Kavisutta — 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 list of four, stated once, with no formula attached
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
Classifications of poets and reciters appear elsewhere in the canon in connection with oral transmission; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — a plain list, and the chapter’s one clean break from everything before it
Why this discourse
After ten discourses built entirely from material already written elsewhere in the collection, this discourse closes the chapter with something new: four kinds of poets, a taxonomy of how verse gets made rather than a rule about conduct at all. It is the chapter’s only unborrowed content, and it closes a chapter that opened with the ethics of speech by turning, at the very end, to speech’s craft.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are four kinds of poets: the composer, the reciter of oral tradition, the teacher, and the improviser.
The four kinds named
Cintākavi, a poet who thoughtfully composes their own work; sutakavi, one who repeats the oral transmission; atthakavi, one who educates, drawing out meaning; paṭibhānakavi, one who improvises. The list sorts poets not by skill or subject but by where their material comes from and what they do with it: original composition, memorized transmission, explanation, and spontaneous invention.
Nothing here says one kind is superior. The list is descriptive, not evaluative, in the same register as AN 4.148’s bare naming of the four kinds of bad speech: a skeleton, stated and left.
A closing discourse that bookends the chapter’s opening
This chapter opened, at AN 4.221, with the ethics of speech: which four ways of speaking are wrong, which four are right. It closes here with a taxonomy of speech’s production: not whether what is said is true or kind, but where it comes from and how it is made. Between the two discourses, the chapter has framed speech from both its moral and its craft dimensions, without the middle discourses engaging either directly.
Read this way, AN 4.231 is not an arbitrary addition tacked onto a chapter otherwise occupied with duplicated ethical tetrads. It answers AN 4.221 across the chapter’s whole length, closing a frame the chapter opened and then set aside for nine discourses.
A quiet self-portrait of the collection
Sutakavi, the poet who repeats the oral transmission, deserves a second look given what this chapter has just spent ten discourses demonstrating. A collection built substantially from reused, recombined, and reformulated material, as this chapter has been, is itself doing something close to what a sutakavi does — transmitting what already exists rather than composing afresh. The list may not intend the parallel, but a reader who has just read AN 4.221 through AN 4.230 is well placed to notice it.
The chapter, and this paṇṇāsaka, closed
The source colophon names this the third vagga of its group of five, Duccaritavaggo tatiyo, following the Sappurisavagga and the Parisāvagga as first and second. Two chapters remain to complete this paṇṇāsaka: the Kammavagga and the Āpattibhayavagga, both still ahead.
Key terms
cintākavi — “a thinking poet”, one who thoughtfully composes their own work — original composition.
sutakavi — “a poet of what is heard”, one who repeats the oral transmission — memorized transmission, not composition.
atthakavi — “a poet of meaning”, one who educates or draws out significance — explanation rather than invention.
paṭibhānakavi — “a poet of inspiration”, one who improvises — spontaneous composition in the moment.
Duccaritavaggo tatiyo — “the Duccaritavagga, the third” — the source colophon’s label for this chapter, the third of five in its paṇṇāsaka.
The text
The discourse in full: the four kinds of poets, named and left. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The four poets
§1“Mendicants, there are these four poets. What four? A poet who thoughtfully composes their own work, a poet who repeats the oral transmission, a poet who educates, and a poet who improvises. These are the four poets.”
· · ·
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 kinds of poets does this discourse name?
Correct: B. Sorted by where their material comes from and what they do with it.
Question 2 of 10
How does this discourse’s content compare to the ten discourses before it in this chapter?
Correct: B. The chapter’s only unborrowed content.
Question 3 of 10
How does the guide connect this discourse to AN 4.221, the chapter’s opener?
Correct: B. The chapter frames speech from both its moral and craft dimensions across its opening and closing discourses.
Question 4 of 10
What does the guide notice about sutakavi, given the rest of the chapter?
Correct: B. A quiet, possibly unintended parallel between the list and the chapter containing it.
Question 5 of 10
What does the source colophon name this chapter?
Correct: B. Following Sappurisavagga (first) and Parisāvagga (second) in the same paṇṇāsaka.
Question 6 of 10
Does this discourse rank the four kinds of poets by quality?
Correct: B. In the same bare, unevaluative register as AN 4.148’s list of bad speech.
Question 7 of 10
What formula does this discourse use?
Correct: B. Matching AN 4.221’s own bare, unformularized style.
Question 8 of 10
What is atthakavi?
Correct: B. The third of the four kinds, concerned with explanation.
Question 9 of 10
What two chapters remain to complete this paṇṇāsaka after this one?
Correct: B. Both still ahead, completing the group of five vaggas this chapter belongs to.
Question 10 of 10
What ordinal does the source text give this discourse within its chapter?
Correct: B. The eleventh and final discourse of an eleven-discourse chapter.
