A Thousand Carts, One Rut.
The Fahua Wenju ("Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra") is Zhiyi's line-by-line commentary on the Lotus Sūtra — not a system built from the sūtra's principles, as the Mohe Zhiguan is, but a phrase-by-phrase gloss of the sūtra's own words, worked through his fourfold interpretive method: causes and conditions, the four teachings, trace and origin, and the contemplation of mind. Ru-Yi's own translation of all ten fascicles is now complete — this page is the entrance for reading it fascicle by fascicle.
How to read this collection
Zhiyi delivered this commentary as oral lectures late in his life, recorded and edited by his disciple Guanding into the ten-fascicle text preserved in the Taishō canon. It goes through the Lotus Sūtra's own words — sometimes a single phrase, sometimes a whole passage — glossing each one through his fourfold method. There is no separate column for "sūtra quote" versus "commentary": Zhiyi cites a short phrase in quotation marks and glosses it in the same breath, and this translation preserves that same interleaved form.
This site already carries Ru-Yi's own translation of the Lotus Sūtra itself; this commentary is Zhiyi's own running gloss on that same text, and this translation follows this site's established English renderings for the sūtra's chapter titles and recurring phrases wherever the Wenju quotes them. Terminology is also kept consistent with this site's three other Zhiyi/Tiantai translations — the Mohe Zhiguan, the Shi Chan Boluomi Cidi Famen, and the Xiao Zhiguan Jiangyi — and with the Jiaoguan Gangzong, which quotes the Wenju itself repeatedly as an authority.
What each fascicle page includes
- The Chinese source text beside our English translation.
- Reading notes explaining historical commentators, technical terms, and difficult passages as they first appear.
- A running glossary so terminology stays consistent from fascicle 1 onward.
Read by Fascicle
All 10 fascicles are complete, linking to Ru-Yi's own translation. Use this as the table of contents for the whole commentary.
A Thousand Carts, One Rut
The exegesis of "prologue" and "chapter," a survey of five- and sixth-century masters' competing schemes for dividing the sūtra, Zhiyi's own threefold division and fourfold interpretive method, and the start of the disciple roll call — Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya's fourfold "non-arising" treatment, used as the template for every disciple that follows, through Mahākāśyapa, Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Kātyāyana, Aniruddha, and Kapphiṇa.
The Six Auspicious Signs
Finishes the disciple roll call, moves into the bodhisattva assembly and its extended "non-retrogression" exegesis, works through the miscellaneous assembly of gods, dragon kings, and human rulers, and closes with the six auspicious signs that lead to Maitreya's question to Mañjuśrī.
Stop, Stop — No Need to Speak
Mañjuśrī's answer to Maitreya closes the opening chapter; then the bulk of 方便品 — the threefold etymology of "skillful means," the twin wisdoms of the provisional and the real, the fourfold interpretation of the ten suchnesses, and the doubt that builds to Śāriputra's three requests.
Five Thousand Withdraw
The Buddha answers Śāriputra, five thousand arrogant monks, nuns, and laypeople rise and leave, and the five turbidities are explained — then the entire verse section of "Skillful Means," ending with the groundwork Zhiyi lays for the burning-house parable still to come.
The Great White-Ox Cart
Śāriputra's prediction of buddhahood, then the burning-house parable itself — the elder's vast, single-doored house, the sons absorbed in play, the promise of three carts, and their equal exchange for the one great white-ox cart, closed by its point-by-point correlation with the Buddha's teaching.
The Destitute Son Returns
The burning-house parable's entire verse recap, then 信解品 opens with four senior disciples telling the parable of the destitute son — his terror and flight, his years clearing dung at his own father's estate, and the gradual, gentle entrusting of the household.
The Conjured City
Closes "Faith and Understanding," covers the medicinal-herbs parable and the "Prediction" chapter, then gives the full phantom-city parable — a magically conjured city offered as rest on a long, fearful road — before opening the prediction for five hundred disciples.
The Dragon Princess's Instant
The most chapter-dense fascicle in the treatise: "Teacher of the Dharma," the Jeweled Stūpa rising from the earth, Devadatta and the dragon princess's instant buddhahood, and "Encouraging the Upholding of This Sūtra" in full, before "Peaceful Practices" opens.
Apparent Extinction, Never Extinct
Closes "Peaceful Practices," gives the countless bodhisattvas who spring from beneath the earth in full, and opens "The Tathāgata's Lifespan" — why the Buddha's teaching is entirely true, and why his apparent passing into extinction never touches his true, constant abiding.
Samantabhadra's Encouragement
Closes "The Tathāgata's Lifespan," then carries the sūtra through nine more chapters in succession — Never Disparaging, the Tathāgata's Power, Bhaiṣajyarāja, Gadgadasvara, Avalokiteśvara's Universal Gate, and more — to Samantabhadra's Encouragement, the sūtra's final chapter, completing both the sūtra and Zhiyi's commentary together.
Translation Notes
Recurring terms, kept consistent as the fascicles grow. See the full translation notes for the complete, fascicle-by-fascicle glossary, and also this site's note on translation method.