四分戒本疏卷第一．第二．第三 3.21

3.21

The tenth precept: digging the earth.
The prohibition against digging the earth and harming living beings is due to three benefits: First, not to harass and harm living beings: a monastic cultivating compassion should pity the lives of creatures. Second, to stop slander. Third, to greatly protect the Buddha-dharma: if the Buddha had not instituted these two precepts, kings and ministers would have conscripted bhikṣus into labor; because the Buddha instituted it, kings and ministers abandoned that intention and no longer conscripted them, enabling a quiet environment to cultivate the path, arouse wisdom, and sever delusion. This is called great protection.
There are five specific conditions: 1. living earth; 2. perceiving it as living earth; 3. digging oneself; 4. not using permissible speech when instructing another to dig; 5. incurring the offense as soon as damage is done. The text of the precept is properly explained below. This arose because the group of six dug the earth themselves to repair a ditch and hall, which laypeople criticized. The bhikṣus reported the fault, and the Buddha instituted the precept for them.