法華經義記 1.19

1.19

Examining the chapter headings of the various sūtras, none are the words of the Buddha. Why? When the Buddha preached the Dharma, he simply expounded cause and discerned fruition in an unbound manner; it was precisely the sublime reverberations of the eight voices preaching the Dharma to deliver people, without even letters, paper, or ink, much less various chapters. Yet following dispositions there were the distinctions of the five periods; at that time the assembly practiced according to the teaching. But the monk Ānanda, having harbored vows in kalpas past, personally received [the teachings] from the golden mouth; after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, he gathered the three baskets and fully set forth the five periods, leading to written words, paper, and ink filling scrolls across the world. Wishing that people of later generations, though no longer beholding the true countenance or personally hearing the golden mouth, might peruse the scrolls, examine the text, and thoroughly see the general purport of the preaching of the Dharma from beginning to end, he created the chapter headings of the various sūtras. Hence we know they were all instituted by the compilers of the sūtras; or perhaps they secretly received the sacred intent, transmitting without inventing. The clearly illuminated meaning of chapters is simply that different categories and precedents clarify distinct matters.