Every Treasure, Every Dwelling-Place
His mastery extends to knowing gold, jade, pearls, coral, and every other treasure by its place of origin, grade, and worth — and to protecting every place where people dwell, from villages and cities to palaces, cliffs, springs, and wetlands.
Every Gem, and Every Place Where People Dwell
「又善別知金玉、珠貝、珊瑚、瑠璃、摩尼、硨磲、鷄薩羅等一切寶藏出生之處，品類不同，價直多少。村營鄉邑、大小都城、宮殿苑園、巖泉藪澤，凡是一切人眾所居，菩薩咸能隨方攝護。」
"They are further skilled in distinguishing gold, jade, pearls, shells, coral, lapis lazuli, maṇi-jewels, giant clams, kesara-gems, and every other kind of treasure — knowing the place of their origin, their varying grades, and their worth in price. Villages and hamlets, towns and cities great and small, palaces and parks, cliffs, springs, marshes, and wetlands — every place where people dwell, the bodhisattva is able to protect and support, according to what each region requires."
The catalogue of gems here — nine named kinds, from ordinary gold to the more exotic kesara-gem — pairs precise commercial knowledge (grade, worth, place of origin) with a bodhisattva's own protective concern for every human settlement, from the humblest village to the grandest capital. Fazang reads this pairing as deliberate: worldly expertise of this kind is not treated as separate from the bodhisattva's own path but as one more expression of the same skillful means already demonstrated through the forty-two syllables.
Part 232 In Progress
His knowledge of gems and his protection of every dwelling-place are now told. Part 233 continues with his mastery of astrology, agriculture, and statecraft, closing on his own self-limitation.
Continue to Part 233 →