金剛經纂要刊定記 1.116

1.116

發起下，僧也。發起上士即須菩提，因興三問故佛說之。流通上士，即是彌勒、無著、天親也。邐迤解釋方始弘傳。上士者高上之士也，或曰上人，故馬鳴菩薩《讚無常經歸敬偈》云：「八輩上人能離染」；或云大士，故《大雲疏》云：「如斯大士皆歸命」，斯皆通用故隨人稱。

From "Initiating" downward is the Saṅgha. The eminent being who initiated it is Subhūti, for it was due to his raising the three questions that the Buddha expounded it. The eminent beings who disseminated it are Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu; it was only through their successive commentaries that it began to be widely spread. "Eminent being" means an exalted person; it is also called "superior person," as Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa says in his Refuge Verse of the Sūtra on Impermanence: "The eight classes of superior persons are able to depart from defilement"; or it is called "great being," as the Dayun Commentary says: "To such great beings I take refuge." These are all used interchangeably, applied according to the person.