止觀輔行傳弘決 1.75

1.75

Next, in the explanation, regarding "encompassing in a bag" (nangkuo) and so forth: A bag (nang) is a pouch. Thus the Zitong states: "One with a bottom is called a nang; one without a bottom is called a tuo, which is an instrument for directing wind." This is not the meaning of the present text. Kuo means to tie, to plug, or to close up. A bag has a tied knot, collecting [everything] into one bag; the chapters have a grand intent (dayi), gathering up the beginning and the end. "Explaining names" is the beginning, and "aim and destination" is the end; thus one knows that the grand intent is like a bag having a knot, holding and tying together the teachings of the ten chapters. Regarding "crowning the beginning and carrying the end": A crown (guan) is a head ornament, pronounced in the level tone. The Zhouli states: "What is upon the head is called a crown." It may also be in the departing tone, meaning to cap upon the head. Thus one knows that the grand intent crowns the head of the ten chapters. Crowning the beginning is like a crown capping the body. Carrying the end is like the body carrying the crown. Because the grand intent has "arousing the aspiration [for awakening]", it crowns the beginning; because the grand intent has "aim and destination", it carries the end. Since it connects beginning and end, it is called "comprehensive and unhurried in intent." Someone says: "A crown images Heaven, and carrying images Earth; this chapter on the grand intent is also like Heaven and Earth covering and carrying between them." If one makes this interpretation, it should be changed to the character "to carry" (zai); now we follow the former explanation, so it does not need to be changed. Summarizing the nine broad [chapters] below to make the five summaries, and demonstrating the purport of the nine chapters, it is called the grand intent. Furthermore, the nine chapters are all great, and [this] briefly states their intent; hence it is called the grand intent. Thus these five summaries all take "great" (da) as their name. The former is the shared explanation, and the next is the distinctive explanation; whether shared or distinctive, all can be analogized by encompassing in a bag.