維摩經略疏 4.16

4.16

Question: If ten persons correspond to ten mental factors, how is it with five hundred? Answer: What the Dharma King states must have its reason. Since we have not yet seen the transmission regarding the five hundred, we cannot make groundless conjectures. Now, investigating the principles, I will provide a brief explanation. One factor contains ten, so ten factors make one hundred; bundled together and correlated with the five sense faculties, there are five hundred factors. Furthermore, in the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra*, the five hundred who each explain the cause of their physical existence are all using the half-character [teaching] and entering the Way through the four withered [trees].