釋氏要覽 2.382

2.382

梵云僕呼善那。此云眾生謂眾緣所生故○祐法師云。眾共生世。故名眾生○唐三藏譯名有情。謂一切無情物。皆假眾緣生。今簡去無情。故云有情○證契大乘經云。眾生者何義。佛言。是情想和合。所謂地水火風空識名色界入緣起及因業果會對而生故○楞伽經云。一切眾無明為根本。於愛隨業流運。

In Sanskrit it is *bahu-jana*; here this means "sentient beings" (zhongsheng), referring to being born from a multitude of conditions. Dharma Master Sengyou says: 'Because they are born together in the world in multitudes, they are called *zhongsheng*.' The Tang Tripiṭaka Master translated the term as *sattva* (youqing), meaning that all insentient things are also produced by relying on a multitude of conditions; now to exclude the insentient, he says *youqing* ("having sentience"). The *Zhengqi dacheng jing* states: 'What is the meaning of "sentient being"? The Buddha said: It is the conjunction of sentience and thought, namely the arising through conditions of earth, water, fire, wind, space, consciousness, name-and-form, dhātus, and āyatanas, and being born through the confrontation of causes, karma, and fruits.' The *Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra* states: 'All beings have ignorance as their root, and are borne along in the flow by craving in accordance with their karma.'