大方廣佛華嚴經疏 29.4

29.4

Forty-eight: Giving servants and attendants. A youthful and handsome one is called a page (tong), meant for attending and serving. One who performs chores is called a servant (pu), serving for manual labor. Yet, not releasing them to become free commoners but instead giving them to others so that they remain servants is because in the ocean of bodhisattva practices there is no good that is not cultivated; if one merely released them to become free, there would be a lack in three respects: 1. the ocean of practices would be incomplete; 2. the original vows of those servants would not be fulfilled; 3. the Buddha-fruit would lack this virtue of responding to capacities. The rest can be understood.