Numbers and Defining Marks
This page opens Ru-Yi's translation of the Abhidharmasamuccaya (大乘阿毘達磨集論), Asaṅga's own compendium of Abhidharma. The treatise opens exactly where Abhidharma always opens: with the three categories that between them account for every possible experience — the five aggregates, the eighteen elements, and the twelve sense fields. Before defining any of them in detail, Asaṅga first explains why there are exactly five aggregates rather than some other number, and gives each aggregate's own one-line defining mark.
Translation Method
The Chinese source is Xuánzàng's seventh-century translation of Asaṅga's Abhidharmasamuccaya (大乘阿毘達磨集論, T1605), preserved in the Taishō canon. Our reading is checked throughout against T1606, the Abhidharmasamuccaya-bhāṣya — Sthiramati's exposition built on Jinaputra's, also translated by Xuánzàng — which restates this treatise's own content in question-and-answer form with glosses woven directly in, rather than standing apart from it as an independent commentary.
Classical text is set in the left-hand column below, our English in the right. Reading notes drawn from T1606 follow each passage. See also this site's note on translation method.
1. Two Opening Verses
Before a single term is defined, the treatise states its own table of contents in verse — the two-part division into "the Foundations" and "the Determinations," each with four topics, and the ten questions that will be asked of every topic throughout.
本事與決擇， 是各有四種，
三法攝應成， 諦法得論議。
幾何因取相， 建立與次第，
義喻廣分別， 集總頌應知。
"The Foundations and the Determinations —
each of these has four kinds:
the three categories, subsumption, association, possession;
the truths, the dharmas, attainment, and debate.
How many, by what cause, taking what mark,
establishment and sequence,
meaning and simile, broadly distinguished —
know this as the summary verse of the Compendium."
T1606 opens by asking directly why a work of Abhidharma should begin with the three categories — aggregates, elements, sense fields — at all, rather than some other topic. Its answer: mastering these three brings two distinct benefits. It sharpens meditation itself (settling the mind more easily once its objects are already well sorted, and seeing more broadly once one knows how many ways there are to observe anything), and it sharpens debate — someone who has these three categories firmly in hand can answer any question about them without hesitation and without fear of a rival's objection.
The second verse's list — number, cause, mark, establishment, sequence, meaning, simile — previews the treatise's own recurring method, not just for the three categories but throughout the entire "Foundations" half: for each topic, ask how many kinds there are, what causes exactly that many to exist, what marks distinguish them, how each is technically established, why they come in the order given, what each term actually means, and what simile makes it vivid. Much of what follows in this part directly answers the first three of these seven questions for the aggregates, elements, and sense fields in turn.
2. The Count: Five Aggregates, Eighteen Elements, Twelve Sense Fields
蘊界處各有幾？蘊有五，謂色蘊、受蘊、想蘊、行蘊、識蘊。界有十八，謂眼界色界眼識界、耳界聲界耳識界、鼻界香界鼻識界、舌界味界舌識界、身界觸界身識界、意界法界意識界。處有十二，謂眼處色處、耳處聲處、鼻處香處、舌處味處、身處觸處、意處法處。
How many aggregates, elements, and sense fields are there of each? The aggregates number five: the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of formations, the aggregate of consciousness.
The elements number eighteen: the eye element, the form element, the eye-consciousness element; the ear element, the sound element, the ear-consciousness element; the nose element, the smell element, the nose-consciousness element; the tongue element, the taste element, the tongue-consciousness element; the body element, the touch element, the body-consciousness element; the mental-faculty element, the dharma element, the mental-consciousness element.
The sense fields number twelve: the eye sense field, the form sense field; the ear sense field, the sound sense field; the nose sense field, the smell sense field; the tongue sense field, the taste sense field; the body sense field, the touch sense field; the mental-faculty sense field, the dharma sense field.
3. Why Exactly Five Aggregates, Eighteen Elements, Twelve Sense Fields
何因蘊唯有五？為顯五種我事故，謂身具我事、受用我事、言說我事、造作一切法非法我事、彼所依止我自體事。何因界唯十八？由身具等能持過現六行受用性故。何因處唯十二？唯由身具能與未來六行受用為生長門故。
Why exactly five aggregates? To display the five bases on which a sense of self is built: the basis of the body as one's own equipment, the basis of enjoyment, the basis of speech, the basis of acting rightly or wrongly in every matter, and the basis — the self's own essential ground — that all the others depend on.
Why exactly eighteen elements? Because the body-as-equipment and the rest are what sustain the capacity for past and present six-fold enjoyment.
Why exactly twelve sense fields? Because it is only the body-as-equipment and its objects that serve as the gateway through which six-fold enjoyment is generated and grows into the future.
T1606 unpacks the five bases for a sense of self one at a time. The body-as-equipment basis is the internal and external form aggregate — one's own body and the physical world it uses as equipment. The basis of enjoyment, speech, and rightful-or-wrongful action belong respectively to feeling, perception, and formations (T1606 explains this pairing further in the section that follows). And the "self's own essential ground" is the consciousness aggregate specifically, because ordinary beings mistake consciousness itself for a self far more readily than they mistake any of the other four aggregates for one — the other four are more easily recognized as merely what belongs to a self, or what a self makes use of.
The logic behind eighteen and twelve is a study in exact wording: elements are eighteen because they are what "sustain" (持) experience across past and present — each of the six sense faculties and their objects, plus the six consciousnesses arising from them, considered as a capacity already exercised or being exercised right now. Sense fields are twelve, not eighteen, because they are counted only as "gateways" (門) through which future experience will arise and grow — and a gateway is what leads somewhere, which only the six faculties and their six objects can be said to do; the six consciousnesses that pass through those gateways are not themselves counted as gateways a second time.
4. What "Aggregate" Means, and What Grasping Adds
何故名取蘊？以取合故名為取蘊。何等為取？謂諸蘊中所有欲貪。何故欲貪說名為取？謂於未來現在諸蘊能引不捨故，希求未來染著現在欲貪名取。何故界處名有取法？應如蘊說。
Why are they called the "grasped aggregates"? Because they are joined with grasping, they are called the grasped aggregates. What is grasping? It is whatever craving-desire is present within the aggregates. Why is craving-desire called grasping? Because, with respect to future and present aggregates, it draws them onward and will not release them: it is called grasping in that it hopes for the future and clings to the present through craving-desire. Why are elements and sense fields also called "dharmas that have grasping"? The same explanation applies as with the aggregates.
5. The Defining Mark of Each Aggregate, Element, and Sense Field
Having settled the count and the reason for it, the treatise now gives each aggregate a single defining mark — one sentence that distinguishes it from every other aggregate — before extending the same treatment to the elements and sense fields.
色蘊何相？變現相是色相。此有二種：一觸對變壞、二方所示現。云何名為觸對變壞？謂由手足塊石刀杖寒熱飢渴蚊虻蛇蠍所觸對時即便變壞。云何名為方所示現？謂由方所可相，示現如此如此色、如是如是色；或由定心、或由不定尋思相應種種搆畫。
What is form's defining mark? The mark of altering-and-manifesting is form's own mark. This is of two kinds: alteration through physical contact, and manifestation at a location.
What is meant by alteration through physical contact? That when touched by hand or foot, by clod or stone, by knife or staff, by cold or heat, by hunger or thirst, by mosquito, gadfly, snake, or scorpion, it is thereby altered.
What is meant by manifestation at a location? That, marked by its own location, it manifests as this or that particular form, this way or that way — whether through a concentrated mind, or through the various imaginative constructions associated with unconcentrated discursive thought.
受蘊何相？領納相是受相，謂由受故領納種種淨不淨業諸果異熟。想蘊何相？搆了相是想相，謂由想故搆畫種種諸法像類，隨所見聞覺知之義起諸言說。行蘊何相？造作相是行相，謂由行故令心造作，於善不善無記品中驅役心故。識蘊何相？了別相是識相，謂由識故了別色聲香味觸法種種境界。
What is feeling's defining mark? The mark of registering is feeling's own mark: that is, through feeling, one registers the various ripened results of pure and impure karma.
What is perception's defining mark? The mark of construing is perception's own mark: that is, through perception, one construes the various images and categories of things, and, in accordance with what is seen, heard, sensed, or known, speech about them arises.
What is the defining mark of formations? The mark of driving-into-action is formations' own mark: that is, through formations, the mind is made to act, being driven into wholesome, unwholesome, or morally neutral activity.
What is consciousness's defining mark? The mark of discriminating is consciousness's own mark: that is, through consciousness, one discriminates the various objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma.
T1606 adds one clarifying gloss to feeling's own mark: the "ripened results" registered by feeling are, strictly, always neutral in their own true nature — the seeming pleasure or pain of a ripened result is itself an outflow of that neutral ripening, not the ripening itself, since only the ever-neutral storehouse consciousness and its associated feeling count as genuine ripened result in the strict sense; everything else is merely "born from ripening." This distinction between a ripened result proper and what is merely born from ripening becomes important later in the treatise's account of karma.
Notice how tightly each of the five marks is worded to exclude the other four: form alters or is located somewhere, but does not itself register, construe, drive into action, or discriminate; feeling registers a result but does not construe an image; perception construes an image but does not drive the mind into action; formations drive the mind into action but do not themselves discriminate an object. Later, when the treatise turns to formations' own huge internal catalogue — the fifty-one mental factors and the twenty-four formations dissociated from mind — this single defining mark, "driving-into-action," is what all of them will be shown to share.
眼界何相？謂眼曾現見色，及此種子積集異熟阿賴耶識，是眼界相。如眼界相，耳鼻舌身意界相亦爾。色界何相？謂色眼曾現見，及眼界於此增上，是色界相。如色界，相聲香味觸法界相亦爾。眼識界何相？謂依眼緣色似色了別，及此種子積集異熟阿賴耶識，是眼識界相。如眼識界，相耳鼻舌身意識界相亦爾。處何相？如界應知，隨其所應。
What is the eye element's defining mark? That the eye has seen, or now sees, form; and that the seed for this, gathered in the ripening ālayavijñāna, is the eye element's own mark. As with the eye element's mark, so too for the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental-faculty elements.
What is the form element's defining mark? That form has been seen, or is now seen, by the eye; and that the eye element exercises a dominant influence with respect to it — this is the form element's own mark. As with the form element, so too for the sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma elements.
What is the eye-consciousness element's defining mark? That, depending on the eye and taking form as its object, it discriminates a likeness of form; and that the seed for this, gathered in the ripening ālayavijñāna, is the eye-consciousness element's own mark. As with the eye-consciousness element, so too for the ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, and mental-consciousness elements.
What is a sense field's defining mark? As with the elements, so should it be known, applied as is fitting.
The eighteen elements' marks each reach back to the ālayavijñāna, and this is already the treatise's first quiet signal of where the whole system is heading: an eye element is not simply a present physical organ, but that organ together with the accumulated seed for it, stored in the ripening consciousness, which is what actually accounts for the organ's continuity from moment to moment and life to life. T1606 glosses this seed two ways — it may be merely gathered, in preparation for producing a future eye faculty not yet arisen, or it may already be matured, in the act of producing the eye faculty now present. Either way, the physical organ in front of you is never the whole story; a seed in the storehouse consciousness is doing at least half the explanatory work, in every one of the eighteen elements alike.
Part 1 Complete
This closes the treatise's opening move: the exact count of the three categories, the reason for each count, and each item's one-line defining mark. Part 2 turns to the detailed construction of the first aggregate — form — working through the four great elements, the twenty-five kinds of visible form, and the objects of every other physical sense in turn.
Continue to Part 2 — Building the Aggregate of Form →