大般涅槃經義記 3.3

3.3

一一句中齊應有五：一列名、二解釋、三結、四即如來、五難解者重復分別。然今文中多少不定，或有初無後、或有後無初、或有中間而無初後。就解釋中，或但法說、或兼喻況，喻有反順，其順喻者解脫亦爾、其反喻者解脫不爾。法喻相對，前却不定，或有初法次喻後合、或有先喻次法後喻、或有先法後喻便罷，文相不定。

Clause by clause there should equally be five [elements]: 1. listing the name, 2. explaining, 3. concluding, 4. "is none other than the Tathāgata", 5. for those difficult to understand, further differentiation. However, in the present text the number is variable: some have the beginning without the end; some have the end without the beginning; some have the middle without beginning or end. In the explanations, some are purely doctrinal expositions, while some combine metaphors. Metaphors have direct and inverse forms: for direct metaphors, liberation is also like this; for inverse metaphors, liberation is not like this. In the correspondence between doctrine and metaphor, precedence is not fixed: some have doctrine first, next metaphor, and conclude later; some have metaphor first, next doctrine, and metaphor later; some have doctrine first, metaphor later, and then stop; the phrasing of the text is not fixed.