妙法蓮華經玄贊 6.279

6.279

贊曰：此客利豐廣。真俗諦教名入出利，入佛法中出生死故。或三乘教名出，出生死故；人天教為入，入生死故。令善漸生故名為息，息者長生之義。為愍眾生，教被生死，故遍他國。三乘聖眾處處宣揚佛之正法，名商估賈客。宣尼云「求善價而估之」，即同於此。此類非一，名眾甚多。「商」者，《說文》「行賣也」，《玉篇》「通四方之珍異曰商旅」。有作「商」，商量也，非此義。「估」音公戶反，字書無此字，唯《爾雅》郭璞音義釋言：「注中商賈作此字」。《切韻》「估，市稅也。賈者坐賣也」。《周禮》九軄，六曰司市，掌以商賈以通貨賄。鄭玄、《玉篇》「通物曰商，坐賣曰賈」。《白虎通》曰「商之言商，商其遠近，通四方之物以聚之也。賈者固也，言固物以待民來，求其利也。賈亦通語耳」。故《左傳》荀[勞-力+(乞-乙+止)]之在楚，鄭賈人褚中以出之。《史記》陽翟賈人，往來販賤賣貴是也。客通名耳。

Eulogy: This is the guest-profits being abundant and widespread. The teachings of the conventional and ultimate truths are called incoming and outgoing profits, because one enters the Buddhadharma and departs from saṃsāra. Or, the teachings of the Three Vehicles are called 'outgoing' because one departs from saṃsāra, while the teachings of humans and devas are 'incoming' because one enters saṃsāra. Causing goodness to gradually grow is called 'interest' (xī), xī meaning perpetual generation. Out of pity for sentient beings, the teaching covers saṃsāra, hence it 'spreads throughout other lands.' The noble assemblies of the Three Vehicles everywhere proclaim the true Dharma of the Buddha, which is called 'merchants and traders.' Xuanni [Confucius] said, 'Seeking a good price to sell it,' which is the same as this. These types are not just one, hence called 'exceedingly numerous.' As for 'merchant' (shāng), the Shuowen says, 'peddling on the move'; the Yupian says, 'circulating the rare and precious treasures of the four directions is called shānglǚ (traveling merchants).' Some take shāng as 'deliberation', but that is not the meaning here. 'Trader' (gǔ) is pronounced gōng + hù [gǔ]; character dictionaries lack this character, but only Guo Pu's phonetic gloss on the Erya explains: 'In the commentaries, shānggǔ is written with this character.' The Qieyun says: 'Gǔ is a marketplace tax; jiǎ is selling while seated.' The 'Nine Offices' of the Rites of Zhou lists the sixth as the Market Administrator, in charge of using merchants and traders to circulate wealth and goods. Zheng Xuan and the Yupian say: 'Circulating goods is shāng; selling while seated is jiǎ.' The Baihu Tong says: 'Shāng means deliberation—deliberating distance, and circulating the goods of the four directions to gather them. Jiǎ means solid/settled—holding goods to await the arrival of the people, seeking their profit. Jiǎ is also a general term.' Thus in the Zuo Zhuan, when Xun Shou was in Chu, a merchant of Zheng smuggled him out in a case. In the Records of the Grand Historian, the merchant of Yangdi traveled back and forth buying cheap and selling dear; this is it. 'Guests' (kè) is merely a general term.