Asaṅga · Xuánzàng · 顯揚聖教論

Illuminating the Sacred Teaching.

The Xianyang shengjiao lun — "the treatise that displays and illuminates the sacred teaching" — is Asaṅga's own condensation of the vast Treatise on the Stages of Yogic Practice. He says so himself in the opening verses: having heard that work from Maitreya, he will now "interweave its essentials," with the words made brief, the meaning kept whole, and easy to understand. What resulted is a complete Yogācāra system in twenty fascicles and eleven chapters — the whole inventory of what exists, the entire path, and then a run of short argumentative chapters each proving one thesis: that things are impermanent, that they are suffering, that they are empty, that they are without nature.

Browse the fascicles → Translation notes →

How to read this collection

This treatise is the shortest road into the largest work in the Yogācāra corpus. The Treatise on the Stages of Yogic Practice runs to a hundred fascicles; this one covers the same ground in twenty, in Asaṅga's own re-ordering. Readers who want the system whole, in sequence, and at a length a human being can finish will find it here.

We keep the treatise's own structure rather than smoothing it away, and we split pages one per fascicle — the same granularity as the site's Stages of Yogic Practice pages, and the division Xuánzàng's translation itself uses, since the chapter subdivisions align exactly with fascicle boundaries.

A word on what this treatise is not. Unlike most works on this site, it has no commentary by a second master: the root verses and the prose expounding them are both Asaṅga's. A separate Taishō text, T1603, preserves the verses alone, and collating the two lets us show exactly which lines are root verse and which are the author's own exposition.

What each fascicle page includes

The Chinese source text beside our English translation.
Reading notes — the translator's own, with any outside source named.
Verse set as verse, verified line by line against T1603.
Terminology matched to the site's other Yogācāra pages.

20 of 20 fascicles translated — complete

11 chapters in Xuánzàng's translation (T1602)

11 of 11 chapters complete — the whole treatise

The Treatise's Own Structure

Eleven chapters, named in the treatise's fourth opening verse. They fall into three unequal movements: a long descriptive survey of what there is, taking thirteen of the twenty fascicles; a run of short chapters each proving a single thesis; and a long closing chapter of determinations.

Chapter 1 · 攝事品

Gathering the Topics

Nine topics covering the whole system: everything sorted into five categories, the realms, defilement, the truths, the basis of practice, the factors of enlightenment, persons, the fruits, and the qualities of a buddha — closing with Asaṅga's own argument for why there are exactly nine, in this order.

Fascicles 1–4 · complete

Chapter 2 · 攝淨義品

Gathering the Pure Meaning

The longest chapter in the treatise, running nine fascicles. It opens by arguing for this work against the other kinds of treatise in the world, then takes up the two truths and rebuilds the whole apparatus of the aggregates, elements, and path at far greater depth than chapter one.

Fascicles 5–13 · complete

Chapters 3–4 · 成善巧品、成無常品

Establishing Skill; Establishing Impermanence

The argumentative chapters begin. First skill in the categories, then the first of the four theses: that conditioned things are impermanent.

Fascicle 14 · complete

Chapters 5–7 · 成苦品、成空品、成無性品

Suffering, Emptiness, Naturelessness

Three more theses proved in turn — that what is impermanent is suffering, that what is suffering is empty, and that what is empty is without nature.

Fascicles 15–16 · complete

Chapters 8–10 · 成現觀品、成瑜伽品、成不思議品

Direct Realization, Yoga, the Inconceivable

From argument to attainment: the six kinds of direct realization, the yoga of the perfection of wisdom in which no discrimination operates, and the nine matters that are not to be thought about at all.

Fascicles 16–17 · complete

Chapter 11 · 攝勝決擇品

Gathering the Superior Determinations

The closing chapter, four fascicles long: the treatise's own final determinations on the questions its earlier chapters raised.

Fascicles 17–20 · complete

Read by Fascicle

All twenty fascicles are translated. Each links to the full bilingual text with reading notes.

攝事品第一 · Gathering the Topics

卷一～卷四

Fascicle 1 Everything, the Realms, and Defilement Fascicle 2 The Truths and the Basis Fascicle 3 The Grounds, Persons, and the Fruits Fascicle 4 The Qualities, and the Nine Topics Drawn Together

攝淨義品第二 · Gathering the Pure Meaning

卷五～卷十三

Fascicle 5 Gathering the Pure Meaning Fascicle 6 Ultimate Truth, the Three Natures, and Taking Refuge Fascicle 7 The Three Trainings Fascicle 8 Great Enlightenment and the Bodhisattva's Qualities Fascicle 9 The Sixteen Rival Doctrines Fascicle 10 The Rival Doctrines Completed Fascicle 11 The Methods of Debate Fascicle 12 How to Explain a Scripture Fascicle 13 Listening, Praising the Buddha, and a Worked Example

成善巧品第三 — 成不思議品第十

卷十四～卷十七

Fascicle 14 Establishing Skill and Impermanence Fascicle 15 Establishing Suffering and Emptiness Fascicle 16 Naturelessness and Direct Realization Fascicle 17 Realization, Yoga, and the Inconceivable

攝勝決擇品第十一 · Gathering the Superior Determinations

卷十七～卷二十

Fascicle 18 Determinations on Mind, Form, and Cause Fascicle 19 Affliction, Karma, and the Absorptions Fascicle 20 The Last Determinations

Translation Notes

Recurring terms, kept consistent across all twenty fascicles and matched to the site's other Yogācāra pages where the same term appears. See also this site's note on translation method.

顯揚聖教論 — Illuminating the Sacred TeachingThe Sanskrit is a modern reconstruction, not a surviving text — Prakaraṇāryavācā-śāstra in Nanjio's rendering. Because no Sanskrit original survives and scholarly usage is unsettled, we translate the Chinese title rather than adopting a reconstructed Sanskrit one.

九事 — the nine topics事 here means a topic of exposition, not a "thing." The nine organize the whole of chapter one and are shown at its close to be one neutral support, two defilements, and six purifications.

界 — the realmsIn this treatise's second topic, 界 means the three realms and the thousand-fold world systems, not the eighteen dhātus. Where the same character means dhātu elsewhere we render it "element."

阿賴耶識 — ālayavijñānaThe storehouse consciousness, matched to the site's Cheng Weishi Lun, Mahāyānasaṃgraha, and Abhidharmasamuccaya pages. This treatise also admits openly that it was not taught to everyone.

三自性 — the three naturesThe imagined, dependent, and perfectly accomplished natures. This treatise gives them its own mark-names first: the mark of superimposition, the mark of what arises from superimposition, and the mark of the nature of things.

麁重 — coarse heavinessThe unworkability of body and mind, distinct from cognitive bondage to signs. Its removal is what "pliancy" names among the wholesome factors, and its permanent destruction is what "abandoning the afflictions" is defined as.

依耽嗜 / 依出離 — grounded in indulgence / in renunciationThe criterion running through the thirty-six standpoints of feeling, which distinguishes a joy or a grief or an equanimity that binds from one that frees, when the two look alike from outside.

轉依 — the transformation of the basisMatched to the site's other Yogācāra pages. It is what distinguishes the transcendent absorptions from their worldly counterparts throughout this treatise.