」 tr. “those whom I cause to escape the bonds of suffering and reach nirvāṇa”〔T09n0262 0006a25〕 | The received text adds a comma and 者 |
| In terms of teaching | 「如來但以一佛乘故，為眾生說法，無二亦無三」 tr. “the Tathāgata teaches living beings only because of the One Buddha Vehicle; there are neither two nor three”〔T34n1718 0103b04〕 | 「如來但以一佛乘故，為眾生說法，無有餘乘，若二、若三」 tr. “the Tathāgata teaches living beings only because of the One Buddha Vehicle; there are no other vehicles, whether two or three”〔T09n0262 0007b02〕 | Transmitted wording differs |
| In terms of practice | 「各乘大車遊於四方，嬉戲快樂」 tr. “each rides the great carriage, travels in the four directions, and plays in joy”〔T34n1718 0103b06〕 | 「乘是寶車，遊於四方，嬉戲快樂」 tr. “riding this jeweled carriage, they travel in the four directions and play in joy”〔T09n0262 0014c18〕 | Both “each rides the great carriage” and “riding this jeweled carriage” are recorded |
| In terms of persons | 「我等昔來真是佛子」 tr. “we have always truly been children of the Buddha”〔T34n1718 0103b09〕 | 「我等昔來真是佛子」 tr. “we have always truly been children of the Buddha”〔T09n0262 0017c04〕 | Wording corresponds |
5. Interchapter Scriptural Phrases Attached to the Five Elements of the Guide Parable
| Root Treatise’s Reference | Verbatim Received T09n0262 | Line |
|---|---|---|
| The house is vast; there is only one gate | 「其家廣大，唯有一門」 tr. “the house was vast and had only one gate”〔T09n0262 0012b15〕 | 0012b15 |
| No peace in the three realms | 「三界無安，猶如火宅」 tr. “there is no peace in the three realms; they are like a burning house”〔T09n0262 0014c22〕 | 0014c22 |
| Only one gate | 「是舍唯有一門，而復狹小」 tr. “this dwelling had only one gate, and it was narrow and small”〔T09n0262 0012b25〕 | 0012b25 |
| Knowing living beings’ natures and desires | 「我以智慧力，知眾生性欲」 tr. “through the power of wisdom, I know living beings’ natures and desires”〔T09n0262 0009b23〕 | 0009b23 |
| Dense cloud | 「密雲彌布，遍覆三千大千世界」 tr. “a dense cloud spreads and covers the entire trichiliocosm”〔T09n0262 0019a29〕 | 0019a29 |
| I now am also like this | 「今我亦如是，安隱眾生故」 tr. “I now am also like this, for the sake of bringing living beings peace”〔T09n0262 0009b21〕 | 0009b21 |
These six are interchapter correspondences drawn by the root treatise; no additional correspondences are created merely because wording is similar.
6. Other Explicit Interchapter Cross-Readings
| Root Treatise’s Explicit Reference and Line | Received T09n0262 Wording or Determination | Line |
|---|---|---|
| General and specific parables in the “Burning House”; brief and expanded verses in “Skillful Means”〔0100b20–0100b26〕 | Structural domain language; no single continuous passage in the received text is equivalent to all four labels | — |
| Peace and security contrasted with the place and Dharma without peace and security in “Skillful Means”〔0100c01–0100c04〕 | The received text has 「今我亦如是，安隱眾生故」 tr. “I now am also like this, for the sake of bringing living beings peace”〔T09n0262 0009b21〕; the complete string 「不安隱」 tr. “not peaceful and secure” does not appear | 0009b21 |
| Fire starting in the “Burning House”〔0100c03〕 | 「周匝俱時歘然火起」 tr. “all around, at the same time, fire suddenly broke out”〔T09n0262 0012b17〕 | 0012b17 |
| Thirty children and five hundred people in the “Burning House”〔0100c06〕 | 「若十、二十，或至三十」 tr. “perhaps ten, twenty, or as many as thirty”〔T09n0262 0012b18〕 and 「一百、二百乃至五百人」 tr. “one hundred, two hundred, or as many as five hundred people”〔0012b15〕 occur in separate places | 0012b18; 0012b15 |
| One-flavored rain in the “Medicinal Herbs”〔0100c08〕 | 「如一味雨」 tr. “like one-flavored rain”〔T09n0262 0020b03〕; also 「以一味雨」 tr. “through one-flavored rain”〔0020b19〕 | 0020b03; 0020b19 |
| Proclaiming the Buddha Way in “Skillful Means”〔0100c09〕 | 「以種種法門，宣示於佛道」 tr. “through various Dharma-gates, proclaiming the Buddha Way”〔T09n0262 0009b22〕 | 0009b22 |
| The elder in the “Burning House”〔0100c10–0100c11〕 | The elder is the central figure throughout the parable; the single noun cannot be uniquely anchored to one line | — |
| Father and sons separated, father and sons meeting, alarmed entry into the burning house, freedom from falsehood〔0100c12–0100c20〕 | The first two and freedom from falsehood are designations in the root treatise; alarmed entry into the burning house can be anchored verbatim | 0014b08 |
| The elder sees the fire and is alarmed and afraid in the “Burning House”〔0101c19〕 | 「長者見是大火從四面起，即大驚怖」 tr. “the elder saw this great fire rising on all four sides and was immediately greatly alarmed and afraid”〔T09n0262 0012b19〕 | 0012b19 |
| Seeing the five turbidities and arousing great compassion in “Skillful Means”〔0101c19–0101c20〕 | 「諸佛出於五濁惡世」 tr. “the buddhas appear in the evil world of the five turbidities”〔T09n0262 0007b23〕 and 「為是眾生故，而起大悲心」 tr. “for the sake of these living beings, they arouse the mind of great compassion”〔0009c03〕 occur in separate places | 0007b23; 0009c03 |
| Not using the body and arms, but praising the rarity of three carriages in the “Burning House”〔0101c21–0101c22〕 | 「雖復身手有力而不用之」 tr. “although his body and arms were strong, he did not use them”〔T09n0262 0013b05〕; the three carriages are separately listed at〔0014b20〕 | 0013b05; 0014b20 |
| Ceasing Great-Vehicle transformation and considering the use of skillful means in “Skillful Means”〔0101c21–0101c22〕 | A doctrinal gathering by the root treatise of the progression in establishing three; there is no same-form continuous sentence in the received text | — |
| Bestowing one great carriage in the “Burning House”; teaching only the unsurpassed Way in “Skillful Means”〔0101c24–0101c26〕 | 「各賜諸子等一大車」 tr. “equally bestowing one great carriage upon each child”〔T09n0262 0012c18〕; 「但說無上道」 tr. “teaching only the unsurpassed Way”〔0010a19〕 | 0012c18; 0010a19 |
| In the preceding carriage parable, “I constructed these carriages for you”〔0102a27–0102a28〕 | 「吾為汝等，造作此車」 tr. “I constructed these carriages for all of you”〔T09n0262 0014b22〕 | 0014b22 |
| Suited to the children’s wishes, courageous and keen, pushing one another, leaving the house in the “Burning House”〔0102b21–0102b22〕 | 「適其願故，心各勇銳，互相推排，競共馳走，爭出火宅」 tr. “because they suited their wishes, each was courageous and keen at heart; pushing one another aside, they competed in running and struggled to leave the burning house”〔T09n0262 0012c12〕 | 0012c12 |
| In the understanding expressed by the five hundred in the following chapter, the jewel is used as a parable〔0103b18〕 | 「以無價寶珠繫其衣裏」 tr. “fastening a priceless jewel inside his garment”〔T09n0262 0029a07〕; the root treatise points ahead to the next chapter | 0029a07 |
Where there is no unique phrase-by-phrase match, only the root treatise’s structural direction is retained; no line anchor is fabricated from keywords.
7. Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra
The root treatise transmits 「因五果二」 tr. “five causes and two results” and explains the two results as fragmentary and transformational birth and death and the five causes as the five abodes〔T34n1718 0100c26–0100c28〕. The received T12n0353 does not contain 「因五果二」 tr. “five causes and two results” as a continuous phrase; instead, the elements occur separately:
有二種死。何等為二？謂：分段死、不思議變易死。 — tr. “There are two kinds of death. What are the two? Fragmentary death and inconceivable transformational death.”〔T12n0353 0219c20–0219c21〕
住地有四種。何等為四？謂：見一處住地、欲愛住地、色愛住地、有愛住地。 — tr. “There are four abiding grounds. What are the four? The abiding ground of views in a single place, the abiding ground of desire-realm craving, the abiding ground of form-realm craving, and the abiding ground of craving for existence.”〔T12n0353 0220a03–0220a04〕
世尊！心不相應無始無明住地。 — tr. “World-Honored One! There is the beginningless abiding ground of ignorance that is not associated with mind.”〔T12n0353 0220a05–0220a06〕
They are therefore recorded side by side as the root treatise’s summary of five causes and two results and the received text’s four abiding grounds plus the abiding ground of ignorance and two kinds of death. The summary is not passed off as the verbatim wording of the received text.
The root treatise also cites 「三乘初業不愚於法」 tr. “beginners in the three vehicles are not ignorant of the Dharma”〔T34n1718 0102b06〕; the received text reads:
三乘初業，不愚於法。 — tr. “Beginners in the three vehicles are not ignorant of the Dharma.”〔T12n0353 0222a29〕
How the root treatise uses this sentence to explain 「前至寶所」 tr. “go onward to the place of jewels” remains the commentator’s explanation and is not written backward as though stated by the Śrīmālā Sutra itself.
8. Great Treatise
The root treatise transmits the account of bodhisattvas with bodies of flesh, bodhisattvas with Dharma bodies, and arhats relinquishing recompense bodies in the three realms and receiving bodies of Dharma-nature, using it to explain the two kinds of birth and death, fragmentary and transformational〔T34n1718 0100c29–0101a02〕. The following may be recorded directly from the received text:
「如佛」者，法性身，住阿鞞跋致，得無生法忍，乃至十地。 — tr. “‘Like a buddha’ means one with a Dharma-nature body, abiding in nonretrogression, attaining patience regarding the nonarising of dharmas, and proceeding up to the tenth ground.”〔T25n1509 0471b02–0471b03〕
「次佛」者，肉身菩薩能說般若波羅蜜及其正義。 — tr. “‘Next to a buddha’ means a bodhisattva in a body of flesh who can teach the perfection of wisdom and its correct meaning.”〔T25n1509 0471b04–0471b05〕
得阿羅漢時，三界諸漏因緣盡，更不復生三界。 — tr. “When arhatship is attained, the causes and conditions of all contaminants in the three realms are exhausted, and one is no longer born in the three realms.”〔T25n1509 0714a10–0714a11〕
若阿羅漢往淨佛國土受法性身 — tr. “If an arhat goes to a pure buddha land and receives a body of Dharma-nature”〔T25n1509 0714a16〕
The four passages in the received text do not continuously contain 「分段、變易」 tr. “fragmentary and transformational,” nor do they contain 「捨三界報身」 tr. “relinquishing the recompense body in the three realms” as a continuous phrase. The original wording on both sides is therefore preserved.
The root treatise separately transmits two explanations of four hundred yojanas from Fascicle Sixty-Six of the Great Treatise. The received text first gives the forward order:
「若人欲過險道」 tr. “if a person wishes to cross a dangerous road”: 「險道」 tr. “dangerous road”者即是世間。「百由旬」 tr. “one hundred yojanas”者是欲界，「二百由旬」 tr. “two hundred yojanas”者是色界，「三百由旬」 tr. “three hundred yojanas”者是無色界，「四百由旬」 tr. “four hundred yojanas”者是聲聞、辟支佛道。 — tr. “‘If a person wishes to cross a dangerous road’: the ‘dangerous road’ is the world. ‘One hundred yojanas’ is the desire realm, ‘two hundred yojanas’ the form realm, ‘three hundred yojanas’ the formless realm, and ‘four hundred yojanas’ the paths of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.”〔T25n1509 0526b05–0526b08〕
It then gives the reverse order:
復次，「四百由旬」 tr. “four hundred yojanas”是欲界，「三百由旬」 tr. “three hundred yojanas”是色界，「二百由旬」 tr. “two hundred yojanas”是無色界，「百由旬」 tr. “one hundred yojanas”是聲聞、辟支佛。 — tr. “Furthermore, ‘four hundred yojanas’ is the desire realm, ‘three hundred yojanas’ the form realm, ‘two hundred yojanas’ the formless realm, and ‘one hundred yojanas’ śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.”〔T25n1509 0526b08–0526b10〕
The root treatise’s forward and reverse orders〔T34n1718 0101b18–0101b22〕 correspond to these passages; the two sequences are not combined into one.
9. Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra
The root treatise says that the Great Scripture has three formulations: arrival at the mind of awakening, arrival at awakening, and arrival at the gate of great nirvāṇa〔T34n1718 0102b25–0102b26〕. The three passages in the received text are as follows:
| Root Treatise’s Summary | Verbatim Received T12n0374 | Line |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival at awakening | 「是人未來過八萬劫，便當得成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. “after eighty thousand eons in the future, this person will attain unsurpassed complete awakening”〔T12n0374 0431c18〕 | 0431c18 |
| Arrival at great nirvāṇa | 「不到者名大涅槃」 tr. “what is not reached is called great nirvāṇa”〔T12n0374 0491b26〕; later it lists 「須陀洹者八萬劫到，斯陀含者六萬劫到，阿那含者四萬劫到，阿羅漢者二萬劫到，辟支佛者十千劫到」 tr. “a stream-enterer arrives after eighty thousand eons, a once-returner after sixty thousand eons, a nonreturner after forty thousand eons, an arhat after twenty thousand eons, and a pratyekabuddha after ten thousand eons”〔0491c01〕 | 0491b26; 0491c01 |
| Arrival at the mind of awakening | 「須陀洹果亦復不定，不決定故，經八萬劫，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 tr. “the fruit of stream-entry is likewise not fixed; because it is not fixed, after eighty thousand eons one attains the mind of unsurpassed complete awakening”〔T12n0374 0494b01〕 | 0494b01 |
The root treatise separately cites 「須陀洹者八萬劫到」 tr. “a stream-enterer arrives after eighty thousand eons”〔T34n1718 0102c17〕, which connects verbally with the received text at〔T12n0374 0491c01〕. The subsequent phrase 「到初發菩提心處」 tr. “arriving at the place where the mind of awakening is first aroused” is the root treatise’s explanation, not the scriptural sentence itself.
10. Sixty-Fascicle Avataṃsaka Sutra
The root treatise transmits 「藥樹不生深水火坑」 tr. “the medicine tree does not grow in deep water or a fire pit,” and continues by correlating these with the three realms and the two vehicles〔T34n1718 0101a22–0101a23〕. The body of the parable in the received text reads:
此藥王樹一切諸處，皆悉生長，唯除二處，所謂地獄深阬及水輪中不得生長 — tr. “This medicine-king tree grows in every place, with only two exceptions: it cannot grow in the deep pit of hell or within the water disk.”〔T09n0278 0623b07–0623b08〕
Its application to the Dharma reads:
如來智慧大藥王樹，唯除二處不得生長，所謂：聲聞、緣覺、涅槃、地獄、深阬及諸犯戒、邪見、貪著、非法器等 — tr. “The great medicine-king tree of the Tathāgata’s wisdom cannot grow in only two places, namely śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas in nirvāṇa, and the deep pit of hell, together with those who violate discipline, hold wrong views, are attached through craving, are not vessels for the Dharma, and so forth.”〔T09n0278 0623b25–0623b28〕
「深水火坑」 tr. “deep water and a fire pit” is the root treatise’s summary; the received text reads 「地獄深阬及水輪中」 tr. “the deep pit of hell and within the water disk.” The correlations made by the root treatise remain on the commentary layer.
11. Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sutra
The root treatise transmits that 「《大品》明四百由旬，合二乘為一百」 tr. “the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra explains four hundred yojanas, combining the two vehicles into one hundred”〔T34n1718 0101a25〕. The received text reads:
譬如人欲過百由旬若二百三百四百由旬曠野嶮道 — tr. “It is like a person who wishes to cross a desolate, dangerous road of one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, or four hundred yojanas.”〔T08n0223 0315a16–0315a17〕
The received text only lists one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, and four hundred. 「合二乘為一百」 tr. “combining the two vehicles into one hundred” is the root treatise’s transmission and is not passed off as scripture.
12. Three Directional References without a Unique Verbatim Passage
| Root-Treatise Wording and Line | Determination |
|---|---|
《大品》《淨名》中悉有其意 tr. “the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra and the Vimalakīrti Sutra both contain this meaning”〔0102b09–0102b10〕 | The root treatise gives no verbatim wording within quotation marks and specifies no chapter or sentence. Only its direction toward the two scriptures is retained; no unique scriptural sentence is supplied. |
如《涅槃》中諸取羅漢者皆是其義 tr. “those who take arhatship in the Nirvāṇa Sutra all have this meaning”〔0102b18–0102b19〕 | There is no verbatim citation; only the direction indicated by the root treatise is registered. |
人師及經論異出，如前 tr. “individual masters and scriptures and treatises give divergent accounts, as above”〔0101b23〕 | This gathers the previously listed masters, scriptures, and treatises and does not create another new source. |
IV. Essential Explanations from the Wenjuji [the Mirror]
Every item in the following table is a mirror explanation from Zhanran’s Fahua Wenjuji and is not retroactively presented as an original statement by Zhiyi.
| Root-Treatise Node | Essential Explanation in the Wenjuji |
|---|---|
| Two kinds in the intervening period〔0100b22–0100b26〕 | Divides those directed toward awakening and those abiding at the śrāvaka stage into two meanings each〔T34n1719 0298c25–0298c27〕 |
| Separation and alarmed entry〔0100c12–0100c18〕 | Says that following occurs because of alarmed entry, alarmed entry because of meeting, and meeting because of separation; this is a connection made on the Mirror layer and not an explicit list in the root treatise〔0299a09–0299a12〕 |
| Twenty-two instances〔0100c18–0100c20〕 | Explains them as ten instances in the five-buddha section and four each in the “Parable,” “Faith and Understanding,” and “Medicinal Herbs” chapters, making twenty-two in all〔0299a17–0299a22〕 |
| One school and the objection〔0100c23–0100c29〕 | Associates 「有家」 tr. “one school” with the masters of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and says that 「有人難」 tr. “someone objects” is directed against those masters〔0299b15–0299b21〕 |
| Three groups beginning “now relying upon”〔0101b23–0101c03〕 | Explicitly judges that only from 「今依」 tr. “now relying upon” onward comes the correct interpretation and identifies the three groups as place, affliction, and contemplative method〔0300c13–0300c14〕 |
| Four guides〔0102a08–0102a16〕 | The universal guide, guide who forms connections, provisional wisdom, and real wisdom are four names established according to the timely functions of the one prince〔0301a01–0301a06〕 |
| Conjuring and speaking of the city〔0102a26–0102a27〕 | Unfolds them as the wheel of mind and wheel of speech, while saying that the wheel of body is inseparable〔0301a10–0301a13〕 |
| Two explanations of going onward to the place of jewels〔0102b03–0102b18〕 | Distinguishes the root treatise’s correct explanation from the divergent interpretations marked “one explanation” and “another explanation,” and clarifies that 「有人勸言」 tr. “someone exhorts him, saying” is only a present-day illustrative sentence〔0301a15–0301b05〕 |
| Two meanings of the place of jewels〔0102c12–0102c18〕 | Says that the names jeweled islet, awakening, and nirvāṇa are all broadly applicable and that there can therefore be two explanations〔0301b21–0301b24〕 |
| Three questions on carriages and city〔0102c25–0103b02〕 | Objects to the old answer branch by branch, then unfolds the root treatise’s present clarification of existence and nonexistence, three and one, movement and stillness〔0301c12–0302a28〕 |
| Five passages〔0103b02–0103b18〕 | Says that although each passage provisionally has its own principal emphasis, every passage must still include the four unities; this is a Mirror explanation〔0302b26–0302b29〕 |
| Two nirvāṇas in the application〔0103c07–0103c12〕 | Divides the root treatise’s three explanations into those concerning affliction, wisdom, and birth and death, and also lists several paired explanations of the middle of the road〔0302c02–0302c06〕 |
The Record further attributes the root treatise’s threefold wisdom, five eyes, three knowledges, and ten powers to Shi Huiming〔0300c22–0300c23〕. This personal attribution appears only in the Mirror and is therefore not added to the root-treatise body. The Mirror’s 「行因六百劫」 tr. “practicing causes for six hundred eons” and its suggestion that this should be changed to 六十、百劫 tr. “sixty and one hundred eons”〔0300a25–0300a26〕 are likewise not backfilled into the current T1718 wording 「六十劫、百劫」 tr. “sixty eons and one hundred eons.”
V. Explanations of Various Masters
The root treatise itself records many divergent explanations, objections, and old questions. They are listed individually below. Where the root treatise expressly marks 「今謂」 tr. “now I hold,” 「今依」 tr. “now relying upon,” or 「今明」 tr. “now clarifying,” the original boundary is preserved.
1. What Old Explanations Include and Exclude among the Five Elements of the Guide Parable
The old explanation does not include the parable 「欲過此道至珍寶處」 tr. “wishing to cross this road and reach the place of precious jewels.” The root treatise expressly says that it is now included to illustrate the renewed teaching of the Lotus〔T34n1718 0100c07–0100c08〕.
2. Various Explanations of the Five Hundred Yojanas
| Speaker | Explanation | Subsequent Treatment Recorded by the Root Treatise |
|---|---|---|
| Master Ji | The fetters and delusions of the three realms make three hundred, habitual tendencies severed on the seventh ground make four hundred, and ignorance severed on the eighth ground and above makes five hundred〔0100c21–0100c22〕 | 「今謂非正別義，又非三乘通義」 tr. “I now hold that this is neither a correct meaning of the Distinct Teaching nor a meaning shared by the three vehicles”〔0100c22〕 |
| One school | Of the four kinds of birth and death—flowing arrival, transformation, intermediate, and fragmentary—it excludes flowing arrival and opens the remaining kinds into five hundred〔0100c23–0100c26〕 | Someone objects by means of the Śrīmālā Sutra’s five causes and two results, concluding 「無據不可用」 tr. “there is no basis, and it cannot be used”〔0100c29〕 |
| Someone says | Three hundred illustrates the three realms, four hundred the seventh ground, and five hundred the eighth ground and above〔0101a02–0101a04〕 | The objector raises the sixth ground and the numbers of eons for the two vehicles; the root treatise concludes 「此非別義亦非通義」 tr. “this is neither a meaning of the Distinct Teaching nor a meaning of the Shared Teaching”〔0101a08〕 |
| Someone states | The three realms make three hundred, the seven abodes and the two vehicles make four hundred, and the stages above the seven abodes make five hundred〔0101a08–0101a10〕 | It first objects that establishing two grounds after crossing three hundred is not crossing three kinds of person, next that the five kinds of person arousing aspiration is only one meaning in the Great Scripture, and finally that if all five advance, the meaning of the conjured-city parable is lost〔0101a14–0101a20〕 |
| Someone says | The three realms make three hundred, śrāvakas four hundred, and the pratyekabuddha ground five hundred; the three realms and the two vehicles are also treated as two obstructions or the two views of existence and emptiness〔0101a20–0101a22〕 | It continues by citing the medicine tree in the Avataṃsaka Sutra and the four hundred yojanas in the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra〔0101a22–0101a26〕 |
After listing these explanations, the root treatise expressly says 「今依此經判之」 tr. “now, relying upon this scripture, we judge the matter” and establishes three groups of its own:
| Group | Root Treatise’s Establishment | Line |
|---|---|---|
| Places | The place of recompense in the three realms makes three hundred, a land with remainder makes four hundred, and the land of true recompense makes five hundred | 0101b23–0101b25 |
| Afflictions | Delusions of views make one hundred, the five lower fetters two hundred, the five higher fetters three hundred, dust-and-sand delusions four hundred, and ignorance five hundred | 0101b27–0101b28 |
| Contemplative methods | Entering emptiness crosses three hundred, entering the provisional crosses four hundred, and entering the Middle crosses five hundred | 0101b29–0101c01 |
The three groups respectively reconnect to knowledge of the various forms of birth and death, afflictions as the dangerous evil road, and thorough knowledge of where the dangerous road is open or obstructed〔0101b25–0101c03〕. The three groups cannot be compressed into a single set of correspondences, nor may one hundred and two hundred be supplied to the first and third groups merely for the sake of symmetry.
3. Two Explanations of 「前至寶所亦可得去」 tr. “If You Can Go Onward to the Place of Jewels, You May Also Go”
One explanation holds that when the three vehicles are taught, one may also be permitted to arouse the Great-Vehicle aspiration and seek buddhahood; if one cannot, one may first become a person of the two vehicles. It cites the Śrīmālā Sutra on beginners in the three vehicles. The commentator judges, 「若爾成別教」 tr. “if so, it becomes the Distinct Teaching”〔0102b08〕. Another explanation maintains that one first enters the conjured city and subsequently advances again, and points to the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra and the Vimalakīrti Sutra as containing this meaning. The commentator judges, 「此即別接通意耳」 tr. “this is simply the meaning of the Distinct Teaching receiving the Shared Teaching”〔0102b10〕. The subsequent 「有人勸言汝且斷煩惱證羅漢，然後更取大道亦可得也」 tr. “someone exhorts him, saying: for the time being sever your afflictions and realize arhatship; afterward you can still take up the great Way”〔0102b15〕 is an illustrative exhortation supplied by the root treatise and is not counted as a third school.
4. One Explanation of the Place of Jewels
Someone says that crossing beyond the three realms and the two vehicles brings one to the Buddha Way, and that the Buddha Way is the place of jewels〔0102b24–0102b25〕. The root treatise then cites the Great Scripture’s three formulations—arrival at the mind of awakening, arrival at awakening, and arrival at the gate of great nirvāṇa—and itself establishes three meanings of crossing five hundred: escaping the evil road, attaining a good road, and reaching the place of jewels. It respectively correlates these with the mind of awakening, the practice of awakening, and the Buddha Way〔0102b25–0102c03〕. It concludes with the two vehicles crossing three hundred, bodhisattvas crossing four hundred, and the Buddha Vehicle crossing five hundred〔0102c07–0102c08〕.
5. Old Questions and the Present Clarification concerning Carriages and City
The old question has three branches: since carriages and city both illustrate knowledge of nonarising, why do the carriages not exist while the city does, why are there three carriages but one city, and why do the carriages move while the city is still〔0102c25–0102c26〕? The old answer first says that the carriages outside the gate can be posited while the city must be conjured, and then discusses existence and nonexistence through principle and teaching. It answers three and one through the three kinds of person delighting in different things but resting in one place, and movement and stillness through cause being exhausted and result disappearing and through the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of nonarising conveying beings into remainderless nirvāṇa〔0102c27–0103a10〕.
The root treatise separately establishes its present clarification: in terms of living beings’ minds, carriages and city both exist; in terms of the Buddha’s wisdom, they both exist and do not exist; what provisional wisdom clarifies exists, like the city, and what real wisdom clarifies does not exist, like the carriages〔0103a10–0103a12〕. The subsequent text again lists existence and nonexistence, three and one, and movement and stillness according to provisional and real wisdom, concluding 「作如此釋豈與舊同？舊秖在小乘中作義」 tr. “how could an explanation like this be the same as the old one? The old explanation establishes its meaning only within the Lesser Vehicle”〔0103b01〕. The old answer and present clarification cannot be combined into one answer without a subject.
VI. Terminology
| Term | Meaning in This Unit |
|---|---|
開譬、合譬 tr. “opening the parable; applying the parable” | First unfolds the individual elements within the parable and then applies them back through the Dharma; the application expressly does not follow the original sequence |
導師五譬 tr. “five elements of the guide parable” | Five hundred yojanas, dangerous evil road, many travelers, wish to reach the place of jewels, and one guide; the five items may not be merged or compressed |
相失、驚入 tr. “separation; alarmed entry” | Because the parties meet life after life and formed a connection long ago, the root treatise does not separately establish these names, concluding 「而其意則通」 tr. “yet their meanings remain mutually accessible”〔0100c18〕 |
五百由旬 tr. “five hundred yojanas” | Beginning with 「今依」 tr. “now relying upon,” the root treatise distinguishes three groups: places, afflictions, and contemplative methods; each group preserves its own sequence |
險難惡道 tr. “dangerous, difficult, evil road” | Illustrates the causes and effects of birth and death; the root treatise distinguishes fragmentary and transformational birth and death on the side of effect and views and thought and the five abodes on the side of cause〔0101c03–0101c04〕 |
無人 tr. “without people” | One meaning is a vast and cut-off road where someone may still be relied upon; the other is that there is no one upon whom to rely〔0101c05–0101c10〕 |
聰、利、智、明、達 tr. “intelligent, keen, wise, clear, and comprehending” | Explained in sequence as purity of the eye and ear faculties, purity of the mental faculty, threefold wisdom in a single mind, the five eyes or three knowledges, and the ten powers〔0101c12–0101c15〕 |
中路 tr. “midway” | A thought of retreat arising between the two pillars of aspiration as the beginning and the fruit of buddhahood as the end; it is not the exact midpoint of the distance〔0102a06–0102a08〕 |
四導師 tr. “four guides” | Universal compassion, formation of connections, provisional wisdom, and real wisdom; names established according to the timely functions of the same prince〔0102a08–0102a16〕 |
退大三項 tr. “three items of retreat from the Great” | Absence of Great-Vehicle capacity, nonacceptance of exhortation and admonition, and cessation of transformation〔0102a01–0102a06〕 |
接小四項 tr. “four items of reception through the Lesser” | Many skillful means, grieving the loss of the jewels, conjuring the city, and the travelers entering the city〔0102a20–0102a25〕 |
作化、說化 tr. “conjuring; speaking of the conjuration” | The power of skillful means belongs to conjuring, while addressing the assembly belongs to speaking of the conjuration〔0102a26–0102a27〕 |
勸、示、證 tr. “exhortation, demonstration, confirmation” | Do not fear or retreat is exhortation; from “now this is a great city” through doing as one wishes is demonstration; peace and happiness upon entering the city is confirmation〔0102a29–0102b03〕 |
入城六位 tr. “six stages of entry into the city” | Great joy, what has never been experienced, escape from the evil road, attainment of security, going forward and entering the city, and the thought of having crossed over correspond in sequence to hearing, warmth, summit, patience, seeing the truths, and no-more-learning〔0102b19–0102b21〕 |
智德、斷德 tr. “virtue of wisdom; virtue of severance” | The thought of having crossed over also corresponds to the virtue of wisdom, and the thought of security to the virtue of severance〔0102b22–0102b24〕 |
寶所二義 tr. “two meanings of the place of jewels” | In the ultimate sense it is the final fruit; in the sense of partial entry it is the first abode of initial resolve〔0102c12–0102c18〕 |
化城正、傍 tr. “primary and secondary recipients of the conjured city” | Primarily for those who retreat from the Great and take up the Lesser; secondarily for those who studied the Lesser from the beginning〔0103a12–0103a14〕 |
三車、化城 tr. “three carriages; conjured city” | The root treatise first distinguishes them through the wheel of teaching and wheel of supernormal power and through sound and visible form, then lists paired explanations concerning teaching, result, conditioned and unconditioned, provisional and real, and more〔0103a15–0103b01〕 |
五處 tr. “five passages” | “Skillful Means” concerns teaching, “Burning House” practice, “Faith and Understanding” persons, “Medicinal Herbs” difference and nondifference, and “Conjured City” principle〔0103b02–0103b18〕 |
二涅槃、二地 tr. “two nirvāṇas; two grounds” | The root treatise lists nirvāṇa with and without remainder, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and an explanation between the two kinds of birth and death〔0103c09–0103c12〕 |
VII. Similes · Cross-Reading · Carrying Forward
The spatial structure of the conjured-city parable cannot be compressed into a fixed mileage chart. The root scripture first describes the long and distant dangerous road, the travelers’ exhaustion and retreat midway, and the guide’s temporary conjuration of a city. In discussing the five hundred yojanas, the root treatise first faithfully preserves the various masters’ correlations and then explains through three groups—places, afflictions, and contemplative methods—how 「五百」 tr. “five hundred” can be unfolded through different referents. Where the numbers in the three groups are not symmetrical, that asymmetry is the root treatise’s original form; items cannot be added merely to make a chart orderly.
The opened parable and its application likewise cannot be reversed. The opened parable first interprets the guide, road, travelers, place of jewels, and other images within the parable. Only in the application does the root scripture expressly say that the Tathāgata is the great guide, birth, death, and afflictions are the dangerous road, and the two nirvāṇas are rest midway. The root treatise also specifically says that the application is 「不次第」 tr. “not in sequence”〔0103b19–0103b20〕. The key to reading therefore is not to arrange both passages in identical tables, but to see how the same guidance conjures and extinguishes a city according to the travelers’ advance and retreat.
Read together with the “Parable of the Burning House” chapter, the three carriages and conjured city both concern establishments made along the way, yet each retains the textual form of its own chapter. The root treatise therefore uses the three questions on carriages and city to test existence and nonexistence, three and one, and movement and stillness, ultimately refusing to leave the old answer within a single Lesser-Vehicle meaning. Read with the “Faith and Understanding” and “Medicinal Herbs” chapters, the five passages of opening the three to reveal the one each have their own theme; the later retelling does not erase the four earlier passages. Read with the preceding part of the present chapter, the people with whom the sixteen princes formed connections in the past and who now abide at the śrāvaka stage are precisely those whom the parabolic account must receive again.
As this unit carries forward into the following verse, the prose has already established the two major passages, opening and application, and completed the sequence of those led, retreat from the Great and reception through the Lesser, and extinguishing the conjuration and leading toward the place of jewels. The verse’s restatement must return to this framework and cannot construct a separate sequence for the conjured-city parable.
VIII. Placement of the Editions
The thirteen groups of critical variants in this domain are listed below. The body follows the graphs visible in the Taishō text; variant readings are placed beside them without adjudicating superiority.
| Sequence | Line | Taishō Reading | Variant |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 0100b29 | 輪 tr. “wheel” [editorial correction; Palace edition agrees] | 論 tr. “treatise” [original Taishō reading] |
| II | 0100c05 | 生 tr. “living beings; arise” [Taishō] | Witness A lacks the graph |
| III | 0100c11 | 我今 tr. “I now” [Taishō] | 今我 tr. “now I” [witness A] |
| IV | 0101b06 | 十劫 tr. “ten eons” [Taishō] | Witness A lacks the graphs |
| V | 0102b03 | 樂 tr. “happiness” [Taishō] | 隱 tr. “security” [witness A] |
| VI | 0102b06 | 二 tr. “two” [Taishō] | 三 tr. “three” [witness A] |
| VII | 0102b21 | 子 tr. “child” [Taishō] | Witness A lacks the graph |
| VIII | 0102c14 | 竟 tr. “ultimately” [Taishō] | 盡 tr. “exhaustively” [witness A] |
| IX | 0102c24 | 我 tr. “I” [Taishō] | Witness A lacks the graph |
| X | 0103a19 | 詮 tr. “express” [Taishō] | 論 tr. “discuss” [witness A] |
| XI | 0103b02 | 秖 tr. “only” [Taishō] | 只 tr. “only” [witness A] |
| XII | 0103b09 | 昔 tr. “formerly; always” [editorial correction] | 音 tr. “sound” [original Taishō reading] |
| XIII | 0103b18 | 譬 tr. “parable” [Taishō] | 喻 tr. “simile” [witness A] |
Of these, eleven groups juxtapose the Taishō and witness A, while two juxtapose editorial corrections and original Taishō readings. The four absent readings record only that witness A lacks the relevant graphs. The strict domain contains no asterisk cross-reference type, no one-sided critical annotation that cannot be connected back to a paired reading, and no abbreviated type represented by first and last graphs with a graph count.
All seven interlinear annotations must be retained as 〔云云〕 tr. “[and so forth]”: 何不為二百所障 tr. “why are they not obstructed by the two hundred?”〔0101b17–0101b18〕; 若過五百即入佛道 tr. “if they cross five hundred, they enter the Buddha Way”〔0101b22–0101b23〕; 豈須八萬之與十千耶 tr. “why must they pass through eighty thousand or ten thousand?”〔0102c20〕; 難 tr. “objection”〔0103a10〕; 實智所明為無如車 tr. “what real wisdom clarifies does not exist, like the carriages”〔0103a11–0103a12〕; 故言中道 tr. “therefore it is called midway”〔0103c12〕; and 如文 tr. “as in the text”〔0103c17〕. The annotation 〔云云〕 tr. “[and so forth]” only marks abbreviation in the original and does not complete an unseen argument on the author’s behalf.
This domain has no graph marked by a gaiji glyph. Page-line anchors always use the nearest preceding Taishō line marker before the first graph of a quotation; a quotation spanning lines receives an anchor at its opening, while a range indicates its first and last lines. Critical-note anchors use the line containing the variant and are not replaced by the line of a preceding sentence, scripture title, or divisional heading.