妙法蓮華經玄贊 2.199

2.199

The Commentary says: These three verses concern erecting stūpas: one verse concerns their number, one verse concerns their dimensions, and one verse concerns their adornment. The Bodhisattvabhūmi states: "If after the parinirvāṇa of a Buddha one builds one or many caityas of the Buddha and so on to make offerings, one shall obtain immeasurable fruits of great merit, receive great Brahma-merit, not fall into bad destinies for countless great kalpas, and also obtain the provisions for unexcelled bodhi." In Sanskrit, yojana means the measure of distance, erroneously called youxun. The verse of the Abhidharmakośa says: "Paramāṇu, aṇu, gold, water, / hare, sheep, ox, and sunbeam dust, / nit, louse, barley, and finger-joint, / each increasing sevenfold consecutively; / twenty-four fingers make a cubit, / four cubits make a bow's length, / five hundred bows make a krośa, / and eight of these make a yojana." It is slightly more than sixteen li; according to other sūtras, it is forty li. "Length" (zong) has the two fanqie readings ji + rong and zi + yong; it means vertical. "Width" (guang) means horizontal. In antiquity it was written with the character cong; the Qieyun has only the three characters zong, zong, and zong. Some editions write cong, but its origin is unknown. Popular usage takes north-south as vertical (zong) and east-west as horizontal (guang). "Exposed" (lu) means uncovered; "canopy" (man) means covered. This indicates that what is adorned is either uncovered or covered, which will be fully explained below in the "Apparition of the Jeweled Stūpa" Chapter. This explains the dimensions of the jeweled stūpas in the reward land, which are perceived by those on higher stages; otherwise, how could this continent accommodate so many stūpas? Some say that man means curtain (mu). Hanging at the side it is called a drape (wei); positioned above it is called a ceiling curtain (mu); mu means covering. Lu means uncovered, identical to the sūtra texts mentioning canopies with crisscrossed pearls. Some editions write the character man (縵), plain silk without pattern, which is not the substance of a canopy curtain. "The harmonious chiming of jeweled bells" means the sounds are tuneful and harmonious.