摩訶止觀Mohe Zhiguan (Great Calming-and-Contemplation)

The Mohe Zhiguan need not be read only from the first scroll straight through to the last. It has the whole architecture of the Ten Broad Chapters, the practical immediacy of the Ten Objects, and a present moment of mind through which any passage may be entered. This edition brings those three scales together in twenty-seven units and five reading layers.

I. How the Five Layers Connect

A dependable order is to begin with the Heart-Essence and learn what the unit asks; read the Vernacular for the whole passage; return to the Source Text for crucial wording; consult the Apparatus for sources and ancient interpretations; and finally read the Exposition so understanding returns to the work of one’s own mind. Experienced readers may begin with the Source Text and move in the opposite direction.

II. How the Twenty-Seven Units Are Formed

The twenty-seven units are not newly invented chapter titles. They follow the text actually present: one opening Origins unit; five units corresponding to the Five Summaries within Great Purport; one unit each for Explaining the Name, Essence and Characteristics, Embracing the Dharmas, Partial and Perfect, Preparatory Means, and the general exposition of proper cultivation; nine subunits following the actual unfolding of the ten modes of contemplation within the first Object; and one unit each for the six further Objects of afflictions, illness, karmic signs, demonic affairs, meditative concentration, and views. Together they make twenty-seven.

The last three Broad Chapters—Fruition, Arising of Teaching, and Purport and Return—have no body text. The last three Objects—overweening pride, the Two Vehicles, and bodhisattvas—were likewise not expounded. They are therefore named in the structural tables but are not turned into empty units. See the complete Indices.

III. Four Suggested Reading Paths

Path One: See the Whole Mountain First

Read Origins, then the five Great Purport units from Arousing the Great Mind through Returning to the Great Abode, and continue from Explaining the Name to the general exposition of proper cultivation. This path first establishes the complete map of the Ten Broad Chapters and Five Summaries.

Path Two: Enter Directly through One Moment of Mind

Begin with the general exposition of proper cultivation, then enter the nine subunits within the Object of Aggregates, Sense Fields, and Elements: the Inconceivable Object; Arousing and Settling the Mind; entering emptiness through the provisionality of views and of thought; entering the provisional from emptiness; the Middle Way; discerning passage and obstruction and regulating the factors of the path; aids and counteraction; and stages, patient endurance, and freedom from attachment to Dharmas. This path shows how the ten modes of contemplation move from object and mind through pervasive breaking, then into stages and freedom from Dharma-attachment.

Path Three: Find a Gate within Difficulty

For emotional entanglement, read the Object of Afflictions. For bodily or mental disorder, read the Object of Illness. For karma and the consequences of action, read the Object of Karmic Signs. For fear and disturbance, read the Object of Demonic Affairs. For meditative states and attachment, read the Object of Meditative Concentration. For disputes of view and self-certainty, read the Object of Views. These six are not merely a list of difficulties; each brings the present object back into the ten modes of contemplation.

Path Four: Read the Practices Together

Begin with the four kinds of samādhi in Great Purport · Cultivating the Great Practice. Continue to the twenty-five preparatory means, and then enter proper cultivation of calming-and-contemplation. The first gives the forms of practice, the second prepares body and mind, and the third shows how contemplation is applied to an object. Reading the three together prevents the perfect-and-sudden from being mistaken for an approach without sequence or preparation.

IV. Citation and Location

A citation to this edition should retain at least the unit title and layer. A verbatim passage from the treatise or an ancient master should additionally retain its canon number and actual page-column-line locus. The beginning locus is the line on which the first quoted graph occurs; a range gives its actual beginning and end rather than borrowing the preceding heading or following punctuation.

The Source Text remains Chinese; no separate source_en layer is created. The English reading edition mirrors the four authored layers—Vernacular, Apparatus, Exposition, and Heart-Essence—and returns to the same Chinese source in each unit.

I. Base Text and Units

1. This edition uses the Mohe Zhiguan, T46n1911 in volume 46 of the Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka, as its single base text. The Source Text preserves that edition word for word and does not silently replace its wording from the Fuxing or another witness.
2. The extant work is divided into twenty-seven units. Unit boundaries follow the page-column-line loci listed in the Indices. Where neighboring units share a boundary locus, the syntax and section structure determine the continuation; text is not duplicated.
3. The Ten Broad Chapters and Ten Objects are structures established by the treatise itself. The twenty-seven units are this edition’s divisions of the text actually present. Both are displayed, and neither is represented as the other.

II. Distinguishing Speaker, Recorder, and Commentator

1. The treatise’s own teaching — Zhiyi’s teaching is presented from T46n1911.
2. Guanding’s account — The formation history at the beginning, the time and place of the summer teaching, and the fact that the later portion was not expounded belong to Guanding’s record; they are not reassigned to Zhiyi as autobiography.
3. Interpretation in the Fuxing — Zhanran’s passage-by-passage explanation in T46n1912 is a direct Tiantai mirror and may provide the backbone of exposition, but the mirror is not the treatise. Zhanran’s judgments are explicitly attributed to Zhanran or the Fuxing and are not placed in Zhiyi’s mouth.
4. The preface at the head of the Fuxing is attributed at its close to Pumen Zijing. Its third-person statements about Zhanran’s work belong to the preface’s author and are not called Zhanran’s own preface.

Before interpreting a sentence, determine whether it is Zhiyi’s teaching, Guanding’s record, or Zhanran’s explanation. Shared lineage does not erase authorship or sequence in time.

III. Quotation and Loci

1. In the Chinese Apparatus, 「……」 marks verbatim quotation; an omission is explicitly marked〔……〕. Chinese Vernacular, Exposition, Heart-Essence, and front and back matter use 『……』 for summary and authorial wording rather than passing it off as source text. Quotation marks within the Source Text follow the base edition.
2. Every verbatim quotation carries its actual canon page-column-line locus. Its beginning locus must be the line containing the first quoted graph. A passage spanning lines gives the actual range and does not substitute a preceding heading or a following sentence ending.
3. Variants, interlinear notes, and punctuation within a quotation are verified against the named text. A summary is not enclosed as though it were a verbatim source.
4. In English Apparatus files, the complete Chinese quotation, canon number, locus, and sigla are retained, followed in the same block by its **tr.** rendering. English explanatory prose uses ordinary English punctuation.

IV. Graphs, Interlinear Notes, and Spaces

1. The Source Text preserves the graphs of the base edition. Explainable ancient forms, interchangeable graphs, and graphic errors are interpreted in the Vernacular and discussed in the Apparatus, not silently rewritten in the source.
2. Original interlinear notes are preserved within〔……〕. They are not merged into the syntax of the main text or allowed to disappear in the Vernacular.
3. Ideographic spaces, U+3000, are preserved in the Source Text as layout information from the base edition and are not replaced by ordinary spaces.

V. Later Shorthand and the Treatise’s Actual Wording

1. The treatise itself reads 「三千在一念心」, “the three thousand are in one moment of mind”〔T46n1911 0054a07–08〕. Discussion of its verbatim wording keeps this form and does not replace it with the later shorthand 「一念三千」.
2. The later term 「一念三千」 may appear where the history of later terminology is explicitly identified. When the treatise itself is being paraphrased, this edition still uses “the three thousand are in one moment of mind.”

VI. The Three Unfinished Chapters and Three Unexpounded Objects

1. Fruition, Arising of Teaching, and Purport and Return are named among the Ten Broad Chapters but have no extant body text. They are named in structural tables and are not supplied with newly composed chapters.
2. Overweening pride, the Two Vehicles, and bodhisattvas are named among the Ten Objects but have no extant contemplative exposition. They are not turned into empty units.
3. Guanding’s statement that the later portion was not expounded, the three Broad Chapters with names but no text, and the Ten Objects stopping at views are read together. The unfinished state is a fact of transmission, not a blank to be completed by an editor.

VII. Six Established Textual Readings

1. 檐〔0057a19〕 — Preserve the base graph 檐 and explain it as an ancient graph for 擔, “to bear.” The Vernacular takes the sense of bearing; the Apparatus preserves the graph and explanation.
2. 原〔0058b27, twice〕 — Preserve 原 and explain it as the original graph of 源. The Vernacular takes the sense “root” or “source.”
3. 惠〔0077a24〕 — Preserve 惠 and read it as “benefit” or “favor.” The Vernacular asks what benefit there is in giving worldly Dharmas; the Apparatus records that both literal construals remain possible.
4. 三相〔0085a02–05〕 — The “three marks” are arising, abiding, and cessation; “differ” functions as the predicate. Modern punctuation in the canon does not create a second numerical set.
5. 從界〔0072c22–23〕 — 從 is a graphic error for 欲. The Source Text keeps the transmitted graph; the Apparatus records the reasoned emendation; the Vernacular reads “desire realm.”
6. 堆〔0099c11〕 — Preserve 堆. Zhanran’s Fuxing explains it as an accumulation of earth〔T46n1912 0386b25–26〕; the Vernacular and Exposition therefore read “a heap of earth.”

VIII. Attribution

English pages carry the footer “Shi Huijing · 指月 · Mohe Zhiguan · [piece] · Summer 2026.” A citation should combine the unit, layer, and canon locus where relevant. Front matter provides an entrance to the whole work but does not replace the concrete evidence in the Source Text or Apparatus.

I. Speaker: Master Zhiyi

The opening of the Mohe Zhiguan attributes it as 「隋天台智者大師說」, “spoken by the Tiantai Master Zhiyi of the Sui.” Over a summer Zhiyi expounded perfect-and-sudden calming-and-contemplation, opened the Ten Broad Chapters, and set out the Ten Objects, joining doctrine, preparation, and immediate contemplation within one great practical work. This edition assigns the teaching to Zhiyi as speaker and does not place the words of the recorder or later commentators in his mouth.

II. Recorder: Guanding

The same opening continues 「門人灌頂記」, “recorded by his disciple Guanding.” Guanding records the time and place of the teaching, its transmission, and the fact that the later portion was not expounded. Through his work, a summer of oral exposition became the ten-scroll text now read. “Recorded” is not a minor afterthought: Guanding is essential both to the work’s textual formation and to its honest preservation of where the teaching stopped.

III. Commentarial Mirror: Zhanran

The Tang Tiantai master Jingxi Zhanran composed the Zhiguan Fuxing Chuanhong Jue, T46n1912, a passage-by-passage commentary on the Mohe Zhiguan. The Apparatus and Exposition in this edition use it as a direct Tiantai mirror, especially for outline placement, scriptural sources, ancient graphs, and the joints of contemplation. They nevertheless say “the Fuxing explains” whenever the judgment is Zhanran’s, so a later explanation never passes as the treatise itself.

The preface titled 「止觀輔行傳弘決序」 at the head of the Fuxing ends with the attribution to Pumen Zijing. The preface and Zhanran’s main text therefore retain their separate authors.

IV. Annotated Edition: Shi Huijing

Shi Huijing is a translator and annotator of Chinese Buddhist texts and the founder of Zhiyue. In this edition he brings together verification of the Source Text, modern Chinese rendering, scriptural and commentarial research, Exposition, and Heart-Essence, so that every unit may be traced to canonical wording and returned to present contemplation.

Annotation does not replace the classical text with modern language, nor does Exposition replace the treatise. The Source Text preserves; the Vernacular conveys; the Apparatus gives evidence; the Exposition opens the teaching; the Heart-Essence points out the road. Each layer has its own work, and together they serve one purpose: that readers may enter, verify, and practice.

V. Zhiyue

Zhiyue is Shi Huijing’s open platform for Buddhist scripture, treatise, research, and practice. Its name invokes the image of a finger pointing at the moon: words and methods are the finger, and what they indicate does not end in words. Precisely for that reason, the finger must be clear, and the moon must not be fabricated by it.

This bibliography lists only the Chinese Buddhist scriptures, treatises, and works of ancient masters actually used in this edition. The base text, principal commentarial mirror, and related Tiantai witnesses are listed separately. The principal cited scriptures and treatises are gathered from Section 3, “Verification of the Scriptures and Treatises Cited,” across all twenty-seven Apparatus files. Modern research is not used as doctrinal evidence.

I. Base Text and Principal Commentarial Mirror

The preface 「止觀輔行傳弘決序」 at the head of the Fuxing ends with the attribution to Pumen Zijing of Junshan. The preface and Zhanran’s main text are attributed separately.

II. Tiantai and Related Witnesses

III. Principal Scriptures and Treatises Cited

The following works appear in “Verification of the Scriptures and Treatises Cited” in at least five of the twenty-seven units. T46n1911, T46n1912, and T46n1916, already listed above, are not repeated. Verbatim quotations and page-column-line evidence remain in the Apparatus for each unit.

IV. Principles of Use

1. T46n1911 determines the wording of the treatise. T46n1912 explains the treatise and does not rewrite it.
2. A cited scripture or treatise is checked against the corresponding canonical text. Where only a citation through the Fuxing survives and the original passage has not been located, the edition identifies the indirect witness rather than inventing a direct quotation.
3. Different translations carrying similar titles retain separate canon IDs; similarity of title does not establish identical wording.
4. This bibliography provides an entrance to the whole work. Verbatim wording, variants, and page-column-line evidence remain in the Apparatus for each unit.

This index begins with the twenty-seven units grounded in extant text, then aligns them with the Ten Broad Chapters and Ten Objects. All ranges give actual page-column-line loci in T46n1911. Where a chapter or object is named but was not expounded, it appears only in the structural tables.

I. Twenty-Seven Units

II. Alignment with the Ten Broad Chapters

Origins precedes the body of the Ten Broad Chapters and preserves the work’s formation, lineage, three forms of calming-and-contemplation, and opening map.

III. Alignment with the Ten Objects

IV. Front- and Back-Matter Navigation

• Opening Heart-Essence
• Introduction
• Reading Guide
• Conventions
• Speakers, Recorder, Commentarial Mirror, and Translator
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Colophon

I. Title

Mohe Zhiguan (摩訶止觀)

Spoken by the Sui Tiantai Master Zhiyi; recorded by his disciple Guanding.

II. Base Text and Commentarial Mirror

• Base text: Mohe Zhiguan, T46n1911 in volume 46 of the Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka, ten scrolls.
• Commentarial mirror: Zhiguan Fuxing Chuanhong Jue, T46n1912, composed by the Tang monk Zhanran of Piling, ten scrolls.
• Opening preface: 「止觀輔行傳弘決序」, prefaced by Pumen Zijing of Junshan.

III. Annotated Edition

Shi Huijing

Zhiyue Annotated Chinese Canon

Summer 2026

IV. Composition of This Edition

The work is divided according to the text actually present into twenty-seven units. Each unit contains a Chinese Source Text and four authored reading layers in Chinese and English: Vernacular, Apparatus, Exposition, and Heart-Essence. Nine Chinese and nine English pieces of front and back matter provide the shared entrance, glossary, bibliography, indices, and colophon.

The final three Broad Chapters—Fruition, Arising of Teaching, and Purport and Return—and the final three Objects—overweening pride, the Two Vehicles, and bodhisattvas—are recorded according to their transmitted condition as named but unexpounded. No substitute chapters are composed for them.

V. State of the English Reading Edition

The Chinese edition has received the translator’s whole-work review. The 108 English reading layers and nine English pieces of front and back matter form a complete working edition. Sentence-by-sentence final English review and publication approval are not complete; this is not represented as a final English v1.0 edition.

VI. Suggested Citation

Shi Huijing, annotated translation, Mohe Zhiguan, unit title, layer, Zhiyue, 2026.

When quoting the treatise or an ancient master verbatim, also give the canon ID and actual page-column-line locus.

VII. License

The annotated translation is released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International. Canonical source texts remain subject to their existing rights and conditions of use.

Shi Huijing · 指月 · Mohe Zhiguan · Colophon · Summer 2026