妙法蓮華經玄贊 6.7

6.7

The Commentary says: 'The walls cracked and broken': the impermanence of the perception aggregate. Pi is pronounced with the fanqie fu-mei; it means ruined and overturned. Che is pronounced with the fanqie chi-ge; it means split. The Yupian says: 'divided'. The above seven lines together explain the impermanence of the five aggregates in the triple world, for wherever they exist appropriately, they are all like this. The five lines below specifically explain the meanings of impermanence and so forth of the physical body: three lines on impermanence, one line on non-self, and one line on impurity; because of these three meanings, it consequently constitutes emptiness. 'Plaster' is a metaphor for flesh. The Qieyun says: 'Tu means smeared and covering.' Yi means collapsed, ruined, and dropped. Yi is pronounced with the fanqie chi-er. The Shuowen says: 'Shaking clothes is written as chi.' The Qieyun says: 'A collapsing mountain is called tuo.' The Yupian says: 'Splitting firewood along its grain is written as yi.' Some texts have chi, not knowing its source; now it should be yi. The Guangya says: 'It means peeling.' The Fangyan says: 'It means ruined.' The Shuowen says: 'A collapsing mountain is called yi.' Some have tuo. 'Thatch covering' is a metaphor for skin being loose, disordered, and falling down. The Erya says: 'White thatch covering is called shan.' Weaving white reed mats to cover a roof is called shan. 'Rafters and eaves': lü is pronounced with the fanqie li-ju, meaning the edge of rafters, now called eaves-brackets. Cha is pronounced with the two fanqie chu-yi and chu-jia. Tuo is pronounced with the fanqie tu-huo, also tu-huo. It is a metaphor for the impermanence of the joints, tendons, and vessels connected together. When rafters are displaced, the joints are impermanent; when eaves-brackets detach, the tendons and vessels are impermanent. Fascicle 19 of the Yogācārabhūmi cites a sūtra verse: 'There is a city with bones for ramparts, / smeared and adorned with sinews and flesh, / within which dwell greed and wrath, / sustained by conceit and hypocrisy.'