解脫道論 色法之生、種種與一種

The final three of five ways complete the aggregate of form: birth, varieties, and unity.

Birth is a rebirth inventory. How many forms arise at that moment? Womb-born male or female has thirty; one neither male nor female, twenty; a complete spontaneous birth in the sense realm, seventy. Blindness removes eye-ten, deafness ear-ten, and both remove two clusters. Brahmā has forty-nine; a being in the heaven of nonperception has nine. Twelve positions are listed without evaluation, and every total can be reconstructed from its clusters.

Varieties uses six knives: gross/subtle, internal/external, faculty/nonfaculty, received/unreceived/vulnerable, three divisions by visibility and resistance, and intrinsic/shaped/characteristic/differentiating. The cutting edges differ, but each divides the same material—and each division reports numbers.

This yields six directly testable sums: twelve plus eighteen; five plus twenty-five; eight plus twenty-two; nine plus nine plus twelve; one plus eleven plus eighteen; and nineteen plus seven plus three plus one. Every sum is thirty. The twelve rebirth positions are equally checkable.

The practical method is therefore: whenever a distribution reports “so many forms,” add its branches and compare them with the total. If the sum fails, look for several items compressed into one string. Here “water-element-morsel-food-domain form” conceals three items. This is already the third such compression in the chapter.

A smaller trap is punctuation. The nine unreceived forms reach only seven before a period; “impermanence and sleep” begin the next sentence. The inventory crosses the stop.

Unity then changes the procedure. It gives no totals and no branches, only a long chain of common predicates: not a cause and not without cause, conditioned and worldly, with influxes and bonds, indeterminate and nonmental, neither in training nor not in training, and not abandoned by seeing or cultivation. The preceding ways divide thirty forms; this one gathers them, and their common description is largely a chain of “not.”

Finally, “this is called the aggregate of form” closes the section. The aggregate has occupied three units; only the first aggregate under the first of the five means is now complete.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Birth, Varieties, and Unity of Form · Doorway · Summer 2026

Through Birth: How Many Forms Arise at the Moment of Rebirth

Question: How is form understood through birth?

Answer:

When a male or female enters the womb, thirty forms arise at that moment: domain-ten, body-ten, and either female-faculty-ten or male-faculty-ten.

For one who is neither male nor female, twenty forms arise: domain-ten and body-ten.

For one spontaneously born in the sense realm, with the faculties complete and entering as male or female, seventy forms arise at the moment of rebirth: domain-ten, body-ten, eye-ten, ear-ten, nose-ten, tongue-ten, and either female-faculty-ten or male-faculty-ten.

For a woman or man spontaneously born blind in a bad destination, sixty forms arise at rebirth, with eye-ten excluded.

Likewise, for one born deaf, sixty arise, with ear-ten excluded.

For one born blind and deaf, fifty arise, with eye-ten and ear-ten excluded.

For one spontaneously born in a bad destination with the other faculties complete but neither male nor female, and for people at the beginning of an eon, sixty forms arise at rebirth, with the sex faculty excluded.

For one blind and also neither male nor female, fifty arise, with eye-faculty-ten and the neither-male-nor-female faculty excluded.

For one deaf and neither male nor female, fifty likewise arise, with ear-ten and the neither-male-nor-female faculty excluded.

For one blind, deaf, and neither male nor female, forty arise: domain-ten, body-ten, nose-ten, and tongue-ten.

For a Brahmā, forty-nine forms arise at rebirth: domain-ten, eye-ten, ear-ten, body-ten, and life-faculty-nine.

For a being in the heaven of nonperception, nine forms arise at rebirth: life-faculty-nine.

Thus form is understood through birth.

Each reported total agrees with the sum of its listed clusters; each exclusion likewise agrees with the amount subtracted.

Through Varieties: Six Ways of Dividing All Form

Question: How is form understood through varieties?

Answer:

First Division: Gross and Subtle

All form is of two kinds: gross and subtle.

Here twelve forms are gross—the internal and external form bases—because they are resistant. The remaining eighteen are subtle because they are nonresistant.

Second Division: Internal and External

Again, form is of two kinds: internal and external.

Here five forms are internal—the five beginning with the eye base—because they have an objective domain. The remaining twenty-five are external because they have no objective domain.

Third Division: Faculties and Nonfaculties

Again, form is of two kinds: faculty and nonfaculty.

Here eight forms are called faculties—the five internal bases, female faculty, male faculty, and life faculty—because they serve as supports. The remaining twenty-two are nonfaculties because they do not serve as supports.

Fourth Division: Received, Unreceived, and Vulnerable

All form is of three kinds: received form, unreceived form, and vulnerable form.

Here nine forms are received: the eight faculties and domain form, because they are produced as the result of kamma.

Nine forms are unreceived: sound, bodily intimation, verbal-intimation form, lightness, softness, adaptability, aging, impermanence, and sleep, because they are not produced as the result of kamma.

The remaining twelve forms are vulnerable, in two senses.

Fifth Division: Visible and Resistant, Invisible and Resistant, Invisible and Nonresistant

Again, form is of three kinds: visible and resistant, nonvisible and resistant, and invisible and nonresistant.

Here one form is visible and resistant—the visible-form base—because it is seen and touched.

Eleven forms are invisible and resistant: the remaining gross forms apart from visible form, because they are not seen but can be touched.

Eighteen forms are invisible and nonresistant: the remaining subtle forms, because they can neither be seen nor touched.

Sixth Division: Intrinsic Form, Shaped Form, Characteristic Form, and Differentiating Form

All form is of four kinds: intrinsic form, shaped form, characteristic form, and differentiating form.

Here nineteen are intrinsic forms: the remaining twelve gross forms; the female, male, and life faculties; water-element-morsel-food-domain form; and sleep form, because they are ultimate.

The final item in the base is “sleep form.” The Korean witness reads “eye form,” but the critical edition records that reading without adopting it. The body therefore follows “sleep form.” The string “water-element-morsel-food-domain form” must contain three items—water element, morsel food, and domain form—to reach the announced nineteen.

Seven are shaped forms: bodily and verbal intimation, lightness, softness, adaptability, received form, and continuity-intrinsic-form, because they change.

Three are characteristic forms: arising, aging, and impermanence of form, because they are conditioned characteristics.

One is differentiating form: the space element, because it differentiates clusters.

Here intrinsic form becomes differentiating; the rest has no differentiation.

Thus form is distinguished through varieties.

In each of the six divisions, the reported branches add to thirty.

Through Unity: A Shared Series of Predicates

Question: How should form be distinguished as one kind?

Answer: all form is:

not a cause and not without cause, and not associated with a cause;

conditioned, constructed, and included in the world;

with influxes, bonds, knots, currents, peril, and hindrances; touched, with a destination, and defiled;

indeterminate, inactive, not a mental factor, and not associated with mind;

small, bound to the sense realm, uncertain, and not a vehicle;

not arising together with pleasure, not arising together with pain, and arising together with neither-pain-nor-pleasure;

not causing aggregation, and not not causing aggregation;

neither in training nor not in training;

not abandoned by seeing and not abandoned by cultivation.

Thus what distinguishes form through unity can be known. This is called the aggregate of form.

The final sentence closes the treatment of form. The remaining four aggregates follow.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Birth, Varieties, and Unity of Form · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The preceding unit used the first two of the five ways—what brings form forth and its clusters. This unit completes the remaining three in one sweep: through birth, through varieties, and through unity. Once they are complete, the aggregate of form closes.

The central observation can be stated first: the passage arranges many sets of self-reported numbers into lists that can be checked directly.

The varieties section cuts all form six times: gross and subtle, internal and external, faculty and nonfaculty, received and unreceived and vulnerable, three divisions by visibility and resistance, and four divisions into intrinsic and shaped and characteristic and differentiating form. The six cuts proceed from entirely different angles, yet after each one the reported numbers in its branches add up as follows: twelve plus eighteen, five plus twenty-five, eight plus twenty-two, nine plus nine plus twelve, one plus eleven plus eighteen, and nineteen plus seven plus three plus one—all six make thirty.

The twelve rebirth positions in the preceding birth section can likewise be added up. Thirty forms in womb birth comprise three clusters: domain-ten, body-ten, and one sex-faculty-ten. A complete spontaneous birth in the sense realm has seven clusters of ten. Brahmā has domain-ten, eye-ten, ear-ten, and body-ten, plus life-faculty-nine, making forty-nine. A being in the heaven of nonperception has one cluster, life-faculty-nine, making nine. Even the subtractions of “excluding eye-ten” and “excluding ear-ten” leave totals that agree exactly.

This is why the passage merits a slow reading: it tests the number thirty again and again, eighteen times in all.

Through Birth: Twelve Positions and One Rebirth Inventory

“Question: How through birth? Answer: when a male or female enters the womb” 〔T32 446c23〕—this way asks how many forms arise at the very instant of rebirth.

The answer lays out twelve positions, descending from more to fewer. For a womb-born male or female, “at that moment thirty forms arise: domain-ten, body-ten, and either female-faculty-ten or male-faculty-ten” 〔T32 446c23–25〕. One neither male nor female lacks one cluster: “for one neither male nor female, twenty forms arise” 〔T32 446c25〕. Complete spontaneous birth in the sense realm jumps at once to seventy—“for spontaneous birth in the sense realm, with the faculties complete and entering as male or female, seventy forms arise at the birth moment” 〔T32 446c25–26〕—because the eye, ear, nose, and tongue clusters are all present together.

The treatise then begins to subtract, and does so with great economy: “for a woman or man spontaneously born blind in a bad destination, sixty forms arise at the birth moment, excluding eye-ten” 〔T32 446c28–29〕. It does not relist the other six clusters, but says only which one is removed. Birth as deaf works in the same way. “One born blind and deaf has fifty forms, excluding eye-ten and ear-ten” 〔T32 447a01–02〕, removing two clusters. “And for a person at the beginning of an eon, sixty forms arise at the birth moment, excluding the sex faculty” 〔T32 447a03–04〕. The subtractions continue until “one blind, deaf, and neither male nor female has forty forms” 〔T32 447a06–07〕; only then are the remaining four clusters listed again: domain-ten, body-ten, nose-ten, and tongue-ten.

The last two positions move to other realms. “For a Brahmā, forty-nine forms arise at the birth moment” 〔T32 447a07–08〕—domain-ten, eye-ten, ear-ten, and body-ten, plus life-faculty-nine. This is the only number in the passage that is not a multiple of ten, because the life cluster has nine rather than ten. “For a being in the heaven of nonperception, nine forms arise at the birth moment: life-faculty-nine” 〔T32 447a09–10〕—only one cluster remains.

After setting out the twelve positions, the treatise says only, “thus through birth it can be known” 〔T32 447a10〕. It draws no conclusion and offers no evaluation. What it gives is a table, not a doctrine.

Through Varieties: Six Knives, One Material

The form of the varieties section is exact: first it reports the number and name of a branch, then appends a phrase such as “because of such-and-such criterion” to disclose the standard.

The first cut is gross and subtle: “here twelve forms are gross, the internal and external form bases, because they are resistant” 〔T32 447a11–12〕, while “the remaining eighteen forms are subtle because they are nonresistant” 〔T32 447a12〕. The criterion is resistance or nonresistance. The second cut is internal and external: “again, form is of two kinds, internal and external” 〔T32 447a12–13〕, and “here five forms are internal, the five bases beginning with the eye, because they have an objective domain” 〔T32 447a13–14〕. The criterion is the presence or absence of an objective domain. The third cut is faculty and nonfaculty: “again, form is of two kinds, faculty and nonfaculty” 〔T32 447a14–15〕, and “here eight forms are called faculties—the five internal, female, male, and life faculties—because they serve as supports” 〔T32 447a15–16〕. The criterion is serving or not serving as a support.

The fourth cut has three branches: “all form is of three kinds: received, unreceived, and vulnerable form” 〔T32 447a17–18〕. Its criterion is whether form is produced as karmic result, and “the remaining twelve forms are vulnerable, in two senses” 〔T32 447a21〕. The fifth cut likewise has three branches: “again, form is of three kinds: visible and resistant, nonvisible and resistant, and invisible and nonresistant” 〔T32 447a21–23〕. Its criterion is seeing and touching. The sixth cut has four branches: “all form is of four kinds: intrinsic, shaped, characteristic, and differentiating form” 〔T32 447a26–27〕. Its criteria are ultimacy, change, conditioned characteristic, and differentiation of clusters.

The six knives have different edges, yet they cut the same material. This is the same method used for the eleven classifications of wisdom in Chapter Ten—there the object cut is wisdom, here it is form. But here there is one thing not found there: every cut reports its numbers, so every cut can be checked by addition.

Reading Practice: Read This Passage with Addition

The first two units gave us the practice “count the individual explanations first, then check the heading list,” for places where heading and explanation do not agree. In this unit, the same tool is turned around:

Whenever a distribution says “so many forms, so many forms,” add them and compare the sum with the total.

If the sum works, the compression has been read correctly. If it does not, go back and ask whether a string of characters has been mistaken for a single item.

The passage supplies a ready example. The first branch of the sixth cut is “here nineteen are intrinsic forms” 〔T32 447a27–28〕, while the itemized text reads “the remaining twelve gross forms, female faculty, male faculty, life faculty, water-element-morsel-food-domain form” 〔T32 447a28–29〕 and continues below. Twelve plus the three female, male, and life faculties makes fifteen; adding the one final item makes sixteen—three short. The shortage lies in the six-character string “water-element-morsel-food-domain form”: it must be read as three items—water element, morsel food, and domain form. Sixteen plus three makes nineteen.

This is already the third occurrence. In 11-01, “impermanence-morsel-food-domain form” conceals three items; in 11-02, “arising-form-morsel-food-four-elements” conceals six; here, “water-element-morsel-food-domain form” conceals three. All three contain “morsel food,” and all three run several form-items together in a single string. This edition records all three in their original wording and does not add commas; in all three cases, the reported number restores their structure.

The fourth cut contains another small trap, this time not compression but a period. “Nine forms are unreceived: sound, bodily intimation, verbal-intimation form, lightness, softness, adaptability, and aging” 〔T32 447a19–20〕—at that point there are only seven items, and the sentence ends there. Only the next sentence gives “impermanence and sleep, because they are not produced as karmic result” 〔T32 447a20–21〕. Seven plus two makes nine. The inventory crosses a period. It is recorded as it stands; this edition does not move it.

Pause: The Critical Edition Records a Variant but Does Not Adopt It

In the sixth cut’s intrinsic forms, the final item in the base is “sleep form” 〔T32 447a29〕. The critical edition records a note here: the Korean witness reads “eye form.”

Pause here and ask: since the critical edition records it, should this edition change the body to follow it?

No. The reason is not a blanket rule such as “variant readings are never followed,” but a precise distinction: for a critical edition to record a variant and for it to adopt a variant are two different things.

In this case, the critical edition merely places the Korean character beside the text; it does not change the character in the body. In other words, the critical edition itself has not judged the Korean reading to be correct. At such a place, this edition follows the body and records the Korean reading alongside it in the apparatus.

The opposite case is different: the critical edition not only records a reading but replaces the body’s character and identifies the witness on which it relies. The character displayed in the body is then no longer the Taishō character. This edition follows the reading settled by the critical edition and, in the apparatus, places the Taishō character, the critical edition’s replacement, and its witness side by side, stating explicitly, “the body does not follow Taishō.” The next unit contains exactly two examples—“柂” and “墯.” In both, the critical edition has changed the body; Taishō originally reads “施” and “墮.”

The two treatments may look like following in one case and refusing to follow in the other, but they are one rule: follow the character displayed in the critical text, and expose in the apparatus every difference between it and Taishō. What this edition does not do is make one more decision for the critical edition, or mount one more defense of Taishō, somewhere the reader cannot see.

(This distinction itself also reminds the reader of something: on encountering a note that “a certain witness reads a certain form,” first ask whether the critical edition merely “records” it or actually “changes” the text. Recording and changing are different acts within a critical edition.)

Two other surface discrepancies should be remembered. The heading of the fifth cut has “nonvisible and resistant,” while the itemized explanation has “eleven forms invisible and resistant” 〔T32 447a24〕. The heading and explanation differ by one character in the source; both are recorded as they stand, and this edition does not correct them. At the end of the sixth cut, “one form, differentiating form, namely the space element, because it differentiates clusters” 〔T32 447b02–03〕 is followed by “here intrinsic form becomes differentiating; the rest has no differentiation” 〔T32 447b03–04〕. The same term “differentiating” first names a form-item and then names a capacity of intrinsic form; the two occurrences have different referents.

Every Criterion Hangs from the Phrase at the End

There is one more thing to see in the six cuts: the criterion for each branch is not at the beginning of its sentence, but at the end.

“Here twelve forms are gross, the internal and external form bases, because they are resistant” 〔T32 447a11–12〕—the sentence first reports the number, then gives the names, and only at the end discloses the criterion with a phrase such as “because of such-and-such criterion.” Subtle form is classified by nonresistance; internal form by having an objective domain; external form by not having one; the eight faculties by serving as supports; the remaining twenty-two by not serving as supports; and received form by being produced as karmic result. In the sixth cut, intrinsic form closes with “because of ultimacy,” shaped form with “because it changes,” characteristic form with “because it is a conditioned characteristic,” and differentiating form with “because it differentiates clusters.”

To read this passage, the eye must travel to the end of the sentence. The names tell you how many piles have been made; the final phrase tells you what made the cut. If only the names are read, the six cuts look like six unrelated tables. Reading the endings all the way through reveals six different standards—resistance, objective domain, support, karmic result, visibility and tangibility, and ultimacy and nonchange.

The treatise lists the smaller branches of the sixth cut with particular concreteness. “Seven shaped forms: bodily and verbal intimation, lightness, softness, adaptability, received form, and continuity-intrinsic-form, because they change” 〔T32 447a29–447b01〕—all seven can be counted individually, in agreement with the announced number. The final name, “continuity-intrinsic-form,” occurs only here in the passage, and the treatise does not explain it further. “Three characteristic forms: arising, aging, and impermanence of form, because they are conditioned characteristics” 〔T32 447b02〕 likewise contains three items, agreeing with its heading. “One form, differentiating form, namely the space element, because it differentiates clusters” 〔T32 447b02–03〕 contains only one.

Two Critical Notes, and a Passage without a Simile

The passage has only four critical notes. Besides the “sleep/eye” reading already discussed, two others should be kept in view.

One occurs in the birth section at “with the faculties complete, entering as male or female, at the birth moment” 〔T32 446c26〕. The Palace witness has the order “birth–at–female,” while the base has “female–at–birth”—the same three characters, only their order differs. Once the order changes, the segmentation changes with it. Both readings are recorded without adjudication; the body follows the base.

Another occurs in the final string of predicates. In “with influxes, bonds, knots, currents, peril, and hindrances” 〔T32 447b06–07〕, the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace witnesses read “yoke” for the base “peril.” What is interesting is that the same variant of the same character appeared earlier in Chapter Ten’s treatment of worldly wisdom 〔T32 445a07〕, and the critical notes at the two places are identical. That is all that can be checked. Whether both arose from the same scribal habit or each arose independently, this edition does not determine.

Finally, one negative fact should be recorded: not a single simile occurs in this passage. Twelve rebirth positions, six knives, and one string of predicates all proceed through numbers and criteria, without borrowing a single image. This contrasts with the three sticks, river flow, and lamp flame of the preceding unit: within the same chapter, one neighboring passage is filled with similes and the next establishes none. This is recorded just as it stands; no further claim about the treatise’s compositional practice is drawn from it.

Through Unity: A String of Predicates without a Number

The final way suddenly changes its face. “Question: How should it be distinguished as one kind? Answer: all form is not a cause and not without cause” 〔T32 447b05–06〕. This passage reports no number, sets out no branches, and explains no item individually. It simply links one predicate after another: not a cause and not without cause, not associated with a cause; conditioned, constructed, and included in the world; “with influxes, bonds, knots, currents, peril, and hindrances” 〔T32 447b06–07〕; touched, with a destination, and defiled; indeterminate and inactive, not a mental factor and not associated with mind; “small, bound to the sense realm, uncertain, not a vehicle” 〔T32 447b08–09〕; not arising together with pleasure, not arising together with pain, and arising together with neither-pain-nor-pleasure; not causing aggregation and not not causing aggregation; neither in training nor not in training; and it closes with “not abandoned by seeing and not abandoned by cultivation” 〔T32 447b10–11〕.

The preceding two ways divide the thirty forms; this way gathers them back together—when gathered, the qualities they share form a long chain of “non-” and “not.”

There is one verifiable internal thread here worth remembering. The stems in “with influxes, bonds, knots, currents, peril, and hindrances” are the same group used for the nine items in Chapter Ten’s treatment of worldly wisdom 〔T32 445a06–07〕; there nine items are listed, while here only some are used. The same stems appear in two chapters but not in equal number. This edition records what is present and does not supply what is absent.

The Aggregate of Form Ends Here

“Thus what distinguishes form through unity can be known. This is called the aggregate of form” 〔T32 447b11–12〕—one sentence brings the treatment to a close.

Looking back across the whole treatment of the aggregate of form: 11-01 began with the inventory of thirty forms, 11-02 treated what brings them forth and their clusters, and this unit completes birth, varieties, and unity. All five ways have now been traversed, and the aggregate of form is complete. The first item under the five means, the “method concerning the aggregates,” has completed only its first aggregate. Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness follow.

The passage does not explain why the aggregate of form takes so much space. Only the scale can be established: one aggregate occupies three units; the other four are arranged separately.

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Carry away three things. One observation: the varieties section cuts all form six times—gross and subtle · internal and external · faculty and nonfaculty · received and unreceived and vulnerable · three visibility divisions · four intrinsic, shaped, characteristic, and differentiating divisions—and the branches of all six cuts add to thirty; the numbers for the twelve rebirth positions can likewise be added up one by one. One reading practice: whenever a distribution says “so many forms, so many forms,” add the branches and compare them with the total. If the sum fails, ask whether a string has been taken as a single item; here “water-element-morsel-food-domain form” conceals three items, the treatise’s third compression of the same kind. One place to pause: the critical edition records the Korean witness’s “eye” but does not adopt it. Should this edition nevertheless change the body? No. For the critical edition to “record” a variant and to “adopt” one are different things: a reading recorded but not adopted leaves the body unchanged; when one is adopted—as with “柂” and “墯” in the next unit—the displayed text is no longer the Taishō character, so this edition follows it and states that “the body does not follow Taishō.”

Remember two smaller matters as well. The nine items under “nine forms are unreceived” cross a period in the base—seven come before it, while “impermanence and sleep” come after it. They are recorded as they stand and not moved. The heading of the fifth cut has “nonvisible and resistant,” while its explanation has “invisible and resistant.” The one-character difference is recorded and not corrected.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Birth, Varieties, and Unity of Form · Exposition · Summer 2026