妙法蓮華經文句 釋妙莊嚴王本事品

Once there were four monks, and they were very poor.

They treated the Lotus Sūtra with utmost gravity. They read its scrolls every day, but could not enter the teaching—the treatise says “the sweet dew had not yet moistened them.” The principle was all there, but it had not truly soaked in.

So they lamented: is it that we are not the right people, or that this is not the right place?

Then they decided to enter the mountains.

Once in the mountains, their days were like this:

If one meal will not go down, a journey of ten thousand miles cannot be made; if one eats only nine meals in a hundred days, even an aspiration reaching the clouds must bow.

The four were starving to this degree.

Then one of them spoke.

He said: we four are so poor that we cannot even preserve our lives—where, then, can the Dharma find support?

Then he made a second statement:

You three devote your lives only to the path and do not concern yourselves with food. I alone will give the strength of this body and vow to provide what you need.

So he took his mendicant staff, left the mountain, and went to seek alms.

From spring through winter, year after year, the cycle repeated.

The treatise describes those years: like a servant attending a master, whether sweet or bitter, he felt neither pleasure nor resentment.

The other three could therefore concentrate. Their practice reached completion.

—The story should have ended there.

But the treatise continues.

Because the man seeking alms constantly entered the marketplace, he repeatedly encountered sounds and sights.

The treatise gives him a judgment in six Chinese characters:

An unfired clay vessel is difficult to preserve.

Clay that has not passed through fire cannot withstand contact.

Once he happened to see a king traveling. Chariots and horses crowded together; banners blazed.

Something stirred in his mind.

Only that.

The merit of all those years seeking alms to support monks was real. Yet following that single thought, its recompense settled into kingship among humans and gods. The treatise says: although the merit was beyond calculation, it was still limited.

—What pierces in this passage is how reasonable it all is.

The three practiced in the mountains and protected their own minds. One ran through the marketplace and protected the lives of all three.

But he could not protect himself.

The person who enabled the others was the first to be worn down.

And the story continues.

After the three attained the path, they met to deliberate. Their first statement was: our escape from the cage was due to him.

So they went back to find him.

One became his wife and two became his sons—because he was attached to desire and held wrong views, there was no way to pull him free without the hook of ai (“love”).

That wife was the Bodhisattva Wonderful Sound.

The two sons were Medicine King and Medicine Superior.

And that king was the very person who had gone seeking alms for the other three and then himself fallen back.

Those whom he had enabled returned to enable him.

I. A Karmic Connection from Another Scripture: Four Monks

This karmic connection comes from another scripture—

In the final Dharma age of a former Buddha, four monks treated the Lotus Sūtra with utmost gravity. Although they rolled and unrolled this secret teaching, the sweet dew had not yet moistened them. Day and night they raised their sincerity and did not forget for an instant. They lamented: “Could it be that we are not the right people? Could it be that this is not the right place?”

The world was confused and sorrowful, while stillness and distraction opposed one another. Even merely seeking leisure required renouncing worldly affairs—how much more did esteeming the path?

So they formed a covenant in the mountains and forests, resolving joyfully to seek the Buddha’s wisdom. The days of secluded dwelling accumulated; clothing and food became sparse and were exhausted. Anything depended upon brought many burdens, and there was no time without lack. If one meal would not go down, a journey of ten thousand miles was abandoned; if they ate only nine meals in a hundred days, their aspirations reaching the clouds were bent low—what could be said?

One of them said: “We four are so poor that we cannot preserve even our bodies and lives—where can the Dharma find support? You three devote your lives only to the path and do not worry about the affairs of the morning meal. I alone will give the strength of this body and vow to provide what you need.”

So he shook his mendicant staff among the gates and lanes to seek offerings and support. From spring through winter, the cycle repeated. Like a servant attending the head of a great household, whether sweet or bitter, he felt neither pleasure nor resentment.

The three could exercise their sincerity, bring their practice to completion, and finish the work—the benefit of one lifetime would extend through immeasurable lives.

II. That One Person Received the Recompense of Kingship

Because that one person repeatedly entered the human world and repeatedly encountered sounds and sights, he was like an unfired clay vessel, difficult to preserve.

Once he happened to see a king traveling. Chariots and horses crowded together and banners blazed. A thought arose and his mind stirred; he desired that glory. The cultivation of merit received recompense following this thought, and among humans and gods he repeatedly became a king. Although his merit was beyond calculation, it was still limited.

III. The Three Attain the Path and Deliberate on Rescuing Him

After the three attained the path, they met and deliberated: “Our escape from the cage was due to this king. But he is immersed in his recompense and increases the conditioned. After this death he will no longer become a king and will sink into the fiery pit; he will truly be difficult to rescue. While he has not yet suffered, now is precisely the time to guide and transform him.”

One of them said: “This king is attached to sensual pleasure and also holds wrong views. Unless we use the hook of love, there is no way to pull him free. One can become a beautiful wife and two can become intelligent sons. He will certainly follow the words of his sons and wife; if transformation is arranged accordingly, it will succeed in changing his wrong views.”

The wife was the Bodhisattva Wonderful Sound; the two former sons were the present Bodhisattvas Medicine King and Medicine Superior; the former king was the present Bodhisattva Flower Virtue.

Thus the white tuft shone eastward, and one ascended the purple terrace to draw him westward; supernormal spells protected the scripture so that its circulation brought great benefit. Because the former connections of four noble ones are told, the chapter is named The Former Affairs of King Wonderful-Adornment.

IV. Explanation of the Chapter Title: Second Meaning

Moreover, “Wonderful-Adornment” means that the qualities of the Wondrous Dharma adorn the faculties.

In the past this king had a connection with the Wondrous Dharma. The time for the path’s permeation had matured, and his faculties should become pure. Although he had not yet attained this in the present life, its principle would certainly arrive—numinous signs evoked a response, and an auspicious name was established early.

For example, although Subhūti had not yet attained freedom from contention, he was already named Empty-Born. Hence the passage below says “attained the samādhi of adornment with pure qualities.” For this reason he is named “King Wonderful-Adornment.”

The preceding chapter spoke of protection by spells, while this chapter speaks of protection by people. If protection by people is already so, protection by spells is still finer—this is the universal exhortation to circulate the scripture.

V. Six Divisions of the Text

The text has six divisions: first, clarifying the basis of the event; second, jointly identifying transformer and transformed; third, the transformer’s skillful means; fourth, benefit attained by the transformed; fifth, identifying past and present; sixth, awakening from hearing the chapter.

The basis of the event is as stated in the scripture.

VI. Jointly Identifying Transformer and Transformed

From “within that Buddha’s Dharma” onward is the second division, jointly identifying transformer and transformed. One person is transformed and three are transformers; all are named. The two sons’ merit and wisdom, six perfections, and four vast vows are separately revealed.

Other scriptures designate these as the ten pāramitās, the horizontal Dharma gate, and the thirty-seven aids to the path, the vertical Dharma gate. Other scriptures take the right path as primary and the various practices as aids to the path; the present scripture designates the ten perfections as the right path and calls these aids to the path.

The perfection of meditation contains samādhis, and every section of the factors of the path contains a samādhi. The additional designation of seven samādhis merely reveals the Dharma gates extensively.

VII. The Transformer’s Skillful Means

From “at that time the Buddha” onward is the third division, the transformer’s skillful means. The text has three parts: first, the arrival of the time; second, deliberation; third, manifest transformation.

First, the arrival of the time: after that Buddha appeared in the world, he constantly proclaimed the right Dharma. While the king’s connection was weak, the time had not come; when the Lotus Sūtra was taught, the time had arrived. The scripture says “that Buddha, wishing to guide him, taught the Lotus Sūtra”; this is the meaning.

Second, deliberation: the sons tell their mother that the time has arrived; the mother yields to them and has them transform their father; the sons complain of being born into a household of wrong views; the mother reproves them and causes them to be concerned. All is as stated in the scripture.

From “thereupon the two sons” onward is the third part, manifest transformation. The manifested transformations should be the eighteen transformations and can be explained in full.

VIII. Benefit Attained by the Transformed: Ten Divisions

From “at that time the father saw his sons” onward is the fourth division, benefit attained by the transformed. The text has ten parts:

First, trusting the sons and subduing the teacher: the king sees one or two transformations of heterodox arts, narrow and crude; seeing what his sons perform, he praises it as unprecedented. He therefore trusts his sons, subdues his teacher, and asks: who is your teacher? I too wish to see him.

Second, the father-king now trusts, and the 84,000 people in the palace have also matured. The sons tell their mother in celebration and ask to be released to leave home; the mother permits them.

Third, they again urge their parents: now is precisely the time, because a Buddha is difficult to encounter.

Fourth, the work of transformation is now manifest, and the Buddha praises their qualities. “Lotus samādhi” gathers all dharmas into the one true reality, as explained above. “leaving evil destinies”—in an initial account, the three evil paths are evil destinies; discussed completely, all twenty-five forms of existence turn from truth and produce delusion and are therefore evil destinies. Now all are left behind: the twenty-five samādhis destroy the twenty-five forms of existence. “Buddha-gathering samādhi” is the secret treasury in which Buddhas gather; it is the place of practice of Buddhas alone and not of others.

Fifth, they go together to the Buddha, hear Dharma, make offerings, behold auspicious signs, and rejoice.

Sixth, the Buddha gives a prediction.

Seventh, leaving home and practicing.

Eighth, praising the two sons.

Ninth, the Buddha recounts the loftiness of his practice.

Tenth, praising the Buddha and making a personal vow.

IX. Four Kinds of Good Spiritual Friend

The Buddha’s praise of good spiritual friends contains profound meaning.

A good spiritual friend can perform a Buddha’s work—this is the friend who protects externally. “showing, teaching, benefiting, and delighting” is the friend who instructs. “namely, transforming and guiding so that one sees the Buddha” is the fellow-practicing friend. “causing one to enter awakening” is the friend of actuality and true reality.

The Saṃyukta Āgama says: “A good spiritual friend is like a faithful and worthy wife”—this is external protection. It also says a good spiritual friend is like the wealth of one’s kin—this is fellow practice. It also says a good spiritual friend is like the guidance of a caravan leader—this is instruction. It also says a good spiritual friend is like a child lying in a father’s embrace—this is actuality.

X. Identifying Past and Present and Attaining the Path from Hearing the Chapter

From “the Buddha told the great assembly” onward is the identification of past and present: first the identification, then the concluding praise of the two bodhisattvas.

From “when this was spoken” onward is attainment of the path from hearing the chapter, as stated in the scripture.

Chapter twenty-seven of the Lotus Sūtra tells how King Wonderful-Adornment was delivered by his two sons.

The treatise explains the chapter in an unusual way: it first spends more than four hundred Chinese characters telling a story absent from the scripture itself.

And this story is one of the most moving passages in the entire work.

I. Four Poor Monks

In the final Dharma age of a former Buddha, four monks treated the Lotus Sūtra with utmost gravity.

They read its scrolls every day, but “the sweet dew had not yet moistened them.” The principle was all there, yet it had not truly soaked in. Day and night they were earnest and dared not forget for an instant.

So they lamented: “Could it be that we are not the right people? Could it be that this is not the right place?”

Then they decided to enter the mountains.

The treatise gives a thoroughly practical reason: the world is confused and sorrowful, while stillness and distraction oppose one another. Even merely seeking a little leisure requires renouncing many things—how much more does esteeming the path?

The treatise describes their life in the mountains completely in two clauses:

“If one meal will not go down, a journey of ten thousand miles is abandoned; if one eats only nine meals in a hundred days, an aspiration reaching the clouds is bent low.”

If one meal will not go down, a journey of ten thousand miles cannot be made; if one eats only nine meals in a hundred days, even the highest aspiration must bow.

—This is not the customary hardship of a cultivation story. It is specific, physical hunger.

II. That One Statement

The four were starving to this degree when one of them spoke.

His first statement was: “We four are so poor that we cannot preserve even our bodies—where can the Dharma find support?”

We four are so poor that we cannot preserve our lives—where, then, can the Dharma find support?

Then came his second statement: “You three devote your lives only to the path and do not worry about the affairs of the morning meal; I alone will give the strength of this body and vow to provide what you need.”

You three devote your lives only to the path and do not concern yourselves with food. I alone will give the strength of this body and vow to provide what you need.

So he took his mendicant staff and went among the gates to seek alms. From spring through winter, the cycle repeated.

The treatise describes those years: “like a servant attending the head of a great household, whether sweet or bitter, he felt neither pleasure nor resentment.”

The other three could therefore concentrate and bring their practice to completion. The treatise says: “The three could exercise their sincerity, complete the merit, and finish the work; the benefit of one lifetime would extend through immeasurable lives.”

The enabling act of one lifetime brought benefit through immeasurable lives.

III. But the One Who Provided the Offerings Fell Back

The story should have reached fulfillment there. But the treatise continues with the sentence that makes the heart sink.

Because the man seeking alms “repeatedly entered the human world and repeatedly encountered sounds and sights,” he constantly passed through the marketplace and constantly met its sights and sounds.

The treatise gives him a judgment in six Chinese characters: “An unfired clay vessel is difficult to preserve”.

Clay that has not passed through fire cannot withstand contact.

Once he happened to see a king traveling—chariots and horses crowded together, banners blazing. Something stirred in his mind, and he desired that glory.

Only that.

“The cultivation of merit received recompense following the thought.” The merit of all those years seeking alms to support monks was real; yet following this one thought, its recompense settled into kingship among humans and gods. The treatise adds: “Although the merit was beyond calculation, it was still limited.”

The merit was not small. It had a boundary.

This passage pierces because it is so reasonable. The three practiced in the mountains and protected their minds; one ran through the marketplace and protected the lives of all three—but could not protect himself.

The person who enabled the others was the first to be worn down.

The measure of the treatise’s writing here also deserves notice: it does not condemn the man. “unfired clay vessel” is not an insult but a description—the firing was simply not yet complete. The same mind could be protected in the mountains but not in the marketplace. The difference lay not in whether his resolve was genuine, but in whether he had passed through the fire.

IV. The Hook of Love

After the three attained the path, they met to deliberate.

Their first statement settled the account: “Our escape from the cage was due to this king.”

But he was now “immersed in recompense and increasing the conditioned.” After his death he would no longer become a king and would sink into the fiery pit. While he had not yet suffered, now was precisely the time to transform him.

One of them proposed a method, and this method is the key to the whole chapter:

“This king is attached to desire and also holds wrong views; unless we use the hook of love, there is no way to pull him free.”

He is attached to desire and holds wrong views; without the hook of “love,” he cannot be pulled free.

—So one became his beautiful wife and two became his intelligent sons.

He would certainly listen to his sons and wife.

This is the most direct account of skillful means in the entire work. They do not persuade him with reasoning or intimidate him with supernormal powers. They enter the place he is least able to relinquish and pull him out from there.

Only when past and present are identified does the reader learn who the three were: the wife was the Bodhisattva Wonderful Sound, the two sons Medicine King and Medicine Superior, and the king the Bodhisattva Flower Virtue.

The person who had once gone seeking alms for the other three and later himself fallen back—those whom he enabled returned to enable him.

V. The Name Arrives First, the Reality Later

In giving the second meaning of the chapter title, the treatise makes a subtle point.

“Wonderful-Adornment” means that the qualities of the Wondrous Dharma adorn the faculties. But this king was then a person attached to desire and holding wrong views; where was the adornment?

The treatise explains that in the past he had a connection with the Wondrous Dharma; the time for the path’s permeation had matured, and his faculties should become pure. Although he had not yet attained this in the present life, its principle would certainly arrive—hence “numinous signs evoked a response, and an auspicious name was established early.”

It then gives an example: before Subhūti had attained the samādhi free from contention, he was already named “Empty-Born.”

The name arrives first, the reality later.

This explanation is gentle and powerful. What someone is called is sometimes based not on what the person already is, but on what the person will ultimately become.

VI. This Scripture Reverses Aids to the Path and the Right Path

In the passage jointly identifying transformer and transformed, the treatise inserts a doctrinally weighty statement.

It says that other scriptures designate the ten pāramitās as the horizontal Dharma gate and the thirty-seven aids to the path as the vertical Dharma gate. Other scriptures take the right path as primary and the various practices as aids to the path—

“The present scripture designates the ten perfections as the right path and calls these the aids to the path.”

The present scripture makes the ten perfections the right path and calls the thirty-seven factors aids to the path.

This is a reversal of rank. In the usual account, the thirty-seven factors are the framework of cultivation and the six or ten perfections are bodhisattva practices; the treatise says the present scripture reverses them—the ten perfections are right, and the factors of the path assist.

The treatise does not state the reason, but in the context of this chapter it is clear: the chapter concerns transforming others. The sons transform their father not through the four foundations of mindfulness or four right efforts, but through manifestation, speech, and relationship—these are perfections, not factors of the path.

When the scripture explains how to pull one person free, the right path comes to rest in the perfections.

The treatise then adds that the perfection of meditation already contains samādhis and every section of the factors of the path contains a samādhi. When the scripture separately designates seven samādhis, this is “revealing the Dharma gates extensively”—spreading out what is already contained within.

The same set of dharmas is one when gathered and seven when spread out.

VII. Four Kinds of Good Spiritual Friend

At the chapter’s end, the Buddha praises good spiritual friends. The treatise divides them into four kinds with extreme economy:

A good spiritual friend who can perform a Buddha’s work—external protection. Showing, teaching, benefiting, and delighting—instruction. Transforming and guiding so that one sees the Buddha—fellow practice. Causing one to enter awakening—actuality.

It then cites four similes from the Saṃyukta Āgama and assigns them respectively: a good spiritual friend is like a faithful and worthy wife (external protection), the wealth of one’s kin (fellow practice), the guidance of a caravan leader (instruction), and a child lying in a father’s embrace (actuality).

After reading the four similes, one discovers that each comes closer than the last. A wife is at one’s side, kin are within the clan, and a caravan leader is on the road—but the last is a child asleep in a father’s embrace.

The good spiritual friend of actuality and true reality is compared to that degree of closeness.

Looking back at the chapter’s story, all four kinds of good spiritual friend have in fact appeared: the man seeking alms was external protection; the three who attained the path and returned were instruction and fellow practice; the final act that caused him to enter awakening was actuality.

VIII. Three Steps of the Transformer

The treatise divides benefit to the transformed into ten parts but the transformer’s skillful means into only three—the arrival of the time, deliberation, and manifest transformation. Their order deserves attention.

First comes the arrival of the time. After that Buddha appeared in the world, he constantly proclaimed the right Dharma, but “while the king’s connection was weak, it was not the time.” The time came only with the teaching of the Lotus. The scripture says “that Buddha, wishing to guide him, taught the Lotus Sūtra,” and the treatise identifies this as the sign that the time had come.

Transformation does not occur merely because one wishes to transform; one waits for the Dharma suited to it to appear.

Second comes deliberation. The two sons first tell their mother that the time has arrived; the mother has them transform their father. The sons complain of being born into a household of wrong views, and the mother reproves them and causes them to be concerned.

This is a consultation between two generations. The mirror layer adds a fine observation: why do they first tell their mother? Because the father is wrong and the mother right, so they first consult her about the means of transformation. It adds that according to ordinary sentiment, they speak first to the compassionate mother; and at the root of benefiting others, compassion naturally comes first.

Only third comes manifest transformation. The eighteen transformations.

After the three steps, one finds that genuine supernormal power is placed last. The first two steps are waiting for the time and internal deliberation. Supernormal power is not the first means but the last.

This also responds to the chapter’s central image, the hook of love. To use what he cannot relinquish to pull him free, one must first discover what he cannot relinquish. That requires time, consultation, and the right occasion.

IX. Carrying Forward: The Final Chapter

This unit ends with attainment of the path from hearing the chapter.

What follows is The Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universally Worthy—the final chapter of the entire scripture.

The preceding chapter explains protection by spells and this chapter protection by people. The treatise itself compares them: “If protection by people is already so, protection by spells is still finer.”

The next chapter will explain a third form: encouragement through vows.

The reading path turns from “protecting the Dharma through people” to “encouraging through vows.”

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

The mirror layer’s first comment on this chapter has only two Chinese characters.

The root treatise says “this karmic connection comes from another scripture.” Beside it the mirror writes: weijian (“not located”).

It was unable to find the source.

These two characters deserve remembrance because this is the only such self-report in the mirror explanations of this work. Zhanran ranges across the canon to supply sources for the root treatise, identifying fascicles in the Great Nirvāṇa, Flower Garland, Abhidharmakośa, and Mohe Zhiguan. When he reaches this story of more than four hundred Chinese characters, he writes weijian (“not located”).

When one does not know, one says that one does not know. A check against the received canon likewise finds zero matches for the story’s key phrases, agreeing with the mirror’s record.

It next supplies several fine glosses: gui (“sundial time”) is pronounced gui and means the movement of the sun and moon; “interval” means a water-clock interval; “keke” is the sound of retching and describes being unable to swallow.

Those three glosses complete the scene in the four characters “one meal will not go down.”

The mirror shows its finest measure in distinguishing the provisional and real status of the four noble ones.

The root treatise calls them “the former connections of four noble ones.” From the Trace, three ordinary people attained the path and one king was transformed. But the mirror observes that, according to the scripture, the Buddha “taught this Lotus Sūtra in order to guide King Wonderful-Adornment and all living beings”; the palace’s 84,000 people were all able to uphold it, and the two sons’ 42,000 people all went to the Buddha. Therefore this king and all three transformers were in fact provisional manifestations.

From the Origin, all four were great noble ones from the beginning.

The mirror then gives a precisely measured statement: speaking now from the Trace, the four noble ones who were transformed and received predictions are “produced”; speaking from the Origin, all four were already so.

Both explanations are recorded side by side without adjudication.

This distinction helps the reader. If one speaks only from the Origin, the story of a poor monk giving his body’s strength to support the others loses its weight—they were all great noble ones merely manifesting. If one speaks only from the Trace, the story seems no more than the fortunes of four people. The root treatise speaks from the Trace to give the story flesh; the mirror supplies the Origin so that the reader knows another layer lies beneath that flesh.

The mirror adds explanations in two further places.

One concerns “the one-eyed turtle.” The scripture says encountering the Buddha-Dharma is like a one-eyed turtle encountering the hole in a floating log. The mirror says that on the level of event, it simply illustrates the difficulty of encounter. But explained in terms of what is ridden—the eyes of turtles and fish look outward in two directions; saying “one eye” indicates that what it sees is not straight. Dwelling in the ocean of saṃsāra while holding wrong views, how could it align with the hole of true truth in the Buddha-Dharma’s floating log?

“one eye” does not mean one eye is missing; it means the seeing is crooked.

The other concerns “purity of the Dharma eye” at the chapter’s end. Someone says this is the first fruit. The mirror’s refutation is direct: the king, queen, and those 80,000 people all uphold this scripture and will all become Buddhas—how could those hearing the chapter attain only a Lesser-Vehicle fruit?

Its judgment has six Chinese characters: “The name is the same but the meaning differs; one must weigh it carefully”.

The same term carries different weight in different scriptures. The mirror repeatedly gives this warning throughout the work; here its reason is “judging benefit according to the scriptural division.” This scripture is exclusively Great and exclusively Perfect, so the benefit from hearing this chapter never inclines toward the Lesser Vehicle.