The Four Truths in Every Tongue, Fascicle Fourteen Complete
The hymn's long meditation on skillful means reaches its furthest extreme: the bodhisattva becomes craftsman, physician, and merchant guide, and then — more surprising still — takes up the ascetic disciplines of paths outside the Buddha's own teaching entirely, becoming a foremost teacher even among their followers, before the chapter's first part closes on the Four Noble Truths proclaimed in every language living beings actually speak.
Every Trade, Every Craft, Unstained Like the Lotus
The bodhisattva accords with the world's own ways without being stained by them — becoming, in turn, an elder, a merchant's guide, a king, a physician, even a tree or a medicine in the wilderness, and, when a world is newly formed and its beings still lack the tools of life, a craftsman teaching them every useful trade.
「菩薩種種方便門，隨順世法度眾生，
譬如蓮華不著水，如是在世令深信。
雅思淵才文中王，歌舞談說眾所欣，
一切世間眾技術，譬如幻師無不現。
或為長者邑中主，或為賈客商人導，
或為國王及大臣，或作良醫善眾論。
或於曠野作大樹，或為良藥眾寶藏，
或作寶珠隨所求，或以正道示眾生。
若見世界始成立，眾生未有資身具，
是時菩薩為工匠，為之示現種種業。
不作逼惱眾生物，但說利益世間事，
呪術藥草等眾論，如是所有皆能說。」
"The bodhisattva, through every kind of gate of skillful means, accords with the world's own ways in order to ferry living beings across; just as the lotus flower is not stained by the water it grows in, so too, while remaining within the world, does he cause profound faith to arise.
With elegant thought and profound talent, a very king among the literary arts, in song, dance, and eloquent speech delighting the multitude — every skill and craft found throughout the world, like a master illusionist, there is none of them he does not manifest.
Sometimes he becomes an elder, a leader within a town; sometimes he becomes a guide for merchants and traders; sometimes he becomes a king or a great minister; sometimes he becomes a skilled physician, well versed in every treatise.
Sometimes, within a vast wilderness, he becomes a great tree; sometimes he becomes a fine medicine or a treasury of every jewel; sometimes he becomes a wish-fulfilling jewel granting whatever is sought; sometimes he shows living beings the true path directly.
If he sees that a world has just come into being, and living beings do not yet have the implements to sustain their own bodies, at that time the bodhisattva becomes a craftsman, manifesting for their sake every kind of trade.
He makes nothing at all that would oppress or trouble living beings; he speaks only of things that benefit the world — incantations, medicinal herbs, and every such treatise, all of these he is able to expound."
Among the Ascetics of Every Other Path
The hymn now turns to its most demanding image: the bodhisattva takes up the ascetic disciplines of traditions entirely outside the Buddha's own teaching — fire worship, the five-fire austerity, animal-vows, lying on thorns — sharing fully in their practice and becoming, among their own followers, a foremost teacher, in order to guide them, from within their own path, toward release.
「一切仙人殊勝行，人天等類同信仰，
如是難行苦行法，菩薩隨應悉能作。
或作外道出家人，或在山林自勤苦，
或露形體無衣服，而於彼眾作師長。
或現邪命種種行，習行非法以為勝，
或現梵志諸威儀，於彼眾中為上首。
或受五熱隨日轉，或持牛狗及鹿戒，
或著壞衣奉事火，為化是等作導師。
或有示謁諸天廟，或復示入恒河水，
食根果等悉示行，於彼常思已勝法。
或現蹲踞或翹足，或臥草棘及灰上，
或復臥杵求出離，而於彼眾作師首。
如是等類諸外道，觀其意解與同事，
所示苦行世靡堪，令彼見已皆調伏。
眾生迷惑稟邪教，住於惡見受眾苦，
為其方便說妙法，悉令得解真實諦。」
"Every supremely excellent practice of the sages, which humans, gods, and every such kind alike hold in reverence — every such difficult and hard-to-practice ascetic discipline, the bodhisattva, according to what is fitting, is entirely able to perform.
Sometimes he becomes a renunciant of another path entirely, dwelling in the mountains and forests, laboring in hardship on his own; sometimes he bares his own body, without any clothing at all, and yet, among that very following, becomes their own teacher and elder.
Sometimes he manifests every kind of wrongful livelihood, practicing what is contrary to the Dharma as though it were supreme; sometimes he manifests every deportment of a brahmacārin, becoming, within that very assembly, foremost among them.
Sometimes he undergoes the five fires, turning with the sun; sometimes he keeps the vow of the cow, the dog, or the deer; sometimes he wears tattered robes and serves the fire — for the sake of transforming beings such as these, he becomes their own guide.
Sometimes he manifests paying homage at the shrines of the gods; sometimes he manifests entering the waters of the Ganges; living on roots and fruits and the like, he manifests every such practice — and, among that following, forever considers his own supposedly supreme practice.
Sometimes he manifests crouching, sometimes standing on one raised foot; sometimes lying upon grass, thorns, or ashes; sometimes even lying upon a pestle, seeking release — and yet, among that very following, becomes their own foremost teacher.
Among every such kind of follower of another path, he observes their own understanding and shares in their very same practice; the ascetic hardship he thereby displays is more than the world itself could bear, and causes them, upon seeing it, to be entirely tamed and subdued.
Living beings, deluded and confused, having received a wrongful teaching, abide in wrong views and undergo every suffering; for their sake, he skillfully proclaims the wondrous Dharma, causing every one of them to attain understanding of the true and real truth."
The Four Truths, in Every Language There Is
The hymn's first part closes on a single, sustained image: the Four Noble Truths proclaimed not once but in every language and register a living being might actually understand — the speech of border peoples, secret languages, plain human speech, the tongues of gods, and every language there is — so that no one is left outside the reach of the teaching for want of the words to receive it in.
「或邊呪語說四諦，或善密語說四諦，
或人直語說四諦，或天密語說四諦，
分別文字說四諦，決定義理說四諦，
善破於他說四諦，非外所動說四諦，
或八部語說四諦，或一切語說四諦，
隨彼所解語言音，為說四諦令解脫。
所有一切諸佛法，皆如是說無不盡，
知語境界不思議，是名說法三昧力。」
"Sometimes in the incantatory speech of border peoples he proclaims the Four Truths; sometimes in a well-formed secret language he proclaims the Four Truths; sometimes in the plain speech of human beings he proclaims the Four Truths; sometimes in the secret language of the gods he proclaims the Four Truths; distinguishing every letter and word, he proclaims the Four Truths; with decisive and settled meaning, he proclaims the Four Truths; skillfully refuting others, he proclaims the Four Truths; unmoved by anything from outside, he proclaims the Four Truths; sometimes in the languages of the eight kinds of beings he proclaims the Four Truths; sometimes in every language there is, he proclaims the Four Truths; according to whatever language and voice each being understands, he proclaims the Four Truths for their sake, causing them to attain liberation.
Every single one of the Buddha's own dharmas, all of them he proclaims in just this way, leaving nothing at all unexhausted; knowing the domain of language itself to be inconceivable — this is called the power of the samādhi of teaching the Dharma."
This passage's account of the bodhisattva sharing fully in the ascetic disciplines of other paths — including practices the Buddhist tradition elsewhere criticizes as unproductive extremes, such as the cow, dog, and deer vows the Buddha himself is recorded questioning in other sūtras — is striking precisely because it does not soften or explain them away. The verse's own logic is that "sharing in their very same practice" (與同事) is itself a form of teaching: becoming, without deception, a genuine foremost teacher within a tradition in order to guide its own followers from the inside, rather than only critiquing it from outside. The chapter then closes its first part on an image that reframes everything before it — every trade, every ascetic path, every register of speech, all in service of a single unchanging content, the Four Truths, given in as many forms as there are beings able to hear them. Fazang treats "knowing the domain of language itself to be inconceivable" as this chapter's own final teaching: not that language is an obstacle to the Dharma, but that its sheer plurality is itself something a bodhisattva's own wisdom must be able to hold and use without limit.
Part 54 Complete — Fascicle Fourteen Complete
This closes Part 54 and fascicle fourteen. Foremost in Virtue's hymn is not yet finished — the CBETA source marks this portion "賢首品第十二之一" (part one of the twelfth chapter), and its continuation, "之二" (part two), opens fascicle fifteen. Part 55 will pick up there.