維摩經略疏 6.103

6.103

「如是」至〈問疾品〉之大段第二，出經者存略，或是經度不盡。諸菩薩被命，皆辭不任之事。若依歎德即有三萬二千，若依隨文殊入室但說八千，未可定判。但四菩薩述昔被彈之辭，文已數紙。經家若具述諸菩薩各有所陳，其文則有數千紙也。如此大眾同聞如來印定，皆成五種利益之義，豈可偏序分也。

From "Thus …" down to the Chapter on Inquiring after the Illness is the second major section, where the compiler of the sūtra maintained brevity, or perhaps the transmission of the sūtra was not exhaustive. As for the matter of all the bodhisattvas being commissioned and each declining as incompetent: if based on the praise of virtues, there were thirty-two thousand; if based on those who followed Mañjuśrī into the room, it says only eight thousand—one cannot definitively determine this. Merely the words of the four bodhisattvas recounting their past rebukes already fill several sheets of paper. If the compiler of the sūtra were to recount in full what each of the various bodhisattvas stated, the text would run to several thousand sheets. That such a great assembly together heard the Tathāgata's endorsement all constitutes the meaning of the five kinds of benefit; how could this be relegated solely to the preface section?