法華義疏 4.17

4.17

Wishing to show that the Buddha's expounding of the Dharma is unfixed, he altered the conventional norm; since expounding nine divisions in the past was to clarify the small, and now clarifying nine divisions is to open into the great, wishing to display this meaning of indefiniteness he expounded them in mixed order. Furthermore, here these nine divisions are combined into five pairs: First, prose and verse form a pair. All Buddhas either expound sūtras directly for living beings, or right from the outset expound in verse, hence called gāthās; since the sūtra repeatedly marks them with the word "or," we know that sūtras are not necessarily first, and gāthās are not necessarily behind. Itivṛttaka and jātaka form the second, self-and-other pair. Itivṛttaka recounts past events of others, as in the "Former Deeds of the Medicine King Chapter" and so forth; recounting one's own past events is jātaka. Adbhutadharma and nidāna form the pair of good and evil events. Adbhutadharma refers to auspicious events, such as the blue ox carrying the almsbowl, the white dog listening to the sūtra, the great earth trembling, and the physical stature of the devas; nidāna refers to the events concerning the origin and consequences of generating transgressions, which are expounded under the name of nidāna scriptures. Avadāna and geya form the pair of teaching and parable. In full, they should be called loka-geya and gāthā-geya; above, the specific was kept while the general was abridged, but here the general is kept while the specific is abridged. Upadeśa is called treatise, which is that which explicates; the above eight divisions forming four pairs are what is explicated, which forms the pair of the explicator and what is explicated.