解脫道論 五方便總標與色陰

The first sentence of the Chapter on Five Means repeats “aspires” five times, then names five fields of method: aggregates, sense bases, elements, conditionality, and noble truths. Once these five are named, the chapter’s entire table of contents is in place. The five later sections treat them one by one, and when the fifth closes, the chapter closes.

Having stated the outline, the treatise immediately begins the first aggregate under the first means: form. The four great elements come first. Earth, water, fire, and wind each receive one question and one answer, beginning with “what is” and closing with “this is called.” Four answers use one pattern and not one simile. Then comes the long inventory of derived form.

The most memorable fact about the inventory is this: its reported total cannot be counted from its heading list.

The final sentence says that twenty-six derived forms together with the four great elements make thirty. Yet the preceding punctuated list contains only twenty-four items. The two missing items are not elsewhere. The single string “impermanence-bolus-food-domain form” becomes three entries in the definitions: impermanence of form, flavor as morsel food, and form as the domain of the elements. Twenty-four minus one plus three makes twenty-six.

The reading practice is simple: a heading can compress and run items together; individual explanations cannot. The chain of definitions, each landing in its own closure, is the body of the inventory; the earlier list is its shadow. Counting the shadow yields too few. Where the two totals differ, one need not repair the source with new punctuation. Keep both numbers visible.

The same half-step displacement occurs elsewhere. The heading has “growth of form,” while the definition has “cluster of form.” The heading has “sleep form,” all four witnesses have “eye form,” and the explanation again has “sleep form.” Stranger still, the base uses “the nature of lightness” to define both lightness and softness; all four witnesses read “softness” in the second definition. Each form is retained and the differences are recorded without making them uniform.

The five internal bases follow another exact design. Each is explained twice. First comes function: its object, resistance, and the consciousness arising dependent on it. Then comes body: location, a simile of shape, production by the first kamma, and the predominant element. The eye is compared to half a mustard seed and a louse’s head; the ear to a green-bean stem; the nose to a kovidāra; the tongue to an utpala. Because bodily sensitivity has no single shape, it is described by subtraction, excluding hair, nails, teeth, and unreceptive parts. Their predominant elements are assigned in turn: fire for the eye, space for the ear, wind for the nose, water for the tongue, and earth for the body.

One final place deserves a pause. The treatise interrupts itself with “as explained in contemplating the four great elements,” directing the reader to Chapter Eight. There the parallel sentence says “apprehends the great elements,” while here it says “apprehends the hindrances”—one character apart in Chinese. There is no critical note, and the witnesses do not differ. The discrepancy lies between two passages of the treatise itself. Such a place should remain visible; it need not be decided on the reader’s behalf.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · General Outline of the Five Means and the Aggregate of Form · Doorway · Summer 2026

Five Aspirations and Five Fields of Method

At this point, a beginning meditator aspires to escape aging and death, to remove the cause of birth and death, to dispel the darkness of ignorance, to cut the cord of craving, and to attain noble wisdom. In five fields he should arouse a method: the method concerning the aggregates, the method concerning the sense bases, the method concerning the elements, the method concerning conditionality, and the method concerning the noble truths.

The word “aspires” occurs five times in this one sentence, and the five fields of method are named together here.

The Method concerning the Aggregates: Five Aggregates

Question: What is the method concerning the aggregates?

Answer: the five aggregates—the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of formations, and the aggregate of consciousness.

The Aggregate of Form: The Four Great Elements and Form Derived from Them

Question: What is the aggregate of form?

Answer: the four great elements and form derived from the four great elements.

The Four Great Elements

What are the four great elements? The earth element, water element, fire element, and wind element.

What is the earth element? The nature and characteristic of hardness: this is called the earth element.

What is the water element? Form consisting in the cohesion of moisture: this is called the water element.

What is the fire element? Form consisting in the ripening warmth of fire: this is called the fire element.

What is the wind element? Form consisting in the sustaining action of wind: this is called the wind element.

All four elements are introduced by “what is” and closed by “this is called.” Four questions and four answers follow one pattern.

The beginning meditator apprehends the hindrances in two ways—briefly and extensively. This is to be understood as in the earlier explanation of contemplating the four great elements.

The base text here reads “apprehends the hindrances.” The earlier passage to which “as explained in contemplating the four great elements” points has the same sentence but reads “apprehends the great elements.” The wording differs in the two places; it is retained here without emendation.

The List of Form Derived from the Four Great Elements

What is form derived from the four great elements? The eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base; the visible-form base, sound base, odor base, taste base; the female faculty, male faculty, life faculty; bodily intimation, verbal intimation; the form of the space element, lightness of form, softness of form, adaptability of form, growth of form, continuity of form, arising of form, aging of form, impermanence-bolus-food-domain form, and sleep form.

Counting the entries as divided by punctuation gives only twenty-four, although the final sentence of the passage reports “twenty-six derived forms.” The difference lies in the single heading “impermanence-bolus-food-domain form”: the explanations below treat it as three entries—impermanence of form, flavor as morsel food, and form as the domain of the elements. The received string is preserved without repunctuation or supplied entries.

Detailed Explanation of the Five Internal Bases

What is the eye base? Through it one sees visible form; it is resistant in relation to visible form, and eye-consciousness arises dependent on it. This is called the eye base.

Further, it rests in the fleshly mass of the eye, within three circles of the white and black eyeball and five layers of flesh, blood, wind, phlegm, and saliva. It is like half a mustard seed and as large as the head of a louse. It is produced by the first kamma, derived from the four great elements, and has fire as its predominant element. This purified form is called the eye base.

As the Venerable Śāriputra said: with eye-consciousness purified, one sees various forms, whether small or minute, as in the simile of the window branch.

What is the ear base? Through it one hears sound; it is resistant in relation to sound, and ear-consciousness arises dependent on it. This is called the ear base.

Further, at the border of red hairs in the two openings, it rests upon a membrane like the stem of a green bean. It is produced by the first kamma, has space as its predominant element, and is purified form derived from the four great elements. This is called the ear base.

What is the nose base? Through it one smells odor; it is resistant in relation to odor, and nose-consciousness arises dependent on it. This is called the nose base.

Further, in the threefold conjunction within the nostrils, it rests upon fine openings and has the shape of a kovidāra. It is produced by the first kamma, has wind as its predominant element, and is purified form derived from the four great elements. This is called the nose base.

What is the tongue base? Through it one knows taste; it is resistant in relation to taste, and tongue-consciousness arises dependent on it. This is called the tongue base.

Further, on the flesh of the tongue it rests across the breadth of two fingers, in the shape of an utpala flower. It is produced by the first kamma, has water as its predominant element, and is purified form derived from the four great elements. This is called the tongue base.

What is the body base? Through it one feels touch; it is resistant in relation to touch, and body-consciousness arises dependent on it. This is called the body base.

Further, excluding the hair of the head, body hair, nails, teeth, and the remaining parts that do not receive sensation, it extends throughout the receptive body. It is produced by the first kamma, has earth as its predominant element, and is purified form derived from the four great elements. This is called the body base.

The explanation of each internal base follows a fixed order. It first establishes the base by the object known, resistance, and the consciousness that arises dependent on it. It then explains it again through its bodily site, a simile for its shape and measure, production by the first kamma, the predominant element, and purified form. Among the five, only the eye base is followed by a separate statement attributed to the Venerable Śāriputra.

The External Bases, Two Sex Faculties, Life Faculty, and Two Intimations

What is visible is the visible-form base. What is resistant as sound is the sound base. What is resistant as odor is the odor base. What is resistant as taste is the taste base.

What is female is the female faculty; what is male is the male faculty.

Form produced by protective kamma is called the life faculty.

That by which formations are made manifest through the body, and which is therefore named an activity, is called bodily intimation. That by which formations are made manifest through speech, and which is therefore named an activity, is called verbal intimation.

The treatment of these four external bases is briefer than that of the five internal bases: it states only visibility or resistance, without again giving a site or measure. No “tangible base” is named here.

Detailed Explanation of the Twelve Items Beginning with the Space Element

The differentiation of form is called the space element.

The nature of lightness in form is called lightness of form; the nature of lightness in form is called softness of form; and the nature of adaptability in form is called adaptability of form. These three are the nature of bodily freedom from sluggishness.

In these three sentences, the base text gives “the nature of lightness in form” for both lightness and softness. Other witnesses read “the nature of softness” in the latter sentence. The base is followed here and the difference is recorded without alteration.

The gathering of the bases is called a cluster of form. A cluster of form is called continuity of form.

The earlier list has “growth of form,” while the explanation has “cluster of form.” The wording differs and is preserved without correction.

The bringing forth of form is called the arising of form. The ripening of form is called the aging of form. The breaking down of form is called the impermanence of form.

That through whose flavor beings are sustained is called flavor as morsel food.

Form arises dependent on the elements and the consciousness element; this is called form as the domain of the elements.

The sluggishness of the elements is called sleep form.

Total

These twenty-six derived forms, together with the four great elements, make thirty forms.

The detailed explanations yield twenty-six items, agreeing with the stated number. The preceding list yields only twenty-four unless “impermanence-bolus-food-domain form” is divided into three. Both the list and the explanations are preserved as received.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · General Outline of the Five Means and the Aggregate of Form · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The Chapter on the Five Direct Knowledges has finished its treatment of supernormal knowledge, and the Chapter on the Analysis of Wisdom has first established and divided wisdom. The treatise now opens fascicle ten and enters the Chapter on Five Means. The preceding chapter asked what wisdom is and how many kinds it has; this chapter begins to say where wisdom is to be applied.

This is the opening unit of the chapter, and it does two things in one passage: it first states the outline of the whole chapter, then begins the first item in that outline.

The central observation can be stated at once: the final sentence reports, “these twenty-six derived forms, together with the four great elements, make thirty forms” 〔T32 446a28–29〕, yet the preceding heading list yields only twenty-four items. The two missing items are concealed in the string “impermanence-bolus-food-domain form” 〔T32 445c25〕. In the detailed explanation this becomes three entries: “the breaking down of form, namely the impermanence of form” 〔T32 446a25–26〕, “through flavor beings are sustained; this is called flavor as morsel food” 〔T32 446a26–27〕, and “form arises dependent on the elements and the consciousness element; this is called form as the domain of the elements” 〔T32 446a27–28〕. Twenty-four minus one plus three equals twenty-six.

What matters is not the arithmetic but the reading practice it establishes: the heading list is not the authority for this inventory; the individual explanations are. A heading can compress several items into one string. The later sequence, with one defining closure after another, is where each item becomes explicit. This edition preserves the list and the explanations without silently adding punctuation or entries, but places their two totals side by side so the half-step displacement remains visible.

Two Tasks within One Passage

The first begins with “At this point the beginning meditator aspires to escape aging and death” 〔T32 445c12〕 and repeats “aspires” five times: to escape aging and death, remove the cause of birth and death, dispel the darkness of ignorance, cut the cord of craving, and attain noble wisdom. Only then does the topic appear: “in five fields he should arouse a method” 〔T32 445c13–14〕. The five are “the method concerning the aggregates, sense bases, elements, conditionality, and noble truths” 〔T32 445c14–15〕.

These are not an incidental list. They are the table of contents for the entire Chapter on Five Means. The method concerning the aggregates closes at 〔T32 448c24〕, the sense bases at 〔T32 449c24〕, the elements at 〔T32 450a16〕, conditionality at 〔T32 451c27〕, and the noble truths at 〔T32 453b27〕. When all five close, the chapter closes. Its first sentence names five divisions; the remainder answers them in order. This is one of the treatise’s clearest instances in which an opening list is literally a table of contents.

The second task begins, “Question: What is the method concerning the aggregates? Answer: the five aggregates” 〔T32 445c15〕. They are listed as “form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness” 〔T32 445c15–16〕. This passage explains only the first, the aggregate of form. The other four follow in later units.

The distribution is therefore striking: two sentences for the chapter’s general outline, one sentence to list the aggregates, and all the remaining lines for form. The outline of a chapter occupies three lines; the explanation of one aggregate occupies thirty.

The Four Great Elements: Four Questions, Four Answers, One Pattern

The aggregate of form first divides in two: “Question: What is the aggregate of form? Answer: the four great elements and form derived from the four great elements” 〔T32 445c16–17〕.

The four elements are explained with exact regularity. Earth is “the nature and characteristic of hardness; this is called the earth element” 〔T32 445c18〕, and water, fire, and wind follow the same form. Each begins with “what is” and closes with “this is called.” Four questions, four answers, one pattern, and not one simile.

Such regularity is not constant in this treatise. Chapter Eight’s discussions of the immeasurables, foulness, and recollection readily unfold through similes. Here the four elements are a framework, and the treatise gives the framework without ornament.

Heading and Explanation Are Repeatedly Half a Step Apart

The list of derived form begins, “What is form derived from the four great elements? The eye base” 〔T32 445c22〕 and runs through “impermanence-bolus-food-domain form, sleep form” 〔T32 445c25〕. The detailed definitions then continue item by item through “the sluggishness of the elements is called sleep form” 〔T32 446a28〕.

The heading has twenty-four items while the explanations have twenty-six. Yet number is not their only displacement.

First, a name changes. The fifth item in the heading’s final group is “growth of form” 〔T32 445c24–25〕, whereas its explanation says, “the gathering of the bases is called a cluster of form; a cluster of form is called continuity of form” 〔T32 446a24〕. The positions correspond, but the wording does not. Both are retained.

Second, one phrase defines two names. “The nature of lightness in form is called lightness of form; the nature of lightness in form is called softness of form” 〔T32 446a21–22〕. Both sentences in the base read “nature of lightness,” though the first defines lightness and the second softness. The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace witnesses read “softness” for the second occurrence. Their reading would make each sentence define its own term; the base makes one phrase define two. This edition follows the base and records the other reading. The three qualities close together: “these three are the nature of bodily freedom from sluggishness” 〔T32 446a23〕.

Third, the last item in the heading is itself divided among witnesses. The base has “sleep form” 〔T32 445c25〕, while all four witnesses have “eye form.” The explanation has “sleep form” 〔T32 446a28〕, agreeing with the base. This edition follows the base.

The three displacements are not of one kind: one changes a term, one attaches to a critical note, and one connects the heading to its later explanation. The wording of each can be established; the passage cannot establish that all three arose from one cause.

The Five Internal Bases: First Their Function, Then Their Body

The treatment of the five internal bases is the passage’s most carefully engineered section, because every item is explained twice.

The first account establishes function. “What is the eye base? Through it one sees visible form and is resistant in relation to visible form” 〔T32 445c26〕; “eye-consciousness arises dependent on it; this is called the eye base” 〔T32 445c26–27〕. Object known, resistance, and the consciousness that depends on it jointly establish one base. Ear, nose, tongue, and body follow the same sequence.

The second describes its body, beginning, “Further, it rests in the fleshly mass of the eye, within three circles of the white and black eyeball” 〔T32 445c27〕. It gives a bodily site, a comparison for shape and measure, production by the first kamma, a predominant element, and purified form. This account is almost anatomical. The eye lies within five layers of flesh, blood, wind, phlegm, and saliva and is “like half a mustard seed, as large as the head of a louse” 〔T32 445c28–29〕. The ear is “like the stem of a green bean” 〔T32 446a04〕, the nose “like the shape of a kovidāra” 〔T32 446a08〕, and the tongue “like the shape of an utpala flower” 〔T32 446a11〕.

All four similes use a plant or a minute object to indicate shape and measure; none explains function. The body base has no simile. It proceeds by exclusion: “excluding the hair of the head, body hair, nails, teeth, and the remainder that does not receive sensation” 〔T32 446a14〕. Because body-sensitivity extends throughout the body and offers no single shape, the text uses subtraction.

The second account contains another field that changes item by item: the predominant element. The eye is “produced by the first kamma, derived from the four great elements, with fire predominant” 〔T32 445c29〕; the ear has space predominant 〔T32 446a05〕, the nose wind 〔T32 446a08〕, the tongue water 〔T32 446a12〕, and the body earth 〔T32 446a15〕. The textual assignments are certain. The treatise does not explain why they are assigned in this way, so this edition does not supply a theory.

At the external bases the prose suddenly contracts: “what is visible is called the visible-form base” 〔T32 446a16〕; “what is resistant as sound is called the sound base” 〔T32 446a16–17〕. Only visibility or resistance is given, with no site and no simile. The contrast in scale between the five internal and four external bases is plain, and no tangible base is named in this passage. That too is simply retained.

Even the Closing Formula Is Not Uniform

After the four external bases come three groups: the two sex faculties, the life faculty, and two intimations. It is worth watching how each definition closes.

The female and male faculties use no separate closing formula: “what is female is the female faculty; what is male is the male faculty” 〔T32 446a18〕. The life faculty returns to the usual form: “form produced by protective kamma is called the life faculty” 〔T32 446a19〕. The two intimations do the same: “that which makes formations manifest through the body and is named an activity is called bodily intimation” 〔T32 446a19–20〕, with verbal intimation following in parallel.

The twelve remaining entries mostly use “this is called,” but not without exceptions. The space element is “the differentiation of form; this is called the space element” 〔T32 446a21〕. After lightness, softness, and adaptability, a single sentence gathers them: “these three are the nature of bodily freedom from sluggishness” 〔T32 446a23〕. Only these three among the twelve receive a collective closure. When arising, aging, and impermanence follow in sequence, the first two say “this is called the arising of form” 〔T32 446a24–25〕 and “this is called the aging of form” 〔T32 446a25〕; the third changes its formula to “the breaking down of form, namely the impermanence of form” 〔T32 446a25–26〕.

All these formal irregularities are preserved. They establish one thing only: this inventory was not filled out from a single rigid template. Whether the variation belongs to the original exposition or to transmission cannot be determined here.

Pause: The Sentence That Sends Us Back Has One Different Character

Between the elements and derived form stands a sentence: “the beginning meditator apprehends the hindrances in two ways” 〔T32 445c20–21〕, followed by “as explained in contemplating the four great elements, so it should be understood” 〔T32 445c21–22〕.

This is an explicit backward reference. The treatise tells the reader not to repeat the method here but to return to the earlier contemplation of the four great elements. That section begins, “Question: How does one contemplate the four great elements?” 〔T32 438b25〕. Yet the corresponding sentence there reads, “the beginning meditator apprehends the great elements in two ways” 〔T32 438c03–04〕, followed by “Question: How does one apprehend the great elements briefly?” 〔T32 438c04〕.

One character differs: the present passage has “hindrances”; the earlier one has “great elements.”

Pause here: can this passage decide the difference?

It cannot. There is no critical note at this point, and the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace witnesses agree with the base. The extant witnesses do not differ here; the two passages within the treatise do. Three facts can be checked: this passage says “hindrances,” the earlier passage says “great elements,” and all the remaining wording is parallel. Which is prior, or whether either is a transmissional change, is not stated. The edition records the difference without adjudicating it.

The title “contemplation of the four great elements” appears even earlier in Chapter Seven’s list of thirty-eight meditation subjects, which closes, “these are called the thirty-eight meditation subjects” 〔T32 411a16〕. The present reference therefore links a Chapter Seven list, its Chapter Eight expansion, and its Chapter Eleven reuse.

Why Does Only the Eye Base Call a Witness?

The five internal bases are explained in sequence, but only the eye base receives a separate authority: “as the Venerable Śāriputra said” 〔T32 446a01〕. The statement is, “with eye-consciousness purified, one sees various forms, whether small or minute, as in the simile of the window branch” 〔T32 446a01–02〕.

Two aspects can be verified. First, the title “Venerable Śāriputra” occurs only here in the entire treatise. Śāriputra’s name appears four times (〔432a24〕〔441b16〕〔446a01〕〔461b24〕), but only here with “Venerable.” Second, only the eye base among the five receives a separate attribution; ear, nose, tongue, and body do not.

The “window branch” in the quoted simile is likewise unique in the treatise, and no further explanation of its form is given.

Why this item alone receives the authority and this simile is not stated. No general account of citation practice is inferred from the isolated case, and the shape of the “window branch” is left open.

The Punctuation of the Tongue-Base Entry

One trace of the base punctuation should also remain visible. In the first explanation of the internal bases, four entries begin with “what is” followed by a question mark, use commas within the sentence, and end their “this is called” closure with a period. Only the tongue-base entry reverses the pattern. It reads, “What is the tongue base. Through it one knows taste” 〔T32 446a09–10〕 and “in relation to taste it is resistant. Tongue-consciousness arises dependent on it. This is called the tongue base” 〔T32 446a10〕, with the final closure punctuated as a question 〔T32 446a10〕.

Within this one entry, the punctuation is the reverse of the other four. There is no critical note here. The base punctuation can be established; whether it ought to be regularized cannot, and this edition does not silently move it.

A Reading Practice to Carry Away

This passage supplies a concrete practice that remains useful beyond the treatise:

When a text reports the number of items in a list, count the individual explanations first, then compare the heading list.

The reason is visible here. A heading can compress or run items together: the six characters of “impermanence-bolus-food-domain form” contain three later entries. Individual definitions, however, must be stated one by one. They cannot hide in the same way. Thus the explanations are the body of the inventory and the heading is its shadow. Counting the shadow yields too few; counting the body yields the reported number. When the two do not agree, the task is not to repunctuate the source but to record both totals side by side—twenty-four and twenty-six in this case.

The Place of This Passage in the Treatise

The preceding chapter finishes classifying wisdom and puts the instrument on the table. Chapter Eleven opens by naming five means as the outline of the whole chapter, then begins with the first aggregate under the first means. Wisdom requires an object, and the objects begin with form.

The discussion of form sets the tone for the first half of the chapter: it does not teach a sequence of contemplation but compiles an inventory—four great elements and twenty-six derived forms, together thirty. The number thirty recurs later at 〔446b05〕〔446c23〕〔451b01〕; this is its first occurrence.

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Carry away three things. One observation: the treatise reports thirty forms, yet the heading list yields only twenty-four derived forms; the missing two are concealed in a single string that the explanations divide into impermanence of form, flavor as morsel food, and form as the domain of the elements. One reading practice: for a numbered inventory, count the individual explanations before checking the heading; where heading and explanation disagree, record both without repunctuating the source. One place to pause: the present passage says “apprehends the hindrances,” while its own reference in Chapter Eight says “apprehends the great elements.” With no variant here and all witnesses agreeing, the difference is recorded but not decided.

Remember two smaller details as well. Each internal base is explained twice—first by function, then by bodily site—and four receive similes of shape while the body base proceeds by exclusion. Only the eye base cites the Venerable Śāriputra; both that title and the “window branch” of the citation occur only here in the treatise.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · General Outline of the Five Means and the Aggregate of Form · Exposition · Summer 2026