肇論新疏 1.4

1.4

"Zhao" is the name of the author, and "lun" is the method of what was composed; the person and the Dharma are combined to form the general title of the entire work. Because the four treatises were produced at different times and each takes one principle as its main doctrine, wishing to unite them as one, they could not all be titled under every heading; thus the single section "Zongben yi" was newly composed to crown the head of the treatises. Merely saying "Zhaolun", both the main doctrine and the expositions belong to it. As for speaking of "lun" (treatise), it means provisionally establishing host and guest to definitively resolve the extremely profound, examining and investigating back and forth to show beings practice and awakening; hence it is called a "treatise". However, there are two kinds: first, doctrinal treatises, which take a sūtra as the main doctrine to establish tenets, such as the Awakening of Faith, Vijñaptimātratā, and the like; second, expository commentaries, which merely follow a sūtra to explain it, such as the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa and the like. Now, these four treatises are of the first kind, not the second.