Four Assemblies, and a Boy Named Good-Wealth
Word of Mañjuśrī reaches the city of Fú itself, and four assemblies of five hundred each — laymen, laywomen, boys, and girls — come out one after another to bow before him. Among the named boys is one who will carry the rest of this sūtra on his own shoulders: a youth named Good-Wealth.
Four Groups of Five Hundred
The same formula repeats four times over — a named leader, nine more named companions, an unnamed remainder rounding out five hundred, and the same threefold gesture of respect — laymen first, then laywomen, then boys, then girls, each group arriving in turn to bow before the youth Mañjuśrī.
時，福城人聞文殊師利童子在莊嚴幢娑羅林中大塔廟處，無量大眾從其城出，來詣其所。時，有優婆塞，名曰：大智，與五百優婆塞眷屬俱，所謂：須達多優婆塞、婆須達多優婆塞、福德光優婆塞、有名稱優婆塞、施名稱優婆塞、月德優婆塞、善慧優婆塞、大慧優婆塞、賢護優婆塞、賢勝優婆塞……如是等五百優婆塞俱，來詣文殊師利童子所，頂禮其足，右遶三匝，退坐一面。復有五百優婆夷，所謂：大慧優婆夷、善光優婆夷、妙身優婆夷、可樂身優婆夷、賢優婆夷、賢德優婆夷、賢光優婆夷、幢光優婆夷、德光優婆夷、善目優婆夷……如是等五百優婆夷，來詣文殊師利童子所，頂禮其足，右遶三匝，退坐一面。
At that time, the people of the city of Fú heard that the youth Mañjuśrī was at the great stūpa site within the Adorned-Banner Śāla Grove, and measureless multitudes came out from that city to that place. At that time, there was an upāsaka named Great-Wisdom, together with a retinue of five hundred fellow upāsakas, namely: the upāsaka Sudatta, the upāsaka Vasudatta, the upāsaka Blessed-Virtue-Light, the upāsaka Having-Renown, the upāsaka Giving-Renown, the upāsaka Moon-Virtue, the upāsaka Good-Insight, the upāsaka Great-Insight, the upāsaka Worthy-Protector, the upāsaka Worthy-Victor … and so on. All such upāsakas as these, five hundred in number, came together to the place of the youth Mañjuśrī, bowed their heads at his feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, and withdrew to sit to one side. There were also five hundred upāsikās, namely: the upāsikā Great-Insight, the upāsikā Good-Light, the upāsikā Wondrous-Body, the upāsikā Delightful-Body, the upāsikā Worthy, the upāsikā Worthy-Virtue, the upāsikā Worthy-Light, the upāsikā Banner-Light, the upāsikā Virtue-Light, the upāsikā Good-Eye … and so on. All such upāsikās as these, five hundred in number, came to the place of the youth Mañjuśrī, bowed their heads at his feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, and withdrew to sit to one side.
頂禮其足，右遶三匝，退坐一面 — bowed their heads at his feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, and withdrew to sit to one side. This same threefold gesture — bow, circle, sit — repeats for every one of the four assemblies in this passage, laymen and laywomen alike, framing an entire city's welcome as a single, uniform act of reverence performed four times over.
A Boy Named Good-Wealth
Among the five hundred boys who come to bow before Mañjuśrī, the very first one named will go on to outlast every other figure in this account: a youth called Good-Wealth, whose own search is about to become the spine of everything that follows in this sūtra.
復有五百童子，所謂：善財童子、善行童子、善戒童子、善威儀童子、善勇猛童子、善思童子、善慧童子、善覺童子、善眼童子、善臂童子、善光童子……如是等五百童子，來詣文殊師利童子所，頂禮其足，右遶三匝，退坐一面。復有五百童女，所謂：善賢童女、大智居士女童女、賢稱童女、美顏童女、堅慧童女、賢德童女、有德童女、梵授童女、德光童女、善光童女……如是等五百童女，來詣文殊師利童子所，頂禮其足，右遶三匝，退坐一面。
There were also five hundred boys, namely: the boy Good-Wealth, the boy Good-Conduct, the boy Good-Precepts, the boy Good-Deportment, the boy Good-Valor, the boy Good-Thought, the boy Good-Insight, the boy Good-Awakening, the boy Good-Eye, the boy Good-Arm, the boy Good-Light … and so on. All such boys as these, five hundred in number, came to the place of the youth Mañjuśrī, bowed their heads at his feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, and withdrew to sit to one side. There were also five hundred girls, namely: the girl Good-Worthy, the girl Great-Wisdom-Householder's-Daughter, the girl Worthy-Renown, the girl Beautiful-Countenance, the girl Firm-Insight, the girl Worthy-Virtue, the girl Having-Virtue, the girl Brahmā-Given, the girl Virtue-Light, the girl Good-Light … and so on. All such girls as these, five hundred in number, came to the place of the youth Mañjuśrī, bowed their heads at his feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, and withdrew to sit to one side.
善財童子 — the boy Good-Wealth. Named first among five hundred boys, in a single, unannounced mention, is the youth around whom the entire remainder of this sūtra will turn. Nothing here marks him as different from the other nine named beside him; the text lets his significance surface only later, through what he does rather than through any introduction now.
Part 894 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-two. Part 895 turns to Mañjuśrī's own manifestation of majestic light before the assembled crowd, and to his inquiry into exactly why this one boy came to be named Good-Wealth.