Duppaññasutta — Duccaritavagga — the twenty-third chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Duccaritavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A mostly elided line whose closing sentence is written out in full, the same four qualities as AN 4.220
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the run’s close, partly restored to full wording
Why this discourse
Faithless, unethical, lazy, witless — AN 4.220’s tetrad, closing this chapter’s own run through the pool of qualities AN 4.202 assembled. Where AN 4.220 closed its chapter in full, unelided form, this discourse takes a middle course: mostly elided, but with its final sentence, the astute person’s complete description, written out in full.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Faithlessness, lack of ethics, laziness, and witlessness keep a fool broken and blameworthy; faith, ethics, energy, and wisdom keep an astute person intact and praiseworthy, closing this chapter’s reused material.
The pool’s last two terms
Kusīto, lazy, and duppañño, witless, are the same two items AN 4.220 drew from AN 4.202’s sevenfold list to close the previous chapter. Between AN 4.229 and this discourse, this chapter has now drawn on the identical two tetrads AN 4.219 and AN 4.220 drew from that list — the same split of terms, in the same order, repeated across two chapters.
Partial restoration
Unlike the fully elided AN 4.224 through AN 4.229, this discourse’s astute-person half ends with its complete closing sentence spelled out rather than compressed to …pe…. This is a smaller version of what AN 4.220 did for the whole discourse at the end of the previous chapter: a signal, short of full restoration, that a run of compression is coming to its close.
What this chapter’s main run has now shown
From AN 4.222 through this discourse, nine consecutive discourses have repeated, content for content, the nine tetrads this series first read at AN 4.212 through AN 4.220, replacing that chapter’s hell/heaven formula with the khata formula borrowed from AN 4.3. Together with AN 4.221’s own borrowing from AN 4.148–149, this chapter has, across its first ten discourses, composed almost nothing that was not already written down somewhere else in the collection — and has done so, evidently, deliberately, using the collection’s existing material as building blocks for a structurally new chapter.
Key terms
kusīta / duppañña — “lazy” and “witless” — the same two terms AN 4.220 drew from AN 4.202’s sevenfold list to close the previous chapter.
khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati — this chapter’s formula, here reaching the end of its main run.
paṇḍito viyatto sappuriso — “an astute, competent true person” — the character-type whose description is restored to full wording at the close of this discourse.
āraddhavīriya / paññavā — “energetic” and “wise” — the positive counterparts closing this discourse and this chapter’s reused material.
peyyāla — “repetition-series” — here only partially applied, with the closing sentence restored to full wording.
The text
The discourse mostly elided, its closing sentence restored to full wording. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The discourse
§1“A foolish person … brims with much wickedness. … They’re faithless, unethical, lazy, and witless. … An astute person … brims with much merit. … They’re faithful, ethical, energetic, and wise. When an astute, competent true person possesses these four qualities they keep themselves healthy and whole. They don’t deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they create much merit.”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What four qualities does this discourse name?
Correct: B. Identical to AN 4.220’s tetrad, closing the previous chapter.
Question 2 of 10
How does this discourse’s form differ from AN 4.224 through AN 4.229?
Correct: B. A partial restoration, smaller than AN 4.220’s full return to unelided form.
Question 3 of 10
What does the guide say this partial restoration signals?
Correct: B. Consistent with the pattern already seen closing the previous chapter.
Question 4 of 10
How many consecutive discourses, from AN 4.222 through this one, repeat content already given at AN 4.212 through AN 4.220?
Correct: B. The same nine tetrads, under a different formula.
Question 5 of 10
What does the guide conclude about how this chapter was composed, across its first ten discourses?
Correct: B. AN 4.221 from AN 4.148–149, and AN 4.222–230 from AN 4.212–220 under a formula borrowed from AN 4.3.
Question 6 of 10
What formula wraps this discourse?
Correct: B. Reaching the end of its run in this chapter.
Question 7 of 10
What earlier discourse first assembled the pool of qualities this discourse and AN 4.229 both draw on?
Correct: B. Describing an untrue person and an even more untrue person.
Question 8 of 10
What discourse follows this one, closing the chapter with genuinely new content?
Correct: B. Unrelated to either the hell/heaven or khata formulas.
Question 9 of 10
What is the ordinal marker the source text gives this discourse?
Correct: B. The tenth of the chapter’s eleven discourses.
Question 10 of 10
What two terms does this discourse share with AN 4.229’s tetrad?
Correct: B. AN 4.230 draws faithless and unethical again, adding lazy and witless in place of shameless and imprudent.
