Chapter 1: One Book, Two Identities¶

[PLANNED] This chapter has not yet been written; what follows is a skeleton. Items may be added or removed, and the order may change.

What this chapter does. The format of the Kośa: verses and prose alternating, the verses largely arranging Vaibhāṣika doctrine, the commentary striking its own line at the joints. The chapter builds the basic skill of the part: how to tell which identity a sentence serves; where the declaration that the stronger argument governs stands, and how much it carries; how the two Chinese translations are used; and the question of Vasubandhu's date and identity, settled here as conclusion with reasons only.

Structure.

First, format and composition. The verses (around six hundred, number to be verified) and their relation to the commentary; what orders the eight chapters.

Second, the declaration. Source and context (to be verified); its weight as a statement of method: school allegiance yielding to strength of argument is an anomaly in sectarian literature.

Third, the rules of discrimination. The markers of reported doctrine (it is said, the Vaibhāṣikas say, other masters say — each to be claimed against the text); the markers of Vasubandhu in his own voice; a first rough map of where the criticism concentrates.

Fourth, the two translations. Differences of format between Xuanzang's and Paramārtha's; the ground rules were set in Chapter 0, the reasons are given here.

Fifth, one Vasubandhu or two. Conclusion and reasons; no survey of the scholarly case.

Data and sources. Counts of the reporting markers await the unification of the translation's formulas; the source of the declaration, the verse count and the fascicle count of Paramārtha's translation are on the verification list.

To Chapter 2. With the rules in hand, the position Vasubandhu argues from: what the Sautrāntika is.