金光明最勝王經 蓮華喻讚品
不是同一個畫面，卻是同一條因緣的前後兩端。
前一品裡，妙幢在夢中看見大金鼓。鼓聲裡有讚佛，也有懺悔。他醒來，把整部懺悔偈說給佛陀與大眾聽。品末，佛陀只留下一句：這場夢來自過去讚歎發願的宿習，祂將另說因緣。
這一品，佛陀回來履行那個約定。妙幢過去曾是金龍主。那時，他以蓮華作譬，讚歎十方三世諸佛：從金色身光、清淨梵音，讚到光明滅苦與樂；又以千舌、百千舌、毛端滴海說明，佛的一項功德也難以窮盡。
可是讚佛沒有停在口中。金龍主把所得福德迴施眾生，接著發願：願夢中常見金鼓、聽聞懺悔音；願夜裡聞鼓，白天便依所應作而懺悔；願修六度、拔眾苦、成正覺、淨佛土；願作無救護眾生的歸依。
於是，前品那場夢的幾處景象，在這裡都有了過去的願形。經說這場夢，正是金龍主過去讚佛發願的宿習、加諸佛威力所感。金龍主曾願夜夢聞鼓、晝則隨應懺悔，妙幢便在夢中聞法，天亮後走到佛前，把所聞說出來。
蓮華也因此不只是一朵美麗的花。它先在品題與佛陀的敘述中出現，又進入金龍主自己的願：願讚佛功德如蓮華，並願證得無生、成就正覺。讚佛如蓮，並不是只把佛德說得漂亮；在本品裡，讚歎接著就成為迴向與利他的行。
最後，佛陀說明金龍主就是妙幢，兩個兒子也在今生相會。但故事沒有收在『原來是前世』。大眾聽完，全都發起菩提心，願現在未來常依懺悔修學。一人的宿願，經一場夢被喚醒，又成為眾人的新願。
所以，讚佛與夢金鼓是不是同一件事？讚佛是過去種下的方向，夢鼓是宿習與諸佛威力所感的現在回聲；而醒來之後的懺悔、迴向、修行，則是夢後的回應。前一品留下的扣環，到這裡才完全扣上。
They are not the same scene, but they are the two ends of one continuous chain of causes and conditions.
In the preceding chapter, Wonderful Banner saw a great golden drum in a dream. Within its sound were both praise of the Buddha and repentance. He awoke and recited the entire gāthā of repentance to the Buddha and the assembly. At the chapter’s end, the Buddha left only one statement: the dream came from past habituation in praise and vows, and he would explain its causes and conditions separately.
In this chapter, the Buddha returns to fulfill that promise. Wonderful Banner had once been King Golden Dragon. At that time, he used the lotus as a simile in praising the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times. He praised their golden bodily light and pure Brahmā voice, then praised the light that extinguishes suffering and bestows happiness. With the images of a thousand tongues, hundreds of thousands of tongues, and a hair-tip counting drops from the ocean, he also showed that even one of the Buddha’s qualities cannot be exhausted.
Yet his praise did not remain in his mouth. King Golden Dragon gave the resulting merit to sentient beings and then made vows: may I constantly see the golden drum in dreams and hear the sound of repentance; may I hear the drum at night and repent by day as appropriate; may I cultivate the six perfections, rescue beings from suffering, attain right awakening, and purify a buddha-land; may I become a refuge for sentient beings who have no one to rescue or protect them.
The scenes in the preceding chapter’s dream therefore all have the form of past vows here. The sūtra says that the dream was brought about by King Golden Dragon’s past habituation in praise and vows together with the power of the buddhas. King Golden Dragon had vowed to hear the drum in a dream at night and to repent as appropriate by day; Wonderful Banner accordingly heard the Dharma in a dream and, when morning came, went before the Buddha and recited what he had heard.
The lotus is therefore more than a beautiful flower. It appears first in the chapter title and in the Buddha’s account, then enters King Golden Dragon’s own vow: may my praise of the Buddha’s qualities be like a lotus, and may I realize non-arising and accomplish right awakening. To praise the Buddha like a lotus is not merely to describe the Buddha’s qualities beautifully. In this chapter, praise immediately becomes dedication and the practice of benefiting others.
At the end, the Buddha explains that King Golden Dragon was Wonderful Banner and that the two sons had also met him again in the present life. But the story does not close with the discovery that “this was a former life.” When the assembly hears it, everyone arouses the mind of awakening and vows constantly to rely upon repentance in the present and future. One person’s past vow is awakened through a dream and becomes a new vow shared by the whole assembly.
Are praising the Buddha and dreaming of the golden drum, then, the same event? Praise planted the direction in the past; the dream-drum is its present echo, brought about by past habituation and the buddhas’ power; and the repentance, dedication, and practice after waking are the response to the dream. Only here does the link left open by the preceding chapter close completely.
唐義淨譯《金光明最勝王經》卷五〈蓮華喻讚品第七〉· 大正藏 T16n0665〔起 T16 0422b28〕。段/行首〔T16 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨。
〔T16 0422b28〕爾時，佛告菩提樹神：「善女天！汝今應知，妙幢夜夢見妙金鼓出大音聲，讚佛功德并懺悔法，此之因緣我為汝等廣說其事，應當諦聽，善思念之。過去有王名金龍主，常以蓮華喻讚稱歎十方三世諸佛。」
即為大眾說其讚曰：
「過去未來現在佛，安住十方世界中；
我今至誠稽首禮，一心讚歎諸最勝。
無上清淨牟尼尊，身光照耀如金色；
一切聲中最為上，如大梵響震雷音。
髮彩喻若黑蜂王，宛轉旋文紺青色；
齒白齊密如珂雪，平正顯現有光明。
目淨無垢妙端嚴，猶如廣大青蓮葉；
舌相廣長極柔軟，譬如紅蓮出水中。
眉間常有白毫光，右旋宛轉頗梨色；
眉細纖長類初月，其色晃耀比蜂王。
鼻高脩直如金鋌，淨妙光潤相無虧；
一切世間殊妙香，聞時悉知其所在。
世尊最勝身金色，一一毛端相不殊；
紺青柔軟右旋文，微妙光彩難為喻。
初誕身有妙光明，普照一切十方界；
能滅三有眾生苦，令彼悉蒙安隱樂。
地獄傍生鬼道中，阿蘇羅天及人趣；
令彼除滅於眾苦，常受自然安隱樂。
身色光明常普照，譬如鎔金妙無比；
面貌圓明如滿月，脣色赤好喻頻婆。
行步威儀類師子，身光朗耀同初日；
臂肘纖長立過膝，狀等垂下娑羅枝。
圓光一尋照無邊，赫奕猶如百千日；
悉能遍至諸佛剎，隨緣所在覺群迷。
淨光明網無倫比，流耀遍滿百千界；
〔T16 0423a01〕 普照十方無障礙，一切冥闇悉皆除。
善逝慈光能與樂，妙色映徹等金山；
流光悉至百千土，眾生遇者皆出離。
佛身成就無量福，一切功德共莊嚴；
超過三界獨稱尊，世間殊勝無與等。
所有過去一切佛，數同大地諸微塵；
未來現在十方尊，亦如大地微塵眾。
我以至誠身語意，稽首歸依三世佛；
讚歎無邊功德海，種種香花皆供養。
設我口中有千舌，經無量劫讚如來；
世尊功德不思議，最勝甚深難可說。
假令我舌有百千，讚歎一佛一功德；
於中少分尚難知，況諸佛德無邊際。
假使大地及諸天，乃至有頂為海水；
可以毛端滴知數，佛一功德甚難量。
我以至誠身語意，禮讚諸佛德無邊；
所有勝福果難思，迴施眾生速成佛。
彼王讚歎如來已，倍復深心發弘願；
願我當於未來世，生在無量無數劫。
夢中常見大金鼓，得聞顯說懺悔音；
讚佛功德喻蓮華，願證無生成正覺。
諸佛出世時一現，於百千劫甚難逢；
夜夢常聞妙鼓音，晝則隨應而懺悔。
我當圓滿修六度，拔濟眾生出苦海；
然後得成無上覺，佛土清淨不思議。
以妙金鼓奉如來，并讚諸佛實功德；
因斯當見釋迦佛，記我當紹人中尊。
金龍金光是我子，過去曾為善知識；
世世願生於我家，共授無上菩提記。
若有眾生無救護，長夜輪迴受眾苦；
我於來世作歸依，令彼常得安隱樂。
三有眾苦願除滅，悉得隨心安樂處；
於未來世修菩提，皆如過去成佛者。
願此金光懺悔福，永竭苦海罪消除；
業障煩惱悉皆亡，令我速招清淨果。
福智大海量無邊，清淨離垢深無底；
願我獲斯功德海，速成無上大菩提。
以此金光懺悔力，當獲福德淨光明；
既得清淨妙光明，常以智光照一切。
願我身光等諸佛，福德智慧亦復然；
一切世界獨稱尊，威力自在無倫匹。
有漏苦海願超越，無為樂海願常遊；
現在福海願恒盈，當來智海願圓滿。
願我剎土超三界，殊勝功德量無邊；
諸有緣者悉同生，皆得速成清淨智。
妙幢汝當知，國王金龍主；
曾發如是願，彼即是汝身。
往時有二子，金龍及金光；
即銀相銀光，當授我所記。」
大眾聞是說，皆發菩提心；
願現在未來，常依此懺悔。
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.
底本：唐義淨譯《金光明最勝王經》卷五〈蓮華喻讚品第七〉。白話依原文逐段、逐頌今譯，述而不作。
佛陀說明妙幢夢鼓的因緣
這時，佛陀告訴菩提樹神善女天：妙幢夜裡夢見微妙的金鼓發出宏大音聲，音聲中讚歎佛的功德，也宣說懺悔之法。現在，佛陀將為菩提樹神與在場大眾詳細說明這件事的因緣，要他們仔細聽聞，專心思惟，不使忘失。
在遙遠的過去，有一位國王名叫金龍主。他常以蓮華作譬喻，讚歎安住十方、遍於過去現在未來的諸佛。佛陀隨即為大眾說出金龍主當時的讚頌。
前十五頌：讚佛色身、相好與光明
一、『安住十方世界的過去佛、未來佛和現在佛，我如今以真誠專一的身心，俯首頂禮，一心讚歎一切最勝的佛陀。』
二、『無上清淨的牟尼世尊，身體放出的光明像金色一般照耀；祂的聲音在一切聲音中最為殊勝，如大梵天的清淨梵音，又像雷聲般深遠震動。』
三、『祂的頭髮光彩如同黑蜂王，紺青色的髮絲柔和宛轉，形成右旋的紋理；牙齒潔白如珂貝與白雪，排列整齊緊密，平正而顯出光明。』
四、『祂的雙目清淨無垢，微妙端嚴，如同寬大的青蓮花葉；舌相寬廣修長，又極其柔軟，如紅蓮從水中生出。』
五、『祂的眉間常放白毫光，白毫向右宛轉，色如透明的頗梨；雙眉纖細修長，如初生的新月，色澤明耀，又可比作蜂王。』
六、『祂的鼻樑高而修直，如金鋌一般，清淨微妙，光潤無缺；世間一切殊妙的香氣，祂一聞便知道香氣所在。前半讚鼻的形色，後半讚鼻根的作用。』
七、『世尊的身體呈最勝金色，每一毛孔所生的毛、每一毛端的相狀都同樣莊嚴；毛色紺青，柔軟而向右旋轉，其微妙光彩難以找到合適的譬喻。』
八、『祂初生時，身上便有微妙光明，普遍照耀十方一切世界；光明能滅除三有眾生的痛苦，使他們全都得到安穩與安樂。』
九、『無論是地獄、傍生、餓鬼道中的眾生，還是阿蘇羅、天與人趣中的眾生，祂都使他們的種種痛苦消除，常常領受自然的安穩快樂。』
十、『祂的身色與光明常常普照，如熔化的黃金般微妙無比；面貌圓滿光明，如十五日的滿月，雙脣赤紅美好，如頻婆果的顏色。』
十一、『祂行走時的威儀如師子般安穩有力，身光明朗，如清晨初升的太陽；兩臂纖長，站立時手能過膝，垂下的形狀如娑羅樹枝。』
十二、『祂周身一尋的圓光照耀無邊，燦爛得如同百千個太陽；光明能遍至一切佛土，隨著眾生的因緣，覺醒所在之處的迷惑眾生。』
十三、『祂清淨的光明如網，無可相比，流動的光耀遍滿百千世界；光明毫無障礙地普照十方，使一切黑暗全都消除。』
十四、『善逝由慈悲所起的光明能給予安樂，微妙色澤照徹，如同金山；光明流至百千國土，凡是遇到的眾生，都能得到出世解脫。』
十五、『佛身由無量福德成就，以一切功德共同莊嚴；祂超越三界，獨為至尊，在世間最為殊勝，無人能與祂相等。』
五頌讚佛名身：言語與數量都不能窮盡
十六、『過去一切佛的數量，如同大地所有微塵；未來與現在安住十方的諸佛，也像大地微塵那樣眾多。』
十七、『我以最真誠的身、語、意，頂禮並歸依三世諸佛；我讚歎祂們如大海般無邊的功德，又以種種香與花供養。』
十八、『即使我的口中長出千條舌頭，經過無量劫讚歎如來，世尊不可思議、最為殊勝而甚深的功德，仍然難以說盡。』
十九、『即使我有百千條舌頭，只讚歎一尊佛的一項功德，其中很少的一部分尚且難以知道，何況諸佛功德沒有邊際。』
二十、『即使把大地、諸天直到有頂都化成海水，還能用毛端蘸取海水，逐滴計算；佛的一項功德，卻仍然難以衡量。』
一頌迴向：把禮讚所得回施眾生
二十一、『我以最真誠的身、語、意，禮敬讚歎諸佛無邊的功德；由此所得的殊勝福果不可思議，我全都迴施眾生，願他們迅速成佛。』
十四頌發願：由夢鼓、懺悔走向六度、利生與淨土
二十二、『金龍主讚歎如來之後，心中的深願比先前更加增長，於是發起廣大誓願：願我在未來世，於無量無數劫中不斷受生。』
二十三、『願我在夢中常常見到大金鼓，得以聽聞鼓聲清楚宣說懺悔之音；願我以蓮華作譬，讚歎佛的功德，證得無生之理，成就正覺。』
二十四、『諸佛出現於世間極其難逢，百千劫中也極難值遇；願我夜裡常在夢中聽聞微妙鼓音，白天便隨所應作，如實修行懺悔。』
二十五、『我應當圓滿修習六度，救拔眾生，使他們出離苦海；然後成就無上正覺，佛土清淨而不可思議。』
二十六、『願我以微妙金鼓奉獻如來，又讚歎諸佛真實的功德；由此得以見到釋迦佛，蒙祂授記，將來繼承佛位，成為人中最尊。』
二十七、『金龍、金光是我的兩個兒子，在過去也曾作我的善知識；願他們生生世世都出生在我家，與我一同得到無上菩提的授記。』
二十八、『若有眾生無人救護，在漫漫長夜的輪迴中承受眾苦，願我在未來世成為他們的歸依，使他們常得安穩快樂。』
二十九、『願三有中的種種痛苦全都消滅，眾生各自得到與心願相應的安樂之處；願他們在未來世修習菩提，都像過去修行者那樣成就佛果。』
三十、『願這金光明懺悔所得的福德，永遠枯竭苦海，使罪業消除；願業障與煩惱障全都消失，使我迅速感得清淨之果。』
三十一、『福德與智慧的大海廣大無邊，清淨離垢，深不可測；願我獲得這樣的功德海，迅速成就無上的大菩提。』
三十二、『藉著金光明懺悔之力，願我獲得福德所成的清淨光明；得到清淨的微妙光明之後，常以智慧之光普照一切眾生。』
三十三、『願我的身光與諸佛相等，福德與智慧也同樣圓滿；願在一切世界中成為至尊，具足自在威力，無可匹比。』
三十四、『願我超越有漏生死的苦海，常遊於無為寂滅的樂海；願現在的福德海恆常盈滿，未來的智慧海究竟圓滿。』
三十五、『願我的國土超越三界，具足無量無邊的殊勝功德；一切與我有緣的眾生都共同往生其中，迅速成就清淨智慧。』
二頌結會許記：金龍主就是妙幢
三十六、『妙幢，你應當知道：過去那位名叫金龍主的國王，曾經發下這些誓願；他就是你的過去身。』
三十七、『當時他有兩個兒子，名叫金龍、金光；他們就是現在的銀相、銀光，我將為他們授記。』
末一頌：大眾發心修學
三十八、『大眾聽聞佛陀說明這段往事，全都發起菩提心，並共同立願：無論現在或未來，都要恆常依照這一懺悔法修學。』
Base text: Yijing’s Tang translation of The Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King, fascicle five, “Praise through the Lotus Simile,” Chapter 7. This vernacular rendering follows the original passage by passage and stanza by stanza, transmitting without invention.
The Buddha Explains the Causes and Conditions of Wonderful Banner’s Dream of the Drum
At that time, the Buddha addressed the good goddess who was the deity of the bodhi tree. During the night, Wonderful Banner had dreamed of a wondrous golden drum producing a great sound. Within that sound the Buddha’s qualities were praised and the practice of repentance was proclaimed. The Buddha would now explain the causes and conditions of this event in detail to the deity of the bodhi tree and the assembly, and he instructed them to listen carefully, contemplate it attentively, and not let it be forgotten.
In the distant past there was a king named Golden Dragon. He constantly used the lotus as a simile in praising the buddhas who abide throughout the ten directions and the past, present, and future. The Buddha then recited for the assembly the praise that King Golden Dragon had offered at that time.
The First Fifteen Stanzas: Praising the Buddha’s Form, Marks, and Light
One. “To the buddhas of the past, future, and present who abide in the worlds of the ten directions, I now bow my head in homage with sincere and undivided body and mind, single-mindedly praising all the Supreme Ones.”
Two. “The unsurpassed and pure Muni, the World-Honored One, emits bodily light that shines like gold. His voice is supreme among all voices, pure like the sound of Great Brahmā and deep and far-reaching like reverberating thunder.”
Three. “The luster of his hair resembles the king of black bees. Its dark-blue strands are soft and gracefully curved, forming right-turning whorls. His teeth are white as shell and snow, evenly arranged and close together, level and radiant.”
Four. “His eyes are pure, undefiled, wondrous, and dignified, like the broad leaves of a blue lotus. His tongue is wide and long, yet exceedingly soft, like a red lotus rising from the water.”
Five. “Between his brows the white tuft constantly emits light. It curls gracefully to the right and has the color of transparent crystal. His brows are fine and long like a new crescent moon; their luminous color may also be compared to the king of bees.”
Six. “The bridge of his nose is high and straight like an ingot of gold, pure, wondrous, lustrous, and without defect. When he smells any of the world’s exquisite fragrances, he knows exactly where it is. The first half praises the nose’s form and color; the second praises the faculty’s function.”
Seven. “The World-Honored One’s body is the supreme color of gold. Every hair growing from every pore and the appearance of every hair-tip are equally majestic. The hairs are dark blue, soft, and curled to the right; their wondrous radiance admits of no adequate simile.”
Eight. “At his birth, his body already possessed a wondrous light that universally illuminated every world throughout the ten directions. That light could extinguish the suffering of beings in the three realms of existence and enable them all to receive peace and happiness.”
Nine. “Whether beings dwell in hell, among animals, or in the realm of hungry ghosts, or among asuras, devas, and humans, he removes all their sufferings and enables them constantly to enjoy natural peace and happiness.”
Ten. “The color and light of his body constantly shine everywhere, wondrous and incomparable like molten gold. His face is perfectly round and bright like the full moon on the fifteenth day, and his lips are a beautiful red like the color of the bimba fruit.”
Eleven. “His bearing as he walks is steady and powerful like a lion. His bodily light shines brightly like the newly risen morning sun. His arms are slender and long, and when he stands his hands reach below his knees, hanging like branches of the śāla tree.”
Twelve. “The circular halo extending a fathom around his body shines without limit, blazing like hundreds of thousands of suns. Its light reaches every buddha-land and, in accord with beings’ conditions, awakens the deluded wherever they may be.”
Thirteen. “His pure net of light is beyond compare, and its streaming radiance fills hundreds of thousands of worlds. It universally illuminates the ten directions without obstruction and removes every darkness.”
Fourteen. “The compassionate light of the Well-Gone One can bestow happiness. Its wondrous color shines through everything like a golden mountain. Its rays stream into hundreds of thousands of lands, and all beings who encounter them attain liberation.”
Fifteen. “The Buddha’s body is accomplished through measureless merit and adorned by every quality. Transcending the three realms, he alone is honored as supreme; he is most excellent in the world, with none his equal.”
Five Stanzas Praise the Buddha’s Name-Body: Neither Language nor Number Can Exhaust It
Sixteen. “The buddhas of the past are as numerous as all the motes of dust on the earth. The buddhas of the future and present who abide throughout the ten directions are likewise as numerous as the earth’s motes of dust.”
Seventeen. “With utmost sincerity of body, speech, and mind, I bow to and take refuge in the buddhas of the three times. I praise their ocean of boundless qualities and make offerings of every kind of incense and flower.”
Eighteen. “Even if a thousand tongues grew within my mouth and I praised the Tathāgata through measureless eons, the World-Honored One’s inconceivable, supremely excellent, and profound qualities would still be impossible to describe completely.”
Nineteen. “Even if I had hundreds of thousands of tongues and praised only one quality of a single buddha, even a tiny part of it would remain difficult to know—to say nothing of the boundless qualities of all buddhas.”
Twenty. “Even if the earth, all the heavens, and everything up to the Peak of Existence were transformed into ocean water, one could still dip a hair-tip into it and count the drops. Yet even one of the Buddha’s qualities would remain exceedingly difficult to measure.”
One Stanza of Dedication: Giving the Merit of Praise to Sentient Beings
Twenty-one. “With utmost sincerity of body, speech, and mind, I revere and praise the buddhas’ boundless qualities. The excellent fruit of merit gained thereby is inconceivable; I give it all to sentient beings so that they may swiftly become buddhas.”
Fourteen Stanzas of Vows: From the Dream-Drum and Repentance to the Six Perfections, Benefiting Beings, and a Pure Land
Twenty-two. “After King Golden Dragon had praised the Tathāgata, his profound aspiration grew still stronger than before, and he made this vast vow: In future lives, may I continually take birth throughout measureless, numberless eons.”
Twenty-three. “In my dreams may I constantly see the great golden drum and hear its sound clearly proclaim repentance. May I use the lotus as a simile in praising the Buddha’s qualities, realize non-arising, and accomplish right awakening.”
Twenty-four. “The appearance of buddhas in the world is exceedingly rare; even in hundreds of thousands of eons they are very difficult to encounter. At night may I constantly hear the wondrous drum in dreams, and by day may I practice repentance truthfully as appropriate.”
Twenty-five. “I shall cultivate the six perfections to completion, rescue sentient beings, and bring them out of the ocean of suffering. I shall then attain unsurpassed right awakening and a buddha-land of inconceivable purity.”
Twenty-six. “May I offer the wondrous golden drum to the Tathāgata and praise the buddhas’ true qualities. Through this may I see Śākyamuni Buddha and receive his prediction that I will succeed to buddhahood as the supreme one among humans.”
Twenty-seven. “Golden Dragon and Golden Light are my two sons; in the past they have also been my spiritual friends. May they be born into my family life after life and receive predictions of unsurpassed awakening together with me.”
Twenty-eight. “When sentient beings have no one to rescue or protect them and undergo many sufferings while circling through the long night, may I become their refuge in future lives and enable them always to find peace and happiness.”
Twenty-nine. “May every suffering within the three realms of existence be extinguished, and may beings each attain a place of happiness that accords with their wishes. In future lives may they cultivate awakening and attain buddhahood just as practitioners of the past did.”
Thirty. “May the merit gained through this Golden Light repentance forever drain the ocean of suffering and remove offenses. May karmic obstructions and afflictive obstructions disappear entirely and enable me swiftly to obtain the fruit of purity.”
Thirty-one. “The ocean of merit and wisdom is vast and boundless, pure and undefiled, its depth impossible to fathom. May I attain this ocean of qualities and swiftly accomplish supreme great awakening.”
Thirty-two. “Through the power of Golden Light repentance, may I obtain the pure light formed by merit. Once I have attained that pure and wondrous light, may I constantly illuminate every sentient being with the light of wisdom.”
Thirty-three. “May the light of my body equal that of the buddhas, and may my merit and wisdom likewise be complete. May I alone be honored as supreme throughout every world, endowed with sovereign power beyond compare.”
Thirty-four. “May I cross beyond the ocean of suffering that is contaminated birth and death and constantly roam the ocean of bliss that is unconditioned quiescence. May my present ocean of merit always be full, and may my future ocean of wisdom become perfectly complete.”
Thirty-five. “May my land transcend the three realms and possess measureless, boundless, excellent qualities. May all beings connected with me be born there together and swiftly accomplish pure wisdom.”
Two Stanzas Join Past and Present and Promise Predictions: King Golden Dragon Is Wonderful Banner
Thirty-six. “Wonderful Banner, you should know that the king named Golden Dragon in the past, who made all these vows, was your former body.”
Thirty-seven. “At that time he had two sons named Golden Dragon and Golden Light. They are now Silver Mark and Silver Light, and I shall bestow my prediction upon them.”
Final Stanza: The Assembly Arouses the Mind and Undertakes the Practice
Thirty-eight. “When the assembly heard the Buddha explain this past event, all aroused the mind of awakening and made this shared vow: In the present and the future, we shall constantly rely upon this practice of repentance.”
上一回，妙幢把夢中金鼓所說的懺悔法完整複誦出來。佛陀在品末告訴他，這場夢與過去的讚歎、發願和宿習有關，並答應日後說明。到了這一品，祂沒有再講一套新的懺悔法，而是把時間往回推：妙幢過去曾是金龍主；夢裡的鼓、鼓聲中的懺悔、對諸佛的讚歎，都可以在那一世的願中找到前因。
全品很短，卻有一條完整的弧線。佛陀先對菩提樹神與大眾宣告要說因緣；接著述說金龍主讚佛、迴向、發願；再把過去身與現在身結會，許諾為二子授記；最後，大眾聽聞本事，共同發起菩提心，願現在未來常修懺悔。它要回答的，不只是『妙幢前世是誰』，而是『一個清淨的讚願，怎樣跨過生世，成為後來的夢、懺悔與修行』。
以下順著經文自身的次第，把這條因緣逐段展開；末後才以古德的唯識之鏡旁照，不使鏡義先蓋過經文。
佛陀不是另起一事，而是回來履行前約
本品一開頭，佛陀直接點出要解釋的事：妙幢夜裡夢見大金鼓，鼓發大聲，聲中讚佛功德並說懺悔法。祂請菩提樹神與大眾仔細聽、好好思惟，因為接下來說的不是與前品無關的故事，而是那場夢的因緣。
這個開頭很重要。若只讀前品，金鼓像是忽然闖進妙幢夢中的奇景：光明如日，十方佛現，婆羅門擊鼓，一整篇懺悔偈從鼓聲中流出。到了這裡，經文把『忽然』打開，顯出長久累積的方向。夢中所聞並不是孤立的一夜；它與過去身反覆讚佛、迴向、發願相接，也與諸佛的護念相接。
所以佛陀先說『我要廣說這件事』，才說過去有一位金龍主。這個敘事次第使本品成為前品的回答，而不是插入在品次之間的一段本生逸聞。
金龍主做了什麼：先讚，再把讚化成願
金龍主常以蓮華作譬，讚歎安住十方、遍於三世的諸佛。經文沒有只用一句話概括他的虔誠，而是完整保存讚頌：先禮過去、未來、現在諸佛，再逐一讚佛的身色、音聲、髮齒、眼舌、白毫、眉鼻、毛相、威儀與光明；接著承認，即使千舌經無量劫，仍然不能說盡一尊佛的一項功德。
更關鍵的是，讚歎之後立刻有迴向。金龍主把身、語、意禮讚所得的勝福，回施一切眾生，願他們迅速成佛。然後，迴向又展開成十四頌大願：願在夢中見鼓、聞懺悔音；願夜裡聞鼓，白天隨應懺悔；願修六度、濟眾生、成正覺、淨佛土；願自己和二子得授記；願作無救護眾生的歸依；願滅三有苦、除業障煩惱、成就福智與清淨光明。
經文把讚歎、迴向、發願連成一條路：先看見佛德，繼而願眾生同得，最後發誓以自己的生生世世承擔這個方向。
蓮華不只出現在品題，也出現在願裡
品題說『蓮華喻讚』，經首又說金龍主常以蓮華喻讚十方三世佛。到了願中，金龍主再說，願自己的讚佛功德如蓮華，並願證得無生、成就正覺。蓮華因此不是後人加上的品名裝飾；它由佛陀的敘述進入金龍主自己的願，前後都有經文落點。
本品的相好讚也反覆使用花與清淨色澤：眼如廣大青蓮葉，舌如紅蓮出水；除此之外，又以黑蜂王、珂雪、初月、金鋌、鎔金、滿月、頻婆、師子、娑羅枝、百千日等譬喻，逐一顯出佛身相好。這些意象不是一幅靜止的畫像。讚頌很快從身相轉到光明的作用：初生身光普照十方，滅三有眾生苦；淨光除去冥闇，慈光給予安樂，眾生遇光而得出離。
所以相好讚的方向，不是讓讀者停在『佛的容貌多麼莊嚴』。身光之所以被反覆歌詠，是因為它照境、覺迷、滅苦、與樂。佛身的莊嚴與眾生的離苦，在偈中本來就沒有分開。
偈頌也一再申明佛德說之不盡：縱令口中有千舌、乃至百千舌，於無量劫讚一佛之德也難窮盡；縱使遍取盡有頂之海水、以毛端滴而知其數，佛的一項功德仍甚難稱量。讚到這裡，語言自己碰到了邊界。
語言走到盡頭，恭敬才真正展開
十五頌讚相好與光明之後，偈頌忽然把鏡頭拉遠：過去佛的數量像大地微塵，未來與現在十方佛也同樣無數。金龍主以身、語、意歸依供養，接著連用三層不能窮盡的譬喻。
第一層，即使口中有千舌，經無量劫也說不盡如來功德；第二層，即使有百千舌，只讚一佛一德，其中少分仍難知；第三層，即使大地與諸天直到有頂都化為海水，毛端逐滴尚可計數，佛的一項功德卻難以衡量。言語不及、所知不及、數量不及，層層推進。
這不是說既然不能說，就不必讚。恰恰相反：知道語言不能包住佛德，金龍主仍以全部身、語、意禮讚供養。承認言語有限，不是沉默退場，而是讓稱讚不再自以為已經掌握所讚者。就在這個位置，迴向出現：把讚佛所得的福，轉而回施一切眾生。
十四頌發願：夢鼓只是願海中的第一道回聲
發願段先總說金龍主深心發弘願，再逐步鋪開。最先出現的正是夢鼓：願在夢中常見大金鼓，聽聞懺悔之音；又因諸佛難逢，願夜夢常聞鼓聲，白天便依所應作而懺悔。前品妙幢的夜夢與晨起說法，在這裡已有清楚的過去願形。
但金龍主所願不只是一場夢。他願圓滿六度，先拔濟眾生出離苦海，然後成就正覺、清淨佛土；願見釋迦佛而得授記，也願兩個兒子世世生在自己家中，共得菩提記。由此可見，夢鼓不是私人靈驗的終點，而是讓懺悔、六度、利生與成佛得以延續的一個環節。
接著，大願轉向無救無護的眾生。金龍主願自己在未來作其歸依，使他們離三有苦，得世間安樂，也修菩提而成佛。再往後，六頌收回自益：以金光明懺悔福滅苦、罪、業障與煩惱，願得無邊福智，願福德光與智光照一切，願身光、福德、智慧等佛，願超有漏苦海、遊無為樂海，最後願有緣眾生同生淨土、同成清淨智。
自益與利他在這裡互相穿透。求清淨果不是為了把自己移到眾生之外；所得光明立刻要照一切，所得淨土也要與有緣者同生。願作眾生歸依之後，經文再列六度、福智、懺悔離障、成覺與淨土諸願，並列而下。
品四的夢因，在這裡一項項兌現
回看前品末，佛陀說妙幢的勝業來自過去讚歎發願的宿習，並答應另說因緣。本品不是只用『你前世修得很好』含混帶過，而是把宿習拆成可見的內容。
前品有夜夢金鼓，本品有過去願在夢中常見金鼓；前品鼓聲說懺悔法，本品有願聞懺悔音、白天隨應懺悔；前品夢中同時有讚佛與懺悔，本品先完整讚佛，再迴向發願；前品妙幢醒後把所聞說給大眾，本品的過去願也讓夢中聞法走向白晝實行。夢裡的夢鼓、懺悔音、夜夢與晝懺等節點，都在過去的願中找到對應。
因此，『宿習』在本品不是一個空泛的名目，而有這一事件中的具體所指：金龍主過去讚佛發願，妙幢今生感得夢鼓；夢醒之後，又到佛前宣說所聞。經文只就這一因緣結會今古，不把過去的願寫成現在行動的替代。金龍主願夜夢聞鼓、晝則隨應懺悔，妙幢也確實由夢中聞法走到佛前宣說。
結會、許記與大眾發心：本事不是在身分揭曉處結束
佛陀最後告訴妙幢，過去的金龍主就是他的前身；金龍主的兩個兒子金龍、金光，就是現在的銀相、銀光。這是古今身分的結會。接著，祂只說將為二子授記；本品沒有展開授記佛號，也沒有把後品的授記會眾提前帶入。
若故事在這裡停止，它只完成了『誰是誰』的揭曉。經文卻再加末一頌：大眾聽聞這段因緣，全都發菩提心，願現在未來常依懺悔修學。於是，一人的過去身不再只是私人的前世記憶；金龍主的願經妙幢之夢被說出，又使整個法會的大眾共同發願。
全品由佛陀請大眾諦聽開始，以大眾願意修學結束。中間的三十八頌，所完成的不是把一段往事封存，而是讓讚佛、迴向、懺悔與發願重新進入現在。過去因緣的意義，不在於知道一個名字，而在於它能不能在當下再生一顆菩提心。
末頌又把時間從妙幢的一生推向『現在與未來』。大眾不是只對往事表示讚歎，而是明白這段本事之後，立刻發心，願把懺悔帶進往後的修學。於是經文的時間線並未停在過去金龍主與現在妙幢之間；它還把聽經的人放入未來。往昔願成今夢，今聞又成後願，三段都由實際的發心與修行相接。
以唯識之眼，再看幾處
上來只順著〈蓮華喻讚品〉自身的敘事與偈義而行。這一系譯註另以慈恩慧沼《金光明最勝王經疏》作一面旁照的鏡子——鏡非經，不把疏家的判釋倒灌成佛陀在本品直接說出的話。
第一，慧沼把題名拆得很細：蓮華是喻，讚歎是法；華、蓮可前後相望而兼含因果，出泥水不染則顯在染位仍能離染。蓮華又通能讚與所讚：佛德如蓮，讚佛之心與言也可如蓮。尤其『讚體是智、讚用是言、以淨心起言』這一層，使金龍主的讚歎呈現出唯識的心行結構——智為體，言為用，淨心是所依；讚佛不只是聲音，而是心、智、語彼此相應的一行。
第二，慧沼把末六頌自益願由滅障讀到成身利他：苦海、業、煩惱分別照見報障、業障、惑障；其後願得法身智而成大覺、得報身，又以身智光照他而起化身。若以轉依語彙提挈，這裡所見的不是把一個染污的自己裝飾得更明亮，而是障漸離、智漸顯，所得身智立即轉為照他之用。這是疏家照讀發願次第的一面；經中每一願的原次序仍不因鏡讀而被改寫。
第三，三家逐文分科各有重心。慧沼依義淨本分二十頌讚歎、一頌迴向、十四頌發願，再列結會、許記與會眾發心；智顗依讖本以能讚人、生善、滅惡、所讚人四義解品名，又把龍尊過去讚、信相現在夢、未來夜夢晝說連成三世讚歎；吉藏則以本品證成前品夢中見聞，又把發願分作夢鼓、六度、授記、依止眾生、滅障、具德、淨土等十願。三家所依本子、行數與細科不同，各還其位。
以這面鏡回望，品四與品七的扣環就更清楚：過去以淨心發智言而讚佛，讚後迴向發願；現在由宿習感夢，夢後發露懺悔；大眾聽聞本事，又把一人的宿因接成共同修學。慧沼的唯識鏡讓人看見心行如何相續、離障與利他如何相連；智顗、吉藏則各從品名與感應、證成分出不同路徑。鏡有多面，經仍居中央。此品最後承衍的，也不是一段已完結的前世故事，而是一條由讚佛到夢鼓、由夢鼓到懺悔、由懺悔再發菩提心的長遠願路。
In the preceding chapter, Wonderful Banner recited in full the practice of repentance spoken by the golden drum in his dream. At the chapter’s end, the Buddha told him that the dream was connected with praise, vows, and past habituation, and promised to explain it later. In this chapter, the Buddha does not teach another new practice of repentance. Instead, he turns time backward: Wonderful Banner was once King Golden Dragon, and the drum in his dream, the repentance within its sound, and its praise of the buddhas all have their antecedents in the vows of that former life.
The chapter is brief, yet it traces a complete arc. First, the Buddha announces to the deity of the bodhi tree and the assembly that he will explain the causes and conditions. He then recounts King Golden Dragon’s praise of the Buddha, dedication, and vows; joins the past body to the present one; promises predictions for the two sons; and finally shows the assembly hearing this past event, arousing the mind of awakening together, and vowing constantly to practice repentance in the present and future. The chapter answers more than “Who was Wonderful Banner in a past life?” It asks how a pure praise and vow can cross from life to life and become a later dream, repentance, and practice.
What follows unfolds this chain of causes and conditions section by section in the sūtra’s own order. Only at the end is it viewed through the collateral mirror of the ancient consciousness-only commentary, so that the reflection does not cover the sūtra before the sūtra has been heard.
The Buddha Does Not Begin a Separate Matter but Returns to Fulfill an Earlier Promise
At the chapter’s opening, the Buddha identifies directly what he is about to explain: during the night Wonderful Banner dreamed of a great golden drum, the drum produced a great sound, and within that sound were praise of the Buddha’s qualities and the practice of repentance. He asks the deity of the bodhi tree and the assembly to listen carefully and contemplate well, because what follows is not a story unrelated to the preceding chapter. It is the account of that dream’s causes and conditions.
If the preceding chapter is read by itself, the golden drum may seem like a wondrous scene that suddenly entered Wonderful Banner’s dream: light like the sun, buddhas appearing throughout the ten directions, a brahmin striking the drum, and an entire gāthā of repentance issuing from its sound. Here the sūtra opens that “suddenly” and reveals a direction accumulated over a long time. What was heard in the dream did not belong to one isolated night. It was connected with repeated praise, dedication, and vows in a past life, and also with the protective power of the buddhas.
The Buddha therefore says first, “I shall explain this event in detail,” and only then tells of King Golden Dragon in the past. This narrative sequence makes the present chapter an answer to the preceding chapter rather than an incidental birth story inserted between other chapters.
What King Golden Dragon Did: First Praise, Then Turn Praise into Vow
King Golden Dragon constantly used the lotus as a simile to praise the buddhas who abide throughout the ten directions and the three times. The sūtra does not reduce his devotion to a single sentence but preserves the complete praise. He first bows to the buddhas of the past, future, and present, then praises in sequence the Buddha’s bodily color, voice, hair and teeth, eyes and tongue, white tuft, brows and nose, bodily hairs, bearing, and light. He next acknowledges that even a thousand tongues praising through measureless eons could not fully express a single quality of one buddha.
More important still, dedication follows immediately upon praise. King Golden Dragon gives to all sentient beings the excellent merit gained through praising with body, speech, and mind, wishing that they may swiftly become buddhas. The dedication then opens into fourteen great vows: may he see the drum in dreams and hear the sound of repentance; may he hear the drum at night and repent as appropriate by day; may he cultivate the six perfections, rescue sentient beings, attain right awakening, and purify a buddha-land; may he and his two sons receive predictions; may he become a refuge for beings with no one to rescue or protect them; and may he remove the sufferings of the three realms, karmic obstructions, and afflictions and accomplish merit, wisdom, and pure light.
The sūtra connects praise, dedication, and vows as a single path: first one sees the Buddha’s qualities, then wishes that sentient beings may obtain them together, and finally vows to carry that direction through one’s own successive lives.
The Lotus Appears Not Only in the Chapter Title but Also within the Vow
The title says “Praise through the Lotus Simile,” and the opening states that King Golden Dragon constantly praised the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times by means of a lotus simile. Within his vows, King Golden Dragon again wishes to praise the Buddha’s qualities through the lotus simile and to realize non-arising and accomplish right awakening. The lotus is therefore not a decorative title attached by later hands. It has one textual foothold in the Buddha’s narration and another in King Golden Dragon’s own vow.
The praise of the Buddha’s marks also repeatedly uses flowers and pure colors: the eyes resemble broad blue-lotus leaves, and the tongue resembles a red lotus rising from the water. Around these are the king of black bees, white shell and snow, the new moon, a golden ingot, molten gold, the full moon, the bimba fruit, a lion, branches of the śāla tree, and hundreds of thousands of suns, each used to reveal a particular bodily mark. Yet these images do not form a static portrait. The praise quickly turns from the Buddha’s form to what his light does: the bodily light present from birth illuminates the ten directions and extinguishes the suffering of beings in the three realms; pure light removes darkness; compassionate light bestows happiness; and beings who encounter the light attain liberation.
The direction of this praise is therefore not to leave the reader admiring how majestic the Buddha looks. Bodily light is repeatedly celebrated because it illuminates worlds, awakens the deluded, extinguishes suffering, and bestows happiness. In the verses, the majesty of the Buddha’s body has never been separate from sentient beings’ release from suffering.
The stanzas also repeatedly declare that the Buddha’s qualities cannot be exhausted in speech. Even with a thousand tongues or hundreds of thousands of tongues, one could praise one buddha through measureless eons without reaching the end of a single quality. Even if all the waters up to the Peak of Existence were gathered and their drops counted with the tip of a hair, one quality of the Buddha would remain immeasurable. Here language itself reaches its limit.
Only When Language Reaches Its End Does Reverence Fully Unfold
After fifteen stanzas praise the Buddha’s marks and light, the verses suddenly draw the view outward: the buddhas of the past are as numerous as the dust motes of the earth, and the buddhas of the future and present throughout the ten directions are just as numberless. King Golden Dragon takes refuge and makes offerings with body, speech, and mind, then uses three successive similes of inexhaustibility.
First, even a thousand tongues speaking through measureless eons cannot exhaust the Tathāgata’s qualities. Second, even hundreds of thousands of tongues praising one quality of a single buddha cannot know more than a tiny portion. Third, even if the earth, the heavens, and everything up to the Peak of Existence were made into ocean water and its drops could be counted one by one with a hair-tip, a single quality of the Buddha could not be measured. Speech does not reach it, knowledge does not reach it, and number does not reach it: the three levels advance one after another.
This does not mean that because the qualities cannot be expressed, praise is unnecessary. The opposite is true. Knowing that words cannot contain the Buddha’s qualities, King Golden Dragon still praises and makes offerings with his whole body, speech, and mind. To acknowledge the limit of language is not to withdraw into silence; it is to prevent praise from imagining that it has mastered the one praised. At precisely this point, dedication appears: the merit gained from praising the Buddha is turned and given to all sentient beings.
Fourteen Stanzas of Vows: The Dream-Drum Is Only the First Echo in an Ocean of Vows
The vow section begins by saying generally that King Golden Dragon aroused a vast vow from the depths of his mind, then unfolds it step by step. The dream-drum appears first: may he constantly see the great golden drum in dreams and hear the sound of repentance; because buddhas are so difficult to encounter, may he hear the drum constantly in dreams by night and repent as appropriate by day. The nighttime dream and the teaching after waking in Wonderful Banner’s later life already have the clear form of a past vow here.
But King Golden Dragon’s aspiration is not merely for a dream. He vows to complete the six perfections, first rescue sentient beings from the ocean of suffering, and then attain right awakening and a pure buddha-land. He vows to see Śākyamuni Buddha and receive a prediction, and also that his two sons may be born in his family life after life and receive predictions of awakening together with him. The dream-drum is therefore not the end point of a private marvel. It is one link through which repentance, the six perfections, benefiting beings, and buddhahood continue.
The great vows then turn toward sentient beings who have no rescuer or protector. King Golden Dragon vows to become their refuge in future lives, enable them to leave the suffering of the three realms, obtain worldly happiness, cultivate awakening, and become buddhas. The final six stanzas turn back toward benefit for himself: through the merit of Golden Light repentance, may suffering, offenses, karmic obstructions, and afflictions be extinguished; may he obtain boundless merit and wisdom; may the light of merit and the light of wisdom illuminate all; may his bodily light, merit, and wisdom equal the buddhas’; may he cross the contaminated ocean of suffering and roam the ocean of unconditioned bliss; and finally, may beings connected with him be born together in his pure land and accomplish pure wisdom together.
Benefit for self and benefit for others interpenetrate here. Seeking the fruit of purity is not an attempt to move oneself outside the world of sentient beings. The light one gains is immediately to illuminate all, and the pure land one attains is to be shared with all who are connected by conditions. After the vow to become a refuge for sentient beings, the text continues with the vows for the six perfections, merit and wisdom, removal of obstructions through repentance, awakening, and a pure land, placing them together in sequence.
The Cause of Chapter 4’s Dream Is Fulfilled Here Point by Point
Looking back to the end of the preceding chapter, the Buddha says that Wonderful Banner’s excellent deed came from past habituation in praise and vows and promises to explain the causes and conditions separately. The present chapter does not pass vaguely over the matter by saying only that “you cultivated well in a former life.” It opens that past habituation into visible contents.
The preceding chapter has the golden drum in a night dream; the present chapter has the former vow constantly to see the golden drum in dreams. The preceding chapter has the drum proclaim the practice of repentance; the present chapter has the vow to hear the sound of repentance and to repent as appropriate by day. The preceding chapter’s dream contains both praise and repentance; the present chapter gives the complete praise first, then dedication and vows. Wonderful Banner awakens in the preceding chapter and recounts what he heard to the assembly; the past vow in the present chapter likewise lets Dharma heard in a dream move into practice during the day. Each node—the dream-drum, the sound of repentance, the night dream, and daytime repentance—has a counterpart in the former vow.
“Past habituation” is therefore not an empty label here but has a concrete referent within this event: King Golden Dragon praised the Buddha and made vows in the past; Wonderful Banner encountered the drum in a dream in the present life; and after awakening, he went before the Buddha and proclaimed what he had heard. The sūtra joins past and present only with respect to this chain of causes and conditions. It does not make the past vow a substitute for present action. King Golden Dragon vowed to hear the drum in dreams by night and to repent as appropriate by day, and Wonderful Banner indeed moved from hearing the Dharma in his dream to proclaiming it before the Buddha.
Joining Past and Present, Promising Predictions, and Arousing the Assembly’s Mind: The Birth Story Does Not End When Identities Are Revealed
At the end, the Buddha tells Wonderful Banner that King Golden Dragon of the past was his former body. King Golden Dragon’s two sons, Golden Dragon and Golden Light, are Silver Mark and Silver Light in the present. This joins the identities of past and present. The Buddha then says only that he will bestow predictions upon the two sons. This chapter does not disclose the buddha names of those predictions and does not bring the assembly of the later prediction chapter forward into this one.
If the story stopped here, it would have accomplished only the revelation of who was who. The sūtra, however, adds one final stanza: when the assembly hears this chain of causes and conditions, everyone arouses the mind of awakening and vows constantly to rely upon repentance in the present and future. One person’s former body is thus no longer merely a private past-life memory. King Golden Dragon’s vow is brought forth through Wonderful Banner’s dream and leads the whole assembly to make a shared vow.
The chapter begins with the Buddha asking the assembly to listen carefully and ends with the assembly vowing to practice. The thirty-eight intervening stanzas do not seal a past event away but allow praise of the Buddha, dedication, repentance, and vows to enter the present again. The meaning of past causes and conditions does not lie in knowing a name. It lies in whether they can bring forth the mind of awakening once more here and now.
The final stanza also extends the timeline from Wonderful Banner’s single life toward “the present and the future.” The assembly does not merely praise the past event. Having understood it, they immediately arouse the mind and vow to carry repentance into their later practice. The sūtra’s timeline therefore does not stop between King Golden Dragon in the past and Wonderful Banner in the present. It also places those who hear the sūtra within the future. A former vow becomes a present dream; present hearing becomes a later vow; actual aspiration and practice connect all three.
Through the Eye of Consciousness-Only: A Further Look
Everything above follows only the narrative and stanza meanings of Praise through the Lotus Simile itself. This edition also uses Huizhao’s Cien Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King as a collateral mirror. The mirror is not the sūtra, and the commentator’s interpretation is not poured backward into what the Buddha directly says in this chapter.
First, Huizhao parses the title finely: the lotus is the simile, while praise is the dharma illustrated. Flower and lotus may look forward and backward to one another and together encompass cause and result; rising from muddy water without being stained reveals that one may remain free from defilement even while practicing in a defiled stage. The lotus also applies to both the one who praises and the one praised: the Buddha’s qualities are like a lotus, and the mind and speech that praise the Buddha can also be like a lotus. Most especially, his statement that “the substance of praise is wisdom, its function is speech, and speech arises from a pure mind” presents King Golden Dragon’s praise as a consciousness-only structure of mental conduct. Wisdom is its substance, speech its function, and pure mind its basis. Praising the Buddha is not sound alone but one practice in which mind, wisdom, and speech accord with one another.
Second, Huizhao reads the final six stanzas of vows for self-benefit as moving from the extinction of obstructions to the attainment of bodies that benefit others. The ocean of suffering, karma, and affliction correspond respectively to the retributive obstruction, karmic obstruction, and afflictive obstruction. The following vows seek the wisdom of the dharma-body and great awakening as the reward body, and then use the light of body and wisdom to illuminate others through the emanation body. Gathered in the vocabulary of transformation of the basis, what appears here is not the decoration of a defiled self with greater brightness. Obstructions gradually depart, wisdom gradually becomes manifest, and the body and wisdom attained are immediately turned toward illuminating others. This is one mirror through which the commentator reads the order of the vows; the original order of every vow in the sūtra remains unchanged by that reflected reading.
Third, each of the three masters has a different emphasis in his line-by-line outline. Following Yijing’s recension, Huizhao distinguishes twenty stanzas of praise, one stanza of dedication, and fourteen stanzas of vows, followed by joining past and present, the promised predictions, and the assembly’s arousal of the mind. Following Dharmakṣema’s recension, Zhiyi explains the chapter title through four meanings—the person who praises, the production of good, the extinction of evil, and the person praised—and joins Venerable Golden Dragon’s past praise, Faith-Mark’s present dream, and future dreaming by night and teaching by day into praise across the three times. Jizang uses this chapter to establish the dream’s seeing and hearing in the preceding chapter and divides the vows into ten groups: dream-drum, six perfections, prediction, becoming a refuge for sentient beings, extinguishing obstructions, acquiring qualities, pure land, and others. The three masters relied on different recensions and used different line counts and detailed divisions. Each is returned to his own textual position, and all are recorded without adjudicating.
Looking back through this mirror, the link between Chapters 4 and 7 becomes clearer. In the past, a pure mind gave rise to wisdom and speech in praise of the Buddha, followed by dedication and vows. In the present, past habituation brought about the dream; after the dream came open disclosure and repentance. When the assembly heard the past event, one person’s former causes were carried into shared practice. Huizhao’s consciousness-only mirror reveals how mental conduct continues and how leaving obstructions is joined to benefiting others, while Zhiyi and Jizang open different paths through the chapter title, response, and confirmation. The mirror has several faces, but the sūtra remains at the center. The chapter’s final act of carrying forward is not a former-life story already completed, but a long path of vows leading from praise of the Buddha to the dream-drum, from the dream-drum to repentance, and from repentance to the renewed arousal of the mind of awakening.
考據Apparatus
全品定位 本品承接〈夢見金鼓懺悔品〉末所許的宿習因緣：佛陀對菩提樹神與大眾說明，妙幢夜夢金鼓、聞懺悔音，源自過去身金龍主讚佛、迴向、發願之勝因。三十五頌先以十五頌讚佛色身、五頌讚佛名身、一頌迴向、十四頌發願；其後一頌結會、一頌許記，末一頌會眾發心，合為三十八頌。三譯皆有本品，慧沼、智顗、吉藏三家皆有逐文疏；各本、各家異同並錄不判。
一、科判定位
義淨本品題「蓮華喻讚品第七」（T16n0665 0422b27），品身自 0422b28 至 0423b22；0423b23 已入〈金勝陀羅尼品第八〉。品身共有七十六偈行，每兩偈行為四句一頌，合三十八頌。
慧沼先以來意、釋名、解妨三門總攝：「蓮華喻讚品，三門分別：一來意、二釋名、三解妨。」（T39n1788 0269a26）來意以夢鼓之因為樞紐：「求須起行，所以夜夢金鼓示懺悔方。今即勝行。感夢起階非無因緣，眾疑未知，所以佛為說。」（T39n1788 0269b01）
慧沼分品內大科為四。疏文云：「品文分四，一舉事欲陳誡眾令聽、二正為廣說令知宿緣、三妙幢汝當知下結會今古許為授記、四眾聞發心願當修學。末一頌是樹神名堅牢，亦名地神。」（T39n1788 0269b27）依經文可列為：一、佛告菩提樹神，將說夢鼓因緣；二、標過去金龍主讚佛；三、二十頌讚歎；四、一頌迴向；五、十四頌發願；六、二頌結會許記；七、一頌會眾發心。
三十五頌主體的分科，慧沼說：「有三十五頌，大分為三：初二十頌讚歎、次一頌迴向、後十四頌發願。」（T39n1788 0269c08）二十頌讚歎再分為十五頌讚色身、五頌讚名身；後二頌則是「一頌結會、一頌許記」（T39n1788 0271b09），末頌為大眾發心修學。
二、三譯對勘與三家逐文疏並觀
三譯皆有此品
| 本子 | 品題與品界 | 品首所見 |
|---|---|---|
| 義淨 T665 | 「蓮華喻讚品第七」（T16n0665 0422b27）；品身 0422b28–0423b22 | 先重提妙幢夢鼓、讚佛與懺悔之因緣，再標金龍主本事 |
| 寶貴合部 T664 | 「讚歎品第七」（T16n0664 0378b06）；品身 0378b07–0379b05 | 「佛告地神堅牢善女天：」接「過去有王名金龍尊」（T16n0664 0378b07） |
| 曇無讖 T663 | 「金光明經讚歎品第四」（T16n0663 0339a07）；品身 0339a08–0340a06 | 「佛告地神堅牢：」接「善女天！過去有王名金龍尊」（T16n0663 0339a08） |
T664 是寶貴合部；本品所在卷首又明署「隋大興善寺沙門釋寶貴合」〔T16n0664 0378b04〕、「北涼天竺三藏曇無讖譯」〔0378b05〕。故本品的版本事實是三本皆有，不設缺品命題，也不列作真諦補品。
T663／T664 逐字異存（並錄不判·各守其本原字）：①照耀／照曜〔663 0339a12·664 0378b11〕 ②紅輝／紅暉〔0339a18·0378b17〕 ③脩揚／脩楊〔0339a20·0378b19〕 ④黑耀／黑曜〔0339a21·0378b20〕 ⑤融金／鎔金〔0339b02·0378c01〕 ⑥明耀／明曜〔0339b03·0378c02〕 ⑦熾盛／火盛〔0339b08·0378c07〕 ⑧修習／修集〔0339b11·0378c10〕 ⑨妙香華／好華香〔0339b16·0378c15〕 ⑩尚以一毛／尚可以毛〔0339b23·0378c22〕 ⑪滴數／渧數〔0339b24·0378c23〕 ⑫以禮／已禮〔0339b25·0378c24〕 ⑬受記莂／授記莂〔0339c11·0379a10〕 ⑭同共受記／同共授記〔0339c12·0379a11〕 ⑮行菩薩道／行菩提道〔0339c17·0379a16〕 ⑯行菩提者／行菩提道〔0339c29·0379a28〕。二本用字互異，各還其本，不判正誤、不以一譯回改另一譯。
三本開端的詳略不同。義淨本先說：「妙幢夜夢見妙金鼓出大音聲，讚佛功德并懺悔法，此之因緣我為汝等廣說其事」（T16n0665 0422b28），並稱王為金龍主；兩個舊本直接從金龍尊本事起。義淨本又明標「常以蓮華喻讚稱歎十方三世諸佛」（T16n0665 0422c02），兩舊本則分別作「常以讚歎讚歎去、來、現在諸佛」（T16n0664 0378b08）與「常以讚歎，讚歎去來現在諸佛」（T16n0663 0339a09）。品題與王名各守本譯，不互改。
| 對位 | 義淨 T665 | 寶貴合部 T664 | 曇無讖 T663 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 三世十方總禮 | 「過去未來現在佛，安住十方世界中；我今至誠稽首禮，一心讚歎諸最勝。」（0422c05） | 「我今尊重、敬禮、讚歎，去、來、現在，十方諸佛。」（0378b09） | 「我今尊重，敬禮讚歎，去來現在，十方諸佛。」（0339a10） |
| 金色與梵音 | 「無上清淨牟尼尊，身光照耀如金色；一切聲中最為上，如大梵響震雷音。」（0422c07） | 「諸佛清淨，微妙寂滅，色中上色，金光照曜。於諸聲中，佛聲最上，猶如大梵，深遠雷音。」（0378b10） | 「諸佛清淨，微妙寂滅，色中上色，金光照耀；於諸聲中，佛聲最上，猶如大梵，深遠雷音」（0339a11） |
| 夢鼓與晝行 | 「夜夢常聞妙鼓音，晝則隨應而懺悔。」（0423a23） | 「夜則夢見、晝如實說。」（0379a05） | 「夜則夢見，晝如實說。」（0339c06） |
| 六度、成覺、淨土 | 「我當圓滿修六度，拔濟眾生出苦海；然後得成無上覺，佛土清淨不思議。」（0423a24） | 「我當具足，修行六度，濟拔眾生，越於苦海，然後我身，成無上道，令我世界，無與等者。」（0379a05） | 「我當具足，修行六度，濟拔眾生，越於苦海，然後我身，成無上道；令我世界，無與等者」（0339c06） |
| 結會 | 「妙幢汝當知，國王金龍主；曾發如是願，彼即是汝身。往時有二子，金龍及金光；即銀相銀光，當授我所記。」（0423b17） | 「信相當知：爾時國王，金龍尊者，則汝身是；爾時二子，金龍、金光，今汝二子，銀相等是。」（0379b02） | 「信相當知，爾時國王，金龍尊者，則汝身是；爾時二子，金龍金光，今汝二子，銀相等是。」（0340a03） |
義淨本末有「大眾聞是說，皆發菩提心；願現在未來，常依此懺悔。」（T16n0665 0423b21）；T663、T664 均在結會銀相等處收品。這是三本收尾的詳略差，不作價值判斷。
三家皆有逐文疏
慧沼正疏自 T39n1788 0269a25 起，至 0271b11 判會眾發心修學，完整覆蓋義淨本品七。智顗《文句》自 T39n1785 0064c17 起釋〈讚歎品〉，先立品名四義：「讚歎，凡有四意：一從能讚人、二從生善、三從滅惡、四從所讚人、一從能讚人者。」（T39n1785 0064c18）其中能讚人一義正把本事與夢鼓扣合：「今品佛述其昔為龍尊，面讚法王，願我當來夜夢晝說。」（T39n1785 0064c21）
吉藏《疏》自 T39n1787 0164c04 起逐文釋本品，先立兩重來意：「第一證上〈懺悔品〉夢中見聞，由信相昔日讚嘆發願力有之；第二讚上夢中見聞非是妄相。」（T39n1787 0164c05）其大科為長行舉人、偈頌正述、結會古今三段。慧沼疏義淨本，智顗與吉藏疏讖本；三家所依本子、偈行計數與細科不同，均逐文有據，並錄不判。
三、唯識義之經據（眼）
本品的唯識鏡義，以慧沼逐文疏所釋為限；鏡照經，不以疏文替代經文。
一、蓮華通能讚與所讚。 慧沼先定「蓮華是喻，讚歎是法。」（T39n1788 0269b05）又從因果兩面解蓮華：「此意華即喻因，蓮即喻果。喻在因中，前後相望雙含因果。」（T39n1788 0269b08）蓮華出泥水而不染，顯修行雖在染位仍能離惑泥；其喻既可指佛德如蓮，也可指讚者以淨心發言。
二、讚歎有智、心、言三層。 慧沼說：「此蓮華喻，通能所讚。讚歎喻似蓮華，非染污心讚故。讚體是智，讚用是言，以淨心起言亦似蓮華。」（T39n1788 0269b12）讚佛不是只有音聲：智是其體，言是其用，淨心是言語生起之處。此處可見金龍主本事不只記一段往昔歌詠，也把讚歎安在清淨心行之中。
三、色身、名身與言路不及。 前十五頌逐相、逐光讚佛色身，後五頌轉讚名身。慧沼說：「上色身亦得云化身，此名身亦得云應身。」（T39n1788 0270c05）其後千舌、百千舌、毛端滴海三頌，分別顯語言不能盡、少分功德仍難知、數量不能及；不壓成一語泛稱佛德廣大。
四、從滅三障到三身利生。 十四頌發願末六頌，先願懺悔滅障，再願成大覺、以身智光照他、身智光等佛，最後願離苦得樂、淨土俱成。慧沼釋首頌為「苦海即報障，業業障，煩惱即惑障」（T39n1788 0271a27），次第又判法身智、大覺報身、身智光照他而起化身。這是疏家以離障、得身、照他來讀金龍主自益願的唯識鏡面；經文自身的願次仍各自保存。
四、諸家異釋（古德·標宗·誌錄不判）
慈恩·慧沼《金光明最勝王經疏》
慧沼以三門、四大段、三十五頌主體為骨幹；釋題兼取蓮華因果、不染、能讚與所讚，又把十五頌色身、五頌名身、一頌迴向、十四頌發願逐段疏開。十四願中另存利他段兩讀。其一：「利他中初一頌半令得世間樂、後半頌令得出世樂，據勝令得大果；」（T39n1788 0271a22）其二則說：『三有眾生以下半頌令得三乘；經說隨心，故後令迴心向大。』兩讀同出一疏，並存不擇。
天台·智顗《金光明經文句》
智顗以能讚人、生善、滅惡、所讚人四義釋品名：龍尊本事是能讚人；讚佛能生妙善；讚歎能治毀訾；所讚即去來現在三世諸佛。其舊本分科為三十五行讚三世佛、二十五行半發來世願、二行結會二世事；又把三十五行細分為總讚、別讚、遍類讚、絕言讚、迴向。這套行數與義淨本三十八頌不是同一計數單位，不互相換算改寫。
三論·吉藏《金光明經疏》
吉藏以本品證成前品夢中見聞，又顯夢中所見不是妄相；判全品有長行、六十行半正述、末二行結會三段。偈中另分三十三偈讚歎、二行迴向、二十五行半發願；發願再列夢鼓、如來面貌、夜夢晝說、六度、授記、眾生依止、滅障、具佛德、拔苦與樂、淨土十願。其分法與慧沼八類別願、智顗五別各異，均依各自所疏本傳錄。
智顗《玄義》與知禮《拾遺記》
智顗《玄義》以過去龍尊發願、現在信相所夢、未來香蓋供養標三世事。知禮再明「金龍尊王是過去讚，信相菩薩是現在讚。又有誓願未來無量阿僧祇劫，在在生處，夜夢金鼓、晝如實說，即未來讚也。是彼一身三世讚歎。」（T39n1784 0014c13）這是玄義層的三世讀法，不冒稱義淨本逐句疏。知禮另有《金光明經文句記》T39n1786 逐文記，本品所對舊本〈讚歎品〉之記釋自「釋〈讚歎品〉，二：初、釋題」〔T39n1786 0122c07〕起；《文句記》逐文層與《拾遺記》玄義層分書。
五、術語
蓮華喻讚。 蓮華為喻，讚歎為法。華、蓮可分顯因果，出泥不染顯在染離染；又通能讚之淨心智言與所讚之佛德。慧沼另存『以蓮華作譬來讚佛』與『讚詞自身名蓮華喻』兩種語法，不裁成唯一一讀。
一心。 首頌的『一心』不是只指一剎那。慧沼說：「專注於境名為一心，非一剎那等。」（T39n1788 0269c16）此處以身、語、意三業專注於所禮三世十方佛。
色身、名身。 慧沼以十五頌讚色身、五頌讚名身。色身段依相好、身光及利生分開；名身段依佛數無邊、歸依供養、發言難盡分開。
鄔曇鉢蓮華。 慧沼以古德音寫解諸佛難逢與讚佛願。此名只依古疏傳承照錄，不據近代校本另作梵語還原。
迴向。 金龍主將身、語、意禮讚所得勝福迴施眾生，願其速成佛；它位於二十頌讚歎與十四頌發願之間，使讚佛所得不留於己。
許記。 本品只說二子「當授我所記」（T16n0665 0423b20），是許將授記，沒有在本品列出佛號。妙幢與二子的正式授記另見後品，不倒灌入此品敘事。
六、譬喻·修辭
蓮華不染。 蓮華既是全品題喻，也是讚佛之心與佛德的共同譬喻。慧沼說：「又蓮華出於泥水不為泥水所污，喻修行雖在染位必能出離惑泥。」（T39n1788 0269b09）故此喻不只指外貌清美，也顯因果離染。
佛身相好譬喻。 黑蜂王喻髮彩，珂雪喻齒白，青蓮葉喻眼，紅蓮出水喻舌，初月喻眉，金鋌喻鼻，鎔金喻身色，滿月喻面貌，頻婆喻脣色，師子喻行步，娑羅枝喻垂臂。各喻所屬相好不互換。
光明譬喻。 初誕身光照十方、圓光赫奕如百千日、淨光明網除冥闇、慈光流至百千土；光的作用不止顯色，也依經次第滅苦、與樂、覺迷、令出離。
言讚不能盡。 千舌經無量劫、百千舌讚一佛一德、毛端滴海可數而佛一功德難量，三層由言語不及、少分不知進到數量不及。譬喻不是誇飾性的重複，而是逐層封住以言、以知、以數窮盡佛德的可能。
苦海、福智海與淨土。 發願段先願眾生出苦海，後願懺悔永竭苦海、獲福智大海，再願有緣者同生淨土；海喻由所離之苦轉為所成之福智，前後不混。
七、互讀·承衍
承〈夢見金鼓懺悔品〉之許說。 前品末佛陀說：「汝今應知此之勝業，皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護，此之因緣，當為汝說。」（T16n0665 0413c02）慧沼直指：「後、許說夢因，即下〈蓮華喻讚品〉是。」（T39n1788 0241a04）本品首再說將廣說夢鼓、讚佛與懺悔之因緣，隨即揭出金龍主讚佛發願本事；兩品由經文自身扣合。
夢中金鼓與晝時懺悔。 金龍主發願「夢中常見大金鼓，得聞顯說懺悔音」（T16n0665 0423a20），又願夜夢聞鼓、白晝隨應懺悔。前品所見不是另起一事，而是本品所說往昔願行在今生的兌現。
讚佛、迴向、發願相續。 二十頌讚佛不以讚歎作終點；一頌立刻把勝福迴施眾生，十四頌再開夢鼓、懺悔、六度、授記、利他、自益、淨土諸願。讚歎由言入行，由自心清淨轉為眾生離苦。
許記與後品授記。 本品結會妙幢及二子，並說將授記；所完成的是古今身分與因緣的揭示。正式授記的佛號仍守其後品位置。本品會眾最後發菩提心，願現在未來常依懺悔，使一人的往昔願轉成大眾共同修學。
由此承衍，〈夢見金鼓懺悔品〉所問的是『這場夢從何而來』，本品所答的是『讚佛、迴向、發願如何成為夢的宿因』。過去金龍主的淨心讚言，成為現在妙幢的夢鼓懺悔；現在聞法發心，又把這一因緣推向未來修學。
八、校本定位
- 本譯注以義淨譯 T16n0665〈蓮華喻讚品第七〉為底本：品題 0422b27，品身 0422b28–0423b22，下一品題 0423b23。品身七十六偈行，合三十八頌。
- T16n0664 為寶貴合部，題〈讚歎品第七〉，品題 0378b06，品身 0378b07–0379b05；本品所在卷首署曇無讖譯。T16n0663 題〈金光明經讚歎品第四〉，品題 0339a07，品身 0339a08–0340a06。三本皆有本品。
- T664 的 0360b13 位於〈壽量品第二〉四佛座段，原字是「寶合成，於蓮華上有四如來」（T16n0664 0360b13）；本品真正品頭為 0378b06。兩處各守所屬品位，不混為一錨。
- 慧沼 T39n1788 正疏題起 0269a25，正文至 0271b11；0271b17 為下一品題。智顗 T39n1785 逐文疏題起 0064c17，吉藏 T39n1787 本品逐文疏起 0164c04。
- 智顗 T39n1783 與知禮 T39n1784 所引金龍尊王三世讚歎，屬玄義層旁證，不列作本品逐句注；知禮《文句記》T39n1786 逐文記另起 0122c07。
- 義淨本三十八頌與舊本六十二行半使用不同句式與計數單位。對勘只依內容節點並列，不把七言重譯偽裝成舊本單字校改。
全品的版本、科判與疏釋都指向同一條可驗的文本連線：三譯皆傳金龍主讚佛發願之事，三家皆逐文疏其讚歎、迴向、發願與結會；所異者各還其本，不以整齊取代傳承。
This chapter carries forward the explanation of past habituation promised at the end of The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance. The Buddha explains to the deity of the bodhi tree and the assembly that Wonderful Banner’s dream of the golden drum and hearing of the sound of repentance arose from the excellent causes established when, as King Golden Dragon in a past life, he praised the buddhas, dedicated merit, and made vows. The thirty-five-stanza main sequence consists of fifteen stanzas praising the Buddha’s form-body, five praising the name-body, one dedicating merit, and fourteen making vows. It is followed by one stanza joining past and present, one promising predictions, and a final stanza in which the assembly arouses the mind, for a total of thirty-eight stanzas. All three translations contain this chapter, and Huizhao, Zhiyi, and Jizang all provide line-by-line commentaries. The differences among the recensions and masters are recorded without adjudicating.
I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement
Yijing titles the chapter 「蓮華喻讚品第七」—“Praise through the Lotus Simile, Chapter 7” (T16n0665 0422b27). The chapter body extends from 0422b28 to 0423b22; at 0423b23, The Golden-Victory Dhāraṇī, Chapter 8, has already begun. The chapter body contains seventy-six lines of verse; every pair of printed verse lines contains the four clauses of one stanza, yielding thirty-eight stanzas in all.
Huizhao first encompasses the chapter through three approaches—reason for coming, explanation of the name, and resolution of difficulties: 「蓮華喻讚品，三門分別：一來意、二釋名、三解妨。」—“The chapter Praise through the Lotus Simile is distinguished through three approaches: first, the reason for its coming; second, explanation of the name; and third, resolution of difficulties” (T39n1788 0269a26). His reason for its coming takes the dream-drum’s cause as the pivot: 「求須起行，所以夜夢金鼓示懺悔方。今即勝行。感夢起階非無因緣，眾疑未知，所以佛為說。」—“Seeking requires the initiation of practice, and therefore at night the golden drum was dreamed of, revealing the method of repentance. The present chapter is that excellent practice. The initial cause that brought about the dream was not without causes and conditions. The assembly had doubts and did not know them, so the Buddha explained” (T39n1788 0269b01).
Huizhao divides the chapter into four major parts. The commentary says: 「品文分四，一舉事欲陳誡眾令聽、二正為廣說令知宿緣、三妙幢汝當知下結會今古許為授記、四眾聞發心願當修學。末一頌是樹神名堅牢，亦名地神。」—“The chapter text is divided into four: first, raising the event to be explained and admonishing the assembly to listen; second, explaining it extensively so that they know the former causes and conditions; third, from ‘Wonderful Banner, you should know’ onward, joining past and present and promising to bestow predictions; and fourth, the assembly hears, arouses the mind, and vows to cultivate and train. The final stanza is spoken by the tree deity named Firm and Steadfast, also called the earth deity” (T39n1788 0269b27). Following the sūtra text, the sequence may be listed as: first, the Buddha tells the deity of the bodhi tree that he will explain the causes of the dream-drum; second, the past King Golden Dragon is introduced as praising the Buddha; third, twenty stanzas of praise; fourth, one stanza of dedication; fifth, fourteen stanzas of vows; sixth, two stanzas joining past and present and promising predictions; and seventh, one stanza in which the assembly arouses the mind.
Of the main sequence of thirty-five stanzas, Huizhao says: 「有三十五頌，大分為三：初二十頌讚歎、次一頌迴向、後十四頌發願。」—“There are thirty-five stanzas, broadly divided into three: first, twenty stanzas of praise; next, one stanza of dedication; and last, fourteen stanzas of vows” (T39n1788 0269c08). The twenty stanzas of praise are further divided into fifteen praising the form-body and five praising the name-body. The next two stanzas are 「一頌結會、一頌許記」—“one stanza joining past and present and one stanza promising predictions” (T39n1788 0271b09), and the final stanza concerns the assembly’s arousal of the mind and undertaking of practice.
II. Alternate Translations · Collation of the Three Translations
All Three Translations Contain This Chapter
| Recension | Chapter title and boundary | Opening content |
|---|---|---|
| Yijing T665 | 「蓮華喻讚品第七」—“Praise through the Lotus Simile, Chapter 7” (T16n0665 0422b27); body 0422b28–0423b22 | First restates the causes and conditions of Wonderful Banner’s dream-drum, praise of the Buddha, and repentance, then introduces the birth story of King Golden Dragon |
| Baogui’s composite T664 | 「讚歎品第七」—“Praise, Chapter 7” (T16n0664 0378b06); body 0378b07–0379b05 | 「佛告地神堅牢善女天：」—“The Buddha addressed the good goddess, earth deity Firm and Steadfast,” followed by 「過去有王名金龍尊」—“In the past there was a king named Venerable Golden Dragon” (T16n0664 0378b07) |
| Dharmakṣema T663 | 「金光明經讚歎品第四」—“The Sūtra of Golden Light, Praise, Chapter 4” (T16n0663 0339a07); body 0339a08–0340a06 | 「佛告地神堅牢：」—“The Buddha addressed the earth deity Firm and Steadfast,” followed by 「善女天！過去有王名金龍尊」—“Good goddess, in the past there was a king named Venerable Golden Dragon” (T16n0663 0339a08) |
T664 is Baogui’s composite edition. At the head of the fascicle containing this chapter, it further states 「隋大興善寺沙門釋寶貴合」—“Combined by the śramaṇa Baogui of Daxingshan Monastery in the Sui” 〔T16n0664 0378b04〕 and 「北涼天竺三藏曇無讖譯」—“Translated by the Indian Tripiṭaka Master Dharmakṣema in the Northern Liang” 〔0378b05〕. The textual fact for this chapter is therefore that all three recensions contain it. There is no missing-chapter proposition, and it is not classified as a supplementary chapter translated by Paramārtha.
Verbatim differences preserved in T663 and T664 (recorded without adjudicating; each recension retains its transmitted graphs): (1) 照耀／照曜, alternate graphs in “shine” 〔663 0339a12·664 0378b11〕; (2) 紅輝／紅暉, alternate graphs in “red radiance” 〔0339a18·0378b17〕; (3) 脩揚／脩楊 〔0339a20·0378b19〕; (4) 黑耀／黑曜 〔0339a21·0378b20〕; (5) 融金／鎔金, “molten gold” 〔0339b02·0378c01〕; (6) 明耀／明曜, “bright radiance” 〔0339b03·0378c02〕; (7) 熾盛／火盛 〔0339b08·0378c07〕; (8) 修習／修集, alternate forms of “cultivate” 〔0339b11·0378c10〕; (9) 妙香華／好華香, “wondrous incense and flowers” / “fine flowers and incense” 〔0339b16·0378c15〕; (10) 尚以一毛／尚可以毛, “even with one hair” / “one could still use a hair” 〔0339b23·0378c22〕; (11) 滴數／渧數, alternate graphs in “counting drops” 〔0339b24·0378c23〕; (12) 以禮／已禮, “by revering” / “having revered” 〔0339b25·0378c24〕; (13) 受記莂／授記莂, “receive a prediction” / “bestow a prediction” 〔0339c11·0379a10〕; (14) 同共受記／同共授記, “receive predictions together” / “bestow predictions together” 〔0339c12·0379a11〕; (15) 行菩薩道／行菩提道, “practice the bodhisattva path” / “practice the path of awakening” 〔0339c17·0379a16〕; and (16) 行菩提者／行菩提道, “one who practices awakening” / “practice the path of awakening” 〔0339c29·0379a28〕. The two recensions transmit differing characters; each is returned to its own text without judging one correct or using one translation to revise the other.
The three recensions differ in the detail of their openings. Yijing first says, 「妙幢夜夢見妙金鼓出大音聲，讚佛功德并懺悔法，此之因緣我為汝等廣說其事」—“Wonderful Banner dreamed at night of a wondrous golden drum producing a great sound, praising the Buddha’s qualities together with the practice of repentance; I shall explain the causes and conditions of this event to you in detail” (T16n0665 0422b28), and calls the king Golden Dragon. The two older recensions begin directly with the birth story of Venerable Golden Dragon. Yijing also states explicitly that he 「常以蓮華喻讚稱歎十方三世諸佛」—“constantly praised and extolled the buddhas of the ten directions and three times through the lotus simile” (T16n0665 0422c02). The two older recensions instead have respectively 「常以讚歎讚歎去、來、現在諸佛」—“constantly offered praise, praising the buddhas of the past, future, and present” (T16n0664 0378b08) and 「常以讚歎，讚歎去來現在諸佛」—“constantly offered praise, praising the buddhas of the past, future, and present” (T16n0663 0339a09). Each translation’s chapter title and royal name are retained without alteration.
| Corresponding point | Yijing T665 | Baogui’s composite T664 | Dharmakṣema T663 |
|---|---|---|---|
| General homage to the three times and ten directions | 「過去未來現在佛，安住十方世界中；我今至誠稽首禮，一心讚歎諸最勝。」—“To the buddhas of the past, future, and present who abide in the worlds of the ten directions, I now bow my head with utmost sincerity and single-mindedly praise all the Supreme Ones” (0422c05) | 「我今尊重、敬禮、讚歎，去、來、現在，十方諸佛。」—“I now honor, revere, bow to, and praise the buddhas of the ten directions in the past, future, and present” (0378b09) | 「我今尊重，敬禮讚歎，去來現在，十方諸佛。」—“I now honor, revere, bow to, and praise the buddhas of the ten directions in the past, future, and present” (0339a10) |
| Golden color and Brahmā voice | 「無上清淨牟尼尊，身光照耀如金色；一切聲中最為上，如大梵響震雷音。」—“The unsurpassed and pure venerable Muni emits bodily light shining like gold; his voice is supreme among all voices, like the sound of Great Brahmā and reverberating thunder” (0422c07) | 「諸佛清淨，微妙寂滅，色中上色，金光照曜。於諸聲中，佛聲最上，猶如大梵，深遠雷音。」—“The buddhas are pure, wondrous, and quiescent; their color is supreme among colors and their golden light shines. Among all voices, the Buddha’s voice is supreme, like Great Brahmā and deep, far-reaching thunder” (0378b10) | 「諸佛清淨，微妙寂滅，色中上色，金光照耀；於諸聲中，佛聲最上，猶如大梵，深遠雷音」—“The buddhas are pure, wondrous, and quiescent; their color is supreme among colors and their golden light shines. Among all voices, the Buddha’s voice is supreme, like Great Brahmā and deep, far-reaching thunder” (0339a11) |
| Dream-drum and daytime practice | 「夜夢常聞妙鼓音，晝則隨應而懺悔。」—“At night may I constantly hear the wondrous drum in dreams; by day may I repent as appropriate” (0423a23) | 「夜則夢見、晝如實說。」—“At night may I see it in dreams; by day may I speak truthfully” (0379a05) | 「夜則夢見，晝如實說。」—“At night may I see it in dreams; by day may I speak truthfully” (0339c06) |
| Six perfections, awakening, and pure land | 「我當圓滿修六度，拔濟眾生出苦海；然後得成無上覺，佛土清淨不思議。」—“I shall cultivate the six perfections to completion and rescue sentient beings from the ocean of suffering; I shall then attain unsurpassed awakening and an inconceivably pure buddha-land” (0423a24) | 「我當具足，修行六度，濟拔眾生，越於苦海，然後我身，成無上道，令我世界，無與等者。」—“I shall completely cultivate the six perfections and rescue sentient beings beyond the ocean of suffering; my body shall then accomplish the unsurpassed path, and may my world be without equal” (0379a05) | 「我當具足，修行六度，濟拔眾生，越於苦海，然後我身，成無上道；令我世界，無與等者」—“I shall completely cultivate the six perfections and rescue sentient beings beyond the ocean of suffering; my body shall then accomplish the unsurpassed path, and may my world be without equal” (0339c06) |
| Joining past and present | 「妙幢汝當知，國王金龍主；曾發如是願，彼即是汝身。往時有二子，金龍及金光；即銀相銀光，當授我所記。」—“Wonderful Banner, you should know: King Golden Dragon, who made these vows, was your former body. His two sons Golden Dragon and Golden Light are now Silver Mark and Silver Light, and I shall bestow my prediction upon them” (0423b17) | 「信相當知：爾時國王，金龍尊者，則汝身是；爾時二子，金龍、金光，今汝二子，銀相等是。」—“Faith-Mark, you should know: the king Venerable Golden Dragon at that time was your body; his two sons Golden Dragon and Golden Light are now your two sons, Silver Mark and the other” (0379b02) | 「信相當知，爾時國王，金龍尊者，則汝身是；爾時二子，金龍金光，今汝二子，銀相等是。」—“Faith-Mark, you should know: the king Venerable Golden Dragon at that time was your body; his two sons Golden Dragon and Golden Light are now your two sons, Silver Mark and the other” (0340a03) |
Yijing concludes with 「大眾聞是說，皆發菩提心；願現在未來，常依此懺悔。」—“When the assembly heard this teaching, all aroused the mind of awakening and vowed constantly to rely upon this repentance in the present and future” (T16n0665 0423b21). T663 and T664 both end the chapter at the joining of Silver Mark and the other figure. This is a difference in the fullness of the three recensions’ endings, not a value judgment.
All Three Masters Provide Line-by-Line Commentaries
Huizhao’s direct commentary begins at T39n1788 0269a25 and extends through his classification of the assembly’s arousal of the mind and undertaking of practice at 0271b11, completely covering Yijing’s Chapter 7. Zhiyi’s Words and Phrases begins its explanation of Praise at T39n1785 0064c17 and first establishes four meanings for the chapter title: 「讚歎，凡有四意：一從能讚人、二從生善、三從滅惡、四從所讚人、一從能讚人者。」—“Praise has four meanings in all: first, from the person who praises; second, from the production of good; third, from the extinction of evil; and fourth, from the person praised. First, concerning the person who praises” (T39n1785 0064c18). The first meaning directly links the birth story and the dream-drum: 「今品佛述其昔為龍尊，面讚法王，願我當來夜夢晝說。」—“In the present chapter, the Buddha recounts that he was formerly Venerable Dragon, praised the Dharma King to his face, and vowed that in the future he would dream by night and teach by day” (T39n1785 0064c21).
Jizang’s Commentary begins its line-by-line explanation of the chapter at T39n1787 0164c04 and first gives two reasons for its coming: 「第一證上〈懺悔品〉夢中見聞，由信相昔日讚嘆發願力有之；第二讚上夢中見聞非是妄相。」—“First, it establishes that the seeing and hearing in the dream in the preceding Repentance chapter occurred through the power of Faith-Mark’s praise and vows in a former time; second, it confirms that the preceding seeing and hearing in the dream were not deluded appearances” (T39n1787 0164c05). His major outline has three parts: prose introducing the person, verses giving the account proper, and the joining of past and present. Huizhao comments on Yijing’s recension, while Zhiyi and Jizang comment on Dharmakṣema’s. The three masters therefore rely on different recensions and use different counts and detailed divisions, but all provide line-by-line evidence; their accounts are recorded without adjudicating.
III. Scriptural Grounds for the Consciousness-Only Meaning (the Point of the Eye)
The consciousness-only meaning reflected in this chapter is limited to what Huizhao explains in his line-by-line commentary. The mirror illuminates the sūtra; it does not replace the sūtra with the commentary.
(1) The lotus applies both to the one who praises and to the one praised. Huizhao first determines: 「蓮華是喻，讚歎是法。」—“The lotus is the simile, and praise is the dharma illustrated” (T39n1788 0269b05). He then explains the lotus from the two aspects of cause and result: 「此意華即喻因，蓮即喻果。喻在因中，前後相望雙含因果。」—“Here the flower illustrates cause, while the lotus illustrates result. The simile is present within the cause; looking forward and backward, it encompasses both cause and result” (T39n1788 0269b08). The lotus rises from muddy water without being stained, showing that although practice takes place in a defiled stage, it can remain free from the mud of affliction. The simile may refer to the Buddha’s qualities as lotus-like and also to the speaker bringing forth praise from a pure mind.
(2) Praise has three levels: wisdom, mind, and speech. Huizhao says: 「此蓮華喻，通能所讚。讚歎喻似蓮華，非染污心讚故。讚體是智，讚用是言，以淨心起言亦似蓮華。」—“This lotus simile applies to both the one who praises and the one praised. Praise is compared to a lotus because it is not praise uttered from a defiled mind. The substance of praise is wisdom, its function is speech, and speech arising from a pure mind is also like a lotus” (T39n1788 0269b12). Praising the Buddha is not sound alone: wisdom is its substance, speech its function, and pure mind the place from which speech arises. King Golden Dragon’s birth story therefore does more than record a song from the past; it situates praise within pure mental conduct.
(3) Form-body, name-body, and the failure of speech to reach the object. The first fifteen stanzas praise the Buddha’s form-body point by point through marks and light, while the next five turn to praise of the name-body. Huizhao says: 「上色身亦得云化身，此名身亦得云應身。」—“The preceding form-body may also be called the emanation body, and this name-body may also be called the responsive body” (T39n1788 0270c05). The subsequent three stanzas—a thousand tongues, hundreds of thousands of tongues, and a hair-tip counting drops from the ocean—show respectively that language cannot exhaust the qualities, that even a small portion remains difficult to know, and that number cannot reach them. They are not compressed into one generic statement that the Buddha’s qualities are vast.
(4) From extinguishing the three obstructions to the three bodies’ benefit for beings. In the final six of the fourteen stanzas of vows, the king first vows that repentance will extinguish obstructions, then vows to accomplish great awakening, illuminate others with the light of body and wisdom, equal the buddhas in bodily and wisdom light, leave suffering and attain happiness, and finally accomplish a pure land together with connected beings. Huizhao explains the first stanza as 「苦海即報障，業業障，煩惱即惑障」—“The ocean of suffering is the retributive obstruction; karma is karmic obstruction; and affliction is the afflictive obstruction” (T39n1788 0271a27). He then identifies in sequence the wisdom of the dharma-body, great awakening as the reward body, and the light of body and wisdom illuminating others through the emanation body. This is the consciousness-only mirror through which the commentator reads King Golden Dragon’s vows for self-benefit as leaving obstructions, attaining the three bodies, and illuminating others. The individual sequence of the vows in the sūtra itself remains preserved.
IV. Explanations of Various Masters
Cien · Huizhao’s Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King
Huizhao uses three approaches, four major sections, and the thirty-five-stanza main sequence as his framework. In explaining the title, he takes up the lotus as cause and result, its freedom from stain, and its application to both the one who praises and the one praised. He then opens in sequence the fifteen stanzas on the form-body, five on the name-body, one on dedication, and fourteen on vows. Within the fourteen vows he also preserves two readings of the section on benefiting others. The first says: 「利他中初一頌半令得世間樂、後半頌令得出世樂，據勝令得大果；」—“Within benefit for others, the first stanza and a half enable beings to attain worldly happiness, while the latter half-stanza enables them to attain supramundane happiness, referring to the excellent result” (T39n1788 0271a22). The second says that the half-stanza beginning with beings in the three realms enables them to attain the three vehicles and that, because the sūtra says “according to their wishes,” they are subsequently caused to turn the mind toward the Great Vehicle. Both readings occur in the same commentary and are preserved without choosing between them.
Tiantai · Zhiyi’s Words and Phrases on the Sūtra of Golden Light
Zhiyi explains the chapter title through four meanings: the person who praises, the production of good, the extinction of evil, and the person praised. Venerable Dragon in the birth story is the person who praises; praising the Buddha produces wondrous good; praise counteracts disparagement; and the persons praised are the buddhas of the past, future, and present. His outline of the older recension has thirty-five lines praising the buddhas of the three times, twenty-five and a half lines making vows for future lives, and two lines joining events of the two times. He further divides the thirty-five lines into general praise, specific praise, universally analogous praise, praise beyond speech, and dedication. This line count and Yijing’s thirty-eight stanzas do not use the same unit; they are not converted into one another or rewritten to match.
Sanlun · Jizang’s Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light
Jizang uses this chapter to establish the preceding chapter’s seeing and hearing in the dream and also to show that what was seen in the dream was not a deluded appearance. He divides the whole chapter into three sections: prose, sixty and a half lines giving the account proper, and the final two lines joining past and present. Within the verses he further distinguishes thirty-three stanzas of praise, two lines of dedication, and twenty-five and a half lines of vows. He then divides the vows into ten groups: dream-drum, the Tathāgata’s countenance, dreaming by night and teaching by day, six perfections, prediction, sentient beings’ reliance, extinguishing obstructions, acquiring the Buddha’s qualities, removing suffering and bestowing happiness, and pure land. His divisions differ from Huizhao’s eight classes of specific vows and Zhiyi’s five subdivisions, each being transmitted according to the recension he comments upon.
Zhiyi’s Profound Meaning and Zhili’s Supplemental Record
Zhiyi’s Profound Meaning marks three times through Venerable Dragon’s past vows, Faith-Mark’s present dream, and the future offering of a jeweled canopy. Zhili explains further: 「金龍尊王是過去讚，信相菩薩是現在讚。又有誓願未來無量阿僧祇劫，在在生處，夜夢金鼓、晝如實說，即未來讚也。是彼一身三世讚歎。」—“King Venerable Golden Dragon is praise in the past, and Bodhisattva Faith-Mark is praise in the present. There is also the vow that throughout measureless asaṃkhyeya eons in the future, wherever he is born he will dream of the golden drum by night and speak truthfully by day: this is praise in the future. Thus one body offers praise across the three times” (T39n1784 0014c13). This is a three-times reading at the level of profound meaning and is not falsely presented as line-by-line commentary on Yijing’s recension. Zhili also has the Record on the Words and Phrases of the Sūtra of Golden Light, T39n1786, a line-by-line record whose explanation of the older recension’s Praise chapter begins with 「釋〈讚歎品〉，二：初、釋題」—“Explanation of the Praise chapter, in two parts: first, explanation of the title” 〔T39n1786 0122c07〕. The line-by-line layer of the Record on the Words and Phrases and the profound-meaning layer of the Supplemental Record belong to separate works.
V. Terminology
Praise through the Lotus Simile. The lotus is the simile, while praise is the dharma illustrated. Flower and lotus may separately reveal cause and result, and emergence from mud without stain reveals freedom from defilement while one is still in a defiled stage. The simile also applies both to the pure mind, wisdom, and speech of the one who praises and to the Buddha’s qualities that are praised. Huizhao preserves two grammatical readings—“using the lotus as a simile to praise the Buddha” and “the words of praise themselves being called a lotus simile”—without adjudicating them into a single reading.
Single-mindedness. “Single-mindedly” in the opening stanza does not refer only to one instant. Huizhao says: 「專注於境名為一心，非一剎那等。」—“Concentrated attention upon the object is called single-mindedness; it does not mean a single instant and so forth” (T39n1788 0269c16). Here body, speech, and mind are concentrated upon the buddhas of the three times and ten directions to whom homage is paid.
Form-body and name-body. Huizhao treats fifteen stanzas as praising the form-body and five as praising the name-body. The form-body section differentiates the bodily marks, bodily light, and benefit for sentient beings; the name-body section differentiates the boundless number of buddhas, taking refuge and making offerings, and the inability of speech to exhaust their qualities.
Udumbara lotus. Huizhao uses an ancient master’s transmitted phonetic form when explaining how difficult it is to encounter the buddhas and the vow to praise them. The name is recorded only as transmitted in the ancient commentary; no modern Sanskrit edition is used to reconstruct it anew.
Dedication. King Golden Dragon gives sentient beings the excellent merit gained by praising with body, speech, and mind and wishes that they may swiftly become buddhas. This stanza stands between the twenty stanzas of praise and fourteen stanzas of vows, ensuring that the merit of praising the Buddha is not retained for oneself.
Promise of prediction. This chapter says of the two sons only 「當授我所記」—“I shall bestow my prediction upon them” (T16n0665 0423b20). It promises a future prediction and does not give the buddha names in this chapter. The formal predictions of Wonderful Banner and the two sons occur in a later chapter and are not poured backward into the present narrative.
VI. Similes · Rhetoric
The unstained lotus. The lotus is both the governing simile of the chapter title and a shared simile for the mind that praises the Buddha and the Buddha’s qualities. Huizhao says: 「又蓮華出於泥水不為泥水所污，喻修行雖在染位必能出離惑泥。」—“Furthermore, the lotus emerges from muddy water without being stained by the mud and water, illustrating that although cultivation takes place in a defiled stage, one can certainly emerge from the mud of affliction” (T39n1788 0269b09). The simile therefore indicates not only outward purity and beauty but also cause and result and freedom from stain.
Similes for the Buddha’s bodily marks. The king of black bees illustrates the luster of the hair; shell and snow, the whiteness of the teeth; blue-lotus leaves, the eyes; a red lotus emerging from water, the tongue; the new moon, the brows; a golden ingot, the nose; molten gold, the body’s color; the full moon, the face; the bimba fruit, the color of the lips; a lion, the gait; and branches of the śāla tree, the hanging arms. The bodily mark to which each simile belongs is not exchanged with another.
Similes of light. The bodily light at birth illuminates the ten directions; the circular halo blazes like hundreds of thousands of suns; the pure net of light removes darkness; and compassionate light streams into hundreds of thousands of lands. Light does more than reveal color: in the sūtra’s sequence it extinguishes suffering, bestows happiness, awakens the deluded, and enables liberation.
Praise cannot exhaust the qualities. A thousand tongues speaking through measureless eons, hundreds of thousands of tongues praising one quality of one buddha, and a hair-tip counting the drops of an ocean form three levels: language does not reach the qualities, even a small portion remains unknown, and number does not reach them. The similes are not repetitive hyperbole; they successively close off the possibility of exhausting the Buddha’s qualities through speech, knowledge, or number.
The ocean of suffering, ocean of merit and wisdom, and pure land. The vow section first wishes that sentient beings may leave the ocean of suffering, later wishes that repentance may forever drain that ocean and bring attainment of the ocean of merit and wisdom, and finally wishes that connected beings may be born together in the pure land. The ocean simile moves from the suffering to be left behind to the merit and wisdom to be accomplished; the two are not conflated.
VII. Cross-Reading · Carrying Forward
Carrying forward the promised explanation in The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance. At the end of the preceding chapter, the Buddha says: 「汝今應知此之勝業，皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護，此之因緣，當為汝說。」—“You should now know that this excellent deed is entirely due to causes and conditions from praises and vows cultivated in the past, together with the empowering protection of the buddhas. I shall explain these causes and conditions to you” (T16n0665 0413c02). Huizhao points directly to the fulfillment: 「後、許說夢因，即下〈蓮華喻讚品〉是。」—“Next, the promised explanation of the dream’s cause is precisely the later Praise through the Lotus Simile chapter” (T39n1788 0241a04). The present chapter again opens by saying that the causes and conditions of the dream-drum, praise of the Buddha, and repentance will be explained in detail, and then immediately reveals the birth story of King Golden Dragon’s praise and vows. The two chapters are linked by the sūtra’s own words.
The golden drum in the dream and repentance by day. King Golden Dragon vows 「夢中常見大金鼓，得聞顯說懺悔音」—“In my dreams may I constantly see the great golden drum and hear it clearly proclaim the sound of repentance” (T16n0665 0423a20), and also vows to hear the drum in dreams by night and repent as appropriate by day. What appears in the preceding chapter is not a separate event but the fulfillment in his present life of the past vows recounted here.
The sequence of praise, dedication, and vows. The twenty stanzas of praise do not make praise an endpoint. One stanza immediately gives the excellent merit to sentient beings, and the next fourteen open the vows for the dream-drum, repentance, six perfections, prediction, benefit for others, benefit for self, and pure land. Praise passes from speech into practice and from purification of one’s own mind into sentient beings’ freedom from suffering.
The promise of prediction and the later prediction chapter. The present chapter joins Wonderful Banner and his two sons to their past identities and says that predictions will be bestowed; it completes the revelation of identities and causes and conditions across past and present. The buddha names in the formal predictions remain in their later chapter. At this chapter’s end, the assembly arouses the mind of awakening and vows constantly to rely upon repentance in the present and future, turning one person’s former vow into shared practice.
In this act of carrying forward, The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance poses the question, “From where did this dream arise?” The present chapter answers, “How did praise of the Buddha, dedication, and vows become the dream’s former causes?” King Golden Dragon’s pure-minded speech of praise in the past becomes Wonderful Banner’s dream-drum and repentance in the present; present hearing and arousal of the mind then extend these causes and conditions into future practice.
VIII. Placement of the Editions
- This edition uses Yijing’s T16n0665, Praise through the Lotus Simile, Chapter 7, as its base text: chapter title at 0422b27, chapter body 0422b28–0423b22, and the next chapter title at 0423b23. The chapter body contains seventy-six verse lines, forming thirty-eight stanzas.
- T16n0664 is Baogui’s composite edition and titles the chapter Praise, Chapter 7: title at 0378b06 and body 0378b07–0379b05; the head of the fascicle containing this chapter attributes the underlying translation to Dharmakṣema. T16n0663 titles it The Sūtra of Golden Light, Praise, Chapter 4: title at 0339a07 and body 0339a08–0340a06. All three recensions contain the chapter.
- T664 at 0360b13 belongs to the four-buddha throne passage in Lifespan, Chapter 2. Its exact wording is 「寶合成，於蓮華上有四如來」—“Formed of assembled jewels; upon the lotuses were four tathāgatas” (T16n0664 0360b13). The actual chapter head for the present chapter is 0378b06. Each location is kept within its own chapter and they are not conflated into one anchor.
- Huizhao’s direct commentary in T39n1788 begins with the title at 0269a25 and continues through 0271b11; 0271b17 is the next chapter title. Zhiyi’s line-by-line commentary in T39n1785 begins with the title at 0064c17, and Jizang’s line-by-line commentary in T39n1787 begins at 0164c04.
- Zhiyi’s T39n1783 and Zhili’s T39n1784 passages on King Venerable Golden Dragon’s praise across the three times are collateral evidence at the profound-meaning level and are not listed as line-by-line notes on this chapter. Zhili’s line-by-line Record on the Words and Phrases, T39n1786, begins its separate explanation at 0122c07.
- Yijing’s thirty-eight stanzas and the older recensions’ sixty-two and a half lines use different phrasing and units of count. Collation places them together only at corresponding points of content; it does not disguise Yijing’s seven-character retranslation as single-character emendations to the older text.
The chapter’s recensions, outlines, and commentaries all point to one verifiable textual line: all three translations transmit the story of King Golden Dragon’s praise and vows, and all three masters comment line by line on its praise, dedication, vows, and joining of past and present. Their differences are each returned to the recension in which they occur; regularity is not substituted for transmission.